Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/209856942?client_source=feed&format=rss
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Friday, March 30, 2012
In The Business of Technology: End of "High Street Retail" As We ...
More than 2,000 UK jobs were axed yesterday, as Game Group closed hundreds of shops after the company collapsed into administration. The beleaguered video games retailer, which had 610 UK stores, was unable to meet a ?21m second-quarter rental payment due on Sunday and appointed the accountancy firm PwC as administrator. Is this the end of "High Street Retail" as we know it? Is it the beginning of the end??
The writing was on the wall for Game for some time now. Earlier this month,the struggling video games retailer had confirmed that a number of its suppliers were refusing to do business with the company, sending its shares down 63% to 1.29p. Back then Game said that while it was trying to resolve the matter "as quickly as possible", it was unsure if its efforts would be successful.The Game is not the only retail business struggling for the past few years. Almost all high-street retailers have recorded reduced operating margins and profits, if at all they were there. The difficulties at Game are testament to the current squeeze on living costs coupled with a change in shopping habits and games technology. The group has also been battered by competition from cheaper rivals on the internet, such as Amazon and Play.com, and the major supermarkets. Separately, many people now download game Apps direct to tablets or smart phones, rather than buying software to be loaded in to consoles like the PlayStation, xBox on Nintendo Wii.
What the Game story tells us however is something unique where a Technology brand is being eaten by fast evolving technology business models. As Matthew Warman states in the Telegraph, "the story of Game is simply the first taste of what the web is doing to global retail ? its products happen to be bought by users who migrated quickly to the web. All other specialist retailers are being challenged online: Whittards, to take just one example, is under pressure from specialist tea and coffee retailers such as Teahorse and Kopi, who will send subscribers superb selections every month, and cater to profitable, premium niches yet don?t have the overheads of high street rents and other associated costs. Many consumers simply see that they don?t have the inconvenience of shopping. Where Game led, even the most aromatic of products is set to surely follow."?It was not so long ago that another high-profile retail venture went bust in the UK. It was in November 2011 that, Carphone Warehouse announced that it was to close all of its 11 Best Buy stores across the UK. The first Best Buy store in the UK only opened in April of last year. But the outlets failed to make a profit. Carphone Warehouse and Best Buy initially planned to open 200 Best Buy stores across the UK and continental Europe. But clearly they had to abandon those plans well and truly before they could take-off. Is there market left for technology shopping on UK high-street? Probably there is and there will be always that small niche segment of shoppers who prefer to touch their electronic goods, CDs, Games and likes before they buy them. But that segment is shrinking all the time and internet players will certainly be calling the shots in this segment of Retail market.Source: http://eamitabh.blogspot.com/2012/03/end-of-high-street-retail-as-we-know-it.html
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Diabetics stay mobile with weight loss, fitness | Health Magazine
People with Type 2 diabetes improved their mobility, a key predictor of living independently, when they lost weight and exercised, a U.S. study finds.
Researchers randomly assigned 5,145 overweight and obese adults to an intensive lifestyle program for weight loss or to attend a support and education group.
Being able to climb stairs is an important part of maintaining mobility. (Suzanne Plunkett/Reuters)
The result? After four years, those in the treatment group showed lower risk of loss of mobility compared with those in the control group, the researcher said.
?Weight loss and improved fitness slowed the decline in mobility in overweight adults, with Type 2 diabetes,? the study?s authors concluded.
Difficulty in bending over was a harbinger for the loss of mobility, possibly because older adults who have trouble with the movement are at risk for being sedentary, they said.
Participants filled in questionnaires about how easily they could do:
- Vigorous activity such as running and lifting heavy objects.
- Moderate activity such as pushing a vacuum cleaner, playing golf or climbing a flight of stairs.
All of the participants, men and women aged 45 to 74, were weighed every year. They had treadmill fitness tests when the study started, after one year and at the end of the four-year experiment.
When the study concluded, 38.5 per cent in the treatment group had good mobility compared with 31.9 per cent in the other group.
Weight loss was slightly more influential in preventing loss of mobility than improved fitness but both helped, the researchers said. It could be that weight loss improves the relative strength of the legs and facilities balance, which are important for fitness and mobility, they added.
The researchers acknowledged that they relied on participants to evaluate their own mobility rather than measuring it, but said the improvements were clinically relevant.
The weight loss and physical activity goals of the study are ?well within the reach? of most people, said Jack Rejeski, the study?s lead author and a professor of health and exercise science at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, N.C.
Lifestyle changes that improve health and reduce disability have already been shown to prevent disease and provide good return on investment, the researchers said in calling for wider study.
Source: http://healthmaga.com/health/health-news/diabetics-stay-mobile-with-weight-loss-fitness/
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Thursday, March 29, 2012
Maxim Minimized. Layoffs Hit Men?s Mag Web and Editorial Team
The Internet killed the magazine star. There's been a major round of layoffs at Maxim magazine. Senior Editor Seth Porges is at least one employee who got the axe, according to our sources and confirmed by a recent update to his Twitter bio that now lists him as "EX-MAXIM". Details are sparse, we've confirmed there's been cuts from the editorial, web, and photo teams. The layoffs could be a response to declining magazine sales due to the fracturing of men's attention caused by rise of the internet and social media. There's just more places for men to look at gadgets, guns, and girls than there used to be.Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/d3k514M7G1k/
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U-M Health and Retirement Study adds genetic data to NIH database
![[ Back to EurekAlert! ]](http://www.eurekalert.org/images/back2e.gif){kind=small}
Public release date: 28-Mar-2012[ | E-mail |
Share ] Contact: Diane Swanbrow
swanbrow@umich.edu
734-647-4416
University of Michigan
ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- The University of Michigan Health and Retirement Study, a 20-year nationwide survey of the health, economic and social status of older Americans conducted by the U-M Institute for Social Research, has added genetic information from 12,500 consenting participants to the online genetics database of the National Institutes of Health.
The genetic data was posted today to dbGAP, the database of Genotypes and Phenotypes, an online genetic database developed by the NIH.
"This step marks an important milestone in the expansion of traditional social science research to include biometric and biological data, including genetic material," said ISR Director James Jackson.
The Health and Retirement Study genetic data, now available for analysis by qualified researchers, is comprised of approximately 2.5 million genetic markers from each person, obtained from saliva samples. Specific information on the data can be found at www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/projects/gap/cgi-bin/study.cgi?study_id=phs000428.v1.p1 and http://hrsonline.isr.umich.edu.
"The addition of genetic data provides a major new dimension for the study and is expected to result in much deeper insights into how we age," said Richard Hodes, director of the National Institute on Aging. "With detailed information on genetic background, combined with the wealth of data on important aspects of the lives of older people, researchers will be better able to describe the spectrum of behavioral and environmental risk factors for disease and disability, as well as those that may protect our health."
Data from a total of 20,000 HRS participants is expected to be posted to the database by the end of 2013. This will allow researchers to conduct genome-wide association studies on survivorship, longevity and genetic determinants of aging, along with studies of complex disease traits, physiological measures and functions, biomarkers and physical performance. The longitudinal design of the HRS greatly enhances the power to detect genetic effects and to study determinants of age-dependent changes in health and function.
"When the Health and Retirement Study began collecting DNA in 2006, it was with a firm belief that measuring genetic variation at the population level would someday help to galvanize the integration of social and biological sciences," said David Weir, director of the HRS and principal investigator of the genotyping projects funded under the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act. "Now technological advances in genotyping, the vision of the National Institute on Aging in supporting the first-of-its kind nationally representative population study of genetics, and the collaboration of leading geneticists at U-M have made this integration a reality."
"Aging is one of life's biggest mysterieswhat speeds it up or slows it down? The HRS finally brings together two separate research worlds into a single large, deep longitudinal study," said U-M geneticist Sharon Kardia. "Now we can finally study how a person's genes interact with their social situation, life choices and beliefs about the world."
Launched in 1992, the HRS today follows more than 35,000 people over age 50. It collects data every two years, from pre-retirement to advanced age, during extensive interviews with participants, who are asked detailed questions about their health, economic status, social factors, cognitive ability and life circumstances. The interviews also include a set of physical performance tests, body measurements, blood and saliva samples, and a psychosocial questionnaire.
"Adding genetic data to this longitudinal study has the potential to revolutionize behavioral and social research," said Richard Suzman, director of the National Institute on Aging Division of Behavioral and Social Research and a co-founder of the study. "The new genetics information will be the largest nationally representative sample in NIH's genetic database."
The NIA renewed its support of the HRS in December 2011. The cooperative agreement between the NIA and the University of Michigan was extended for six years. Funding for the current fiscal year is $13.3 million; funding for the entire renewal period may total about $82 million. The Social Security Administration, which has been a longstanding supporter of the HRS, provided $4.2 million in fiscal year 2011.
"The HRS has also served as the model for similar studies in more than 30 other countries, leading to cross-national comparisons of the health and well-being of older people," Suzman said. "Comparative analyses with global counterparts have led to several surprising discoveries about how older Americans are doing. This information is increasingly significant for national leaders and policymakers as the world's older population continues to grow."
The HRS has helped spur the development of a global community of researchers sharing ideas and collaborating on analyses. Data from the HRS and its sister studies have attracted thousands of new researchers to studying aging, generating more than 2,000 peer-reviewed articles, book chapters, dissertations and working papers.
###
NIA press release site: www.nia.nih.gov/newsroom/press-releases
Established in 1949, the University of Michigan Institute for Social Research is the world's largest academic social science survey and research organization, and a world leader in developing and applying social science methodology, and in educating researchers and students from around the world. ISR conducts some of the most widely cited studies in the nation, including the Thomson Reuters/University of Michigan Surveys of Consumers, the American National Election Studies, the Monitoring the Future Study, the Panel Study of Income Dynamics, the Health and Retirement Study, the Columbia County Longitudinal Study and the National Survey of Black Americans. ISR researchers also collaborate with social scientists in more than 60 nations on the World Values Surveys and other projects, and the institute has established formal ties with universities in Poland, China and South Africa. ISR is also home to the Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research, the world's largest digital social science data archive. For more information, visit the ISR website at http://www.isr.umich.edu.
[ | E-mail | Share ] ?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Public release date: 28-Mar-2012[ | E-mail |
Share ] Contact: Diane Swanbrow
swanbrow@umich.edu
734-647-4416
University of Michigan
ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- The University of Michigan Health and Retirement Study, a 20-year nationwide survey of the health, economic and social status of older Americans conducted by the U-M Institute for Social Research, has added genetic information from 12,500 consenting participants to the online genetics database of the National Institutes of Health.
The genetic data was posted today to dbGAP, the database of Genotypes and Phenotypes, an online genetic database developed by the NIH.
"This step marks an important milestone in the expansion of traditional social science research to include biometric and biological data, including genetic material," said ISR Director James Jackson.
The Health and Retirement Study genetic data, now available for analysis by qualified researchers, is comprised of approximately 2.5 million genetic markers from each person, obtained from saliva samples. Specific information on the data can be found at www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/projects/gap/cgi-bin/study.cgi?study_id=phs000428.v1.p1 and http://hrsonline.isr.umich.edu.
"The addition of genetic data provides a major new dimension for the study and is expected to result in much deeper insights into how we age," said Richard Hodes, director of the National Institute on Aging. "With detailed information on genetic background, combined with the wealth of data on important aspects of the lives of older people, researchers will be better able to describe the spectrum of behavioral and environmental risk factors for disease and disability, as well as those that may protect our health."
Data from a total of 20,000 HRS participants is expected to be posted to the database by the end of 2013. This will allow researchers to conduct genome-wide association studies on survivorship, longevity and genetic determinants of aging, along with studies of complex disease traits, physiological measures and functions, biomarkers and physical performance. The longitudinal design of the HRS greatly enhances the power to detect genetic effects and to study determinants of age-dependent changes in health and function.
"When the Health and Retirement Study began collecting DNA in 2006, it was with a firm belief that measuring genetic variation at the population level would someday help to galvanize the integration of social and biological sciences," said David Weir, director of the HRS and principal investigator of the genotyping projects funded under the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act. "Now technological advances in genotyping, the vision of the National Institute on Aging in supporting the first-of-its kind nationally representative population study of genetics, and the collaboration of leading geneticists at U-M have made this integration a reality."
"Aging is one of life's biggest mysterieswhat speeds it up or slows it down? The HRS finally brings together two separate research worlds into a single large, deep longitudinal study," said U-M geneticist Sharon Kardia. "Now we can finally study how a person's genes interact with their social situation, life choices and beliefs about the world."
Launched in 1992, the HRS today follows more than 35,000 people over age 50. It collects data every two years, from pre-retirement to advanced age, during extensive interviews with participants, who are asked detailed questions about their health, economic status, social factors, cognitive ability and life circumstances. The interviews also include a set of physical performance tests, body measurements, blood and saliva samples, and a psychosocial questionnaire.
"Adding genetic data to this longitudinal study has the potential to revolutionize behavioral and social research," said Richard Suzman, director of the National Institute on Aging Division of Behavioral and Social Research and a co-founder of the study. "The new genetics information will be the largest nationally representative sample in NIH's genetic database."
The NIA renewed its support of the HRS in December 2011. The cooperative agreement between the NIA and the University of Michigan was extended for six years. Funding for the current fiscal year is $13.3 million; funding for the entire renewal period may total about $82 million. The Social Security Administration, which has been a longstanding supporter of the HRS, provided $4.2 million in fiscal year 2011.
"The HRS has also served as the model for similar studies in more than 30 other countries, leading to cross-national comparisons of the health and well-being of older people," Suzman said. "Comparative analyses with global counterparts have led to several surprising discoveries about how older Americans are doing. This information is increasingly significant for national leaders and policymakers as the world's older population continues to grow."
The HRS has helped spur the development of a global community of researchers sharing ideas and collaborating on analyses. Data from the HRS and its sister studies have attracted thousands of new researchers to studying aging, generating more than 2,000 peer-reviewed articles, book chapters, dissertations and working papers.
###
NIA press release site: www.nia.nih.gov/newsroom/press-releases
Established in 1949, the University of Michigan Institute for Social Research is the world's largest academic social science survey and research organization, and a world leader in developing and applying social science methodology, and in educating researchers and students from around the world. ISR conducts some of the most widely cited studies in the nation, including the Thomson Reuters/University of Michigan Surveys of Consumers, the American National Election Studies, the Monitoring the Future Study, the Panel Study of Income Dynamics, the Health and Retirement Study, the Columbia County Longitudinal Study and the National Survey of Black Americans. ISR researchers also collaborate with social scientists in more than 60 nations on the World Values Surveys and other projects, and the institute has established formal ties with universities in Poland, China and South Africa. ISR is also home to the Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research, the world's largest digital social science data archive. For more information, visit the ISR website at http://www.isr.umich.edu.
[ | E-mail | Share ] ?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2012-03/uom-uha032812.php
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Kindle Touch gets April 27th release date in Europe
Good news for our friends on the other side of the pond waiting to get their fingers on the Kindle Touch's e-ink display: nearly half a year after hitting the States, the e-reader is getting ready for its official European debut. The reading device will be hitting the UK, Germany, France, Spain and Italy on April 27th, though you can plunk down your cash for one right now. The UK version of the reader will run you £109 for WiFi-only and £169 when you tack on 3G functionality.
Continue reading Kindle Touch gets April 27th release date in Europe
Kindle Touch gets April 27th release date in Europe originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 27 Mar 2012 18:41:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Brits revel in gloom ahead of London Olympics
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This badge, which was put up for sale on eBay, gives an indication of the attitudes of some Britons ahead of the Olympics.
By Ian Johnston, msnbc.com
LONDON -- If?grumbling ever becomes an Olympic sport, the United Kingdom has to be a surefire bet for gold.
The level of complaints, fears and general discontent about the 30th Olympiad in London?this summer has reached fever pitch, moving?well-known commentator David Randall, of The Independent on Sunday newspaper, to write a column entitled "Come on, Britain! Stop moaning! It's the Olympics, for heaven's sake!"
Some fear too many people will come to London, causing a "perfect storm" of congestion on the roads -- so bad that lives could be endangered?-- along with congestion on the subways, and also on the Internet; others think that actually?fewer visitors than usual will come?because ordinary tourists will be put off,?so the games will provide?little or no boost to the city's economy.
Composer Andrew Lloyd Webber even predicted "a bloodbath of a summer" for London's theaters?after a slump in advance orders for tickets.
Then there has been a slew of?gripes about tickets for Olympic events, such as not being able to get them?unless you are a member of the super-rich, and?unnecessary secrecy about the ticketing process.
Some worry?London will get a bad name if visitors are ruthlessly gouged for every cent, by unscrupulous landlords, over-priced hotels?or expensive Olympic souvenirs, for example.
The International Olympics Committee President Jacques Rogge said the organization is "happy" with the progress and that a great legacy had already been left. ITV's Rags Martel reports.
?
However, one of the main groups representing London taxis seemed somewhat put out?after it tried unsuccessfully to get approval to increase fares by a hefty 22 percent during the games.?Allowed only?a 5.3 percent raise, a drivers' representative suggested that many cabbies might decide not to show up for work.
Morris-dancing anarchists?
Other complaints include?the potential $17 billion cost?of the event to taxpayers, and that Scotland, some 500 miles to the north of London, will see little benefit from the presence of the Games in the U.K. capital.?
Labor unions?have also been threatening to go on strike during the games to protest the government's austerity measures.?
Darren Staples / Reuters, file
Morris dancers, similar to these Leicester Morrismen dancing in Newtown Linford in 2010, may stage flash mob-style protests after being left out of the opening ceremony, The Daily Mail reported. Morris dancing stretches back some 600 years, but its origins are obscure.
And, if all that wasn't enough, there's the fear of a large-scale terrorist attack, and other assorted threats --?of?varying degrees of seriousness?--?from solar storms, diseases spread by shaking hands, Morris-dancing anarchists,?and, cue the scary music, the "Illuminati."
Olympic housing crunch: London landlords evict tenants to gouge tourists
Any sports enthusiast looking forward to the spectacles of Usain Bolt on the track, LeBron James on the court and Alex Morgan on the soccer field might be somewhat discouraged by all this negativity.
'It's cathartic'
But Peter Catterall,?lecturer in history at Queen Mary, University of London and editor of the journal National Identities, told msnbc.com that this would be a "cultural misreading" of the current outbreak of moaning.
"I think it reflects, if you like, a national history," he said. "The national narrative is often about making the best of heroic defeat, like [the Second World War evacuation of] Dunkirk and so on. The national experience in Britain is not one that's tended to create a sense in which you can just 'seize that hill.'"
Oda / Getty Images
From Wimbledon to Wembley Stadium to The Dome, a look at the venues for the 2012 London Olympic Games.
"There's a tendency to think in terms of what could go wrong, rather than what could go right," he said. "It's a kind of low-level grumbling amongst people who are often quite good at grumbling. I think also people quite like grumbling, it's cathartic."
Testing for terror: Preparing for the unthinkable at London Olympics
Olympic?organizers may even have taken this into account in their planning.
"I do think in part the public authorities have been trying to get the moaning out of the way early,"?Catterall said, although he added that this "may well put off some visitors."
An age-old attitude?
This kind of attitude may go back at least as far as what was arguably the world's first international event for the masses, London's Great Exhibition of 1851.
It was essentially a trade fair showing off?the?best?products from across the world -- exhibitors included China, Persia (now Iran), the United States, India, Tunisia, Philippines and many European countries -- and?it attracted more than 6 million visitors during its five-month run.
Peter Macdiarmid / Getty Images
Will Brits start celebrating the Games when they actually begin? A man sits in the Atlas cafe in Leyton near the Olympic Park in London, England, on March 22, 2012.
However, in the run-up to the exhibition, Londoners expressed a string of complaints and worries that are notably similar to the current ones about the Olympics.
"I think there was a parallel in terms of all these fears," Michael Leapman, author of a book about the Great Exhibition, called?"The World for a Shilling," said.
The prospect of hordes of visitors sparked alarm about congestion -- and as it turned out there were some traffic jams of the horse-and-carriage variety -- and the spread of disease, Leapman told msnbc.com.
And while tickets could be bought for a shilling, prices were increased at the weekends and other times to enable the wealthy to enjoy the exhibits without rubbing shoulders with the "hoi polloi," he added. Leapman said the author Charles Dickens was on a committee to represent the interests of working-class people, but?the exhibition's organizers paid so little attention to?it?that?Dickens quit.
Security was another big concern, with the event coming not long after several European?revolutions in 1848 and amid unrest associated with the working-class Chartist movement in the U.K.
"The Duke of Wellington [a national hero after his victory over Napoleon at the Battle of Waterloo in 1815] wanted to put a troop of cavalry into Hyde Park, but the government said that would be a bit too provocative," Leapman said.
The government also attempted to set up a register of accommodation with set prices, but Leapman said most landlords resisted signing up, trusting the free market to give a better return.
'Enthusiasm'
But the generally positive outcome of the event?gives Leapman, who has tickets to watch hockey, some comfort amid all the present-day moaning.
He said that while there might be "some inconvenience" during the Olympics "I have a feeling it will be a great success, partly judging from the Great Exhibition."
At Olympics, dogs have sniffed out a key anti-terror role
And so?the views of?Hugh Robertson, the U.K. government's minister for sport and the Olympics, should perhaps not be viewed with the usual British cynicism toward politicians.
"My experience of the Games across the country has been one of fantastic support and enthusiasm," he told msnbc.com in a statement, noting the "huge demand" for tickets.
"The Royal Wedding showed that Britons know how to get behind national events, and London 2012 will be the chance to do that on a giant scale," Robertson added. "We [are] determined that everybody who comes to London for the Games has an amazing time."
John Powell, chairman of leading athletics club Belgrave Harriers, is exactly the sort of person who should be bursting with enthusiasm for the Games.
He will carry the Olympic torch and is the coach of sprinter James Ellington, who is a medal prospect for the U.K. if he makes it through the trials.
Powell told msnbc.com that he was "very excited" about carrying the flame; and?it would be "amazing" to coach an athlete to a medal,?the "pinnacle" of his 36 years of coaching.
But even he has a gripe.
If Ellington wins gold, Powell, his coach of some 13 years, will watch his triumph on television because, he said, he and many other coaches will not be given access to the stadium, a decision he described as?"shambolic and a scandal."
"That really does take the edge of it from my point of view," Powell said.
More from msnbc.com and NBC News:
Follow us on Twitter: @msnbc_world
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