Japan's Nikkei extends rally as other markets lag

AMSTERDAM -- Japan's Nikkei stock index hit a four-year high on Friday as investors cheered the central bank's new policies, but other world markets edged lower ahead of U.S. jobs data.

The Nikkei surged for a second straight day after The Bank of Japan's new governor, Haruhiko Kuroda, unveiled plans to pump huge amounts of money into the financial system to spur price rises, spending and borrowing in an economy that has stagnated for years.

The central bank said it wanted to double the money supply and achieve a 2 percent inflation target within about two years. Kuroda described the scale of monetary stimulus as "large beyond reason," but said the inflation target would remain out of reach if the central bank stuck to incremental steps.

"The size of monetary easing announced yesterday far exceeded expectations," said analysts at DBS Bank Ltd. in Singapore in a commentary.

The Nikkei 225 in Tokyo closed 1.6 percent higher at 12,833.64, its highest finish since Sept. 1, 2008. Earlier in the day it surged more than 3 percent, breaking the 13,000 level.

In other regions, attention was focused on U.S. jobs data expected before the start of trade in New York.

Britain's FTSE 100 fell 0.6 percent to 6,305.15. Germany's DAX slipped 0.2 percent to 7,799.77. And France's CAC lost 0.3 percent to3,715.45.

Wall Street also appeared headed for a lower opening ahead of the release of the U.S. government's employment report for March, which analysts forecast will show a net increase of 195,000 jobs. Dow Jones industrial futures fell 0.1 percent to 14,510. S&P 500 futures lost 0.2 percent to 1,551.30.

Stock markets in Asia outside of Japan also sagged.

Hong Kong's Hang Seng tumbled 2.7 percent to 21,726.90. Analysts said the fall reflected some nervousness about a recent outbreak of deadly bird flu in China. Six people have died and authorities have ordered the slaughter of all poultry at a Shanghai market where the virus was detected. The news hurt tourism and travel-related shares. Hong Kong-listed Air China plunged 9.8 percent and China Southern Airlines sank 8.5 percent.

South Korea's Kospi dropped 1.6 percent to 1,927.23, dragged down by political jitters over the latest tensions with Pyongyang. Australia's S&P/ASX 200 lost 0.5 percent to 4,891.40 as investors took profits after recent rallies

In Japan, the monetary easing measures pushed the yen sharply lower on Thursday, but it was stable overnight, with the dollar rising slightly to 96.20 yen from 96.13 yen late Thursday.

Mark Williams, chief Asia economist at Capital Economics, said that the Bank of Japan's credibility rests on the success of the new direction the bank is taking.

"Markets are giving it the benefit of the doubt for now. But if the broad monetary aggregates and inflation don't show signs of a shift, the new-found trust in the capacities of the BoJ will rapidly fade," Williams said in a written commentary.

Benchmark oil for May delivery was down 7 cents to $93.19 per barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract fell $1.19 to finish at $93.26 per barrel on the Nymex on Thursday.

The euro fell to $1.2925 from $1.2939 late Thursday in New York.

Source: http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/04/05/3324785/japans-nikkei-extends-rally-as.html

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Samsung's operating profit up 53 percent in 1Q

In this Jan. 8, 2013 file photo, Samsung Electronics Co. logo is seen at a showroom of its headquarters in Seoul, South Korea. The firm said Friday, April 5, 2013 its operating profit last quarter rose 53 percent over a year earlier, outpacing expectations for what's normally a slow time for consumer electronics sales. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man, File)

In this Jan. 8, 2013 file photo, Samsung Electronics Co. logo is seen at a showroom of its headquarters in Seoul, South Korea. The firm said Friday, April 5, 2013 its operating profit last quarter rose 53 percent over a year earlier, outpacing expectations for what's normally a slow time for consumer electronics sales. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man, File)

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) ? Samsung Electronics Co. said its operating profit last quarter rose 53 percent over a year earlier, outpacing expectations for what's normally a slow time for consumer electronics sales.

The South Korean firm on Friday estimated its first quarter operating income at 8.7 trillion won ($7.7 billion). The preliminary result is a 2 percent decline from the previous quarter when the operating income stood at a record high.

Samsung said its first quarter revenue grew 15 percent from a year earlier to 52 trillion won.

Its first-quarter profit was higher than market expectations, and analysts said Samsung benefited from smartphone sales and shortages in memory chips for personal computers.

Counterpoint Technology Market Research said last month that it expected Samsung's smartphone sales to top 70 million during the first three months of this year, further expanding its share in the global smartphone market. The market research firm estimated Apple's iPhone sales to reach 35 million during the same period.

Samsung's semiconductor business likely benefited from the shortages in memory chips used in personal computers, which spiked prices of Samsung's key products. Global chip makers have reduced production of PC memory chips to increase chip supplies for mobile devices.

Samsung is the world's largest maker of smartphones, memory chips, televisions and flat screen panels.

Samsung's full results including net profit and breakdown figures for each division will be released later this month.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/495d344a0d10421e9baa8ee77029cfbd/Article_2013-04-05-AS-SKorea-Earns-Samsung/id-b31bf2dd3b25437e95f836037a7da81e

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Leap Motion hacks show what 3D gesture sensing can do

Gamers, designers and photographers have innovative treats in store when the Leap Motion 3D gesture-sensing computer interface is launched next month

THE launch could be a watershed. Since last May, Leap Motion has shipped 12,000 of its 3D gestural interfaces to eager developers around the world. Now, a little over a month before the device's commercial release, we're getting the first glimpses of its enormous potential.

The Leap Motion sensor, which is 100 times more accurate than Microsoft's Kinect and less than half the price, will have a big launch-day head start on its predecessor. Where Microsoft closed off its device and threatened to prosecute anyone who reverse-engineered the $150 Kinect, Leap Motion has provided all that information up front to developers.

This means there will be a host of applications available ? from Leap-compatible versions of smartphone games to weather and creativity apps ? right from the off on 13 May.

Although it is initially aimed at desktop computers, researchers are already finding ways to jury-rig the Leap to smaller devices, to open up a new realm of interaction. "The idea we envision in the near future is that a Leap Motion-like device will be integrated into a smartphone," says Mingming Fan of the University of California, Irvine. "Instead of just interacting on the touchscreen, the space around the smartphone will be available too."

Fan has already hacked Leap and a smartphone together into a basic demo, but says that his goal is to use the hand tracking to allow a user to reach into the screen by going behind the phone. With Leap tracking the user's hand and displaying its image on the screen, the virtual hand could then be augmented with a gun, say, for first-person shooter games, or with Photoshop tools.

Another group of developers, LabViewHacker in Austin, Texas, needed just 24 hours with the Leap development kit to be able to rig it up to control a quadcopter using hand gestures.

Larger tech firms have also recognised Leap's potential. Brian Pene, a researcher at 3D design company Autodesk in San Francisco, has built a prototype using Leap which lets users manipulate a digital model of an engine with their own hands. "Let's say you wanted to disassemble and reassemble a 3D engine model," he says. "Using a mouse you'd have to pick up everything in 2D space while constantly manipulating the view. With Leap you can reach in and grab much like you do in the physical world."

Meanwhile, developer Vedran ?karica of Croatian firm divIT, has hacked Leap Motion into a basic photo management system, taking advantage of the extra dimension it provides in and out of the screen to make it easier to handle large volumes of photos. He plans to have the software, currently called Project Agatha, ready for Leap's commercial launch.

?karica points out that it will take some time for the truly game-changing 3D interfaces to appear, as 2D controls are so ingrained with computer users ? developers included. "You have to force yourself to forget what you knew, and it takes time to cancel those paradigms. Most Leap demos are just adjustments of multitouch demos," he says.

He also suggests that the enhanced interaction possibilities that Leap offers will trigger a new generation of much more useful 3D displays. "This is the first time that input technology has jumped ahead of display technology," ?karica says. "I've been waiting a while for something that can surpass the mouse, and Leap is definitely it."

This article appeared in print under the headline "A grand Leap forward"

Make your avatar wave

In January, Jason Gholston reached out and touched a virtual universe. A senior producer at Linden Labs, the company behind virtual world Second Life, Gholston has hacked the Leap Motion gestural device. His prototype lets Second Life players control flight, manipulate objects and get their avatar to make gestures. "It's very neat to just wave your hands and see things respond in the world, and with an acceptable amount of latency," says Gholston. Linden Labs has now handed over further Leap development to Second Life's open-source community. Gholston says the Leap has the potential to give Second Lifers full control over their virtual hands and fingers through their real ones.

If you would like to reuse any content from New Scientist, either in print or online, please contact the syndication department first for permission. New Scientist does not own rights to photos, but there are a variety of licensing options available for use of articles and graphics we own the copyright to.

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The Paradoxical Anti-Keystone Billionaire | The Business Ethics Blog

The role of wealth in politics, and in particular wealth derived from corporate sources, has reared its head again. It was recently reported that a US billionare is throwing a $5,000 per person fundraiser for President Obama. And it?s no secret that said billionaire, Tom Steyer, is an opponent of the Keystone XL pipeline, and is likely to use the opportunity to press Obama not to approve Keystone.

This story is noteworthy for a couple of reasons, beyond the mere fact that some pretty heavy hitters are weighing in on the Keystone issue.

The first of course is that Steyer himself made much of his money in oil. In particular, he was founder of Farallon Capital Management, and reportedly left the fund ? ?which had invested in a range of oil and pipeline companies, including BP, Nexen and Kinder Morgan, as well as an oil-carrying railway? ? because those investments were at odds with his new-found environmental commitments.

It?s also interesting to wonder what psychological and moral tension created for the American left by the involvement of Steyer ? a billionaire ? in trying to influence policy. Not that there?s anything unusual about the rich trying to flex their muscles. But Steyer embodies something of a value conflict for the American left. Opposition to Keystone, after all, has come primarily from the left. But so has opposition to what is seen as the growing influence of wealth in American politics.

So it?s tempting to poke fun, here. What must be going through the minds of those who are both opposed to Keystone and opposed to the wealthy having disproportionate influence in politics? Can someone who went ballistic over the Citizens United decision really be happy to see a rich guy like Steyer using his wealth (and his wealthy friends) to try to influence the president? Of course it helps that Steyer is associated only with companies most Americans have never heard of. So when Americans hear that a rich guy is hosting a fundraiser for the president, at least it?s not a rich guy from General Motors, or from Walmart, or from Goldman Sachs. That would raise worries not just about the role of wealth in politics, but of specifically corporate wealth. But of course, Steyer?s wealth didn?t exactly come from running a successful paper route after school, or selling organic apples at the local farmer?s market. But for opponents of Keystone, at least he?s on the right side. So in effect what you have is a sort of Bruce Wayne figure, the billionaire businessman with a heart (not to mention wallet) of gold.

But the important lesson, here, isn?t about the role of wealth in politics. It?s about ideology. It is attractive ? but a mistake ? to believe that all points of view that are in any way ?anti-business? have to hang together. It is entirely consistent to want environmentalists to win over industrialists in matters of pipeline approval, and yet share a widely-held ambivalence about the pronounced role that the wealthy will inevitably play in shaping that debate. And it is dangerously polarizing to assume otherwise.

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Source: http://businessethicsblog.com/2013/04/02/the-paradoxical-anti-keystone-billionaire/

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MTV Suspends ?Buckwild? Filming After Shain Gandee Death (VIDEOS)

MTV Suspends “Buckwild” Filming After Shain Gandee Death (VIDEOS)

MTV has stopped filming its hit reality show “Buckwild” following the tragic death of 21-year-old Shain Gandee, who was found dead along with his uncle and another pal in a mud pit close to his West Virginia home. The reality show premiered earlier this year, with fans adoring the down-to-earth Shain Gandee. Update! “Buckwild” star ...

MTV Suspends “Buckwild” Filming After Shain Gandee Death (VIDEOS) Stupid Celebrities Gossip Stupid Celebrities Gossip News

Source: http://stupidcelebrities.net/2013/04/mtv-suspends-buckwild-filming-after-shain-gandee-death-videos/

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Devin Velez to Nicki Minaj: You Were Wrong!

Source: http://www.thehollywoodgossip.com/2013/04/devin-velez-to-nicki-minaj-you-were-wrong/

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Newly approved blood thinner may increase susceptibility to some viral infections

Apr. 1, 2013 ? A study led by researchers at the University of North Carolina indicates that a newly approved blood thinner that blocks a key component of the human blood clotting system may increase the risk and severity of certain viral infections, including flu and myocarditis, a viral infection of the heart and a significant cause of sudden death in children and young adults.

For the past 50 years, people with the heartbeat irregularity, atrial fibrillation, and others at increased risk for forming potentially life-threatening blood clots have been given the anticoagulant drug warfarin. Recently, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved the use of the blood-thinner Dabigatran etexilate (called Pradaxa?) for atrial fibrillation patients. The drug inhibits thrombin, the body's central coagulation activator of the blood clotting system.

In blocking thrombin activity, the drug disturbs the protease cascade of molecular events that normally occurs in coagulation. While clot formation is reduced, the new study shows it may also cause an unintended consequence. "Our findings show that blocking thrombin reduces the innate immune response to viral infection," says study senior author Nigel Mackman, PhD, the John C. Parker Distinguished Professor of Medicine in the division of hematology and director of the UNC McAllister Heart Institute. "The use of the new generation of blood thinners might increase the risk and severity of flu and myocarditis."

A report of the research appears in the March 2013 issue of The Journal of Clinical Investigation.

Mackman points out that viral infections such as dengue fever trigger activation of the coagulation system but it was considered a bad thing. He says studies on bacterial infections have found that the last product of the "clotting cascade" (the process that occurs in blood clot formation) -- fibrin -- helps activate immune cell macrophages that boosts the immune system.

"But it seems that the antiviral mechanism of the clotting system is not via fibrin but rather via thrombin; namely, its activation of protease activated receptor proteins such as PAR-1," says Mackman. "The new study was aimed at finding out if PAR-1 plays any role in virus infections, a question of importance to the use of Pradaxa? and the development of antithrombotic drugs that target PAR-1 on platelets."

To find the answer, Mackman and colleagues used mice in which the PAR-1 gene is deleted and subjected then to infection with a virus that causes myocarditis. They found that loss of PAR-1 mediated signaling after infection with the cardiotrophic virus resulted in increased viral buildup in the heart, cardiac injury and, later, increased impairment of heart function.

Moreover, the absence of PAR-1 signaling was associated with a slower response to the virus of the innate immune soon after viral infection. The innate immune system provides early defense against disease causing organisms. The defense is almost immediate.

The researchers treated normal mice with Pradaxa?. They showed that thrombin inhibition increased cardiac virus load and cardiac injury after viral infection in a similar manner to a deficiency of PAR-1. In addition, they infected the PAR-1 deficient mice with influenza A and found that PAR-1 signaling was important in controlling the virus load in the lung in the early phase after infection. These results suggest that thrombin and PAR-1 mediate important early antiviral signals after infection.

"Pradaxa? inhibits clot formation by reducing fibrin deposition and platelet aggregation." said Mackman. "Importantly, Pradaxa? might not only facilitate significant lifesaving effects in reducing cardiac death but may also interfere with other processes in the body.

"The results we generated were completely unexpected and in fact our hypothesis was that PAR-1 deficient mice would be protected from viral myocarditis because they would have reduced inflammation," Mackman added. "We are now determining if the traditional long term anticoagulant warfarin has the same effect on viral infection or is this specific to the new blood thinner."

The majority of the study was a collaboration between the Mackman group at UNC and the Charit? -- Universit?tsmedizin in Berlin, Germany, and other groups at UNC, including at the Gillings School of Global Public Health, and across the USA.

The first-author is Silvio Antoniak, PhD, a postdoctoral researcher in Mackman's lab. Other co-authors from Mackman's lab were A. Phillip Owens III, PhD; Martin Baumnacke, MD; and Julie C. Williams, PhD.

The study was supported by the Myocarditis Foundation through a research grant to Silvio Antoniak. Additional funds were provided by the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute (NHLBI), a component of the National Institutes of Health.

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by University of North Carolina Health Care.

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Journal Reference:

1. Silvio Antoniak, A. Phillip Owens, Martin Baunacke, Julie C. Williams, Rebecca D. Lee, Alice Weith?user, Patricia A. Sheridan, Ronny Malz, James P. Luyendyk, Denise A. Esserman, JoAnn Trejo, Daniel Kirchhofer, Burns C. Blaxall, Rafal Pawlinski, Melinda A. Beck, Ursula Rauch, Nigel Mackman. PAR-1 contributes to the innate immune response during viral infection. Journal of Clinical Investigation, 2013; 123 (3): 1310 DOI: 10.1172/JCI66125

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/~3/ANitGbFwha4/130401132058.htm

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