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Thursday, January 29, 2009
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Distant planet has extreme global warming
In just six hours, this planet four times the size of Jupiter heats up by more than 1,200 degrees Fahrenheit, according to a study published in Thursday's issue of the journal Nature.
"It's the first observation of changing weather" on a planet outside our solar system, said study author Gregory Laughlin, an astronomy professor at the University of California at Santa Cruz. He used NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope to study the planet.
Change is a mild way to put it for the lifeless world, called HD80606b, where the word "mild" would never enter a weather forecast.
Normally, the planet is a toasty 980 degrees or so. But in the few hours it whips around its sun the planet gets zapped with mega-heat, pushing the thermometer closer to 2,240 degrees.
During its brief pass close to its sun, the planet is 10 times nearer its star than Mercury is to our sun. When it comes closest to its star, it becomes one giant "brewing storm" complete with shock waves, Laughlin said. The radiation bombarding the planet is 800 times stronger than when it is farthest away.
Then just as quickly, the planet slingshots away and radiates the heat to the cool vacuum of space. It glows cherry red and the temperature plummets, Laughlin said.
"Utterly bizarre," he said. "It is thoroughly completely uninhabitable. In a galaxy of uninhabitable planets, this one stands out as being completely inhospitable to life."
The planet circles its star the larger of two stars in a binary system in a comet-like orbit in just 111 days.
The star is visible from Earth near the Big Dipper. On Feb. 14, HD80606b will travel between the Earth and its star. There's a 15% chance that amateur astronomers using small telescopes could see it swing by, obscuring a tiny part of the star, Laughlin said.
"This is indeed an oddball planet, where the temperature range of the season changes from hellish to super-hellish," said Carnegie Institution astronomer Alan Boss. "This place makes Venus look like a nice place to live, and that is saying something."
Reuters - Nokia unveils three new phone models
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Nokia unveils three new phone models
Thursday, Jan 29, 2009 8:37AM UTC
HELSINKI (Reuters) - Nokia unveiled on Thursday three new cellphone models, including the successor to its slim hit model Nokia 6300, as the world's top handset vendor pushes to win a larger share of a shrinking market.
Cellphone sales will dive this year, hit by consumers' reluctance to spend on new gadgets in the midst of the economic recession and large inventories built up by phone sellers at the end of last year.
Nokia's 6700 classic -- the follow-up to the Nokia 6300, which was among Nokia's top sellers for many quarters -- will sell for 235 euros ($307.4) starting in the second quarter, when excluding subsidies and taxes.
The model will have a 5-megapixel camera and GPS navigation with Nokia Maps.
"Our new arrival shares the same 'DNA' as its predecessor and we believe that it will be one of our best selling devices in 2009," Soren Petersen, Senior Vice President at Nokia, said in a statement.
Nokia also unveiled the 6303 and 2700 models, which are expected to sell for 135 euros and 65 euros respectively, excluding subsidies and taxes. (Reporting by Tarmo Virki)
Wednesday, January 28, 2009
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IBM quietly cuts thousands of jobs
The Armonk, N.Y.-based company has cut thousands of jobs over the past week, including positions in sales and the software and hardware divisions. IBM says the cuts are simply part of its ongoing efforts to watch costs, and the company won't release specific numbers, even as reports of firings stream in from IBM facilities across the country.
Workers have reported layoffs in Tucson; San Jose, Calif.; Rochester, Minn.; Research Triangle Park, N.C.; East Fishkill, N.Y.; Austin, Texas; and Burlington, Vt.
Meanwhile, other tech companies such as Intel, Microsoft, Texas Instruments, Sprint Nextel and Google have all publicly revealed job cuts as part of their strategies for riding out the economic crisis. More than 20,000 jobs will be lost from those companies alone.
One of IBM's biggest rivals Hewlett-Packard is also laying people off. HP is shedding 24,600 jobs, nearly 8% of its 320,000-employee work force, as it digests the acquisition of Electronic Data Systems.
IBM says it doesn't have to reveal the number of jobs it is cutting, since the Securities and Exchange Commission requires companies to disclose only "material" events. And IBM considers its job cuts a regular part of the company's business model, since thousands of jobs are cut every year but are usually added back in other places.
Because of that, IBM contends it doesn't have to break out its layoffs in regulatory filings unless it suddenly changes course and makes substantially more or fewer job cuts.
That's why while IBM's head count keeps growing, topping 400,000 at the end of 2008, laid-off IBM workers have flooded online job boards with complaints about the company's stealth cuts.
One estimate of IBM's recent cuts put the number at more than 4,000 jobs lost since IBM's fourth-quarter earnings announcement last week. Those earnings contained an unexpected surprise: IBM forecast at least $9.20 per share in profit in 2009. IBM shares are up more than 10% since then.
To get the cost savings that will help spur the higher profits, IBM appears to have acted quickly. The estimate of at least 4,000 jobs cut comes from AllianceAtIBM, a union that is affiliated with the Communications Workers of America and represents a small number of IBM workers.
The Associated Press reviewed one document sent to laid-off workers that identified some of the positions that were cut. Employees weren't identified by name, but positions and the workers' ages were listed. The document listed nearly 3,000 jobs.
In Vermont, IBM remained tightlipped about layoffs at its Essex Junction facility, but state Labor Commissioner Patricia Moulton Powden said the total number would be less than 500.
IBM recently employed 5,300 workers at the Essex Junction plant, down from 8,500 in 2001.
Jim Gallo, 48, who said he worked in IBM software support for 27 years, was among those let go from that facility. Gallo, drinking a Grey Goose and ginger ale at nearby Lincoln Inn on Tuesday, said he hadn't told his four children yet.
He said he has until Feb. 26 to find another job in IBM, but he put his chances at "slim to none." Gallo said he gets six months' pay as part of a severance package.
"It's too bad they're not doing what they were doing before. They offered some sweet packages for people to jump out," he said.
IBM's ongoing labor adjustments have led the company to add bodies in cheaper and higher-growth parts of the world, like India.
In 2007, the last full year for which detailed employment numbers are available, 121,000 of IBM's 387,000 workers were in the U.S., down slightly from the year before. Meanwhile, staffing in India has jumped from just 9,000 workers in 2003 to 74,000 workers in 2007.
__
Associated Press writer Dave Gram contributed to this story from Essex Junction, Vt.
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
CNN - Dead athletes' brains show damage from concussions
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Dead athletes' brains show damage from concussions
For years after his NFL career ended, Ted Johnson could barely muster the energy to leave his house.
"I'd [leave to] go see my kids for maybe 15 minutes," said Johnson. "Then I would go back home and close the curtains, turn the lights off and I'd stay in bed. That was my routine for two years.
"Those were bad days."
These days, the former linebacker is less likely to recount the hundreds of tackles, scores of quarterback sacks or the three Super Bowl rings he earned as a linebacker for the New England Patriots. He is more likely to talk about suffering more than 100 concussions.
"I can definitely point to 2002 when I got back-to-back concussions. That's where the problems started," said Johnson, who retired after those two concussions. "The depression, the sleep disorders and the mental fatigue."
Until recently, the best medical definition for concussion was a jarring blow to the head that temporarily stunned the senses, occasionally leading to unconsciousness. It has been considered an invisible injury, impossible to test -- no MRI, no CT scan can detect it.
But today, using tissue from retired NFL athletes culled posthumously, the Center for the Study of Traumatic Encephalopathy (CSTE) is shedding light on what concussions look like in the brain. The findings are stunning. Far from innocuous, invisible injuries, concussions confer tremendous brain damage. That damage has a name: chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE).
CTE has thus far been found in the brains of five out of five former NFL players. On Tuesday afternoon, researchers at the CSTE will release study results from the sixth NFL player exhibiting the same kind of damage.
"What's been surprising is that it's so extensive," said Dr. Ann McKee, a neuropathologist at the Veterans Administration Hospital in Bedford, Massachusetts, and co-director of the CSTE. "It's throughout the brain, not just on the superficial aspects of the brain, but it's deep inside."
CSTE studies reveal brown tangles flecked throughout the brain tissue of former NFL players who died young -- some as early as their 30s or 40s.
McKee, who also studies Alzheimer's disease, says the tangles closely resemble what might be found in the brain of an 80-year-old with dementia.
"I knew what traumatic brain disease looked like in the very end stages, in the most severe cases," said McKee. "To see the kind of changes we're seeing in 45-year-olds is basically unheard of."
The damage affects the parts of the brain that control emotion, rage, hypersexuality, even breathing, and recent studies find that CTE is a progressive disease that eventually kills brain cells.
Chris Nowinski knows well the impact of concussions. He was a football star at Harvard before wrestling professionally with World Wrestling Entertainment.
In one moment, his dreams of a long career wrestling were dashed by a kick to his chin. That kick, which caused Nowinski to black out and effectively ended his career, capped a career riddled with concussions.
"My world changed," said Nowinski. "I had depression. I had memory problems. My head hurt for five years."
Nowinski began searching for studies, and what he found startled him.
"I realized when I was visiting a lot of doctors, they weren't giving me very good answers about what was wrong with my head," said Nowinski. "I read [every study I could find] and I realized there was a ton of evidence showing concussions lead to depression, and multiple concussion can lead to Alzheimer's."
Nowinski decided further study was needed, so he founded the Sports Legacy Institute along with Dr. Robert Cantu, a neurosurgeon and co-director of the Neurologic Sports Injury Center at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston. The project solicits for study the brains of ex-athletes who suffered multiple concussions.
Once a family agrees to donate the brain, it is delivered to scientists at the CSTE to look for signs of damage.
So far, the evidence of CTE is compelling.
The Center for the Study of Traumatic Encephalopathy, along with other research institutions, identified traumatic encephalopathy in the brains of late NFL football players John Grimsley, Mike Webster, Andre Waters, Justin Strzelczyk and Terry Long.
Grimsley died of an accidental gunshot wound to the chest. Webster, Long and Strzelczyk all died after long bouts of depression, while Waters committed suicide in 2006 at age 44.
"Guys were dying," said Nowinski. "The fact of the matter was guys were dying because they played sports 10 or 20 years before."
So far, around 100 athletes have consented to have their brains studied after they die.
Ted Johnson was one of the first to sign up. He said he believes that concussions he suffered while playing football explain the anger, depression and throbbing headaches that occasionally still plague him.
Johnson said he played through concussions because he, like many other NFL athletes, did not understand the consequences. He has publicly criticized the NFL for not protecting players like him.
"They don't want you to know," said Johnson. "It's not like when you get into the NFL there's a handout that says 'These are the effects of multiple concussions so beware.' "
In a statement, the NFL indicated that their staffs take a cautious, conservative approach to managing concussions.
While they support research into the impact of concussions, they maintain that, "Hundreds of thousands of people have played football and other sports without experiencing any problem of this type and there continues to be considerable debate within the medical community on the precise long-term effects of concussions and how they relate to other risk factors."
The NFL is planning its own independent medical study of retired NFL players on the long-term effects of concussion.
"Really my main reason even for talking about this is to help the guys who are already retired," said Johnson. "[They] are getting divorced, going bankrupt, can't work, are depressed, and don't know what's wrong with them. [It is] to give them a name for it so they can go get help."
"The idea that you can whack your head hundreds of times in your life and knock yourself out and get up and be fine is gone," said Nowinski. "We know we can't do that anymore. This causes long-term damage."
Monday, January 26, 2009
Portfolio Mobile - Last Bytes: Ballmer's Still Sweet on Yahoo
Last Bytes: Ballmer's Still Sweet on Yahoo
Google logged a whopping 68 percent profit loss, but an 18 percent revenue gain. Ouch? Yay? [WSJ]
The Obama administration is busy dusting the cobwebs off the Bush White House's tech infrastructure. [Valleywag]
Believe it or not, Ballmer's crush on Yahoo persists. [Bits]
Broadband isn't for everyone; two-thirds of those who don't have it say they don't miss it. [Ars Technica]
Related Links
First Bytes: Microsoft, Yahoo, Intel, Obama
Last Bytes: Steve Jobs' Health, Yahoo, and Google
Last Bytes: Bebo, Yahoo, Google, McCain
(c) 2007 Portfolio. Powered by mLogic Media, Crisp Wireless, Inc.
Reuters - Pfizer to buy Wyeth for $68 billion, cuts dividend
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Pfizer to buy Wyeth for $68 billion, cuts dividend
Monday, Jan 26, 2009 12:25PM UTC
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Pfizer Inc, the No. 1 drugmaker, said on Monday that it would acquire U.S. rival Wyeth for about $68 billion in a move to diversify its revenue base.
The world's largest drugmaker, which raised $22.5 billion in debt from a consortium of banks to finance the deal, also cut its dividend.
The deal helps Pfizer cope with a major gap in revenue in 2011, when its blockbuster Lipitor cholesterol treatment will begin to face U.S. generic competition. Next year, Wyeth loses patent protection on its own top drug, the anti-depressant Effexor XR.
Still, the deal would help Pfizer diversify into vaccines and injectable biologic medicines by adding Wyeth's big-selling Prevnar vaccine for childhood infections and Enbrel rheumatoid arthritis treatment. Pfizer would also realize major cost savings by streamlining areas that overlap.
For each share of Wyeth, Pfizer will pay roughly $50.19 -- $33 in cash and 0.985 of a share of its stock.
Based on Wyeth's 1.33 billion shares outstanding as of October 31, the deal would be valued at about $66.8 billion. Including Wyeth's stock options, the deal would be worth $68 billion, sources said.
At $50.19 per share, the deal would mark a 15 percent premium over Wyeth's closing stock price of $43.74 on Friday. Wyeth's stock had surged 12.6 percent on Friday on news of the possible deal.
The deal is expected to add to Pfizer's adjusted diluted earnings per share in the second full year after closing and to result in cost savings of $4 billion by the third year.
CONSOLIDATION WAVE?
Pfizer typifies many large drugmakers, which have struggled to produce new blockbusters to replace those on which they lose exclusivity.
A merger of Pfizer and Wyeth could trigger a wave of consolidation in the cash-rich pharmaceutical sector as drugmakers look to diversify revenues in the face of competition from generic-drug rivals, analysts said.
"The outlook for the industry has steadily waned, (with) industry P/E multiples declining under the combined onslaught of price pressure, aggressive generic competition and low R&D productivity," Deutsche Bank analysts said in a note.
"The result is that many leading companies face a decline in revenues and earnings next decade, as profitable products reach the end of their patented lives and are not replaced by new drugs," the analysts said.
They said AstraZeneca could be a target, although there were also reasons a deal might not happen.
In sealing the Pfizer deal, Wyeth went ahead and ended talks to buy Dutch vaccine firm Crucell. Crucell shares plummeted 21.1 percent to 12.23 euros.
The deal is subject to Pfizer's financing sources not backing out due to a material adverse change in Pfizer's financial health or due to the company's failure to maintain a certain credit rating. Pfizer and Wyeth expect the transaction to close at the end of the third quarter or during the fourth quarter 2009.
Pfizer shares fell to $16.70 in trading before the market opened from Friday's close of $17.45, while Wyeth rose to $45.90 from $43.74.
(Reporting by Edward Tobin and Lewis Krauskopf in New York and Jessica Hall in Philadelphia; Editing by Lisa Von Ahn)
Sunday, January 25, 2009
Friday, January 23, 2009
CNN - 'Hillside Burglar' suspect held; L.A.'s rich relieved
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'Hillside Burglar' suspect held; L.A.'s rich relieved
For three years, the thieves crept into some of the poshest homes in the most exclusive enclaves in the nation.
Police said they finally have a break in the case, and wealthy residents of Los Angeles, California, are breathing a sigh of relief.
"These guys were real good," said L.A. City Councilman Jack Weiss, who oversees Bel Air where some of the burglaries were committed. "They were professionals."
The thieves hauled away more than $10 million worth of valuables and cash from 150 homes in upscale neighborhoods such as Bel Air, Pacific Palisades and Beverly Hills, police said.
Homes of Hollywood celebrities, professional athletes and multimillionaires were hit. According to CNN affiliate KABC, country music stars Faith Hill and Tim McGraw and former Paramount Pictures CEO Sherry Lansing were among the victims.
DNA evidence led the LAPD to suspected ringleader Troy Corsby Thomas, 45, of Los Angeles. He was arrested near L.A. International Airport last weekend.
Police say Thomas led a gang dubbed the "Hillside Burglars" that targeted the neighborhoods overlooking Sunset Boulevard.
"It's a very euphoric, satisfying feeling that we got this person," said the police Lt. David McGill. "It's a very frustrating feeling to tell the victims, 'I'm sorry I don't have any news for you.' Finally when we got some good detective work and breaks, things started lining up."
Police are looking for more suspects linked to the three-year spree but are not naming them.
Thomas is being held on $2 million bail, according to the L.A. County District Attorney's Office. He is likely to stay in custody because he must reveal the origin of any funds used to pay the bail, authorities said.
At a court appearance Tuesday, Thomas pleaded not guilty to two charges of residential burglary, one in January 2006 and another in March 2008. The preliminary court date for Thomas will be set on January 29 and additional charges are expected to be filed, according to CNN affiliates KABC and KTLA.
Police will not comment on Thomas' background. The Los Angeles Times reported that Thomas told police he had been working as an auto broker.
The Hillside Burglars have not struck since Thomas' arrest, police said.
"Hallelujah!" said L.A. Councilman Bill Rosendahl, whose district includes Brentwood and Pacific Palisades. "Even a crafty crook does make his mistake and that's what happened to this one."
Some residents are cautiously optimistic.
"We're delighted," said Robert René, president of Brentwood Homeowners Association, which represents about 800 homes. "We are very fortunate to have the due diligence of the Westside LAPD."
Harvey I. Saferstein, president of the Bel Air Association, agreed, "We are all obviously thankful and relieved."
The financially strapped LAPD created a Hillside Burglars task force. People donated cameras and other equipment and police stepped up patrols. The outlay amounted to "millions of dollars," Rosendahl said.
Neighborhood watch groups formed. One in Bel Air donated $8,000 for infrared cameras that can spot burglars in the dark.
Robert Ringler, president of the Bel Air Beverly Crest Neighborhood Council, hosted a community meeting with the LAPD at the five-star Bel Air Hotel a year and a half ago. As swans swam in ponds in the background, about 150 Westside residents sipped Perrier and vented their fears.
"It had gotten to be such an epidemic," Ringler said.
The impressive mansions -- usually gated and hidden by walls and hedges -- dot the lush hillsides and canyons between the coast and the mountains. The qualities that make them so desirable also make them vulnerable.
The seclusion that appeals to upscale homeowners also appeals to thieves. Because many of the homes are tucked into the sides of mountains and canyons, behind gates, it's easy for a thief to escape unseen and hard for police to get there quickly.
"It's the perfect target," Ringler said. "You can access the property and nobody would ever see you."
Frequently, maids, pool workers and gardeners have access to the property, which allows burglars to pass as the help and slip in unchallenged.
According to police and media reports, the methods were sophisticated.
Burglars waited till homeowners went on vacation or out for the night. They used lawn furniture and ladders to creep into the second floor, which often lacked alarms. They quickly went in, looked for jewelry, safes and cash, and ducked out with the goods.
They never attacked any of the homeowners, preferring stealth to confrontation.
Residents say they learned to keep jewelry and other valuables in safety deposit boxes and out of sight. Many added alarm systems and insured their belongings.
"It's not just about money," said Robin Stevens, who lives with her husband and son in Brentwood. "A lot of people lost things of sentimental value."
Stevens, whose neighbors have been burglarized, said she feels safer knowing that police arrested Thomas, but will continue hiding her mother's antique jewelry and locking the windows.
During a two-week trip to the South Pacific last fall, Stevens made sure to e-mail her neighbors, notifying them that she would be gone so they could look out for strangers.
Other residents remain skeptical.
Pacific Palisades Community Council Chairman Richard G. Cohen said he feels relief but is waiting for a conviction. "The arrest doesn't mark the end of our concern," he said.
With the economy in a tailspin, Steve Twining, who serves on the West Los Angeles Police advisory board, believes thefts will continue.
"In these dire economic times, I don't think it's going to dissuade others from trying to do the same thing," he said. "The burglary situation will probably get worse before it gets better."
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