Category: News

KHN’s Mary Agnes Carey and Eric Pianin talk about new optimism among liberal Democrats that a public option will be included in the final health overhaul bill. They also discuss Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s determination to have a bill soon. View the HOTH video or listen to the audio version (mp3).

Transcript:

JACKIE JUDD: Good day. I am Jackie Judd with Health on the Hill, a conversation about efforts to pass health care reform legislation. Joining me, Mary Agnes Carey of Kaiser Health News and Eric Pianin, also of Kaiser Health News. Welcome to you both. Over the weekend, it became apparent that the public option, the discussion of the public option has been revived. What happened?

MARY AGNES CAREY: It’s an amazing story. If you look back at the Town Hall meetings in August, a lot of opposition, loud opposition to the public plan. About a month ago, the Senate Finance Committee took a vote and did not vote for the public plan to be included in the Senate Finance Bill. At that point, a lot of analysts thought it was dead.

I think there has been a lot of pushback from progressive groups, from Democrats who have said now wait a minute, this debate is about choice and we want the public plan in there to provide choice to millions of Americans to help in the Democrats’ words and the words of President Obama “keep health insurers honest.” I think there was a very strong pushback and this is where we are now.

JACKIE JUDD: And what are the range of ideas now when we say the public plan, both in the House and the Senate?

MARY AGNES CAREY: There is debate over what the rates would be paid, for example, and the more robust option in the House had considered in the past was setting provider rates, what was paid to the doctors and physicians, tagging that to the Medicare reimbursement rates, or perhaps adding 5-percent additional for physicians.

There seems to be more support coalescing behind a public plan where the rates are negotiated, so it means you wouldn’t save as much money, but it may be more political acceptable to folks, and now there is a discussion about putting the public plan into the Bill, letting states opt out if they choose.

JACKIE JUDD: And what does the White House think of all this discussion?

ERIC PIANIN: Well, I think the White House is very excited that the prospects of improved or passage of health care reform this fall. The President desperately wants to have a Bill on his desk. I think that there still is some real tension between the White House and Congressional Leaders over the best approach and what form of public option would be most saleable and politically wise.

JACKIE JUDD: What signals did you pick up on over the weekend about what the White House would like the public option to look like at this moment?

ERIC PIANIN: I think the President and his advisors want what many people think is a relatively weak version of the public option. They don’t want the public option to take effect immediately. Instead, they want to see how the legislation works out.

If, down the road in certain states, citizens are not afforded adequate insurance at reasonable prices, if in some states 95-percent of the citizens do not have the option of getting affordable insurance, then this public option would trigger in. And I think that there is a feeling on the Hill, particularly among liberal Democrats including Harry Reid the Senate Majority Leader that is too weak a version.

What they would prefer is what Mary Agnes was discussing, this provision where you create a public option, if states want to opt out of it they may, but for the rest of the country there would be a public option.

JACKIE JUDD: And what is the political calculation that the White House would at this moment support? What is the most cautious approach to a public option?

ERIC PIANIN: Well, I think that the President at this point would prefer the trigger mechanism and I think part of it is a concern that many conservative Democrats who have to run for reelection next year would have a very tough time defending a robust public option. They want the weakest version, if you will, and the trigger mechanism certainly fills that Bill.

JACKIE JUDD: Okay and on Capitol Hill, Senator Reid, the Senate Majority Leader, is trying to cobble together a single Bill from the two committee Bills. What is the status of that?

MARY AGNES CAREY: The negotiations are ongoing with members of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee as well as the Finance Committee. We have had White House representatives in the room. They are hoping to finalize the discussions this week, get a Bill to the Congressional Budget Office, also known as the CBO, to give a score to see if it will hit that $900 billion mark that the President has set and if it doesn’t they would have to make adjustments but they want to see what the price tag is because they have told members that they want to do that before the Bill goes to the floor.

JACKIE JUDD: But we don’t know the contours of it yet.

MARY AGNES CAREY: We don’t know yet. Of course, they are negotiating; for example, the Bills differ on things like would there be an employer mandate? It is in the HELP Committee Bill, not in the Senate Finance Bill. How would the individual mandate work? The HELP Committee Bill has a very robust public option. The Senate Finance Bill has this co-op provision that had been inserted, so we have to see how they work out those differences.

JACKIE JUDD: Okay, thank you to both, and thank you for joining us. I’m Jackie Judd.

In just about every other movie or TV show we watch, at least one of the characters (if not half the cast) is rocking the iPhone. For example: Have you seen Chuck? If not, you definitely should — it’s a great show — but it has more Apples than Granny Smith.

Sooner or later, one of these shows is going to have a reason to destroy an iPhone on camera. Up until now, the prop folks have only read had two options: Smash a real iPhone to pieces, or recreate the iPhone in one-off prop form. Depending on the size of the production, either of those options might be a bit too pricey. Enter: the iPhone dummy.

Facebook launched a new version of its Share button today. This includes a live counter and analytics. When you use the new share button on your content, you can measure engagement and view the number of shares, likes, comments made, and clicks back to your site.

"Share analytics bring new opportunities to show how content is being shared on Facebook, such as Techmeme for selecting top stories and bit.ly for analyzing URL traffic," a spokesperson for Facebook tells WebProNews. "The new Share button is among the easiest Facebook Connect widgets to install and can be added to any website with just a few lines of code."

To get the share button, go to Facebook’s widgets page. From there, you can set up how you want it to look and retrieve the appropriate code.

The Facebook share button can be a tremendous contributor to the driving of traffic via the social network. Once Facebook updates begin appearing in Bing results (and possibly Google if Google makes a deal with Facebook) search and share buttons should combine for some major measurable traffic.

According to Facebook, users share over 2 billion pieces of content on the social network each week. Most of that, the company says, is facilitated by Facebook Share buttons across the web. More on the new share button here.
 
Related Articles:

> Facebook Can Drive More Traffic Than Google

> Facebook Pages to Get Click Through Rates

> TweetMeme Bringing Analytics to the Retweet Table

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Nothing says “please rob me blind” like riding a foot-powered scooter and housing your iPhone in a dedicated quiver-like sash that exposes the top-most part of the device, logo and all.

But if you’re confident in your ability to maneuver your scooter safely out of harm’s way or you live in some sort of suburban utopia where nobody gets their i-Products stolen, then perhaps the $20 Strap Pocket for iPhone will appeal to you.

It’s made of light and durable and Neoprene and works with all generations of iPhone and iPod touch models (and, of course, other similarly-sized gadgets). There’s a main pocket for the device, a smaller pocket for headphones, and a buckle for attaching it to a full-sized bag “for additional fail-safe security,” according to the product description.

Strap Pocket for iPhone / iPod / Mobilephone [USBfever.com]

Our favorite iPhone outlaw, geohot, has released an update to the iPhone jailbreak software blackra1n. Dubbed RC2 the update addresses several issues including:

• Fixes 3G signal issues
• Tethered jailbreak for 3.1 OOTB iPod touch 8GB and new 3GS’
• Fixes issues with package software”Icy“
• Versions for both Windows and Mac now available

No need to rerun blackra1n if you already applied RC1 successfully, but for those of you who have not been able to crack into your iPiece take RC2 for a spin. Let us know how it goes!

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WNYC’s excellent radio program On The Media this week decided to spend an hour discussing the music industry. It’s quite well done, in that it highlights how this is actually a great time in the music industry for musicians and fans — with the only party really in trouble being the old record labels. The program talks to numerous knowledgeable people, including James Boyle, Amanda Palmer, Greg Kot and others. The one section, however, that I thought was a bit weak, was the section on live shows. That section only focused large stadium/amphitheater shows — the kind that only a very small number of bands deal with. It doesn’t even mention the much more common forms of touring and live shows. Furthermore, that section only seemed to talk to one individual — a smaller concert promoter who used the part to basically bash Live Nation. Now there are things you can complain about with Live Nation (though, I’d argue that they’ve got a much better understanding of where the market is heading than most people give them credit for based on conversations I’ve had with Live Nation folks), but that segment was incredibly one-sided.

The other thing that I found incredibly telling was that the person who sounded most out of date and most in denial was not the RIAA representatives (who actually sounded at least somewhat circumspect on how the music industry was changing), but Rob Levine from Billboard Magazine, who still insists that it makes no sense to pay attention to “those who steal music.” He brushes aside the band Ok Go for just doing “ok” as if you don’t count unless you go platinum in record sales. He dismisses things done “as a hobby” as simply not mattering. He is, of course, defending Billboard’s obsolete “charts” which are still based mostly on CD sales and radio play, but just comes across as someone who doesn’t even realize what he’s measuring (at 43:15 on the podcast):

“Right, okay, the one thing that does skew our ratings is that older people buy more music. They steal less music…. So like, you know, a Bruce Springsteen or a Madonna might overperform on the album sales chart relative to some more subjective measure of their popularity. But as far as like who’s stealing what… I mean, what use is that?”

And that, right there, is why Billboard has become so obsolete. It’s lead by people who think that file sharing is “stealing” and that it’s meaningless in figuring out where the money is in music. It ignores the studies that have shown that people who download also end up buying more music. It ignores the studies that show people who download are more likely to attend a show or buy merchandise (things that Billboard doesn’t appear to think matter at all in the industry). It’s as if Billboard wanted to judge the popularity of the transportation industry by judging how many buggy whips are sold. Yes, as automobiles became more popular, buggy whip sales declined. Sucks to be you if you’re focused just on measuring buggy ship sales, but the problem is that you’re measuring the wrong thing.

Instead, the guy who sounds like he’s really looking to the future is Duncan Freeman, of the site Band Metrics, who shows that the really important thing is not figuring out how many CDs are being sold, but how much fans are devoted to an artist (disclosure: I’ve met Duncan a few times at events, and talk to him occasionally about the music industry — he’s also given me an account on Band Metrics to check it out, even though it’s not yet fully public — though, I actually haven’t used it yet). The program shows how a band can actually figure out where their biggest fans are, where they’re getting the most buzz, and actually helps bands better connect with fans in multiple ways — not just on the old model of selling them more CDs.

Oh yeah, one other point. Some Hollywood lawyers were getting on my case earlier this year, every time I claimed that the RIAA announced last year that it was no longer suing end users, even though it did keep suing. Those lawyers insisted that the RIAA said no such thing (even though that’s what all of the press reported). In this podcast, the RIAA’s Jonathan Lamy repeats: “Last December, we officially announced that we would end the litigation program against end users.” Except it hasn’t.

Overall, the program is a really great hour’s worth of discussion on the types of things we regularly talk about here, and well worth a listen if you’re interested in these things.

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TopTenReviews, an Ogden, Utah-based provider of expert tech and entertainment reviews, has acquired the consumer media division of  Imaginova Inc. No financial terms were disclosed for the deal, which includes Space.com, LiveScience.com and Newsarama.com. TopTenReviews raised $6 million in 2007 from Highway 12 Ventures and Village Ventures.

PRESS RELEASE
TopTenREVIEWS today announced it has acquired the Consumer Media Division of Imaginova Inc., a privately held company based in New York City. Included in the acquisition are Space.com, LiveScience.com and Newsarama.com. As part of the ongoing expansion, TopTenREVIEWS has established the TechMediaNetwork to incorporate these properties.

TopTenREVIEWS, the 4th largest technology news site according to September 2009 U.S. comScore Media Metrix data, joins Space.com, LiveScience.com and Newsarama.com as TechMediaNetwork properties, a network encompassing technology, science and entertainment. Combined, 12.2 million people visit TechMediaNetwork sites each month.

“This acquisition expands TopTenREVIEWS’ coverage as a trusted technology adviser and strengthens the company as a source of technology news,” said TopTenREVIEWS founder and CEO Jerry Ropelato. “We see strong potential for growth in traffic and revenue as a result of the synergy between the sites.”

TopTenREVIEWS is a privately held technology review Web site covering software, Web services, consumer electronics and entertainment, offering millions of reviews in more than 350 categories. With Space.com, LiveScience.com and Newsarama.com, TopTenREVIEWS expands its coverage to include news and information about technology, science and comic genre entertainment, in addition to content about purchasing the best technology and entertainment products. TopTenREVIEWS will expand its coverage of consumer reviews to include products and services related to the new properties.

“Creating TechMediaNetwork is a natural progression in our company’s goal to create a more comprehensive network of technology and entertainment news, information and purchasing advice,” said Stan Bassett, president of TopTenREVIEWS. “Our new tech network broadens our ability to educate people on a wider range of topics – from astronomy to health to computer security.”

The sites, each brand leaders in their markets, will remain fundamentally the same. The science properties syndicate original content to the following news portals: Yahoo!, MSNBC, AOL, USA Today and FoxNews.com. TopTenREVIEWS will also continue the relationships Imaginova had with the scientific community, including the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), while expanding its technology and entertainment coverage.

Space enthusiasts visit Space.com for compelling content about space science, astronomy and exploration news. Launched in 1999, Space.com has enjoyed the past management participation of several key space-related public figures.

LiveScience.com is the leading source for groundbreaking developments in health, the environment and technology. It is the 2007 winner of the Online Journalism Award for Specialty Journalism among large Web sites, by the Online News Association (ONA). Known for its ability to convert often complex concepts into simple explanations, LiveScience attracts millions of visitors each month.

Newsarama.com provides comprehensive coverage and commentary of comics and genre-related entertainment. It won the 2008 Eisner Award for Best Comics-Related Periodical/Journalism. Entertainment Weekly included Newsarama in its list of “100 Greatest Websites,” and the American Library Association lists it as a research resource in the field of comics.

Founded in 2003, TopTenREVIEWS.com provides consumers with side-by-side product and pricing comparisons to help them research, shop and purchase technology and entertainment products and services. To fuel growth, TopTenREVIEWS received a Series A investment from venture capital firms Highway 12 Ventures and Village Ventures in June 2008. The investment in TopTenREVIEWS built on the success of the initially self-funded company’s vision to change the way consumers shop for technology and entertainment products and services by providing helpful, accurate and unbiased reviews and resources.

To learn more about TechMediaNetwork, visit www.techmedianetwork.com. For more information about TopTenREVIEWS, visit: www.toptenreviews.com/about-us.html. For more information on LiveScience, visit: www.livescience.com; Space.com, www.space.com; and Newsarama, www.newsarama.com.

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Rumors are abound that Nokia may be looking to release a new version of its Booklet 3G netbook sometime next year.

I use the term “rumors” loosely as the basic idea seems to be that Compal Electronics, the company that manufactures the current Booklet 3G, is “working overtime to satisfy demand,” according to DigiTimes and, therefore, “market rumors are circulating that Nokia will take advantage of its current netbook momentum by releasing a new version in 2010.”

Yes, that does indeed sound plausible — why not? A computer product released in 2009 that sells well would probably see some sort of update in 2010. And as chipsets get smaller and faster, it’d be silly for Nokia to just sit on a single Booklet offering.

Now information about when a new model would be released might be more helpful. If Nokia’s going to push one out on January 1st or something, it might be a good idea to hold off on buying the current Booklet 3G. From the sounds of it, though, it doesn’t seem like we’re anywhere close to a situation like that:

“Compal is expected to have a good chance of landing the orders, according to the report. However, no special insight was provided as to why Compal will receive the orders except for the fact that the Taiwan-based notebook maker is currently Nokia’s netbook manufacturing partner.”

So take this news with a grain of salt. If the current Booklet 3G is successful, though, it’d be odd if Nokia didn’t update the line sometime next year.

[DigiTimes]

ATHENS/LONDON (Reuters) – The list of bidders for Greek mobile operator Wind Hellas was whittled down to two on Monday, with only the current owner and a group of bondholders left in the running to bail out the debt-laden company.

Wind Hellas, which must agree a debt restructuring deal with lenders — owed 3.2 billion euros ($4.8 billion) — within the month, said on Monday it would continue to talk to the two bidders and would identify a preferred candidate next week.

The company is looking to secure new cash investment and a reduction in debt, said Matthew Tippetts, director of Wind Hellas parent company Hellas Telecommunications UK.

“The group is now working with its creditors to achieve the necessary consents to implement a transaction,” Tippetts said.

Current owner Weather Investments, majority-owned by Egyptian telecoms tycoon Naguib Sawiris, is one of the bidders, while a group of subordinated bondholders coordinated by Aladdin Capital is the other, the company said in an emailed statement.

U.S. buyout house TPG Capital, which previously owned the company alongside Apax Partners, had also looked closely at making an offer before ultimately declining to do so.

The subordinated bondholders — owed 1.17 billion euros — have said they would be willing to back a buyout of the company if an alternative deal undervalued Wind Hellas’s assets. [ID:nLM294867] (Reporting by Tom Freke and Simon Meads in London, with Harry Papachristou in Athens; Editing by David Holmes) ($1=.6650 Euro)

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DUBAI (Reuters) – Abraaj Capital, the Middle East’s biggest private equity firm, is in advanced talks to invest in a logistics firm, and is setting up a new fund worth at least $2 billion to exploit attractive valuations, its managing director said on Monday.

“Right now we do have some transactions at very advanced stages — before the year end or the start of next year … Something in logistics which operates in more than one country. It is not a Gulf company,” Mustafa Abdel-Wadood told the Reuters Middle East Investment Summit.

Asked whether a fourth fund is likely, Abdel-Wadood said: “It is on the way. It is a constant cycle. The size is an adaptive process … It will be larger than the last fund.”

When asked the potential size of the fund Abdel-Wadood said it would be more than $2 billion with funding coming primarily from regional sources.

“Our core supporters will always remain the region, regional institutions, regional investors with increased participation from non-regional investors,” he added.

The firm also has $3 billion to invest in the next two years, roughly the same as January’s level, coming from the current fund and the new fund that is in the making.

Abdel-Wadood said the firm had no plans to “realistically” exit from its existing portfolio companies in the next 18 months.

“This is probably not the best exit environment,” he said. “There is a little bit of a window … but there is no pressure for us to do (that).”

Abraaj has about $6.5 billion in funds under management. Among those investments is a stake in United Arab Emirates-based low-cost carrier Air Arabia (AIRA.DU: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz).

The private equity firm reiterated its interest in countries with large populations and economies such as Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Egypt. Countries such as Iran have potential but currently still entail too many investment risks, Abdel-Wadood said.

In terms of sectors, Abraaj is looking across the board, but highlighted consumer banking, food, basic infrastructure, healthcare and education.

“The reason is there is a structural imbalance between the demand for all these services and current supply,” Abdel-Wadood said.

Private equity activity in the Middle East has suffered during the crisis, but experts see the industry rebounding in 2010, as liquidity is slowly returning to the market, albeit less abundant and at a higher cost.

“It’s pricier, its less in how much you can leverage … generally it’s not as easy as it was two years ago,” he said.

By Nicolas Parasie and Rachna Uppal
(Additional Reporting by John Irish, Natsuko Waki, Amran Abocar and Chris Wickham; Editing by Rupert Winchester)

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NEW YORK (Reuters) – A group of Blackstone Group LP (BX.N) investors has appealed the dismissal of their class-action lawsuit seeking to hold the private equity firm responsible for their losses on its stock.

The appeal to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit came after Judge Harold Baer of Manhattan federal court last month said the plaintiffs had failed to state a claim on which they could recover.

The plaintiffs had alleged that prior to its initial public offering, Blackstone failed to disclose that investments in bond insurer FGIC, Freescale Semiconductor Inc [FSLSM.UL] and real estate were losing value.

Blackstone went public in June 2007 at $31 per common unit. The price of the units had fallen to about $7 by the time the plaintiffs filed their amended complaint in October 2008.

Baer concluded that Blackstone’s exposure to FGIC and to Freescale fell short of being “material.” He also said the plaintiffs failed to show a link between known problems in residential housing in late 2006 and early 2007 and Blackstone’s investments in commercial and hotel properties.

Blackstone units rose 12 cents to $15.94 in morning trading on the New York Stock Exchange.

The case is Landmen Partners Inc v. Blackstone Group LP, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York, No. 08-3601. (Reporting by Jonathan Stempel; editing by John Wallace)

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RiskMetrics Group today announced the opening of its annual comment period for its 2010 proxy voting policies. The comment period, part of RiskMetrics’ policy development process, offers institutional investors, corporate issuers, and industry constituents the opportunity to provide feedback on RiskMetrics’ draft policies.

The comment period runs through November 11 and covers updates to RiskMetrics’ proxy voting policy in markets worldwide. Topics covered include takeover defenses, board and director independence, executive compensation, and share purchase authorities.

RiskMetrics gathers extensive input each year from clients and market constituents through a policy survey, issue-oriented roundtables and a unique open comment period to ensure its voting policies comprise a broad range of views. This year’s policy survey had over 700 respondents, weighing in on issues ranging from management say-on-pay to sustainability and corporate responsibility. The full results from the survey are posted to RiskMetrics’ Policy Gateway.

RiskMetrics Group plans to release its final 2010 U.S. and International policy updates on November 20 and its Global Policy Summary and Concise Guidelines in late-December. To participate in RiskMetrics’ comment period, please visit here. To learn more about RiskMetrics’ policy formulation process, please visit here.

In advance of the BlackBerry Storm2 release, RIM has released OS 5.0 for the first generation BlackBerry Storm. There are a host of improvements as detailed by RIM.

New Power / Lock button usage

Using the Power or Lock button on the top of the BlackBerry smartphone, you can perform the following tasks depending on the state of the BlackBerry smartphone:

State of the BlackBerry smartphone: Unlocked and the back light is turned on

Action: Press and release button.
Result: Locks the BlackBerry smartphone and turns off the back light.

Action: Press and hold button.
Result: Turns off the BlackBerry smartphone.

State of the BlackBerry smartphone: Unlocked and the back light is turned off

Action: Press and release button.
Result: Turns on the back light.

Action: Press and hold button.
Result: Turns on the back light and displays the power off prompt.

State of the BlackBerry smartphone: Locked and the back light is turned off

Action: Press and release button.
Result: Turns on the back light and displays the unlock prompt.

Action: Press and hold button.
Result: Turns on the back light and presents the power off prompt.

State of the BlackBerry smartphone: Locked and back light is turned on

Action: Press and release button.
Result: Presents the unlock prompt.

Action: Press and hold.
Result: Presents the power off prompt.

You can download BlackBerry OS 5.0 update directly from Verizon.

[via GearDiary]

Verizon released the BlackBerry OS 5.0 update alongside the Storm2 launch date this morning. I just had to try it out as I had ranked the BlackBerry Storm as the worst phone ever made. I’ve only had the update loaded for about an hour so far, but everything seems slightly better including the reception, responsiveness, and the iPhone-like effects. I still don’t like the phone but at least it seems usable now.

Leaky gut syndrome is a phenomenon that may, or may not, actually exist. The theory is that things (such as antibiotics, infections, and inflammation) can damage the cells that line the intestines and weaken the “tight junctions” between the cells. This causes there to be small gaps between the cells and, thus, particles that the cells would normally prevent from entering the bloodstream get through. This, in turn, causes the body to mount an immune reaction against these particles which are viewed as foreign invaders.

A leaky gut has been implicated by various nutritionists as one of the causes of chronic fatigue syndrome — another syndrome about which little is known with certainty.

Wikipedia.org has a concise explanation of leaky gut syndrome. Most interest has been about its relation to autism, but that is not my focus here.

It is my own personal theory that allergy tests that measure immunoglobulin G (IgG), and find that someone is “allergic” to a host of different foods, are sometimes merely uncovering a leaky gut in someone who is not actually allergic to all or most of those foods.

So what does the research say? Not much. There has been very little published on leaky gut syndrome. I could find only one clinical trial (1).

The purpose of this trial was to see if they could get immunoglobulin A (IgA) and M (IgM) levels to go down in people with chronic fatigue syndrome. To do this, they used a dietary regimen, but their purpose was not to actually test this regimen, and they, therefore, give very few details about it; they merely say:

“All patients followed the leaky gut diet and took glutamine, zinc and [N-acetyl-L-cysteine], in combination with other [natural anti-inflammatory and antioxidative substances], which were given according to the immune and biochemical status of the patients, i.e. L-carnitine, coenzyme Q10, taurine and lipoic acid (in case of carnitine and/or coenzyme Q10 shortage); or curcumine and quercitine (in case of systemic or intracellular inflammation).”

They described their “leaky gut diet” as a dairy and gluten-free, low-carbohydrate diet.

Their study found that some people’s IgA and IgM levels were reduced on this regimen. They also found that a younger age at onset of chronic fatigue, a shorter duration of illness, and a younger age of the patient led to a better outcome.

It’s important to note that there was no control group and so it could be that patients were merely responding to the care and attention they were receiving or from a placebo effect.

This blog post is just to get something started on the subject. As more research comes out, I will post updates.

Reference

1. Maes M, Leunis JC. Normalization of leaky gut in chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) is accompanied by a clinical improvement: effects of age, duration of illness and the translocation of LPS from gram-negative bacteria. Neuro Endocrinol Lett. 2008 Dec;29(6):902-10.

By Scott M. Fulton, III, Betanews

It looks like the US Chamber of Commerce Web site, and has a convincing URL: www.chamber-of-commerce.us. It bears the seal of the Chamber, a private organization that advocates for business issues before federal legislators. And where you’d expect to find links to the real Chamber Web site, there they are — real links to www.uschamber.com.

But it’s another daring act of imitation crafted by the self-proclaimed impostors known as the Yes Men — the same group that, in 2004, successfully pretended to be Dow Chemical representatives, appearing on the BBC to take responsibility for the Bhopal chemical plant tragedy. This was after Yes Men posted a similar impostor Web site purporting to come from Dow Chemical. That site had a press response address, to which the BBC addressed its request for an interview, and from which Yes Men — still pretending — complied.

A transcript of what appeared to be a speech from Chamber president Thomas Donohue from the National Press Club appeared last week on the fake Chamber site, appearing to reverse the Chamber’s stance on global climate change issues. “In business, as in life, we sometimes don’t look ahead. We seize the day while forgetting the year,” the phony speech began. “Let’s remember Lehman Brothers, a committed, solid member of this Chamber, who in the interest of short-term gain scuttled a century. They ate lamb, but were left without wool when the cold, hard winter set in. We must learn from the past, so that we can manage the future.”

Continuing what may be a perfect batting average on the subject, Reuters ran the phony press release as actual news, and both CNBC and Fox News interrupted programming to report the developments as real. In a face-saving attempt, a CNBC commentator suggested that perhaps the White House, not the Yes Men, was actually responsible for the hoax.

The Chamber’s real viewpoints on the dubiousness of scientific data pointing to the trends of global climate change, have recently prompted high-level members such as Apple and GE to resign their membership.
Last week, the real US Chamber issued a DMCA takedown notice (PDF available here) to the ISP hosting the phony site, Fremont, California-based Hurricane Electric. “The Web site infringes the Chamber of Commerce’s copyrights by directly copying the images, logos, design, and layout of the Chamber of Commerce’s copyright-protected official Web site,” the notice reads.
The ISP’s defense, according to the Chamber, was that it was an “upstream provider,” and thus unable to comply.

Two Web sites side-by-side: [left] the real US Chamber of Commerce; [right] the Yes Men rip-off.

Last Thursday, the Yes Men’s response came from its own lawyers: counsel for the Electronic Frontier Foundation. In a letter to the Chamber’s attorneys sent that day (PDF available here), warning that if Hurricane Electric complies with the takedown request, the Chamber may be liable for misrepresentation of infringement. Citing the Supreme Court, the EFF’s Matthew Zimmerman wrote, “parodies must often use substantial portions of an original work to make their point.”

But the problem — one which may haunt both the Yes Men and the Chamber — is that the law has never been particularly clear on this point. What’s more, the law has been specifically clear about the extent to which it has been unclear, pointing to a glaring, seven decades-long gap that has never quite been filled.

The first real legal precedent on the electronic use of parody came by way of a 1956 ruling from the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, against comedian Jack Benny. At the time, his TV show periodically produced send-ups of popular movies, and Benny’s troupe had performed a parody of the 1944 movie Gaslight with Charles Boyer and Ingrid Bergman, based on the theatrical play. The rights holders to that production, Loew’s Incorporated, claimed copyright infringement and won, and Benny’s appeal was denied, after Loew’s had argued that Benny’s defense of parody-as-fair-use couldn’t hold up. To be parody, Loew’s said, it had to be funny.

The courts struggled to bypass having to address those arguments; and eventually the Ninth Circuit ruled that if a parody resembles its target too closely, that’s copyright infringement. In other words, a reasonable person might be confused into thinking the parody was real because 1) Jack Benny looked so much like Charles Boyer (or Ingrid Bergman); 2) neither the real Gaslight nor the parody were…well, all right, all that funny.

But the case law on the current books comes from the Ninth Circuit’s classic 1978 reversal of itself, in a case surrounding the alleged lack-of-fair-use around some of Walt Disney Co.’s trademarks. The Ninth Circuit decided at that time, “Parody and satire are deserving of substantial freedom — both as entertainment and as a form of social and literary criticism…At the very least, where as here, it is clear that parody has neither the intent nor the effect of fulfilling the demand for the original, and where the parodist does not appropriate a great amount of the original work than is necessary to ‘recall or conjure up’ the object of his satire, a finding of infringement would be improper.”

It’s that case law which the EFF is relying upon for its Yes Men defense. However, here’s the problem: In delineating where its predecessors went wrong, the 1978 Ninth Circuit ruled that a parody should not be confusable with the original, reasoning that true copyright infringement takes place when the infringing work substitutes for the original work.

And there will be the stickler in this latest Yes Men case, for the impostors didn’t just use the name “Thomas J. Donohue,” but also the graphics and style of the real US Chamber Web site. And the bottom of the fake speech transcript page clearly reads, “Copyright 2009 U.S. Chamber of Commerce…All rights reserved.” That’s a mark that traditionally has never been appropriated by others for “fair use” parody.

The implications of a final ruling on this subject go way beyond the interests of parody practitioners. For instance, an individual’s right to register sound-alike domain names, or defacement names such as “AirFranceSucks.com” — a practice currently considered cybersquatting — could become permanently protected by law.

Bloggers at Think Progress chronicled Fox Business and CNBC breaking the fake Yes Men press release as real news.

Meanwhile, a completely separate issue could arise with regard to whether Yes Men appropriated their fake Web site name improperly. The name they chose falls under the .us top-level domain, whose rules are not the same as for .com.

According to the .us domain registration agreement (PDF available here), information posted on a .us Web site may be used by the US government for any purpose. For that reason, according to Dept. of Commerce guidelines, the Web site must disclose its proper identity.

The WHOIS database currently lists the registrant of the fake address as “Support and Commitment, Inc.,” which is known to have also registered “CheneyBush.com,” “georgewbush.org,” and “YesBushCan.com.” Back in 2004, at the height of the presidential campaign, the latter site was responsible for issuing a fake press release, claiming it had defected from its candidate and endorsed John Kerry for President — an announcement that, once again, was covered by real sources as real news.

Copyright Betanews, Inc. 2009

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With the iPhone 3GS, the possibilities are endless. In July 2009, Harold Smith and Graham Mcbain took the iPhone 3GS, and made the first prototype of the OWLE Bubo, which we covered on CrunchGear. Now, just four months later, the OWLE Bubo is ready to ship to the public. OWLE, which stands for Optical Widgets for Life Enhancement, is aiming to making mobile video much easier, by taking the parts you use on your camcorder, and enabling you to use them on the iPhone.

The Bubo comes standard with a hotshoe mount on top for LED lights, four tripod mounts and standard 37mm lens threading so that you can put your own lenses on it, in addition to the lens that the Bubo comes with.