Debt crisis: German finance ministry examines cost of Greek exit

"Colleagues are making calculations about the financial consequences [of an exit] and are considering how a domino effect on other euro member states might be prevented," it quoted a finance industry source as saying.

The ten-member working group, which is made up of officials from various finance ministry departments, wanted to be fully prepared for a possible "negative scenario," the source added.

Last week, German finance minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said it would be ?stupid? not to make contingency plans in case Europe's rescue efforts failed, adding that the debt crisis must not become a ?bottomless pit? for Germany.

Mrs Merkel is expected to urge Greek prime minister Antonis Samaras to stick with tough reforms aimed at putting the country's public finances back on a sustainable path when the two leaders meet in Berlin this afternoon.

Following a meeting with French president Francois Hollande on Thursday, the German Chancellor said: "It?s important to me that we all stand by our obligations and wait for the troika report and see what the result is.

"I will encourage Greece to pursue the path of reform that demands a lot from the people."

Earlier this week, Mr Samaras told German daily Bild that Greece need "room to breathe" on its austerity targets, as he warned that a Greek exit from the eurozone could end democracy in the country.

Source: http://telegraph.feedsportal.com/c/32726/f/579300/s/22af80ab/l/0L0Stelegraph0O0Cfinance0Cfinancialcrisis0C94963970CDebt0Ecrisis0EGerman0Efinance0Eministry0Eexamines0Ecost0Eof0EGreek0Eexit0Bhtml/story01.htm

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California anti-paparazzi law faces legal challenge

LOS ANGELES (AP) ? The lawyer for a paparazzo charged with recklessly pursuing photos of Justin Bieber says he is challenging the constitutionally of a new law.

Attorney David S. Kestenbaum says it violates the First Amendment and is overly broad. He represents Paul Raef, a celebrity photographer who was charged July 25 with four counts, including reckless driving with the intent to capture pictures for commercial gain, following another vehicle too closely and reckless driving.

A hearing on Kestenbaum's motion is set for Sept. 24. Kestenbaum says Raef has not been booked because he is the first person charged under the 2010 law and police did not recognize it.

The charges stem from a July 6 high-speed freeway pursuit involving Bieber and photographers.Calif. anti-paparazzi law

Source: http://www.masslive.com/entertainment/index.ssf/2012/08/california_anti-paparazzi_law.html

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Guest Opinion: What the New Spotify Numbers Really Mean ...

Attorney and entrepreneur Mikael Pawlo wrote this guest post for Evolver.fm

?If music needed saving I?d die for it.?

That?s what Spotify director of product Michelle Kadir used to put in her Twitter bio.

Indeed, the music industry has been suffering ever since Shawn Fanning?and his friend Sean Parker launched Napster back in 1999. Or did the problems start?earlier? Perhaps with the tape recorder? Is streaming here to save it?

Back in 2000, the late, legendary Gnutella developer and car enthusiast Gene Kan wrote at CNET in a guest post much like this one:

?Music?s mechanization packs 500 audio CDs onto a hard disk smaller than my mobile phone, all?downloaded from the Internet. The question is whether traditional recording companies will choose?to be a constructive part of that experience. Technology?s march is random and unstoppable. Business?employs Technology but cannot enslave it. The new economy is about shifting gears to embrace and?exploit technologies as consumers adopt an Internet lifestyle. Anyone stuck in first will be left in the?digital tire smoke.?

This week, Computer Sweden broke the news?about Spotify?s?annual report for fiscal year 2011. It showed massive losses, and a dependency on paying subscribers,?according to Computer Sweden?s interpretation. Spotify streams music for free with ads, or?for a premium fee without ads, which is known as the ?freemium? model. The company launched?in the USA last summer, and is now aiming for Canada, but it originally?launched in Sweden late 2008, where it is now the dominant distribution system for digital music ? that is to say all music.?Founded by Daniel Ek and Martin Lorentzon, Spotify introduced a new way of streaming music?through peer-to-peer technology, making a vast amount of songs available at your fingertips.

Back to the annual report: The figures unearthed by Computer Sweden are, as of today, splashed all over the Internet. In short, Spotify had?a revenue of 187.8 MEUR (about $235 million) ?in 2011; 32.8 million registered users; and 2.6 million paying subscribers (a number that has now exceeded four million). But these?figures are not interesting per se. The interesting question is: Does it work?

The answer: It actually might.

There are a lot of challenges with a business model like Spotify?s. Users churn, labels might withdraw,?license fees could go up, the margins are tight, mobile carriers and ISPs could charge for access,?artists might think they get too little in compensation, technology offers its own hurdles, competition is fierce, and?so forth. The big question, as with all disruptive business model is, however, do the users like the?service? The figures in the annual report suggest that they do.

According to what a Spotify executive [whom Pawlo prefers not to name because this was an informal conversation, but whose identity is known to?Evolver.fm]?told me today in an informal interview, some 26 percent of active users convert into premium users [ed. note: indeed, 4/15?= 26.6 percent]. That is a staggering?figure.

Computer Sweden?s calculation, based on the annual report, showed that only 8 percent of all?registered users ? including ?churned? users, meaning people who registered but didn?t keep using it ? converted into paying subscribers. Even that figure is?unheard of in most freemium cases. In the music industry, all of a sudden, most of the?income is coming from downloads and streaming. In Europe, Spotify plays a big part of that. In the?USA, still services like Pandora and iTunes have a stronghold. Even so, digital music is happening, in a?fashion hard to foresee back in 2000 when Gene Kan issued his warning.

Even though Spotify is still expanding at high cost, and will most probably need even more money, its?model might work after all, despite the worrying of late about the 8 percent figure, which comes from registered and not active users. It is all a question of volume and perseverance. Artists will get paid, as?will labels, and even Spotify might be able to keep a small piece of the pie, even though it?s mostly?crumbles left.

Ultimately, Daniel Ek?s company might actually ending up saving the music industry by shifting gears, as Kan put it ? and without Michelle Kadir needing to take any?unnecessary?risks.

This is a guest post by Mikael Pawlo (@mpawlo), whose last guest post for this editor was published?eleven years ago?this week.?Pawlo is an Internet entrepreneur with interests in i-gaming (Mr Green), app gaming?(Baudelaire?s Horse), cognitive behavioral psychology online (Wemind), dating (Happy Pancake),?peer-to-peer video streaming (Peerialism) and load testing (Load Impact). He has steered?clear of the music industry in his professional life, though. Too complicated. He used to debate copyright, but discovered?life was too short.

Source: http://evolver.fm/2012/08/24/guest-opinion-what-the-new-spotify-numbers-really-mean/

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Canada to maintain presence in Buffalo after consulate closes

The Canadian government will maintain a much-reduced presence in Buffalo after the Canadian Consulate here closes on Monday, The Buffalo News has learned.

Canadian officials have assured lawmakers and business leaders on this side of the border that one or two full-time employees will be posted in Buffalo to continue providing some of the services offered by the 75-person consulate staff at One HSBC Center downtown.

While elected officials and members of the business community still decry Ottawa?s decision to shutter the Buffalo consulate, they praised the Canadian plan for a small office, whose employees are expected to report to the New York City consulate.

?The fact that the consulate will have a continued presence in Buffalo is great news for preserving our trade and border relationship with our neighbor, and for promoting job growth and economic activity here in Western New York,? Sen. Charles E. Schumer, D-N.Y., who joined local business leaders in lobbying the Canadian government to keep some personnel in Buffalo, said in a statement.

?It?s expected the small staff will handle issues of trade and intergovernmental relations, which were key services provided by the employees of the consulate.

Officials involved in cross-border issues said they hope the size of the consular office in Buffalo will grow in the coming years as Canadian officials realize how busy the remaining employees are.

?It?s not the best solution by any stretch of the imagination, but I?m at least relieved that they recognize the importance of the bilateral relationship,? said Chris Johnston, president of World Trade Center Buffalo Niagara.

The Canadian government announced in May that it planned to close the consulate, which took up two floors of the HSBC tower, because of budget cuts and a shift in immigration policy that now lets foreign nationals living in Southern Ontario make changes to their visas online instead of at the consulate in Buffalo.

The immigration section, which employed 45 people, closed in June. The 30 other employees, who worked in trade, public affairs, administration and other sections, have been leaving over the past month or two but their final day on the job is Monday.

Business leaders and elected officials in Western New York, Albany and Washington expressed dismay at the closing but could not convince the Canadian government to change its mind.

However, Schumer, Buffalo Niagara Partnership President and CEO Andrew J. Rudnick and others involved in binational issues urged Canadian officials not to completely desert this region at a time when cross-border trade is rising.

They also argued that companies on both sides of the border rely on consular staff for help in navigating American and Canadian regulations.

?Given the fact that the Canadians have failed to reverse their unwise and counterproductive decision to close the consulate, securing boots on the ground to facilitate cross-border commerce and more is a very positive result,? said Schumer, who made his case to John Baird, the Canadian foreign affairs minister, in June.

Officials familiar with the Canadian government?s commitment said nothing is set in stone but added Ottawa has agreed to maintain a presence in Buffalo.

swatson@buffnews.comnull

Source: http://www.buffalonews.com/city/article1020395.ece

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Hurricane Andrew, 20 years later

The 1992 Category 5 storm that left a path of destruction eventually forced an overhaul of Florida's building codes. NBC's Kerry Sanders, who covered Hurricane Andrew 20 years ago, reports on the anniversary.

By Alan Boyle

As Floridians wait to see what Tropical Storm Isaac will do, they're also remembering a storm that changed lives 20 years ago today.

Hurricane Andrew blasted onto the Florida coast on Aug. 24, 1992, and in the days that followed, the storm left 26 dead, 126,000 homes damaged or destroyed, and $26.5 billion in total damage. The toll was so great that it forced Florida to strengthen its building codes and enforce them more rigorously. Some who lived through the hurricane are still in awe of its power.

"Just to see what that kind of a storm can do, and how it can totally displace your life ... it's just amazing," said Stacy Linfors, who weathered the storm with her neighbors in the Miami area.

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Today, researchers can model the force of Category 5 hurricanes like Andrew using research tools such as the "Wall of Wind" at Florida International University's International Hurricane Research Center. At the center's hangar-sized facility, 12 giant fans can whip up winds measuring up to 157 mph, blasting away the roof of a house that's built to pre-Andrew standards.

"The nation is better off" thanks to the lessons learned from Andrew, said Erik Salna, the center's associate director.

NASA / GOES

A composite image based on GOES-7 satellite data shows Hurricane Andrew moving from the Caribbean Sea, across Florida and on to the Gulf of Mexico, on Aug. 23, 24 and 25, 1992.

Where in the Cosmos
To mark the Hurricane Andrew anniversary, we featured a composite image showing the storm's passage over Florida as today's "Where in the Cosmos" picture puzzle on the Cosmic Log Facebook page. This picture shows the storm's position on Aug. 23, 24 and 25, 1992, as seen from orbit by the GOES-7 satellite.

Twenty years since Andrew hit, meteorologists can get a much better picture of a storm's expected route, not only because of enhanced satellite capabilities, but also because of more extensive data-collection networks and more sophisticated computer modeling for weather phenomena. Such tools indicate that Isaac is highly unlikely to become as destructive as Andrew was.

It didn't take long for Shawn Harness, Deena Perleberg and Darron Sands to recognize the satellite imagery as Andrew's track. They're eligible to receive 3-D glasses in the mail, courtesy of Microsoft Research's WorldWide Telescope project, in recognition fo their quick wits and fast typing fingers. Those red-blue specs will come in handy for looking at 3-D images of Hurricane Andrew and other storm imagery.

Click the "like" button for the Cosmic Log Facebook page and get ready for next Friday's "Where in the Cosmos" contest.

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Alan Boyle is NBCNews.com's science editor. Connect with the Cosmic Log community by "liking" the log's?Facebook page, following?@b0yle on Twitter?and adding the?Cosmic Log page?to your Google+ presence. To keep up with Cosmic Log as well as NBCNews.com's other stories about science and space, sign up for the Tech & Science newsletter, delivered to your email in-box every weekday. You can also check out?"The Case for Pluto,"?my book about the dwarf planet and the search for new worlds.

Source: http://cosmiclog.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/08/24/13462465-hurricane-andrew-20-years-later?lite

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How to Teach a Horse the Rules of the Road

Last week, just outside of Popular Mechanics? headquarters in midtown Manhattan, a carriage horse named Oreo broke loose of its carriage and began running amok around Columbus Circle near Central Park. The horse injured three people before officers could tranquilize it.

Although horse-drawn carriages are common on the streets and avenues of midtown Manhattan, it?s rare to hear about a serious accident involving a carriage and a car. In fact, in the past 30 years, only three horses have died because of car-related collisions in New York, though a series of minor accidents have led some activists to call for a ban on horse-drawn carriages.

All of this brings up the question: Just how do you teach a horse the rules of the road and share it with those loud, exhaust-belching cars?

Amish Country

Stephen Malone, a carriage driver and spokesperson for the Horse and Carriage Association of New York says that most of the horses in the city were raised around cars, people, and roads before ever setting hoof in Manhattan. "The horses mostly come from Amish country [in Pennsylvania]," he says.

The Amish mostly used the horses for long-distance drives on reasonably populated roads, but that doesn?t always mean that a horse will take well to city life?it depends a lot upon the horse?s personality too.

Malone, for instance, recently made a trip to Pennsylvania to bring back two horses for training in the city. The previous owners warned him that one of the horses was "more spirited" than the other and probably wouldn?t take well to working in a metropolis. Malone actually found just the opposite. The calmer horse of the two "didn?t take well to the city," and before he made his first ride, he was sent back to Pennsylvania. The bulk of a carriage horse?s day is spent waiting around for its next passengers, so if a horse?s temperament isn?t calm enough to stand in one place for an extended period of time, it won?t do well in the city.

Usually, the first few weeks of a horse?s life in New York are spent in either in the stables or out for cautious, sometimes passengerless rides around midtown. Malone will take out as many as three other footmen with him when first breaking in a new carriage horse. "I?ll have two or three guys on either side of the horse when I first take them out," Malone says. "It?s all about safety."

John McNally, a Central Park carriage driver, says the rules of the road become deeply ingrained into all of the 68 horses allowed on New York City streets each day and night. After a few weeks of driving passengers in the city and being steered by their driver's reigns, the horses get the hang of stop-and-start city driving. "Usually it doesn?t take too long [for a horse to acclimate] because they?re already used to traffic patterns," he says.

Still, you can?t train an animal for everything that it might see in the big city. In Oreo?s accident, the horse got spooked after construction workers threw debris from some scaffolding as Oreo and his carriage trotted by. The unfamiliar noise startled the horse and he jackknifed. The driver got down to lead the horse by his harness, but Oreo ripped out of his carriage and bolted down the street.

But even out on his own, Oreo?s training came in handy, Malone says. The horse stopped in a line of cars waiting at a red light, allowing a few bystanders to lead the horse out of traffic and onto the sidewalk.

Equine Litigation

Can a horse get a ticket? It surely comes as no surprise to cyclists who?ve been ticketed for traffic violations, but yes, New York treats horse-drawn carriages much the same ways as the cars they share the roads with. The carriage owner is legally liable, as you would be if you rear-ended another car. "We have to pay a lot in insurance," Malone says.

The police department makes no distinction between what Malone calls incidents and accidents. A horse dropping its carriage and stalling traffic but not injuring anyone is classified as an accident the same way a collision is. "Once they [the horses] are moving, of course you can get ticketed," McNally says. "It is like a car. There are many ways you can get ticketed."

Of course, this isn?t the way it is with animal/car road-sharing around the world; cows famously have the right of way on India?s infamously treacherous roads. But generally, the U.S. has strict laws governing how animals used for transport are treated. The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals is responsible for monitoring the health of Central Park carriage horses throughout the year. New footmen must go through a difficult class and test with the New York City Department of Health before they can get on the road as apprentices.

Source: http://www.popularmechanics.com/cars/news/industry/how-to-teach-a-horse-the-rules-of-the-road-11988298?src=rss

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'Smart catheters' for the major problem of catheter-related infections

ScienceDaily (Aug. 23, 2012) ? A new "smart catheter" that senses the start of an infection, and automatically releases an anti-bacterial substance, is being developed to combat the problem of catheter-related blood and urinary tract infections, scientists reported in Baltimore on August 23 at the 244^th National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society.

Dipankar Koley, Ph.D., who delivered the report, said the "smart catheter" technology is being developed for both catheters inserted into blood vessels and the urinary tract.

"About 1.5 million healthcare-associated infections are reported in the United States alone each year, resulting in 99,000 deaths and up to $45 billion in extra health care costs," said Koley.

"Urinary tract infections, as one example, are the most common source of institutionally acquired infections in both acute care hospitals and long-term care facilities," said Koley, whose report focused on early developmental work on the technology. "Our smart catheter is being developed in response to that need."

Koley, a post-doctoral researcher in the lab of Mark Meyerhoff, Ph.D., at the University of Michigan, said the research team (including Chuanwu Xi, Ph.D., and Jianfeng Wu, Ph.D., in the School of Public Health at U of M) calls the new device an "electromodulated smart catheter." He explained that bacterial infections can start on the surface of catheters, soft, flexible tubes inserted into blood vessels to deliver medication and for other purposes, and into the urinary tract of patients to drain urine. Some of the 30 million urinary catheters inserted each year, for instance, remain in place briefly, such as during surgical procedures. Other patients require long-term catheterization, such as patients undergoing kidney dialysis, and people in intensive care units and long-term care facilities. Many already are in frail health or are critically ill. Thus, major efforts are underway in health care settings to prevent catheter-related infections.

Infection-fighting catheters already are available, and work by releasing antibiotic substances, Koley said. These are "unintelligent catheters," however, releasing the substances continuously, and thus soon become depleted and lose their antibiotic effect. The new smart catheter senses the start of an infection, and only then releases its antibiotic substance, which is nitric oxide (NO). In lab experiments lasting 7 days, test catheters have continued to release NO, and Koley and colleagues believe that can be extended to weeks.

The smart catheter works by chemically sensing changes in the pH, or acid-base environment, around the catheter. Certain changes signal the critical point when bacteria have formed a sticky film on the catheter, and their numbers have increased to the point where a health-jeopardizing infection begins. At that point, the catheter "turns on" and releases NO, which disrupts the bacterial films and stops an infection. It then switches "off," preserving its reserves of NO-generating material.

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by American Chemical Society, via EurekAlert!, a service of AAAS.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.

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Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/most_popular/~3/A6xY9AgJyUg/120823161915.htm

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