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Monday, October 31, 2011
Daily Tip: How to purchase more iCloud storage
Now that you're running on iOS 5 you have the ability to create OTA backups. While iCloud gives you a free 5GB to start you off, you may find that you need more space than that. If you find that you will require more space to backup your content you can upgrade right from your iOS device.
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Sunday, October 30, 2011
Riverfront flooding widens, but Bangkok mostly dry (AP)
BANGKOK ? The main river coursing through Thailand's capital swelled to record highs Friday, briefly flooding riverside buildings and an ornate royal complex at high tide amid fears that flood defenses could break and swamp the heart of the city.
Ankle-high water from the Chao Phraya river spilled through one sandbagged entranceway of Bangkok's treasured Grand Palace, which once housed the kingdom's monarchy. The army was pumping out the water, and tourists were still entering the white-walled compound.
The river has filled roads outside the palace gates for days, but the water has receded with the tides, leaving streets dry again.
But the higher than normal tides in the Gulf of Thailand, expected to peak Saturday, are obstructing the flood runoff from the north, and there are fears that the overflows could swamp parts of downtown. The goverment also is worried major barriers and dikes could break.
Friday's morning high tide passed without a major breach, but the waters briefly touched riverside areas closer to the city's central businesses districts of Silom and Sathorn.
"It is clear that although the high tides haven't reached 2.5 meters, it was high enough to prolong the suffering of those living outside of the flood walls and to threaten those living behind deteriorating walls," Bangkok Governor Sukhumbhand Paribatra said.
The flood walls protecting much of the inner city are 2.5 meters (8.2 feet), and Saturday's high tide is expected to reach 2.6 meters (8.5 feet).
Seven of Bangkok's 50 districts ? all in the northern outskirts ? are heavily flooded, and residents have fled aboard bamboo rafts and army trucks and by wading in waist-deep water. Another eight districts have seen less serious flooding.
Fresh flooding was reported Friday in the city's southeast when a canal overflowed in a neighborhood on the outer parts of Sukhumvit Road.
The floods, the heaviest in Thailand in more than half a century, have drenched a third of the country's provinces, killed close to 400 people and displaced more than 110,000 others. The water has crept from the central plains south toward the Gulf of Thailand, but Bangkok is in the way. It is literally surrounded by behemoth pools of water flowing around and through the city via a complex network of canals and rivers.
Economic analysts say the floods have cut Thailand's 2011 GDP projections by as much as 2 percentage points. Damage estimates of $6 billion could double if floods swamp Bangkok.
Most of Bangkok, however, has remained dry and most of its more than 9 million residents were staying put to protect their homes. Still, fears the inner city could flood has fueled an exodus, as Thais and expatriates alike sought refuge outside Bangkok and foreign governments urged their citizens to avoid unessential travel to the threatened city.
The U.S. State Department cautioned against all but essential travel to areas of Thailand affected by the flooding, including Bangkok, because of transportation difficulties and shortages of certain food items.
On Thursday, an emotional Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra acknowledged her government could not control the 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."
Flooding has closed Bangkok's Don Muang airport, mainly used for domestic flights, but Thailand's main international airport is operating as usual.
The government's Flood Relief Operations Center says its contingency plan involves the Thai military and government agencies transporting people from evacuation points in the capital to outlying provinces.
___
Associated Press writers Thanyarat Doksone, Vee Intarakratug and Grant Peck contributed to this report.
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More power to the cranberry: Study shows juice better than extracts at fighting infections
ScienceDaily (Oct. 28, 2011) ? With scientific evidence now supporting the age-old wisdom that cranberries, whether in sauce or as juice, prevent urinary tract infections, people have wondered if there was an element of the berry that, if extracted and condensed, perhaps in pill form, would be as effective as drinking the juice or eating cranberry sauce. A new study from researchers at Worcester Polytechnic Institute helps to answer that question.
The study tested proanthocyanidins or PACs, a group of flavonoids found in cranberries. Because they were thought to be the ingredient that gives the juice its infection-fighting properties, PACs have been considered a hopeful target for an effective extract. The new WPI report, however, shows that cranberry juice, itself, is far better at preventing biofilm formation, which is the precursor of infection, than PACs alone.
The data is reported in the paper "Impact of Cranberry Juice and Proanthocyanidins on the Ability of Escherichia coli to Form Biofilms," which will be published online, ahead of print, Oct. 31, 2011, by the journal Food Science and Biotechnology.
"What we have shown is that cranberry juice's ability to prevent biofilms is more complex than we may have originally thought," said Terri Camesano, professor of chemical engineering at WPI and senior author on the paper. "For a while, the field focused on these PACs, but the data shows that they aren't the silver bullet."
Camesano's lab explores the mechanisms that the virulent form of E. coli bacteria, the primary cause of most urinary tract infections (UTIs) in people, uses to form biofilms. This strain of E. coli is covered with small hair-like projections known as fimbriae that act like hooks and latch onto cells that line the urinary tract. When enough of the virulent bacteria adhere to cells, they form a biofilm and cause an infection. Previous work by Camesano's lab has shown that exposure to cranberry juice causes the fimbriae on E. coli to curl up, reducing their ability to attach to urinary tract cells.
In the new study, Camesano's team, which included graduate student Paola Andrea Pinz?n-Arango and intern Kerrie Holguin, incubated two different strains of E. coli in the presence of two different mixtures of commercially available cranberry juice cocktail. They also incubated the bacteria separately in the presence of PACs, but not juice. While the juice cultures completely prevented biofilm formation, the PACs showed only limited ability to reduce biofilm formation, and only after extended exposure to the E. coli.
"Cranberries have been recognized for their health benefits for a number of years, especially in the prevention of UTIs," the authors write in the new paper. "While the mechanisms of action of cranberry products on bacterial adhesion and biofilm formation are not fully understood?this study shows that cranberry juice is better at inhibiting biofilm formation than isolated A-type cranberry flavonoids and PACs, although the reasons for this are not yet clear."
The research detailed in the current study was supported by grants from the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation, the Cranberry Institute, and the Wisconsin Cranberry Board.
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Source: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/10/111028103725.htm
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Talking to Siri: Learning the Language of Apple?s Intelligent Assistant
The inimitable Steven Sande and extraordinary Erica Sadun of TUAW fame have put together an Amazon Kindle book designed to help us help Siri help us.
This short, focused book teaches you how to use Siri from the ground up. You’ll learn how to achieve the the highest...
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Draft Proposal for Fri 10/28: Internet, Legal, & Finance | NYC ...
Based on the Principals of Solidarity that have been adopted by the New York City General Assembly, the Finance Working Group in conjunction with the Internet Working Group and the Legal Working Group put forth the following proposal to the General Assembly:
The affinity group OccupyWallSt.org owns and operates the self-described unofficial defacto website of our occupation. As such, while they have made a tremendous contribution to this movement and it?s public profile, as an affinity group, they are neither transparent nor accountable to the GA.
Between October 11 & 12, a verbal agreement was reached between this affinity group and members of the NYCGA to allow for the transfer of ownership of this domain to the NYCGA for $1 and a restrictive condition that the domain could never be sold by the NYCGA. Subsequently, communications involving this agreement with the affinity group broke down and therefore this agreement was never brought before the NYCGA to adopt and ratify.
At this point, it is important to this movement that we all believe in, that the domain be owned by all of us, and the operation and administration of the site be fully accountable and transparent to the GA and it?s processes.
We therefore resolve that NYCGA hereby requests, demands, and implores the affinity group occupywallst.org to turn over the ownership of the domain and the administration of the website to the unincorporated association known as Occupy Wall Street and its Internet Working Group.
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Source: http://www.nycga.net/2011/10/27/draft-proposal-for-fri-1028-internet-legal-finance/
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Saturday, October 29, 2011
Draft Proposal for Fri 10/28: Internet, Legal, & Finance | NYC ...
Based on the Principals of Solidarity that have been adopted by the New York City General Assembly, the Finance Working Group in conjunction with the Internet Working Group and the Legal Working Group put forth the following proposal to the General Assembly:
The affinity group OccupyWallSt.org owns and operates the self-described unofficial defacto website of our occupation. As such, while they have made a tremendous contribution to this movement and it?s public profile, as an affinity group, they are neither transparent nor accountable to the GA.
Between October 11 & 12, a verbal agreement was reached between this affinity group and members of the NYCGA to allow for the transfer of ownership of this domain to the NYCGA for $1 and a restrictive condition that the domain could never be sold by the NYCGA. Subsequently, communications involving this agreement with the affinity group broke down and therefore this agreement was never brought before the NYCGA to adopt and ratify.
At this point, it is important to this movement that we all believe in, that the domain be owned by all of us, and the operation and administration of the site be fully accountable and transparent to the GA and it?s processes.
We therefore resolve that NYCGA hereby requests, demands, and implores the affinity group occupywallst.org to turn over the ownership of the domain and the administration of the website to the unincorporated association known as Occupy Wall Street and its Internet Working Group.
Share (http://www NULL.facebook NULL.com/sharer NULL.php)
Source: http://www.nycga.net/2011/10/27/draft-proposal-for-fri-1028-internet-legal-finance/
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Jury finds Maryland killer eligible for possible death sentence (Reuters)
BEL AIR, Md (Reuters) ? A jury on Thursday decided that a Maryland man convicted of a murder-for-hire was eligible to be sentenced to death, making the case the first test of the state's new death penalty statute.
The statute is considered among the most restrictive in the nation.
Walter Bishop Jr., 29, was convicted Wednesday of fatally shooting William Porter last year at a gas station Porter owned, a crime Bishop is accused of committing at the behest of Porter's wife, Karla.
Bishop shot Porter in the head and then stood over his body and shot him again, prosecutors said.
On Thursday, the same jury that convicted Bishop began the penalty phase of the trial, expected to end next week when the panel decides his sentence.
Bishop could become Maryland's sixth death row inmate and first since the state revised its statute two years ago, according to the Baltimore County State's Attorney's Office.
To be eligible for the death penalty, there must be DNA or video evidence linking the defendant to a murder or video of a voluntary interrogation and confession.
The jury ruled Bishop fulfilled the last requirement, despite pleas from his attorneys that a video confession he gave police March 6, 2010, was not voluntary.
Police did not tell Bishop he was being videotaped, read his Miranda rights without mentioning the new death penalty statute, and pushed for a confession despite "a mountain of evidence" and two co-defendants identifying Bishop as the shooter, Harun Shabazz, Bishop's public defender, told jurors.
Prosecutors argued police acted properly and the law does not obligate them to tell suspects anything about a suspect's potential sentencing.
FOLLOWING THE LAW?
"Police have the responsibility to follow the law," said John Cox, an Assistant State's Attorney of Baltimore County. "It's not their job to stop people from talking to them."
Baltimore County Circuit Court Judge Mickey Norman rejected several attempts to strike the death penalty in the case.
Beginning Friday, both sides will argue whether Bishop should be sentenced to death. If he is not, he will face life in prison, or life in prison with possibility of parole.
The key piece of evidence for jurors was the video of Bishop's interrogation and confession, played several times in court.
In the video, police tell Bishop, who has five children, that he would be a better example to his young family if he divulged what he did.
"Even if I tell the whole truth, everything," Bishop responded, crying, "I'm still going to jail."
Shabazz argued police were persistent because they were hoping for a death penalty case.
"The police were playing a game with him," Shabazz said. "The game was to not let Mr. Bishop know how important the situation was."
The death penalty is legal in 34 states, although rules for imposing it differ. Five people have been executed in Maryland since the death penalty was reinstated in the United States in 1976, according to the Death Penalty Information Center, based in Washington, D.C.
Maryland's new statue, instituted in 2009 after a failed attempt to abolish the death penalty by Governor Martin O'Malley, is arguably the most restrictive in the country, said Richard Dieter, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center.
Illinois had one of the more restrictive laws before it was abolished earlier this year, and in 2005, Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney failed in attempts to pass a law requiring guilt beyond any doubt in death penalty cases, Dieter said.
Even if sentenced to death, Bishop could avoid execution, Dieter said, due to the law's susceptibility for a lengthy appeal process.
"I think someone will get the death sentence but I think it's very unlikely anyone will get executed under this statute," he said.
(Editing by Barbara Goldberg and Jerry Norton)
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(AP)
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Friday, October 28, 2011
Redbox raises prices on DVD rentals (Digital Trends)
Earlier today, Coinstar announced an increase in price on DVD rentals at Redbox kiosks from $1.00 a day to $1.20 a day. The price hike takes effect on Monday October 31 at all 34,000 Redbox stations in the United States. However, two dollar a day video game rentals and $1.50 a day Blu-ray rental prices will remain unchanged for the time being. The company claims that the price alteration was needed due to rising operating costs such as larger debit card fees. However, Coinstar?s earnings have nearly doubled due to more people adopting the rental kiosks over alternatives like Netflix. Investors reacted negatively to the news of the price increase as shares of Coinstar fell ten percent today.
While Netflix didn?t make any attempt to test its price increase before launching to consumers, Coinstar rolled out the price increase in a variety of cities over 2011 to understand how rental patterns would change. Senior?management?at Coinstar determined that the drop in volume of DVD rentals would be very small. During the third quarter of 2011, Redbox overtook Netflix in?market share of DVD rentals. The U.S. market share for Redbox was 35 percent while Netflix was at 33 percent. This is a vast increase from a year earlier where Redbox has approximately 24 percent of the total DVD rental market.?
Coinstar and other rental agencies are also facing a possible increase in the amount of time that DVDs become available to rent. Studios are thinking about moving from a 28-day window to a 60-day window for rental copies. This would force consumers to pay the purchase price of a DVD or spend more money on video-on-demand rentals.?Blockbuster is also facing resistance from movie studios. Warner Brothers revoked Blockbuster?s ability to rent new releases and the rental chain now has to wait the full 28 days to offer rentals of those films. Blockbuster will be able to sell the Warner Brothers films though. ?
This article was originally posted on Digital Trends
More from Digital Trends
UT study looks at manual wheelchair use, exercise and calorie burning
![[ Back to EurekAlert! ]](http://www.eurekalert.org/images/back2e.gif){kind=small}
Public release date: 28-Oct-2011[ | E-mail |
Share ] Contact: Lola Alapo
lalapo@utk.edu
865-974-3993
University of Tennessee at Knoxville
University of Tennessee researchers have calculated calorie costs of various physical activities performed by manual wheelchair users
KNOXVILLE -- A person who uses a manual wheelchair can burn up to 120 calories in half an hour while wheeling at 2 mph on a flat surface, which is three times as much as someone doing the same action in a motorized wheelchair.
The same person can expend 127 calories while mopping and as much as 258 calories while fencing in a 30-minute timeframe if the activities are done in a manual wheelchair.
This is according to a review article written by Professor David R. Bassett Jr. of the Department of Kinesiology, Recreation and Sport Studies at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. It calculates the calorie costs of various physical activities for people who use manual wheelchairs and summarizes them into a single source -- a first of its kind.
The article, which Bassett co-authored with former UT graduate student Scott A. Conger, was published this month in Adapted Physical Activity Quarterly, a journal issued by Human Kinetics Inc.
The review should be helpful to those who want to create physical activity questionnaires and develop recommendations for people with disabilities.
It also would show people with disabilities that they can obtain health-enhancing benefits when they exercise moderately or vigorously, Bassett said.
"It might be simply wheeling their chair along while taking their dog for a walk or playing wheelchair basketball," he said. "You can still burn a significant number of calories."
Bassett co-authored another document entitled the "2011 Compendium of Physical Activities" for able-bodied people. The study, which was funded by National Institutes of Health, contains a list of activities that is continually updated and is widely used. But he saw a need to develop a comparable resource for those who use wheelchairs.
Bassett and Conger reviewed more than 250 studies containing energy expenditure data for wheelchair-related physical activities. They identified 63 activities, ranging from being sedentary to household chores and transportation to exercise.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Sciences recommends that adults with disabilities should get at least 150 minutes per week of moderate exercise or 75 minutes of vigorous exercise per week. The suggestion is the same for able-bodied people.
A partial list of wheelchair-related activities and their caloric burn (performed by a 160-pound adult in 30 minutes):
Sitting, watching TV: 40
Dusting: 65
Table Tennis: 80
Vacuuming: 98
Basketball (shooting baskets): 116
Tennis: 149
Basketball (gameplay): 221
Nordic sit skiing: 428
###
[ | E-mail | 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: 28-Oct-2011[ | E-mail |
Share ] Contact: Lola Alapo
lalapo@utk.edu
865-974-3993
University of Tennessee at Knoxville
University of Tennessee researchers have calculated calorie costs of various physical activities performed by manual wheelchair users
KNOXVILLE -- A person who uses a manual wheelchair can burn up to 120 calories in half an hour while wheeling at 2 mph on a flat surface, which is three times as much as someone doing the same action in a motorized wheelchair.
The same person can expend 127 calories while mopping and as much as 258 calories while fencing in a 30-minute timeframe if the activities are done in a manual wheelchair.
This is according to a review article written by Professor David R. Bassett Jr. of the Department of Kinesiology, Recreation and Sport Studies at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. It calculates the calorie costs of various physical activities for people who use manual wheelchairs and summarizes them into a single source -- a first of its kind.
The article, which Bassett co-authored with former UT graduate student Scott A. Conger, was published this month in Adapted Physical Activity Quarterly, a journal issued by Human Kinetics Inc.
The review should be helpful to those who want to create physical activity questionnaires and develop recommendations for people with disabilities.
It also would show people with disabilities that they can obtain health-enhancing benefits when they exercise moderately or vigorously, Bassett said.
"It might be simply wheeling their chair along while taking their dog for a walk or playing wheelchair basketball," he said. "You can still burn a significant number of calories."
Bassett co-authored another document entitled the "2011 Compendium of Physical Activities" for able-bodied people. The study, which was funded by National Institutes of Health, contains a list of activities that is continually updated and is widely used. But he saw a need to develop a comparable resource for those who use wheelchairs.
Bassett and Conger reviewed more than 250 studies containing energy expenditure data for wheelchair-related physical activities. They identified 63 activities, ranging from being sedentary to household chores and transportation to exercise.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Sciences recommends that adults with disabilities should get at least 150 minutes per week of moderate exercise or 75 minutes of vigorous exercise per week. The suggestion is the same for able-bodied people.
A partial list of wheelchair-related activities and their caloric burn (performed by a 160-pound adult in 30 minutes):
Sitting, watching TV: 40
Dusting: 65
Table Tennis: 80
Vacuuming: 98
Basketball (shooting baskets): 116
Tennis: 149
Basketball (gameplay): 221
Nordic sit skiing: 428
###
[ | E-mail | 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.
Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2011-10/uota-usl102811.php
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Thursday, October 27, 2011
Republicans ask Obama to lead on China currency (Reuters)
WASHINGTON (Reuters) ? Republican lawmakers aired U.S. grievances over subsidies, piracy and other Chinese trade practices on Tuesday, but said President Barack Obama must take the lead on tackling China's exchange rate policies.
As the House of Representatives Ways and Means Committee grilled Obama administration trade and Treasury Department officials, Republican leaders made it clear they would not pursue a punitive currency bill passed by the U.S. Senate.
The legislation, which calls for duties on Chinese products to offset an artificially cheap Chinese yuan, symbolizes U.S. concern about the loss of American jobs blamed on trade with China that is intensifying as the 2012 congressional and presidential election approaches.
The Obama administration has signaled concerns about the bill but has not taken a formal position on it.
"I think it's a very dangerous policy," House Speaker John Boehner, the top Republican in Congress, told a news conference. "The fact is the president of the United States ought to stand up and take a position."
Boehner's opposition could derail a bill that has strong rank-and-file support. Republicans control the House while Obama's fellow Democrats control the Senate.
Echoing Boehner, Ways and Means Committee Chairman Dave Camp urged the Obama administration to tell Congress what it "should and should not do" to address concerns about Chinese trade and currency practices.
"Some in Congress focus on legislation to address currency manipulation as if it were a silver bullet," Camp said. "In doing so, they miss the many issues we have with China."
Camp cited a long list of U.S. concerns that included theft of U.S. intellectual property, lavish domestic subsidies, discriminatory regulation and curbs on exports of scarce raw materials such as rare earth minerals.
Deputy U.S. Trade Representative Demetrios Marantis told the panel the Obama administration was "working day and night" to address concerns about Chinese economic policies.
"Many of these troubling policies reflect China's strengthening of state control over its economy and a retreat from its initial strong push to liberalize markets in the first years after its World Trade Organization accession," he said.
While Obama has stopped short of endorsing the currency legislation, he has said he believes China is "gaming" international trade by holding down the value of the yuan to give Chinese firms an competitive price advantage.
YUAN CALLED 'MISALIGNED'
Obama will host Asia-Pacific leaders, including Chinese President Hu Jintao, at a summit aimed at boosting transpacific trade next month. Protectionist U.S. legislation would undercut Obama's efforts to open markets, analysts say.
A senior U.S. Treasury official told the committee the yuan needs to rise faster to correct a "misaligned" exchange rate, although that would not eliminate the U.S. trade deficit.
"Renminbi appreciation on its own will not erase our trade deficit," said Lael Brainard, undersecretary for international affairs, using another name for the yuan.
She told lawmakers the administration would continue to stand up to what she called China's unfair and discriminatory trade and investment practices but also continue to "engage and encourage China" to pursue reforms.
The Treasury has given the bill a lukewarm reception, saying that while it shares the goals of the legislation, there are concerns it may not be consistent with world trade laws.
"Aspects of pending legislation ... do raise concerns about consistency with our international obligations and we are discussing these issues with members (lawmakers)," Brainard said.
Brainard said despite the yuan's 7 percent increase against the dollar since June 2010, China's continued rapid accumulation of foreign exchange reserves and the declining share of consumption in its economy "indicate that the real exchange rate of renminbi remains misaligned despite recent movement, and a faster pace of appreciation is needed."
Representative Sander Levin, the top Democrat on the Ways and Means Committee, accused Republicans of taking a "hands off" approach to China trade at a time when the American people are demanding that Congress "act to end a variety of China's predatory trade practices," including currency manipulation.
The bill to crack down on China currency practices now has 230 co-sponsors in the House, more than enough to win approval if Boehner allows it to come up for a vote, he said.
"Because currency is not China's only predatory and trade-distorting policy, that cannot be an excuse for refusal to act on it. Nor does it mean not acting on other key issues," Levin said.
Henry Paulson, who launched high-level economic dialogue with China when he was treasury secretary from 2006-2008 under former President George W. Bush, said China needed to reform its policies, but agreed with opponents of the currency bill.
"It's in China's best interest to reform and move to a market-determined currency that reflects economic conditions," he said in a speech on U.S.-China relations in Washington.
"I don't believe that it's a right approach ... for one sovereign nation to essentially try to dictate to another and say, 'If you don't do this I'm going to threaten you with a punishment,'" said Paulson, who heads the Paulson Institute at the University of Chicago.
(Additional reporting by Andy Sullivan; writing by Paul Eckert; Editing by Will Dunham)
Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/asia/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111025/ts_nm/us_usa_china
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Exclusive: National Security Agency helps banks battle hackers (Reuters)
WASHINGTON (Reuters) ? The National Security Agency, a secretive arm of the U.S. military, has begun providing Wall Street banks with intelligence on foreign hackers, a sign of growing U.S. fears of financial sabotage.
The assistance from the agency that conducts electronic spying overseas is part of an effort by American banks and other financial firms to get help from the U.S. military and private defense contractors to fend off cyber attacks, according to interviews with U.S. officials, security experts and defense industry executives.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation has also warned banks of particular threats amid concerns that hackers could potentially exploit security vulnerabilities to wreak havoc across global markets and cause economic mayhem.
While government and private sector security sources are reluctant to discuss specific lines of investigations, they paint worst-case scenarios of hackers ensconcing themselves inside a bank's network to disable trading systems for stocks, bonds and currencies, trigger flash crashes, initiate large transfers of funds or turn off all ATM machines.
It is unclear if hackers have ever been close to producing anything as dire, but the FBI says it has already helped banks avert several major cyber attacks by helping identify network vulnerabilities.
NSA Director Keith Alexander, who runs the U.S. military's cyber operations, told Reuters the agency is currently talking to financial firms about sharing electronic information on malicious software, possibly by expanding a pilot program through which it offers similar data to the defense industry. He did not provide further details on his agency's collaboration with banks.
Alexander said industry and government were making progress in protecting computer networks, but "tremendous vulnerabilities" remained. The four-star Army general noted companies that have suffered damage from hackers, such as Google Inc, Lockheed Martin Corp and Nasdaq OMX Group, had among the best security systems in the world.
"If they're getting exploited, what about the rest? We have to change that paradigm," Alexander said.
NSA, which has long been charged with protecting classified government networks from attack, is already working with Nasdaq to beef up its defenses after hackers infiltrated its computer systems last year and installed malicious software that allowed them to spy on the directors of publicly held companies. A Nasdaq spokesman confirmed the investigation into the attack continues, but declined to give further details.
OFFICIALS WORRIED
Hackers have targeted Wall Street investment banks for more than a decade, but recent attacks have been more sophisticated, coordinated and deliberate.
That makes security experts suspect the hackers were backed by countries such as China, and fueled concerns that cyber terrorists might someday use malware to wipe out crucial data and cripple networks across the financial sector.
China has repeatedly said it does not condone hacking, but experts say the evidence continues to mount against Beijing. In June, Google blamed China for an attempt to steal the passwords of hundreds of email account holders, the second major breach the Internet giant has blamed on the Chinese.
Earlier this year, security firm McAfee said hackers working in China broke into the computer systems of five global oil and gas companies to steal bidding plans and other critical proprietary information.
"We know adversaries have full unfettered access to certain networks," Shawn Henry, executive assistant director of the FBI, said without identifying the adversaries.
"Once there, they have the ability to destroy data," he said in an interview. "We see that as a credible threat to all sectors, but specifically the financial services sector."
The FBI has helped banks avert several potential attacks by alerting them to vulnerabilities in their computer networks, and by flagging possible hackers before they struck, he said.
Security experts interviewed by Reuters declined to identify any banks that may have data compromised, citing promises of confidentiality to clients, colleagues and employers that they would not to discuss the matter publicly.
Representatives of Wall Street's biggest banks including Bank of America Corp, Citigroup Inc, Goldman Sachs Group Inc and JPMorgan Chase & Co either declined to discuss security issues or were not available to comment.
TREASURE TROVE OF DATA
Former Deputy Defense Secretary William Lynn said cyber attacks could prove particularly devastating for financial institutions given the critical importance of the data stored on their networks and the need to maintain investor confidence in their security.
"You can't do transactions if you don't have reliable data," Lynn, who spearheaded the Pentagon's national cyber strategy released this summer, said in an interview.
He said more than 100 countries already have some hacking capabilities, and such tools could soon be available to rogue groups.
"You ultimately have to worry about terrorist groups gaining those capabilities, either by developing them themselves or just buying them on the open market," said Lynn, who retired earlier this month.
The NSA's work with Wall Street marks a milestone in the agency's efforts to make its cyber intelligence available more broadly to the private sector. For years, the spy agency kept such a low profile that some joked that its name stood for "No Such Agency" or "Never Say Anything."
Greater cooperation with industry became possible after a deal reached a year ago between the Pentagon and the Department of Homeland Security, allowing NSA to provide cyber expertise to other government agencies and certain private companies.
Several people familiar with the NSA's assistance to Wall Street said the agency only gets involved when banks specifically ask for its help, so as not to violate laws that restrict its ability to operate within U.S. borders. These institutions get warnings about potential attacks and can ask questions on specific problems.
The NSA and big arms makers have a treasure trove of data on hacking, including intelligence on planned attacks and libraries of malicious software code used by foreign-government supported hackers that are not available elsewhere.
Such intelligence can be "gold" to a bank's security staff, said Shane Sims, a director in the forensics practice of PricewaterhouseCoopers.
"You can cash it in," said Sims, who is investigating attacks on several banks believed to be orchestrated by foreign governments. "It just allows you to turn your environment into an early warning system so you can intercede and take action before information goes out the door."
Banks need help from the NSA because they cannot keep up with increasingly sophisticated attacks just by using technology from traditional software security firms, experts say.
About eight out of ten Wall Street firms have been infiltrated by foreign-government backed hackers, according to Tom Reilly, who helps investment banks fight hackers in his role as the head of Hewlett-Packard Co's security business.
Hemanshu Nigam, a former federal prosecutor and cyber security expert, said enemy states could launch a cyber assault when their targets were particularly vulnerable. This could be during a major crisis, such as the financial crisis in 2008, the euro zone crisis now, or at the time of a key event such as the U.S. loss of its triple-A credit rating this summer.
Investors are already worried about how quickly markets can meltdown, as trading is almost completely electronic and reliant on hair-trigger software. The Dow Jones industrial average crashed nearly 700 points in about five minutes on May 6, 2010, an unprecedented plunge that regulators said was exacerbated by algorithmic trading, panic and vacuums of liquidity.
"What you're seeing is something that can cause a global tidal wave," said the cybersecurity expert Nigam, who had worked for News Corp and Microsoft Corp.
BANKS ALSO CONSULTING DEFENSE FIRMS
The NSA first started to worry about security of financial institutions about two years ago, and has held meetings with the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and banks to address those concerns, according to Jim Lewis, a cyber expert with the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington-based think tank.
The New York Fed declined comment.
Lewis pointed the finger at China as a consistent threat. "Business espionage is a normal practice for Chinese businesses and for (government) agencies," he said.
U.S. financial institutions have also sought assistance from private defense contractors that help the U.S. government build cyber weapons and tools for defending military networks.
Companies such as Lockheed, General Dynamics Corp, Boeing Co, Northrop Grumman Corp and Raytheon Co are now competing with traditional security vendors to serve corporate America, including banks.
Defense industry executives say big Wall Street firms are asking arms makers for help in locking down critical data, including the algorithms used for trading shares, currencies and commodities.
"Other sectors are becoming increasingly concerned about such attacks and want to learn more about how we protect our data," said one defense industry executive, whose company has already worked with power companies and is now negotiating agreements with several major financial firms.
Earlier this year, the hacking of EMC Corp's RSA security division underscored the growing sophistication of hackers. RSA provides SecurID keys used by companies all over the world.
The hackers, likely backed by a foreign government, used data from the RSA breach, coupled with personal identifying information gleaned from other attacks, to break into Lockheed's computer networks.
Erin Nealy Cox, a former U.S. federal computer crimes prosecutor, said she tells banks that it's only a matter of time before their systems are breached.
"Our advice to our clients is -- it's not a matter of if, it's a matter of when," said Nealy Cox, managing director at Stroz Friedberg LLC. "We don't want to give anybody a false sense of security." (Reporting by Andrea Shalal-Esa and Jim Finkle, additional reporting by Tim McLaughlin in Boston, and Diane Bartz in Washington. Editing by Tiffany Wu and Martin Howell)
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Early farmers? fishy menu
Agriculture may not have radically changed European diets at first
Web edition : Monday, October 24th, 2011
Northern Europe?s agricultural revolution got off to a fishy start. Although farmers brought animal raising and plant growing to the region around 6,000 years ago, a healthy taste for the freshwater fish and marine life favored by local foragers lasted for at least several hundred years, a new study finds.
Based on chemical signatures of food residue from ancient cooking pots, farming?s introduction modified but did not radically transform diets in what?s now southern Sweden, northern Germany and Denmark, say archaeologist Oliver Craig of the University of York in England and his colleagues. That?s consistent with a gradual transition from fishing, hunting and gathering to farming, the scientists report in a paper published online October 24 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
?Although farming was introduced rapidly across this region of northern Europe, it may not have caused a dramatic shift from hunter-gatherer life,? Craig says.
His conclusion runs counter to a proposal that farmers swept through Europe and sent native hunter-gatherers packing (SN: 2/5/05, p. 88).
Instead, early farmers supplemented their own foods with local wild resources, including fish, when they reached coastal areas, Craig proposes. It?s also possible that foragers already living in northern Europe adopted farming practices and incorporated cultivated cereals and domesticated animals into their diet, he says.
It?s intriguing that both coastal and inland pots studied by Craig?s team continued to display signs of fish eating, but evidence for a gradual transition to agriculture remains inconclusive, remarks archaeologist Ron Pinhasi of University College Cork in Ireland. The new investigation fits with a model, proposed by Pinhasi and archaeologist Noreen von Cramon-Taubadel of the University of Kent in England, that two biological lineages of farmers spread from what?s now Turkey into Europe starting around 8,500 years ago, with cultural mixing of hunter-gatherers and farmers occurring in outlying areas such as northern Europe.
Pinhasi and von Cramon-Taubadel describe this model, based on skull measurements from 30 ancient European hunter-gatherer and farming groups, in the Oct. 7 Proceedings of the Royal Society B.
Craig?s team analyzed food residue in 133 ceramic cooking pots from 15 northern European sites dating from around 7,000 to 5,000 years ago. Foragers at some of these sites made pottery before 6,000 years ago, challenging the long-standing assumption that only farmers fashioned ceramic vessels.
About 20 percent of pots from coastal sites in Craig?s analysis contained biochemical traces of freshwater fish and marine foods such as shellfish. At inland sites, 28 percent of pots contained residues of freshwater fish. Biochemical signs of land animals and dairy products appeared in other vessels.
Fish and other aquatic foods were eaten for at least several hundred years after farmers arrived, and possibly for 1,000 years after agriculture got started in Denmark, Craig says.
He suspects that northern Europe?s first farmers herded animals from one grazing spot to another. They were probably about as mobile as hunter-gatherers already living in the region, Craig estimates.
Fully sedentary village life in northern Europe may not have arisen until 4,000 to 3,000 years ago, in Craig?s view.
Found in: Anthropology, Archaeology and Humans
Source: http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/335530/title/Early_farmers%E2%80%99_fishy_menu_
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Double duty for blood pressure drugs: How they could revolutionize how we treat valve disease
ScienceDaily (Oct. 25, 2011) ? A type of medication known as angiotensin-receptor blockers could reduce risk of mortality in people with a heart disease called calcific aortic stenosis (AS) by 30 per cent over an eight-year period, Heart and Stroke Foundation researcher Dr. Philippe Pibarot told delegates at the Canadian Cardiovascular Congress. The condition is currently managed with open heart surgery.
"Our discovery shifts how we think about AS by looking at a new pathway which both prevents and reverses calcification," says Dr. Pibarot, a professor at Laval University and Canada Research Chair in Valvular Heart Diseases, Qu?bec Heart & Lung Institute. "It broadens how we can approach therapies, opening up new avenues of research, and has tremendous potential to lead to a major discovery."
From a health economics point of view, drug treatment is also far less expensive than replacing a valve through surgery, which Dr. Pibarot says costs at least $30,000.
Every year, AS is responsible for 10,000 to 15,000 deaths in North America, and upwards of 80,000 heart surgeries. Now, this promising research suggests the first possible drug therapy to treat AS.
"AS is one of the most common types of heart disease, yet the only option to save lives has been open heart surgery. And valve replacement surgery is the second most frequent heart surgery after coronary artery bypass," says Dr. Pibarot. "We may be able to slow the progress of AS to the point that most people won't need surgery."
Picture a normal heart valve as soft and thin, like a slice of tomato, Dr. Pibarot says. Compare that to a valve that has hardened and narrowed -- more like a cauliflower. That's calcific AS, the most common type of AS, where deposits of calcium form in the valve, which prevents it from opening properly and creates a dangerous 'pressure overload' within the heart.
For years, he notes, the assumption was that AS was a degenerative disease related to aging and the cumulative wear and tear on a heart valve. But more recent studies have indicated that AS development also has some genetic and lifestyle factors (such as obesity).
As a result, several trials have looked at whether statins (a class of drugs used to lower cholesterol levels) could also be effective against AS. Those results have not been promising. Dr. Pibarot and colleagues took another approach, examining medication that is typically used to treat high blood pressure (hypertension).
The renin-angiotensin system (RAS), specifically a molecule called angiotensin II, is a major target for drugs that lower blood pressure. Some hypertension drugs block the production of angiotensin II itself -- they are known as angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors (ACE inhibitors). Other drugs focus on the receptors of angiotensin II -- angiotensin-receptor blockers (ARBs).
Over three-and-a-half years, Dr. Pibarot's study followed 340 patients who had AS, 73 per cent of whom also had some degree of hypertension. Among the patients, 34 per cent were on ACE inhibitors, 16 per cent were on ARBs, and 50 per cent were on no RAS medication.
The follow-up involved measuring the velocity of the blood across the affected valve. As Dr. Pibarot explains, just as water flows faster when a river narrows, creating rapids, a narrowing valve raises pressure too. "A quicker blood velocity means the stenosis is progressing faster," he says.
Compared to the individuals who were on no medication, those who were on ACE inhibitors had less rapid narrowing of their valve. But the biggest difference was seen in patients on ARBs, where the receptors of angiotensin II are blocked. In those patients, the progress of the disease was slowed considerably -- three times slower than in the individuals who weren't taking any medication, reports Dr. Pibarot.
In effect, he says that with ARBs the current is slower, like on a calmer river.
In the absence of a drug treatment for AS, Dr. Pibarot's findings are potentially very significant, says Heart and Stroke Foundation spokesperson Dr. Beth Abramson.
"Open heart surgery can be effective, but is risky for many patients because of their age," says Dr. Abramson. "ARBs have the potential of slowing aortic stenosis significantly, so that we can prolong life without surgery."
She says that the need to find a medication solution is even more urgent when you consider that with the aging population the prevalence of valvular heart disease is expected to double within 15 years.
The Canadian Cardiovascular Congress 2011 is co-hosted by the Heart and Stroke Foundation and the Canadian Cardiovascular Society.
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Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/~3/VPB36Jhtgyo/111025091634.htm
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Wednesday, October 26, 2011
Panel: Boys should get HPV vaccine given to girls
FILE - In this Monday, Aug. 28, 2006 file photo, a doctor holds the human papillomavirus vaccine Gardiasil in his hand at his Chicago office. The controversial HPV shot given to girls should also be given to boys, in part to help prevent the spread of the virus through sex, a government medical panel said Tuesday, Oct. 25, 2011. (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast)
FILE - In this Monday, Aug. 28, 2006 file photo, a doctor holds the human papillomavirus vaccine Gardiasil in his hand at his Chicago office. The controversial HPV shot given to girls should also be given to boys, in part to help prevent the spread of the virus through sex, a government medical panel said Tuesday, Oct. 25, 2011. (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast)
ATLANTA (AP) ? A vaccine against cervical cancer hasn't been all that popular for girls. It may be even a harder sell for boys now that it's been recommended for them too.
A government advisory panel on Tuesday decided that the vaccine should also be given to boys, in part to help prevent the cancer-causing virus through sex.
Public health officials have tried since 2006 to get parents to have their daughters vaccinated against the human papillomavirus, or HPV, which causes most of the cervical cancer in women.
They have had limited success, hitting a number of hurdles. Some parents distrust the safety of vaccines, especially newer products. Others don't want to think about their daughters having sex one day, or worry that the vaccine essentially promotes promiscuous behavior.
Tuesday's vote by the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices' was the first to strongly recommend routine vaccination for boys since the vaccine was first approved for them two years ago. Officials acknowledged the low rate in girls encouraged them to take a new, hard look.
Experts say a key benefit of routinely vaccinating boys could be preventing the spread of the virus to others through sex ? making up somewhat for the disappointing vaccination rate in girls. But the recommendation is being framed as an important new measure against cancer in males.
"Today is another milestone in the nation's battle against cancer," said Dr. Anne Schuchat, a U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention administrator who oversees the agency's immunization programs.
Federal health officials usually adopt the panel's recommendations and ask doctors and patients to follow them.
The vaccine has been advised for girls since 2006. Just 49 percent of adolescent girls have gotten at least the first of the three HPV shots. Only a third had gotten all three doses by last year.
"Pretty terrible," Schuchat said.
Schuchat attributed the low rates for girls to confusion or misunderstanding by parents that they can wait until their daughter becomes sexually active. It works best if the shots are given before a girl or boy begins having sex.
Some conservatives argue the vaccine could promote promiscuous behavior. It has come up in the GOP presidential campaign. Texas Gov. Rick Perry came under attack for a 2007 executive order requiring adolescent girls to get the vaccine (with an opt-out clause). When conservative lawmakers rebelled, he backed down.
An estimated 75 to 80 percent of men and women are infected with HPV during their life, but most don't develop symptoms or get sick, according to the CDC. Some infections lead to genital warts, cervical cancer and other cancers, including of the head and neck.
The HPV vaccine is approved for use in males and females ages 9 to 26; it is usually given to 11- and 12-year olds when they get other vaccines. The committee also recommended that males 13 to 21 years get vaccinated.
Tuesday's vote follows recent studies that show the vaccine prevents anal cancer in males, and may work against a type of throat cancer. A study that focused on gay men found it to be 75 percent effective against anal cancer.
While anal cancer has been increasing, it's still fairly rare. Only about 7,000 U.S. cases in men each year are tied to the strains targeted in the HPV vaccine. In contrast, about 15,000 vaccine-preventable cervical cancers in women occur annually.
Preventing a cancer that's primarily associated with gay men may not be much of a selling point, said Dr. Ranit Mishori, a family practice doctor in Washington, D.C. and an assistant professor at the Georgetown University School of Medicine.
Some parents may say "'Why are you vaccinating my son against anal cancer? He's not gay! He's not ever going to be gay!' I can see that will come up," said Mishori, who supports the panel's recommendation.
Schuchat indicated the CDC is ready for that kind of argument: "There's no data suggesting that offering a vaccine against HPV will change people's subsequent sexual behavior," she said.
So far, the threat of genital warts hasn't been persuasive: Some data suggest that less than 1.5 percent of adolescent males have gotten the vaccine over the past two years.
Meanwhile, some feel it's unlikely that most parents will agree to get their sons vaccinated primarily to protect girls. A survey of 600 pediatricians last year found that nearly 70 percent of doctors thought families would deem vaccination of their boys as unnecessary.
Experts at the committee meeting noted an earlier analysis that showed vaccinating boys would not be cost-effective if the female vaccination were high.
"If you do reach high coverage of females, will you stop vaccinating males?" asked Dr. David Salisbury, director immunization for the United Kingdom's Department of Health.
There are two vaccines against HPV, but Tuesday's vote applies only to Merck & Co.'s Gardasil, which costs $130 a dose. The other vaccine wasn't tested for males.
The committee's recommendation ? and the greater insurance coverage of the vaccine that is expected to follow ? will make it easier for more boys to get the shots, said Dr. Mark Feinberg, chief public health and science officer for Merck Vaccines.
Merck officials bristled at the idea that males would see the vaccine as mainly meant for gay men, noting that HPV-caused anal cancers can occur in heterosexual men.
Maura Robbins of Chicago said she's likely to have her 12-year-old son, Cole, vaccinated against HPV ? but probably not until he's a little older. "I would just like to see some long-term testing and long-term results," she said.
___
AP Medical Writer Lindsey Tanner in Chicago contributed to this report.
___
Online:
HPV info: http://www.cdc.gov/hpv/
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Tearful nurse testifies about warning to Jackson (AP)
LOS ANGELES ? A sometimes tearful nurse testified Tuesday that her efforts to save Michael Jackson from the drug he craved for sleep were rebuffed by the star who insisted he needed the powerful anesthetic that eventually killed him.
Cherilyn Lee, a nurse practitioner who tried to shift Jackson to holistic sleep aids in the months before he died, said the singer told her Dipravan, a brand name for propofol, was the only thing that would knock him out and induce the sleep he needed.
He told Lee he had experienced the drug once during surgery.
Lee almost didn't testify. She sat down in the witness box then said she felt dizzy before starting to cry.
"This is just very sensitive for me," she explained.
Superior Court Judge Michael Pastor had her taken to another room to rest, and she returned 20 minute later saying she felt better. She became tearful again while testifying that she had warned Jackson not to take the drug.
The day was also marked by poignant testimony from the head of AEG, the concert giant that planned Jackson's ill-fated "This Is It" shows in London.
Randy Phillips, the company president and chief executive officer who first proposed the concert to Jackson, said the star was excited and committed to restarting his career in London, where he could settle down with his children on a country estate "so they wouldn't be living as vagabonds."
"It was emotional," said Phillips. "I cried."
"Did he cry?" asked defense attorney Ed Chernoff.
"Yes," Phillips said softly.
Lee told of coming into Jackson's life at the beginning of 2009 and leaving just before Dr. Conrad Murray arrived. Murray has pleaded not guilty to involuntary manslaughter and is accused of giving Jackson a fatal dose of the drug Lee would not give him.
Lee recalled a meeting with the superstar at his rented mansion two months before his death.
"He was sitting very close to me," she said. "He looked at me and said, 'I have a lot of difficulty sleeping. I've tried a lot of things and I need something that will make me fall asleep right away. I need Dipravan."
Lee had never heard of the drug but did research and later told Jackson it was too dangerous to use in a home.
At one point she asked: "What if you didn't wake up?"
Jackson, however, was unswayed and adamant the drug would be safe if he had a doctor who could monitor him while he slept.
Prosecutors claim Murray abandoned Jackson after administering the fatal dose of propofol and failed to have proper life-saving and monitoring equipment on hand.
Lee was called to the stand by Murray's defense, but the impact of her testimony was mixed.
While she supported a defense theory that Jackson was doctor shopping in a desperate search for someone to give him propofol, a prosecutor seized on her warning to show Murray should have known the dangers too and refused the request by Jackson.
Under cross-examination by prosecutor David Walgren, Lee acknowledged a conversation with Jackson in which she told him: "No one who cared or had your best interest at heart would give you this."
She said her final refusal to provide the drug came on April 19, 2009, and she never saw Jackson again.
Another medical witness, Dr. Allan Metzger, testified Monday that Jackson also implored him to provide the anesthetic. Metzger also refused and instead gave the singer sleeping pills that had proven effective in the past.
Metzger saw Jackson just one day before Lee refused the request for drugs by the singer.
Attorneys for Murray, a Houston-based cardiologist, are trying to show that Jackson was a strong-willed celebrity who became the architect of his own demise when he insisted on getting the intravenous drug. They also alleged he gave himself the fatal dose after Murray left his bedroom.
Lee said she had treated Jackson for nutrition and energy issues as he prepared for his planned series of "This Is It" comeback concerts.
Lee was followed to the witness stand by Phillips, who said Jackson saw the series of appearances at the 02 Arena in London as a new beginning.
He said Jackson agreed to the plan with a few caveats: He wanted his own doctor to travel with him and a lavish country home for him and his children, complete with streams and horses.
However, in June, 2009, only weeks before they were to leave for London, Phillips said "This Is It" director Kenny Ortega became concerned about Jackson's absence from some rehearsals and there was a meeting of Jackson, Murray and the organizers. He said Murray spoke for Jackson at the meeting and said he was in good health and would be fine for the concert tour.
Phillips also said Jackson refused to be dissuaded from bringing his own doctor to London despite the expense, and Phillips agreed to hire Murray.
Judge Pastor blocked Murray's attorneys from asking Phillips about Jackson's contract.
Defense attorneys had wanted to introduce Jackson's contract to show he would have owed $40 million to the promoter if the concerts were canceled. The lawyers said Jackson would be desperate to make sure the shows continued and needed sleep to get through his rehearsals.
Pastor said there was no evidence Jackson was concerned about the money and allowing testimony about the contract might confuse jurors.
"This is not a contractual dispute. This is a homicide case," Pastor said.
___
AP Entertainment Writer Anthony McCartney contributed to this report.
___
McCartney can be reached at http://twitter.com/mccartneyAP
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Tuesday, October 25, 2011
HBT: Seven walks by Jackson? That's nothing
Edwin Jackson walked seven batters last night before being pulled from Game 4 in the sixth inning, marking the third time in his career the 28-year-old right-hander has issued seven or more walks in a game. And one of those three was a no-hitter.
It was the first time a pitcher had walked seven batters in a World Series game since Livan Hernandez in 1997 and also got me curious about which pitchers have the most seven-walk starts in baseball history.
In retrospect, I should have known the answer before looking it up. After all he was sitting in the stands, next to George W. Bush, watching Jackson?s walk-fest last night.
Via the magic of Baseball-Reference.com:
STARTS WITH 7+ WALKS Nolan Ryan 71 Bob Feller 44 Tommy Byrne 37 Bob Turley 32 Bobo Newsom 32
Amazing. Nolan Ryan walked seven or more batters 71 times, which is 61 percent more than any other pitcher in the history of baseball. Also of note is that Ryan had just 27 career starts in which he walked zero batters. My favorite Ryan pitching line might be this one. Seriously, it?s insane. I estimate his pitch count in that game at 1,572.
During the past 20 seasons Randy Johnson has the most seven-plus-walk starts with 12, followed by Oliver Perez, Darryl Kile, and Wilson Alvarez with nine apiece.
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Italy Northern League leader says agreement reached (Reuters)
ROME (Reuters) ? Italy's ruling coalition reached agreement on Tuesday on reforms ahead of a European Union summit on Wednesday but a key coalition leader said he was still pessimistic about the future of the government.
Umberto Bossi, leader of the Northern League, whose support is vital to the survival of Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's government, said it was up to the EU to decide if the reforms are enough.
"In the end we have found a way. Now we will see what the EU says," Bossi told reporters.
But asked if he was still gloomy about the chances of the government surviving disputes over economic reforms demanded by euro zone leaders, Bossi replied: "I remain pessimistic."
EU leaders, led by German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy, have demanded that Berlusconi present firm plans to promote growth and reduce Italy's massive debt in time for a summit meeting in Brussels on Wednesday.
An emergency cabinet meeting late on Monday ended without agreement after Berlusconi's coalition allies in the Northern League refused to budge on their opposition to raising the pension age to 67 years from 65 at present.
Bossi, who earlier had said the disagreement could bring down the government and force early elections, gave no details on the reforms that would be presented to Brussels but said the League still opposed raising some retirement ages.
Berlusconi, mired in scandal and facing sagging approval ratings, has survived a series of confidence votes with the help of the League but analysts widely believe he cannot last much longer, with many expecting elections next spring.
The threat of a government breakdown comes as Italy takes center stage in the euro zone crisis, with concerns mounting over its ability to keep from losing control over a 1.8 trillion euro debt pile and putting the entire bloc at risk.
The euro zone's third largest economy relies on intervention by the European Central Bank to keep its borrowing costs at manageable levels. As the government has continued to dither over reform, markets have become increasingly nervous.
Yields on Italian 10-year bonds are just under 6 percent, not far short of levels they reached in August when the ECB stepped in and started buying Italian bonds on the market to keep its borrowing costs at manageable levels.
HUMILIATION
As ministers scrambled to hammer out a deal in time for the Wednesday deadline, Matteoli said there would be no cabinet meeting but that Berlusconi might still have proposals to take to Brussels.
"If there is an agreement, the prime minister will take it to Europe. We can pass the provision later," he said.
Silvano Moffa, a lawmaker in one of the small coalition parties who was present at one of the meetings on Tuesday, said Berlusconi would send a letter to Brussels with proposals later in the evening.
The League, a regional pro-devolution party with a constituency including many small business owners and pensioners, has been firmly opposed to raising the pension age and Bossi has been under pressure from grassroots supporters increasingly disillusioned with Berlusconi.
Berlusconi has reacted angrily to pressure from Germany and France to enact reforms. He issued a statement on Monday declaring that no EU country was in a position to give lessons to its partners.
Perceived slights, such as a news conference in Brussels where Merkel and Sarkozy exchanged ironic smiles and laughter following a question about whether they were reassured after meeting Berlusconi, have caused some bitterness in Italy.
On Tuesday, President Giorgio Napolitano called on the government to show a credible commitment to reform but said expressions of mistrust at Italy's engagement were "inappropriate and unpleasant."
European Commission spokesman Amadeu Altafaj said the Commission had no intention of humiliating Italy but needed details on its reform plans.
Italy, once seen as safe from the crisis because of a relatively low deficit, a conservative financial system and high private savings, saw its debt come under fire from investors in July.
It has since passed a series of reforms, but has failed to convince markets worried that the deep divisions in the government will stymie painful measures aimed at cutting the debt and boosting the stagnant economy. Over recent weeks, the main ratings agencies have all downgraded Italy.
Underlining the gloomy state of the economy, data on Tuesday showed consumer morale in October fell to its lowest level since July 2008.
Economy Minister Giulio Tremonti has promised a package of reforms that would open up closed professions, cut red tape and raise revenue though steps such as privatizations and a new wealth tax, but the measures have been repeatedly delayed.
(Additional reporting by Giselda Vagnoni and Alberto Sisto; Writing by Philip Pullella and James Mackenzie; Editing by Peter Graff)
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