Yesterday, Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg took the stage at Y Combinator's Startup School in a candid interview with Y Combinator Partner Jessica Livingston. You can watch the full interview here, and it starts around the 43 minute mark, and lasts for roughly 40 minutes. If you have some time to spare, it's well worth a look. Zuck revealed a number of fascinating things about entrepreneurship, founding Facebook, and product development, but one of the more interesting (and surprising points) came at the end of the interview when Livingston asked him what he would do different if he could go back in time. Zuck replied: If I were starting now I would do things very differently. I didn't know anything. In Silicon Valley, you get this feeling that you have to be out here. But it's not the only place to be. If I were starting now, I would have stayed in Boston. [Silicon Valley] is a little short-term focused and that bothers me.
DES MOINES, Iowa ? Allstate Corp. said its third-quarter net income fell 55 percent after natural disasters cost the insurer $1.08 billion.
But Allstate said improved investment results and profit in its auto insurance segment helped offset some of the increased storm losses. Its net income was $165 million, or 32 cents per share, compared with $367 million, or 68 cents per share, a year ago.
The Northbrook, Ill.-based property and casualty insurer said its revenue rose 4.2 percent to $8.24 billion from $7.91 billion a year ago.
The company's adjusted operating income, which excludes capital gains and unusual items, was $84 million, or 16 cents per share, compared with $452 million, or 83 cents per share a year ago.
Analysts surveyed by FactSet expected 8 cents per share on revenue of $7.99 billion.
Before Monday's earnings, Allstate disclosed third-quarter pre-tax catastrophe losses of $1.08 billion, up significantly from the $386 million reported in the 2010 third quarter.
The company saw a significant improvement in its investments, seeing a gain of $264 million from capital gains compared with a loss of $144 million a year ago.
The company said it increased premium rates for home owners to help offset higher claims from violent storms. It also discontinued insurance coverage for homes that it believes are too risky to insure, CEO Thomas Wilson said in an interview.
Home insurance premiums are up about 5 percent compared with a year ago and there are about 4 percent fewer policies in force.
Auto premiums were increased about 1 percent on average from a year ago, Wilson said.
Overall, premiums written fell to $6.43 billion from $6.50 billion.
Allstate's combined ratio was 104.8, reflecting the storm-related losses of $1.1 billion, which affected the ratio by 16.7 points. A ratio above 100 means that for every premium dollar taken in, more than a dollar went to cover claims and expenses. A figure below 100 means the company made a profit on its insurance operations.
Allstate said it experienced 23 catastrophe loss events, including Hurricane Irene and Tropical Storm Lee.
Excluding catastrophe losses and prior year reserve re-estimates, the combined ratio was 89.2 during the third quarter, consistent with the third quarter of 2010.
Shares fell 82 cents, or 3 percent, to close at $26.34 before the company reported results. In after-market trading shares rose $1.12, or 4.25 percent.
Shares are off 17.4 percent so far this year. They've traded as high as $34.40 in the past 52 weeks.
Allstate repurchased shares valued at $308 million in the quarter, completing a $1 billion share repurchase ahead of schedule, Wilson said.
It also completed on Oct. 1 the $1 billion acquisition of Esurance and Answer Financial from White Mountains Insurance Group. Esurance offers auto insurance direct to consumers online and through agents. While Answer Financial offers online price comparisons among insurance carriers for consumers.
Wilson said the companies offer a good growth market.
"This gives us the ability to leverage our insurance skills to different consumer groups to give them exactly what they want," he said.
WASHINGTON ? Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain said Monday he was "falsely accused" of sexual harassment while he led the National Restaurant Association in the 1990s.
Cain was responding to a Politico report that said the trade group settled complaints from at least two women that Cain had engaged in inappropriate sexual behavior.
Cain told Fox News he has never sexually harassed anyone and that he was "falsely accused." He said investigations into any complaints found that they were "baseless."
"I've never sexually harassed anyone," he said. "And yes, I was falsely accused while I was at the National Restaurant Association, and I say falsely because it turned out after the investigation to be baseless."
But he also said he had no idea whether the trade association provided financial settlements to the women who complained, as Politico reported. "I hope it wasn't for much, because I was never aware of it," Cain said.
Cain said he has not been accused of sexually inappropriate behavior in any other context. "Absolutely not," he said when asked if more reports of harassment could surface.
In a written statement, the National Restaurant Association refused to comment on a personnel matter.
At an event in Washington Monday morning, the former businessman said he would further discuss the allegations later in the day while appearing at the National Press Club.
"I will take all your arrows," Cain said.
Cain's campaign was in full-scale damage control mode in the wake of a Politico report late Sunday that said Cain had been accused of sexual harassment toward at least two female employees. The report said the women signed agreements with the restaurant group that gave them five-figure financial payouts to leave the association and barred them from discussing their departures. Neither woman was identified.
The report was based on anonymous sources and, in one case, what the publication said was a review of documentation that described the allegations and the resolution.
"We weren't going to go and chase anonymous sources," Cain said on Fox.
Cain ? a self-styled outsider relatively new to the national stage ? is facing a new level of scrutiny after a burst of momentum in the race for the GOP presidential nomination. He's been steadily at or near the top of national surveys and polls in early presidential nominating states, competitive with former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney. The former pizza company executive has been pointing to his long record in business to argue that he has the credentials needed to be president during a time of economic strife.
Cain has stumbled since his rise in the polls. He has made statements on abortion, the treatment of terrorism suspects and placing an electrified fence along the U.S.-Mexico border that he's later had to clarify.
It's unclear what the allegations will mean to Cain's political prospects. The Georgia businessman regularly criticizes the mainstream media for writing off his candidacy. "Message is more powerful than media," he says on the campaign trail.
And among conservative voters ? who are distrustful of the media ? the charges could galvanize support for him.
A message seeking comment from Peter Kilgore, listed on the National Restaurant Association website as its chief legal counsel, was not immediately returned.
You probably love your phone, tablet, and other miscellaneous touchscreens—that's why you bought them. But now that we anticipate, live, eat, and sleep with our gadgets, they're being deified. Don't let your fandom turn you fanatical. Relax. More »
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The administrator of the $20 billion fund set up to compensate individuals and businesses hurt by last year's Gulf of Mexico oil spill said Thursday new rules are being formulated to make payouts more generous for hard-hit shrimpers.
Washington attorney Kenneth Feinberg told a House Committee on Natural Resources hearing he hopes to announce the rules within two weeks.
He agreed with concerns from shrimpers that the length and extent of damage they have suffered because of the April 2010 disaster has been more significant than first thought.
"I think we've got to do better for the shrimpers," Feinberg said.
Feinberg remains under fire for the slow pace of payments and for denying many claims. Eighteen months after the spill, the fund has paid $5.5 billion to 213,408 claimants. More than 300,000 other claimants have been denied compensation. Feinberg agreed in July to a Justice Department audit. He said at the hearing the audit hasn't started. Justice officials didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.
The committee chairman, Rep. Doc Hastings, R-Wash., said that despite assurances from the White House following the oil spill that BP would be held fully accountable "that does not appear to be the case." He said the number of people paid to date, considering how many have applied for money, is "simply unacceptable."
Rep. Edward Markey of Massachusetts, the ranking Democrat on the committee and a frequent critic of BP, offered support for BP's efforts with regard to compensating victims through the fund.
"Here I believe the company did the right thing," Markey said. He said "the fund kept families and businesses afloat."
An Associated Press review published in February that included interviews with legal experts, government officials and more than 300 Gulf residents found a process beset by red tape and delay, and at the center of it all a fund administrator whose ties to BP have raised questions about his independence.
Critics say little has improved since then, and in some cases has gotten worse.
Many observers worry a big chunk of the $20 billion will be returned to BP when the Gulf Coast Claims Facility ceases making payouts, which is currently scheduled for August 2013. At one point, Feinberg told reporters that he expected half of the fund to be sufficient to compensate all victims. He took considerable heat for making that prediction, and he has declined to speculate on the issue in the months since then.
"The $20 billion was supposed to be the floor, not the ceiling," Rep. Steven Palazzo, R-Miss., told Feinberg at Thursday's hearing.
Eleven rig workers were killed when the Deepwater Horizon exploded roughly 50 miles off Louisiana while the crew was working to temporarily abandon an undersea well drilled by oil giant BP PLC. According to government estimates, some 206 million gallons of oil spewed from BP's Macondo well, making it the largest offshore oil spill in U.S. history. BP owned the well and was leasing the rig from Transocean Ltd.
BP is preparing to drill a new well in 6,000 feet of water in the Gulf ? deeper than at Macondo ? some 246 miles south of Lafayette, La., after receiving the go-ahead from the U.S. government on Wednesday. It's the first such permit BP has received since the oil spill.
The semisubmersible drilling rig West Sirius, owned by Norwegian offshore drilling firm Seadrill Ltd., is already at the site. BP says it will start drilling "as soon as operationally possible."
___
Follow Harry R. Weber at http://www.facebook.com/HarryRWeberAP
BANGKOK ? Clamoring aboard bamboo rafts and army trucks, residents living on the heavily inundated outskirts of Bangkok fled waterlogged homes Thursday as floodwaters inched closer to the heart of the threatened Thai capital and foreign governments urged their citizens to avoid all but essential travel.
Most of the city remained dry and most of its more than 9 million residents were staying put to protect their homes. Still, uncertainty over Bangkok's fate and the start of a government-declared five-day holiday fueled an exodus of thousands of people fearing the worst who took to clogged highways and air terminals to get out of town.
Tears welling in her eyes, Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra acknowledged her government could not control the approaching deluge.
"What we're doing today is resisting the force of nature," Yingluck told reporters. She said the water bearing down on Bangkok was so massive that "we cannot resist all of it."
The floods, the heaviest in Thailand in more than half a century, have drenched a third of the country's provinces and killed close to 400 people. For weeks, they have crept down from the central plains, flowing south toward the Gulf of Thailand. Bangkok is in the way, and today it is literally surrounded by behemoth pools of water flowing around and through it via a complex network of canals and rivers.
By Thursday, flooding had inundated seven of Bangkok's 50 districts, most on the northern outskirts. There, roads have turned into rivers and homes and businesses are swamped. On a flooded key east-west artery, police were turning back small cars, telling them the road had become impassable.
The government has expressed deep concern over higher-than-normal tides expected through the weekend. Yingluck has warned the entire city could flood if the Chao Phraya river, which snakes its way through the heart of the metropolis, crests above flood barriers lining its banks.
The river has overflowed already, sending ankle-high water lapping at the white exterior walls of Bangkok's gilded Grand Palace, a highly treasured complex that once housed the kingdom's monarchy and is a major tourist attraction.
The water has receded with the tides, slightly flooding the area in the morning and evening, but leaving it bone dry in the afternoon.
After visiting the Grand Palace on Thursday, American tourist Kathy Kiernan said she wasn't too concerned about flooding in the capital.
"We were a little worried when we got in to see sandbags around our hotel," said the 47-year-old from Salt Lake City, Utah. "But so far it's pretty normal. Everything looks fine, though we know anything can happen."
Though floods a day earlier swept through Bangkok's Don Muang airport and shut it down, the city's main international airport is operating as usual.
Several foreign governments issued advisories urging their citizens against all but essential travel to Bangkok. Britain's Foreign Office said "flooding is likely to disrupt transport, close tourist attractions and may affect electricity and water supplies."
The U.S. Embassy cautioned Americans that ground travel around Thailand was difficult and the situation should be monitored closely.
Buses, planes and trains at the city's transportation hubs were filling up, as many decided to wait out the floods in their home towns or in unaffected beach resorts to Bangkok's south and east.
As fears of urban disaster set in, emergency preparations continued.
Websites posted instructions on the proper way to stack sandbags. Many residents fortified vulnerable areas of their houses with bricks, gypsum board and plastic sheets. Walls of sandbags or cinderblocks covered the entrances of many buildings.
Residents stocking up on necessities have raided supermarket shelves, setting off a cycle of panic buying, and stores have posted notices that flooding has disrupted supply chains and left them unable to restock some items. But food was nevertheless plentiful, as most of the city's thousands of restaurants, bars and street-side food stalls were operating full-swing.
Nuntaporn Khorcharoen, whose home is adjacent to the heavily inundated Bang Phlat district, said her family had stocked up and was staying put.
"My father is adamant we have to stay to oversee the situation," the 30-year-old said. "He said even without electricity, we will still have something to live on."
___
Associated Press writers Thanyarat Doksone and Vee Intarakratug contributed to this report.
Frances Bean Cobain, the daughter of the late rock icon Kurt Cobain, is reportedly engaged to her rocker boyfriend Isaiah Silva (who bears a resemblance [...]
LIBERTYVILLE, Illinois (AP) ? Motorola Mobility, which makes cellphones and cable set-top boxes, says its third-quarter loss narrowed as it shipped more phones than it did a year earlier.
Motorola Mobility Holdings Inc. reported a net loss of $32 million, or 11 cents per share. This compares with a loss of $34 million a year ago, when the company was still part of Motorola Inc. That company split into two January.
Excluding one-time items, the company earned 12 cents per share. This is double what analysts polled by FactSet expected.
Revenue rose 11 percent to $3.3 billion, slightly lower than analyst estimates. The company shipped 11.6 million phones during the quarter, 4.8 million of them smartphones. It shipped 9.1 million phones, including 3.8 million smartphones, a year ago.
A smiling Salma Hayek and daughter Valentina Paloma, 4, cuddle up to the kitty at the premiere of Puss In Boots, held Sunday in Westwood, Calif., on Sunday.
China's BYD Motors has been edging its way into the North American auto market for some time, but it's now firmly planted itself here by opening its new headquarters in Los Angeles. That bit of news also just so happens to coincide with the announcement of a new partnership with Hertz Car Rental, who will be using BYD's all-electric, long-range eBUS to shuttle passengers at Los Angeles International Airport -- BYD's cars will also eventually find their way into Hertz's LA rental fleet. The press release is after the break.
Singling out the real breast cancer among the lumpsPublic release date: 25-Oct-2011 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Mary Beckman mary.beckman@pnnl.gov 509-375-3688 DOE/Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
Finding several proteins in blood at same time improves accuracy of cancer detection
RICHLAND, Wash. -- Early detection of breast cancer saves thousands of lives each year. But screening for breast cancer also produces false alarms, which can cause undue stress and costly medical bills. Now, a recent study using patient blood reveals a possible way to reduce the number of false alarms that arise during early screening. Researchers found a panel of proteins shed by breast cancer that are easily detected and can distinguish between real cancer and benign lumps.
This study used diagnostic tools that are already in use in clinics. If the results can be replicated with more volunteers and over a longer period of time, the transition from research lab to clinical lab would be straightforward.
"We were surprised to see we could distinguish between accurate and false results produced by cancer screens such as mammograms," said Department of Energy's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory biologist Richard Zangar, who led the study published in the July issue of Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention. "We really want to expand the work to verify our findings."
Finding breast cancer is the first step to treating it, but mammograms have a high rate of false alarms. Many women go through unneeded, invasive follow-up tests. To improve the process, some researchers are working on a simple clinical blood test that would detect proteins shed by cancerous tissues.
Called biomarkers, these proteins aren't doing much better than mammograms when it comes to false positives in experimental studies. But researchers have been approaching biomarkers as if every type of breast cancer is the same. In reality, breast cancer exists as several subtypes, with each subtype having distinct characteristics.
For example, breast cancers that produce proteins called estrogen receptors are a different subtype from ones that don't and respond to different therapies. Zangar and colleagues wondered if looking for biomarkers specific for different subtypes would improve the odds of getting the diagnosis right.
To explore this idea, Zangar and his colleagues at PNNL and Duke University picked 23 candidate biomarkers and measured them using tests similar to the ones found in clinics. The team compared proteins in blood from four groups of women about 20 women in each of the four subtypes of breast cancer to women with benign lumps that had previously been identified as false positives. Then, Zangar's team homed in on a handful of biomarkers for each subtype that could best distinguish between the most true positives and the least false positives.
The biomarker panel for each subtype was significantly better at distinguishing between breast cancer and benign lumps than mammograms or single biomarkers. The statistical test the team used rates performance from 0.5 to 1.0 -- with 0.5 indicating the biomarker panel predicts cancer randomly and 1.0 means it's perfect. Mammograms and the best single biomarkers rank around 0.8. But for two of the most common breast cancer subtypes, the biomarker panels ranked above 0.95 and reached 0.99 depending on which proteins were included in the panel.
"Perhaps researchers haven't found good biomarkers because they've been treating the different subtypes as a single disease, but they actually represent unique diseases that are associated with different biomarkers," said Zangar. "We're hopeful these results can be repeated because these assays would markedly improve our ability to detect breast cancer early on, when treatment is more effective, less costly and less harsh."
In addition, the study hints about the underlying biology of breast cancer. Four of the biomarkers are proteins involved in normal breast development that turn on and off at different times during growth. The fact that these proteins show up in different ways, depending on the subtype of breast cancer, might provide clues about what goes wrong when breast tissue turns cancerous.
The team is seeking additional funding to repeat the study in larger groups of women and to follow volunteers for several years.
###
Reference: Rachel M Gonzalez, Don S. Daly, Ruimin Tan, Jeffrey R Marks, and Richard C Zangar, Plasma Biomarker Profiles Differ Depending on Breast Cancer Subtype but RANTES Is Consistently Increased, Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention, July 2011, DOI 10.1158/1055-9965.EPI-10-1248 (http://cebp.aacrjournals.org/content/early/2011/05/16/1055-9965.EPI-10-1248.short).
This work was supported by the Early Detection Research Network of the National Cancer Institute.
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory is a Department of Energy Office of Science national laboratory where interdisciplinary teams advance science and technology and deliver solutions to America's most intractable problems in energy, national security and the environment. PNNL employs 4,900 staff, has an annual budget of nearly $1.1 billion, and has been managed by Ohio-based Battelle since the lab's inception in 1965. Follow PNNL on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter.
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Singling out the real breast cancer among the lumpsPublic release date: 25-Oct-2011 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Mary Beckman mary.beckman@pnnl.gov 509-375-3688 DOE/Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
Finding several proteins in blood at same time improves accuracy of cancer detection
RICHLAND, Wash. -- Early detection of breast cancer saves thousands of lives each year. But screening for breast cancer also produces false alarms, which can cause undue stress and costly medical bills. Now, a recent study using patient blood reveals a possible way to reduce the number of false alarms that arise during early screening. Researchers found a panel of proteins shed by breast cancer that are easily detected and can distinguish between real cancer and benign lumps.
This study used diagnostic tools that are already in use in clinics. If the results can be replicated with more volunteers and over a longer period of time, the transition from research lab to clinical lab would be straightforward.
"We were surprised to see we could distinguish between accurate and false results produced by cancer screens such as mammograms," said Department of Energy's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory biologist Richard Zangar, who led the study published in the July issue of Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention. "We really want to expand the work to verify our findings."
Finding breast cancer is the first step to treating it, but mammograms have a high rate of false alarms. Many women go through unneeded, invasive follow-up tests. To improve the process, some researchers are working on a simple clinical blood test that would detect proteins shed by cancerous tissues.
Called biomarkers, these proteins aren't doing much better than mammograms when it comes to false positives in experimental studies. But researchers have been approaching biomarkers as if every type of breast cancer is the same. In reality, breast cancer exists as several subtypes, with each subtype having distinct characteristics.
For example, breast cancers that produce proteins called estrogen receptors are a different subtype from ones that don't and respond to different therapies. Zangar and colleagues wondered if looking for biomarkers specific for different subtypes would improve the odds of getting the diagnosis right.
To explore this idea, Zangar and his colleagues at PNNL and Duke University picked 23 candidate biomarkers and measured them using tests similar to the ones found in clinics. The team compared proteins in blood from four groups of women about 20 women in each of the four subtypes of breast cancer to women with benign lumps that had previously been identified as false positives. Then, Zangar's team homed in on a handful of biomarkers for each subtype that could best distinguish between the most true positives and the least false positives.
The biomarker panel for each subtype was significantly better at distinguishing between breast cancer and benign lumps than mammograms or single biomarkers. The statistical test the team used rates performance from 0.5 to 1.0 -- with 0.5 indicating the biomarker panel predicts cancer randomly and 1.0 means it's perfect. Mammograms and the best single biomarkers rank around 0.8. But for two of the most common breast cancer subtypes, the biomarker panels ranked above 0.95 and reached 0.99 depending on which proteins were included in the panel.
"Perhaps researchers haven't found good biomarkers because they've been treating the different subtypes as a single disease, but they actually represent unique diseases that are associated with different biomarkers," said Zangar. "We're hopeful these results can be repeated because these assays would markedly improve our ability to detect breast cancer early on, when treatment is more effective, less costly and less harsh."
In addition, the study hints about the underlying biology of breast cancer. Four of the biomarkers are proteins involved in normal breast development that turn on and off at different times during growth. The fact that these proteins show up in different ways, depending on the subtype of breast cancer, might provide clues about what goes wrong when breast tissue turns cancerous.
The team is seeking additional funding to repeat the study in larger groups of women and to follow volunteers for several years.
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Reference: Rachel M Gonzalez, Don S. Daly, Ruimin Tan, Jeffrey R Marks, and Richard C Zangar, Plasma Biomarker Profiles Differ Depending on Breast Cancer Subtype but RANTES Is Consistently Increased, Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention, July 2011, DOI 10.1158/1055-9965.EPI-10-1248 (http://cebp.aacrjournals.org/content/early/2011/05/16/1055-9965.EPI-10-1248.short).
This work was supported by the Early Detection Research Network of the National Cancer Institute.
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory is a Department of Energy Office of Science national laboratory where interdisciplinary teams advance science and technology and deliver solutions to America's most intractable problems in energy, national security and the environment. PNNL employs 4,900 staff, has an annual budget of nearly $1.1 billion, and has been managed by Ohio-based Battelle since the lab's inception in 1965. Follow PNNL on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter.
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NEW YORK (Reuters) ? Stocks fell on Tuesday after discouraging corporate outlooks cast a pall over the economy's outlook, while fresh doubts arose about European efforts to find a solution to the debt crisis.
A meeting by euro zone finance ministers on Wednesday was canceled, but European Union and euro zone leaders still planned to hold a summit on the issue on Wednesday as scheduled.
The euro zone's sovereign debt crisis has pressured equities as investors fear its broader threat to the global economy. The S&P has fallen more than 9 percent since a 2011 closing high reached on April 29.
"Everyone thought that with the meeting and summit we had the European situation more or less wrapped up, but the news of the cancellation creates a lot of negatives with respect to a near-term resolution," said Steven Neimeth, a money manager at SunAmerica Asset Management in Jersey City, New Jersey, which manages $9 billion.
The market's decline followed three straight days of gains by the S&P 500. The Dow Jones industrial average (.DJI) was down 104.11 points, or 0.87 percent, at 11,809.51. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index (.SPX) was down 13.57 points, or 1.08 percent, at 1,240.62. The Nasdaq Composite Index (.IXIC) was down 32.89 points, or 1.22 percent, at 2,666.55.
Adding to the pessimistic tone, 3M Co (MMM.N) reported quarterly profits that missed expectations and cut its 2011 forecast. The Dow component said the crisis in Europe was weakening consumer demand and taking a toll on profit, sending shares down 5.9 percent to $77.35. Engine manufacturer Cummins Inc (CMI.N) fell more than 5 percent after cutting its outlook.
United Parcel Service (UPS.N) fell 2 percent to $69.37 after the company's chief executive said he sees the slow-growing economy continuing.
"A majority of companies have been beating earnings and increasing guidance, but when you see bellwether names like these reporting much weaker outlooks than expected, that could cause investors to pause for a while," Neimeth said.
Netflix (NFLX.O) plunging 35 percent a day after the movie rental company said it lost more customers than it anticipated in the third quarter and warned of still more departures. The stock sank to $77.43.
On the upside, Xerox Corp (XRX.N) rose 1.4 percent to $8.11 after its earnings topped expectations.
Data showed U.S. consumer confidence unexpectedly dropped in October to its lowest level in 2 1/2 years.
mikejuk writes "Bruce Wilcox won the First Prize of $4000 and the Bronze Annual Medal in the 21st Loebner Prize Competition held in the UK at the University of Exeter on October 19, 2011 with his new chatbot, Rosette. If you would like to chat to Rosette you can at TellTaleGames. If you have been following the run up to this year's competition you may be surprised at how poorly CleverBot performed given its track record. This chatbot, which searches through earlier conversations for its answers, had received a score of 59.3% in a test that took place in India in September in which humans were rated 63.3%, only 4 percentage points higher and was also featured in a video that went viral. However its developer entered a cutdown version of CleverBot into the Loebner prize selection round and it didn't get the chance to show off its prowess in the final. So we will have to wait for another year to see if it really is as good as it claims." Depending on your bent, you may agree with Unknown Lamer that this sounds less impressive when phrased as "fooling a person ~18 percent of the time." I think that's a pretty high number, myself!
CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) ? A prototype passenger spaceship developed by privately owned Space Exploration Technologies arrived in Florida on Sunday for launch on a practice cargo run to the International Space Station, officials said on Monday.
Liftoff of the Dragon capsule aboard the company's Falcon 9 rocket is targeted for as early as December 19, although the final launch date will be set by NASA, which is sponsoring the flight, said Bobby Block, vice president for communications for Space Exploration Technologies, or SpaceX.
The mission will mark the third flight of SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket and the second for a Dragon capsule, which is designed to fly first cargo and later crew to the space station, among other missions.
With the retirement of the space shuttles this summer, NASA is dependent on partner countries to deliver cargo and to ferry astronauts to the orbital outpost, a $100 billion project of 16 nations that orbits about 225 miles above the planet.
SpaceX, founded, owned and operated by Internet entrepreneur Elon Musk and based in Hawthorne, California, is one of two companies hired by NASA to deliver cargo to the station. Orbital Sciences Corp plans to debut its Taurus 2 rocket and Cygnus space station cargo capsule on a test flight next year.
SpaceX, along with Boeing Co, privately held Sierra Nevada Corp. and Blue Origin, also hold NASA contracts to develop spaceships that can carry people.
RUSSIAN SOYUZ CAPSULES
Flying astronauts on Russian Soyuz capsules -- currently the only vehicles taking crews to the space station -- costs the U.S. space agency more than $50 million per person.
For its trial run to the station, SpaceX plans to put Dragon into orbit to test its maneuvering, communications and other systems as part of its $278 million contract with NASA.
If all goes well, the capsule would be cleared to approach the station, where astronauts would use the station's robotic crane to pluck Dragon from orbit and attach it to a berthing port on the station.
The capsule will carry food, water and other station supplies. Unlike other cargo vessels, which incinerate in the atmosphere after leaving the station, Dragon returns via parachute and splashes down in the ocean so it can return cargo from the station as well.
Pending NASA's approval, SpaceX plans to bring Dragon back to Earth 22 days after launch.
"It's important that we're successful and we're doing a lot of work with our NASA partners to make sure that we've done all the necessary cross checks, verify all the requirements to make sure this vehicle is ready to go," SpaceX Vice President Ken Bowersox said at the Symposium for Personal and Commercial Spaceflight in New Mexico last week.
Initially, SpaceX's contract called for three test flights before the company would start delivering cargo to the station under a separate $1.6 billion contract. Following Dragon's successful debut mission in December 2010, SpaceX petitioned NASA to combine the objectives of the next two flights.
The final decision about whether to let Dragon dock at the station, however, will not come until the flight is under way.
"We'll be prepared to go all the way to the station," Block told reporters on Monday at the company's Cape Canaveral launch site, where Dragon is being prepared for flight.
SpaceX has spent about $800 million developing Falcon 9 and Dragon. A similar system developed under traditional government contracts would have been between $2.4 billion and $7.2 billion, Bowersox said.
"It was very useful for both NASA and SpaceX to have this relationship," he said.
Residency program focuses on overlooked mental health needsPublic release date: 24-Oct-2011 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Jason Cody codyja@msu.edu 517-432-0924 Michigan State University
Unchecked problems hurting patients, Michigan State University physician says
EAST LANSING, Mich. -- Despite the fact mental health problems are more common than high blood pressure and diabetes combined, about two-thirds of mental health patients are cared for entirely by primary care providers without proper training.
Additionally, even larger numbers of other patients regularly have their psychosocial and emotional needs overlooked.
A new five-year, $1 million grant allows Michigan State University to develop an intensive three-year residency curriculum focused on primary care mental health, the result of which means better-trained physicians meeting patients' needs.
Led by Robert Smith of the College of Human Medicine's Division of General Internal Medicine, the program will use a "train the trainer" model to produce skilled faculty to train residents in mental health care.
"Most mental health patients are cared for entirely by primary care providers, since there no longer is sufficient numbers of mental health professionals," Smith said. "But, through no fault of their own, most primary care providers have not been trained for this. The result is that most patients with mental health problems receive very marginal care."
Compounding the problem is that patients with organic diseases such as diabetes and heart failure do worse in the presence of unchecked mental illness. Also, mental health problems are more common in underserved/high risk groups such as minorities, the poor, homeless, and those battling substance abuse and suffering from domestic violence.
The new MSU program, funded by the U.S. Health Resources and Services Administration, will develop and test a curriculum for primary care residents with increased amounts of mental health training, Smith said. About 40 residents will be trained each year for five years.
"Our goal is that graduating residents be as skilled with treating major depression or stress, for example, as they are with diabetes or hypertension," he said. "Given the dearth of available mental health professionals, the limiting factor in achieving and sustaining such a new curriculum is faculty development of general internal medicine teachers and other primary care teachers."
Smith said the program addresses that by using a "train the trainer" model to produce skilled faculty to train residents. Each resident will undergo 100 hours of training each year. The goal is once started, the residencies will become self-sufficient and training will be offered throughout other sites in the MSU health care education system. Also, there will be high rate of placement of resident graduates in medically underserved communities, he added.
The College of Human Medicine's community-based linkages will be vital in expanding the program statewide, Smith said.
"With campuses across Michigan, the college's standing in local communities provides the foundation to develop and expand a new residency," he said.
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Michigan State University has been working to advance the common good in uncommon ways for more than 150 years. One of the top research universities in the world, MSU focuses its vast resources on creating solutions to some of the world's most pressing challenges, while providing life-changing opportunities to a diverse and inclusive academic community through more than 200 programs of study in 17 degree-granting colleges.
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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Residency program focuses on overlooked mental health needsPublic release date: 24-Oct-2011 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Jason Cody codyja@msu.edu 517-432-0924 Michigan State University
Unchecked problems hurting patients, Michigan State University physician says
EAST LANSING, Mich. -- Despite the fact mental health problems are more common than high blood pressure and diabetes combined, about two-thirds of mental health patients are cared for entirely by primary care providers without proper training.
Additionally, even larger numbers of other patients regularly have their psychosocial and emotional needs overlooked.
A new five-year, $1 million grant allows Michigan State University to develop an intensive three-year residency curriculum focused on primary care mental health, the result of which means better-trained physicians meeting patients' needs.
Led by Robert Smith of the College of Human Medicine's Division of General Internal Medicine, the program will use a "train the trainer" model to produce skilled faculty to train residents in mental health care.
"Most mental health patients are cared for entirely by primary care providers, since there no longer is sufficient numbers of mental health professionals," Smith said. "But, through no fault of their own, most primary care providers have not been trained for this. The result is that most patients with mental health problems receive very marginal care."
Compounding the problem is that patients with organic diseases such as diabetes and heart failure do worse in the presence of unchecked mental illness. Also, mental health problems are more common in underserved/high risk groups such as minorities, the poor, homeless, and those battling substance abuse and suffering from domestic violence.
The new MSU program, funded by the U.S. Health Resources and Services Administration, will develop and test a curriculum for primary care residents with increased amounts of mental health training, Smith said. About 40 residents will be trained each year for five years.
"Our goal is that graduating residents be as skilled with treating major depression or stress, for example, as they are with diabetes or hypertension," he said. "Given the dearth of available mental health professionals, the limiting factor in achieving and sustaining such a new curriculum is faculty development of general internal medicine teachers and other primary care teachers."
Smith said the program addresses that by using a "train the trainer" model to produce skilled faculty to train residents. Each resident will undergo 100 hours of training each year. The goal is once started, the residencies will become self-sufficient and training will be offered throughout other sites in the MSU health care education system. Also, there will be high rate of placement of resident graduates in medically underserved communities, he added.
The College of Human Medicine's community-based linkages will be vital in expanding the program statewide, Smith said.
"With campuses across Michigan, the college's standing in local communities provides the foundation to develop and expand a new residency," he said.
###
Michigan State University has been working to advance the common good in uncommon ways for more than 150 years. One of the top research universities in the world, MSU focuses its vast resources on creating solutions to some of the world's most pressing challenges, while providing life-changing opportunities to a diverse and inclusive academic community through more than 200 programs of study in 17 degree-granting colleges.
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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
BRUSSELS (Reuters) ? EU finance ministers sought to break a deadlock over shoring up European banks on Saturday, after euro zone countries called for steeper losses for holders of Greek bonds to help resolve a debt crisis that threatens to damage the global economy.
With France and Germany deeply divided over how to bolster the rescue fund that underpins the euro zone, leaders have scheduled a string of meetings in the next days to tackle Greece's debt and limit its impact on the banking system.
Euro zone finance ministers made some progress on Friday, agreeing that holders of Greek government bonds would need to take far more than the 21 percent haircut brokered in July.
"We have agreed yesterday that we have to have a significant increase in the banks' contribution," Jean-Claude Juncker, who chairs the euro group of finance ministers, said on Saturday morning.
On Saturday, EU finance ministers -- including those from countries not in the euro zone -- were trying to decide ways to bolster the capital of European banks to cope with any Greek default and wider contagion across the continent.
EU officials say almost 100 billion euros is required to reinforce the region's banking system. Banks that cannot raise money on the markets will have to turn to national governments, and finally to the European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF).
European banks will be required to increase their core tier one capital ratio to 9 percent to help them withstand losses on sovereign debt, officials have said.
However, the European Commission will urge ministers not to announce a plan on bank recapitalization before they have settled other issues, said one EU official.
These issues included the size of losses for holders of Greek bonds and how to boost the firepower of the euro zone's rescue fund, the EFSF.
"You cannot just progress on recapitalizing banks," said the official. "You also need to see progress on those other issues. They are interlinked."
Three of the EU executive's top officials -- Olli Rehn, monetary affairs head, Michel Barnier, the commissioner in charge of financial regulation, and antitrust chief Joaquin Almunia -- will deliver this message at the meeting of EU finance ministers on Saturday, the official said.
DEEP DIVISIONS
There is also disagreement over how to recapitalize banks, in particular the extent to which taxpayers' money should be used.
"I think we should not use taxpayers' money," Sweden's Finance Minister Anders Borg told reporters on Saturday. "The guarantee system alone cannot solve the problems. We have to restore credibility with capital."
Deep divisions remain between France and Germany over the best way to scale up the EFSF.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel, French President Nicolas Sarkozy and European Council President Herman Van Rompuy and Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso, were due to meet late on Saturday to try to break the deadlock before Sunday's summit of leaders.
France is keen to rely on the EFSF and fears its credit rating could come under threat if the wrong method is chosen to scale up the fund to prevent contagion spreading to Italy and Spain, the euro zone's third and fourth largest economies.
Ratings agency Standard & Poor's said on Friday it was likely to downgrade France and four other states if Europe slips into recession. It was the second agency this week to cast doubt on France's rating after Moody's on Tuesday.
But Bundesbank president Jens Weidmann said in a newspaper interview released on Saturday that repeatedly expanding the euro zone rescue fund won't resolve the euro zone crisis.
"We've had enough short term measures, sticking plasters that just get us through the next few weeks," British finance minister George Osborne told reporters on Saturday. "We need to address the root causes of the problem."
Discussions over the weekend are expected to include ways to make Greece's debt mountain more manageable.
A bleak analysis by the EU and the International Monetary Fund showed on Friday that private holders of Greek debt may need to accept losses of up to 60 percent on their investments.
Austrian Finance Minister Maria Fekter told reporters Italian Treasury official Vittorio Grilli would negotiate heavier debt writedowns with private investors as part of a second Greek aid package.
Greece's finance minister welcomed a decision late on Friday to approve an 8 billion euro loan tranche that Athens needs next month to pay its bills.
"The disbursement of the sixth tranche is an important and productive step," Evangelos Venizelos told reporters on Saturday.
"Greece is not the central problem, now the point is to take more general and more constructive decisions for the euro zone as a whole."
(Additional reporting by Matthew Falloon; Writing by Sebastian Moffett; Editing by Hugh Lawson)
YANG MEI, Taiwan ? Top-ranked Yani Tseng shot a 5-under 67 Saturday for a two-shot lead going into the final round of the LPGA Taiwan Championship.
Tseng's third round included seven birdies and two bogeys in windy conditions for a 10-under 206 total. The Taiwanese player returned to the top of the leaderboard ahead of Anna Nordqvist of Sweden, who had a 71 at the Sunrise Golf and Country Club.
Tseng gave up the lead Friday and was two shots back of Nordqvist and Azahara Munoz of Spain, who finished Saturday's round in 72 to trail by three strokes.
Amy Yang of South Korea was undone by two late bogeys in her round of 70 that left her trailing Tseng by four alongside South Korean Hee-Won Han (70).
The 22-year-old Tseng leads the LPGA with six wins this season and won player of the year honors this week.
"Today my new goal (was) just to be patient all day, especially if you see the wind like it is, going 20 or 30 miles per hour," Tseng said. "I was going to miss a couple of shots, because with the wind like this it's hard to shoot a low score."
Katie Futcher of the United States shot 71 to trail by five shots, while American Alison Walshe (71) was a shot further behind at 4-under overall.
Morgan Pressel (70) finished eight shots back, while Cristie Kerr (73) and Wendy Ward (73) also need to make up considerable ground in the final round. Suzann Pettersen shot a 75 and trails Tseng by 10 strokes.
Still shadowed by thousands of exuberant fans, Tseng didn't let the crowd break her concentration. On Friday, she shot a 71 and had to tell fans not to take pictures during her swing.
It's the first time the LPGA has held a tournament in Taiwan.
"It would be very, very special to win in this tournament tomorrow, because this is the first time and first time so many people is coming to watch us," Tseng said, "and I think it just, you know, it is my honor."
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colorado (AP) ? Cyclist Joseph Papp has accepted an eight-year ban for his second doping offense, a reduced penalty for assisting the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency.
The 36-year-old American was a USADA witness in the 2007 arbitration case that eventually stripped Floyd Landis of his Tour de France title.
Landis later admitted that he doped and has accused Lance Armstrong and others of cheating, as well. The Landis allegations helped set in motion a federal investigation into cycling, with Armstrong and his teams at the center of the probe.
Papp was one of the key figures in a case stemming from an investigation into EPO and human-growth hormone trafficking from China, involving nearly 200 athletes in 2006 and 2007.
Papp last year pleaded guilty to two counts of conspiracy to sell performance-enhancing drugs over the Internet.
He also tested positive for a banned substance in May 2006.
Papp won't be allowed to compete until Aug. 31, 2015.
The case of an Ohio man who set loose his collection of wild bears, lions, tigers and other beasts before apparently killing himself has animal-welfare organizations renewing their call for a clampdown on ownership of exotic animals.
?Exotic, dangerous animals simply do not belong in private hands. It?s not worth the risk,? said Adam Roberts, executive vice president of Born Free USA.
Authorities believe Terry Thompson, owner of a 73-acre exotic-animal farm near rural Zaneville, Ohio, opened the cages to free his collection of animals before shooting himself Tuesday. Muskingum County sheriff?s deputies frantically raced to track down the 50-plus animals that escaped before they could harm anyone.
Deputies fatally shot 49 of the animals ? including 18 rare Bengal tigers. Six were recaptured. The last, a monkey thought to be carrying a herpes virus, was found to have been eaten by one of the large cats, the sheriff said late Wednesday.
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Updated 45 minutes ago
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By late Wednesday afternoon, authorities said only one animal remained missing ? a monkey carrying potentially deadly herpes B virus.
Thompson, 62, had a criminal record. He was released from federal prison just last month, after serving a one-year term for weapons violations stemming from the discovery of more than 100 guns on his property in 2008, according to the Columbus Dispatch.
Story: Sheriff defends order to shoot bears, tigers
He was also convicted in municipal court in 2005 of cruelty to animals, having an animal at large and two counts of rendering animal waste without a license, according to the Dispatch. His preserve was home to a menagerie of lions, tigers, bears, wolves, giraffes, monkeys and other animals, many bought at auctions.
Video: Authorities hunt down escaped wild animals (on this page)
Animal-welfare groups say Ohio is notoriously lax when it comes to wild-animal ownership. It's one of fewer than 10 states that have no rules regulating the sale and ownership of exotic animals.
Wayne Pacelle, president and CEO of The Humane Society of the United States, said Thompson would have been barred from owning exotic animals had a state emergency rule on keeping dangerous exotics animals been in effect.
An executive order issued by former Gov. Ted Strickland just days before he left office in January prohibited people convicted of animal cruelty from owning exotic animals. The administration of current Gov. John Kasich allowed the order to expire in April, noting concerns about its enforceability and its impact on small businesses.
Story: Animal advocates defend shootings on Ohio farm
Kasich has convened a stakeholder group to develop standards, but Pacelle said immediate action is needed until the Ohio Department of Natural Resources or the Legislature can adopt a permanent legal solution.
?Every month brings a new, bizarre, almost surreal incident involving privately held dangerous wild animals,? Pacelle said in a statement. ?In recent years, Ohioans have died and suffered injuries because the state hasn?t stopped private citizens from keeping dangerous wild animals as pets or as roadside attractions. Owners of large, exotic animals are a menace to society, and it?s time for the delaying on the rulemaking to end.?
The Humane Society says it has documented 22 "incidents" with dangerous exotic animals in Ohio since 2003, including the widely reported killing last year in Lorain County of a 24-year-old man, Brent Kendra, by a captive black bear he reportedly was feeding.
Animal-welfare activists wanted the bear's owner, Sam Mazzola, charged with reckless homicide, but Kendra's death was ruled a workplace accident. The bear was later euthanized.
Mazzola was found dead in July, face-down on a water bed and restrained with handcuffs and chains, in his Columbia Station home. Authorities said he apparently choked on a sex toy.
Video: Woman survives kangaroo attack
Born Free says it has tracked more than 1,598 reported attacks and incidents since 1990 across the United States, including 86 in Ohio. The most recent incident prior to this week was on Sept. 22, when an 80-year-old man was injured after reportedly being attacked by his 6-foot-tall, 200-pound kangaroo at an exotic animal farm near Green Camp.
Laura Jones, director of comminations for the Ohio Department of Natural Resources, said a stakeholders group hopes to have a wild-animal proposal completed by the end of the year for the state Legislature to consider early next year.
"We?ve been working aggressively on having this proposal in place. I?m sure yesterday?s situation will be uppermost in their (lawmakers') minds as they consider this legislation," Jones told msnbc.com.
Roberts said the mass-escape of wild animals from Thompson's compound is particularly troubling because animal-welfare groups have been trying for years to get Ohio to strengthen its exotic-animal laws. Thompson had been warned about animals wandering off his property.
"The bottom line is, because Ohio like many other states didn?t have necessary laws in place to prevent this kind of exotic animal ownership, it really sets the stage for a potential catastrophic incident," Roberts told msnbc.com.
According to Born Free, Ohio is one of eight states that have no or extremely lax regulations on exotic-animal ownership. Twenty-one states ban private ownership, eight have partial bans and 13 have permitting or licensing regulations, the animal-welfare group says.
"The biggest lesson is, when groups like Born Free and others advocate against keeping of exotic animals as pets and the general reaction is we?re nothing more than Chicken Little going around saying the sky is falling, that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure," Roberts said.
Yesterday, Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg took the stage at Y Combinator's Startup School in a candid interview with Y Combinator Partner Jessica Livingston. You can watch the full interview here, and it starts around the 43 minute mark, and lasts for roughly 40 minutes. If you have some time to spare, it's well worth a look. Zuck revealed a number of fascinating things about entrepreneurship, founding Facebook, and product development, but one of the more interesting (and surprising points) came at the end of the interview when Livingston asked him what he would do different if he could go back in time. Zuck replied: If I were starting now I would do things very differently. I didn't know anything. In Silicon Valley, you get this feeling that you have to be out here. But it's not the only place to be. If I were starting now, I would have stayed in Boston. [Silicon Valley] is a little short-term focused and that bothers me.
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Public release date: 25-Oct-2011
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