India Inc has released IIP numbers on friday that are disappointing and many experts think that Economy may required stimulus to boost the growth that is already cooling off due to policies and Global uncertainties. If we see the comparison of IIP numbers MoM basis, Then since last year, we will see the trend is fluctuating not deteriorating. See the chart here ( Source : CSO ). One should notice that growth is not picking up and doesn't conclude that it started declining as general index is still at 186.4 which is just close to 11 month high.
As many news headlines has shown the picture in a different ( negative ) way and put it as a big question mark about Indian Growth story. The figures are maintaining little below of 11 month high. Although it is less than March 2011 but the trend is not negative. Stocks should not get punished based on IIP numbers data, but global factors like Europe and US will decide next course of the markets.
See below Table for comparison.
As many news headlines has shown the picture in a different ( negative ) way and put it as a big question mark about Indian Growth story. The figures are maintaining little below of 11 month high. Although it is less than March 2011 but the trend is not negative. Stocks should not get punished based on IIP numbers data, but global factors like Europe and US will decide next course of the markets.See below Table for comparison.
| General | Mining | Mfg | Electricity | |
| Mar-12 | 186.4 | 149.3 | 197.1 | 158.6 |
| Feb-12 | 174.9 | 134.8 | 186.5 | 145.1 |
| Jan-12 | 187.9 | 137.2 | 202.4 | 151.1 |
| Dec-11 | 178.8 | 136.2 | 190.7 | 149.8 |
| Nov-11 | 167.4 | 127.6 | 177.8 | 145.6 |
| Oct-11 | 158.1 | 120.9 | 165.9 | 152.1 |
| Sep-11 | 163.2 | 111 | 175.7 | 144.1 |
| Aug-11 | 162.4 | 117.6 | 172.6 | 149.4 |
| Jul-11 | 166.6 | 126.7 | 176 | 152.1 |
| Jun-11 | 170.3 | 126 | 182.1 | 144.3 |
| May-11 | 165.3 | 130.4 | 173.4 | 153.3 |
| Apr-11 | 167.8 | 129.1 | 178 | 146 |
Qualcomm's prototype tablet houses Snapdragon S4 mobile processor which is capable of full 1080p HD 3D playback, recording and even offers real-time 2D to 3D conversion.
Qualcomm has displayed world's first auto stereoscopic 3D tablet at the on-going CTIA-Wireless 2012 convention which has started on May 9. At the convention, Qualcomm has demonstrated the prowess of the Snapdragon S4 MSM8690 mobile processor that runs the 3D tablet. Phandroid managed to capture a video showcasing the auto stereoscopic 3D tablet.
Qualcomm stall at the CTIA Wireless 2012 in New Orleans, USA had put a tablet for demonstration. This tablet was running the new Snapdragon S4 mobile processor and its intention was to show the 3D capabilities of the chip. As per Phandroid, it was world's first auto stereoscopic 3D tablet but it was just a prototype.
At this moment, the Nintendo 3DS offers the auto stereoscopic 3D experience using parallax barrier. A parallax barrier is a device placed in front of an image source, such as a liquid crystal display, to allow it to show a stereoscopic image without the need for the viewer to wear 3D glasses.
The technology used in the Qualcomm tablet is different from the LG Optimus Pad 3D. The difference lies in the usage of optical gear and the special glasses layer to show the real 3D depths on the display.
The Qualcomm's prototype tablet did not require any 3D glasses to be used for enjoying the 3D content. Also it was able to convert the 2D content to 3D. This prototype glasses free 3D promising tablet supported 1920x1200 pixel resolution natively.
The tablet could also capture stereoscopic 3D and playback the same on the display in high definition. Even 2D videos can recording and used to playback in 3D with real-time conversion on the chipset. Apart from video, the tablet even does real-time 3D game conversion.
Qualcomm certainly has surprised several by showing the true potential of the Snapdragon S4 processor and also hint what consumers can expect in near future.
Qualcomm has displayed world's first auto stereoscopic 3D tablet at the on-going CTIA-Wireless 2012 convention which has started on May 9. At the convention, Qualcomm has demonstrated the prowess of the Snapdragon S4 MSM8690 mobile processor that runs the 3D tablet. Phandroid managed to capture a video showcasing the auto stereoscopic 3D tablet.
Qualcomm stall at the CTIA Wireless 2012 in New Orleans, USA had put a tablet for demonstration. This tablet was running the new Snapdragon S4 mobile processor and its intention was to show the 3D capabilities of the chip. As per Phandroid, it was world's first auto stereoscopic 3D tablet but it was just a prototype.At this moment, the Nintendo 3DS offers the auto stereoscopic 3D experience using parallax barrier. A parallax barrier is a device placed in front of an image source, such as a liquid crystal display, to allow it to show a stereoscopic image without the need for the viewer to wear 3D glasses.
The technology used in the Qualcomm tablet is different from the LG Optimus Pad 3D. The difference lies in the usage of optical gear and the special glasses layer to show the real 3D depths on the display.
The Qualcomm's prototype tablet did not require any 3D glasses to be used for enjoying the 3D content. Also it was able to convert the 2D content to 3D. This prototype glasses free 3D promising tablet supported 1920x1200 pixel resolution natively.
The tablet could also capture stereoscopic 3D and playback the same on the display in high definition. Even 2D videos can recording and used to playback in 3D with real-time conversion on the chipset. Apart from video, the tablet even does real-time 3D game conversion.
Qualcomm certainly has surprised several by showing the true potential of the Snapdragon S4 processor and also hint what consumers can expect in near future.
A world- first for TGO Green Energy Gym Technology
At the Hull Green Heart, the human-generated electricity is used for lighting the zone at night time, to extend the usage of the facility into the evenings. But there are many more potential uses for the electricity – it can be fed into local buildings or even into the National Grid.Georgie Delaney, Creative Director of The Great Outdoor Gym Company: “Hull City Council was a natural first choice for the pilot of our Green Energy Gym Technology, having successfully worked with us on eight adiZones and outdoor gyms across Hull. The Green Heart in Hull will be showcased all over the world. We aim to have Green Energy Gyms right across the UK, where people can keep fit and recycle the energy they burn off into electricity.”
TGO Green Energy Technology includes: Energy cross trainers; Energy hand bikes; Energy fitness bikes; Energy recumbent bikes; People Power Display Wall (measuring the power and energy generated by TGO outdoor gym equipment);
A health commitment...
Mitch Upfold, Economic Regeneration Manager at Hull City Council, said: “We are pleased to be piloting TGO’s Green Heart scheme which is a great example of how local authorities can promote public health.”
It’s green, it’s shiny and it lights up at night.
It’s great for your health and it generates electricity.
It encourages kids and adults alike to learn about their health, energy generation and energy consumption.
It’s the Green Heart at Shaw Park, Hull.
Some cities have bus rapid transit (BRT) corridors where buses can reach up to 30 MPH, but in general, buses move pretty slowly. Never has the lowly bus looked so sexy as with this Dutch "Superbus" that can hit 155 MPH.
The electric bus, created by Wubbo Ockels (the Netherlands’ first astronaut, according to the BBC), carries 23 passengers and cost nearly $17 million to develop. The fiberglass and carbon vehicle recently debuted in Dubai.
It’s hard to imagine that any city would actually buy a fleet of these buses; just because a bus can go up to 155 MPH doesn’t mean it will ever get the chance. So most of us will never ride the Superbus. At the very least, its existence proves that buses can be exciting.
The electric bus, created by Wubbo Ockels (the Netherlands’ first astronaut, according to the BBC), carries 23 passengers and cost nearly $17 million to develop. The fiberglass and carbon vehicle recently debuted in Dubai.
It’s hard to imagine that any city would actually buy a fleet of these buses; just because a bus can go up to 155 MPH doesn’t mean it will ever get the chance. So most of us will never ride the Superbus. At the very least, its existence proves that buses can be exciting.
Today, the FBI is doing something it rarely does — talking, in public, about spies.
In a nationwide advertising campaign launching today that includes bus shelters, billboards and a website, the FBI is targeting corporate espionage — and encouraging employees of American corporations to be wary of spies in their midst.
“We’re doing something we’ve never done before, and it’s almost counterintuitive in the espionage business,” FBI Counterintelligence Assistant director Frank Figliuzzi told CNBC Thursday. “We’re talking to the general public about the threat from economic espionage.”
The FBI says the sheer scale of economic espionage against the nation’s top companies threatens America’s economic and technical dominance of the global economy.
According to Figliuzzi, the current FBI caseload shows that secrets worth more than $13 billion have been stolen from American companies — often by insiders or former insiders at the companies that have been victimized. The FBI says its arrests for economic espionage have doubled in the last four years, and that it has already surpassed last year’s arrest total halfway through this fiscal year.
Figliuzzi said espionage has changed dramatically since the end of the Cold War. “The target has changed to unclassified or what I like to call pre-classified technology, data research, the things that we all have at our place of employment, and we need to make the general public aware that the threat is to them and where they work,” Figliuzzi said. “They want what America has.”
The billboards and bus shelters will be visible in cities and regions that the FBI chose for their high concentrations of government contractors, including Chicago, San Francisco, Los Angeles and North Carolina.
In recent months, US law enforcement agencies have wrestled with a large variety of corporate espionage cases that affected companies as diverse asBridgestone, DuPont, and Motorola.
In February, a federal grand jury in San Francisco charged five people and five companies with economic espionage and theft of trade secrets for trying to obtain secrets surrounding the development of chloride-route titanium dioxide (TiO2), a white pigment with various industrial uses. Among those charged were two former DuPont employees. In that case, the U.S. government said that the government of the People’s Republic of China had specifically targeted the TiO2 production capabilities for exploitation.
Also that month, a former software engineer for Motorola was found guilty of stealing trade secrets from that company. The Defendant, Hanjuan Jin, possessed more than 1,000 proprietary documents when she was stopped by U.S. customs officials while attempting to travel on a one-way ticket to China in 2007, the government said.
In April, the U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Ohio charged Dr. Xiaorong Wang with theft of trade secrets from Bridgestone. Wang was a former research scientist at the Bridgestone Center for Research and Technology in Akron, Ohio from May 1995 until he was terminated on April 14, 2010, the government said.
And in one of the most high-profile cases to date, satellite scientist Stewart David Nozette was sentenced in March to 13 years in prison for attempted espionage and other charges. Nozette was caught on camera in an FBI sting at the Mayflower Hotel in Washington, attempting to sell U.S. satellite secrets to a man he believed to be an agent of the Israeli Mossad intelligence service.
“They’re looking for everything from price lists to the latest pharmaceutical research, marketing strategies, new product information — typically whatever you view as your crown jewels at your company is likely the target of foreign economic espionage,” Figliuzzi said.
Although many of the recent cases to surface publicly involve people stealing corporate secrets on behalf of the Chinese, Figliuzzi said the FBI’s latest publicity effort is not specifically targeting any one country.
“What we’re seeing across our caseload is even some of our allies, when it's in their economic interest, will commit economic espionage. They know it’s cheaper to steal our technology than to research and develop it,” Figliuzzi said. “There’s an over-emphasis, I think, on pointing to one or two countries, when we’ve seen a panoply of countries.”
The FBI says foreign spies are interested in a wide range of secret corporate information, including, information and communications technology, sources of scarce natural resources, military technologies, particularly marine systems and unmanned aerial vehicles, and dual-use technologies from the clean energy, pharmaceutical and agriculture sectors.
In its prepared materials, the FBI highlights some of the elements that make up the profile of a potential spy, telling companies to watch out for people exhibiting a range of behaviors, including:
Working odd hours without authorization
Taking proprietary information home in thumb drives or email
Making unnecessary copies
Disregarding company policies about installing personal software or hardware
Taking short trips to foreign countries for unexplained reasons
Buying things they can’t afford
Being overwhelmed by life crises or career disappointments
In a nationwide advertising campaign launching today that includes bus shelters, billboards and a website, the FBI is targeting corporate espionage — and encouraging employees of American corporations to be wary of spies in their midst.
“We’re doing something we’ve never done before, and it’s almost counterintuitive in the espionage business,” FBI Counterintelligence Assistant director Frank Figliuzzi told CNBC Thursday. “We’re talking to the general public about the threat from economic espionage.”
The FBI says the sheer scale of economic espionage against the nation’s top companies threatens America’s economic and technical dominance of the global economy.
According to Figliuzzi, the current FBI caseload shows that secrets worth more than $13 billion have been stolen from American companies — often by insiders or former insiders at the companies that have been victimized. The FBI says its arrests for economic espionage have doubled in the last four years, and that it has already surpassed last year’s arrest total halfway through this fiscal year.
Figliuzzi said espionage has changed dramatically since the end of the Cold War. “The target has changed to unclassified or what I like to call pre-classified technology, data research, the things that we all have at our place of employment, and we need to make the general public aware that the threat is to them and where they work,” Figliuzzi said. “They want what America has.”
The billboards and bus shelters will be visible in cities and regions that the FBI chose for their high concentrations of government contractors, including Chicago, San Francisco, Los Angeles and North Carolina.
In recent months, US law enforcement agencies have wrestled with a large variety of corporate espionage cases that affected companies as diverse asBridgestone, DuPont, and Motorola.
In February, a federal grand jury in San Francisco charged five people and five companies with economic espionage and theft of trade secrets for trying to obtain secrets surrounding the development of chloride-route titanium dioxide (TiO2), a white pigment with various industrial uses. Among those charged were two former DuPont employees. In that case, the U.S. government said that the government of the People’s Republic of China had specifically targeted the TiO2 production capabilities for exploitation.
Also that month, a former software engineer for Motorola was found guilty of stealing trade secrets from that company. The Defendant, Hanjuan Jin, possessed more than 1,000 proprietary documents when she was stopped by U.S. customs officials while attempting to travel on a one-way ticket to China in 2007, the government said.
In April, the U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Ohio charged Dr. Xiaorong Wang with theft of trade secrets from Bridgestone. Wang was a former research scientist at the Bridgestone Center for Research and Technology in Akron, Ohio from May 1995 until he was terminated on April 14, 2010, the government said.
And in one of the most high-profile cases to date, satellite scientist Stewart David Nozette was sentenced in March to 13 years in prison for attempted espionage and other charges. Nozette was caught on camera in an FBI sting at the Mayflower Hotel in Washington, attempting to sell U.S. satellite secrets to a man he believed to be an agent of the Israeli Mossad intelligence service.
“They’re looking for everything from price lists to the latest pharmaceutical research, marketing strategies, new product information — typically whatever you view as your crown jewels at your company is likely the target of foreign economic espionage,” Figliuzzi said.
Although many of the recent cases to surface publicly involve people stealing corporate secrets on behalf of the Chinese, Figliuzzi said the FBI’s latest publicity effort is not specifically targeting any one country.
“What we’re seeing across our caseload is even some of our allies, when it's in their economic interest, will commit economic espionage. They know it’s cheaper to steal our technology than to research and develop it,” Figliuzzi said. “There’s an over-emphasis, I think, on pointing to one or two countries, when we’ve seen a panoply of countries.”
The FBI says foreign spies are interested in a wide range of secret corporate information, including, information and communications technology, sources of scarce natural resources, military technologies, particularly marine systems and unmanned aerial vehicles, and dual-use technologies from the clean energy, pharmaceutical and agriculture sectors.
In its prepared materials, the FBI highlights some of the elements that make up the profile of a potential spy, telling companies to watch out for people exhibiting a range of behaviors, including:
Working odd hours without authorization
Taking proprietary information home in thumb drives or email
Making unnecessary copies
Disregarding company policies about installing personal software or hardware
Taking short trips to foreign countries for unexplained reasons
Buying things they can’t afford
Being overwhelmed by life crises or career disappointments
( Source: CNBC )
Stock of the biotech company Arena Pharmaceutical Inc ( NASDAQ: ARNA ) soared on friday as its anti obesity drug. Stock Jumped more than 75 % to $6.39.
See below the News Release:
Arena Pharmaceuticals Inc. (ARNA) (ARNA)’s weight- loss pill gained the backing of an advisory panel, putting two obesity drugs in line for U.S. approval almost two years after regulators rejected them as too risky.
Food and Drug Administration advisers voted 18-4 yesterday that the benefits of Arena’s pill, known as lorcaserin, outweigh the risks. The FDA is scheduled to decide by June 27 on lorcaserin, and doesn’t have to follow the panel’s advice.
Arena, based in San Diego, is competing with Mountain View, California-based Vivus Inc. (VVUS) (VVUS) and Orexigen Therapeutics Inc. (OREX) (OREX), based in La Jolla, California, to introduce the first weight- loss drug since Roche Holding AG’s (ROG) Xenical in 1999. The FDA previously turned down all three drugs. Panel members raised concerns that lorcaserin provides a modest benefit while potentially raising heart risks.
“It’s time to approve this drug,” said Peter Gross, a panel member and chairman of the Hackensack Physician-Hospital Alliance in New Jersey. “We do not put our head in the sand.”
Arena more than doubled in early trading to $7.70 as of 7:28 a.m. New York time. Trading had been halted during the panel’s meeting. The company gained 7 percent May 9 to close at $3.66 in New York.
Panel members suggested that if lorcaserin gains approval, Arena should do follow-up studies on how it affects the heart. The FDA advisers made the same suggestion for a post-market study of Vivus’s pill Qnexa after backing it 20-2 in February. The agency is scheduled to decide on Qnexa by July 17.
Obesity Epidemic
More than 78 million U.S. adults are obese, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta. Obesity raises the risks of diabetes, heart attacks and stroke, and costs the U.S. economy an estimated $147 billion a year in medical expenses and lost productivity, according to the CDC.
“The advisory committee’s positive vote supports our belief in lorcaserin as a potential new treatment option,” Jack Lief, Arena’s president and chief executive officer, said in a statement. Arena has licensed lorcaserin to Tokyo-based Eisai Co. (4523) to sell in the U.S.
In failing to approve lorcaserin in October 2010, the agency said people didn’t lose enough weight on the medicine to justify the risk of developing cancer associated with the drug. The company resubmitted its application to the FDA for review in January with new data.
New analysis allayed cancer concerns, Abraham Thomas, chairman of the panel and head of the endocrinology and diabetes division at Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit, said after voting in support of the pill.
 |
| Arena Pharmaceuticals |
See below the News Release:
Arena Pharmaceuticals Inc. (ARNA) (ARNA)’s weight- loss pill gained the backing of an advisory panel, putting two obesity drugs in line for U.S. approval almost two years after regulators rejected them as too risky.
Food and Drug Administration advisers voted 18-4 yesterday that the benefits of Arena’s pill, known as lorcaserin, outweigh the risks. The FDA is scheduled to decide by June 27 on lorcaserin, and doesn’t have to follow the panel’s advice.
Arena, based in San Diego, is competing with Mountain View, California-based Vivus Inc. (VVUS) (VVUS) and Orexigen Therapeutics Inc. (OREX) (OREX), based in La Jolla, California, to introduce the first weight- loss drug since Roche Holding AG’s (ROG) Xenical in 1999. The FDA previously turned down all three drugs. Panel members raised concerns that lorcaserin provides a modest benefit while potentially raising heart risks.
“It’s time to approve this drug,” said Peter Gross, a panel member and chairman of the Hackensack Physician-Hospital Alliance in New Jersey. “We do not put our head in the sand.”
Arena more than doubled in early trading to $7.70 as of 7:28 a.m. New York time. Trading had been halted during the panel’s meeting. The company gained 7 percent May 9 to close at $3.66 in New York.
Panel members suggested that if lorcaserin gains approval, Arena should do follow-up studies on how it affects the heart. The FDA advisers made the same suggestion for a post-market study of Vivus’s pill Qnexa after backing it 20-2 in February. The agency is scheduled to decide on Qnexa by July 17.
Obesity Epidemic
More than 78 million U.S. adults are obese, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta. Obesity raises the risks of diabetes, heart attacks and stroke, and costs the U.S. economy an estimated $147 billion a year in medical expenses and lost productivity, according to the CDC.
“The advisory committee’s positive vote supports our belief in lorcaserin as a potential new treatment option,” Jack Lief, Arena’s president and chief executive officer, said in a statement. Arena has licensed lorcaserin to Tokyo-based Eisai Co. (4523) to sell in the U.S.
In failing to approve lorcaserin in October 2010, the agency said people didn’t lose enough weight on the medicine to justify the risk of developing cancer associated with the drug. The company resubmitted its application to the FDA for review in January with new data.
New analysis allayed cancer concerns, Abraham Thomas, chairman of the panel and head of the endocrinology and diabetes division at Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit, said after voting in support of the pill.
Cancer Risks
An FDA staff report May 8 determined the risks of cancer may be smaller than thought. An agency review of the potential for humans developing brain tumors seen in rats tested with lorcaserin found the risk is negligible, agency staff said in the report. They also determined benign breast tumors in rats were more common than malignant ones at all dose levels.
Lorcaserin affects an area of the brain that controls appetite and metabolism, according to Arena. It works in a similar way to fenfluramine, part of the fen-phen appetite- suppression drug combination pulled from pharmacies 15 years ago when it was linked to heart-valve abnormalities.
Some panel members suggested the FDA require lorcaserin to include a risk management plan that possibly screens patients for abnormalities before starting treatments and warns patients about the potential of developing a valve abnormality.
Study Results
Patients who tested Arena’s treatment in three studies lost about 3 percent more of their body weight than those who took a placebo, according to FDA staff. People who took part in trials on Vivus’s Qnexa lost 6.7 percent and 8.9 percent more of their body weight on mid and high doses compared to those who used a placebo, FDA staff said in a Feb. 20 report on the drug.
Panel members who voted against lorcaserin questioned whether the weight loss was enough.
“Weight loss is clinically discernible with lorcaserin but I’m not sure it’s clinically meaningful,” said Sanjay Kaul, a panel member and professor at the David Geffen School of Medicine at the University of California, Los Angeles.
Like Arena’s lorcaserin, the FDA declined to approve Vivus’s Qnexa in October 2010. Orexigen won a panel’s backing in December 2010 before the agency declined to approve the company’s drug, Contrave. Orexigen, developing Contrave with Osaka, Japan-based Takeda Pharmaceutical Co. (4502), agreed in September to conduct a two-year study of the medicine’s heart risks.
With the country's economy in bad shape and the rest of Europe just managing to stay out of recession, a Spanish company in Valencia has courted controversy by offering professional course in prostitution which it says 'guarantees a job offer on graduation'.
"For just €100, students will be taught the history of the world's oldest profession, how to use erotic toys and the most popular positions contained within the Kama Sutra," the Daily Mail reported.
Promotional flyers of the programme flooded the university campus in the coastal city of Valencia.
Though Valencia falls in Catalonia, the part of Spain which is more liberal than the Castillan and Basque regions, The venture has still attracted much criticism. Many in the predominantly Catholic country feel that it is the wrong way to tempt cash-strapped and out-of-work Spaniards.
But the firm said that it will make the trade safer and ensure that 'qualified' sex workers do not have run-ins with the law.
The propreitor of the business said that 95 people, from the age of 19 to 45 years, had signed up for the one-week course, which takes up two hours each day.
"For just €100, students will be taught the history of the world's oldest profession, how to use erotic toys and the most popular positions contained within the Kama Sutra," the Daily Mail reported.
Promotional flyers of the programme flooded the university campus in the coastal city of Valencia.
Though Valencia falls in Catalonia, the part of Spain which is more liberal than the Castillan and Basque regions, The venture has still attracted much criticism. Many in the predominantly Catholic country feel that it is the wrong way to tempt cash-strapped and out-of-work Spaniards.
But the firm said that it will make the trade safer and ensure that 'qualified' sex workers do not have run-ins with the law.
The propreitor of the business said that 95 people, from the age of 19 to 45 years, had signed up for the one-week course, which takes up two hours each day.
Panasonic Posts Further Losses On TV Sales
Via Panasonic: Panasonic has announced its latest set of results, posting a net loss of $5.49 billion in the first quarter of the year--ten times the losses the company faced in the same months last year. In large part, this is a fallout of stalling sales on televisions, down to 15.5 million this year, Panasonic estimates. Japan's slipping Yen is also to blame. Japan's Sony is also having a rough patch as a result of TV sales, and as Bloomberg points out, the fact that neither company has a hit electronics product as Google, Apple, Samsung and the rest diversify, doesn't help either. Now, with rumors that today's electronics titans are coming out with televisions as well--Google has a TV in the works with LG, and of course, there's Apple's long-rumored television too--things are looking all the grimmer for Panasonic and Sony, unless they reinvent themselves.
On Games: Rovio Plans Amazing Alex, Minecraft Breaks Sales Records
Via YLE, Joystiq. Rovio is following up its smash hit Angry Birds with a second game called Amazing Alex. Rovio CEO Michael Hed first introduced Amazing Alex on Finnish TV Yle. Angry Birds had a billion downloaders breaking stuff in Angry Birds, but this second Rovio creation will focus on making stuff--Amazing Alex will have an educational theme as its protagonist, Alex, likes to build things. Meanwhile, in other gaming news, Minecraft for Xbox 360 debuted yesterday, and broke sales records for Xbox Live Arcade games, Microsoft revealed. According to one estimate by the game's creator, the company sold 400,000 games in 24 hours, and earned back the cash Microsoft spent on development in the first hour of sales, numbers which were seconded by a blogger on the Xbox development team.
Facebook Tests Paid Posts
Via Stuff.co.nz: Facebook is testing a new pay-and-promote system among Facebook users, charging a small fee to give users better viewing time for their posts. A screenshot grabbed by New Zealand site stuff.co.nz shows that for $2.00 (paid via PayPal or a favorite credit card) users can "Highlight an important post," and "Make sure friends see this." A spokesperson for Facebook confirmed to Stuff.co.nz that Facebook was testing this feature in three different ways--offering it for free, for a fixed fee, or at staggered rates. As Stuff points out, this could be one of the ways Facebook is thinking of making money from its enormous user base.
To better compete with Google, Microsoft has revealed a new makeover for its Bing search engine site. Designed to combat "search overload" the new Bing results page feature a new sidebar function that lists relevant posts from a user's Facebook and Twitter contacts as they search for keywords. The algorithm even intelligently suggests people who may have an opinon on the search words using information gleaned from their "Liking" habits. The revamp will hopefully bring more traffic to Bing and thus bump up Microsoft's income from advertising partners--to help offset Microsoft's online losses. The new design will roll out across the U.S. over the next several weeks, and then to other territories.
The Federal Trade Commission has approached both Google and Twitter concerning Facebook's $1 billion deal to purchase social photo-sharer company Instagram. According to a source speaking to Reuters it's not known exactly what details the FTC is curious about, but it was rumored that both these other companies and possibly others were interested in bidding for Instagram--itself growing at a swift rate and thus rapidly increasing in value--which caused Facebook's CEO to move very swiftly and conclude the deal in private without his board's full knowledge. Facebook still plans to conclude the Instagram purchase in the second quarter but first it has to complete its complex IPO, scheduled for next week.
The second episode of Aamir Khan's much talked about television show Satyamev Jayate is likely to deal with the abuse of children, according to sources. Given the huge positive feedback generated by the pilot episode that tackled the contentious subject of female foeticide both in rural and urban India, the second episode is likely to be even more explosive in form and content.
According to the sources, Aamir has been working with a string of NGOs working with children abused sexually either at home or outside, often by people they trust. So there are indications that Aamir intends to drop a bigger bomb on May 13 at 11 AM during his show on Star Plus.
If that is indeed the case, then Aamir would stir up a hornet's nest as statistics have shown in the past that sexual abuse of children is rampant in Indian metros, with the abuser often known to the child.
A survey conducted in 2007 by the Women and Child Development Ministry and the NGO Prayas in association with Unicef and Save the Children across 13 states and with a sample size of 12,447, found that 53.22% of children reported having faced one or more forms of sexual abuse. Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Assam and Delhi had reported the highest percentage of such incidents at that time.
In 50% of the cases, the abusers were known to the child or were in a position of trust and responsibility and most children did not report the matter to anyone. The aim of the study was to develop a comprehensive understanding of the phenomenon of child abuse, with a view to facilitate the formulation of appropriate policies and programmes meant to effectively curb and control the problem of child abuse in India.
The National Study on Child Abuse is one of the largest empirical in-country studies of its kind in the world. This study also complements the UN Secretary General's Global Study on Violence against Children 2006.
In the first episode, Aamir talked about the killing of unborn girls, an alarming reality not just in the far-flung cow belts but also in urban Indian households. Aamir said it involves the collusion of families, doctors and a social structure that encourages the desire for a boy child - at any cost. The result has been the death of over 3 crore unborn girls since independence and a generation of young men, many amongst whom will find it very tough to get a life partner.
He also set up an SMS poll: "Do you want the Rajasthan government to set up a fast-track court to process the cases arising out of the sting operation on doctors performing female foeticide, carried out by Meena Sharma and Sripal Shaktawat? SMS Y for Yes or N for No, and send to 5782711."
The feedback has been overwhelming. Three days after the show was aired, the Madhya Pradesh Health Department suspended the licences of 65 Medical Termination of Pregnancy centres for not submitting their reports on the prescribed form. Meanwhile, Aamir met Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot to appeal to him to take action in old cases of female foeticide in his state.
 |
| Satyamev Jayate |
If that is indeed the case, then Aamir would stir up a hornet's nest as statistics have shown in the past that sexual abuse of children is rampant in Indian metros, with the abuser often known to the child.
A survey conducted in 2007 by the Women and Child Development Ministry and the NGO Prayas in association with Unicef and Save the Children across 13 states and with a sample size of 12,447, found that 53.22% of children reported having faced one or more forms of sexual abuse. Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Assam and Delhi had reported the highest percentage of such incidents at that time.
In 50% of the cases, the abusers were known to the child or were in a position of trust and responsibility and most children did not report the matter to anyone. The aim of the study was to develop a comprehensive understanding of the phenomenon of child abuse, with a view to facilitate the formulation of appropriate policies and programmes meant to effectively curb and control the problem of child abuse in India.
The National Study on Child Abuse is one of the largest empirical in-country studies of its kind in the world. This study also complements the UN Secretary General's Global Study on Violence against Children 2006.
In the first episode, Aamir talked about the killing of unborn girls, an alarming reality not just in the far-flung cow belts but also in urban Indian households. Aamir said it involves the collusion of families, doctors and a social structure that encourages the desire for a boy child - at any cost. The result has been the death of over 3 crore unborn girls since independence and a generation of young men, many amongst whom will find it very tough to get a life partner.
He also set up an SMS poll: "Do you want the Rajasthan government to set up a fast-track court to process the cases arising out of the sting operation on doctors performing female foeticide, carried out by Meena Sharma and Sripal Shaktawat? SMS Y for Yes or N for No, and send to 5782711."
The feedback has been overwhelming. Three days after the show was aired, the Madhya Pradesh Health Department suspended the licences of 65 Medical Termination of Pregnancy centres for not submitting their reports on the prescribed form. Meanwhile, Aamir met Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot to appeal to him to take action in old cases of female foeticide in his state.
Chief Justice of the Rajasthan High Court Arun Mishra has given an in-principle nod to set up a fast track court for expediting trial in cases of female foeticide.
Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot met the Chief Justice over the matter on Wednesday night, official sources said on Friday.
Strongly taking up the issue on his show 'Satyamev Jayate,' actor Aamir Khan had met Gehlot on Wednesday evening requesting him to establish the fast track court to decide cases which were pending in various courts.
Gehlot had assured action in this regard and said that he would speak to the Chief Justice to bring all such cases under one court so that they are heard as soon as possible.
Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot met the Chief Justice over the matter on Wednesday night, official sources said on Friday.
Strongly taking up the issue on his show 'Satyamev Jayate,' actor Aamir Khan had met Gehlot on Wednesday evening requesting him to establish the fast track court to decide cases which were pending in various courts.
Gehlot had assured action in this regard and said that he would speak to the Chief Justice to bring all such cases under one court so that they are heard as soon as possible.
More Viewers than IPL and Soaps
Aamir Khan's debut on the small screen, Satyamev Jayate, which has captured the imagination of a large number of people and has been a constant talking point across the social networking platforms, has earned a rating of 3.8 in the three Metros of Delhi, Kolkata and Mumbai on Star Plus, according to TAM data released by the channel. That is higher than the IPL 5 ratings (based on the released figures after first 16 matches) which stood at 3.65 at the end of April.
That way, Aamir's show has garnered higher points than even the popular Hindi soap, 'Bade Achche Lagte Hai' which has garnered a 3.54 average rating. The serial had reached a 4 point rating following the 'bold' episode that was broadcast but TVRs have steadily dropped in the last few weeks to average out near the 3.5 mark.
However, other soaps like 'Uttaran', 'Balika Vadhu' all garnered higher-than-5 ratings when they opened, only to slump down and average between 3 and 3.5. So, whether Satyamev Jayate can sustain the good start remains to be seen.
Across six metros, including Chennai, Bangalore and Hyderabad, the average TVR of Satyamev Jayate stood at 2.9.
The debut episode scored maximum in Delhi (5.9 TVR), followed by Mumbai (3.1 TVR) while Kolkata touched 1.8 TVR.
In Mumbai, the show (dubbed in Marathi) on Star Pravah garnered 2.2 TVR. On Star Jalsha, the leading Bengali entertainment channel, the show just managed 0.52 TVR.
On ETV in Telugu (Hyderabad), the show got 0.88 TVR, while from the same metro city the show clocked 1.1 TVR on Star Plus.
In Tamil on Star Vijay (Chennai) it fetched 0.68 TVR. In Bangalore, where it was not dubbed in Kannada, Star Plus managed 1.3 TVR.
Aamir Khan's debut on the small screen, Satyamev Jayate, which has captured the imagination of a large number of people and has been a constant talking point across the social networking platforms, has earned a rating of 3.8 in the three Metros of Delhi, Kolkata and Mumbai on Star Plus, according to TAM data released by the channel. That is higher than the IPL 5 ratings (based on the released figures after first 16 matches) which stood at 3.65 at the end of April.
That way, Aamir's show has garnered higher points than even the popular Hindi soap, 'Bade Achche Lagte Hai' which has garnered a 3.54 average rating. The serial had reached a 4 point rating following the 'bold' episode that was broadcast but TVRs have steadily dropped in the last few weeks to average out near the 3.5 mark.
However, other soaps like 'Uttaran', 'Balika Vadhu' all garnered higher-than-5 ratings when they opened, only to slump down and average between 3 and 3.5. So, whether Satyamev Jayate can sustain the good start remains to be seen.
Across six metros, including Chennai, Bangalore and Hyderabad, the average TVR of Satyamev Jayate stood at 2.9.
The debut episode scored maximum in Delhi (5.9 TVR), followed by Mumbai (3.1 TVR) while Kolkata touched 1.8 TVR.
In Mumbai, the show (dubbed in Marathi) on Star Pravah garnered 2.2 TVR. On Star Jalsha, the leading Bengali entertainment channel, the show just managed 0.52 TVR.
On ETV in Telugu (Hyderabad), the show got 0.88 TVR, while from the same metro city the show clocked 1.1 TVR on Star Plus.
In Tamil on Star Vijay (Chennai) it fetched 0.68 TVR. In Bangalore, where it was not dubbed in Kannada, Star Plus managed 1.3 TVR.
