Our kitchens have become a warzone for beverage makers battling to get their drink dispensing appliances on our counters. Pod-based coffeemakers and soda carbonators have taken an early lead, but now Heineken's decided to enter the fray with a sleek beer dispenser called The Sub that promises to chill your suds to two degrees celsius—or about four degrees colder than your fridge can.
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The federal government is restarting its engines after the shutdown. But the domestic economy took a hit, and some of America's trade partners say gridlock makes them lose faith in the U.S. What will it take to get America back on track? Guest host Celeste Headlee speaks with NPR's Marilyn Geewax and Bloomberg Businessweek contributor Roben Farzad.
If worrying about your vehicle and personal possessions has always made you hesitant about using valet parking, Honda will alleviate your fears with a new system that replaces clumsy valet drivers with overhead tracking cameras and software smart enough to juggle an entire lot full of cars.
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ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Overseers of Abu Dhabi's Grand Mosque say they asked pop star Rihanna to leave the compound after she posed for photographs considered to be at odds with the "sanctity" of the site.
Rihanna hasn't publicly responded to the actions by staff at the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque. Her show took place on Saturday in Abu Dhabi.
Photos posted on various websites show the singer posing on white marble, dressed fully in black, with her hair covered according to the mosque's guidelines.
The mosque statement, published Monday in local newspapers, said Rihanna was in an area normally off limits for visitors. It says the fashion-style photo session violated rules on the "status and sanctity of the mosque."
The mosque is a major tourist site in the United Arab Emirates' capital.
By Aileen Wang and Kevin Yao
BEIJING (Reuters) - China's economy grew at its quickest pace this year between July and September in a rebound fuelled largely by investment, although signs are already emerging that the pickup in activity may lose some vigor.
Gross domestic product in the world's second-biggest economy rose 7.8 percent from a year earlier, official data showed, marking only the second quarter in the last 10 in which growth has accelerated.
An unexpected fall in exports in September, and easing growth in factory output and retail sales suggested the economy was already slowing down at the end of the quarter.
Authorities are also expected to cool credit growth as inflation pushes to a seven-month high, another factor analysts say will drag on economic activity.
"The growth peak was behind us in the third quarter," said Ting Lu, an economist at Bank of America-Merrill Lynch. "We believe the People's Bank of China will slightly shift its monetary policy from a moderate expansion in the third quarter to a neutral stance."
After three decades of double-digit growth heavily reliant on exports and investment, China is trying to shift or "restructure" the economic mix so that activity is geared much more to consumption, as it is in more developed countries.
But the latest figures show investment accounted for over half of the expansion so far this year, underlining the challenge Beijing faces to restructure the economy, which it hopes will provide for more sustainable growth in the future.
Reducing reliance on China's traditional growth drivers is expected to crimp the economy, although sluggish global demand has provided an added drag.
In the first nine months of the year, the $8.5 trillion economy grew 7.7 percent from a year earlier, putting it on track to achieve Beijing's 2013 growth target of 7.5 percent, which would still be China's worst performance in 23 years.
The surprise fall in exports came after emerging market demand wilted as choppy financial markets sapped confidence, a trend the government said this week is likely to continue.
The impasse in the U.S. Congress over the government's debt ceiling could be replayed before a new February 7 deadline, shaking confidence once more.
And with the yuan hitting a record high on Friday for the fifth consecutive day, Chinese exporters face the hurdle of a rising currency eroding their competitiveness.
"The economy is facing a complex and uncertain domestic and international environment," Sheng Laiyun, a spokesman for the National Bureau of Statistics told a briefing.
"In addition, we have accumulated chronic structural imbalance problems in our economy and need to deepen reforms."
REBALANCING?
The data shows China is a long way from having consumption as the main driver of its economic growth.
Consumption accounted for 46 percent of growth in the first nine months, compared with 56 percent taken up by investment. Exports, on the other hand, subtracted 1.7 percent from growth.
The government has sped up projects in infrastructure to support growth, although it has stayed away from more aggressive measures to avoid undermining its efforts to steer the economy in another direction.
Overall investment in infrastructure expanded at a red-hot pace of 29 percent between January and September, the second-fastest area of investment growth after agriculture.
Nie Wen, an analyst at Hwabao Trust in Shanghai, estimated government-backed investment could have accounted for around 25 percent of the total in the first three quarters of the year, Usually, it is 15-20 percent, Nie said.
Investment in the property sector, where prices are at record highs despite measures to calm the market, were also especially buoyant, with the housing industry accounting for 16 percent of the economic activity in the first nine months. That is up from 15 percent in the first six months.
Overall investment rose in the first nine months by 20.2 percent from a year earlier, compared with expectations for a 20.3 percent gain.
CONTROL LOAN GROWTH
The figures suggesting the economy lost steam towards the end of the third quarter mirror a fall in power consumption growth, one of the barometers of economic health favored by China's Premier Li Keqiang.
Factory output in September climbed 10.2 percent from a year earlier, slightly above expectations of 10.1 percent but weaker than August's annual pace of 10.4 percent.
Retail sales rose 13.3 percent from a year ago, slightly missing forecasts for a 13.5 percent rise and down from August's 13.4 percent gain, despite a seasonal spike in car purchases.
To underpin the economy, most analysts believe China will keep interest rates unchanged in the next year-and-a-half.
But with inflation hitting a seven-month high in September of 3.1 percent at a time when the central bank has voiced concerns about a brisk expansion in credit, points to some policy tweaks.
Chinese banks lent more than expected in September, data showed last week, taking total loans issued for the year to 7.3 trillion yuan, a level that could easily breach last year's 8.2 trillion yuan.
Lu from Bank of America-Merrill Lynch said the government could take steps to crimp rapid credit expansion and avoid expanding its "mini stimulus", which has so far included accelerating infrastructure investment.
"This could be as good as it gets," said Mark Williams from Capital Economics in London. "We continue to expect gross domestic product growth to slow next year to around 7 percent."
(Additional reporting by Shao Xiaoyi and Natelie Thomas; Writing by Koh Gui Qing; Editing by Neil Fullick)
David Gibson,left, and Rich Kiamco, right, of Jersey City display their marriage license, which they obtained earlier today, during a rally on the lawn in front of Garden State Equality tonight, Friday Oct. 18, 2013, in Montclair, N.J. The state Supreme Court ruled today that the state must begin granting same-sex marriage licenses. (AP Photo/Joe Epstein)
David Gibson,left, and Rich Kiamco, right, of Jersey City display their marriage license, which they obtained earlier today, during a rally on the lawn in front of Garden State Equality tonight, Friday Oct. 18, 2013, in Montclair, N.J. The state Supreme Court ruled today that the state must begin granting same-sex marriage licenses. (AP Photo/Joe Epstein)
Karen Nicholson-McFadden,left, and Marcye Nicholson-McFadden,center, of Aberdeen, listen as their son Kasey, 14 and their daughter Maya, 10, speak to a crowd of about 150 people gathered on the lawn in front of Garden State Equality Friday Oct. 18, 2013, in Montclair, N.J. The rally was in support of the state Supreme Court ruling that the state must begin granting same-sex marriage licenses. (AP Photo/Joe Epstein)
Troy Stevenson, Executive Director of Garden State Equity, addresses a crowd of about 150 people gathered on the lawn in front of their office Friday Oct. 18, 2013, in Montclair, N.J. The rally followed a state Supreme Court ruling that the state must begin granting same-sex marriage licenses. (AP Photo/Joe Epstein)
Hayley Gorenberg,left, the Deputy Legal Director for Lambda Legal, pops the cork of a bottle of champaign as Udi Ofer, right, the Executive Director of the American Civil Liberties Union of New Jersey, cheers at the end of a rally on the lawn in front of Garden State Equality Friday Oct. 18, 2013 in Montclair, N.J. The state Supreme Court ruled today that the state must begin granting same-sex marriage licenses. (AP Photo/Joe Epstein)
Steven Brunner, left, and Daniel Baum, a same sex couple that applied for a marriage license, speak to the media on Friday, Oct. 18, 2013, in Asbury Park, N.J. New Jersey's highest court ruled unanimously Friday to uphold an order that same-sex marriages must start Monday and denied a delay that had been sought by Gov. Chris Christie's administration. (AP Photo/The Asbury Park Press, Bob Bielk)
Couples who have dreamed for years, even decades, of being able to legally wed in New Jersey are getting their wish after the state Supreme Court on Friday refused to delay a lower-court order for the state to recognize same-sex marriages starting Monday.
Because of the unexpected decision, same-sex couples who want to be the first to get married in New Jersey are in a scramble to plan ceremonies.
Newark Mayor Cory Booker and David DelVecchio, mayor of the gay-friendly community of Lambertville, both plan to lead ceremonies for gay couples at 12:01 a.m. Monday. A handful of towns, including Hoboken and Collingswood, are opening offices Saturday to accept applications for marriage licenses from same-sex couples.
Amy Quinn and Heather Jensen applied for a marriage license at 8 a.m. Friday in Asbury Park, the town where they live and where an influx of gay couples during the last decade has been a major part of the area's revival. Their plan was to be married the second they were eligible to do so.
But by Friday afternoon, Quinn said she didn't know precisely when that would be, or where. She's spending the weekend doing wedding planning on the fly.
"There was another couple that got their license today ... they got a photographer," said Quinn, a member of the Asbury Park City Council. "I've got to step up, right?"
She said she hadn't done much planning largely because she suspected the state's top court would grant the request of Gov. Chris Christie's administration to delay gay marriages while it considered a broader case.
But the court ruled Friday afternoon that it did not think the state's arguments were likely to prevail in the end and that delaying the lower court's order would hurt couples who would not be eligible for federal benefits until they can be married legally in New Jersey.
For Quinn and Jensen, a couple for 10 years who were married in New York in June, there was another issue. Under state law, couples must normally wait 72 hours after applying for a marriage license before they can tie the knot.
A judge on Friday, before the high court's ruling, denied Jersey City's request to waive the requirement. But it's not clear how much of an obstacle that will be.
Troy Stevenson, the executive director of the gay rights group Garden State Equality, said he was trying to line up judges who could waive the waiting period for individual couples late Sunday night so they could exchange vows after the stroke of midnight.
Further, state law says that couples married legally elsewhere can wed in New Jersey without a waiting period — a provision that appears to apply to Quinn and Jensen and many other New Jersey couples.
Not everyone in a long-term relationship was rushing to get married.
Jay Lassiter of Cherry Hill said he and his partner will talk about marriage now. "I'm actually now having to confront my relationship issues," he said. "This is going to force a lot of gay couples to have a lot of serious discussions."
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Follow Mulvihill at http://www.twitter.com/geoffmulvihill
Associated PressSource: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2013-10-19-US-Gay-Marriage-NJ/id-2715b83c2593461fb661427e6d675faaThe online magazine Ozy covers people, places and trends on the horizon. Co-founder Carlos Watson joins All Things Considered regularly to tell us about the site's latest discoveries.
This week, he tells NPR's Arun Rath about a humanitarian who doesn't hate war, the unlikely love story between two punk rock icons and the most sensible scary movie ever made.
Zingy comedy of a family of grifters brightly exposes the manipulative cons practiced by less flamboyant kinsfolk, like ourselves.
South Coast Repertory, Costa Mesa (runs through Oct. 27)
Emily Kuroda, Jackie Chung, Nelson Lee, Lawrence Kao
Carla Ching
Bart DeLorenzo
Blue (Jackie Chung) brings in brother H (Nelson Lee) as The Fixer to set up a big score: proffering a mark a stolen copy of the most valuable of comic book collectibles, Action Comics No. 1, the first appearance of Superman, for $1.5 million. The plan is to switch it for a counterfeit copy, returning the original before the vindictive owner discovers it missing. But H, a compulsive gambler in deep hock to deadly shylocks, betrays his sister and steals the comic himself.
Reluctantly, Blue, who has enrolled at Brown to study game theory as a cover for her hustles, summons her other brother, Francis (Lawrence Kao), retired from the Game to become a Las Vegas magician. Francis, in turn, insists they must enlist their estranged mother, Mable (Emily Kuroda, “Mrs. Kim” of The Gilmore Girls), a veteran Bunco artist who had schooled them in the hardest of ways to trust no one – not even, perhaps especially, one another, and yet never, ever, to “break code” with your Crew.
Festooned with kicky projected graphics to define the grifter roles of The Lure, The Roper and The Inside Man, and to chart the globe-hopping travel (on the run or in pursuit), South Coast Repertory’s world premiere of Carla Ching's Fast Company propels speedily through an unceasingly spinning web of fakes, stratagems and misdirections. It provides an ongoing primer on how to manipulate greed, gullibility and guilt. The discourse can get a little pedantic. The dialogue never quite as bright as it intends to be (John von Neumann’s game theory is particularly unconvincingly deployed). And the characterizations rarely venture beyond admittedly deft and detailed sketches.
Nevertheless, this kicky and effervescent entertainment exerts a mongoose grip on a rich and deep theme: how families exploit their mutual vulnerabilities for selfish motives, as well as for “their own good.” Though we hear about many swindles perpetrated on others, onstage all we see are three siblings and a mother committing cons against one another. This powerful metaphor for primal relationships gaudily theatricalizes the most prosaic of interpersonal interactions and offers valuable insights through its dodges, subterfuges and intricate gamesmanship.
Fast Company may seem like a relentless indulgence in elaborate play, but underneath the glib and glossy maneuvers (and a faux-sentimental denouement), it offers a harsh take on the hardness of life and how one remains ever alone, even together. Like these flamboyantly amoral characters, we just can’t help it.
Director Bart DeLorenzo animates the action with such unflagging verve that he propels it past the bumpy moments and gives the text its best chance to shine. His actors are cast for charisma and dash, and just modest doses of charm. They deliver pleasurably dexterous performances, suggesting feelings while showily suppressing them.
It’s particularly gratifying to see Asians in these sort of roles, their ethnicity never scanted yet subordinate to their individuality, essentially beside the point. Kuroda, of course, has been a titan of area stages for decades, quite delicious as the withholding, monstrous matriarch, and Chung, Kao and Lee make one eager to see more of what they can do.
Venue: South Coast Repertory, Costa Mesa (runs through Oct. 27)
Cast: Emily Kuroda, Jackie Chung, Nelson Lee, Lawrence Kao
Director: Bart DeLorenzo
Playwright: Carla Ching
Set designer: Keith Mitchell
Lighting designer: Tom Ontiveros
Music & sound designer: John Ballinger
Costume designer: Ann Closs-Farley
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks at the weekly cabinet meeting at his Jerusalem office on Sunday, Oct. October 2013. (AP Photo/Abir Sultan, Pool)
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks at the weekly cabinet meeting at his Jerusalem office on Sunday, Oct. October 2013. (AP Photo/Abir Sultan, Pool)
JERUSALEM (AP) — Just days after the first round of global nuclear talks with Iran, a rift appears to be emerging between Israel and its closest ally, the United States.
Israel's prime minister on Sunday called on the U.S. to step up the pressure on Iran, even as American officials hinted at the possibility of easing tough economic pressure. Meanwhile, a leading Israeli daily reported the outlines of what could be construed in the West as genuine Iranian compromises in the talks.
The differing approaches could bode poorly for Israel as the talks between six global powers and Iran gain steam in the coming months. Negotiators were upbeat following last week's talks, and the next round of negotiations is set to begin Nov. 7.
Convinced Iran is pursuing nuclear weapons, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu believes the Iranians are trying to trick the West into easing economic sanctions while still pushing forward with their nuclear program. Iran insists its program is for peaceful purposes.
"I think that in this situation as long as we do not see actions instead of words, the international pressure must continue to be applied and even increased," Netanyahu told his Cabinet. "The greater the pressure, the greater the chance that there will be a genuine dismantling of the Iranian military nuclear program."
Israel considers a nuclear-armed Iran a threat to its very survival, citing Iranian references to Israel's destruction.
Netanyahu says pressure must be maintained until Iran halts all enrichment of uranium, a key step in producing a nuclear weapon; removes its stockpile of enriched uranium from the country; closes suspicious enrichment facilities and shutters a facility that could produce plutonium, another potential gateway to nuclear arms.
Despite Netanyahu's warnings, there are growing signs that any international deal with Iran will fall short of his demands.
Over the weekend, U.S. officials said the White House was debating whether to offer Iran the chance to recoup billions of dollars in frozen assets if it scales back its nuclear program. The plan would stop short of lifting sanctions, but could nonetheless provide Iran some relief.
In an interview broadcast Sunday on NBC, U.S. Treasury Secretary Jack Lew said it was "premature" to talk of easing sanctions. But he stopped short of endorsing the tough Israeli line and suggested the U.S. would take a more incremental approach in response to concrete Iranian gestures.
Asked whether he was worried the U.S. might ease the sanctions prematurely, Netanyahu urged against a "partial deal" with Iran. "I don't advise doing that," he said on NBC's "Meet the Press."
Details from last week's talks in Geneva have remained tightly guarded, but short-range priorities have been made clear. The U.S. and allies seek to roll back Iran's highest-level uranium enrichment. Iran wants the West to start easing sanctions.
The Israeli daily Haaretz on Sunday reported what it said were the key Iranian proposals last week.
Citing an unidentified senior Israeli official who had been briefed by the Americans, the newspaper said that Iran is ready to halt all enrichment of 20 percent, limit lower-level enrichment of 5 percent and scale back the number of centrifuges it is operating for enrichment. It also claimed that Iran expressed willingness to reduce the operations of its most controversial nuclear facilities, and perhaps open them to unannounced inspections.
Netanyahu's office declined comment on the report, though it confirmed the U.S. has kept it updated on the nuclear talks.
The Yediot Ahronot daily newspaper said an "explosion" between Netanyahu and President Barack Obama appears to be inevitable. While Israeli officials are intrigued by the Iranian offer, it said "officials in the prime minister's inner circle harbor a deep concern ... that the American president is going to be prepared to ease sanctions on Iran even before the talks have been completed."
Ephraim Asculai, a former official of the Israel Atomic Energy Commission and currently a research fellow at the Institute for National Security Studies, said it was too early to talk of a gap between Israel and the United States because the U.S. position on a compromise was not yet clear. He said the most important thing is to prevent Iran from stalling while it moves forward with its weapons program.
But Yoel Guzansky, an Iran expert at the institute and a former national security aide in the prime minister's office, said there will always be a gap between the U.S. and Israel due to their different military capabilities and the level of threat they face.
Guzansky said Israeli officials realize that they will not get everything they seek, and are pressing a maximalist view in hopes of getting as many concessions out of Iran as possible.
"It appears that the Americans are interested in a scaled approach," he said. "Israel is very concerned about this and it has good reason to. It's afraid the deal will become a slippery slope," he said.
However, Guzansky said Israel has little choice but to rely on the U.S. If there is a deal, it will all but rule out the possibility of unilateral Israeli military action, he said.
"Israel really only has one option," he said. "The chance it will act alone after the Americans make a deal is miniscule."
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Associated Press writer Aron Heller contributed to this report.
Associated PressSource: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2013-10-20-ML-Israel-Iran/id-840bfb4c3fba465990e80d27d3385025WASHINGTON (AP) — The former Army captain who received the Medal of Honor on Tuesday has asked to return to active duty in the Army, a rare move by an officer who has lived to wear the military's highest award.
Two U.S. officials tell The Associated Press that William D. Swenson has submitted a formal request to the Army and officials are working with him to allow his return.
Swenson was awarded the Medal of Honor by President Barack Obama in the White House Tuesday afternoon for risking his life to recover bodies and save fellow troops during a lengthy battle against the Taliban in Afghanistan near the Pakistan border in 2009.
The U.S. officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the request until a decision was made.
Swenson, 34, left the military in February 2011 as a captain, but he could rise to the rank of major once he rejoins. In order to return to active duty, Swenson will have to pass a physical, a drug test and other routine reviews. But officials Tuesday were optimistic it would all fall into place.
In the aftermath of 9/11, when the Army was growing in size to meet the combat requirements of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, it was not unusual for former soldiers to rejoin the service and go back on active duty. It is rare, if not unprecedented, for an officer holding the Medal of Honor, to do so. Officials were unsure if that had ever happened before.
Swenson also has a Purple Heart and Bronze Star Medal and lives in Seattle.
It has been one of the most talked about television shows for the past four years, but unfortunately for the fans, "Glee" has announced that the sixth season of the singing sensation series will be the last.
During an event honoring the FX Network at the Paley Center on Wednesday (October 16), co-creator the series Ryan Murphy stated the show will not go beyond its sixth season and the loss of co-star Cory Monteith has forced him to think about an alternative ending of the show.
"The final year of the show, which will be next year, was designed around Rachel and Cory/Finn's story," Mr. Murphy explained. "I always knew that, I always knew how ti would end. I knew what the last show was, he was in it. I knew what the last line, she said it to him."
He continued, "So when a tragedy like that happens you sort of have to pause and figure out what you want to do, so we're figuring that out now."
Cory unexpectedly passed away this passed summer from an apparent overdose that involved morphine, codeine, and a metabolite of heroin. His girlfriend/co-star of the show Lea Michele continues her role as Rachel Berry.
The show honored him on last week's episode before going on hiatus for a couple weeks. The show will resume its fifth season on November 7th.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- It's going to take a lot more political bungling to do any permanent damage to America's reputation or wreck its financial markets.
The U.S. government's partial shutdown and a near-miss with a debt default were a worldwide embarrassment that distracted political leaders and likely slowed the economy.
Yet the world still runs on U.S. dollars. Foreign investors still see Treasury debt as the safest place to put their money. And foreign companies still view the United States as an ideal place to do business.
"It's a paradox," says Eswar Prasad, a specialist in international economics at Cornell University and the Brookings Institution. "Even when the U.S. is at the center of the financial turmoil, there is no other place that investors can turn to for safety."
Congress certainly stirred up financial turmoil the first two weeks of October with a duel over President Barack Obama's health care law.
But investors didn't panic. The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note was 2.62 percent on Sept. 30, a day before the shutdown began. The prospect of a default should have driven the yield much higher. Instead, the yield barely budged. It never rose above 2.73 percent.
"I think this was a sideshow," says Christoph Kind, head of asset allocation at Germany's Frankfurt-Trust investment firm.
For all the hand-wringing in Washington about a budget crisis, Kind notes that the U.S. government's budget deficit has been sinking.
"The fiscal situation in the U.S. is improving," Kind notes. "The budget deficit is going to be below 4 percent of (the U.S. economy) this year, and it's declining steadily."
No doubt, the standoff — which produced virtually no change in policy — dented America's image and its economy at least temporarily. The last-minute deal reopened the government and suspended the debt limit. But it set the stage for another round of brinkmanship early next year. Repeated over time, a succession of crises might do lasting damage.
"We may have dodged a bullet again, but we think these episodes cumulate," says Robert DiClemente, chief U.S. economist at Citigroup. There's a "risk that at some point investors throw up their hands and say, 'This has gone too far.'"
Outside the United States, "people are somewhat incredulous about it," says Martin Sorrell, CEO of advertising giant WPP. "Going to the edge of a precipice doesn't make much sense. If you ran a company this way, you'd be out of a job."
In Mumbai, Gayatri Bedi, owner of a photography studio, says it was irresponsible for the world's biggest economy to come so close to a default when the rest of the world depends on U.S. stability.
"In India, we don't have a lot of respect for politicians because of corruption and incompetence," she says. "It seems the U.S. politicians are becoming more like Indian ones."
The research firm IHS Global Insight has lowered its forecast for U.S. economic growth in the October-December quarter to a glacial 1.6 percent annual rate from 2.2 percent.
The crisis also distracted U.S. policymakers. Obama, who has been trying to focus U.S. foreign policy on China's rising economic might and other issues in Asia, was forced to skip a regional economic summit in Indonesia.
Congress has yet to make progress on issues important to businesses: immigration reform, an overhaul of corporate tax rates, a long-term deal to shrink budget debts.
"The drama sucks the oxygen from the room," says Nancy McLernon, president of the Organization for International Investment, which represents foreign companies doing business in America.
Still, McLernon says the political dysfunction hasn't made America any less of an attractive market for foreign companies. When she attended a meeting in Britain early this month, most of the British executives there dismissed the standoff as political theater.
Kind, the German investment executive, notes that "the asset quality of Treasurys is unchanged."
The U.S. dollar and Treasurys continue to benefit from a lack of competition, too. Some investors have been trying to diversify away from U.S. dollars by buying euros, Japanese yen or Chinese yuan.
"But all of them have got some significant structural problems," says Michael Every, Rabobank's head of Asia Pacific financial markets research. "The nearest direct equivalent is Europe or the euro, and we know how close they are to crisis on a constant basis."
With the dollar, "you can basically trade it with anyone anywhere and buy and sell a very wide variety of assets with minimal spread and low transaction fees at a moment's notice," Every says. "You can't do the same with the yuan" because China controls trading in its currency.
British consultant Simon Anholt conducts global surveys that consistently show the United States remains the world's most-admired country. He says he doubts the political tussle will do any measurable damage to America's image.
"America is the most-admired country on the planet by a very wide margin," Anholt says. Foreigners "like American culture. They like American products."
He notes that the United States dropped to No. 7 worldwide after the U.S. invasion of Iraq. When President George W. Bush left office in 2009, it quickly bounced back to first place.
Anholt doubts that ay U.S. political crisis will change things.
"We tend to go through our lives with very fixed, sometimes childish clichés about other countries," he says. "We don't change them unless we are forced to."
U.S. politicians have "been trying very hard" to ruin America's reputation, he says, "and they haven't done it yet."
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AP Business Writers Christopher S. Rugaber in Washington, David McHugh in Frankfurt, Kay Johnson in Mumbai, Kelvin Chan in Hong Kong and Elaine Kurtenbach in Tokyo contributed to this report.
BBC America
Matt Smith as Dr. Who
BBC has released the trailer for the 50th anniversary special of Doctor Who.
The anticipated program, titled "The Day of the Doctor," airs on Nov. 23 in the U.K. and U.S. Another teaser had been screened at Comic-Con in July but not released online.
"Now is the time to face the choices I've made in the name of the Doctor -- our future depends on one single moment of one impossible day," goes the narration by Matt Smith.
PHOTOS: Peter Capaldi and the 12 Men Who've Played the Doctor
Watch below:
If there is any actor in the Hollywood that is truly doing work that makes them happy, it's Daniel Radcliffe. Since being part of the most successful box office franchises in history one could argue that every movie he's done since has been a "passion project", of course he would say that he loved doing the Harry Potter movies just as much as the rest of them. On top of all of that, he's having fun and making friends too.
Take his latest effort Kill Your Darlings, for example. In director John Krokidas' directorial debut about the grisly murder of David Kammerer, a largely unthought-of moment that happened around the true birth of the beat poetry movement in New York City, David was impassioned to play a young Allen Ginsberg. While many have turned the focus on the gay relationship he has with Lucien Carr (played by Dane DeHaan) that was just one element of the literary figure that Radcliffe saw and without his unrelenting support Krokidas has acknowledged that the movie likely would have not been made.
Daniel revealed that he's taking what he learns on every set and is looking to direct his own project in the future.
Us Weekly talked to the 24-year-old Radcliffe about friendship on the movie set, life after Harry Potter and the script he's just finished writing.
PHOTOS: Ten years of Harry Potter premieres!
Us: What was it about Kill Your Darlings that made the character of Allen Ginsberg appealing to you?
DR: Just talking about poetry is very fun for me. I don’t understand it as well as him, but I do understand poetry, it is an interest of mine. I've read the same books as him. I think when you read through a script you realize whether or not something is going to be fun and this was fun. There is a library heist, all of that stuff was very fun. After auditioning with Dane, one of the biggest draws for me was working with him.
Us: How did you and Dane connect after the first rehearsal together?
DR: Dane is the best friend I've made through acting, through the industry. He and his wife are just fantastic people. I think that building chemistry with people is just about being curious about people and meeting them. I had also known John for years but through this experience they've become two of my best friends.
Us: Dane admitted that he hadn't seen a Harry Potter movie before meeting you, do you think that the public is starting to disconnect you from Harry?
DR: I don't know if there is one movie that will do it. It's a process. I think that these three movies I have coming out together (Kill Your Darlings, Horns, The F Word) help. The main thing that I'm pleased about is that these three films are all so different; maybe people will see what I can really do.
PHOTOS: Some of Hollywood's breakout stars
Us: Has your theater work helped with that? Equus, How To Succeed and The Cripple of Inishmaan? Do you see yourself doing another play soon?
DR: I think so. Of course I'd love to do another play soon but that's like asking a woman who's just given birth if she wants to have another child. I literally just finished (The Cripple) and it was very psychically demanding. It may be awhile before I do another one.
Us: You grew up on the Potter film set, you've learned so much from experience, have you ever considered helming your own project?
DR: I would love to direct. I mean, I have written a script. I don't know if it's any good but it's nice to have finished something. That's an achievement in it's own. It's a very dark comedy. There are always themes that I'm interested in. Like friendship and when it becomes unhealthy. What you have to do to move on, but it's a much more heightened scenario. It's probably shit but the point is I've finished it and the next thing that I write won't be.
Us: Maybe you can cast some of your friends.
DR: You know if I had finished making it a year ago maybe, but now Dane (DeHaan), Adam Driver and Zoe Kazan, they're all going to be way to busy to make a movie with me.
NYC: Director John Krokidas will be hosting Q&As at Landmark Sunshine & Walter Reade Theaters this weekend.
LA: Dane DeHaan will be hosting a Q&A at Arclight Cinemas.
Tim Tebow
Unemployed In Hawaii
Tebow was spotted being oiled up by a woman ... but fear not, his virginity is safe -- the woman is his sister Katie.
There was a buzz that Tebow had a shot with the pathetic Jacksonville Jaguars, but when we asked Jags owner Shahid Kahn about it last week, the guy just laughed it off.
So now, Tebow is focusing on more important things ... his tan.
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Announcing the Developer Preview Program
Finally, today I'm also happy to announce the Windows Phone Preview Program for Developers, which is designed to ensure the apps in our Store work well with new operating system updates by giving developers earlier access to that software.
The program, which is only open to registered developers, kicks off tomorrow. If you're a developer and want to download Windows Phone 8 Update 3, you'll need either a Dev Center account, an App Studio account, or a dev unlocked (registered) phone. You can learn more about the program on Dev Center and in a post from Cliff Simpkins on today's Developer Blog.
Try it out and let us know what you think, and thanks for your continued interest in Windows Phone!
Amid all the tussling over the government shutdown and the debt ceiling, a couple of bombshells went off in the blogosphere that may prove of more enduring importance.
They suggest that there is a nontrivial possibility that Obamacare may implode.
The first bombshell went off on Tuesday, from Ezra Klein of the Washington Post's Wonkblog.
Klein was one of those young writers who formed JournoList a few years ago so that like-minded Obama fans could coordinate their lines of argument. It was like one of those college sophomore clubs, not really necessary in an age of ready contact through email, but it shows him as a guy inclined to play team ball.
So it's noteworthy when he writes, "So far, the Affordable Care Act's launch has been a failure. Not 'troubled.'
Not 'glitchy.' A failure."
Klein notes that the rollout of the Medicare prescription drug program was also rocky two weeks into the process. But later it got smoothed out.
Klein fears Obamacare won't. It's not just a problem of overloaded servers. Everyone knew there would be lots of traffic in a nation of 312,000,000 people. Information technology folks say it's easy to add servers.
It's harder to get software systems to communicate. And as Klein quotes insurance consultant Robert Laszewski, "the backroom connection between the insurance companies and the federal government is a disaster."
The reconciliation system isn't working and hasn't even been tested, Klein reports. Insurers are getting virtually no usable data from the exchanges.
Bloomberg.com columnist Megan McArdle, who unlike most Obamacare architects actually worked at an IT firm for a couple of years, sees the possibility of even more trouble ahead.
She points out that the administration delayed writing major rules during the 2012 campaign to avoid giving Republicans campaign fodder.
The biggest contractor did not start writing software code until spring 2013. They were still fiddling with the healthcare.gov website in September.
Instead of subcontracting the responsibility for integrating the software of the multiple contractors, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services decided to do it in-house -- "a decision," she writes, "equivalent to someone who has never even hung a picture deciding they should become their own general contractor and build a house."
"If the exchanges don't get fixed soon," she writes, "they could destroy Obamacare." You need the exchanges to enroll enough young healthy people to subsidize those who are sick and old, which is one of the central features of Obamacare.
Otherwise, premiums shoot up and up, pushing others out of the system -- a death spiral that can continue year after year.
"At what point," she asks, "do we admit that the system just isn't working well enough, roll it back and delay the whole thing for a year?" She suggests that if the system can't enroll 50 percent of its users by November 1, such a hugely drastic step would be in order.
That sounds like a nightmare of the first order -- for individuals, for insurers, for employers and for the Obama administration. A far worse nightmare than when Congress in 1989 repealed the Medicare prescription drug plan it passed the year before because of widespread dissatisfaction.
Of course it's possible this nightmare will not happen. Things will get ironed out somehow.
But if they don't, who's responsible? First, a president who is not much interested in how government works on the ground. As a community organizer he never did get all the asbestos removed from the Altgeld housing project.
Politico reports that his "universal heath care" promise was first made when his press secretary and speechwriter needed a rousing ending to a 2007 campaign speech to a liberal group.
Second, lawmakers and administrators who assume that, in an Information Age, all you have to do is to assign a task to an IT team and they will perform it. Cross your fingers, and it gets done.
Third, government IT procurement rules are kludgy. Apple didn't bid on this. The IT work went to insider firms that specialize in jumping through the hoops and ladders of government procurement rules.
Unfortunately, the consequences of a meltdown are enormous when a system is supposed to be used by everybody. If a private firm's software fails, it can go bankrupt. No one else much cares.
But if Obamacare's software crashes, the consequences will be catastrophic -- for the nation and for the Democratic Party.
* Alirocumab cuts LDL-C by 47.2 pct vs 15.6 pct for Zetia
* Small clinical trial is just one of 12 to run until 2018
* Sanofi, Regeneron hope to seek drug approval by late 2015
By Ransdell Pierson and Natalie Huet
NEW YORK/PARIS (Reuters) - A new type of cholesterol drug from Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc and Sanofi SA, when used by itself, cut levels of "bad" LDL cholesterol almost in half in the first of a dozen late-stage trials of the medicine.
The injectable drug, called alirocumab, is from a promising new class of medicines called PCSK9 inhibitors also being developed by Amgen Inc and other drugmakers. It has been touted by industry analysts as a potential blockbuster that could bring annual sales of over $3 billion.
These man-made antibodies block a protein that prevents the body from eliminating LDL cholesterol from the bloodstream and offer a new way of fighting the build-up of artery-clogging fatty deposits that put patients at risk of heart attacks.
They work differently from widely-used statins - pills that inhibit the liver's production of LDL cholesterol in the first place, and to which some patients don't respond well.
In earlier mid-stage studies, when combined with statins, alirocumab and Amgen's own PCSK9 drug cut levels of LDL cholesterol by close to 70 percent, more than statins alone.
But the Phase III study unveiled on Wednesday involved patients who either took just alirocumab, or just Merck & Co Inc's cholesterol drug Zetia (ezetimibe) - a pill often used by patients who cannot tolerate statins, whose side effects can include muscle pain.
In this 103-patient study, alirocumab, which has to be self-injected every two weeks, reduced levels of LDL cholesterol by 47.2 percent after 24 weeks of treatment, compared to 15.6 percent in those taking daily 10-milligram doses of ezetimibe.
"What we're seeing in the first Phase III trial of our drug is in line with what we saw in Phase II," George Yancopoulos, Regeneron's research chief, said in an interview.
"The good news here is there were no surprises, and that it supports the good efficacy and safety profile we've seen to date."
Patients taking alirocumab started out with a low 75-milligram dose every two weeks, but this was increased to 150 milligrams at week 12 if their LDL levels at week eight were above 70. Most patients, however, remained on the low dose throughout the study because they got their LDL levels below that threshold - an aggressive LDL target - by the eighth week.
"It shows that a low dose, when used as a monotherapy, can be quite effective," Yancopoulos said, noting that no worrisome side effects were seen in the study nor in earlier trials.
Shares in Sanofi, which rose 0.8 percent in early trade, were down 0.8 percent at 1150 GMT, roughly in line with the STOXX Europe 600 Healthcare index.
Citi analyst Andrew Baum said the monotherapy data was "incrementally positive" but further trials on targeted patient groups, such as patients with high cardiovascular risk, were needed to really assess the drug's utility.
Patients in the so-called Odyssey Mono trial had high cholesterol levels but were deemed to have only moderate cardiovascular risk due to the absence of many other risk factors.
FIVE MORE YEARS OF TRIALS
The Odyssey Mono study is the first of 12 Phase III trials on some 23,000 patients and the drug's ultimate success will depend on longer-term studies, some of which will only give results in around five years. But Sanofi and Regeneron are hoping positive trial data could be enough to get the drug approved for some patients and on the market before then.
PCSK9 drugs are mainly aimed at the millions of people who either cannot tolerate statins such as Pfizer Inc's Lipitor or AstraZeneca Plc's Crestor or who cannot get their cholesterol levels under control with statins alone.
Yancopoulos said Regeneron and Sanofi hope to seek regulatory approvals by late 2015 for their drug, for use by itself and with statins.
Yancopoulos said Amgen's rival drug might reach market soon after alirocumab, or even before. But he predicted neither drug would have much of an advantage by getting approved first.
"But we're hoping to have bragging rights for the first approval," Yancopoulos said.
At an investor conference last month, Sanofi's CEO Chris Viehbacher said the drugmaker could look at nearly doubling its stake in Regeneron, voicing confidence in the drug's success. Sanofi holds about 16 percent of Regeneron.
Deutsche Bank analysts said in a report last month that the new drug could be priced at around $15 per day, comparable to the cost of injectable diabetes drugs known as GLP-1s, such as Novo Nordisk's Victoza.
"Today's results should go some way to building confidence in Sanofi's improving pipeline capability and in our view forms the first step to bridging credibility following recent poor financial results," Deutsche Bank wrote in a note on Wednesday.
(Editing by Lisa Shumaker and Ben Hirschler)
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PUBLIC RELEASE DATE: 18-Oct-2013
ShareContact: Birgitte Svennevig
birs@sdu.dk
University of Southern Denmark
Any textbook will tell you that oxygen is essential for advanced life to evolve. For example, ancient dinosaurs and modern large-brained mammals need a lot of oxygen to keep their large and sophisticated organisms running. But why did life not explode when oxygen levels rose dramatically 2.1 billion years ago? This is the big question after a Danish/Swedish/French research team, led by University of Southern Denmark, has shown that the oxygen content 2.1 billion years ago was probably the same as when life exploded 500 million years ago.
Oxygen and advanced life are inextricably linked. Some simple organisms like bacteria can survive without oxygen, but all higher organisms need oxygen and the Earth's biology would probably be a poor sight, if the atmosphere did not contain the 21 pct. oxygen, which is essential for eg the human brain to function.
The development of life exploded around 542 million years ago during the so-called Cambrian explosion, where oxygen levels rose to up to 10 pct. Before that life consisted of small and simple, typically single-celled life forms, and science has long thought that there was not enough oxygen for it to evolve into something bigger.
But now a Danish/Swedish/French research team shows that there was actually plenty of oxygen long before the Cambrian explosion. The team consists of professor Donald Canfield and postdoc Emma Hammarlund from the Nordic Center for Earth Evolution (NordCEE) at University of Southern Denmark, colleagues from the National Museum in Sweden and colleagues from the following French institutions: Universit de Poitiers, the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Institut Francais de la Recherche pour l' Exploitation de la Mer, Centre de Brest and the Universit de Rennes in France.
"We have examined rocks that are 2.15 billion - 2.08 billion years old. They show us that there was oxygen in deep water and thus also in the atmosphere at that time. We cannot say exactly how much, but there was probably ample oxygen and also ample time to permit advanced life to evolve", says Emma Hammarlund.
The same research team has previously demonstrated the existence of some strange fossils from the same place. The researchers interpret these fossils as a way of life that tried to evolve into a multicellular life form.
"It was not a life form that in any way is comparable to large life as we know it today. It was rather microbes that experimented with a way to evolve into some form of multicellular existence. It had enough oxygen for the experiment, but its destiny is unknows", she says.
One explanation may be that most traces of advanced, 2 billion year-old life is gone. If the life forms did not develop bones or shells, they would not easily be fossilized and found today.
"Currently we consider it more likely that any great evolution just did not occur then. But why not, since there was plenty of oxygen?", speculates Emma Hammarlund, and tries to answer:
"Perhaps the problem was with the genetics of the life forms. Or maybe the organisms did not try to eat each other, so an evolutionary race could get started. There are several options, but we just do not know enough about it yet".
The new discovery that there was plenty of oxygen in the atmosphere 2 billion years ago also contributes to a new understanding of the Earth's development. It shows that the content of atmospheric oxygen has taken several ups and downs. 250 - 300 million years ago oxygen content rose to up to 25 pct., and this led to the development of some enormous insects. But everything was not all good: The high oxygen content simply increased the chance for trees to ignite, so it was also a period of many wildfires. This has been revealed by layers of ash from that time.
Emma Hammarlund sees no risk that oxygen levels may one day become as low as it was in the Earth's oxygen-free periods.
"Not even if we let all organic material rot at the same time would the decay process use all the atmospheric oxygen. Most of it would still remain. Perhaps some large external disaster could remove all the oxygen from Earth's atmosphere, but I cannot see what that could be", she says.
How oxygen contents rose and fell 2 billion years ago:
Carbon-containing microorganisms began to sink to the bottom of the oceans, where they created carbon-rich rocks. This allowed the carbon to be stored in the seabed instead of being released into the air, and thus less oxygen was needed to react with carbon. The result was that the concentrations of oxygen could be increased. The increased oxygen levels could now attack the rocks on land and in the process release nutrients such as phosphor and iron that ended up in the oceans as nutrients for microorganisms. This led to the formation of even more microorganisms that ended their lives on the ocean floor - and so the process could start again.
After a while sediment stored carbon became released to the air again, and then there was a sudden need for a lot of oxygen to react with the released carbon. Such ups and downs in oxygen contents have always taken place on Earth. However, we shall not expect any dramatic fluctuations in the future, assures Emma Hammarlund. Today there is so much of the planet's carbon stored in underground rocks that cannot be released and react with oxygen. Only a gigantic disaster, for example if another planet crashed into Earth, could release this hard-bound carbon.
###
Ref:
Oxygen dynamics in the aftermath of the Great Oxidation of Earth's atmosphere. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1315570110. PNAS September 30, 2013
NordCEE: http://www.nordcee.dk/
contact Emma Hammarlund: http://findresearcher.sdu.dk:8080/portal/en/person/emma
This press release was written by press officer Birgitte Svennevig
Share
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.
PUBLIC RELEASE DATE: 18-Oct-2013
ShareContact: Birgitte Svennevig
birs@sdu.dk
University of Southern Denmark
Any textbook will tell you that oxygen is essential for advanced life to evolve. For example, ancient dinosaurs and modern large-brained mammals need a lot of oxygen to keep their large and sophisticated organisms running. But why did life not explode when oxygen levels rose dramatically 2.1 billion years ago? This is the big question after a Danish/Swedish/French research team, led by University of Southern Denmark, has shown that the oxygen content 2.1 billion years ago was probably the same as when life exploded 500 million years ago.
Oxygen and advanced life are inextricably linked. Some simple organisms like bacteria can survive without oxygen, but all higher organisms need oxygen and the Earth's biology would probably be a poor sight, if the atmosphere did not contain the 21 pct. oxygen, which is essential for eg the human brain to function.
The development of life exploded around 542 million years ago during the so-called Cambrian explosion, where oxygen levels rose to up to 10 pct. Before that life consisted of small and simple, typically single-celled life forms, and science has long thought that there was not enough oxygen for it to evolve into something bigger.
But now a Danish/Swedish/French research team shows that there was actually plenty of oxygen long before the Cambrian explosion. The team consists of professor Donald Canfield and postdoc Emma Hammarlund from the Nordic Center for Earth Evolution (NordCEE) at University of Southern Denmark, colleagues from the National Museum in Sweden and colleagues from the following French institutions: Universit de Poitiers, the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Institut Francais de la Recherche pour l' Exploitation de la Mer, Centre de Brest and the Universit de Rennes in France.
"We have examined rocks that are 2.15 billion - 2.08 billion years old. They show us that there was oxygen in deep water and thus also in the atmosphere at that time. We cannot say exactly how much, but there was probably ample oxygen and also ample time to permit advanced life to evolve", says Emma Hammarlund.
The same research team has previously demonstrated the existence of some strange fossils from the same place. The researchers interpret these fossils as a way of life that tried to evolve into a multicellular life form.
"It was not a life form that in any way is comparable to large life as we know it today. It was rather microbes that experimented with a way to evolve into some form of multicellular existence. It had enough oxygen for the experiment, but its destiny is unknows", she says.
One explanation may be that most traces of advanced, 2 billion year-old life is gone. If the life forms did not develop bones or shells, they would not easily be fossilized and found today.
"Currently we consider it more likely that any great evolution just did not occur then. But why not, since there was plenty of oxygen?", speculates Emma Hammarlund, and tries to answer:
"Perhaps the problem was with the genetics of the life forms. Or maybe the organisms did not try to eat each other, so an evolutionary race could get started. There are several options, but we just do not know enough about it yet".
The new discovery that there was plenty of oxygen in the atmosphere 2 billion years ago also contributes to a new understanding of the Earth's development. It shows that the content of atmospheric oxygen has taken several ups and downs. 250 - 300 million years ago oxygen content rose to up to 25 pct., and this led to the development of some enormous insects. But everything was not all good: The high oxygen content simply increased the chance for trees to ignite, so it was also a period of many wildfires. This has been revealed by layers of ash from that time.
Emma Hammarlund sees no risk that oxygen levels may one day become as low as it was in the Earth's oxygen-free periods.
"Not even if we let all organic material rot at the same time would the decay process use all the atmospheric oxygen. Most of it would still remain. Perhaps some large external disaster could remove all the oxygen from Earth's atmosphere, but I cannot see what that could be", she says.
How oxygen contents rose and fell 2 billion years ago:
Carbon-containing microorganisms began to sink to the bottom of the oceans, where they created carbon-rich rocks. This allowed the carbon to be stored in the seabed instead of being released into the air, and thus less oxygen was needed to react with carbon. The result was that the concentrations of oxygen could be increased. The increased oxygen levels could now attack the rocks on land and in the process release nutrients such as phosphor and iron that ended up in the oceans as nutrients for microorganisms. This led to the formation of even more microorganisms that ended their lives on the ocean floor - and so the process could start again.
After a while sediment stored carbon became released to the air again, and then there was a sudden need for a lot of oxygen to react with the released carbon. Such ups and downs in oxygen contents have always taken place on Earth. However, we shall not expect any dramatic fluctuations in the future, assures Emma Hammarlund. Today there is so much of the planet's carbon stored in underground rocks that cannot be released and react with oxygen. Only a gigantic disaster, for example if another planet crashed into Earth, could release this hard-bound carbon.
###
Ref:
Oxygen dynamics in the aftermath of the Great Oxidation of Earth's atmosphere. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1315570110. PNAS September 30, 2013
NordCEE: http://www.nordcee.dk/
contact Emma Hammarlund: http://findresearcher.sdu.dk:8080/portal/en/person/emma
This press release was written by press officer Birgitte Svennevig
Share
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.
