Source: http://www.thehollywoodgossip.com/2013/02/amanda-bynes-weird-behavior-reaching-legendary-status/
Friday, February 15, 2013
Washington Real Estate Investment Trust (WRE) Posts Quarterly Earnings, Beats Expectations By $0.01 EPS
Washington Real Estate Investment Trust (NYSE: WRE) announced its earnings results on Wednesday. The company reported $0.47 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.46 by $0.01. The company had revenue of $77.07 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $76.52 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.47 earnings per share. The company?s revenue for the quarter was up 2.2% on a year-over-year basis.
On the ratings front, analysts at Robert W. Baird initiated coverage on shares of Washington Real Estate Investment Trust in a research note to investors on Monday, January 14th. They set a ?neutral? rating and a $29.00 price target on the stock.
Shares of Washington Real Estate Investment Trust (WRE) traded down 0.43% during mid-day trading on Wednesday, hitting $27.98. Washington Real Estate Investment Trust (WRE) has a 52 week low of $23.94 and a 52 week high of $30.51. The stock?s 50-day moving average is currently $27.45. The company has a market cap of $1.856 billion and a P/E ratio of 36.88.
The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which is scheduled for Friday, March 29th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 15th will be paid a dividend of $0.30 per share. This represents a $1.20 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.29%.
Washington Real Estate Investment Trust (WRIT) is a self-administered, self-managed, equity real estate investment trust (REIT).
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Actors' Union And Advertisers Are Negotiating $1 ... - Business Insider
The talks cover actresses like Kaley Cuoco, who just started appearing in ads for brands like Priceline.
SAG-AFTRA and the advertising industry are launching commercial contract talks on Valentine's Day under a cone of silence with a minimal disclosure of details -- offering a vivid contrast to the six-month strike that crippled the blurb biz 13 years ago.It's the first major contract to come up for renewal by SAG-AFTRA since members approved merging SAG and AFTRA last March following a robust campaign that promised more bargaining power.
Both sides declined to comment on the talks, which will take place in Gotham. The current contract, which covers roughly $1 billion in annual earnings, expires on March 31 but the union has made no efforts to mobilize the members about the issues.
And that's a step that would be expected if SAG-AFTRA were to seek a strike authorization vote, as was done in 2000 amid a pledge by the ad industry to not sign a deal unless the pay-per-play system of compensation, known as "Class A," was replaced by quarterly buyouts. Both sides posted their entire bargaining proposal on the Internet; during the strike, SAG and AFTRA held hundreds of rallies and pickets, culminating in a boycott of Ivory Soap, Tide and Crest before getting a deal that preserved Class A, boosted cable pay by 140% and gave the union jurisdiction over Internet ads.
"Educating the members was critical back then," said Gordon Drake, a strike captain and negotiating committee member in 2000. "We felt that members needed to feel they were part of the union so we were able to hold out for that deal. So I completely disagree with the approach that SAG-AFTRA is taking to this negotiation."
The strike came following the election of William Daniels as SAG president in 1999 over incumbent Richard Masur in a campaign that promised a far more aggressive bargaining stance. After negotiations cratered, the SAG and AFTRA boards voted 150-0 to go on strike -- a show of unity that began dissipating as the strike went on, particularly among members outside Hollywood who contended in the aftermath that settlement's terms had been achievable without a strike.
In recent years, the self-styled moderates within SAG have taken over the leadership of the union in elections by pushing hard for merger and largely avoiding public confrontation with employers. SAG-AFTRA's only recent disclosure about the commercial negotiations came Feb. 3 after its national board gave its blessing to the package of proposals, hammered out via the "wages and working conditions" member meetings in recent months.
That announcement had no elaboration of the package, however. David White, the union's national exec director and chief negotiator, said, "While there are difficult issues to negotiate ahead, we anticipate a productive dialogue with our bargaining partners and expect a result that is positive for our members." SAG-AFTRA co-president Roberta Reardon told Variety last month the merger would have an impact on all of the union's successor contracts. "So it's going to be a year where we discover that solidarity, power and leverage are not just words. And the consolidation within the media industry will have a huge impact on these contracts," she said.
For its part, the ad industry -- repped through the joint policy committee of the American Assn. of Advertising Agencies and the Assn. of National Advertisers -- has broached the possibility of a strike.
The committee told members in December to consider "prudent planning" in the case of a strike including rescheduling production planned for March 31 through June. It also advised members to consider taking steps to maintain rights on current commercials if those rights are expiring in the three months after March 31.
The union and the industry are in the final seven weeks of a one-year extension to the three-year contract reached in 2009. SAG and AFTRA sought and received the extension in mid-2011 in order to focus their efforts on a merger. The key gains in the current commercials contract included a payment structure for work made for and moved over to the Internet and other new-media platforms and retention of the Class A method of pay-per-play.
The 2009 deal yielded a $36 million pay hike over three years, including $21 million more in pension and health contribution and held down annual salary gains to about 2% and included a first-ever cap on employer contributions to pension and health.
Drake still believes that SAG-AFTRA leaders needs to tell members more about contract details heading into negotiations and cites his own experience two decades ago while rehearsing for a dance scene with Annette Bening in "Bugsy." "I told her that I didn't have a SAG contract, so she told the production assistant to get me one," he recalled. "That didn't happen because of the leaders but because of a member."
Click here for more film news on Variety.com.
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Merck settles investor suits on cholesterol drugs
TRENTON, N.J. (AP) ? Merck & Co. has agreed to pay $688 million to settle two long-running lawsuits brought by investors who alleged the drugmaker delayed releasing bad news on its blockbuster cholesterol drugs to prevent a drop in sales.
Merck, the world's third biggest drugmaker by revenue, said Thursday that it agreed to the settlement because it's in the best interest of the company and current shareholders. It is taking a charge of nearly a half-billion dollars against 2012 earnings.
The delay in releasing results of a study that was meant to bolster sales of pricey cholesterol pills Zetia and Vytorin triggered criticism by analysts, investors, some scientists and the media ? and ultimately an investigation by Congress.
The maker of Januvia Type 2 diabetes pills and the Gardasil vaccine against sexually transmitted cancers admitted no wrongdoing. The deal must be approved by a federal judge.
"The settlement gets a cloud out of the sky for Merck," said Erik Gordon, an analyst and professor at University of Michigan's Ross School of Business.
The settlement is among the top 25 securities class action settlements ever, according to Bernstein Litowitz Berger & Grossmann LLP, co-lead counsel in the litigation brought by a number of large pension funds.
Merck, which is based in Whitehouse Station, N.J., said in a statement that it's taking a charge of $493 million. The company also restated previously reported financial results, reducing its 2012 fourth-quarter results to 30 cents per share from 46 cents per share, and its 2012 results to $2 per share from $2.16 per share.
Merck shares fell 13 cents to $41.02 in afternoon trading. They have traded in a 52-week range of $36.91 last March to $48 in mid-October.
Merck and its then-partner Schering-Plough, which it later acquired, for about two years had delayed disclosing results of the study, known by the acronym ENHANCE. It tested how well Vytorin and Zetia reduced plaque buildup in neck arteries of patients with high cholesterol. The drugs had already been on the market for a few years, and together generated billions in annual sales for the two New Jersey drugmakers, racking up a combined $5.2 billion in 2007 alone.
The study was intended to give the pills a bigger edge over rival medicines in the huge market for cholesterol drugs, by showing that besides reducing bad, or LDL cholesterol, the pills prevented it from clogging arteries ? and presumably from causing heart attacks and strokes. But imaging of neck arteries of ENHANCE study participants showed that Zetia and Vytorin, which combines Zetia with a generic version of Merck's older cholesterol pill Zocor, didn't work any better than cheap generic Zocor did alone.
When Merck in early 2008 finally released the ENHANCE study results, Merck stock tumbled, causing big losses for investors, and sales of the two pills declined in the U.S.
Bernstein Litowitz, Grant & Eisenhofer and other law firms representing pension funds in the U.S. and elsewhere that held Merck and Schering-Plough stock then filed suits against each of the companies. Under the settlement agreement, Schering-Plough, which became part of Merck in 2009, will pay $473 million, and Merck will pay $215 million. A Merck spokesman said the company expects insurance to cover part of the total, reducing Merck's liability to the $493 million for which it's taking a charge.
Edward Jones analyst Judson Clark said the settlement is "largely a non-issue for long-term equity investors."
However, he added, "The combined number was probably a little higher than many investors were expecting and that's reflected in today's price movement."
Merck said in a statement that "numerous clinical trials conducted over the years have demonstrated a strong relationship between lowering LDL cholesterol and reduced risk of cardiovascular morbidity and mortality."
It added that its ongoing IMPROVE-IT study, an 18,000-patient study of Vytorin, should answer the question of whether lowering LDL cholesterol to very low levels with Vytorin could reduce heart attacks and strokes more than generic Zocor alone could do.
However, during a conference call two weeks ago to review fourth-quarter results, Merck executives would not reassure nervous analysts that the IMPROVE-IT study will show that benefit. Merck stressed then that it has numerous drugs in late-stage development and plans this year to file for approval of five of them. Still, two analysts quickly downgraded their ratings on its shares, one from "Hold" to "Sell" and the other from "Buy" to "Hold."
Analyst Les Funtleyder, a health care strategist at private equity fund Poliwogg, said the settlement news "will get lost in concern over" Merck saying recently that it will delay for about a year plans to apply for approval of a crucial new osteoporosis drug, odanacatib, while it waits for additional study results.
The settlement comes less than three weeks before the case was to come to trial. It had been scheduled to begin on March 4, before U.S. District Judge Dennis M. Cavanaugh in Newark, who must approve the settlement.
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Linda A. Johnson can be followed at http://twitter.com/LindaJ_onPharma
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Thursday, February 14, 2013
Inorganic Growth ? Corsair acquires streaming audio systems ...
Posted by Tejas Venkatesh on February 13, 2013
Contact: Tejas Venkatesh
Its IPO plans may not have materialized, but high-performance hardware designer Corsair is continuing to add to its product capabilities. In its first-ever acquisition, Corsair has reached for Simple Audio, a maker of streaming systems that enable consumers to remotely listen to music stored on computers and mobile devices. With audio being an integral part of gaming, the deal adds complementary audio products to Corsair?s stable of headsets, speakers and memory modules.
Corsair should also be able to use its worldwide distribution channels to drive sales of Simple Audio?s products. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed but the target described it as a ?multimillion-dollar? deal. According to a press release from Young Company Finance, which tracks and reports on early-stage high-growth companies in Scotland, Simple Audio generated about $2.1m in revenue for the nine months ended September 2012. The company only started selling its products in January 2012.
Corsair designs high-performance DRAM modules and other gaming peripherals for personal computers, with a focus on gaming hardware. The low-margin DRAM business accounts for more than two-thirds of its revenue. The company was on track for an IPO before pulling its paperwork in May 2012, citing poor market conditions. For the year ended March 2012, Corsair generated a top line of $480m, with a gross margin in the mid-teens.
For more real-time information on tech M&A, follow us on Twitter @MAKnowledgebase.
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Emmett Till's family reacts to Lil Wayne lyric
FILE - In this Sept. 26, 2012 file photo, recording artist Lil Wayne speaks during an interview with The Associated Press in New Orleans. Epic Records is going to "great efforts" to take down a new Future remix leaked over the weekend with a vulgar lyric by Lil Wayne that has offended the family of Emmett Till. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert, File)
FILE - In this Sept. 26, 2012 file photo, recording artist Lil Wayne speaks during an interview with The Associated Press in New Orleans. Epic Records is going to "great efforts" to take down a new Future remix leaked over the weekend with a vulgar lyric by Lil Wayne that has offended the family of Emmett Till. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert, File)
FILE - This undated file photo shows Emmett Till, a black 14-year-old Chicago boy, who was brutally murdered near Money, Mississippi, Aug. 31, 1955, after whistling at a white woman. Epic Records is going to "great efforts" to take down a new Future remix leaked over the weekend with a vulgar lyric by Lil Wayne that has offended the family of Emmett Till. (AP Photo/File)
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) ? A cousin of the late Emmett Till wonders if Lil Wayne understands just how damaging it was when he rapped a vulgar reference to the black U.S. teen whose death in 1955 became a significant moment in the civil rights movement.
Airickca Gordon-Taylor says Till's family would like an apology from Lil Wayne for the brief but disturbing lyric on Future's "Karate Chop" remix. But more than that, she'd like the platinum-selling New Orleans rapper to understand how his comparison of a sex act to the 14-year-old Chicago native's torture death in Mississippi is hurtful to the black community.
"It was a heinous murder," Gordon-Taylor said in a phone interview Thursday from Chicago. "He was brutally beaten and tortured, and he was shot, wrapped in barbed wire and tossed in the Tallahatchie River. The images that we're fortunate to have (of his open casket) that 'Jet' published, they demonstrate the ugliness of racism. So to compare a woman's anatomy ? the gateway of life ? to the ugly face of death, it just destroyed me. And then I had to call the elders in my family and explain to them before they heard it from some another source."
The Future remix with Weezy guesting was leaked on the internet over the weekend. Epic Records said Wednesday it regretted the unauthorized remix version and that it was employing "great efforts" to pull it down. The brief reference ? just seven words ? will be stricken from the song when it's officially released later.
The rapper made a crude reference to rough sex and used an obscenity. He indicated he wanted to do as much damage as had been done to Till.
Gordon-Taylor says Epic Chairman and CEO LA Reid personally reached out to her on a conference call Wednesday evening that included the Rev. Jesse Jackson to explain and apologize. Jackson said in a phone interview Thursday that Reid said on the call that Future and Lil Wayne were cooperative.
"Once he got the point he realized this was beyond the zone and he immediately pulled it," Jackson said. "And he talked with both artists, who agreed."
Weezy has made no comment, nor has he addressed the issue on his Twitter account. Gordon-Taylor says there's been no attempt to apologize so far.
Till was in Mississippi visiting family when he was killed for flirting with a white woman. He was beaten, had his eyes gouged out and was shot in the head before his assailants tied a cotton gin fan to his body with barbed wire and tossed his body into the Tallahatchie River. Two white men, including the woman's husband, were acquitted of the killing by an all-white jury.
Till's body was recovered and returned to Chicago where his mother, Mamie Till, insisted on having an open casket at his funeral. The pictures of his battered body helped push civil rights into the cultural conversation in the U.S. Bob Dylan even wrote a song about it: "The Death of Emmett Till."
Gordon-Taylor, founding director of the Mamie Till Mobley Memorial Foundation, said Lil Wayne's lyric was devastating to her family. Simeon Wright, Till's cousin who shared a bed with his relative the night he was taken by the killers, heard the lyric for the first time Wednesday night.
"And he said the Ku Klux Klan would be very proud of Lil Wayne," Gordon-Taylor said. "And as tough a man as he is, I could see the hurt and the anger in his eyes. It just demonstrates to our family just how lost are our youth."
Both Gordon-Taylor and Jackson believe the 30-year-old rapper could help with that problem if he chose. Jackson says he's met Wayne, whose real name is Dwayne Carter, before and that he "respects his art."
Jackson says the issue of a negative portrayal of the black community comes up from time to time, citing The Rolling Stones' "Some Girls," for instance: "We just felt they could make their point without grossly insulting people."
Music also has the power to uplift, he noted. Harry Belafonte opened eyes to conditions in Africa and the Caribbean, for instance. Marvin Gaye's "What's Going On" helped Americans see the war in Vietnam in a new light. And Stevie Wonder's "Happy Birthday" helped clear the way for a national holiday honoring Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
"We want artists who have considerable power to use their power to uplift and redirect," Jackson said. "It's not a matter of free speech, it's also speech that matters. ... These artists have culturally transforming power. Either they hurt or they help."
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Online:
http://epicrecords.com
___
Follow AP Music Writer Chris Talbott: http://twitter.com/Chris_Talbott
Associated PressA little molecule's remarkable feat: Prolonging life
Feb. 14, 2013 ? Nitric oxide, the versatile gas that helps increase blood flow, transmit nerve signals, and regulate immune function, appears to perform one more biological feat -- prolonging the life of an organism and fortifying it against environmental stress, according to a new study.
The study reveals that a roundworm called Caenorhabditis elegans, an animal widely used in laboratory studies of aging, lives significantly longer when fed bacteria capable of manufacturing nitric oxide. The tantalizing observation points to one of the mechanisms by which the microbiome, the trillions of microbial cells inhabiting our bodies, may play a vital role in our health.
Our own nitric oxide levels decrease as we get older, a decline that may contribute to normal aging, says Evgeny Nudler, PhD, the Julie Wilson Anderson Professor of Biochemistry at NYU Langone Medical Center, who led the new study. Supplemental bacteria, he speculates, might provide a healthy boost by supplying humans with some of the missing compound.
"In worms, we now know that bacteria can use nitric oxide not only to their own advantage but also to provide their host with a beneficial response, and the same thing could be true in a human gut," says Dr. Nudler. "It may well be the case that our commensal bacteria control some of our genes, at least in the gut, to protect those cells against stress and age-related decline." Commensal bacteria provide a benefit to the organisms they colonize.
Although humans and many other organisms have the enzyme needed to produce nitric oxide, C. elegans does not. Instead, Dr. Nudler and his team report in the February 14th online issue of Cell that the worm can "hijack" the compound from the soil-dwelling Bacillus subtilis bacterium that is not only a favored food but also a common colonist within its gut. This resourcefulness, Dr. Nudler says, partially explains why worms fed B. subtilis live roughly 50 percent longer than counterparts fed Escherichia coli, which does not produce the compound.
In the new study, the average C. elegans lifespan increased by nearly 15 percent, to about two weeks, when researchers fed the worms nitric oxide-producing B. subtilis bacteria, compared to worms fed mutant B. subtilis with a deleted nitric oxide production gene. The research group also used fluorescent sensors to show that C. elegans does not make its own nitric oxide gas. When the worms were fed normal B. subtilis bacteria, however, the fluorescent signal appeared in their guts.
Fluorescent labeling and other tests also demonstrated that B. subtilis-derived nitric oxide penetrated the worms' tissues, where it activated a set of 65 genes. Some had been previously implicated in stress resistance, immune response, and increased lifespan, though others have unknown functions. Importantly, the researchers showed that two well-known regulatory proteins were essential for activating all of the genes.
"What we found is that nitric oxide gas produced in bacteria inside the worms diffuses into the worm tissue and activates a very specific set of genes acting through two master regulators, hsf-1 and daf-16, resulting in a high resistance to stress and a longer life," Dr. Nudler says. "It's striking that a small molecule produced by one organism can dramatically affect the physiology and even lifespan of another organism through direct cell signaling."
As part of nitric oxide's expansive repertoire, Dr. Nudler's lab previously showed how dangerous pathogens can exploit the molecule to fight off antibiotics. Despite its versatility, the new research suggests that nitric oxide is only one of multiple beneficial molecules produced by B. subtilis, Dr. Nudler says. His lab plans to look more closely at other potential mechanisms by which commensal bacteria can promote health and longevity, using the powerful and easily manipulated C. elegans system as a model.
The study co-authors include Ivan Gusarov, Laurent Gautier, Olga Smolentseva, and Ilya Shamovsky from the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Pharmacology at NYU Langone Medical Center; and Svetlana Eremina and Alexander Mironov from the State Research Institute of Genetics and Selection of Industrial Microorganisms in Moscow, Russia.
The research was supported by the National Institutes of Health, the Biogerontology Research Foundation, and the Dynasty Foundation.
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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by NYU Langone Medical Center, via Newswise.
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Journal Reference:
- Ivan Gusarov, Laurent Gautier, Olga Smolentseva, Ilya Shamovsky, Svetlana Eremina, Alexander Mironov, Evgeny Nudler. Bacterial Nitric Oxide Extends the Lifespan of C. elegans. 14 February 2013, Cell DOI: 10.1016/j.cell.2012.12.043
Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.
Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.
Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/top_health/~3/ibVgvxDP1_4/130214132623.htm
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Asian Gaming Giant Nexon Sees Revenues Climb 39% To $331.4M ...
Nexon, the freemium gaming company that went public around the time that Zynga did, saw its fourth-quarter revenues jump 39 percent to 30.9 billion Japanese yen ($331.4 million).
It still posted a net loss of 94 million yen ($1 million) because of writedowns in various investments and higher tax expenses in South Korea.
Founded in Seoul almost 20 years ago, Nexon built a strong business in downloadable PC games in China and South Korea with franchises like MapleStory, which have done more than $1 billion in cumulative revenue. The company later moved its headquarters to Tokyo, and?raised $1.2 billion in a late 2011 IPO.
While the company?s stock hasn?t done as badly as Zynga?s over the past year, it hasn?t been easy either. Nexon?s shares trade 29 percent lower than they did a year ago, as gaming stocks like GREE and others globally have struggled.
The business? operating margins declined slightly into this last quarter because the company?s growing line of mobile games have lower profit margins than Nexon?s downloadable game business in China. The company?s shares declined 3.4 percent today to 857 Japanese yen ($9.20).
Nexon expects that its PC business will be roughly flat this quarter at between $305.9 million and $324.4 million in revenue. But mobile games will have grown by more than thirty-fold year-over-year at between $79.4 million and $87.4 million in revenue.
That?s off the back of two key mobile acquisitions over the past year, including the $468.4 million deal to buy top Japanese game developer gloops. gloops is one of the top developers on DeNA?s Mobage platform. Both DeNA and Nexon recently affirmed a gaming partnership that would bring about 10 different Nexon and gloops-produced games to the Mobage platform this year.
Nexon also bought another studio called InBlue in mid-2012, but terms weren?t disclosed.
Innovation. That?s what Nexon is all about. A pioneer in the world of interactive entertainment software, they introduced the world to the first graphic MMORPG, The Kingdom of the Winds, back in 1995. Since then, they?ve become the industry leader in massively multiplayer online games, continuing to redefine the genre with each of their innovative titles.
? Learn moreSource: http://techcrunch.com/2013/02/13/nexon-revenues-q4/
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Saturday, February 9, 2013
HP sets labor guidelines in for Chinese suppliers
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) ? Hewlett-Packard Co., the world's largest personal computer maker, is vowing to crack down on its Chinese suppliers in an effort to reduce the use of low-paid student interns and other temporary workers.
The guidelines unveiled Friday are the latest attempt by a major U.S. technology company to weed out labor abuses at Chinese factories that manufacture the gadgets for an Internet-connected world.
HP, which is based in Palo Alto, Calif., said its new standards are meant to ensure that its Chinese suppliers don't lean too heavily on student interns and temporary workers as a way to save money. The company says it wants to protect workers' rights when they are hired.
The new standards come a few months after Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., a major China manufacturer better known as Foxconn, acknowledged it has hired interns as young as 14.
Both HP and Apple Inc., the maker of iPhones, iPads and Mac computers, rely on Foxconn to make some of their products.
Apple, which is based in Cupertino, Calif., also has been trying to reform the labor practices at Foxconn and other Chinese suppliers in recent years in response to scathing criticism about the inhumane treatment of the workers making devices that have become status symbols as well as multi-purpose tools for communicating, reading, watching video and taking pictures.
Among other things, HP said it hopes its rules will prod its Chinese suppliers to employ mostly full-time workers instead of exploiting interns and temporary employees. When interns and temps are used, HP said it will insist they aren't forced to remain on the job against their will and have the right to file grievances. The company also pledged to ensure intern hours are kept well below the legal limit.
To show it is serious, HP intends to review the labor practices at its Chinese suppliers more frequently.
HP is a Silicon Valley pioneer whose late founders, William Hewlett and David Packard, become renowned for their egalitarian policies and generous benefits. The worker-friendly culture that they fostered become known as "The HP Way" ? a template that has steered the views of many other Silicon Valley companies, including Apple, whose late founder, Steve Jobs, once briefly worked at HP.
In recent years, though, HP has alienated some of its 332,000 employees with mass layoffs and other cost-cutting measures aimed at boosting its profits. The company eliminated nearly 18,000 jobs during its past fiscal year.
HP's stock gained 41 cents, or 2. 5 percent, to $16.85 in afternoon trading Friday. They have traded in a 52-week range of $11.35 to $30.
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Anti self-immolation propaganda now part of China's 'patriotic ...
After engaging in severe and systematic crackdown on self-immolation protests last year, the Chinese government has now stepped up the ante on propaganda offensive by conducting ?patriotic education? campaigns heavily centred on anti self-immolation messages and distribution of campaign paraphernalia such as documents, pamphlets, books, and animated posters exhorting the Tibetans both in pictures and words, the criminal consequences such as arrests, detention, and heavy prison terms including suspended death sentence.
According to information received by TCHRD, the Chinese government has published a document, targeted at Tibetans, that explains the legal consequences under Chinese Criminal Law for anyone charged of inciting, instigating or abetting self-immolations. The document, probably a booklet, dated January 2013, is titled ?Cherish Life, Abide by Law.?
Front cover of the pamphlet titled ?Cherish life, Abide by Law.?
Sources with contacts in Rebkong told TCHRD that the pamphlets were distributed in all monastic institutions, villages and townships in Rebkong (Ch: Tongren) County in Malho (Ch: Huangnan) Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Qinghai Province.
Reports have also emerged on Chinese authorities conducting ?patriotic education? campaign at Jhakyung Monastery in Palung County of Tsoshar (Ch: Haidong) Prefecture, Qinghai Province. Teachers from Qinghai minority Nationality University and Qinghai Teacher Training School were sent to the monastery to give political education sessions which contained strong messages against self-immolation, reported the Voice of Tibet radio. Citing a source in the area, the report said ?patriotic education? officials emphasised the usual patriotic lessons such as ?loving the nation, religion, good relations between nationalities, and opposing the Dalai clique.? In particular, the officials called on fully opposing self-immolations, adding that not opposing self-immolations was equivalent to opposing the Chinese state. Anti self-immolation campaign documents were also distributed at Jhakyung Monastery.
The ?Cherish life, Abide by Law? document, selective pages of which were received by TCHRD, said ?inciting, misguiding and forcing others to self-immolate will be considered ?intentional homicide?. Those charged of such crimes will be punished under article 232 of Chinese Criminal law.
Further the document said ?those who create obstacles in the way of PSB officials, medical personnel and others protecting the self-immolators shall be charged with ?intentional homicide,? in accordance with the article 232 of the Criminal Law, and would be given either death sentence, life-imprisonment or ten years of imprisonment. [Those] committing lesser crimes would be sentenced to prison ranging from three to ten years. [See image two]
Image two
For ?crimes? of inciting the masses to gather and taking out public processions carrying bodies of self-immolators and obstructing the traffic and disrupting public order shall be sentenced under articles 290 and 291 of Criminal Law. [See image three]
According to Chinese Criminal Law, article 290 is provides that: ?Where people are gathered to disturb public order ? losses are caused, the ringleaders shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not less than three years but not more than seven years; the active participants shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not more than three years, criminal detention, public surveillance or deprivation of political rights.?
Article 291 provides that ?where people are gathered to disturb order at railway stations or bus terminals, wharves, civil airports, marketplaces, parks, theaters, cinemas, exhibition halls, sports grounds or other public places, or to block traffic or undermine traffic order, or resist or obstruct public security administrators of the State from carrying out their duties according to law, if the circumstances are serious, the ringleaders shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not more than five years, criminal detention or public surveillance.?
Interestingly, the document says ?those who indulge in beating, smashing, looting and burning at public places will be punished under articles 263 and 275 of Criminal Law on charges of robbing and looting, or intentionally robbing public and private property. Serious cases will be sentenced to minimum of three years and maximum of seven years? prison term, along with monetary fines.? [See image three]
Image three
The document then goes on to say that ?those who seriously disrupt social stability by making and distributing fake CDS and videos of explosive, venomous, fiery and riotous nature [meaning fake CDs and videos encouraging self-immolations and riots] shall be charged with harming the rules and regulations of society and propagating false rumors and [thus] would be sentenced to five years in prison and subjected to prison-labor. Those who commit serious offences, [however], would be sentenced up to fifteen years in prison.? [See image four]
Image four
Further, it says ?those who create obstacles in the way of PSB officials and cadres of the various state bureaus performing their lawful duties shall be charged with ?harming the activities of the state/government,? in accordance with the article 277 of the state criminal law, and would be sentenced up to three years in prison, subjected to prison-labor, or monetary fines.? [See image five]
Image five
In a related development, China announced it has detained 70 Tibetans in Malho Prefecture ?in connection with a string of self-immolations that have occurred since November 2012,? state media reported.?The report said 12 out of 70 Tibetans had been formally arrested and charges would be filed soon against them. Lyu Benchian deputy chief of the Qinghai Provincial Public Security Department?was quoted as saying that ?Tibetan separatists overseas flaunt them [self-immolators] as ?heroes.??
Interestingly, Chinese state media in a report on the Chinese-appointed Panchen Lama to Inner Mongolia last month said the Panchen Lama ?paid homage to revolutionary martyrs at a monument hall, leaving a note in Tibetan that read, ?Heroes? flesh and blood constitute today?s happy life.?
The latest arbitrary arrests and detention are part of official attempts to criminalise self-immolation protests by Tibetans and to establish a link between self-immolations in Tibet and the so-called ?Dalai clique? in exile. It is part of a systematic and concerted plan by the Chinese government to avoid addressing the real and urgent issues and grievances raised by self-immolation protesters.
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Beware of ?mindbugs? that fill our brains with biases (Washington Post)
Watson's medical expertise offered commercially
WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. (AP) ? Dr. Watson is accepting new patients.
The Watson supercomputer is graduating from its medical residency and is being offered commercially to doctors and health insurance companies, IBM said Friday.
IBM Corp., the health insurer WellPoint Inc. and Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center announced two Watson-based applications ? one to help assess treatments for lung cancer and one to help manage health insurance decisions and claims.
Both applications take advantage of the speed, huge database and language skill the computer demonstrated in defeating the best human "Jeopardy!" players on television two years ago.
Armonk-based IBM said Watson has improved its performance by 240 percent since the "Jeopardy!" win.
In both applications, doctors or insurance company workers will access Watson through a tablet or computer. Watson will quickly compare a patient's medical records to what it has learned and make several recommendations in decreasing order of confidence.
In the cancer program, the computer will be considering what treatment is most likely to succeed. In the insurance program, it will consider what treatment should be authorized for payment.
Watson ? actually named for IBM founder Thomas Watson and not Sherlock Holmes' friend ? has been trained in medicine through pilot programs at Indianapolis-based WellPoint and at Sloan-Kettering in New York.
Manoj Saxena, an IBM general manager, said the supercomputer has ingested 1,500 lung cancer cases from Sloan-Kettering records, plus 2 million pages of text from journals, textbooks and treatment guidelines.
It also learned "like a medical student," by being corrected when it was questioned by doctors and came up with wrong answers, Saxena said in an interview.
"Watson is not making the decisions" on treatment or authorization, Saxena said. "It is essentially reducing the effort for doctors and nurses by going through thousands of pages of information for each case."
The lung cancer program is being adopted by two medical groups, the Maine Center for Cancer Medicine and WestMed in New York's Westchester County. Saxena said it should be running at both groups by next month.
WellPoint itself is already using the insurance application in Indiana, Kentucky, Ohio and Wisconsin. It will be selling both applications ? at prices still to be negotiated ? and will compensate IBM under a contract between the two companies, an IBM spokeswoman said.
WellPoint said using Watson should not increase insurance premiums because of savings from waste and errors
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