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Consider Fleas, Please: Things that bite in the night II

last week we had a analysis in spite of how brown recluse and spiders are made scapegoats for misdiagnosed human ailments. this is a timely text because of the recent misinformation published in newspapers and an extreme email circulating that purports to show the thumb of a man that was allegedly bitten by a brown recluse. what the medical community and pet-owners have apparently overlooked as the culprit, and should be looking at, is the tiny flea that enigmatic little beast that has been living with and on clap in irons ever since we walked out of our caves into the sunlight.
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The revolution will be mobilized

(CNN) — First it was instant messaging during office hours that gave us the thrill of passing notes in class. Then it was exposing ourselves via Web cams, ranting our minds on blogs, uploading our baby photos on Flickr and poking each other on Facebook. These days, as corporate records show, we choose to spend our lunch breaks watching YouTube, if not chatting over Skype.

The bad news is the Web 2.0 revolution is over. The good news is now we can take it with us.

Over the past two years, well over a dozen startups have sprung into action, bringing everything from IM to VoIP to our mobile phones, in a quest to conquer the cellular fourth screen.

Winner of Silicon Valley/San Jose Business Journal’s 2007 Emerging Technologies Awards in the category of Social Networking, Mig33 is confident about the viability of its future: The next wave of Internet growth is mobile. The number of mobile devices worldwide has exceeded three billion, and the next billion subscribers will have their first Internet experience using a mobile phone.

Like the Rotterdam-based Nimbuzz, Mig33 also offers instant messaging, photo sharing and VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) for cheaper telephony, in addition to social networking via profiles, chatrooms and, of course, friends.

Applications are free to download and communities are free to join, while members are charged only for SMS and VoIP calls, bridging communications between mobiles and computers.

The softwares are fully functional on both 3G and any smart (Internet-enabled) 2.5G phones running such platforms as Java, Symbian, Windows Mobile, Blackberry, S60 and the iPhone OS.

Nimbuzz in particular boasts compatibility with Skype, Google Talk, AOL Instant Messenger, Windows Live Messenger, Yahoo! Live Messenger, Jabber, MySpace and Facebook. But it is hardly alone in partnering with traditional desktop live chat sites, as well as industry partners around the world.

Playfully packaged, internationally-based Fring works with WiFi providers in Europe and Australia as well as SIP providers based in both North and South America, Western and Eastern Europe, South Africa and China, also consolidating all chat buddies into a single mobile contact list.

In this context, one way to stand out from the all-encompassing bunch with the global reach is through niche audience focus.

MyHappyPlanet, a free online language-exchange network that allows members to create profiles and chat with language partners in real time (text, voice, video), will go mobile in the near future.

A2Aworld, an upcoming mobile social networking startup, will focus on connecting social networkers between the world’s two largest online communities — America and Asia — in terms of communication, information, culture and e-commerce. Furthermore, its business model is based on revenue from emerging online advertising, VoIP calls and premium membership fees, without the mobile ads and viral marketing.

Fierce competition

Meanwhile in the mobile marketplace, VoIP competition is getting fierce. While SIPphone’s open-source Gizmo Project was heralded by early beta testers as the first viable Skype alternative in July 2005, it’s clear today that Skype itself is the big winner in the VoIP game.

Most recently, iSkoot has extended its partnership with Skype, following its collaboration with mobile operator 3 for the global launch of the 3 Skypephone in October 2007, which was the first mass-market Skype-enabled handset as a carrier-integrated solution for mobile-VoIP IM services.

But mobile VoIP itself still faces multiple challenges, including fragmented access and distribution. While some applications choose to collaborate with mobile phone carriers, others choose to compete with them by using data networks such as WiFi.

In near future, there will be a hyper-convergence solution, predicts A2Aworld’s Michael Liu. However, WiFi/WiMax to cell/IMS will be playing a bigger and bigger role. In the long run, there will be all-in-IP IMS solutions.

Insecure communications also pose a new threat to VoIP, as Liu points out: In the early days of VoIP, people were mostly concerned with its cost, functionality and reliability. Now that VoIP is gaining wide acceptance and becoming one of the mainstream communication technologies, security has become a major issue.

And to satisfy the YouTube generation, applications such as myZen Mobile encourage the circulation of photos and viral videos optimized for mobile viewing in real time, with an all-in-one interface featuring YouTube, Facebook, Flickr, Yahoo podcast, etc, with the possibility to add other community sites such as ifilm and blogger.

Going mobile

Simon Newstead, founder and CEO of Frenzoo, a social-networking site specialized in 3D fashion avatars, is enthusiastic about going mobile.

We have a roadmap to implement our service on mobile platforms such as iPhone, he says. Today users are already using 3D in gaming platforms like the wildly successful Nintendo DS Lite, so the logical integration of 3D avatars into the mobile platform will certainly present a great opportunity.

Technically, new handsets already integrate hardware acceleration for 3G, and battery life is increasing rapidly. Now the only remaining factor is availability or higher-speed affordable mobile bandwidth, which is already emerging in advanced mobile markets such as South Korea, Hong Kong and Japan.

Indeed in Hong Kong, where the mobile-phone penetration rate hovers around 150 percent, mastering the mobile market is becoming increasingly lucrative.

Hong Kong’s largest mobile network carrier CSL introduced Asia’s first 3G video-sharing service in 2005, launched Hong Kong’s first 3G interactive mobile TV in 2006, and partnered with blogging site Xanga in early 2008.

From the carrier’s point of view, it seems that people’s choice of mobile communication is a question of coverage and user-friendliness — of price, packaging, usability, according to CSL’s (Create a Simple Life) chief marketing officer Christine Teo.

We try to ‘replicate’ any desktop experience to the mobile phone. You can call it replicating, extending, adding value, continues Teo. And with every new partnership, we need to make sure that the application works on each new handset we launch… With mobile phones [as opposed to desktop computers] there is still some concern, stigma, so we need to educate people to get over that hurdle. It’s the faster we can get it at the click of a button.

More and more, the mission of the mobile industry is to make seamless that virtual space between desktop and handset.

It’s where we want people to embrace life, says Teo. It’s what we all aim to do. No downtime, no downspace… Over time Xanga will add more features, and we will mobilize as much as possible.

The good news is the Web 3.0 revolution is only beginning.
found here.

Advocaat envious of big-spending Bayern

BERLIN, Germany (AP) — Dick Advocaat coaches Russia’s richest club in Zenit St. Petersburg — and yet the Dutchman still has reason to be envious of Bayern Munich.

While Zenit is owned by the massively wealthy Russian natural gas giant Gazprom, Advocaat says Bayern’s financial strength gives it a clear advantage heading into Thursday’s first leg of the UEFA Cup semifinals.

This season, Bayern shelled out $110 million for new players — more than Zenit’s total annual budget.

Ottmar Hitzfeld wanted Miroslav Klose, Luca Toni and Franck Ribery and got them, Advocaat said of Bayern’s coach.

Ottmar wants, Bayern pays. When Bayern has a second game in a week, Hitzfeld sends seven new players onto the field.

The match-up could be described as new money versus old money.

Gazprom was formed in the 1990s, while Germany’s richest club has been a European power since the ’70s.

The Russian champions, however, may not have to face two of Bayern’s new stars Thursday as they vies for a spot in the final.

Toni, the leading scorer in both the UEFA Cup and Germany’s Bundesliga, is suspended with a fifth yellow card and his strike partner Klose is listed as doubtful with an inflamed foot.

The loss of Toni may hurt Bayern the most. The Italian has 10 goals in the competition and has been in devastating form, scoring twice late to salvage a 3-3 draw against Getafe that lifted Bayern into the semifinals on away goals.

Toni also added both goals in Saturday’s 2-1 German Cup final win against Borussia Dortmund, taking his total to 35 in 41 games in all competitions this season.

It’s too bad that Luca isn’t there — he’s in great form at the moment, Bayern’s Dutch midfielder Mark van Bommel said. But up to now, we’ve compensated for every missing player.

Van Bommel will pad his reputation as Bayern’s tough guy by playing despite a broken nose and skipping the protective face guard.

You have to grit your teeth a little sometimes, he said. But let’s not exaggerate, a broken nose isn’t all that bad.

Advocaat believes Gazprom could invest more in new players after spending $235 million on a new stadium.

Having just 15 good players is a strain with two competitions, and a reason why the club is only 10th in league this year, he said.

Several of his stars are coveted by western clubs, including forward Pavel Pogrebnya, with eight UEFA Cup goals, Ukrainian midfielder Anatoliy Tymoschuk and Russian player of the year Andrei Arshavin.

Zenit hope the Bayern game at the Allianz Arena resembles last round’s match-up against another German club, when the Russians used their speed on breakaways to beat Bayer Leverkusen 4-1.

We will have it easier than in the Russian league, where every team plays defensively against us, Advocaat said. Bayern will give us room to play.

Hitzfeld and veteran goalkeeper Oliver Kahn are looking to end their Bayern career with a triple.

Hitzfeld will coach Switzerland next season while Kahn will retire, and they want another European title to add to the German Cup and the Bundesliga crown they can clinch next week.

If Ottmar Hitzfeld can perfect the treble in the UEFA Cup, then that is the ideal farewell gift, Bayern president Franz Beckenbauer said.
found here.

Volkswagen drives profit up 25 percent

FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) — Volkswagen said Wednesday that improved sales helped lift its first-quarter net profit by more than 25 percent and predicted a substantial increase in demand from Asia, Europe and South America.

The Wolfsburg-based company, Europe’s biggest car maker by sales, said it earned $1.5 billion in the January-March period, compared with around $1.1 billion the year before. Operating profit rose 21 percent to $2 billion from $1.58 billion a year earlier.

Sales rose 1.4 percent to $43.01 billion. The number of cars sold rose by 6.9 percent worldwide to 1.6 million from 1.5 million.

Details of sales by brand — including VW, Audi, Lamborghini, Bentley, Bugatti, Seat and Skoda — are expected on April 30. On Monday, Volkswagen said it expected its April sales to be up seven percent on last year, with approximately 550,000 cars sold.

The company said plans to offer several new models this year would push up sales.

For this reason, we are assuming that deliveries to Volkswagen Group customers in 2008 will exceed the record levels achieved in the previous year, the company said in a statement. We expect demand for … vehicles to increase substantially, especially in the Asia-Pacific, Central and Eastern Europe, and South America regions.

Shares of Volkswagen were down 2.3 percent to $297.69.

The earnings report came a day before Volkswagen’s annual general meeting, which is expected to be contentious in view of a disagreement between the company’s two biggest shareholders over future rules on decision-making.

Automaker Porsche, Volkswagen’s biggest shareholder, has declared its intention to lift its current stake of 31 percent to a majority stake.

However, the second-biggest shareholder, Volkswagen’s home state of Lower Saxony, is wary of losing the blocking minority that it enjoys through its holding of just over 20 percent.

It wants to keep a rule under which significant decisions require the approval of shareholders representing 80 percent of Volkswagen’s stock, plus one share.
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Clinton claims victory in Pennsylvania

PHILADELPHIA, Pennsylvania (CNN) — Sen. Hillary Clinton claimed victory in Pennsylvania on Tuesday, beating out Sen. Barack Obama after a bruising seven-week campaign.

It’s a long road to 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. and it runs right through the heart of Pennsylvania, she told supporters in Philadelphia.

I’m in this race to fight for you … You know you can count on me to stand up strong for you every single day in the White House.

Clinton commended Obama and his campaign, saying they are in many ways on this journey together. Watch Clinton claim victory

Tuesday’s projected victory follows Clinton’s wins in other big states such as Ohio, New York and California.

Her campaign said that should raise new questions about whether Obama, who leads Clinton in the overall Democratic race, can beat presumptive Republican nominee John McCain in November.

The tide is turning, Clinton told cheering supporters. Chelsea Clinton’s eyes welled with tears as she watched her mother speak.

With about 93 percent of precincts reporting, Clinton was leading Obama by 10 points. Watch what Obama’s campaign says about the results

Clinton will pick up a majority of the state’s 158 delegates.

But the win still leaves Obama ahead in the race to the Democrats’ August convention in Denver, and he is likely to hold that lead unless the wheels come off his wagon, said CNN analyst David Gergen, a former adviser to both Republican and Democratic candidates.

He came up short, but it doesn’t look like the wheels came off, Gergen said. That’s going to be her problem. I don’t see her way to the nomination. The wheels aren’t coming off the wagon unless there is some new, big revelation.

According to CNN’s latest count, Obama leads in the delegate count — 1,685 to 1,544.

He also leads in the popular vote and the number of states won so far this primary season. See how the delegate race has played out so far

CNN analyst and Clinton supporter Paul Begala said Clinton still scored an extraordinary victory in Pennsylvania.

Obama congratulated Clinton on her win and looked ahead to the May 6 contests in North Carolina and Indiana. Watch Obama congratulate Clinton

There were a lot of folks who didn’t think we could make this a race when it started, he said in Evansville, Indiana.

But we worked hard … And now, six weeks later, we closed the gap. We rallied people of every age and race and background to the cause. And whether they were inspired for the first time or for the first time in a long time, we registered a record number of voters, and it is those new voters who will lead our party to victory in November.

Obama scored big with new Democrats in Pennsylvania, early exit polls showed.

One out of every seven Democratic party voters was not registered as a Democrat at the beginning of the year, and 60 percent of them cast their ballot for Obama, according to the exit polls.

Clinton fared better with voters who made up their mind in the last week, the exit polls showed.

Fifty-eight percent of those voters said they chose the New York senator. That includes voters who made up their mind in the aftermath of last week’s heated Democratic debate. See the exit polls

African-American voters in Pennsylvania supported Obama by a substantial margin. According to exit polls, 92 percent cast their vote for the Illinois senator, compared with 8 percent for Clinton.

Clinton got the support of older voters, with 61 percent of those age 65 or older backing her, according to the polls.

She also received more support than Obama among white males, with 55 percent voting for her.

Clinton on Tuesday acknowledged her White House bid was on the line in Pennsylvania. Call races for yourself and see how delegates add up

Well, I have to win, Clinton told ABC. I believe that’s my task. And I’m going to do everything I can to win.

Calling Pennsylvania an uphill climb, Obama declined to predict a victory in the primary, but said his campaign showed he can compete in a big state.

A win is 50 plus one. So, if Sen. Clinton gets over 50 percent, she’s won the state and, you know, I don’t try to pretend that I enjoy getting 45 percent and that’s a moral victory — we’ve lost the state, Obama said during a stop in South Philadelphia. Watch what Obama says about the primary

The race generated high interest in the state.

Pennsylvania Secretary of State Pedro Cortes said he thought the turnout would be a record for a primary, with some counties reporting 50 and 60 percent of voters showing up at the polls.

Pennsylvanians have seen, in terms of participation, in terms of interest, what feels like a general election — a presidential general election — as opposed to a presidential state primary where there’s hardly any interest, Cortes said.

About 4 million Democrats were registered to vote in Pennsylvania.

In recent weeks, Clinton fended off calls to drop out of the race as the increasingly bruising primary fight raised worries from within the party that the daily cycle of charge-and-countercharge could hurt the Democrats’ chances in the general election.

Neither candidate is expected to win the 2,025 delegates needed to clinch the nomination by the end of the primary season in June.

The superdelegates — party leaders and officials — then could decide the nomination.
found here.