BRASILIA: Regulators in Brazil on Wednesday rejected Apple's application to register its iPhone trademark in the country, having already recognized a local manufacturer's claim to the name.
The Institute of Industrial Property (INPI) "denied Apple registration of the iPhone trademark," the institute's press office told AFP. The decision was officially published by the INPI.
- AFP/fa
A look at A&E's iPhone app.
Apple iPhone owners now have the ability to stream full episodes of some of the most popular A&E shows.
The network updated its iOS application earlier this week, allowing iPhone owners to watch everything from "Duck Dynasty" to "Storage Wars" and "The First 48." A&E's other networks, Lifetime and The History Channel, have also received updates supporting the iPhone.
A&E initially launched its app in December for the iPad. The company allows viewers to watch full episodes of the current season of shows for free. As with the
iPad application, only Comcast customers will have access to episodes from previous seasons.
For now, AirPlay support is not available in A&E's line of applications. However, the company noted in its App Store description that the feature is "coming soon."
If there were anything in President Barack Obama's State of the Union to give hope to wistful environmentalists, it was the unprecedented promise to confront climate change with or without Congress, and to pursue new energy technology in the process.
Following his strong statements in his inaugural address about the ripeness of the moment to address a changing climate, Obama outlined a series of proposals to do it. Recognizing that the 12 hottest years on record all occurred in the last decade and a half, Obama said his most ambitious goal would be a "bipartisan, market-based solution," similar to the cap-and-trade system that died in Congress during his first term.(See related story: "California Tackles Climate Change, But Will Others Follow?")
But without legislative action, Obama threatened to act himself using executive authority. "I will direct my Cabinet to come up with executive actions we can take, now and in the future, to reduce pollution, prepare our communities for the consequences of climate change, and speed the transition to more sustainable sources of energy," he said. That will translate, White House officials said earlier in the week, to new regulations for existing coal-burning power plants and directives to promote energy efficiency and new technology research. (See related story: "How Bold a Path on Climate Change in Obama's State of the Union?")
The effort isn't one that can be stalled, he noted. Not just because of a warming planet, but also because of international competition from countries like China and parts of Western Europe that have gone "all in" on clean energy.
Energy experts signaled support of Obama's comments on energy security, including a plan for an Energy Security Trust to use revenue from oil and gas production on public lands to fund new energy research. "Clean energy businesses commend the president for reaffirming his commitment to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and to address the damaging and costly impacts of climate change," Lisa Jacobson, president of Business Council for Sustainable Energy, said in a statement. The influential League of Conservation Voters perked up to Obama's vow to act on climate change, even if alone.
Noticeably unmentioned in the speech was the Keystone XL pipeline that would carry oil from Canadian tar sands to the refining centers of Texas. Environmentalists have urged Obama to reject the project's application for federal approval in order to hold the line against carbon-intensive production from the oil sands. (See related blog post: "Obama and Keystone XL: The Moment of Truth?") Energy analysts believe Obama is likely to approve the project in the coming weeks, yet at the same time offer new regulations on domestic oil and natural gas development.
Other environmental analysts took Obama's remarks as simple talk, so far not backed by action. “How many times do we have to have the problem described?” David Yarnold, president of the Audubon Society said after the speech. “Smarter standards for coal-fired power plants are the quickest path to a cleaner future, and the president can make that happen right now.”
Obama's path toward accomplishing those goals will likely be lonely. In the Republican rebuttal to Obama's speech, Florida Senator Marco Rubio sidelined climate change as an issue of concern and highlighted the deep partisan distrust. "When we point out that no matter how many job-killing laws we pass, our government can’t control the weather, he accuses us of wanting dirty water and dirty air," Rubio said. He echoed the long-held Republican concern that remaking an economy may not be the wisest way to confront the problem of extreme weather.
Central to Obama's efforts will be his nominees to lead the Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Energy in his second term. Both roles were at times attacked over his first term, notably when EPA instituted new air and water regulations and DOE was caught making a bad investment in the now-defunct solar manufacturer Solyndra. If the tone of his State of the Union offers a blueprint, he'll choose people unafraid to act.
This story is part of a special series that explores energy issues. For more, visit The Great Energy Challenge.
Hal Hodson, technology reporter
(Image: Chris Nash/iamchrisphotography/Getty)
Lab rats have a new companion, but it's not friendly. Researchers at Waseda University in Tokyo, Japan, have developed a robotic rat called WR-3 whose job is to induce stress and depression in lab animals, creating models of psychological conditions on which new drugs can be tested.
Animal are used throughout medicine as models to test treatments for human conditions, including mental disorders like depression. Rats and mice get their sense of smell severed to induce something like depression, or are forced to swim for long periods, for instance. Other methods rely on genetic modification and environmental stress, but none is entirely satisfactory in recreating a human-like version of depression for treatment. Hiroyuki Ishii and his team aim to do better with WR-3.
(Image: Takanishi Lab/Waseda University)
The researchers tested WR-3's ability to depress two groups of 12 rats, measured by the somewhat crude assumption that a depressed rat moves around less. Rats in group A were constantly harassed by their robot counterpart, while the other rats were attacked intermittently and automatically by WR-3, whenever they moved. Ishii's team found that the deepest depression was triggered by intermittent attacks on a mature rat that had been constantly harassed in its youth.
The team say they plan to test their new model of depression against more conventional systems, like forced swimming.
The robot has been developed just as new research by Junhee Seok of Stanford University in Palo Alto, California, and colleagues shows that the use of mouse models for human conditions has led researchers trying to find treatments for sepsis, burns and trauma astray at a cost of billions of tax dollars.
AL BUSTAN, Oman: Slovakia's Peter Sagan won the second stage of the Tour of Oman on Tuesday and moved into the overall lead, following a 146km run from Fanja in Bidbid to Al Bustan, close to the Oman Sea.
The 23-year-old Cannondale rider broke free from the pack in the final kilometre to finish nine seconds in front of Frenchman Tony Gallopin, with Swiss rider Martin Elmiger a further two seconds back.
Sagan, the defending Slovakian champion, also won stage two on last year's race and counts three stages wins to his name on both the Tour de France and Tour of Spain in a career that continues to flourish.
Last year's Tour de France winner Bradley Wiggins endured a frustrating start to his challenge during stage one on Monday as he came in last over a minute behind stage winner Marcel Kittel.
The popular British rider was delayed by a pile-up in the last few kilometres of the 162km stage and came in 1min 30sec adrift of the leaders.
However, Team Sky are confident they will win an appeal on the basis that according to rules governing crashes, he should be awarded the same time as those riders he was riding within the closing 3km of a stage.
"There was a crash with 2km to go," said Team Sky's sports director Nicolas Portal.
"Bradley was not caught up in it but he was behind it and there was a little split in the peloton as the riders slowed down. So, with the 3km rule he should be fine."
The official results still listed the Olympic time-trial champion as 142nd and last before the start of stage two as Team Sky await a decision on their appeal.
The six-stage race continues on Wednesday with the third stage route over 190km between Nakhal Fort and Wadi Dayqah Dam, which features a profile that will again suit the likes of attacking riders like Sagan.
- AFP/al
Samsung yesterday announced the launch of a new Open Innovation Center in Silicon Valley that aims at connecting the conglomerate with the latest and greatest software ideas.
David Eun, Samsung Electronics executive vice president and leader of the Open Innovation Center, announced its opening yesterday at the D: Dive Into Media event. He told All Things Digital's Kara Swisher that while the company's hardware efforts are going well, the Open Innovation Center is designed to deliver a "thoughtful integration" of hardware with software.
According to Eun, the Open Innovation Center is based around four ideas:
For now, Samsung's Open Innovation Center is operating in temporary locations. In June, the company plans to open permanent locations in Palo Alto and the Chelsea neighborhood in New York City.
Photograph by Roberto Schmidt, AFP/Getty Images
The Hindu festival known as Kumbh Mela, often referred to as the world’s largest gathering of humanity, peaked on Sunday at the meeting of the Yamuna, Ganges, and mythical Saraswati rivers. The festival in the northern Indian city of Allahabad sees tens of millions of pilgrims bathe in the Ganges to wash away sins. Pilgrims and saints pray as they soak.
Published February 11, 2013
Photograph by Sheeraz Rizvi, Hindustan Times/Getty Images
Newly initiated Hindu ascetics perform rituals during the Kumbh Mela in Allahabad. The festival happens every three years in one of four Indian cities, with the event in Allahabad considered the holiest. It’s also the biggest.
Published February 11, 2013
Photograph by Daniel Berehulak, Getty Images
Hindu priests perform a ceremony beside the Ganges River during the Kumbh Mela in Allahabad. The festival lasts 55 days.
Published February 11, 2013
Photograph by Baciu Cristian, Demotix/Corbis
A Hindu ascetic performs a ritual last month during the 2013 Kumbh Mela.
Published February 11, 2013
Photograph by Manish Swarup, AP
Believers walk on pontoon bridges to take a dip at the confluence of the Ganges, Yamuna, and mythical Saraswati Rivers, a site known as Sangam. The processions are led by heads of monasteries and by naked ascetics smeared with ash.
Published February 11, 2013
Photograph by Manan Vatsyayana, AFP/Getty Images
A woman injured in a Sunday stampede that left 36 dead in Allahabad lies in a hospital bed in the city. There are conflicting accounts of what provoked the stampede.
Published February 11, 2013
Photograph by Daniel Berehulak, Getty Images
Hindu devotees at the Allahabad train station press toward an arriving train.
Published February 11, 2013
Photograph by Daniel Berehulak, Getty Images
A Hindu believer waits for a train at the Allahabad train station, the site of Sunday’s stampede.
Published February 11, 2013
Feb 12, 2013 9:09am
Ghanaian Cardinal Peter Kodwo Appiah Turkson attends a Mass for Pope John Paul II in St. Peter's Basilica at the Vatican, in this April 13, 2005 photo. (Pier Paolo Cito/AP Photo)
By BAZI KANANI and PHOEBE NATANSON
ROME – After Pope Benedict XVI became the first pope in hundreds of years to voluntarily resign, the Roman Catholic Church could be in for another first in recent history—an African pope.
Two African cardinals are rumored to be among the top candidates to succeed Pope Benedict, and many Vatican watchers believe the election of a non-European pope is a very real possibility at a time when the majority of the church’s growth is in the developing world.
Cardinal Peter Turkson, 64, of Ghana, is considered to be near the top of the short list of likely successors. (British bookmakers offering odds on the next pope have already made Turkson their 3 to 1 favorite.)
After serving for more than 30 years as an ordained priest, Turkson was made a cardinal by Pope John Paul II in 2003. He currently serves as president of the Vatican’s Council for Justice and Peace. Colleagues describe him as a “people person” with excellent communication skills. He is considered a conservative who is unlikely to steer the church in a new direction on issues such as contraception, abortion and gay rights.
Turkson outlined for ABC News Monday the challenge facing Benedict’s successor.
“The new pope has to be very sensitive to the present condition of humanity and yet recognize the task of having to still keep the Gospel in its pure form. That’s a big challenge that we all pray for,” he said.
“I think what we should be looking for, probably what we should be doing rather is recognizing the nature of the church… pray God will provide us with the leadership that can confidently lead the humanity in the church in the year ahead. The challenges are not going to cease. They’re going to be increasing and we need somebody with God’s guidance to get us through all this,” Turkson said.
Cardinal Francis Arinze, 80, of Nigeria is again being mentioned as a possible pope, as he was in 2005 when Pope Benedict was elected. Arinze served as a priest for 27 years and became one of the world’s youngest bishops before Pope John Paul II elevated him to cardinal in 1985.
He was appointed to lead the Vatican’s Council for Interreligious Dialogue, and colleagues compliment his ability to cooperate with people of other faiths. Arinze is also considered a conservative.
If the conclave of the College of Cardinals were to choose either Turkson or Arinze, it would be the first selection of an African pope in more than 1,500 years. Scholars say in the first five centuries of the church there were three popes from North Africa. But the selection of Turkson or Arinze would be the first pope from sub-Saharan Africa and the first-ever black pope.
Vatican watchers also believe it is possible a Latin American pope could be selected. The cardinals considered leading candidates from Latin America are said to be Leonardo Sandri from Argentina, Oscar Maradiaga from Honduras, Odilo Scherer from Brazil, and Joao Braz de Aviz from Brazil.
Jim Giles, consultant
Tech-savvy campaigns get mixed results, as the Arab Spring shows (Image: William Dupuy/Picturetank)
Gavin Newsom's Citizenville shows that technology can empower people, but the book fails to explore deep-rooted problems within the democratic process
THERE'S a lot of crime in Oakland, California. But until a few years ago, citizens had little way of assessing the scale of the problem. Then Michal Migurski hurt his back. It was Christmas 2006 and Migurski, a computer programmer, was stuck at home in Oakland, looking for ways to use his time until his back healed. He knew about the area's crime problem and decided to create an online map showing where and when crimes had been committed - something local government had failed to do.
Migurski's crimespotting.org website gets enthusiastic coverage in Gavin Newsom's Citizenville, a homage to technology's ability to empower people and reform government. If committed and skilled citizens like Migurski can access official data, for example, they can create services that governments don't have time for or aren't well equipped to provide. The internet has already disrupted a swathe of industries, from journalism to telecommunications. Citizenville is packed with examples that show that it is government's turn.
For the book, Newsom - California's lieutenant governor - talked to a host of Silicon Valley luminaries, from Google founder Sergey Brin to Tim O'Reilly, tech publisher and one of the most high-profile advocates of the idea that technology can transform government. The result is a 239-page tribute to what the valley does best: suggest radical and scalable ways to do things better.
Unfortunately, Newsom's unfettered enthusiasm for the power of the internet and smartphones to transform social and governmental problems makes for a shallow read. Take his analysis of FarmVille, the incredibly successful Facebook game in which players run virtual farms. Why couldn't a similar game be used to help govern a real city, he asks? It's an intriguing idea, based in part on the argument put forward by Jane McGonigal, a game designer, that gaming can be used to solve real-world problems.
But doesn't FarmVille's appeal have much to do with its lack of real-life responsibility? Newsom only touches on this before rushing off to his next tech-inspired solution.
It's a frustrating approach because Newsom was mayor of San Francisco between 2003 and 2010, and rolled out some bold tech-based reforms during his tenure, so he is well placed to discuss the benefits and difficulties of applying technology to governance.
Some of the most interesting parts of Citizenville address ideas that did not work, like radical transparency. After becoming mayor, Newsom decided to post his diary on the web, until his chief of staff pointed out that fundraising meetings would be visible. Newsom relented, accepting that voters don't like to see politicians asking for money.
It's a great example of how technology is just part of the reform equation. To truly empower, technology will have to deal with many entrenched problems, ranging from the shameless distortions that most elected officials spout to the huge number of alienated people who don't register to vote. Any proper assessment of technology's power to change needs to do more than consider the solutions it offers. The impoverished democratic process in the US will not improve until the causes of this situation are part of the discussion.
Broader initiatives exist, of course. Political scientists who study how misinformation spreads have teamed up with technologists to create systems for reining in erroneous memes, like the claim that Barack Obama is not a US citizen. Public health experts are studying not just the internet's ability to communicate health information but also the extent to which that information changes behaviour. It is this kind of thinking, which accepts that technology is only part of the solution, that is missing from Citizenville. I was left wishing that Newsom had focused on just a few of the issues he writes about, and had taken his research beyond the confines of Silicon Valley.
This article appeared in print under the headline "There is no app for political reform"
Book information:
Citizenville: How to take the town square digital and reinvent government by Gavin Newsom and Lisa Dickey
Penguin
$25.95
SINGAPORE: Fifteen internationally-renowned scientists were in Singapore recently for the inaugural Global Young Scientists Summit.
Among them were Nobel Prize winners Eric Cornell and Ada Yonath, who gave talks, participated in panel discussions and mentored young scientists during their time in Singapore.
The discoveries that garnered them the prestigious Nobel Prize were years in the making.
In 2009, Professor Yonath became the first woman in 45 years to win the Nobel Prize in Chemistry - after documenting the spatial structure of a ribosome, which are used by cells to make protein.
She said the discovery - the culmination of 20 years of research - was a dream come true.
"This was overwhelming, it is unbelievable, inside me I couldn't sleep, I saw it all the time," said Ms Yonath.
For Professor Cornell, who lost an arm to flesh-eating bacteria a few years ago, his discovery was the highlight of his career.
The physicist was one half of the duo that created a new form of matter - called a Bose-Einstein condensate, which had been predicted as early as the 1920s, but had never been proven up to that point.
Professor Cornell, who won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2001, said: "It was exciting to win the Nobel Prize but not as exciting as it was to make the experiment work. It was 1995 when the experiment worked, I loved that! It was a sense of great power and excitement."
The loss of his left arm hasn't stopped him from going about his life and work as per normal. Professor Cornell said: "It wasn't very difficult to adapt...I am at a point in my career where I do not use my hands to adjust the apparatus.
"I have graduate students who are working, and I explain to them what to do, and they do it. So it hasn't changed my life very much. I have learnt how to type very rapidly with one hand..."
For both, science was a love affair that began when they were very young.
When she was five years old, Professor Yonath fell two floors trying to gauge the distance between the floor and the ceiling. She broke her hand in many places.
Meanwhile, Professor Cornell used to solve physics brainteasers when he had trouble falling asleep.
He said: "For me, I feel that learning physics is like discovering the secrets. You know maybe you are an actor, and performing in a play, and you get to go behind the scenes and see how the play comes together.
"I think as a physicist, it is like that. You get to go behind the scenes, find out what is really going on. I feel it is almost like secret knowledge."
And it is a love affair that has endured.
Professor Yonath said: "Once it becomes boring, I will stop. As long as it is interesting, my curiosity drives me. Passion for science and curiosity."
Both scientists said that summits which bring an international mix of young scientists together could pave the way for future collaborations.
- CNA/ms
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