Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/~3/Oe7pxcAmo28/130730150656.htm
মঙ্গলবার, ৩০ জুলাই, ২০১৩
Myanmar at the crossroads: Conservationists see opportunities and challenges in biodiversity hotspot
[unable to retrieve full-text content]Long isolated by economic and political sanctions, Myanmar returns to the international community amid high expectations and challenges associated with protecting the country's great natural wealth from the impacts of economic growth and climate change.
সোমবার, ২৯ জুলাই, ২০১৩
Galaxy Introduces the GTX 770 and 780 HOF Graphics Cards
Galaxy has launched two high-end factory overclocked variants of the GeForce GTX 770 and GTX 780 GPUs.
Galaxy has introduced two range-topping ?Hall of Fame? (HOF) editions of the GeForce GTX 770 and 780 graphics cards that both feature distinctive white PCBs, beefy heat sinks, and aim to provide a "good interpretation" of Galaxy's "everything just for performance philosophy."
The GeForce GTX 770 HOF is factory overclocked from base/boost 1046/1085 MHz to 1202 MHz/1254 MHz; features 2 GB of GDDR5 memory over a 256-bit interface; and includes premium tantalum capacitors and a dual-slot, triple-fan cooler that should provide a comfortable amount of headroom for further overclocking.
The GeForce GTX 780 HOF offers a GK110-300-A2 core, 3 GB of GDDR5 memory over a 384-bit interface and is factory overclocked to 1006/1058 MHz from the reference clock speed of 863 MHz/900 MHz (base/boost). Similarly, the graphics card also includes high-end tantalum capacitors, an 8+2 Phase VRM and an oversized triple-slot, dual-fan cooler that includes a densely packed aluminum fin array and four 6 mm heat pipes.
Although Galaxy has yet to announce the GTX 770 HOF or the GTX 780 HOF?s pricing or availability, the former is listed for $449.99 and ?out of stock? at the Galaxy Webstore. ?
শনিবার, ২৭ জুলাই, ২০১৩
how to sync contacts from iPhone 5 to nissam altima 2012
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বুধবার, ২৪ জুলাই, ২০১৩
Video: Sears going upmarket
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Source: http://www.nbcnews.com/video/cnbc/52546238/
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Tea party opponent signals he'll take on McConnell
FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) ? A tea party challenger signaled on Monday that he intends to take on Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell in next year's GOP primary in Kentucky.
Louisville businessman Matt Bevin's entry into the race would force a major shift in the McConnell campaign, which has been concentrating entirely on Democratic opponent Alison Lundergan Grimes, Kentucky's 34-year-old secretary of state.
Bevin is scheduled to announce his plans on Wednesday at the state Capitol in Frankfort. Sarah Durand, a tea party activist and aide to Bevin, hinted at his political intentions Monday when she distributed a media advisory announcing that he would begin a three-day statewide tour after the announcement.
McConnell campaign manager Jesse Benton said the 46-year-old Bevin, a partner in the Louisville investment firm Waycross Partners, would be "nothing more than nuisance" if he runs.
University of Louisville political scientist Laurie Rhodebeck said she doesn't think Bevin can be dismissed so easily.
"Bevin is going to be more than a pesky distraction to Sen. McConnell," Rhodebeck said. She said McConnell is "going to have to spend money and time on the primary, and it's clear he'd much rather be attacking Grimes right now."
Benton said McConnell "will keep his focus where it belongs: working hard for Kentucky every day." He said the campaign team will have no problem dealing with both Bevin and Grimes.
Democrats hope that McConnell is forced to deplete his campaign account in the primary. He has nearly $10 million left of the $15 million he's raised for his re-election bid.
"I think Sen. McConnell clearly has a problem within his own party," said Jonathan Hurst, a political adviser to Grimes. "Republicans not only in Washington, but right here in Kentucky, are tired of his obstruction."
Sen. Rand Paul, the tea party Republican who is considering a presidential bid in 2016, said Monday he thinks tea party candidates should focus on open seats. Paul, who has endorsed McConnell for re-election, also said he thinks McConnell will win both the primary and general elections next year.
"I'm not giving him encouragement or discouragement," Paul said of Bevin. "It's a free country, and anybody who wants to run can."
___
Associated Press writer Bruce Schreiner contributed to this report from Louisville, Ky.
Associated PressOnline retailers furious at plans for internet tax | BitterWallet
It is all kicking off between online and high street retailers after some of the biggest web-only businesses dismissed ideas for an online tax as ?nonsense?.
The chief executives of Ocado, Shop Direct, Boden and N Brown have laid out their opposition in an open letter to chancellor George Osbourne.
Ocado chief executive Tim Steiner, has now put himself on a collision course with new business partner Morrisons after the supermarket?s boss Dalton Philips called for an online tax.
The letter said: ?Online is a rare and precious success story for the UK and one that we should take pride in. At a time when SMEs in these sectors are attempting to deliver innovation, growth and jobs they should not be choked off by unintended consequences of an unfair tax.?
?There is no logic to penalising companies that provide consumers the convenience, efficiency and value online shopping offers.?
This comes on the back of high street retailers calling on the government to overhaul the business rate system, with the idea of a thing similar to the US online tax system, with?Morrisons? Philips adding: ?As more and more sales migrate online, it seems to me intuitive that you would tax the online channels as well.?
Or, maybe, the high street needs to quit whining and realise that there?s a new business model to exploit and they might make some money if they take their heads out of their arses?
Source: http://www.bitterwallet.com/online-retailers-furious-at-plans-for-internet-tax/66792
মঙ্গলবার, ২৩ জুলাই, ২০১৩
Midwest Ticks Show Signs of 'Heartland Virus' - Health News and ...
By Randy Dotinga
HealthDay Reporter
MONDAY, July 22 (HealthDay News) ? While a type of tick-borne disease known as Heartland virus appears to be extremely rare ? only two cases in humans have been reported so far ? a new study finds it is lurking in ticks in northwestern Missouri.
The researchers haven?t issued anything other than the usual warnings about avoiding contact with ticks that may harbor disease. Still, ?there?s another tick-borne pathogen out there to be careful of,? said study author Harry Savage, a medical entomologist with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Heartland virus is indeed rare, he said, but reports on it may be spotty because a test for it is not readily available.
Lyme disease is the most well-known infection spread by ticks, but there are several others. The infection known as Heartland virus ? so named because it was discovered in the middle of the country ? is unusual because it?s spread by a virus, not a bacteria.
Two farmers from northwestern Missouri were diagnosed with the illness in 2009 after coming in contact with ticks. The virus causes ?fever, headaches, mild diarrhea and low white blood [cell] counts,? Savage said.
Both of the men were hospitalized with severe illness but recovered.
Last year, researchers fanned out across northwestern Missouri ? to the north and northwest of Kansas City ? and gathered a whopping 56,428 ticks at 12 locations, including at the farms of the infected men. The ticks were caught in the wild and taken off horses and dogs.
The researchers report that they found the virus in a species known as the lone star tick. The infection rate was about one in 500 ticks, Savage said.
It appears that the ticks became infected at the larval stage when they bit an animal that harbored the virus. Then the ticks reached the nymph stage and looked for blood meals from, say, humans, Savage added.
Investigators identified the first cases with the help of the CDC. Now, Savage said, researchers are working on a test to identify the virus in infected people.
However, it?s not clear how helpful a test will be. Because the disease comes from a virus, antibiotics can?t be used to treat it.
Is the virus ? which Savage said may have lurked around for thousands of years ? concerning? That?s also not clear, said another expert who studies infectious disease.
?If these two cases represent the severe end, then there may be many other milder cases that are going undiagnosed,? said Dr. Lucas Blanton, an instructor at University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston. ?Until more patients are studied, I do not think we know the full implications of this virus.?
Blanton said physicians should consider possible infection with Heartland virus if the tick-borne disease it mimics ? ehrlichiosis ? fails to improve when antibiotics are given.
The public, meanwhile, should continue to recognize the risk of ticks and rely on protective clothing, insect repellents and checking their skin for signs of ticks, he said.
In addition, the CDC recommends showering soon after going outdoors, removing attached ticks from the body with tweezers, and calling a doctor if illness develops after a tick bite.
The new study was published online July 22 in the American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene.
More information
For more about tick bites, try the U.S. National Library of Medicine.
Source: http://news.health.com/2013/07/22/midwest-ticks-show-signs-of-heartland-virus/
Deputies: Bynes hospitalized after starting fire
LOS ANGELES (AP) ? Amanda Bynes has been hospitalized for a mental health evaluation after a witness said he spotted flames on her pant legs from a small gasoline fire in the driveway of a California home.
Deputies responding to a 911 call on Monday night said the 27-year-old actress had started the fire in the driveway in Thousand Oaks, Ventura County sheriff's Capt. Don Aguilar said.
KABC-TV said the flames were fueled by gasoline.
Deputies determined that Bynes met the criteria for a mental health hold and took her into custody, where she can be held for 72 hours of observation, Aguilar said.
Passer-by Andrew Liverpool told KABC he found Bynes.
"It's dark, it's 8:45 and I just see her laying down, stomach up and her pant legs on fire, a trail of, you know, fire and gas, and I pull over," he said.
No charges were filed and responding fire officials did not administer any medical care, Aguilar said.
Richard Hutton and David Feldman, who are listed as Bynes' attorneys in industry databases, refused to comment.
The former Nickelodeon actress has had several run-ins with the law. In December, she resolved a misdemeanor hit-and-run case after entering into a civil settlement with other drivers.
She was charged last fall with driving on a suspended license after it was temporarily taken away from her following two hit-and-run cases.
She also pleaded not guilty to drunken driving in a separate case.
Earlier this month Bynes appeared in a New York court on allegations that she chucked a marijuana bong out the window of her 36th-floor Manhattan apartment.
In the late 1990s and early 2000s, Bynes was one of the hottest actors on children's TV.
Beginning in 2000, she won four consecutive Kids Choice Awards for best television actress, the first for her role in the ensemble kids comedy-variety show "All That," and the others for her starring vehicle "The Amanda Show." She also appeared in the films "Big Fat Liar" and "What A Girl Wants."
Bynes also starred in several TV movies before her career began to decline. She grew up in Thousand Oaks.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/deputies-bynes-hospitalized-starting-fire-194507646.html
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Android app aims to fill Optus network holes
Optus users can report network dead zones after the telco updated its OptusNow app for Android.
Using data from the app, Optus will crowdsource network info including signal strength to identify areas to upgrade, location of black spots, mobile phone faults, call dropout locations and strength of coverage inside buildings, the telco said.
The network reporting runs in the background and does not access information about what websites or apps a user has viewed, Optus said.
The data collection function is switched on by default, but the app notifies users with a pop up and provides an option to opt out, an Optus spokesman said. The collected data is anonymous.
?Our customers tell us network quality is one of the top reasons for choosing their telco, so understanding actual network experience and making improvements based on this are absolutely critical for us,? said Optus head of customer experience, Amanda Hutton.
?Networks are incredibly complex, so this app is designed to gain insight into network experience at an individual customer level, not just the average experience.?
Optus is currently testing a version for Apple devices and considering launching it for iOS 7 in the near future, an Optus spokesman said.
A similar app was released in March by the Australian Communications Consumer Action Network. The ACCAN Phone Rights app for Android and iOS uses a mobile phone?s GPS chip to pinpoint where a consumer experienced call dropout or sub-par data speeds.
The app includes a function to report the problem to a service provider or the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman.
Follow Adam Bender on Twitter: @WatchAdam
Follow Computerworld Australia on Twitter: @ComputerworldAU, or take part in the Computerworld conversation on LinkedIn: Computerworld Australia
Source: http://www.techworld.com.au/article/521534/android_app_aims_fill_optus_network_holes/
সোমবার, ২২ জুলাই, ২০১৩
'Peach State' no more: Georgia has a new top fruit
agriculture 
3 hours ago
Jaime Henry-White / AP
Meredith James, 7, left, and her sister Grace Katherine James, 9, look for ripe blueberries at Foxbrier Farm, in Chattahoochee Hill Country, Ga. Federal surveys show the value of Georgia's blueberry production surpassed that of peaches in 2005, and the gap continues to grow.
What is the most valuable fruit crop produced in the Peach State?
This is not a trick question, but you may want to pause a second before answering.
Ready? It's the blueberry.
Georgia is famous as a major producer of the peach, the fuzzy succulent orange fruit whose image appears on state license plates, "welcome to Georgia" billboards and on road signs. When driving in the capital city of Atlanta, you can pass the corner of Peachtree Street and Peachtree Center Avenue, just one block from West Peachtree Street.
There's just one problem: Blueberries are Georgia's most lucrative fruit crop, by far.
In a little-noticed development, the value of blueberry production in Georgia beat the peach crop in 2005 ? and the gap has grown even bigger since then, according to U.S. Department of Agriculture surveys.
Blueberries generated an estimated $94 million for Georgia growers in 2012, meaning the blueberry crop was more than three times as valuable as the nearly $30 million peach crop.
"It's surprising around the country how many people don't realize Georgia grows blueberries," said Joe Cornelius, chairman of the Georgia Blueberry Commission and a farmer who grows about 170 acres of the crop. He refuses to gloat about surpassing his fellow peach farmers. "I don't foresee Georgia changing to the blueberry state."
Analysts and growers say a combination of supply-and-demand economics coupled with a good growing environment propelled blueberries from a tiny crop to a profitable niche that dwarfs the famed peach.
Blueberries used to make up a relatively small percentage of the state's fruit crop. But major blueberry producers, particularly in Michigan, were searching for ways to get berries on the supermarket shelves earlier in the year. They signed deals with growers in Georgia since the state starts harvesting its berries in April, ahead of other producers except Florida and California, said Scott NeSmith, a horticulturist at the University of Georgia who studies blueberries.
Jaime Henry-White / AP
Anna Baldwin, 8, drops ripe blueberries into a bucket at the pick-your-own field at Foxbrier Farm. While Georgia is officially known as the "Peach State," blueberry production has eclipsed peach production.
Other climate factors help, too. While blueberry-killing frosts are possible in Georgia, they are not frequent.
Celebrated by physicians and nutritionists for their antioxidant qualities, blueberries have grown greatly in demand among health-conscious consumers. Farmers say it greatly expanded the public's appetite for the berry.
Average prices have jumped from 48 cents a pound in 1993 to $1.34 in 2012, and the growth was among one of the main factors prompting farmers to plant larger and larger numbers of blueberry bushes.
It only takes three or four years for the bushes to reach full production. Since prices hit a peak in 2007, many of the new blueberry fields planted by farmers seeking lucrative prices are now entering full production. And as supply has increased, prices have decreased.
"We're probably nearing the peak, I feel," said Bradley Vickers, 28, a blueberry farmer from rural Nashville, Ga. "I hope it continues to be profitable for my sake and everyone else's."
Another reason blueberries have proliferated to such a degree is that Georgia farmers are searching for alternatives to traditional Southern crops such as tobacco and timber. Tobacco production has trailed off as Americans smoke less, and the timber industry took a big hit when the Great Recession slowed home building.
Vickers is one of those farmers. As of now, he still makes more money from tobacco, and sometimes cotton and peanuts. But he thinks blueberries probably have better long-term prospects than tobacco.
"If they begin to go down ?and tobacco is probably one of those things ? I have something to replace that, in case we need it," he said.
Georgia is not the biggest U.S. peach producer, and is regularly beat by California and neighboring South Carolina. Its reputation for peaches was always one part reality and one part marketing.
The Civil War left the Southern economy in ruins and ended slavery, which meant it was no longer possible for white farmers to produce cotton and other labor-intensive cash crops with cheap slave labor.
One alternative was peaches. Samuel Rumph, a 19th century grower in Georgia, was a major innovator, commercializing a tasty and robust variety called the Elberta, named for his wife. Perhaps more important, he developed a refrigerated rail car, making it possible to ship Georgia peaches to larger markets in Boston, Philadelphia and New York. As a result, Northern customers started associating Georgia with peaches.
"He had a great product. He didn't have a way to get it to market," said Will McGehee, a fifth-generation peach grower and the marketing director for the Georgia Peach Council. "And the refrigerated rail car was the answer. And so finally you were able to connect demand and supply."
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Stocks waver after fourth-straight winning week
stocks 
33 minutes ago
Stocks struggled for direction on Monday, after the Dow and S&P 500 logged their fourth-straight week higher, pressured by some mixed earnings reports.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average opened in negative territory, dragged by McDonald's and was down 13 points in early trading.
The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq wavered in a narrow range at the opening. On Friday, the S&P 500 posted a three-day winning streak to log a record close?its 22nd this year.
The CBOE Volatility Index (VIX), widely considered the best gauge of fear in the market, traded near 12.
Dow component McDonald's registered quarterly earnings that missed both for bottom-line profit and top-line revenue.
The fast food chain saw earnings of $1.38 per share against expectations of $1.40 and revenue of $7.08 billion that fell short of estimates for $7.1 billion. Shares dropped about 2.4 percent in initial reaction to the report, sending stock futures well off their morning highs.
(Read More:McDonald's finance guide 'insulting' to low-wage workers)
Around 20 percent of S&P 500 companies have already reported, with 65 percent beating earnings estimates and 51 percent beating on revenues, according to Reuters. If all remaining companies post earnings in line with forecasts, earnings will be up 2.9 percent on the year before.
This week will be the busiest in second-quarter earnings season, with about a third of S&P 500 companies due to report, plus eight Dow-listed companies.
European and Asian shares ticked higher, boosted by upbeat earnings and an electoral victory for Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's coalition, signaling a green light for future monetary stimulus.
? 2013 CNBC LLC. All Rights Reserved
রবিবার, ২১ জুলাই, ২০১৩
Curiosity Rover Samples Air for a Taste of Mars History
Early data from the rover teases out new details of Mars?s atmosphere and how it changed over billions of years
LASER BEAMS: A laboratory demonstration of the sample chamber within the Curiosity rover's Tunable Laser Spectrometer, one of the two instruments returning new data on Mars's atmosphere. Image: NASA/JPL-Caltech
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Showcasing more than fifty of the most provocative, original, and significant online essays from 2011, The Best Science Writing Online 2012 will change the way...
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It?s time to update the list of ingredients in Martian air.
In late 2012 NASA?s Curiosity rover drew air into its onboard laboratory and analyzed Mars?s atmospheric composition with a pair of spectrometers. The results of the investigation, published July 19 in Science, revise decades-old data on the makeup of Red Planet air and paint a broad picture of how the atmosphere has changed since the planet?s formation.
The diaphanous layer of gas enveloping Mars, where the atmospheric pressure is only about 1 percent of Earth?s at sea level, is predominantly carbon dioxide, with much smaller contributions from nitrogen and argon. Together those three gases constitute more than 99 percent of the atmosphere. (Earth?s atmosphere is also dominated by three gases: nitrogen, oxygen and argon, in that order, plus a variable amount of water vapor.)
But NASA?s Viking mission in the 1970s detected a significantly larger contribution from nitrogen than argon?2.7 percent nitrogen to 1.6 percent argon. The new measurements from Curiosity?s Sample Analysis at Mars spectrometers show that the two gases are present in almost equal amounts. In fact, argon (1.93 percent) appears to be slightly more prevalent than nitrogen (1.89 percent). The precision of the new measurements leaves little room for uncertainty, although future data from Curiosity will help constrain any seasonal variations in the atmospheric makeup.
The rover is already investigating longer-timescale changes to Mars?s atmosphere by measuring which gases are present and which nuclear isotopes are in those gases. (Isotopes are atoms of the same element with different atomic masses.) Researchers can then compare the isotopic measurements with ancient gases trapped in Martian rocks that, freed from the surface by impacts, have fallen to Earth as meteorites.
?It tells us for the first time the atmospheric composition to an accuracy that?s high enough to make direct comparisons to the meteorites in all our labs,? says experimental atmospheric scientist Chris Webster of the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., lead author of one of the new rover studies.
The ratio of isotopes in carbon dioxide molecules, for instance, can indicate how much of the Martian atmosphere has been lost to space?whether blown away by meteor strikes or stripped by solar wind. Carbon dioxide molecules made with run-of-the-mill carbon-12 (the most common form of that element) are lighter than molecules containing the heavy isotope carbon-13 and escape to space easier. Therefore, atmospheric loss leaves a planet?s carbon dioxide reservoir depleted in carbon-12 and relatively enriched in carbon-13.
Compared with past missions such as Viking and NASA?s Phoenix lander, Curiosity has revealed a greater role for carbon-13, supporting the idea that Mars once had a much richer atmosphere. Intriguingly, the Curiosity data closely match analyses of a meteorite called Allan Hills 84001, which formed on ancient Mars before being ejected into space and subsequently landing in Antarctica. (The Allan Hills meteorite rose to fame in 1996, when scientists made the highly controversial suggestion that it might contain fossilized remains of Mars life.)
?We know that the Allan Hills meteorite is four billion years old,? Webster says. ?It traps gas from that early Martian atmosphere.? Curiosity, on the other hand, can determine the precise makeup of the atmosphere today. ?So we now have enough confidence and enough accuracy in the measurements to make that comparison. The overarching result is that the atmosphere has changed very little in four billion years.? In other words, it appears the bulk of Mars?s atmosphere was lost relatively shortly after the planet?s formation 4.5 billion years ago.
That does not mean there hasn?t been any recent variation. Methane, a gas that some planetary scientists expect to change greatly over time, is notably absent from the new studies. In recent years, measurements from Earth have indicated the appearance and disappearance of methane plumes on Mars that might spew from geologic?or even biological?sources. Those observations have stirred controversy, which Curiosity ought to help settle. The rover has yet to detect the gas, but that does not necessarily mean it is absent from the Martian atmosphere. The precise upper limits on methane abundance that rover scientists can infer from Curiosity?s nondetection will appear in a later study.
?That?s a big story, so we decided to separate it,? Webster says. ?We have a result that?s very interesting,? he adds, which has been submitted to Science for publication. ?We have no definitive detection of methane?I can tell you that.? It remains to be seen if Curiosity?s limits on methane abundance strongly conflict with the levels expected in the presence of seasonal methane belches from the Red Planet. If they do, the supposed plumes of mysterious origin may be consigned?alongside the purported fossils in the Allan Hills meteorite?to the long list of Martian mirages, much to the dismay of optimistic astrobiologists and an excited public. ?It?s not a message people want to hear,? Webster says. ?They don?t really want to hear that there?s no methane on Mars.?
Source: http://rss.sciam.com/~r/ScientificAmerican-News/~3/X2_6TAgbZbc/article.cfm
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শনিবার, ২০ জুলাই, ২০১৩
Police in Madison Wisconsin arrested a 21yearold man who tried to sell 1500 worth of stolen golf clubs to a Play It Again S...
9:00 PM: WAOW has the story of Margaretta Wolf, a 96-year-old grocery store owner in Marshfield, Wisconsin who stood up to a would-be robber that was armed with a knife: "I said you can have all the Tootsie Rolls you want but I am not opening that cash register."
8:45 PM: KDVR has video of the Denver Broncos hosting an exercise boot camp for women at the team's training facility.
8:30 PM: New York Knicks player Amar'e Stoudemire has been asked by Israeli president Shimon Peres to play for Israel's national basketball team. Stoudemire is in the county serving as an assistant coach of Canada's Maccabiah Games team.
8:15 PM: Former Chicago Bears linebacker Brian Urlacher said on Thursday he wished the team was "more honest" with him in contract talks before he decided to retire. Urlacher added that if the Bears win the Super Bowl without him, "I'd be mad because I wasn't a part of it."
8:00 PM: The Newark Star Ledger reports that due to opposition from neighbors, the New York Jets have withdrawn their application to place a helicopter landing pad at their training facility in Florham Park, New Jersey.
7:45 PM: Lakers player Pau Gasol tweets his welcome to new teammates Jordan Farmar, Wesley Johnson & Nick Young: "Let's get ready for a great season."
7:30 PM: Golden State Warriors owner Peter Guber has been tweeting photos from his visit to the Serengeti in Africa, including his encounters with an elephant and a giraffe.
7:15 PM: Southern Miss has named Bill McGillis as the Golden Eagles' new athletic director. McGillis previously served as executive associate athletic director at South Florida.
7:00 PM: San Francisco 49ers linebacker Ahmad Brooks will not face criminal assault charges for allegedly hitting teammate Lamar Divens in the head multiple times with a beer bottle in an incident last month.
6:45 PM: The NFL announces that Indianapolis Colts tight end Weslye Saunders has been suspended for eight games for violating the league's PED policy.
6:30 PM: The Centre Daily Times reports the Penn State Board of Trustees has authorized $60 million to be paid in settlements to victims of convicted child sex abuser Jerry Sandusky. Meanwhile, legal costs for Penn State over the Sandusky scandal have reached $46.8 million.
6:15 PM: Yahoo's Adrian Wojnarowski reporters former Miami Heat player Mike Miller has cleared amnesty waivers and is now officially a free agent.
6:00 PM: Injured Chicago White Sox first baseman Paul Konerko begins his rehab assignment tonight with the Double-A Birmingham Barons as they face the Chattanooga Lookouts.
5:45 PM: The Biz of Baseball reports the Miami Marlins will host a Legends of Wrestling Night for their August 24 game against the Colorado Rockies. Former WCW & WWE wrestler Bill Goldberg is scheduled to throw out the first pitch.
5:30 PM: Colorado Avalanche center Matt Duchesne tweets a photo of himself signing a new five-year contract extension: "So excited to be part of the Avs future! Love this franchise, team and city, couldn't be happier!"
Source: http://www.sportsbybrooks.com/sbblive?eid=54114
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EA Sports' NCAA College Football License Agreement Ends http://t.co/W6LXgytTE8 #...
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Source: http://www.facebook.com/PS3T.org/posts/10151712372854726
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Hobby Lobby wins a stay against birth control mandate
By Jonathan Stempel
(Reuters) - A federal judge has temporarily exempted Hobby Lobby Stores Inc from a requirement in the 2010 healthcare law that it offer workers insurance coverage for birth control, which the retailer said violated its religious beliefs.
The preliminary injunction issued by U.S. District Judge Joe Heaton in Oklahoma City, where Hobby Lobby is based, covers the arts and crafts chain and its affiliated Mardel Christian bookstore chain.
He put the case on hold until October 1, giving the federal government time to decide whether to appeal a June 27 decision by a federal appeals court in Denver to let Hobby Lobby challenge the mandate on religious grounds.
A U.S. Department of Justice spokesman had no immediate comment. The government has said contraception coverage is needed to promote public health and gender equality.
The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, a nonprofit law firm representing Hobby Lobby, said there are 63 lawsuits nationwide challenging the mandate.
It said Hobby Lobby is the largest company to be excused, at least temporarily, from having to comply. Hobby Lobby has 556 stores in 45 U.S. states, and has about 13,000 employees.
The Green family, which owns Hobby Lobby, had argued that providing coverage to workers for the morning-after pill and similar contraceptives violated its Christian beliefs.
It also said it could have under Obamacare faced $1.3 million in daily fines by not providing such coverage.
In a written order, Heaton said the size of those penalties, the "substantial" public policy issues involved, and the amount of similar litigation justified an injunction for Hobby Lobby.
"There is a substantial public interest in ensuring that no individual or corporation has their legs cut out from under them while these difficult issues are resolved," Heaton said at a hearing, according to the Becket Fund.
In its June 27 ruling, the Denver appeals court said there was a good chance that Hobby Lobby would ultimately prevail.
It said Hobby Lobby had "drawn a line at providing coverage for drugs or devices they consider to induce abortions, and it is not for us to question whether the line is reasonable."
Lori Windham, senior counsel for the Becket Fund, said in an interview that Heaton's decision "shows that companies can be protected from the mandate, and continue to exercise their religious beliefs in the way they run their businesses."
The case is Hobby Lobby Stores Inc et al v. Sebelius et al, U.S. District Court, Western District of Oklahoma, No. 12-01000.
(Editing by Gerald E. McCormick, Andrew Hay and Richard Chang)
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/hobby-lobby-wins-stay-against-birth-control-mandate-160019175.html
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শুক্রবার, ১৯ জুলাই, ২০১৩
Learn Everything About Home Buying Here - Maynas Eric
Real estate can become overwhelming if you do not have a clear idea of how to search for a home or how to recognize a good deal. Preparing yourself to make smart real estate decisions through self-education is extremely important.
If you are planning on starting a family, your home should have plenty of space for everyone. Keep safety in mind, as well, particularly if a home has a swimming pool or stairs. Looking around at homes previously owned by families is a great way to find a family-friendly environment.
A house that needs a lot of improving and updates will be a little cheaper. Purchasing one of these lets you save money, and you can put work into the home at your pace and on your budget. You are increasing the value of your home with each improvement and have the flexibility to design it the way you want. So try to focus on what the house could be, or its potential, as opposed to looking at the negatives involved with its current state. A little fix up work can transform an ugly facade into your dream home!
TIP! When you are negotiating the price of real estate, it is best to have a moderate approach. Often, people who are too aggressive about trying to make the best possible deal work against their own best interests.
Commercial Property
Leverage a trustworthy partner so you can buy a bigger and better parcel of commercial property. It will facilitate the qualification process for the commercial property loan. Having someone backing you up can make it easier to gather the resources and credit required to secure a commercial loan.
Be flexible in making decisions. You might not get your perfect home, but you can afford another one. Consider all of the options that are available and weigh them out in terms of your preferred location, the desired features of the house and how much you can pay.
TIP! Find an honest, reputable partner that can be trusted when looking for an expensive, large commercial piece of real estate. It can make it way easier to get the loan you need.
Now is the perfect time to start investing in real estate. The market crashed, and prices as well as interest rates are extremely low right now. You won?t find a better time to make that move from renting to owning. In time, the market will increase again. This means you will have made a great investment purchase if you bought when prices were low.
Before purchasing a home in an unfamiliar neighborhood, check out that neighborhood using your state?s sex offender database. Even though data on sex offenders is publicly available, don?t be so sure that real estate agents and home sellers will feel obligated to give this information to potential buyers. Research it yourself for peace of mind.
Before you buy a house, hire a home inspector. A home inspector will look over every part of the property to ensure that you are not buying a house with serious issues that are unseen. An inspector will give you a good idea of how much renovations will cost you and how long they will take.
TIP! Try not to be discouraged if the seller of a home you want to purchase does not accept your offer, often times sellers are willing to negotiate different aspects of the sale with you, to make the sale still possible. They might offer to make certain repairs to the house, or even pay your closing costs.
You do not want to buy a house with fireplaces in multiple rooms, unless you live in a very cold climate. Learn more about fireplaces and find out how much getting one cleaned regularly costs before making your decision.
Real Estate Agent
Finding a respectable real estate agent is one of the most important parts of the home buying process. The real estate agent you select also needs to be trustworthy. Real estate agents with successful track records in selling homes can help you find just what you are looking for. Meet with different agents until you find one that you know will act as your advocate.
TIP! A lack of flexibility can be a death sentence when it comes to buying a home. Maybe you can?t live in the most perfect community and in the most perfect home, but you might be able to do one of those things.
If you are interested in buying part, or all, of a building for housing business operations, verify that it?s located in a good area. Opening your business in a terrible neighborhood can prevent you from having a large client base. Talk to a professional to find the best locations.
If you are looking to buy a new home, remember that there are more important things than decoration. You must get a house based on the way it was built and the shape it has. If you are finding yourself more drawn to a home?s decor, you might become oblivious to more costly issues that will come up after you make the purchase.
Get a home warranty. This is an important thing to ask for whether you are purchasing directly from a builder or from a previous owner. The person who built the home should give you a warranty if he or she is confident in their work. The people who previously owned the home should agree to buy a warranty for a year at minimum to assist you in offsetting any possible repairs.
TIP! Buying a fixer upper is a great way to save money and invest wisely. You will benefit from the immediate return on the money you put in because the value of your property will go up.
Always have your goals at the forefront of your mind as you are preparing to purchase a property. You should be aware of whether your goals are to be accomplished in either the short or long term. Only consider investments that will help you reach your goals. A lot of owners make compromises and buy something that does not satisfy them or even lose money.
Look for the house of your dreams. While many investors will tell you that now is not the time to sell and buy a larger home, others disagree. However, since the housing market is perpetually rising, you might as well buy the house you?ve always wanted now. If you buy a smaller home instead, the house you really wanted may be too expensive for you by the time you?re ready to move.
Listen to the advice of your real estate agent, do your own research, and have a checklist to complete all necessary paperwork when buying a home. If you keep everything you just read in mind, you?ll avoid common mistakes and problems that many first-time home buyers experience. Hopefully this information will allow you to enjoy your new purchase.
TIP! Educate yourself thoroughly on mortgage loan terms if you are in the market to purchase a home. It is essential that you know exactly how much you will be paying every month and what the total cost of the loan over the entire length of the mortgage will amount to.
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Source: http://www.maynaseric.com/learn-everything-about-home-buying-here-2
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Airbus comes to Washington offering work to Boeing suppliers
Airbus' David Williams told Washington suppliers in Bellevue that his company wants more procurement from them.
About 125 representatives of aerospace supply companies ? more than triple the number organizers had expected ? gathered in Bellevue?s Red Lion Hotel Thursday to hear about selling to Boeing rival Airbus.
That?s right: Despite that fact that the Puget Sound area is home turf for Boeing Commercial Airplanes, the industry and the state are seeking more Airbus work to support the health of Washington?s aerospace suppliers, now estimated to number more than 1,000.
?We brought Airbus in to diversify,? said John Graham, secretary of the Pacific Northwest Aerospace Alliance, which co-sponsored the event with the state Department of Commerce. ?It?s important for suppliers to have diversity, so that they can also adjust as things go up and down.?
Graham was referring to the historic cyclical production swings, as well as more recent issues such as the protracted delays of the 787 Dreamliner. The latter have stuck some local suppliers with production investments they made for the 787, but that so far haven?t paid off.
He added that the aerospace supply industry here needs more business to ward off recruiters from around the U.S., and from around the world, seeking to lure Northwest companies away.
?If we don?t remain globally competitive, we won?t remain where we are today,? he said. ?This event, being the first of its kind, is very important to the business community.?
Airbus parent EADS is pushing for more U.S. sourcing to take advantage of the fact that it sells aircraft in dollars, to diversify its own risk away from over-reliance on Europe, and to tilt the U.S. political calculus in its favor. The latter might have brought the hard-fought Air Force tanker contract to EADS, if Airbus had already had the Mobile, Ala., plant it?s building now.
Steve Wilhelm covers manufacturing, aerospace and trade for the Puget Sound Business Journal.
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/bizj_seattle/~3/of26iYShP08/airbus-comes-to-washington-offering.html
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বৃহস্পতিবার, ১৮ জুলাই, ২০১৩
College Football 2013: Teams with the most to gain, lose
With the college football season less than two months away, the anticipation for the new year is starting to loom over the college football world. While we wait for opening kickoff on August 29th, let?s take a look at the teams with the most to gain and the most to lose in the 2013 season.
Teams with the most to gain:
Arkansas ? Before the unraveling of Bobby Petrino and the experiment gone wrong with John L. Smith, the Razorbacks were in good position in the SEC, finding themselves among the conference?s elite squads. After last season?s abysmal chapter, new head coach Brett Bielema hopes to restore the winning tradition back in the program. If the Razorbacks can get back on track under Bielema this season, it will allow Arkansas to remain relevant in the recruiting game and give the university a chance to win its first ever SEC title. That title might be a few years away, but a good showing from Bielema and his squad this year could set the program up for that future success.
Northern Illinois? ? The Huskies were thrust into the national spotlight last season, as their 12-1 season and MAC championship earned a bid to the Orange Bowl against Florida State. Though this Cinderella was thumped by the Seminoles, Northern Illinois has made its mark on the college football world, winning 11-plus games in each of the past three seasons. If the Huskies can continue their dominance in the MAC this season, they will become the new Boise State of college football.
Louisville ? The shift from the Big East to the American Athletic Conference, though not a major change, is a favorable one for a Cardinals team that finished the 2012 campaign with an 11-2 mark, including a Sugar Bowl victory over Florida. Louisville is typically known for its performance on the hardwood rather than the gridiron, but there is a buzz surrounding the Louisville campus for football season thanks to head coach Charlie Strong and quarterback Teddy Bridgewater. Bridgewater is a Heisman Trophy candidate and several offensive play makers return to the squad. The Cardinals have the opportunity to put their stamp on the college football world alongside their counterparts on the hardwood.
UCLA ? Despite losing the final three games of the 2012 season, UCLA was able to re-emerge as a top-25 caliber team a season ago, finishing with a 9-5 record and making an appearance in the Pac-12 Championship game. The Bruins have had their issues on the gridiron, managing just two winning seasons in the past five years. If star quarterback Brett Hundley can replicate his performance from a season ago, UCLA has a legitimate chance to win its first conference championship since 1998.
Clemson ? Head coach Dabo Swinney has already said this could be a great season for Clemson football. Though those words set even higher standards than are already expected by Tiger football fans, Clemson has an opportunity to become the most beloved college football team in the nation if it can conquer just one small task: win a national championship and end the BCS dominance of the SEC. With a relatively favorable schedule, an entire defensive line returning and All-American Tajh Boyd at quarterback, Clemson has a real opportunity to bring an end the SEC?s string of seven straight national title runs.
Teams with the most to lose:
TCU ? After dominating the Mountain West with 10-plus win seasons in six of the past seven seasons, the Horned Frogs struggled to a 7-6 mark in their first season in the Big 12 Conference. TCU has to establish itself as a prominent member of the Big 12 if it wants to entice recruits and become a competitor for conference championships and BCS bowl bids. If TCU can?t notch at least nine wins this season, top recruits may start losing interest.
Notre Dame ? The Irish were able to bring a winning tradition back to South Bend last season, finishing the regular season unbeaten and appearing in the BCS National Championship Game against Alabama. Because the Irish were able to restore their prominence on the national stage, the question becomes, can they handle the spotlight? With Manti Te?o gone and quarterback Everett Golson suspended for the 2013 season, will the Golden Domers prove they belong in the upper-echelon of college football? Or will they slip back down to mediocrity and only be relevant once every four years?
Ohio State ? Urban Meyer was able to pull off a pretty impressive stunt in his first season at the helm of the Buckeyes, leading the squad to an undefeated regular season. Even though Ohio State was ineligible for any postseason play in 2012 due to NCAA sanctions, the accomplishment shouldn?t be diminished. Now, with the no NCAA issues holding it back, big things are expected from Ohio State this season. With Heisman Trophy candidate Braxton Miller leading the offense, a plethora of returning defensive play-makers returning and Meyer on the sideline for his second season, anything short of a conference championship and BCS bowl berth would be a huge disappointment for Buckeye fans.
Texas A&M -? The Aggies were the only team to defeat eventual National Champion Alabama last season. Johnny Manziel also became the first freshman to win the Heisman Trophy. All that came in Texas A&M?s first season in the SEC. With a dynamic quarterback in Manziel, second leading rusher (next to Manziel) Ben Malena and top receiver Mike Evans all returning to A&M?s high-powered offense, expectations are high in College Station. If the Aggies stub their toe this season and Manziel isn?t able to perform at the level he did a season ago, it could mean trouble in college football?s toughest conference.
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MidwestSportsFans/~3/hjRs2seKeMA/
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Investing In Stem Cell Technology: An Interview With Dr. Michael ...
As many people know, investing in speculative biotech is something that really interests me. One of the most exciting fields in the sector is regenerative medicine and all its potential applications. Information is the key to a successful investment, so I often reach out to those who actually operate in the field. Imagine my surprise when Dr. Michael West, one of the founding fathers of regenerative medicine, agreed to be interviewed about his current company BioTime (BTX) and the current state of stem cell technology investments. Before just diving into the interview, let's review BTX and its current standings within the financial markets.
The Company
BioTime, a biotechnology company headquartered in the San Francisco Bay Area, which focuses is on biomedical research and product development in the relatively new world of regenerative medicine.
Unlike most small biotech companies, BTX is made up of many subsidiary companies that have a variety of disciplines. The research and development side of the house is focused on developing new therapeutics for age-related degenerative disease. Here one finds the subsidiary companies Cell Cure Neurosciences, OncoCyte, and OrthoCyte who is developing cell-based therapy for age-related macular degeneration, therapies for cancer, and arthritis. Finally in the R&D side there is ReCyte Therapeutics that is using proprietary technology to reverse the developmental aging of human cells to manufacture young vascular progenitors for the treatment of age-related vascular disease. Below is the latest SEC filing breakout of ownership for the company.
(Click to enlarge)
Under the commercial product side of the house BTX uses proprietary technology to developed research- and clinical-grade human embryonic stem (HES) cell lines. These lines are marketed to researchers, scientists, universities, and companies. The subsidiary ES Cell International (ESI) has developed six HES cell lines that are among the best-characterized and documented lines available today. These cell lines have also been approved by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and are included in the NIH Stem Cell Registry. The company also markets an FDA-approved blood plasma expander called Hextend which is currently marketed in the United States in collaboration with Hospira and in South Korea under an agreement with CJ Corporation.
Financial Statements
Even though BTX does generate revenue, its cash flow does not cover its research and development costs. Total revenues for the three months ending March 2013 were $431,724. Expenses for that same time frame were $8,811,633, which calculated the net loss to be $8,408,545 for the most recent quarter. Obviously BXT must still be classified as a speculative biotech investment as current revenues do not cover the current cash burn.
(Click to enlarge)
Balance Sheet
Looking at the company's assets it shows that cash and cash equivalents come in at $9,896,335. This is a $5,546,368 increase in the balance that was reported the previous quarter. Obviously cash infusions into the company come from private placed investors or stock offerings. Total assets for the company stood at $35,297,393 as of March 2013. The total liabilities (both current and long term) totaled $1,019,429 which was a small $50,000 decrease from the previous quarter.
(Click to enlarge)
Notable Events
BTX's does have a couple of events that are important to consider. First is the relatively near-term product development of Renevia which is a patented hydrogel device for cell delivery. Also there is the PanC-Dx technology which is a blood-based pan-cancer screening diagnostic.
Another notable event is the acquisition of all the intellectual stem cell property from Geron (GERN) for $10 million. It seems that GERN, once a big stem cell development company, made a decision to abandon the stem cell lines and focus on other endeavors. BTX picked up 400 patents and applications in the process.
Management
Dr. West is the Chief Executive Officer of BioTime. Prior to BTX Dr. West served as Chief Executive Officer, President, and Chief Scientific Officer of Advanced Cell Technology, Inc. (ACTC.OB). He also founded another well-known biotech company, Geron Corporation (GERN). Below is the interview that was conducted on Friday, June 28, 2013.
Interview
Michael - Unlike many speculative biotech companies that are single entities, BTX is really made up of an array of many subsidiaries that span across the globe from the US to Israel and the Far East. How difficult is it in managing such a vast biotech network on limited budgets?
Dr. West - You know, managing a company in this field is challenging, because it's a platform technology. All the way back when Geron began we always imagined that this platform technology could potentially be broader in impact than recombinant DNA. You are no doubt familiar with the Genentechs and Amgens (AMGN) of the world. They could cut and splice to make anything with DNA, but here you were looking at all of the cellular components of the human body. We always imagined the day when we would have multiple business units under one umbrella.
I left Geron in 1998 to head Advanced Cell Technology. My interest at the time, and of course you know ACT at the time, was involved animal cloning. It started as a chicken genetics company and gravitated toward animal cloning for agriculture. I wanted to turn it into a stem cell regenerative medicine company, but the focus was reprogramming or cloning. With the sale of the agricultural business to Cyagra, we really began to focus on human cell regenerative medicine. We were seeing the problems GERN was having with manufacturing, and those problems were significant. The stem cells are indeed capable of making all the cells in the human body, but making a highly identified and purified product when there are thousands of cellular contaminants is extremely challenging. So what we did at ACTC was pick a low-hanging fruit, the retinal pigment epithelial (RPE) cell itself. It turns dark and that is why they call it pigmented. They have a very unique shape, so as we say a low-hanging fruit, relatively easy to purify and manufacture compared to all the other cellular components in the body.
In 2005 when a branch of ACTC moved to California, we started what we called the "ACTCelerate" Initiative. It was an effort to solve this manufacturing problem and get the technology back to the original vision, which could deliver the product on an industrial scale. We were talking about all of the cellular components of the human body, not just RPE cells, because it isn't just the eye that needs regenerative therapy. That ACTCelerate Initiative we licensed into BioTime and that was the first foundation stone we started to build here at BTX when I came over here. We acquired that from ACTC and then built upon that. Now have over 200 scalable and purified components of the human body, which we now collectively call PureStem Technology. So we're back to the original model and vision that is building a new era in medicine.
Michael - As exciting as stem cell research is, it does have some noted failures. One event was the announcement by Geron to basically terminate their stem cell programs. I found it very interesting that BTX stepped in and secured Geron's intellectual property, cell lines, and other assets related to its stem cell programs. What did BTX see that maybe others did not in this transaction?
Dr. West - What I saw was one of the biggest ideas in the history of biotech. It's amazing to me that big ideas are not appreciated in the beginning. With Geron, you know, I struggled in the early days to find financing. Eventually I was fortunate enough to get one of the world's leading venture capitalists to be the lead funder of the company, Kleiner Perkins. Kleiner Perkins told me the story that the business plan for Genentech was in front of them which dealt with the revolution of recombinant DNA.
By the way, recombinant DNA was very controversial in the first years, you know. Kleiner made the point to me that they sent the business plan for Genentech around to every member of their scientific advisor board, and each said that no one will ever make drugs using recombinant DNA technology. You know, today recombinant DNA is one of the most powerful technologies in modern medicine. I mean, we can't even imagine what the world of medicine would be like without recombinant DNA today.
Well, what I saw in Geron is the patents and the people primarily. Patents are really important because they allow you to protect yourself from unfair competition. They allow you to do deals, help raise investment. The work we had done at Geron was the first really significant patents on manufacturing dealing with various techniques for creating products from human ES cells. We had very broad claims overarching throughout the neuroscience and cardiovascular fields; pretty broad claims. So patents were really important part of the asset I saw.
The second, of course, was people. Ultimately companies are people. People invent the patents and develop the products. People get them through the FDA and marketing. The team at Geron was widely recognized as the world's leading team. Suddenly new management came in and decided that they did not want to do this. This did not change my view of the Geron team, as they put in a heroic effort. Their trials were the largest IND filing in the history of the FDA. I mean it was an enormous effort on their part and the most experienced team in the world at regulatory issues with pluripotent stem cells. So it was a no brainer from my standpoint.
Michael - Let's turn our attention to your financial statements. During the three months ended March 31, 2013, BTX received $1,197,092 of cash from operations. The company had $9,896,335 of cash and cash equivalents on hand, and received an additional $3,000,000 during April 2013 from a private investor. Then in early June 2013 BTX closed the equity financing and received gross proceeds of $9,057,966. Also BTX reported that during the three months ended March 31, 2013, the net cash used in quarterly operating activities amounted to $7,021,682. Doing the math is seems you are financed till the end of 2013. Do this give BTX enough financial breathing room to operate in a manner you thing is acceptable?
Dr. West - Let me begin by giving you some perspective, also from my Geron days. I was privileged in that the Geron Board used to have Bob Swanson join in frequently. Bob was the founder of Genentech. Genentech was really the first biotech company most people heard of back in the field's early days. They raised about a billion dollars before profitability, and were able to do so successfully.
I am not a believer that this old model is viable today. Even at Geron we had in our board room a picture hanging on the wall to remind the board of the climate that we were in at that time. It was a picture of a desert and the concept was to remind ourselves that this is a long journey without any water. It's a long slog through the desert until we finally make it to profitability.
It is worse today because investors' patience is far less today than it was in the past. So what we're doing at BioTime is something very different. We are focusing on some near-term product applications that are strategic. These are things that we would need to build anyway for this regenerative medicine business, but they have significant revenues. We believe in the near term to build these little oases along the way across this desert. It's a different strategy, and we're trying to not unduly dilute our shareholders.
The old model I think would lead to potentially tragic dilution to shareholders if you tried to survive all those years until you have an approval and a marketed product. The question is "Can you survive all the sharks in the water?" because, you know, there are sources of capital for development-stage companies that are toxic.
If you can make it that long, you potentially could have a profitable company someday, but that's a model I don't have confidence in, so we're doing something very different. We're doing capital raises as needed. We're leveraging heavily our relationships with corporate partners. We have an RPE product in development in our subsidiary CellCure that is partnered with Teva Pharmaceuticals [the $33 Billion Israeli pharmaceutical company] (TEVA), so we're using corporate partnerships.
We're raising capital just as it's needed, and we're focusing heavily on near-term but strategic products as an oases along the way. The goal is to make it to the point where our big products can be marketed. You have to have a financial plan that can get you there, and that's what we believe we have. That is why we do things the way we do. An alternative would be to go out and raise hundreds of million dollars in the capital markets and we're trying to do the best by our shareholders. That is why we're doing what we're doing.
Michael - The clinical pipeline for BTX is large. It seems the near-term product development is focused on a couple of exciting technologies. First is your subsidiary named ReCyte Therapeutics, which is developing a therapy for the treatment of age-related vascular disease. The others are Renevia, a patented hydrogel device for cell delivery, and PanC-Dx, a blood-based pan-cancer screening diagnostic. Can you give us a little more information on these technologies and where we are in their development? Also of these technologies, which most excites you as a CEO?
Dr. West - Let me divide that into two categories. What I'm excited about from a business standpoint and, what I'm excited about from a scientific and humanitarian standpoint that I think is really going to change the world for people and for medicine.
I'll start with the commercial, because they're different things and different worlds. In no particular order, the first one that comes to my mind is our HyStem technology. We call it Renevia as the brand name. I'm not going to state where we are on that, because I haven't disclosed it, but we hope to be initiating clinical trials this year. I'm excited about this from both a scientific and commercial standpoint.
Remember, the vision of regenerative medicine is to regenerate tissue function with cells, sort of like a parts supply store for the human body. It's similar to the concept that you can keep an antique car going by replacing broken components. We want to do that with the human body; that's the vision.
The problem is if you inject cells into a tissue through a syringe in, say salt water and saline, they die, the majority of them die. The reason is human cells are genetically programmed to die if they are not in a matrix. It's just biology. They call it anoikis, "an" meaning not, and "oikos" is a Greek word for house. Without a house, homeless in other words, if they're not sitting in this matrix, their home, they will die. It's a well-known phenomenon. Cancer cells mutate that and they're fine without a matrix. You know nerve cells, heart muscle cells need this. What the field needs is a matrix that you can inject cells with and put them into the body. The problem is that lots of matrices out there are all rigid and you can't put through a syringe.
What we found was a unique piece of technology. It's like epoxy glue where you can make the two critical components of the matrix for the cells to live in, hyaluronic acid and collagen, and you can inject them through a syringe. Then they will cross-link and make something almost like fabric, a matrix that cells need to attach to in the body. It can form in the body and do the chemistry in the body safely, and no one has ever figured out how to do that.
It's got very long patent life out to I think 2027, and we're developing it as a cell delivery device in Europe. That's where we're going for CE marking [a mandatory marking for products sold in Europe], which is the appropriate regulatory approval for this product. We are going after an application where we don't need to get cells approved.
One example is the relocation of fat cells from one part of the body to another. That transplantation of fat cells from one person to themselves, they call that "autologous," and in most places in the world it does not require regulatory approval. You know, many people utilize their own fat as a result of aging, surgery, or for cosmetic purposes. So the only approval required is the device, Renevia.
We think this will be a strategic product for companies and applications of regenerative medicine. We think we can get a near-term approval relatively easily for an immediate application for fat transplantation, which is a significant market cosmetically. So we're excited about that both from a commercial standpoint and a scientific standpoint.
We have other near-term products we're focused on. One is our Database subsidiary, LifeMap Sciences, a regenerative medicine database. That's the compendium of three major databases that has over two million users. This is one of our near-term commercial strategies: to monetize that asset.
If each user pays a certain dollar amount per year for a product, that could be substantial revenue for the company. So we're working to monetizing that database just like any of these other databases like Facebook (FB) would do with its users. This is also strategic because this database of human cell types is critical in this new generation where we're entering.
We also have a cancer diagnostic and some other near-term products which we're focused on. What I'm most excited about both scientifically and from a humanitarian perspective, is based upon my career as a gerontologist. I started Geron based on telomere biology, this clock of cell aging. ReCyte, our subsidiary working with blood and vascular applications, is working on reprogramming cells. It's like resetting the clock, the telomere clock of cell aging and taking a cell from a patient back to this embryonic state. This is where you can make all cell types identical to the patient, but having rewound the clock of cell aging. That was why I went to ACTC, to work on this.
You may remember the early work we did there showing that cloning could reset that clock in animal species. This is really my passion. The number one killer of degenerative disease in the world is degenerative heart disease, coronary disease and associated heart failure. We believe that cellular aging, in particularly in the vascular system, is the trigger point for this number one killer. If we could rebuild the vascular supply to an aging heart and effectively treat that disease, it would be a huge market. I'll let you run the numbers, but you know they make a few billion dollar product look paltry.
This is an enormous application, and as a gerontologist I have set my whole life to applying our understanding of cells and DNA to the problems of aging. If we can get such a product approved, it would be my personal legacy. This is what I want to do the most.
It's probably the longest term of the products. It's not as near-term as Renevia or PanC-Dx, our cancer diagnostic, but it's something that is going to change the world. You know I lost my father with a heart attack. I think we've all seen the impact of heart disease in friends and family. This is a long-term, ultimate goal in my life, which is to make that therapy a reality.
Final Thoughts
First, I would like to once again thank Dr. West for taking the time to participate in this interview. He answered every question in a thoughtful manner and was very generous with his time. Finally, I would like to make it clear that I was not compensated by BioTime or anyone else to compose this article. I am a simple individual investor and contributor to Seeking Alpha, and nothing more. My intent here is straightforward, and that is to gather as much information as I can for myself and those interested in stem cell technology.
Disclosure: I am long ACTC.OB, BTX. I wrote this article myself, and it expresses my own opinions. I am not receiving compensation for it (other than from Seeking Alpha). I have no business relationship with any company whose stock is mentioned in this article.
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বুধবার, ১৭ জুলাই, ২০১৩
Froome keeps yellow and sees red at Contador
GAP, France (AP) ? Chris Froome preserved his healthy overall lead after a nervous finish to Tuesday's 16th stage, and then blamed his main Tour de France rival Alberto Contador for a downhill incident that could have ended their races.
Portuguese rider Rui Costa won the stage with a solo breakaway, while behind him the subplot between Contador and Froome thickened with a few days left until the finish line in Paris.
Although Froome is still more than four minutes clear of Contador, the British rider felt he could just as easily have ended up in hospital.
"One little accident and it could be the end of your Tour," Froome said. "In my opinion it was a bit dangerous from Alberto to ride like that, it's not good."
On the final descent down from the Col de Manse, Froome and Contador were undone by a sharp right turn as the Brit chased after the Spaniard.
Froome went off the left side of the road and had to plant his left foot on the ground to stop from toppling off completely. Contador also lost balance and hit his knee on the ground before quickly jumping back up on the bike.
"It actually put me in danger because I had to go off the road to avoid him," Froome said. "He couldn't control his own speed and crashed."
Contador, the 2007 and '09 champion stripped of his '10 title for doping, defended himself.
"It was really difficult. In normal conditions I wouldn't have slipped like that, but it was very difficult terrain and the bike got away from me," he said. "Sometimes you have to go for it, whether it's at the start or the end of a stage."
The incident was reminiscent of the 2003 Tour when Spaniard Joseba Beloki broke his right arm, elbow and wrist after crashing on the descent from Manse.
He lost control of his bike going into a turn at full speed and flew across the road. Lance Armstrong, stripped of his seven Tour titles for serial doping, was riding just behind him and had to take sharp evasive action, swerving off the road and then running across a small field before re-mounting his bike.
"At the moment I'm trying to take as least risks as I can," Froome said. "Everyone knows it's a dangerous descent and we've seen a lot of images from the past ... But I didn't think guys were going to take unnecessary risks there."
Froome seemed to be more than a little exasperated, and his radar will be on red alert in the days to come.
"All teams are starting to get desperate now and they're taking uncalculated risks," he said. "In my mind this Tour is not over until I cross the final line on the Champs-Elysees."
Meanwhile, Costa broke away on the 9.5-kilometer (6-mile) ascent to Manse ? the last of the day's three moderate climbs ? to secure the second stage win of his Tour career, after winning another hilly stage up to Super Besse ski station in 2011.
He crossed the line 42 seconds ahead of Frenchman Christophe Riblon.
"I knew exactly what I had to do, and every second that I gained going uphill was useful at the end," Costa said through a translator.
Froome and Contador finished more than 11 minutes behind Costa, who is not considered to be a contender.
About halfway up Manse, Contador attacked, but Richie Porte responded and got Sky teammate Froome back on Contador's wheel.
Contador attacked again soon after and opened up a gap of about 50 meters (yards) before being caught, and then tried a third attack.
Bauke Mollema could have gained more time but chose instead to wait for Froome and Contador after their mishap. Mollema remains second overall, 4:14 behind Froome, while Contador remains 4:25 back in third.
Froome will look to extend that lead in Wednesday's time-trial ? one of his favored disciplines ? before three huge mountain climbs in the Alps.
"It's a very hard day tomorrow with two climbs and two downhills," Froome said. "You have to keep a bit of energy for the following days in the Alps."
The 168-kilometer (104-mile) route started from the Provence village of Vaison-la-Romaine in the heart of the Rhone winemaking country. Early on, about 25 riders started to pull away but started to split open when Costa surged up Manse.
"This win will make us happy," said Costa, whose teammate Alejandro Valverde dropped out of podium contention last week when he lost a lot of time on Friday's 13th stage after stopping for a mechanical failure. "It's my victory, but it's also a victory for the team."
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/froome-keeps-yellow-sees-red-contador-174927292.html
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