Data of 13 million South Korean online game subscribers hacked (Reuters)

SEOUL (Reuters) ? South Korea's communications regulator said on Saturday that personal information of more than 13 million subscribers of a popular online game of Nexon Korea Corp, a leading game developer in the country, had been leaked in a hacking attack.

The Korea Communications Commission (KCC) said in a statement Nexon reported to the commission late Friday afternoon that the company on Thursday discovered the leakage of personal data of its online game Maple Story's 13.2 million subscribers.

The information was leaked weeks before the unlisted company's planned initial public offering of its Japanese affiliate on the Tokyo Stock Exchange on December 14. Nexon aims to raise more than 95 billion yen ($1.2 billion) through the IPO, which would be the largest on the Tokyo bourse this year.

KCC said it, jointly with police and computer security experts, is investigating the hacking case. The leaked data included user IDs, names, resident registration numbers and passwords, it added.

A Nexon official said the leaked data neither covered no information on financial transactions and bank account numbers. And it did not affect overseas subscribers of the online game.

The company has asked game subscribers to change passwords to prevent additional damage, although the leaked resident registration numbers and passwords were encrypted. The entire subscription membership of Maple Story is about 18 million, the company official said.

Nexon, which has gained a global reputation through Maple Story and online game Kart Rider, is one of the two leading online game developers in South Korea, along with NCsoft Corp.

The incident is the largest such security breach case since late July when information of up to 35 million users of an Internet portal and blogging site operated by SK Comms was attacked by hackers from China, exposing the vulnerabilities of networks in the world's most wired country.

Accusations against China over hacking incidents have mounted this year, with allegations it intruded into the networks of Lockheed Martin and other U.S. military contractors and tried to gain access to the Google email accounts of U.S. officials and Chinese human rights advocates.

South Korea has drawn up a cyber security master plan after a wave of hacking attacks against global agencies, companies and its own financial firms.

In April, government-funded Nonghyup, a large commercial bank, suffered a massive network failure that affected millions of users. Seoul prosecutors at the time said North Korean hackers were responsible for the attack.

In May, hackers breached the personal information of 1.8 million customers of Hyundai Capital, which is owned by Hyundai Motor and GE Capital International.

(Reporting by Sung-won Shim)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/internet/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111126/wr_nm/us_korea_hacking_nexon

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Source: http://www.handsome-music.com/2011/11/private-money-investing-how-to-get-the-best-use-out-of-this-form-of-investing-2/

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Libyans recover looted Roman antiquities

TRIPOLI, Libya?? Moammar Gadhafi's forces tried to flee Tripoli with a sack of ancient Roman artifacts in hopes of selling them abroad to help fund their doomed fight, Libya's new leaders said Saturday as they displayed the recovered objects for the first time.

The director of the state antiquities department, Saleh Algabe, hailed the find of 17 pieces, mostly small stone heads, as an important recovery of national treasures.

The pieces included a female figurine evocative of ancient fertility symmbols, several small stone human heads and two ornate terracotta fragments. Algabe said the figurines were likely used in pagan worship and dated back to the second and third centuries A.D., when a swathe of North Africa belonged to the Roman Empire.

Algabe said the pieces were seized from a car on the road to Tripoli's airport in August as revolutionary forces were sweeping into the capital. It appeared Gadhafi's forces wanted to smuggle them out of the country and sell them at auction to fund their fight, he said. Officials did not know how much the objects were worth.

The pieces probably do not represent a major component of Libya's wealth of artifacts from the Roman era. Still, officials played up their recovery as significant.

Khalid Alturjman, a representative from the country's National Transitional Council, said the anti-Gadhafi's fighters' seizure of them stands as "a great example of the sacrifice of these revolutionary men for this country."

He formally handed them over to the antiquities department Saturday.

Algabe stressed that although they dated to the Roman era, they exhibited clear signs of local influence.

"This confirms the role of Libyans in civilization," he said.

The conference was held in Tripoli's main archaeological museum, which boasts a collection of ancient Roman statues and mosaics. The museum is housed within the Red Castle, a medieval fort that faces the Mediterranean Sea.

A museum employee said the recovered objects had once been part of the institution's collection. However, members of Gadhafi's regime had taken them, saying they were to be exhibited in European museums ? and never returned them.

Libya boasts many ancient Roman structures, including the famed seaside ruins of Leptis Magna, east of Tripoli.

Almost all of Libya's ancient archaeological sites and museums were spared damage during the recent civil war. NATO made a point of avoiding them during its bombing campaign, and Agabe said that the revolutionaries also made an effort to protect them.

"The Libyan people decided to protect their heritage," Algabe said.

Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/45443893/ns/technology_and_science-science/

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Asia stocks slump amid poor German debt auction (AP)

BANGKOK ? Asian stock markets were mostly lower Thursday amid mixed economic data out of the U.S. and fears that the German economy ? Europe's strongest ? may be succumbing to the continent's debt crisis.

Japan's Nikkei 225, reopening after a one-day public holiday, fell 1.5 percent at 8,186.58. Hong Kong's Hang Seng index lost 0.7 percent at 17,730.57. Benchmarks in New Zealand, Malaysia and Singapore also fell.

But South Korea's Kospi gained 0.3 percent at 1,788.51 and Australia's S&P ASX 200 was 0.3 percent higher to 4,064.40.

Global markets were spooked Wednesday by the poor results at an auction of German debt, which met with only 60 percent demand. Germany's Financial Agency blamed "the extraordinarily nervous market environment."

The weak buying suggests that Europe's crisis might be infecting strong nations that are crucial to keeping the euro currency afloat. Germany bears much of the burden of bailing out weaker neighbors such as Greece and Portugal.

Analysts at Credit Agricole CIB said the eurozone debt crisis remains "the major concern for the markets" and that the German debt auction signals the spread of "the contagion to hard core economies" in the region.

Borrowing costs for Italy and Spain rose from levels that already were considered dangerously high. Europe lacks the resources to bail out those countries, its third- and fourth-biggest economies.

In the U.S., the government released a mixed batch of economic reports. Slightly more people applied for unemployment benefits last week, a sign that layoffs continue.

Consumer spending was sluggish but incomes rose a bit more than expected. Orders for long-lasting manufactured products fell for a second month and business investment dropped off.

The Dow fell 2.1 percent to close at 11,257.55. The Standard & Poor's 500 index fell 2.2 percent to 1,161.79. The Nasdaq fell 2.4 percent to 2,460.08.

U.S. markets will be closed on Thursday for the Thanksgiving holiday and will have shortened hours on Friday.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/asia/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111124/ap_on_re_as/world_markets

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Plan ditched to revive pair of ABC soaps online

NEW YORK (AP) ? Plans have been scrapped to give a pair of doomed ABC soaps new life on the Internet.

Prospect Park, a media company that licensed "One Life to Live" and "All My Children" for online distribution, says it's abandoning the mission to revive them.

The company said in a statement Wednesday that it was unable to secure necessary financial backing and clear other hurdles. The two programs had originally been set to anchor a new online network.

"All My Children" disappeared from ABC's daytime schedule in September, and "One Life to Live" will end its run on Jan. 13. Both had been on the air for more than four decades.

They are the latest soaps to be canceled as the longtime TV genre suffers dwindling audiences and mounting costs.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/4e67281c3f754d0696fbfdee0f3f1469/Article_2011-11-23-TV-Soaps%20Online/id-3c3d4daa78284c9b9a6c279658bfac27

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Small earthquake recorded in central Oklahoma (Providence Journal)

Share With Friends: | | Politics - Top Stories Stories, RSS Feeds and Widgets via Feedzilla.

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Jolting the brain with electricity could reverse damage caused by Alzheimer?s (Yahoo! News)

Study reveals that constantly stimulating the brain with electricity can reverse brain shrinkage

According to the American Health Assistance Foundation, approximately 5.4 million Americans are suffering from Alzheimer's disease, and it's also the sixth leading cause of death in the United States. Those numbers have prompted medical researchers to explore?treatments for the illness. A study by Andres Lozano from Toronto Western Hospital in Ontario, Canada suggests jolting the brain with electrical impulses in a process known as deep brain stimulation. And results indicate that doing so reverses brain shrinkage brought about by the illness, thereby reducing the effects of the disease.

Alzheimer's is known to shrink a part of the brain called the hippocampus that's responsible for turning short-term memory into long-term. It also causes some parts to use less glucose than normal, indicating that they have ceased to function. To test their treatment, Lozano and his team inserted electrodes into the brains of six people diagnosed with the illness, next to a bundle of neurons that carries signals to and from the hippocampus. These electrodes send steady pulses of electricity at a rate of 130 times per second.

The first set of follow-up tests showed that the reduced glucose use in the brains of all six test subjects has been reversed. More recently, the scientists investigated the effects of the electrical stimulation to the hippocampus, and found positive results in two out of six subjects. "Not only did the hippocampus not shrink, it got bigger ??by 5 per cent in one person and 8 per cent in the other," says Lozano. These two subjects exhibit better cognitive functions than the rest.?After this initial testing, the researchers are looking to proceed with a larger trial consisting of 50 people.

Lozano himself can't explain how his treatment works. Based on his studies on mice, though, electrical stimulation generates new neurons as well as new proteins that form neuron connections. He believes that the fact that deep brain stimulation is already used as a treatment for Parkinson's disease means it's a viable option as an Alzheimer's treatment. We hope this and other possible treatments make it to mainstream use, so we won't need things like GPS footwear to keep track of those afflicted with the illness anymore.

[Image credit: maureen lunn]

This article was written by Mariella Moon and originally appeared on Tecca

More from Tecca:

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/tech/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_technews/20111124/tc_yblog_technews/jolting-the-brain-with-electricity-could-reverse-damage-caused-by-alzheimers

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Discovery of a new muscle repair gene

ScienceDaily (Nov. 23, 2011) ? An international team of researchers from England and the Charit? -- Universit?tsmedizin Berlin has presented new findings regarding the function of muscle stem cells, which are published in the current issue of the journal Nature Genetics. The researchers investigated several families with children suffering from a progressive muscle disease. Using a genetic analysis technique known as "next generation sequencing" the scientists identified a defective gene called MEGF10 responsible for the muscle weakness.

The children suffer from severe weakness of the body musculature and of the inner organs like the diaphragm, the main breathing muscle. The consequences are that the little patients are only able to move in a wheelchair and need continuous artificial respiration. These children often have to be tube-fed as well since the musculature of the esophagus does not work properly.

But which role plays the discovered gene here and is involved in muscle growth? In healthy humans the muscle stem cells, so called "satellite cells" stick on muscle fibers and normally remain inactive. If a muscle fiber becomes damaged or muscle growth is stimulated, as it is in muscle training, the satellite cells start to divide, fuse with the muscle fiber and so cause muscle growth.

This process is disrupted in the ill children. For them, the necessary protein which is responsible for the attachment of the satellite cells cannot be developed by the mutated MEGF10 gene. Therefore, these cells cannot stick on the muscle fibre -- the muscle cannot be repaired any longer.

Prof. Markus Schuelke from the NeuroCure Clinical Research Center of the Cluster of Excellence NeuroCure and the Department of Neuropediatrics of the Charit? and Prof. Colin A. Johnson from the Institute of Molecular Medicine of the University Leeds, who jointly directed this research project have emphasized the importance of these new methods for genome analysis and give a positive outlook for the future. "This is good news for families with unexplained rare genetic disorders. These methods enable us to sequence hundreds or even thousands of genes at the same time and discover novel genetic defects even in single patients quickly but also cost effective" explains Markus Schuelke. "Many patients and their families often have been through a diagnostic Odyssey and can now hope that the cause of their disease will be found through this approach."

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Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Charit? - Universit?tsmedizin Berlin.

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

---

Journal Reference:

1. Clare V Logan, Barbara Lucke, Caroline Pottinger, Zakia A Abdelhamed, David A Parry, Katarzyna Szymanska, Christine P Diggle, Anne van Riesen, Joanne E Morgan, Grace Markham, Ian Ellis, Adnan Y Manzur, Alexander F Markham, Mike Shires, Tim Helliwell, Mariacristina Scoto, Christoph H?bner, David T Bonthron, Graham R Taylor, Eamonn Sheridan, Francesco Muntoni, Ian M Carr, Markus Schuelke, Colin A Johnson. Mutations in MEGF10, a regulator of satellite cell myogenesis, cause early onset myopathy, areflexia, respiratory distress and dysphagia (EMARDD). Nature Genetics, 2011; DOI: 10.1038/ng.995

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://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/11/111123132810.htm

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Former Smithsonian chief Michael Heyman dies at 81 (AP)

WASHINGTON ? I. Michael Heyman's opening days in 1994 as the first nonscientist to lead the Smithsonian Institution were spent confronting controversy over a planned exhibition of the plane that dropped the first atomic bomb.

Veterans groups, some historians and members of Congress fiercely protested the National Air and Space Museum's planned display of the B-29 Enola Gay, saying it was too sympathetic to the Japanese. Heyman, who died on Saturday at age 81, eventually cancelled the exhibit ? but still showed the plane in one of the most visited museums.

When five revisions of the exhibit script failed to satisfy critics, Heyman ordered a simple display in 1995 void of commentary, context or analysis of its role as a turning point during World War II when the U.S. dropped the bomb on Hiroshima in August 1945.

"I don't believe that this is a glorification of nuclear weapons," Heyman said at the time. "It says, `This is the Enola Gay. It dropped the bomb that ended the war.' It doesn't take a position on the morality of it."

Still, the exhibit drew protests and arrests of anti-war activists when it finally opened.

Heyman, who had also been chancellor of the University of California, Berkeley, a law professor and city planner, died at his Berkeley home after a long battle with emphysema. The Smithsonian and the university announced his death Monday.

John Cummins, who served as Heyman's university chief of staff, said Heyman used his humor and long experience in academia to navigate controversies. Heyman had keen political sensibilities and knew how to handle competing interests, such as when he pushed affirmative action while raising money from parents who felt their children were being kept out of Berkeley by the policy, Cummins said.

"He had a bigger-than-life personality. He would say charm gets you everywhere," Cummins said. "But at the same time, he was very smart, very articulate."

Current Smithsonian Secretary Wayne Clough said Heyman was a "proud veteran of the U.S. Marine Corps" and had "tackled the tough controversy" over the Enola Gay.

During five years at the world's largest museum and research complex, Heyman oversaw creation of its first website and an affiliations network that now includes 170 museums across the country. He secured funding to build the National Museum of the American Indian and a key $60 million donation for a National Air and Space Museum annex in northern Virginia.

"Heyman was unflinchingly optimistic about the Smithsonian's ability to be a force for knowledge and inspiration in our society," Clough said in a statement. He said Heyman's signature program was a celebration of the Smithsonian's 150th anniversary in 1996 with a major traveling exhibit, "America's Smithsonian."

He retired from the museum complex in 2000 after increasing philanthropic giving from $52 million in 1995 to $146 million in 1999. He also created a for-profit unit to manage the Smithsonian's business activities.

A 2007 examination of the Smithsonian's management and finances found that Heyman built a structure that significantly increased private contributions, though his successor, Lawrence Small, later took credit for record fundraising.

Heyman was a lawyer for the U.S. Department of the Interior when he was chosen to lead the Smithsonian as its first nonscientist secretary in its history. He was the institution's 10th secretary since its founding in 1846, overseeing 16 museums, the National Zoo and a cluster of research centers at the time.

Heyman was born in New York City in 1930. He studied government at Dartmouth College and earned his law degree at Yale. In 1958 and 1959, he was chief law clerk to Supreme Court Chief Justice Earl Warren.

He joined the UC Berkeley faculty in 1959 teaching law and city planning and went on to serve as chancellor of the school from 1980 to 1990. He is credited with increasing the diversity of undergraduate students and expanding private giving to the school by threefold. Heyman moved back to Berkeley in 2000 and was a professor emeritus in the law school.

"Mike Heyman was a great and inspiring leader whose vision helped shape the future of the Berkeley campus," said university Chancellor Robert Birgeneau in a message to the campus. "Simply, he believed that Berkeley should be second to none, and open to all."

A memorial service for Heyman will be held on campus, but the date hasn't been set, the university said.

___

Oral History with Heyman: http://www.youtube.com/watch?vptl9TG7cb5c

___

Brett Zongker can be reached at https://twitter.com/DCArtBeat

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/us/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111122/ap_on_re_us/us_obit_heyman

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Judge to rule on constitutionality of polygamy law

VANCOUVER, British Columbia (AP) ? A judge's decision Wednesday could challenge Canada's ban on polygamy.

In the prosecution of a small, polygamous community in British Columbia, Robert Bauman, chief justice of the province's supreme court, will rule on whether the current criminal ban violates religious freedoms set out in Canada's bill of rights and therefore is unconstitutional.

If he rules for the defendants, Parliament might have to eventually decide whether Canada repeals the ban and becomes the only Western country to legalize polygamy.

But the ruling Conservative Party has a majority in Parliament and is thought likely to block any legalization of plural marriage.

Monique Pongracic-Speier, lawyer for the British Columbia Civil Liberties Association, stressed Bauman's decision is only an opinion and could be appealed up to the Supreme Court by any participant.

"This is not a process in which that provision is struck down," she said.

Parliament could repeal the law, change it or decide not to enforce it, she said.

The constitutional reference arose after another judge threw out polygamy charges against British Columbians Winston Blackmore and James Oler in September 2009.

The men are rival bishops of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (FLDS) in Bountiful, a polygamous community of about 1,000 residents who have been investigated repeatedly during the past two decades but avoided prosecution until they were charged with polygamy in January 2009.

Blackmore was accused of having at least 19 wives, and Oler at least 3.

FLDS members practice polygamy in arranged marriages, a tradition tied to the early theology of the Mormon church. The mainstream church renounced polygamy in 1890, but several fundamentalist groups seceded in order to continue the practice.

Blackmore has long claimed religious persecution and denial of a constitutional right to religious freedom.

Speaking to The Associated Press, he said: "Our faith and religion is just as important to us as anyone else's is to them. Historically for our kind of people, persecution has refocused our determination to keep the faith."

Audrey Vance of Altering Destiny Through Education lives near Bountiful and has supported many of the women and children. She said upholding the law is meant to safeguard equality for women and prevent the abuse of children.

She wants to see the law used against the men.

"They can't prosecute all of them; there's too many," Vance said. "I'd like to see them prosecute the leaders ... I don't want to see the women victimized."

When the case against Blackmore and Oler fell apart in 2009, the province's new attorney general asked the court to examine the law so that the justice system could have clarity about whether Canada's law barring multiple marriages is constitutional. In dismissing the original case against Blackmore and Oler, Justice Sunni Stromberg-Stein said the province's attorney general had gone "prosecutor-shopping" in order to charge the two men after previous prosecutors recommended not charging them.

Provincial and federal government lawyers argued before Bauman that polygamy is inherently harmful, leading to physical and sexual abuse, teenage brides, human trafficking and other crimes. These outweigh any claim to religious freedom, the governments say.

Lawyer Kieran Bridge, who represents the group Stop Polygamy in Canada, said if the criminal law is upheld the next step is prosecutions.

"I think removing the uncertainty about the validity or invalidity of the law will go a long way towards removing any roadblocks to prosecutions. That was the biggest hurdle," Bridge said.

But Pongracic-Speier didn't expect criminal prosecutions to begin immediately if the ban was upheld.

In the court case that ended in April, Lawyers for Bountiful residents and civil liberties advocates argued the law violates the religious guarantees in Canada's constitution, and rejected the argument that polygamy is inherently bad.

The case included testimony from academic experts, former polygamist women and current plural wives for polygamy.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2011-11-23-CN-Canada-Polygamy/id-57db25232e494b4887be6109ae57797d

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USC holds off No. 4 Oregon 38-35

Oregon running back LaMichael James finds room to run during the first half of their NCAA college football game against Southern California in Eugene, Ore., Saturday, Nov. 19, 2011. (AP Photo/Don Ryan)

Oregon running back LaMichael James finds room to run during the first half of their NCAA college football game against Southern California in Eugene, Ore., Saturday, Nov. 19, 2011. (AP Photo/Don Ryan)

Southern California wide receiver Marqise Lee, left, evades Oregon defender Troy Hill during the first half of their NCAA college football game in Eugene, Ore., Saturday, Nov. 19, 2011.(AP Photo/Don Ryan)

Southern California quarterback Matt Barkley, left, throws on the run as tailback Curtis McNeal, right, blocks Oregon defender Dewitt Stuckey during the first half of their NCAA college football game in Eugene, Ore., Saturday, Nov. 19, 2011.(AP Photo/Don Ryan)

EUGENE, Ore. (AP) ? Matt Barkley threw for 323 yards and four touchdowns and No. 18 USC held off No. 4 Oregon 38-35 on Saturday night when Alejandro Maldonado missed a 37-yard field goal to tie the game with five seconds left.

Trailing 24-7 in the third quarter, Oregon mounted a furious comeback and narrowed it to 38-35 with 7:05 left in the fourth quarter. Barkley led his team to the Oregon 15, but Marc Tyler fumbled and the ball was recovered by the Ducks with 2:54 to go.

Oregon marched down the field but Maldondado's kick, which was brought five yards closer because of a USC penalty, went wide left.

The loss snaps a 21-game winning streak for the Ducks (9-2, 7-1 Pac-12) at Autzen Stadium, which was the longest in the nation. It also stopped Oregon's winning streak in conference games at 19.

Robert Woods, who was held out of some practices this week with ankle and shoulder injuries, caught seven passes for 53 yards and two scores. With the victory, USC (9-2, 6-2) kept the Ducks from clinching a spot in the inaugural Pac-12 championship game.

The loss had greater implications for Oregon after No. 2 Oklahoma State lost to Iowa State 37-31on Friday night, which is sure to shake up the BCS standings. The Ducks had jumped to fourth in those rankings after a decisive 53-30 victory over then-No. 3 Stanford last week.

But against USC, they were playing catch up from the start.

The Trojans scored first on Barkley's 59-yard touchdown pass to Marqise Lee in the first quarter, then added Barkley's 12-yard scoring pass to Woods early in the second to go up 14-0.

The Ducks didn't' look like themselves until an efficient scoring drive midway through the second quarter. Darron Thomas hit true freshman Colt Lyerla with a 35-yard pass before striking fellow frosh De'Anthony Thomas with a 29-yarder for the touchdown. The seven-play drive covered 88 yards in just 2:15.

But USC answered with Barkley's 4-yard touchdown pass to Woods. The TD, Barkley's 73rd, moved him past Carson Palmer for second on Southern California's career touchdown list. Matt Leinart had 99 for the Trojans.

The Ducks had a chance to narrow it before the half, but De'Anthony Thomas was out of bounds when he pulled down a Darron Thomas pass to the end zone. On the next play, James fumbled and the ball was recovered by USC.

James, who dislocated his elbow earlier in the season and missed two games, was hit in the arm on the play, and was holding the elbow as he was helped up by trainers.

The Trojans opened the second half with Andre Heidari's 26-yard field goal to make it 24-7, but Oregon again showed a flash of its usual speedy offense with a quick drive capped by Kenjon Barner's 10-yard touchdown run.

The Ducks, known for their second half adjustments, couldn't slow USC's momentum and the Trojans scored on the subsequent series with Marc Tyler's 3-yard run. Barkley added a 5-yard scoring pass to Randall Telfer to make it 38-14.

De'Anthony Thomas narrowed it again for the Ducks with a 96-yard kickoff return for a touchdown, and the Autzen Stadium crowd got back into the game with 3:28 left in the third quarter.

Barner had an 8-yard touchdown run to close the Ducks to within 38-27 with 12:44 left in the game. The Trojans ate a lot of time up with their next series, but Barkley was intercepted by John Boyett, putting the Ducks in business on their own 40. Oregon scored on James' 1-yard run, and the 2-point conversion was ruled good after review to make it 38-35.

Darron Thomas threw for 265 yards and a touchdown for the Ducks. Barner ran for 123 yards and two scores.

But USC still got its first victory in the state of Oregon since 2005.

The Trojans cannot play in the postseason because of NCAA sanctions. The league's southern representative is still up for grabs between Arizona State, Utah and UCLA.

There were cheers before the game started when NBA stars LeBron James, Chris Paul, Dwyane Wade, Chris Bosh, Carmelo Anthony and several others showed up on the sidelines. James and Anthony even tossed around a football.

The players were have been working out at Nike headquarters in Beaverton, Ore., just outside of Portland.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2011-11-19-T25--USC-Oregon/id-78db2a39689c42f385b358d5defcda96

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PrawfsBlawg: A Recipe for Trashing Legal Scholarship

? Personal impact of the Penn State story | Main | Regulatory Changes, Part 2: Congressional Approval of Regulations ?

Sunday, November 20, 2011

A Recipe for Trashing Legal Scholarship

Just in time for Thanksgiving!

Ingredients:

• A premise based on a?hazy cliche, such as: "Of course, much of academia produces cryptic, narrowly cast and unread scholarship.";
• A few particularly esoteric article titles --?law & philosophy if possible;
• A complete misunderstanding of Ed Rubin's program for reform of the legal academy, which in fact seeks to increase?the role of legal research in law school pedagogy;
• A couple of hostile throw-away quotes from Supreme Court justices;
• A truly bizarre calculation of the "cost" of legal scholarship, based on back-of-the-envelope calculations and unsupported assumptions;
• An unwitting job candidate, whose scholarly work can provide a few more esoteric-sounding titles and food for ridicule; and
• An overall theme for the story (the nature of legal education) that is, in fact, something worth debating -- and in fact is being debated quite vigorously within the academy.

Directions: Mix together in the preeminent newspaper of our country.? Half-bake and serve.

Seriously, I hope other folks jump on this -- it's really demoralizing and infuriating to read this in the New York Times.??It's a head-scratcher.? I was just writing over at the Glom about the respect and appreciation the Delaware Chancery has for legal scholarship.? And then we get this.

Segal says at one point, in attempting to show the impracticality of legal scholarship:

Some articles are intra-academy tiffs that could interest only the combatants (like ?What Is Wrong With Kamm?s and Scanlon?s Arguments Against Taurek? from The Journal of Ethics & Social Philosophy).

The article is (a) a philosophy article written in (b) a philosophy journal (a self-described "online peer-reviewed journal of moral, political, and legal philosophy")?(c) by a philosophy professor.? I mean, really.? Is that the best you can do?

Posted by Matt Bodie on November 20, 2011 at 03:40 AM in Life of Law Schools | Permalink

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Maybe it takes a particular fatalistic worldview, or maybe I've just lived long enough to watch certain things cycle up and down, but I am not going to get overly frothed up over a reporter's story-selling take on what is probably a valid, if typically shallow, journalistic reflection on the current state of the relationship between the practicing and the academic sides of the profession. In other words, there's just enough truth in the story to make critics of legal academia righteous, and defenders of legal academia, well, defensive. If you want to see evidence of the pendulum swing, go back and read this critique of legal academia from 1983, written by my friend and fellow Michigan/Stanford alum, David Margolick, who thereafter went on to be the NYT legal beat writer, author of some big books, and a contributing editor to Vanity Fair. I can recall seeing this article which ran as the cover story in the New York Times Sunday Magazine lying on the table in the Dykema Gossett library some twenty-eight years ago.

What was the critique? As a Stanford alum, David focused on Stanford. "Though applications to Stanford, as at other top schools, continue to rise, class attendance, participation and interest are down. The interests and aspirations of faculty and students are diverging, with the former growing more diverse and imaginative in recent years, the latter more practical, careerist and cautious. The job market, moreover, continues to infiltrate and affect the educational process. For many students, law school has become more a conduit to lucrative positions in large law firms than an opportunity to ponder the larger questions about law and justice." He quoted Derek Bok: "Today, many of the best minds in the country head for the top law schools - Harvard, Yale, Columbia, Stanford, New York University, the Universities of Michigan, Chicago, Virginia, Pennsylvania and California at Berkeley - then on to Wall Street. Not everyone goes there merely because the jobs pay well - up to $50,000 for starting lawyers. Some are attracted by the apparent glamour of high-stake litigation and deal-making; others see such work as a springboard to careers in business or as way stations to law practice on their own. In any case, the overwhelming preference among top law graduates for such positions represents what President Bok called 'a massive diversion of exceptional talent into pursuits that often add little to the growth of the economy, the pursuit of culture or the enhancement of the human spirit.'''

And I apologize for the length of the following quote, but it's so quaint that I feel compelled to add it:

Legal education has seen some positive developments in the last 15 years - relatively modest by most standards but highly unusual in this hidebound corner of academia. A number of scholars centered around the University of Chicago injected economic considerations into traditional legal analysis. Another group of professors, largely young and leftist, known as the Conference of Critical Legal Studies, has challenged the traditional foundations of legal education and scholarship. A third approach, clinical training, in which students learn law by practicing it under supervision has gained increased acceptability at many schools.

Each of these schools of thought has sought to supplement, if not supplant, the century-old case method, in which students analyze appellate-court decisions in order to learn both legal principles and reasoning. Supporters of the approach say that aside from teaching students how to read cases and understand legal precedent, it makes them more intellectually rigorous, more skeptical of dogma and better able to see all sides of an issue - in short, better advocates.

It is unclear how much curricular reform trickles down to law students - or how much they even want it to. Indeed, many students seem to expect little from the roughly $40,000 they invest in a Stanford education, regarding the money more as a licensing fee than as an educational expense.

"For most students, nothing that goes on in law school matters - it's simply a credential," observes Mark Kelman, who joined the Stanford faculty in 1977. "The most common student here is getting none of the real new clinical training, none of the new, financially sophisticated courses, no law and economics, no nothing. What this place offers is a ritzy degree, and there's a legal requirement that you spend three years here to get it."

Get it? The problem thirty years ago was that Langdellian education didn't instill critical thinking abilities, and theoretical stuff like Law & Econ and CLS would! Plus ca change, plus c'est la meme chose. The consistency, however, is that lawyers are wonderful advocates, and often the best defense is a good offense. The right thing to do, it seems to me, in response to this "Occupy Law School," as we would to "Occupy Wall Street," is to get beyond the rhetoric, sloppiness, lack of organization, unclear motivations, and desired ends of the movement, and take seriously the grains of truth that need to be taken seriously.

Posted by: Jeff Lipshaw | Nov 20, 2011 8:47:28 AM

Spot on. The article was tremendously disappointing. I'm surprised the NYTimes would print something this unbalanced.

Posted by: ano | Nov 20, 2011 8:47:29 AM

I'll also add that Kamm/Scanlon v. Taurek is quite important. The issue they are fighting about is "Should the Numbers Count?" Depending on how one answers that question, most of health and social welfare policy, and many other areas of law and policy, should come out differently!

Posted by: I. Glenn Cohen | Nov 20, 2011 9:10:50 AM

And print it on the front page no less.

Posted by: anonymous | Nov 20, 2011 9:12:29 AM

The treatment of the job applicant was appalling, and totally unnecessary.

Posted by: anonymous | Nov 20, 2011 9:18:18 AM

A serious question, if perhaps a naive one: What, exactly, is driving David Segal? In the past few months, he's produced a series of articles about law schools, not one of which is free from the angry, venomous, and steeply slanted voice so obvious here. There's some truth in each piece, no doubt. But there's also more than enough sloppiness, slipperiness, and general disdain for the law school world that I wonder what's sticking in his craw. I hope others sense the same thing. Even more, I hope others can shed some light.

Great catch, Matt, as always.

Posted by: Achoo! | Nov 20, 2011 9:21:44 AM

He has apparently been reading the law school scamblogs over the past few years, and he seems to have adopted their mission and tone. He is a controversial figure among some of the bloggers. While they like the fact that he is taking it to law schools, he has been accused of ripping them off.

Posted by: anonymous | Nov 20, 2011 9:55:53 AM

I see this as a branch of tort reform - very organized lobbyists skilled in rhetorical flourishes are jumping on some valid and thoughtful critiques of legal academia to seize their moment to discredit lawyering entirely (especially since the trial bar is a large democratic party base, along with unions...see the trend)?

Posted by: anon | Nov 20, 2011 9:59:16 AM

Anon at 9:59, I think you are right. It's tricky, because there are many serious and valid critiques to be made of the academy. But this moment does provide an opportunity for others to make political gains in areas that have nothing to do with efficacy of law schools. One example-- the attack on tenure and the attack on unions are of a piece. At will employment for everyone is the goal. The Times is late to this game on the law school front. The Wall Street Journal has been on the law school is a fraud beat for some time now.

Posted by: anonymous | Nov 20, 2011 10:10:45 AM

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Police clashes mar Occupy Wall Street protests (AP)

NEW YORK ? Thousands of demonstrators took to the streets, the New York Stock Exchange and the subways to raise their voices against what they say is corporate excess.

But since police in riot helmets, batons and riot shields ousted them from their two-month encampments, Occupy Wall Street protesters singled out officers as another enemy, saying their crowd control tactics were an excessive, chilling use of force against free speech.

"The police played their role. I wouldn't call it respectful," said Danny Shaw, 33, on Thursday in a day of protests across the country to mark the two-month anniversary of the movement against what demonstrators say is economic inequality.

Tear gas in Oakland, Calif., pepper spray that hit an 84-year-old Seattle woman in the face and hundreds of arrests of demonstrators and journalists at Occupy protests across the U.S. this week shone the spotlight on the varying crowd control tactics of police, most who used helmets and riot gear as they broke up encampments in New York and other cities.

"Police Brutality," protesters' signs blared. New York officials have called for investigations of the police raid of Zuccotti Park in lower Manhattan early Tuesday.

Experts on policing say departments have used necessary tactics to control unpredictable, sometimes violent protesters, and that the police haven't reached the stages yet of full riot protection.

"I don't think they're rioting at Occupy Wall Street, not yet, but they are getting out of control," said Maki Haberfeld, a professor of police studies at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York. "If they were rioting, you would see much more riot gear" like sonic devices and high-powered weapons, she said.

But the images that have played across the country have been disconcerting to some: 84-year-old Dorli Rainey's face dripping with pepper spray and the liquid used to treat it, and police and protesters pushing each other in New York Thursday over metal barricades in downtown Manhattan.

"When somebody puts their hands on somebody itself, it never looks right," Haberfeld said. "But this is what they're allowed to do. ... It is truly not excessive and I am surprised by how not excessive it is."

The demonstrations Thursday ? in such cities as Los Angeles, Boston, Las Vegas, Washington and Portland, Ore. ? were for the most part peaceful. But at least 300 people were arrested in New York and dozens were arrested elsewhere, including five on charges they assaulted police officers by throwing liquid into several officers' faces and tossing glass at another.

"We will assure that everyone has the right to exercise their First Amendment rights," Mayor Michael Bloomberg said Thursday after visiting one hospitalized officer who needed 20 stitches on his hand. But "if anyone's actions cross the line and threaten the health and safety of others including our first responders, we will respond accordingly."

Chanting "All day, all week, shut down Wall Street," more than 1,000 protesters gathered near the New York Stock Exchange and sat down in several intersections. A dozen metal sleeves intended to lock protesters to fixtures on the street were confiscated, police said. Several thousand jammed Manhattan's Foley Square Thursday evening and marched to the Brooklyn Bridge.

Several weeks ago, an attempt to march across the bridge drew the first significant international attention to the Occupy movement as more than 700 people were arrested.

In Seattle on Thursday, hundreds of Occupy Seattle and labor demonstrators shut down the University Bridge. Traffic was snarled as protesters from two different rallies held marches as part of a national day of action demanding jobs.

In Los Angeles, helmeted police equipped with batons surrounded the base of a bank tower but the protest remained peaceful. Several hundred Occupy sympathizers marched to the Bank of America Plaza in downtown Los Angeles, with some setting up tents on a lawn. Police arrested two dozen people after they sat down in a street during a peaceful rally by hundreds of people organized by labor groups who had a permit.

Authorities cleared an encampment set up by Occupy protesters on the University of California, Berkeley campus; about 150 police officers and deputies in riot gear.

Police arrested 21 demonstrators in Las Vegas, and 20 were led away in plastic handcuffs in Portland, Ore., for sitting down on a bridge. At least a dozen were arrested in St. Louis after they sat down cross-legged and locked arms in an attempt to block a bridge over the Mississippi River.

Several of the demonstrations coincided with an event planned months earlier by a coalition of unions and liberal groups, including Moveon.org and the Service Employees International Union, in which out-of-work people walked over bridges in several cities to protest high unemployment.

The street demonstrations also marked two months since the Occupy movement sprang to life in New York on Sept. 17. They were planned well before police raided a number of encampments over the past few days, but were seen by some activists as a way to demonstrate their resolve in the wake of the crackdown.

Thursday's demonstrations around Wall Street brought taxis and delivery trucks to a halt, but police were largely effective at keeping the protests confined to just a few blocks.

Officers allowed Wall Street workers through the barricades, but only after checking their IDs.

Live television shots Thursday showed waves of police and protesters shoving back metal barricades set up to separate the protest from the public in downtown Manhattan. Some of the police hit protesters as they resisted arrest.

Emmanuel Pardilla, 20, a political science and history major at Fordham University in New York, said the heavy police presence "added to the fear tactic."

Haberfeld and other policing experts said the crowd control was aggressive, but not excessive. But First Amendment experts said that every interaction with demonstrators, particularly when televised nationally, can thwart the goal of protests and discourage others from joining.

"That's really is terribly inhibiting," said New York attorney Herald Fahringer. "Because people say, `Gee, well, I don't want to go out there and join the protest if I run the risk of getting hit over the head with a billy club."

___

Associated Press writers Terry Collins in Berkeley, Calif., Christina Hoag in Los Angeles, and Karen Matthews, Samantha Gross, Jennifer Peltz and David B. Caruso in New York contributed to this report.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/stocks/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111118/ap_on_re_us/us_occupy_protests

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Rice: Assad taking Syria to brink of civil war (AP)

WASHINGTON ? Former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice says Syrian President Bashar Assad is taking his country to the brink of civil war.

Rice tells CNN's "State of the Union" that Assad's crackdown is creating a very dangerous situation.

She says Assad "is no friend of the United States" and that his overthrow would be a "great thing" for the Syrian people, U.S. interests and anyone seeking a more peaceful Middle East.

Rice is calling for the "toughest" possible penalties against Assad's government.

She says that if Russia and China block U.N. sanctions, the U.S. should apply pressure with its allies or act alone. Rice also is urging more assistance to Syria's opposition.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/us/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111120/ap_on_re_us/us_condoleezza_rice_syria

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Past gubernatorial staff call Mitt Romney computer buybacks ?unprecedented? (The Ticket)

Romney (Paul Sancya/AP)

Former staff for past governors of Massachusetts told the Boston Globe this week that having staff purchase their computer hard drives at the conclusion of their terms was not a longtime practice, contrary to claims made by Mitt Romney's campaign.

The Globe reported Thursday that the office of current Gov. Deval Patrick (D) is unable to fulfill requests for records from his predecessor's 2003-2007 administration. When Romney left office in 2006,?11 gubernatorial aides personally purchased 17 hard drives, removing them from state sources, and took down the server that housed their emails just before Patrick took over.

The moves suggest Romney was attempting to conceal or withhold information. But Romney campaign spokeswoman Andrea Saul told the newspaper Thursday that Romney's staffers did nothing wrong or unusual; they simply "complied with the law and longtime executive branch practice,'' she said.

But former state staffers say otherwise.

Terry Dolan, who "worked in six administrations and handled office transfers for many of them," according to the Globe, told the newspaper it was "unheard of" and unprecedented for staff to buy their computers, though it was common to erase servers between administrations.

The Romney campaign has not publicly commented on why the hard drives were purchased, according to the Globe.

The revelations have not stopped the Romney campaign attacking President Obama on transparency. "One Of The Most Disappointing Attributes Of The Obama Administration Has Been Its Proclivity For Secrecy . . . . Obama Should Reread His Pronouncements About Transparent Government," the campaign wrote in one press release Thursday, which laid into the Obama administration's state-secrets record.

In response to The Globe's coverage, the Democratic National Committee on Thursday filed a formal public records request with the State of Massachusetts for correspondence during Romney's administration. Romney's campaign has framed that move, like others preceding it, as a sign that the Democratic establishment perceives Romney as its biggest threat in 2012.

The Romney campaign on Thursday sent a letter to Patrick questioning whether his co-operation with the Globe story constituted a violation of state law by mixing electoral politics with legislative work. "It is evident that your office has become an opposition research arm of the Obama reelection campaign," campaign manager Matt Rhoades wrote.

Other recent GOP presidential hopefuls have faced criticism over their statehouse record on transparency issues.

Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee took a good deal of flak for his directive to staffers demanding that they destroy hard drives and servers as he prepared to leave office in January 2007 to launch his presidential campaign. The issue resurfaced in April of this year, prior to Huckabee's decision to opt out of the 2012 race.

Other popular Yahoo! News stories:

Want more of our best political stories? Visit The Ticket or connect with us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter.

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Bradley Cooper is People's "sexiest man alive" (Reuters)

(Reuters) ? Bradley Cooper is the latest Hollywood heartthrob to be named People's sexiest man alive, the magazine announced on Wednesday.

In choosing Cooper, who has enjoyed box office success most notably in "The Hangover" films, the magazine said there was more to the actor than his dazzling baby blues and a killer smile.

The 36-year-old is also a Georgetown University graduate, can cook, rides a motorcycle and is fluent in French.

Cooper's humility only added to his appeal, People said.

"I think it's really cool that a guy who doesn't look like a model can have this," he told the magazine. "I think I'm a decent-looking guy. Sometimes I can look great, and other times I look horrifying."

Although he is single, Cooper said he doesn't see himself as a ladies man.

His initial reaction when he learned about the latest accolade was, "My mother is going to be so happy."

Runnersup on People's annual list this year were Ryan Gosling, Idris Elba, Tim McGraw and Alec Baldwin.

Previous winners included actor Ryan Reynolds, George Clooney, Brad Pitt and Mel Gibson, who was named the first sexiest man alive by the magazine more than a quarter-century ago.

(Reporting by Chris Michaud; editing by Patricia Reaney)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/celebrity/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111116/people_nm/us_bradleycooper

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Case tossed against accused Selena Gomez stalker (AP)

LOS ANGELES ? A judge on Wednesday dismissed a criminal case against a man charged with stalking Selena Gomez, saying he did not believe prosecutors had shown he intended to cause the actress and singer to be afraid.

The dismissal will free Thomas Broadnicki, 46, who was charged earlier this month with stalking Gomez between July and October.

The starlet was not present for Wednesday's preliminary hearing during which a prosecutor attempted to show there was probable cause for Brodnicki to stand trial.

Brodnicki has a history of mental illness and was being held on $150,000 bail after his arrest on Oct. 31. Mental health workers had notified authorities that he had threatened to kill the starlet while on a psychiatric hold.

"We strenuously objected" to the dismissal, district attorney's spokeswoman Sandi Gibbons said. She said Superior Court Judge Edmund Willcox Clarke Jr. ruled Brodnicki "did not have the intent to cause fear."

Gibbons said the office is evaluating its options, which could include re-filing the case at a later date.

A civil restraining order requiring Brodnicki to stay 100 yards away from Gomez remains in place. A hearing is scheduled for Nov. 23 to determine whether the stay-away order will remain in place for the next three years.

Gomez, 19, wrote in a sworn declaration that she is in "extreme fear" of Brodnicki.

Brodnicki was represented by Deputy Public Defender Nick Stewart-Oaten, who did not immediately return a phone message seeking comment.

___

Anthony McCartney can be reached at http://twitter.com/mccartneyAP.

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Japan probes possible Olympus gangster link: source (Reuters)

TOKYO (Reuters) ? A unit from the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department's organized crime division has joined an investigation into an accounting scam at Japan's disgraced Olympus Corp, a source familiar with the matter said on Friday, in a sign that the scandal could widen.

Olympus, a world leader in diagnostic endoscopes, has admitted hiding losses for decades through improper accounting, but has yet to say how far this concealment went and what writedowns it will now need to take.

The source told Reuters the Tokyo organized crime unit was taking part in the joint investigation, which also involves the watchdog Securities and Exchange Surveillance Commission (SESC) and the Tokyo prosecutors office. But he added it was premature to say whether gangsters were involved.

"I've heard that one unit from the organized crime division has joined," said the source, who could not be identified as he was not authorized to talk to the media. "So they must be collecting information."

The New York Times reported that Japanese officials are investigating an apparent $4.9 billion hole in the accounts of Olympus as well as possible involvement of organized crime.

"Olympus made payouts amounting to many times the losses it sought to hide, and investigators suspect much of the additional money went to crime groups," the newspaper said, citing a memo prepared by investigators.

That memo says authorities want to find out if Olympus worked with crime syndicates to obscure the losses, and paid them huge sums of money for their help, the paper said, noting the memo was circulated at a recent meeting of officials from the SESC, prosecutors and police.

A Tokyo police spokeswoman confirmed that a probe of Olympus was under way, but declined to give details. The Tokyo Prosecutors Office and SESC declined comment, as did Olympus.

Links between companies, "yakuza" gangsters and politicians have a long tradition in Japan. Authorities have been trying to crack down for decades, most recently with laws targeting not only crime syndicates but firms that do business with them.

The New York Times quoted the memo as saying Olympus had paid a total of 481 billion yen ($6.25 billion) through questionable acquisition payments, investments and advisory fees between 2000 and 2009, but only 105 billion yen ($1.36 billion) had been booked in its financial statements.

Tsuyoshi Kikukawa, who quit as company president on October 26, and two others face voluntary questioning by prosecutors as early as this weekend, Kyodo news agency reported.

The company's new president, Shuichi Takayama, has blamed Kikukawa, Vice-President Hisashi Mori and internal auditor Hideo Yamada for the cover-up, and said he would consider criminal complaints against them.

Mori has been fired and Yamada has offered to resign.

FOLLOW THE MONEY

Olympus has admitted to improperly accounting for only part of $1.3 billion in payments linked to mergers and acquisitions going back to 2006, though an independent panel commissioned by the firm to investigate the matter was still trying to get to the bottom of the issue.

A large share of these payments went to obscure Cayman Islands firms, making it difficult to trace the money.

Olympus has said Mori told the company none of the funds involved in the cover-up scheme had gone to "anti-social forces" -- a Japanese euphemism for gangsters -- but the firm was waiting for the independent panel's report, due early next month.

Olympus has lost more than 70 percent of its market value since the scandal broke last month, with major shareholders Nippon Life and Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group (MUFG) sharply reducing their shareholdings in the company.

Four MUFG units cut their collective Olympus stake to 7.61 percent from 10 percent, a regulatory filing showed on Friday.

Olympus shares closed down more than 16 percent after rallying earlier this week on investor hopes that the company would avoid being delisted.

Delisting would effectively cut Olympus off from equity capital markets, constraining its funding and making it harder for its lenders to keep supporting the firm in its battle to avoid having to sell off its core businesses. It could also damage Japan's reputation among global investors.

Proof that organized crime was involved could force the Tokyo exchange to delist Olympus shares, and would make it hard, if not impossible, for banks to make fresh loans to the firm.

"If a company is found to have problems, like the involvement of anti-social forces, banks are not able to give support," Katsunori Nagayasu, chairman of the Japanese Bankers Association and MUFG president, said on Thursday.

Lawyer Shin Ushijima, a former prosecutor, said that, at first glance, organized crime involvement appeared unlikely, but could not be ruled out, if gangsters had got wind of the loss cover-ups and sought payments to stay silent.

"I don't think it's likely, but we cannot deny it (the possibility)," he said. "If the yakuza got some information, it means that someone spoke about it and that is very unlikely."

Other experts say gangsters often begin by blackmailing an executive or company over one scandal, and then push for more money to keep that original payoff a secret.

($1 = 76.985 Japanese Yen)

(Additional reporting by Taro Fuse in TOKYO; Writing by Linda Sieg; Editing by Mark Bendeich and Ian Geoghegan)

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Yelp?s Biggest Shareholders: Who Owns What And Who Sold What

In February 2010, Yelp CEO Jeremy Stoppelman and chairman Max Levchin each pocketed $15 million each in a private sale of stock to Elevation Partners, which previously had bought $25 million worth of shares from the company in Yelp's series E financing. The private purchases was part of another $36.8 million Elevation paid individual shareholders, including Stoppelman and Levchin. It is increasingly common for growth investors like Elevation or DST to provide founders and early shareholders with some liquidity before an IPO. Now that Yelp has filed to go public, these details are coming out in its S-1. Stoppelman and Levchin are still the two largest individual shareholders in Yelp. Stoppelman owns 11.1 percent of the company, while Levchin actually owns a little bit more, with 13.8 percent. Depending on what Yelp's valuation will be at its IPO, those stakes could be worth more than $100 million each (assuming a $1 billion market cap).

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Congress set to cut money for meat industry reform (Providence Journal)

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S. African company fights move to ban painkiller (AP)

JOHANNESBURG ? A South African pharmaceutical manufacturer is fighting moves toward banning a painkiller that has been removed from the shelves in the U.S. and Europe because of fears it could harm the heart.

South African authorities have moved to join their counterparts in the U.S. and Europe to halt sales of dextropropoxyphene after decades of use, but a major manufacturer in South Africa, Adcock Ingram, insists it's safe.

"We always maintained that the drug is safe, and still maintain the drug is safe," Dr. Abofele Khoele, Adcock Ingram's medical executive, said in an interview Thursday. "We've got studies to prove the drug is safe."

But he acknowledged that dextropropoxyphene, which is found in such Adcock Ingram painkillers Doxyfene and Synap Forte, has raised concerns elsewhere.

Adcock Ingram is appealing an April ruling by South Africa's Medicines Control Council against the drug. This week, the company lost a court bid to allow doctors to keep prescribing dextropropoxyphene products pending a ruling on the appeal.

Health Ministry spokesman Fidel Hadebe told The Associated Press the court ruling "is a major victory for the public. Government has a duty to protect the public from any possible medical harm."

Hadebe could not say when a Health Ministry appeal body would rule on Adcock Ingram's request for a review. Adcock Ingram has requested a quick decision.

Adcock Ingram's Khoele said his company's recipe for dextropropoxyphene products differed from those in the West, including in the way it is absorbed. He also said South Africa was stricter on dosages.

Late last year, shortly after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration asked companies to voluntarily stop selling dextropropoxyphene products, Xanodyne Pharmaceuticals agreed to withdraw Darvon and Darvocet, brand name versions of the drug, from the U.S. market.

The FDA had concluded that the pain medication "can cause serious toxicity to the heart" and "puts patients at risk of potentially serious or even fatal heart rhythm abnormalities."

In 2009, the European Medicines Agency recommended that all marketing authorizations for medicines containing dextropropoxyphene be withdrawn throughout the European Union.

The FDA first considered removing dextropropoxyphene from the market in 1978, but concluded then that its benefits outweighed its risks. Adcock Ingram's Khoele said the FDA's recent reversal, based on new evidence, was surprising.

"I think our regulators should take note of the goings on around the world," Khoele said.

But he said the South African regulator should have sought information from local manufacturers before making a decision.

Khoele said that the company would abide by the decision of the appeal board.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/meds/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111117/ap_on_he_me/af_south_africa_painkiller

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Wall-E-Like Farming Robots Could Replace Undocumented Workers and Save the US Billions [Monster Machines]

Despite advancements in mechanization within US agriculture, some menial jobs are still best left to human workers. Problem is, federal crackdowns on undocumented laborers have decimated that workforce. The Harvester automaton could provide a cheap, readily available labor force without the threat of raids by the INS. More »

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/MAS5Zz31WGk/wall+e+like-farming-robots-could-replace-undocumented-workers-and-save-the-us-billions

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