Intel and Nokia Announce Long-Term Relationship

In a deal intended to strengthen Intel's push into the mobile computing arena, the Santa Clara chip maker and Finnish cell phone giant Nokia on Tuesday announced what they called a long-term relationship to develop new mobile devices.

Under the arrangement, the companies said they will work together on chip design and open-source software. Intel recently has entered that field with its Linux-based operating system called Moblin, designed to function on portable devices, and Nokia has a Linux-based operating system, dubbed Maemo. In addition, Intel will license some modem technology from Nokia.

However, executives with the two companies repeatedly declined during a conference call and a later interview to discuss what type of devices they might make and to what extent Nokia might use Intel's chips.

"We will talk about products when we are ready to talk about products, but that is not for today's discussion," said Anand Chandrasekher, senior vice president and general manager of Intel's ultra mobility group.

"There is a lot of room for innovation here, to really define what mobile can do," said Kai Öistämö, Nokia's executive vice president for devices. "It's a future full of different possibilities." After the announcement, Intel's stock rose 13 cents to $15.81 at the close of trading.

No financial terms were disclosed for the deal, and the two executives were evasive about when their collaborative discussions began. They said only that their companies have been doing joint research for several years. In May, Intel, Nokia and a number of other companies formed an association to promote rapid new wireless technology for shuttling data among computers, high-definition television sets and other devices in homes.

Although details about the agreement announced Tuesday remain vague, the deal suggests intriguing possibilities for Intel. Although the company's x86 microprocessors serve as the brains in most personal computers and servers, it sees the rapidly expanding market for mobile computing devices as one of its biggest growth opportunities. And the cell phone business, where Nokia is the world's biggest manufacturer, is an area Intel is especially keen to enter.

Intel, whose chips are not used in Nokia products, has so far been shut out of the cell phone market. That's largely because Intel's microprocessors use too much power to enable the phones to maintain sufficient battery life. Instead, cell phones use low-power chips based on technology developed by ARM, a small company in the United Kingdom.

Öistämö said Nokia plans to continue working with ARM-based chip makers. But Intel hopes to break into the cell phone market with future versions of a chip it introduced in March last year, called Atom, which uses less power than other Intel microprocessors and is relatively inexpensive. Moblin, one of the open-source software systems that Intel and Nokia will collaborate on, works well with the Atom chip, the companies noted in their joint press release.

What sort of devices the two companies might develop remains unclear. Nokia has been rumored this year to be considering making netbooks, which are smaller than laptops. Intel, whose microprocessors already are in laptops and netbooks, is promoting its chips for even tinier gadgets, including phones.

In their press release, the companies said they hoped to "define a new mobile platform beyond today's smart-phones, notebooks and netbooks." The deal drew mixed reviews from analysts.

"This is a compelling partnership," Jack Gold, founder of technology research firm J. Gold Associates, based in Massachusetts, said in a note to his clients. "We do not envision Nokia abandoning its core dependence on the ARM architecture in the short term, but longer term (two to three years) we expect Nokia to offer devices based on Atom." Gold added that "this collaboration could limit the impact Google's Android operating system will have on the netbook market."

But J.P. Morgan analyst Christopher Danely was less enthusiastic about the partnership, writing to his clients that "we don't expect much to come out of it."

While the deal "should help Intel in its quest to generate wireless design wins for its Atom processor," Danely concluded, "we continue to believe the deficiencies of Atom in power consumption, cost and software relative to other applications processors render it an uncompetitive product."

Source: http://www.mercurynews.com/business/ci_12672076?source=email

Tags: Intel, Nokia, Strategic Partnership, Jack Gold, Atom, ARM chips, Google Android, Christopher Danley, JP Morgan, Silicon Valley, Moblin, Santa Clara, Netbooks, Maemo, Global IT News,

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The First Twitter Arrest

Tucked away in a back corner of my morning paper, I found something that caught my eye.

Jean Anleu may be the first to be Twitarrested by his own government. To be sure, there are paranoid and repressive governments who fear the Twitterverse, and have taken actions. There may be scores of unreported arrests already. We've read reports of Iran arresting thousands, many of them for Internet activity. China and Vietnam are also worried about the effect that Twitter and other social networking sites has on opposition groups—the ability of protesters to use networking sites to gather people quickly for a common cause is a concern to governments that don't trust their own people.

But Guatemala is doing something different. They've gone public with Anleu's arrest to send a message to those who might use Twitter as a forum for protesting the government's actions.

Anleu's alleged crime? He was so fed up with corruption, especially the government banking system, that he used Twitter to send a message for popular action to counter the corruption. The managers of the government's rural development bank, Banrural, are enmeshed in a political scandal. Anleu sent this message out to the Twitterverse: "First concrete action should be take cash out of Banrural and bankrupt the bank of the corrupt."

Prosecutors now seek to charge him for spreading false information which carries a five-year prison sentence and $6,500 in fines (much more than the average Guatemalan makes in a year). Sympathetic Twitterers raised money for his bail. About half of his $6,200 bail was donated via PayPal from 19 countries.

Prosecutor Genaro Pacheco says that Anleu's words illegally undermined the public trust in Guatemala's banking system. The police were able to prove that Anleu sent the message by searching his home in Guatemala City. He was taken to a prison that houses kidnappers, extortionists and other dangerous criminals for two days before he was able to make bail. Anleu's lawyer, Jose Toledo, believes the government wants to make an example of him.

Twitter co-founder Biz Stone declined to comment on the Anleu case or say whether he knows of any other arrests involving Tweeting. In an irony that only living in a country with a repressive government can produce, Anleu, a geeky computer enthusiast whose passions include playing chess online and reading Czech author Franz Kafka—we see his life has taken on some eerie parallels. Kafka wrote The Trial, whose protagonist struggles to defend himself against the powers of the state.

"I fear I'm being watched and scrutinized in everything I say and do," said Anleu, who walks around with an iPhone to constantly tweet and a BlackBerry loaded with e-books. "The fear makes me want to avoid saying what I think, even about the most mundane topics, and saying where I am, where I'm going—like you would normally do on Twitter."

Guatemala is only a nominal democracy—emerging, still, from a quarter century of genocidal civil war that has seen the deaths of 250,000 of its own citizens, most of the dead comprised the indigenous Mayan populations in remote villages. Guatemala has never been free from violence in its troubled history—a history our own country has provided examples in the laws of unintended consequences. In the 50s, Eisenhower's State Department and the CIA helped to overthrow the legitimate popularly elected government of Jacobo Arbenz, in part because that newly elected government posed a threat to our own multi-national corporations' profits and interests.

Twitter—not so innocuous or vacuous as some critics like to proclaim—it can be a tool for moving toward freedom, and to hold governments accountable.

Anleu's Facebook page is here.

Note: I have some experience in Guatemala. I've written about one part of that in aprevious post here on OS—Chajul and Chalcaté. In my time there, we were never completely safe. On our way up into the remote mountain villages to build homes for widows, we would pass by buses and vehicles, pushed off the dirt highways only enough to allow traffic to pass. They were metaphoric reminders from the government of the dangers of opposition. Slowly rotting and rusting hulks, burned from RPG explosions—stories of untold death and misery—charred and burned bones long since carried away. Our group even had 105mm howitzers fired over our encampment, reportedly as "artillery training exercises," but the message was clear. "You can be here to help widows, orphans, the poor and destitute, but don't make any political statement other than building homes for widows." On one of our trips a uniformed customs agent at the airport in Guatemala City asked us "Why are you taking this dental and medical equipment to the Indians? They're animals—they're not even people."

Source: http://open.salon.com/blog/bbd/2009/06/28/kafka_and_the_twitterverse

Tags: Open Salon, Guatemala, Eisenhower, Mayan, Twitter, Twitarrested, Jean Anleu, twitterverse, Guatemala City, iPhone, Kafka, blackberry, dissident, Global IT News, Politics, Technology and Politics,

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YouTube Uploads Soar After iPhone 3G S Ships

Mobile uploads to YouTube jumped 400 percent last Friday, the day that Apple released its iPhone 3GS, which contains a video recorder function and easy sharing features.

In the last six months, meanwhile, the Google-owned video site has seen mobile uploads increase by 1,700 percent, the company said in a blog post.

"This growth represents three things coming together: new video-enabled phones on the market, improvements to the upload flow when you post a video to YouTube from your phone, and a new feature on YouTube that allows your videos to be quickly and effortlessly shared through your social networks," YouTube wrote.

To take advantage of its increased uploads, YouTube issued a challenge to video creators -- make your video go viral through social networking sites like Facebook or Twitter and YouTube will feature it on its homepage. Just upload your video with the "mobiletest" tag, share it with friends, and Tweet the link to @youtube.

"We'll give you one week to spread your test video far and wide, after which we'll take a look at the most popular clips and feature a few on our homepage in a special "mobile upload" edition of our Spotlight Video," YouTube said.

Also today, YouTube announced that it is rolling out the updated version of its channel design to all new users. All existing channels will roll over to the new version by July 15.

Source: http://tech.yahoo.com/news/zd/20090625/tc_zd/241763

Tags: YouTube mobile, iPhone 3G, Facebook, Twitter, mobiletest tag, YouTube spotlight video, Google, Global IT News, Youtube mobile video competition, Youtube channels,

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IBM Launches Seer Android At Wimbledon

IBM introduces phone applications that make it easier to follow all the action from the tournament.

IBM is courting tennis fans with a trio of applications that will allow them to follow Wimbledon moment by moment, whether or not they're at London's famed grass courts.

"These smart applications were designed with tennis fans in mind and add a whole new dimension to the event whether you are attending in person or sitting in your garden 5,000 miles away," said Rob McCowen, marketing director at the All England Lawn and Tennis Club, in a statement.

For those who can't make it to Wimbledon during the next two weeks, IBM has two applications that can help keep them abreast of the action. IBM's Wimbledon iPhone application delivers live scores, draws, news, and video highlights from Wimbledon tournament play, which began Monday. The Wimbledon iPhone app is available from Apple's App Store.

Big Blue's Seer Aggregator application, meanwhile, is a downloadable app that works with most Java-enabled handsets. The app pulls together tweets from IBM scouts onsite at Wimbledon, as well as from players and officials.

For Wimbledon attendees, IBM is offering something a little more advanced—albeit in beta stage. The Seer Android application for T-Mobile's Google Android-based G1 phone is designed to help fans navigate their way around the courts and concession stands.

When users point their phone's video camera at objects on the grounds, data built into the Seer Android application identifies the object. The application also relies on the G1's built-in GPS system. Seer Android also gives users live score updates and other information from around the courts. IBM plans to demo Seer Android at Wimbledon.

"I can see the incredible potential here to change the way people will engage with major sporting and other events both now and in the future. The applications address common challenges such as getting lost, encountering queues, or momentarily missing some of the action," said McCowen.

Source: http://www.informationweek.com/news/personal_tech/smartphones/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=218100659

Tags: IBM, Wimbledon, All England Lawn and Tennis club, iPhone, Apple App store, Rob McCowen, Seer Android, T-Mobile, Java enabled, G1 phone, GPS, Global IT News, Google android,

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Obama Triumphs With Energy Bill

WASHINGTON – In a triumph for President Barack Obama, the Democratic-controlled House narrowly passed sweeping legislation Friday that calls for the nation's first limits on pollution linked to global warming and aims to usher in a new era of cleaner, yet more costly energy.

The vote was 219-212, capping months of negotiations and days of intense bargaining among Democrats. Republicans were overwhelmingly against the measure, arguing it would destroy jobs in the midst of a recession while burdening consumers with a new tax in the form of higher energy costs.

At the White House, Obama said the bill would create jobs, and added that with its vote, the House had put America on a path toward leading the way toward "creating a 21st century global economy." The House's action fulfilled Speaker Nancy Pelosi's vow to clear major energy legislation before July 4. It also sent the measure to a highly uncertain fate in the Senate, where Majority Leader Harry Reid said he was "hopeful that the Senate will be able to debate and pass bipartisan and comprehensive clean energy and climate legislation this fall."

Obama lobbied recalcitrant Democrats by phone from the White Houseas the House debate unfolded across several hours, and Al Gore posted a statement on his Web site saying the measure represents "an essential first step towards solving the climate crisis." The former vice president won a Nobel Peace Prize for his work drawing attention to the destructive potential of global warming.

On the House floor, Democrats hailed the legislation as historic, while Republicans said it would damage the economy without solving the nation's energy woes. It is "the most important energy and environmental legislation in the history of our country," said Rep. Ed Markey of Massachusetts. "It sets a new course for our country, one that steers us away from foreign oil and towards a path of clean American energy."

But Rep. John Boehner, the House Republican leader, used an extraordinary one-hour speech shortly before the final vote to warn of unintended consequences in what he said was a "defining bill." He called it a "bureaucratic nightmare" that would cost jobs, depress real estate prices and put the government into parts of the economy where it now has no role.

The legislation would require the U.S. to reduce carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gas emissions by 17 percent from 2005 levels by 2020 and by about 80 percent by mid-century. That was slightly more aggressive than Obama originally wanted, 14 percent by 2020 and the same 80 percent by mid-century.

U.S. carbon dioxide emissions from the burning of fossil fuels are rising at about 1 percent a year and are predicted to continue increasing without mandatory limits. Under the bill, the government would limit heat-trapping pollution from factories, refineries and power plants and issue allowances for polluters. Most of the allowances would be given away, but about 15 percent would be auctioned by bid and the proceeds used to defray higher energy costs for lower-income individuals and families.

"Some would like to do more. Some would like to do less," House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., said in advance of the final vote. "But we have reached a compromise ... and it is a compromise that can pass this House, pass that Senate, be signed by the president and become law and make progress."

That seemed unlikely, judging from Reid's cautiously worded statement. "The bill is not perfect," it said, but rather "a good product" for the Senate to begin working on. And there was plenty to work on in a House-passed measure that pointed toward higher electricity bills for the middle class, particularly in the Midwest and South, as well as steps to ease the way for construction of newnuclear reactors, the first to be built since the accident at Three Mile Island in 1979.

The bill's controversy was on display in the House, where only eight Republicans joined 211 Democrats in favor, while 44 Democrats joined 168 Republicans in opposition. And within an hour of the vote, both party campaign committees had begun attacking lawmakers for their votes.

One of the biggest compromises involved the near total elimination of an administration plan to sell pollution permits and raise more than $600 billion over a decade — money to finance continuation of a middle class taxcut. About 85 percent of the permits are to be given away rather than sold, a concession to energy companies and their allies in the House — and even that is uncertain to survive in the Senate.

The final bill also contained concessions to satisfy farm-state lawmakers, ethanol producers, hydroelectric advocates, the nuclear industry and others, some of them so late that they were not made public until 3 a.m. on Friday.

Supporters and opponents agreed the bill's result would be higher energy costs but disagreed vigorously on the impact on consumers. Democrats pointed to two reports — one from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office and the other from the Environmental Protection Agency — that suggested average increases would be limited after tax credits and rebates were taken into account. The CBO estimated the bill would cost an average household $175 a year, the EPA $80 to $110 a year.

Republicans questioned the validity of the CBO study and noted that even that analysis showed actual energy production costs increasing $770 per household. Industry groups have cited other studies showing much higher costs to the economy and to individuals.

The White House and congressional Democrats argued the bill would create millions of "green jobs" as the nation shifts to greater reliance on renewable energy sources such as wind and solar and development of more fuel-efficient vehicles — and away from use of fossil fuels such as oil, gas and coal.

It will "make our nation the world leader on clean energy jobs and technology,"declared Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., who negotiated deals with dozens of lawmakers in recent weeks to broaden the bill's support.

Pelosi, D-Calif., took an intense personal interest in the measure, sitting through hours of meetings with members of the rank and file and nurturing fragile compromises. At its heart, the bill was a trade-off, less than the White House initially sought though it was more than Republicans said was acceptable. Some of the dealmaking had a distinct political feel. Rep. Alan Grayson, a first-term Democrat, won a pledge of support that $50 million from the proceeds of pollution permit sales in the bill would go to a proposed new hurricane research facility in his district in Orlando, Fla.

In the run-up to the vote, Democrats left little to chance. Rep. Ellen Tauscher, D-Calif., confirmed by the Senate on Thursday to an administration post, put off her resignation from Congress until after the final vote on the climate change bill. And Rep. Patrick Kennedy, D-R.I., who has been undergoing treatment at an undisclosed facility, returned to the Capitol to support the legislation. He has said he struggles with depression, alcoholism and addiction, but has not specified the cause for his most recent absence.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090627/ap_on_go_co/us_climate_bill

Tags: Obama passes energy bill in congress, Carbon emissions, Carbon reduction, energy costs, Global Development News, Nancy Pelosi, Henry Waxman, Ellen Tauscher, Alan Grayson, CBO study, EPA, Patrick Kennedy,

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Microsoft and Publicis Strike Deal

Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT) and Publicis Groupe, owner of ad networks including Saatchi & Saatchi, have struck a deal to tap into data from TV set-top boxes to deliver highly targeted TV ads. The deal, which will also create new digital advertising formats, was struck with Publicis Groupe’s combined media operation Vivaki and announced at the Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival.

“Everything in this announcement is about digital media,” said Curt Hecht, president of Vivaki Nerve Centre. “It is about more accountability in TV advertising, which is long overdue, using data and technology. On the content side, it will allow companies to better build brands and we are also looking to the future of advertising with new formats.” Vivaki will develop an advertising exchange using Microsoft’s Admira technology, which taps into user data in set-top boxes.

Publicis Groupe clients will be able to buy audience-specific ads based on information gleaned from the viewing habits of US households who watch TV using set-top boxes.

The second part of the deal involves developing new digital ad formats and will build on Publicis Groupe’s existing initiative, called the Pool, an alliance involving Microsoft, CBS (NYSE: CBS), Hulu, Yahoo (NSDQ: YHOO), AOL (NYSE: TWX) and Discovery (NSDQ: DISAB) that has created a new pre-roll advertising format expected to launch in January.

After today’s deal, Microsoft will help develop and launch 10 advertising formats in different areas, including user-generated content, mobile phones and social marketing. The two companies will collaborate on creating digital content for Publicis Groupe clients.

Microsoft will support Publicis-owned PBJS, a production studio, to develop digital content and programming ideas that Publicis Groupe advertisers will be able to sponsor, ad fund or otherwise support.

“Marketing is not an exact science, it is the last great area that needs to be made more efficient,” said Scott Howe, corporate vice president of advertiser and publisher solutions at Microsoft. “The famous quote that advertisers don’t know which 50% of their advertising is being wasted [can still] be true. This collaboration could change the industry.” The deal is non-exclusive.

Microsoft has come out with a flurry of media buyer announcements this week to capitalize on the focused attention of the ad industry at Cannes. A few days ago, Interpublic Group’s Mediabrands unit said it will be working with Microsoft on software that automate certain functions in the media buying and planning cycle.

The Vivaki arrangement is essentially an small expansion of the “open source” platform that Publicis Groupe unveiled a year ago this month when it announced a partnership with Microsoft, AOL, Yahoo and Google (NSDQ: GOOG). The agency’s alliance with Microsoft on targeted TV ads also suggests that media buyers are waiting for the slow movement of companies like the MSO-backed Canoe Ventures to produce an actionable addressable TV platform.

Source: Microsoft, Publicis, Interpublic Group’s Mediabrands, Publicis Groupe, AOL, Yahoo, Google, Vivaki arrangement, Global IT and Business News, PBJS, Discovery Channel, Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival, Saatchi & Saatchi, Vivaki Nerve Centre,

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Twitter: Fastest Growing Brand

Twitter grew 1,448 percent from this time last year, but its growth is slowing as the year goes on, according to Monday data from Nielsen.

The micro-blogging site logged 18.2 million unique visitors in May 2009, up from 1.2 million in May 2008, and up 7 percent from April 2009. Those stats make Twitter the fastest growing brand year-over-year, but that growth is starting to slow, Nielsen said. Time spent on Twitter also increased 175 percent from last year, up from 6 minutes and 19 seconds to 17 minutes and 21 seconds. That was down 1 percent from April 2009, however.

Elsewhere in the social networking sphere, Facebook remained the number one global social networking site in May for the seventh month in a row with 144.3 million unique visitors. It was also number one in the U.S. for the fifth month in a row with 75.4 million visitors - a 190 percent increase from May 2008.

MySpace was still number one when it came to total video streams, with 116.1 million video streams. Unique video views jumped 22.9 percent month-over-month, from 9.9 million in April 2009 to 12.2 million in May.

Source: http://tech.yahoo.com/news/zd/20090622/tc_zd/241620

Tags: Twitter, Twitter growth, unique visitors, myspace, Facebook, Nielsen, unique video views, total video streams, twitter fastest growing brand, Global IT News, global social networking,

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Russia Considers Bail-Out For Banks

Russia is looking at a bail-out of its banks that would go further than the emergency action taken by the US, amid growing fears that bad loans could paralyse the country’s economy.

Igor Shuvalov, deputy prime minister, will consider taking stakes in troubled banks when a group of experts on the financial crisis meets on Friday to discuss ways to recapitalise Russia’s banking system, according to a draft proposal seen by the Financial Times.

The proposal, one of several under consideration, would see the government issue OFZ treasury bills, a type of bond, to boost the balance sheets of the biggest banks. In return, the state would receive preferred shares.

Unlike the US bank bail-out, the Russian scheme would see the government take board seats and have veto rights. Analysts said such a plan would allow banks to declare the true level of their bad loans and, once their balance sheets were cleaned up, enable them to start lending again in 2010.

About $100bn in domestic loans fall due by the end of the year and the central bank has said bank profits would be wiped out if non-performing loans reached 10-12 per cent of the total.

With high interest rates and a dearth of new credit, bankers say they fear non-performing loans could hit as much as 20 per cent of overall credit portfolios by the end of the year.

Ratings agencies Standard & Poor’s and Moody’s have warned that Russia could need to spend $40bn recapitalising the banking system.

The recapitalisation funds would be limited to the top 55 banks in Russia’s 1,100-strong banking system, analysts said. The draft bill says only banks with a minimum of Rbs50bn ($1.6bn) in assets would be eligible.

Source: http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/67bf237c-61a7-11de-9e03-00144feabdc0.html

Tags: Russia, Medvedev, OFZ Treasury Bills, Standard & Poor’s, Recapitalisation, Russian Banks, Igor Shuvalov, US Bank bail-out, Russian bank bail-out, Moody’s, Global Economic News,

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Healthcare Makes A Miraculous Recovery

Obama gets drug companies to cut senior drug bills by $80 billion. Suddenly, his plan is no longer dead

WASHINGTON -- Last week didn't bring much good news for the Obama administration's drive to overhaul healthcare. Congressional budget wonks announced the draft legislation the Senate was working on would cost more than anyone expected; the industry players the White House had worked hard to bring into the reform process started grumbling about the whole thing. By the weekend, conventional wisdom inside the Beltway had more or less already declared reform dead.

Which made Monday's announcement by President Obama that the lobbying arm for the nation's drug manufacturers had agreed to cut the costs of drugs for seniors by $80 billion over the next decade something of a confusing spectacle. If the chances for getting anything done on healthcare had dwindled away, what was the president doing bringing back his campaign slogans -- and, more confusingly still, smiling confidently?

"To those who, here in Washington, who've grown accustomed to 'sky is falling' prognoses and the certainties that we cannot get this done, I have to repeat -- revive an old saying we had from the campaign: Yes, we can," Obama said. "We are going to get this done."

So the deepest significance of the deal between the government and PhRMA, the drug lobby, may well have been what it meant politically. Yes, the announcement means Medicare patients will no longer have to deal with an odd "doughnut hole" in their drug coverage; before Monday, the government pays for seniors' prescriptions if their annual cost is under $2,700 or more than $6,100, but not if the price is in between.

But more important, the news gave the administration a public relations victory -- the president just saved the government, and seniors, $80 billion -- to kick off a week where Obama plans to play offense, not defense, on healthcare. On Tuesday, the president will hold a midday news conference, where he'll have a chance to pitch his plans, and on Wednesday, the White House will host ABC News all day, culminating in a live, prime-time town hall on health reform.

"There was this feeding frenzy last week," one administration official admitted. But White House aides -- who like to insist that they're not paying attention to day-by-day news cycle battles, even as they manage events carefully to fit them -- aren't close to panicking yet. "There will be lots of developments every day about little provisions, and ultimately [very little of it] matters until you get a final bill."

Obama certainly didn't seem ruffled on Monday. He repeated the administration's main theme about healthcare -- you may like the coverage you have, but if the current system isn't changed, you won't be able to afford it for much longer. "Our goal -- our imperative -- is to reduce the punishing inflation in healthcare costs while improving patient care," Obama said. "And to do that we're going to have to work together to root out waste and inefficiencies that may pad the bottom line of the insurance industry, but add nothing to the health of our nation."

Among healthcare policy experts, that's become common knowledge, but the administration isn't finding it as easy to sell to the rest of the country -- or even to Congress. Obama has taken to quoting liberally from a New Yorker article about healthcare cost disparities in two neighboring Texas cities; administration officials have realized the story lays out their case pretty well. What's tricky about pitching the reform plan is that surveys show most voters actually like the care they have. In the last two weeks, Democratic and Republican pollsters have both reported fairly broad satisfaction with existing healthcare options. Obama's challenge is to convince people the system will soon gobble up an unsustainable share of the budget -- both on the federal level and where their own paychecks are concerned -- unless it's changed.

That task won't be easy, but advocates say it's certainly still possible. "People need to put aside the instant gratification bug and appreciate that it's going to take a while to get through the details," said Jackie Schechner, a spokeswoman for Healthcare for America Now, a union-backed group pushing for reform. Even the price tag doesn't have to scare voters off. "They say it's expensive to fix it, and then somebody gets their next insurance bill." Republicans, though, plan to focus their rhetoric on how much the reforms would cost -- more than $1.6 trillion, according to the Congressional Budget Office, though that number is likely to change once the legislation is finished.

Meanwhile, the aspect of the reform that Congress is most upset about doesn't seem to be particularly controversial with actual voters: including a government-funded insurance option to compete with private plans. A CBS News/New York Times poll found 72 percent of respondents liked the idea. "Free puppies and ice cream isn't as popular as that," the administration official joked.

Even Republicans had to acknowledge that the public seems less than terrified. "Indeed, 'government bureaucrats' are scarcely less appealing than 'insurance bureaucrats," a GOP polling memo by Whit Ayres and Ed Gillespie reported on Monday. By the end of this week, the pundits may start declaring healthcare reform is as good as done. Last week's panic was probably premature. This week's celebration will be, too.

Source: http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2009/06/23/healthcare/index.html?source=rss&aim=/news/feature

Tags: Obama, Congressional Budget office, Phrma, Pharma lobby groups, Big Pharma, Healthcare for America now, GOP, New Yorker, Global Economic News, Pollsters, Senate, Beltway,

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US Draws Line With China On Climate Technology

WASHINGTON (AFP) – Access to green technology is becoming a growing stumbling block in global efforts to fight climate change, with US lawmakers bristling at what they see as China's attempt to "steal" US know-how.

China and India have led calls for developed nations to share technology to help them battle global warming as the clock ticks to a December meeting in Copenhagen meant to seal a successor to the Kyoto Protocol. The US House of Representatives this month unanimously voted to make it US policy to prevent the Copenhagen treaty from "weakening" US intellectual property rights on a wind, solar and other eco-friendly technologies.

Congressman Rick Larsen, a member of President Barack Obama's Democratic Party who authored the measure, said the United States was caught between concern both over the climate and its soaring trade deficit with China. "The US can be part of China's solution for the problems that they admittedly have with energy efficiency and emissions. And I think legitimately we want to be part of that solution -- we're the two largest emitters of C02 in the world," Larsen said.

"But we need to couple being part of that solution with making it part of the solution on the trade deficit as well," he said ahead of the measure's approval. Representative Mark Kirk, a Republican who joined Larsen on a recent trip to China, said that climate change was the most contentious issue during talks with Chinese leaders.

Kirk said the Chinese essentially were seeking "the stealing of all intellectual property" related to energy efficiency and climate change. Kirk warned that China's position could change the political dynamics in Washington, where promoters of a bill to force emission cuts say the United States stands to create millions of jobs in a new green economy. "Right now a number of green industries like the climate change bill coming out. But if an international treaty sanctions the theft of their intellectual property, then there will be hardly any green jobs built in the United States," Kirk said.

The United States is the only major industrialized nation to reject the Kyoto Protocol, with former president George W. Bush saying it was unfair by making no demands of fast-growing developing nations such as China and India. Despite a recession, President Barack Obama has vowed to work to halt the planet's warming, which UN scientists warn will threaten severe weather and the extinction of plant and animal species later this century if unchecked.

More than 180 countries promised at a December 2007 meeting in Bali, Indonesia to take part in the next global treaty with a "common but differentiated responsibility" for developed and developing economies. But 12 days of talks this month in Bonn came up with no visible progress, with top Chinese negotiator Li Gao accusing rich nations of reneging on sharing technology and watering down commitments to cut emissions.

"There is an attempt to obliterate the principle of 'common but differentiated responsibility' and to split up the developing countries," Li told China's state Xinhua news agency.

Shyam Saran, India's envoy on climate change, also criticized rich nations, which he said bore the historic responsibility for climate change. India has proposed setting up global "innovation centers" to work on green technology.

A report last month by experts for the UN climate body called for a "balanced" approach, stressing the importance of intellectual property rights but saying all nations needed to accept the terms.

Technology transfer "is certainly a big and important question that might be a roadblock" in global negotiations, said Daniel Kessler of Greenpeace.

The environmental group has called for public and private funds on climate change to be pooled into an independent global body, funded to the tune of at least 140 billion dollars a year. But such funding may prove hard to come by. The European Union, champion of the Kyoto Protocol, has come under fire from environmentalists for declining to put a figure on climate aid, saying it is waiting to see other nations' proposals.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20090623/bs_afp/uschinaclimatewarmingtechnology_20090623022226

Tags: China, USA, Obama, Kyoto Protocol, EU, Greenpeace, Xinhua, Li Gao, Daniel Kessler, Shyam Saran, Global Development News, US House of Representatives, Copenhagen, Bali, Mark Kirk, Rick Larsen, Intellectual Property, Global Best Practice,

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China's Solar Drive

HONG KONG (Reuters) - Beijing's bid to boost the solar energy sector could draw more than $10 billion in private funding for projects and put China on track to become a leading market for solar equipment in the next three years.

Shares of U.S.-listed Chinese solar firms such as Suntech Power Holdings, the world's biggest crystalline solar panel-maker, have risen strongly on expectations China will soon unveil more cash incentives to develop solar energy. China, the world's top greenhouse gas polluter, is trying to catch up in a global race to find alternatives to fossil fuels, blamed for carbon emissions affecting the planet's climate.

Any cash perks for the sector will help drive demand for solar energy systems and create bigger businesses for companies involved in the entire solar supply chain, says Julia Wu, an analyst with research firm New Energy Finance. Top panel-makers including Trina Solar, Yingli Green Energy Holding Co and JA Solar are expected to benefit, while solar wafer-makers such as LDK Solar could gain from related business opportunities.

"China could potentially be the top market for solar. Companies up and down the supply chain should benefit," said Wu. Beijing is considering enhancing cash incentives at a time when European states including Germany, one of the largest solar markets, are pulling back on spending to slow industry growth.

Nearly 10 years of subsidized prices have made Germany among the largest markets for photovoltaic panels, which transform sunlight into electricity, producing solar giants including Q-Cells AG and Conergy. "The photovoltaic industry has very good opportunities in the medium and long term now that a lot of countries have decided to develop new energy as an important measure to combat the economic crisis," Shawn Qu, president and chief executive officer of Canadian Solar Inc, told Reuters.

INCENTIVES

Although China supplies half the world's solar panels, it contributes very little to demand as the cost of tapping solar energy to generate electricity remains steep and investors find little economic sense in pursuing solar projects in China where incentives are few. But that's about to change.

China's government said in March it will offer to pay 20 yuan ($2.90) per watt of solar systems fixed to roofs and which have a capacity of more than 50 kilowatt peak (kwp). The subsidy, which could cover half the cost of installing the system, was popular among developers, attracting applications equivalent to the building of 1 gigawatt of solar power.

One GW, or 1 billion watts, is enough electricity to power a million homes. China is expected to raise its 2020 solar power generation target more than fivefold to at least 10 GW. With incentives, analysts expect over 2 GW in new solar capacity will be installed as early as 2011, up from just over 100 MW in 2008.

To further attract investors, Beijing may align its solar energy policy with an incentive scheme used in Europe and the United States called "feed-in tariff," which guarantees above-market prices for generating solar power. China is widely expected to announce a subsidized price for solar power of 1.09 yuan per kW-hour (kwh), or 16 cents, which is over three times the rate paid for coal-fed electricity in China, but far below the established solar tariffs of about 45 cents in Europe and 30 cents in the United States.

"It would be too low considering the current manufacturing technology," said Fang Zheng, general manager of China Huadian Corporation New Energy Resources Development Co, the renewable energy unit of state-owned Huadian Group. "Such a price would not help the development of the solar power generation industry."

Several Chinese power producers say a fair price for solar power would be 1.5 yuan per Kwh. Without a guaranteed high price, solar firms may find it hard to compete. "In itself (the tariff), it's not enough encouragement for the market," said CLSA analyst Charles Yonts. "Even in the sunniest areas, you're still looking at a negative return or below your cost of capital based on current prices." Yonts estimates a developer would have to bring down costs by 30 percent to $3 a watt for a project to yield a return of as little as 8 percent.

THE WHOLE PACKAGE

Nevertheless, analysts say that taken together, Beijing's proposed tariff and other perks should help generate decent returns given that local labor and equipment costs are cheap."(The tariff) sounds a little light relative to European feed-in tariffs," Steven Chadima, Suntech vice president of external affairs, told a recent conference in the United States.

"But the costs are substantially lower in China and there are also other incentive programs available to package together to be able to create a reasonable electricity price coming off these projects." Moreover, prices of polysilicon are expected to fall further below the current $60 a kilogram amid a glut of the solar panel material, further cushioning costs. Certainly a view that the overall impact of the China incentives will be beneficial to the solar sector appears to be reflected in company share prices -- Suntech shares hit a 7-month high last week.

Source: http://www.reuters.com/article/GCA-GreenBusiness/idUSTRE55I18S20090619

Tags: Solar Power, Photovoltaic, Polysilicon, Solar Subsidies, China, Huadian Group, CLSA analyst Charles Yonts, Global Development News, Canadian Solar Inc, Suntech Power Holdings, Beijing,

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Google, Facebook Launch Persian Services

(AFP) - Internet giant Google has unveiled a Farsi translation service to help Iranians "communicate directly" to the world, while Facebook has launched a version of its site in Persian, they said Friday.

The Internet has played a key role in allowing some Iranians to communicate since last week's disputed presidential elections and many international media outlets have used services like Twitter and emails in their coverage. "We feel that launching Persian is particularly important now, given ongoing events in Iran," Google's principal scientist Franz Och said, announcing the addition of Farsi to Google Translate, its free online service.

Like YouTube and Twitter, "Google Translate is one more tool that Persian speakers can use to communicate directly to the world, and vice versa -- increasing everyone's access to information," he added in a posting on Google's official blog. Meanwhile, Facebook engineer Eric Kwan said on its blog: "Since the Iranian election last week, people around the world have increasingly been sharing news and information on Facebook about the results and its aftermath." He added: "Today we're making the entire site available in a beta version of Persian." Several thousand people posted a "thumbs up" reaction to the news, denoting their approval.

The BBC reported that Google and Facebook had speeded up work on their projects because of huge interest in current events in Iran. Hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has been declared the winner of the elections, provoking major protests on the streets of Tehran by supporters of his principal challenger, moderate former premier Mir Hossein Mousavi.

Many young people have been taking part in the protests. Meanwhile, the BBC also said Friday it has increased the number of satellites carrying its BBC Persian television service to countries including Iran. It said in a statement that the Hotbird 6 satellite which carries BBC international TV and radio services had been subjected to "deliberate interference" since last Friday. Services will now be available via three other satellites.

"This is an important time for Iran and many Iranians are turning to the BBC for impartial and independent news and information during this crisis," said BBC World Service director Peter Horrocks.

Source: http://tech.yahoo.com/news/afp/20090619/tc_afp/iranpoliticsinternetgooglefacebookmedialanguage_20090619160723

Tags: Google, Twitter, Facebook, Farsi, Iran, BBC, YouTube, Hotbird 6, Franz Och, Peter Horrocks, Eric Kwan, BBC Persian Television, Google Translate, Global Best Practice,

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Steve Jobs Had Liver Transplant

Steve Jobs has had a liver transplant during his medical leave but is expected to return to work as expected later this month after a medical leave he announced to a shocked Apple community in January, the Wall Street Journal reports.

The Journal cited no source in particular for its story, and got no direct comment from Apple itself. It quoted a “a person familiar with the thinking at Apple” that Jobs would have a diminished schedule at first when he returns to work and also reported that “At least some Apple directors were aware of the CEO’s surgery” as part of an agreement Jobs made with the board before he went on leave.

The Journal said the surgery took place two months ago in Tennessee, where there are three facilities which can perform such a procedure, there is no residency requirement and the wait is among the shortest in the country. According to the United Network for Organ Sharing, which manages the transplant network in the U.S., the five-year survival rate for liver-transplants patients is generally between about 73% and 76%, it said.

The subject of Jobs health has been a front burner item since he announced, on Aug. 1, 2004, that he had undergone surgery for pancreatic surgery. Over the course of last year it was apparent that he was losing weight, but neither he nor the company would directly address this painfully evident fact.

On January 5, Jobs told the “Apple Community” in an open letter that the cause of his weight loss was not a recurrence of his pancreatic cancer but a treatable hormone imbalance. In that letter Jobs said he had already begun a “relatively simple and straightforward” treatment for the condition, that he would remain on as Apple CEO during his recovery, and that he expected to be noticeably improved in a matter of months.

Nine days later Jobs dropped the other shoe.

“… during the past week I have learned that my health-related issues are more complex than I originally thought,” he wrote in an e-mail to Apple employees. “In order to take myself out of the limelight and focus on my health, and to allow everyone at Apple to focus on delivering extraordinary products, I have decided to take a medical leave of absence until the end of June.”

Since then COO Tim Cook has been running day-to-day operations, though the Journal has reported that Jobs was maintaining a “firm grip” on the company and involving himself in projects of his choosing, and that he had also shown up at work from time to time.

Apple shares have improved in Jobs’ absence. AAPL closed at $85.33 on Jan. 15, the first day of trading after he announced his medical leave, and closed at $139.48 on Friday, the day the new iPhone 3 GS went on sale — about a 63% gain. During the same period the NASDAQ has declined by 4%. Without Jobs fully at the the company held a successful if lackluster WWDC and launched the third generation of iPhone.

Source: http://www.wired.com/epicenter/2009/06/jobs-liver-transplant/

Tags: Steve Jobs, WSJ, Apple, Liver transplants, illness, united network for organ sharing, tim cook, nasdaq, wired, iPhone, global economic pulse,

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New Orleans Clinic Keeps Music, Musicians Alive

Walk into New Orleans' St. Anna's Episcopal Church and you can attend Mass and share a fellowship meal, both with great musical accompaniment. And - if you visit on a Wednesday - you can see folks getting acupuncture treatments or having their blood pressure checked in a hallway near the church's kitchen.

This weekly treatment center is run by the http://www.neworleansmusiciansclinic.org/');">New Orleans Musicians' Clinic, in cooperation with its many partners - including the church and some local hospitals. The musicians get a paying gig, a free meal and medical attention.

Music-making not always a profitable occupation

The New Orleans Musicians' Clinic is the brainchild of a group of doctors and musicians' advocates, like Bethany Bultman. She says they were appalled at the poor health and premature death rates of the city's musicians.

"People will go to a gig and say, 'Aren't we lucky so-and-so lives in New Orleans?' But yet, at the end of the gig, he takes the bus home and makes $12 at the gig and then is terribly sick, and there's no money for his health care!" she says with astonishment. "So we started the clinic in 1998 with the idea that we would get them almost like gold card service into every one of the departments of the [Louisiana State University] School of Medicine."

Bultman, now the organization's president, says the clinic serves about 1,000 musicians and their families. In addition to running the weekly clinic at St. Anna's and its main facility, the New Orleans Musicians' Clinic has arranged for its clients to meet with specialists at the university and at other hospitals in the city.

Caring for the people behind the New Orleans sound

Bultman recalls one client, a famous piano player, who also taught in New Orleans' public schools. After Hurricane Katrina hit the city, the schools were closed for months. The musician lost his day job and his health insurance, and that's when the clinic stepped in.

"He's gotten two knee replacements, a hip replacement and a heart valve operation for free," she says proudly. "But in the old days - and I mean old days like 1995 - had that happened, he would go home and he'd die a slow death and he wouldn't be performing today."

She adds that the man's son, also a well-known musician, probably wouldn't be performing either. "Because he'd be home holding his daddy's hand watching him die! That's what we're trying to prevent. We're trying to keep the culture and the individuals alive."

David Leonard and Roselyn Lionhart have been street musicians in New Orleans' famous French Quarter for 33 years. On this day, they're sitting amidst guitars, mandolins, harmonicas, trumpets and amps, with a guitar case opened to accept donations.

They are longtime clients of the clinic. Leonard goes to the Musicians' Clinic for eye care. "I'm taking eye medicine right now," he explains. "Otherwise I'd go blind, and I don't want to do that. I like seeing colors. I like seeing pretty ladies!" he adds with a laugh. Roselyn Lionhart says she would like to see New Orleans take better care of its musicians, "and I'm glad the Musicians' Clinic does!" A clinic that caters to musicians' needs and schedules

At the clinic's main office, the walls are covered with photographs of brass bands, Mardi Gras Indians and jazz greats. Besides health screenings and routine medical care, the clinic offers physical therapy, mental health, dental, smoking cessation and substance abuse services. Staffed by a full-time nurse practitioner and physicians who volunteer their time, it is open in the afternoons and evenings, which is like mid-day for musicians who work late-night gigs.

Among the patients Dr. Kiersta Kurtz-Burke has treated over the five years she has been volunteering here was a young tuba player. He had injured his back so badly carrying his instrument and equipment that he worried he wouldn't be able to march in Mardi Gras parades.

"It was right before Mardi Gras season," she recalls, "So he said, 'I have a parade that I have to be in every night, and that's how I make my income. So you have to get me to the point where I can walk 8 miles [13 kilometers] and carry a 60-pound [27-kilo] tuba.'"

With physical therapy and medications, the tuba player was back on his feet.

New Orleans' musicians appreciate both the clinic's services and the fact that the doctors, nurses and counselors who provide those services really love music. Kurtz-Burke says they often show their appreciation by giving staff members CDs and tickets to shows. But she explains that it is the musicians who deserve thanks.

"Think of all the joy these people have brought us, in the city and also joy to the whole county… This is something we've given the world, this American music from New Orleans, and this is just our little way of saying 'thank you' for that, really treasuring our musicians and artists."

Source: http://www.voanews.com/english/AmericanLife/2009-06-19-voa28.cfm

Tags: New Orleans, Musicians, Mardi Gras, New Orleans Musician Clinic, Dr. Kiersta Kurtz-Burke, David Leonard, Roselyn Lionhart, French Quarter, Global Best Practice, St. Anna's Episcopal Church, Bethany Bultman,

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Bad Text Messaging, E-Mailing Manners Can Be Costly

NEW YORK (Reuters) - A political coup in New York's statehouse can be traced back to an incident in which a top lawmaker so enraged a wealthy backer by peering at e-mails on his BlackBerry that his patron engineered his ouster.

One of the newer forms of poor office etiquette -- paying more attention to a hand-held device than to a conversation or business meeting -- happens so frequently that businesses are complaining it upsets workplaces, wastes time and costs money.

"It happens all the time, and it's definitely getting worse," said Jane Wesman, a public relations executive and author of "Dive Right In -- The Sharks Won't Bite."

"It's become an addiction," she said.

A third of more than 5,000 respondents said they often check their e-mails during meetings, according to a March poll by Yahoo! HotJobs, an online jobs board.

Such habits have their price, said Tom Musbach, senior managing editor of Yahoo! HotJobs.

"Things like BlackBerries fragment our attention span, and that can lead to lost productivity and wasted dollars because people aren't focused on their work, absolutely," he said.

REPRIMANDED FOR BAD MANNERS

In other Yahoo! HotJobs research, nearly a fifth of respondents said they had been reprimanded for showing bad manners with a wireless device. Yet even those who rail against such behavior admit to their own weakness.

"I catch myself driving in the car with my husband. He's talking to me and I'm downloading my e-mails," said Wesman. "You can't help yourself. There's this need to know what's going on."

But the constant pursuit of an e-mail fix may be costly. Research shows such multi-tasking can take more time and result in more errors than does focusing on a single task at a time.

"We know that if you have a person attending to different things at the same time, they're not going to retain as much information as they would if they attended to that one thing," said Nathan Bowling, an expert in workplace psychology at Wright State University in Dayton, Ohio.

"If you're attending to multiple things at the same time, you often times don't learn anything," he said.

Then there's the risk of making someone really mad.

In the New York state political coup, billionaire businessman Tom Golisano said he grew angry after meeting this spring with state Democratic majority leader Malcolm Smith, who paid more attention to his BlackBerry than to issues at hand.

"I thought that was very rude," Golisano told statehouse reporters. Golisano is known for hefty campaign contributions and for funding his own unsuccessful bids for governor.

Irked by Smith's behavior, Golisano reportedly approached other legislators, who this week voted out the Democratic leadership and voted in the Republicans. "One should not play with one's BlackBerry (or anything else) when billionaires who have helped elect you have traveled to your office to talk to you," Henry Stern, former head of New York City's parks department, wrote on a Yonkers Tribune blog.

COUNTER-PRODUCTIVE WORK BEHAVIOR

People who text message when they should be doing something else are engaging in what Bowling called counter-productive work behavior, which also includes harassment, showing up late or playing endlessly on the Internet.

"Technology allows us to do counter-productive things that we weren't able to do 10, 20 or even five years ago," he said. Business etiquette coach Barbara Pachter said there is a "learning curve" to new technology such as BlackBerries.

"We're still at that point where we're being rude," she said, adding that people's behavior is likely to improve in the next year or two. "We're just not there yet."

Source: http://www.reuters.com/article/technologyNews/idUSTRE55A6XZ20090612

Tags: Blackberry, RIM, Yonkers Tribune Blog, Democrat, Republican, Wright State, Technology etiquette, Global Best Practice, Tom Golisano, Jane Wesman, Yahoo!, Hotjobs,

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