Entrepreneurs want central bank to intervene rising Kyat

Reported by Marn Thu Shein + Sithu Aung Translated and Edited by Myint Win Thein + MYA

The price of US dollar dramatically fell by K 30 to below K 700 within two days recently. On 23 August, the US dollar price dropped to K 680 per unit, and the sudden depreciation of US dollar against Kyat currency had a negative impact on export enterprises. As a result exporters were forced to stop accepting new orders from foreign clients and buying goods for export in the domestic market. During the last three months, the price of US dollar dropped by 25 percent against Kyat. Fifteen percent depreciation of US dollar against Kyat was seen within the last two weeks. Although the government is making efforts to adopt an exchange rate in order to solve the problems stemmed from the depreciation of US dollar against the local currency, the process may take some time. Therefore, entrepreneurs are of the view that immediate remedies should be employed to cope with the deepening problems. Buying of US dollar in the local market at a certain rate by the central bank, lowering bank interest rates or permitting to import currently restricted goods are possible effective measures to curb the problem. If necessary all these measures are to be taken at the same time. “The dollar price has dipped below K 700 per unit. Exporters are forced to refuse new orders. They will also reduce buying goods for exports. Some of them have started reducing their purchases in the country. It will take at least three to six months to amend the financial and monetary policies of the country. If the dollar price continues to fall another one month at this rate, entrepreneurs will have to stop their business operations. So I think immediate responses for short term remedies are required. Some analysts and entrepreneurs suggest that the central bank should buttress the local businesses by buying US dollar in the local market at a certain rate. Another method is to increase the demand for dollar by allowing to import some currently restricted goods like vehicles,” said an entrepreneur who participated in the national workshop. “A soft crab breeder who had raised 1.2 million previously now keep only 0 .6 million now. He has to reduce the number of worker on his farm from 600 previously to only 450. If the dollar price continues to fall, he is going to keep only 0.4 million crab. This is the immediate consequences of the depreciation of US dollar,” said an official from Myanmar Fisheries Federation. “The dollar price has fallen from K 725-730 on 19 August to K 685 on 22 August. I am now refusing to accept new orders from foreign clients. I will deliver goods for the existing orders. If the dollar price does not rise within next two weeks or one month, I will have to reduce the production,” said an export entrepreneur in Dagon Seikkan Industrial Zone. “Exporters always try to gain profits from their businesses. If their transactions are not profitable, they stop their operations. This is now directly affecting fish farmers like us. We cannot repay loans that we have borrowed from others. We failed to keep our promise to repay the loans. Soft crab breeders have to reduce the number of workers in their farms. These are the current impact of the prolong depreciation of the dollar. Falling US dollar prices have an impact on exporters as well as farmers,” said vice chairman U Win Kyaing of Myanmar Fishery Federation. “Today, some organizations have urgently submitted papers on the impact of the depreciation of US dollar against the local currency. The focus of their papers is to bail out through subsidies that will have immediate effects on the situation while making efforts for exchange rate reforms,” said a person from an industrial organization. “Falling US dollar prices can only be effectively curbed by subsidies from the central bank and increasing the demand for US dollar by permitting to import some currently restricted goods. If traffic congestion is a problem, unlicensed cars in the country can be fined in US dollar as well. This will increase the demand for US dollar in the local market. New cars should also be allowed to import. The burden of transportation charges for the public will be reduced,” said an official from an economic organization who took part in the meeting between the president and business entrepreneurs held in Nay Pyi Taw. “A team from the IMF will arrive here in October. It will take at least six months to reform the monetary policy of the country. However, the market has already been badly affected by the depreciation of US dollar. So a short term remedy is advisable. Either the central bank buys US dollar in the local market at a certain rate or the demand for US is increased. The market has already proved whether businesses are functional or otherwise at the US$ price of K 690 per unit. It is also a viable option to permit the import of restricted goods like vehicles as this will be beneficial for the public,” said an advisor to an economic organization. Retired Rector U Maw Than said, “US dollar prices are falling in the international market. This is also true for the domestic market. The supply is greater than the demand. As a result the local currency has risen. It seems like that the local currency is scarce. Not only the US dollar but also other currencies like Yuan, Baht, Singapore dollar and Malay Ringgit are also falling. As a result, exporters, export related businesses and hard currency earners are hurt. This also has an impact on the entire business community. There are many opinions about the exchange rate. And they seem to have an effect on the market. We are now in a transition. So we still need to wait and see. In other countries, governments intervened into the market in financial crises to reduce the consequences. Similarly, the government will have to intervene with the market here.” Professor Daw Yi Yi Myint said, “At present, businesses are in a crisis. The government is doing its best. People in the market, entrepreneurs and the government are grappling with the problems. They are not sure where to start to solve the problems. Most countries are affected by the depreciation of US dollar. Some entrepreneurs suggest that the government should buy the US dollar at a certain rate. If the government buys US dollar in the local market, its foreign reserves will accumulate in the hand of the government. When US dollar prices rise again later, the government can control the price by using the reserves. It is likely that the government will get in the way with the market. The government is trying to solve the problems but it cannot still find out the ways and means to solve the problems. One of the causes for the current depreciation of US dollar against the local currency is due to rumors. The price of dollar should be at a level for exporters to be functional.” Professor Daw Hla Myint said, “To promote trade, exchange rate should be stable. Fluctuation of exchange rate is not profitable. Now we have three kinds of exchange rates such as the official exchange rate, the export credit rate and the market rate. In the past, governments adopted a fixed exchange rate. However, the difference between their adopted exchange rate and the market rate was not much. So, the exchange rate was stable. For example, fixed exchange rate was adopted during the parliamentary democracy period in the past.. However, the government had to struggle hard to strike the balance between the supply and demand of the hard currency. Otherwise, there would have been a market rate in the black market. The fixed exchange rate was adopted again during the period of the BSPP. When there was gap between the fixed rate and the market rate, a black market of the hard currency emerged. What I mean here is that as long as there is a wide gap between the fixed rate and the market rate, financial market and money flow will not be normal. Businesses will face difficulties. At present, local businesses are facing difficulties.” An economist pointed out that regulating the money circulation by lowering bank interest rate will also have a positive effect on long-term downtrend of US dollar. “Now, Kyat is rising. On the other hand, it is impossible to reduce the costs of manufacturing and inputs. Interest rate is 17 percent per year. Previously, it was profitable to take out loans just for the inflation. Now money is shrinking. Kyat is rising. Money circulation is irregular. Most of the entrepreneurs are struggling to keep their businesses running. Rising Kyat has already affected the entire economy. If one can keep the business running, it is not profitable at present. The current situation is unpredictable. Only when more Kyat is injected into the market, the situation will improve,” an economist said. “The local currency is not really rising because we cannot get much in exchange for it. Gold prices rose sharply in the international market, but local gold prices did not rise proportionately. As a result, local gold was purchased by foreign buyers. The biggest gold buyers in the world are China and India. Therefore, whenever gold prices climb up, the local currency rises. If the local gold price rises on a par with the international market, the local currency will not rise. However, you do not need to worry about this. The political situation of the country is on the positive side. Economic prospects will be brighter. As soon as the political prisoners are released, proper investment from international community and financial reforms will follow. Myanmar has a tradition to enjoy economic prosperity when the open season comes. When crops are harvested, financial problems will cease to exist. The exchange rate will be profitable for businesses. So farmers are no longer affected by the economic problems. However, the government will have to render assistance to the businesses hurt by the current problems. If the government lowers the bank interest rate by 3 to 4 percent and extends loans, all the money in banks will flow into the market and the US dollar will rise against the local currency. The financial problems will disappear,” said Chairman and CEO Dr. Than Htut Aung of the Eleven Media Group.

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Singalish!

Apple Laptops Vulnerable To Hack That Kills Or Corrupts Batteries

A pile of dead Apple laptop batteries, victims of Charlie Miller's research.

Updated below to clarify Barnaby Jack’s prior research.

Your laptop’s battery is smarter than it looks. And if a hacker like security researcher Charlie Miller gets his digital hands on it, it could become more evil than it appears, too.

At the Black Hat security conference in August, Miller plans to expose and provide a fix for a new breed of attack on Apple laptops that takes advantage of a little-studied weak point in their security: the chips that control their batteries.

Modern laptop batteries contain a microcontroller that monitors the power level of the unit, allowing the operating system and the charger to check on the battery’s charge and respond accordingly. That embedded chip means the lithium ion batteries can know when to stop charging even when the computer is powered off, and can regulate their own heat for safety purposes.

When Miller examined those batteries in several Macbooks, Macbook Pros and Macbook Airs, however, he found a disturbing vulnerability. The batteries’ chips are shipped with default passwords, such that anyone who discovers that password and learns to control the chips’ firmware can potentially hijack them to do anything the hacker wants. That includes permanently ruining batteries at will, and may enable nastier tricks like implanting them with hidden malware that infects the computer no matter how many times software is reinstalled or even potentially causing the batteries to heat up, catch fire or explode. “These batteries just aren’t designed with the idea that people will mess with them,” Miller says. “What I’m showing is that it’s possible to use them to do something really bad.”

Miller discovered the two passwords used to access and alter Apple batteries by pulling apart and analyzing a 2009 software update that Apple instituted to fix a problem with Macbook batteries. Using those keys, he was soon able to reverse engineer the chip’s firmware and cause it to give whatever readings he wanted to the operating system and charger, or even rewrite the firmware completely to do his bidding.

From there, zapping the battery such that it’s no longer recognized by the computer becomes trivial: In fact, Miller permanently “bricked” seven batteries just in the course of his tinkering. (They cost about $130 to replace.) More interesting from a criminal perspective, he suggests, might be installing persistent malware on the chip that infects the rest of the computer to steal data, control its functions, or cause it to crash. Few IT administrators would think to check a battery’s firmware for the source of that infection, and if undiscovered the chip could re-infect the computer again and again.


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Foreign worker at minimart curses customer, but boss can't do anything

Posted on 19 Aug 2011



STOMPer Winnie Tan was cursed at by a foreign shop assistant at a minimart in Ang Mo Kio Avenue 4 when she wanted to buy some pears.

When the STOMPer complained to the minimart's boss, he told her that foreign workers were 'hard to find' and that if the shop assistant left, he would have trouble finding other workers to help him.

The STOMPer described the incidents in detail:

"Last Saturday, Aug 13 at about noon, I went to a minimart in Ang Mo Kio Avenue 4 to buy some fruits and groceries.

"I took two bags of oranges and I saw a carton of pears outside the shop. I asked the shop assistants for help but everyone was so busy at that time and no one helped me.

"So, I picked up a plastic bag and took five big pears.

"A shop assistant (a female in her mid 20s from Myanmar) snatched away my bag of pears.

"She raised her voice at me and was grumbling away. I told her nicely that I want to buy five big pears for prayers.

"She wouldn't allow me to take the five pears. She asked me to take the smaller ones instead.

"I told her I would pay according to the weight and not according to the size. But she refused and scolded me. She was very rude to me.

"I told her to be more flexible and since I want to buy the bigger ones, why not? After all, it was still business for them, right?

"On my way to the cashier, she shouted at me and said 'I curse you die faster, die early and best of all die in a car accident'. Everyone at the shop was shocked, including myself.

"I told the lady boss about this but she did not ask the shop assistant to apologise to me.

"What kind of attitude and service is this? Why must customers be bullied by foreign workers?

"I have patronised this shop for more than 10 years. I buy groceries and veggies from them every day and spend $500 with them every month. The female assistant only joined them about one and a half year ago.

"Yesterday (Aug 17), on my way back from the market at about 1.15pm, I saw the same person sitting at a void deck. She saw me and became abusive again.

"I called her boss and told him about the incident.

"The boss said, 'It's very hard to find foreign workers now, if she leaves, I can't find workers to work for me.'

"Is he trying to tell me that I have to tolerate the bad behaviour from his worker?

"Their service is very bad and attitude is wrong. I can't tolerate this."

Ref:Stomp News

Buying Gold as a Hedge against Currency Depreciation

OCTOBER 21, 2010

in GOLD & SILVER BULLION INVESTING,MARKET UPDATES & ANALYSIS,PROTECTING YOUR WEALTH

It’s been a long held belief that gold and the U.S. dollar share an inverse relationship. When one goes up, the other goes down.

Gold is considered by many to be one of the most stable minerals throughout history. Much of this is due to its consistency and the fact that it can be easily formed into bars, coins and other easily tradable items. When currencies see massive depreciation, many people find safe haven in buying gold.

One of the factors driving gold’s current bull run is the following chart…as you can see, the gold price in relation to major currencies in the world is up sharply over the last decade.

Courtesy of Kitco

What’s happening here? From looks of this chart, massive currency depreciation has been occurring.

To answer that question, we must first go back about 40 years and examine some actions taken by the U.S. Government and the Federal Reserve System, the central bank for the United States.

We can in fact pin it on one day – August 15, 1971. That’s the day Pres. Nixon cut the final tie between gold and the dollar. Following World War II, the dollar was pegged to a fixed gold price of $35 per ounce.

Foreign countries and investors could trade dollars for gold if they so chose.

But when too many people were doing this, the U.S. could not keep up and took the dramatic steps of completely de-linking its currency from gold. This move affected other currencies as well since they’re all tied to the dollar. Therefore, each currency was allowed to float so they became constantly variable against one another.

These events presented some great opportunities but they also presented some enormous risks as well. To deal with these risks, investors looked to precious metals like gold.

To see more about why buying gold can be a good way to protect yourself from currency depreciation and for some background on how we got to where we’re at, read Buying Gold as a Hedge Against Currency Depreciation, a new article in Provident Metals’ gold investors knowledge center.

And if you’re ready to invest in gold, take a look at ProvidentMetals.com’s wide-variety of gold bullion coins, bars and more

Ref:www.blog.providentmetals.com

Seven jailed in China in tainted pork scandal

Thu, Aug 11, 2011 | AFP

BEIJING - A Chinese court sentenced seven people to jail for selling illegal toxic chemicals to pork producers, state news agency Xinhua said on Thursday, the latest rulings in another food safety scandal.

The sentencing on Tuesday comes just two weeks after a Chinese court handed down harsher sentences, including a suspended death penalty, to five people involved in producing and selling pork tainted with clenbuterol, a toxic chemical used to produce prized lean meat, underscoring the level of official and public concern over the scandal.

The seven, who had been selling clenbuterol to farmers since 2009, were also fined between 1,000 yuan (S$190) and 28,000 yuan, the Xinhua report said.

Lean meat sells for a premium in China, the world's largest producer and consumer of pork, which spurs some farmers to resort to using clenbuterol.

If eaten excessively by humans, however, the chemical it can lead to muscle tremors, dizziness, headaches and gastric irritations.

State media said clenbuterol-tainted pig feed had been distributed to eight provincial regions, including Henan, Shandong and Jiangsu provinces. State media named Henan Shuanghui Investment & Development Co Ltd , the country's top meat processor, as one of the main companies that had sold the contaminated pork.

China is no stranger to food safety scares, including one involving tainted milk, despite repeated government campaigns to crack down on the problem and tough punishments handed out to those involved.

In 2008, at least six children died and nearly 300,000 fell ill from drinking milk made from powder laced with melamine, an industrial compound added to milk and milk power to give misleadingly high results in protein tests.

Ref:Asiaone news - Posted using BlogPress from my 4GiPhone

Diamonds Are A Circuit's Best Friend

Photo: Scott Kleinman/Getty Images

August 11, 2011 1:06:16 AM
Jesse Emspak

Electronics are made with silicon and metal oxides, but there are environments in which a typical microchip will fail. To handle the more extreme environments -- high radiation, cold down to minus 300 degrees (Fahrenheit) or up to 900 degrees -- diamond may be the way to go.

A team of electrical engineers at Vanderbilt University has developed the components needed to make microelectronic devices out of nanometer-thick (thin!) films of diamond. The transistors and logic gates are the same as in silicon-based devices. But because they're made of diamond, they can do things that silicon chips can't and avoid some of the problems traditional designs have.

NEWS: Squeezing Solar Power From Nanowires

In nanodiamond, electrons move through a vacuum between the components, instead of flowing through solid material the way they do in typical devices. That reduces the amount of heat generated because there are no atoms for the electrons to bump into. This also means that the transmission is more efficient, requiring far less current to run the circuit. Diamonds are fantastic electron emitters, so creating the beam of electrons between components requires less power.

NEWS: Tiniest Computer in the World

Another big plus is radiation: in space, for example, lots of ionizing radiation can make chips in satellites fail, and replacing them is an expensive business. But since the nanodiamond is transmitting electrons though a vacuum, there's no way for the flow to be disrupted and the circuit "tripped." When radiation or charged particles hit the diamond the disruption is there, but it is much reduced.

Given that the nanodiamond operates in a vacuum, manufacturers will have to come up with a way to package the circuits, but to an extent that is done already -- many microchips are packaged with inert gases, or plastic. The Vanderbilt team found that military-grade metallic seals seem to be a good bet.

Ref:discovery news - Posted using BlogPress from my 4GiPhone

US military to launch fastest-ever plane

Unmanned Falcon Hypersonic Technology Vehicle 2 can travel from London to Sydney in less than an hour

• 
  



Alok Jha, science correspondent
• guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 10 August 2011 19.53 BST

Artist's rendition of the Falcon HTV-2, an unmanned, rocket-launched aircraft that flies at approximately 13,000 miles per hour. Photograph: AP/DARPA) Photograph: AP

By the time you finish reading this sentence, the Falcon HTV-2, the fastest plane ever built, could have flown 18 miles. It would get from London to Sydney in less than an hour, while withstanding temperatures of almost 2,000C, hotter than the melting point of steel.
At 3pm BST on Thursday , the US Defence Advance Research Projects Agency will launch the Falcon Hypersonic Technology Vehicle 2 on the back of a rocket from the Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. If all goes to plan, engineers will launch the Falcon HTV-2 to the edge of space, before detaching the plane and guiding it on a hypersonic flight that will reach speeds of 13,000mph (about 20 times the speed of sound) on its return to Earth.
The Falcon started life in 2003, part of a US military research project to build a plane that could reach (and potentially deliver bombs to) any part of the world in less than an hour.
The plane has been tested in computer models and wind tunnels, but they can only simulate speeds up to Mach 15 (11,400mph). A real test is the only way to determine if the plane will remain flying at high speeds.

Thursday's flight will also test the carbon composite materials designed to withstand the extreme temperatures the plane will experience on its skin and also the navigation systems that will control its trajectory as it moves at almost four miles per second.
The design and flight pattern of the plane has been tweaked since an aborted test flight in April last year. Nine minutes into that mission, which succeeded in flying for 139 seconds at Mach 22 (16,700mph), the onboard computer detected an anomaly and ordered the plane to ditch into the ocean for safety reasons.
Unlike most other rocket launches, this one will not be shown live online, though it will be possible to follow the plane's progress via tweets from
@DARPA_News.

Can Video Kill the Credit-Card Form?

A startup says technology that lets webcams read credit-card details will make transactions easier and more secure.

Thu, 04 Aug 2011 | By Duncan Graham-Rowe


The days of tediously having to punch in credit-card details whenever you make an online purchase may be numbered, thanks to a new payment system that turns any webcam into a credit-card reader.

Created by San Mateo, California-based Jumio, the new system, called Netswipe, not only makes online transactions simpler, but also improves security, says company CEO Daniel Mattes. The company's management team includes Facebook cofounder Eduardo Saverin.

Netswipe prompts a customer to hold up his credit card to his webcam. An on-screen video feed guides the customer to hold it within a template so it can capture the details. "It takes about a quarter of a second to read," says Mattes. To complete the transaction, the customer types in the three-digit verification number on the back of the card.

For security reasons, Jumio does not store an image of a user's credit card, or the credit-card details.
Mattes says Jumio has spent the last two years developing the algorithms and secure video streaming technology that make this possible. The company has worked with multiple universities and computer vision institutes and has accrued more than a million training samples to ensure its card reading and verification is fast and accurate.

Steven Murdoch, a computer security researcher at Cambridge University, says the system could be more convenient, but adds: "It has some issues, too, though, in that someone with a picture of your card might be able to use it as a counterfeit card."

Mattes says the system is designed to make this near impossible. "Jumio's technology analyzes credit cards to determine whether they're plastic and not paper," he says. This involves scanning the numbers and letters on the card to determine whether they're properly embossed, and checking card-specific features such as holograms.

Five large online merchants are preparing to implement Netswipe, Mattes says, and smaller companies can sign up to use it. "Smaller merchants simply need to embed a single line of code on their e-commerce website to offer their clients the option to pay with Netswipe," says Mattes. A mobile app version will be available in the next few months.

A number of other startups hope to shake up the payment industry. For example, Square has developed a small magnetic credit-card reader that plugs into the audio jack of an iPhone, iPad, or Android device. Not requiring the merchant to pay for extra hardware could be a significant advantage for Netswipe, says Murdoch, but he adds that, like Square, "one of the most important factors in whether Jumio succeeds is what deal they can negotiate with the banks which process the merchant side of the transactions."

Ref:technology review - Posted using BlogPress from my 4GiPhone

China's fake Apple stores: photos

Posted by Jemima Kiss Thursday 21 July 2011 11.42 BSTguardian.co.uk

Don't think for a minute that Apple will let this one go

A shopkeeper dressed as an Apple store employee looks out from a window of a shop masquerading as a bona fide Apple store in downtown Kunming, in southwest China's Yunnan province. Photograph: AP

A fascinating discovery by 27-year-old American abirdabroad, who works for a public health organisation in the rapidly developing city of Kunming, southern China. After a few months away, she knew her neighbourhood would have changed pretty fast and she was right, with three Starbucks, an H&M and, seemingly, three Apple stores popping up while she was away.
One of three fake Apple stores in Kunming, China. Photo: birdabroad, used with permission Grey slate floors, steel staircases, wood benches and staff in branded blue t-shirts. Everything appears routinely Apple. But look more closely and some of the branding is a little off (Apple doesn't write 'Apple Stoer' [sic] under its logo) and the staff badges didn't have individual names. Those staff did, after a little gentle interrogation, appear to think they were working for the real Apple. But otherwise an astonishing piece of extreme bootlegging.
Our intrepid blogger was suspicious; although Kunming is typical of China's rapid development it is relatively remote. She looked up Apple's official China site and lo - Apple has only four stores in China, two of which are in Beijing and two in Shanghai.
"Being the curious types that we are, we struck up some conversation with these salespeople who, hand to God, all genuinely think they work for Apple," she wrote.
"I tried to imagine the training that they went to when they were hired, in which they were pitched some big speech about how they were working for this innovative, global company – when really they're just filling the pockets of some shyster living in a prefab mansion outside the city by standing around a fake store disinterestedly selling what may or may not be actual Apple products that fell off the back of a truck somewhere."
That's an interesting point - whether the owners of this store had wholesaled genuine Apple products or, as seems more likely, were selling fake products too. Either way you can be sure that Apple's brand protection team is already rolling out the big guns. This fake Apple store clearly took a significant investment, which means there must be serious money to be made by trading off the Apple brand. And Apple will expect to reap every penny of that itself. After all, it has those sky-rocketing revenues to protect.
• Update: The Wall Street Journal has managed to speak to one of the store employees by phone, who said they are aware that the store isn't official but that the products are authentic. "It doesn't make much of a difference for us whether we're authorised or not," he said. "I just care that what I sell every day are authentic Apple products, and that our customers don't come back to me to complain about the quality of the products." WSJ suggested that the store could apply to become an authorised reseller, but it's questionable whether Apple would grant that given such a flagrant attempt to pass itself off as the genuine thing.
• We asked Apple for any comment on whether it had started investigating these stores: it declined to comment.







All photos: birdabroad. Used with permission

Sleep apnea linked to memory decline, dementia

Tech and Science | Updated today at 10:30 AM


NEW YORK (Reuters) - OLDER women who have sleep apnea, which leads to abnormal pauses in breathing or abnormally low breathing during sleep, may be more likely to develop memory problems and dementia, according to a US study.

It's not clear whether treating sleep apnea, which is especially common in older, overweight people, would help prevent that memory decline, partly because clear answers have been lacking on the link between problem sleeping and memory.

But the study, which looked at nearly 300 women and was led by Kristine Yaffe of the University of California, San Francisco, found that a little over 45 per cent of women who had signs of sleep apnea in initial tests had developed mild cognitive impairment or dementia five years later.

By contrast, only 31 per cent of women who did not have sleep problems developed thinking and memory problems.

'Among older women, those with sleep-disordered breathing compared with those without sleep-disordered breathing had an increased risk of developing cognitive impairment,' wrote Ms Yaffe and her colleagues in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

Ms Yaffe and her team gave an overnight sleep apnea test to 298 women without dementia, who were an average of 82 years old. The test looks for changes in breathing and oxygen flow during the night, as well as for the short, frequent breaks in sleep that are signs of sleep apnea.

Just over a third of the women had the disorder.

About five years later, those same women were brought in for a set of thinking and memory tests, with doctors evaluating any of those who showed signs of memory decline.

When Ms Yaffe and her colleagues took factors such as race, weight and other diseases and medications into consideration, women with sleep apnea were almost twice as likely to test positive for cognitive impairment or dementia.

'It makes sense that good sleep is going to be protective to the brain,' said Robert Thomas, who studies sleep at Harvard Medical School in Boston and was not involved in the study.

'We simply don't have data to answer many of the simple questions people may have in the sleep clinic,' he told Reuters Health.

Sleep apnea has been linked to a host of other problems, including high blood pressure and cholesterol. Researchers pointed to lower blood flow to the brain during sleep as a possible culprit in cognitive problems down the line.

Indeed, when the authors looked at the specific factors that went into a diagnosis of sleep apnea, they found that the lack of steady oxygen overnight was related to thinking and memory problems, not how much total sleep women got or how many times they woke during the night.

Mr Thomas said that not everyone with sleep apnea has symptoms, which include fatigue and snoring, and that people who are overweight or have heart and blood pressure diseases should also consider getting tested.

But researchers still don't know to what extent treatment, which involves wearing a mask that delivers pressurised air from a 'CPAP' machine to ease breathing at night, can prevent the complications of sleep apnea, including cognitive decline.

'The biggest hole in sleep apnea (research) is: what are the outcomes of treatment?' Mr Thomas said.

Ms Yaffe agreed. 'That's obviously a next step and an important question.'

Ref; ST news - Posted using BlogPress from my 4GiPhone

Professional statistician wins lottery four times

Tue, Aug 09, 2011 | The Korea Herald/Asia News Network
By Kang Yoon-seung
A woman from Texas has reportedly won the lottery four times, prompting interest towards the secret of the unbelievable luck.

Joan R. Gither, 63, has won four fortunes worth millions of dollars in the span of 15 years.

First she won US$5.4 million (S$6.5 million) in 1993, and 10 years later US$2 million. Then, another two years later she claimed US$3 million, and finally a US$10 million jackpot in 2008. Three of the wins were purchased at the same store in Texas.

Mathematically, such an outcome is likely to happen about once every quadrillion years, Harper's Magazine reported. Concerning the secret of Gither's luck, the key may be that she was a math professor with Ph.D in statistics from Stanford.

Nathanial Rich, a Harper's reporter, suggested that she may have figured out the algorithm of allocation of winning tickets, including the shipping schedule of lottery slips.

Meanwhile, Harper's reported that the Texas Lottery Commission said they do not suspect foul play.

- Ref:asia one new  -Posted using BlogPress from my 4GiPhone

How to complain to customer service and win

Mon, Aug 08, 2011 | AsiaOne

When something or a service you purchased did not satisfy you, what do you do? Complain to your friends, avoid going back to the same place or contact the company?

Guy Winch, a psychotherapist and author of The Squeaky Wheel, says many actually stop at just complaining to friends.

In his book, The Squeaky Wheel, Mr Winch illustrates a guide on how to complain effectively.

Here's how to complain to customer service and win:

1. Get your facts straight

Forbes.com reported that before you pick up the phone, make sure you know everything there is to know about the issue. This means reading the warranties, guarantees and the polices of the company in question.

Make sure you have all the necessary documents - receipts, bills, order forms or shipping numbers.

Decide what action you need from the company to make you happy. A refund, compensation, an upgrade or just an apology.

Prepare to take notes as you attempt to resolve the problem.

2. Clear your head

It is best that you keep a clear head and maintain your cool. Remind yourself that you want a solution to the problem which is best achieved when you are calm and determined.

Remember that the person who could help you is probably the customer service officer so try not to vent on him/her.

3. Start at the bottom

Start with a call to customer service. Tell the officer what you want clearly and dispassionately. It will be good to ask them if they have the authority to grant your request.

Use what Mr Winch calls a "complaint sandwich" - intersperse a protest between two compliments.

Speak in a cordial but confident tone of voice.

4. Go higher

If you're not happy, ask to escalate the call to a supervisor.

Again, explain what you want clearly. Don't be afraid to ask to escalate the call a second time.

According to Forbes, if the third call does not work, get the name and title of the person at the very top of the customer service pyramid.

5. Send a letter or e-mail

If you are not satisfied with the calls, write a letter/ email of complaint explaning what happened to date.

Send this up the chain of command straights to the head of customer service.

6. Reach out for help

If the company still does not respond or help out with your complaint, try bringing up your situation with the Consumer Association of Singapore.

7. Get online - go social

Many companies monitor social media for complaints or feedback. Perhaps a status update on Facebook or a tweet on Twitter would help get the company's attnetion.

Popular online forums are also other good places to highlight your situation.

8. Look for a champion

Local news websites and newspapers do special investigation features and will approach companies on your behalf if the situation is grave.

9. Get creative

When a man named Mike was unable to get a response from Cisco for a problem router he had bought, he wrote his complaint into a song and performed it, posting the result on YouTube.

Forbes reported that after 1,000 hits he heard from several people from Cisco, and had his problem resolved promptly, to his satisfaction.

View the video below:

10. The final step

If you are willing to spend a lot of money to resolve the issue, hire a lawyer.

dassa@sph.com.sg

- Posted using BlogPress from my 4GiPhone

Happy 46th Birthday Singapore

 

SINGAPORE: Singapore marked its 46th birthday on Tuesday with tens of thousands gathered at the downtown Marina Bay area to soak in the celebrations.

Early birds streamed in a good three to four hours before the start of the show, braving the heat to get their choice seats.

This year's National Day Parade makes its comeback at the Floating Platform at Marina Bay, with the completed Marina Bay skyline, as a stunning backdrop.

The show started at 6pm sharp, followed by the arrival of new Members of Parliament (MPs) and the Cabinet, fresh from the country's General Election in May.

Spectators were entertained in the pre-parade segment by the Red Lions - free-fallers from the Singapore Armed Forces.

The action went a notch up, with the Dynamic Defence Display, featuring the country's new military hardware and capabilities.

The parade also featured the first woman regimental commander, 45-year-old Master Warrant Officer Jennifer Tan, who ensured the contingents executed their drills with precision.

President SR Nathan -- in his final appearance as President at the NDP before retiring as Head of State at the end of the month -- inspected the parade contingent.

To bring the parade closer to more people, the contingents took a two-kilometre march along the Bay Front before finally assembling at the Helix Bridge and Marina Bay Sands Waterfront Boardwalk.

A new element -- the Onward March, where selected parade contingents will march past and into the 27,000-strong crowd -- was introduced this year.

By sun-down, more than 3,000 performers put up a spectacular show weaving in the theme - "Majulah (Onward)! The Singapore Spirit", urging everyone to reflect on what the Singapore Spirit means to them.

And at about 8.10pm, Singapore stood still for the Pledge Moment, in a quiet moment of reflection.

The parade culminated in a four-minute fireworks display -- another crowd favourite.

Ref:CNA/wk - Posted using BlogPress from my 4GiPhone

London riots: police will use baton rounds if necessary, warns Met

Police say any decision to use baton rounds against London rioters will not be taken lightly, as 16,000 officers take to streets

• Sandra Laville, crime correspondent
• guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 9 August 2011 14.38 BST
• Article history

Riot police in Hackney on the third evening of violence in London. Photograph: Kerim Okten/EPA

Police will deploy baton rounds of plastic bullets against looters on Tuesday night if deemed necessary, a senior officer has said.

Firearms units carrying baton rounds were on the streets on Monday night but did not use them, said the Met deputy assistant commissioner Steven Kavanagh.

Any decision to use baton rounds would not be taken lightly, he said. "We are not going to throw away 180 years of policing with communities quickly. The repercussions and change to the way we police if we take the decision to use them will be long-lasting."

A 27-year-old man shot in Croydon during Monday night's rioting has died. Detectives are investigating whether he was killed when rioters fell out with each other over their stolen goods. Two men have been arrested on suspicion of handling stolen goods in connection with the incident.

A 60-year-old man is in a life-threatening condition after being attacked during rioting in Ealing. He fell to the ground and suffered a serious head injury.

"His condition is causing us some concern," said Commander Simon Foy, head of homicide and serious crime at the Met. He said between 450 and 500 detectives were being drafted in to the inquiry into the riots.

Officers are being taken off all other inquiries, including Weeting – into phone hacking – and anti-terrorism. Foy said he may also need to ask for detectives from other forces.

The inquiry team are trawling CCTV images and Foy said individuals would be pursued "vigorously and rigorously". "We will come and get you," he said. Some 550 people have been arrested and 100 charged so far.

About 16,000 officers will be on the streets on Tuesday evening to tackle any violence. Help is being sent from 26 forces, including those in Scotland. All leave has been cancelled, all training postponed and detectives as well as uniformed officers will be out on the streets and in communities.

Armoured vehicles were brought in for the first time on Monday night to tackle what senior officers say is the worst rioting and looting in living memory. More than 6,000 officers – including 2,500 mostly public order-trained officers and 3,500 local officers – were on duty as violence spread from north to east, west and south London.

Fires burned in Croydon, Clapham Junction and Hackney and there were disturbances in Liverpool, Birmingham and Bristol. The armoured vehicles – known as Jankels – were used in Clapham Junction where much of the worst looting and arson took place. The vehicles were driven on to Lavender Hill to push back a crowd of 150 looters who had smashed up Debenhams and other stores and businesses in the area. Jankels were also out in Hackney.

Their deployment brought echoes of Northern Ireland during the Troubles and marked the start of what sources say are much tougher tactics against rioters. But a police source said the use of water cannon was a decision for the government, not Scotland Yard.

Tree-hugging Bike

Humane Veterinarian Solution

Tree-hugging Bike

Designed for short-range use, this compressed air powered two-wheeler is perfect for the urban environment. Designer Jurmol Yao imagines the Transport Hornet as a viable means of getting around for businesses like the postal service that move at low-speed and could refill at stations between stops. The benefits: zero-pollution, reusable quick-fill air cylinders, and no noise!

Designer: Jurmol Yao










Ref:yankodesign

More than free online moive(1)

Did u known that free online moive?
          More than Hongkong, Korea, Japan,Thai,Taiwan,China can transalate  Google Chrome,Mozilla firefox at English version. anthing'd seen moive! Need oreginal website mediaplayer but vclplayer'd more than format could moiveplayer!

see Korea webite-
http://www.maaduu.com
http://www.azntv.com(winamp,vclplayer)
Before You Begin

You'll need to download the required Media Player to play our streams. If you're not new here and already have everything setup, or are logging in from another computer and know what to do, simply click on the "I am ready" link and this message will not display again (until you clear your cookies).
Windows Download
Winamp: www.winamp.com (Recommended)
VLC Player: www.videolan.org

OSX/Linux Download
Winamp: www.winamp.com (WINE/Bootcamp)
VLC Player: www.videolan.org
MPlayer: www.mplayerhq.hu

Installation

For Windows users, installation is fairly straight forward. Install using defaults (or make sure NSV support is enabled at least). To make playback seamless, make sure the player is associated with the M3U playlist filetype (so that your video will instantly start when you click on the play links). That's about it. While the players themseleves support our videos, we cannot provide any installation help for non-Windows OSes. But feel free to post on our forums for help if you need any. There are plenty of users who can help. Or Google...
Finishing It Up

Now that you have the software installed, lets test to see if your browser will open the stream in the player you chose.
play -> Ai Otsuka - Amaenbo (720p) - 5.51mb 500~ kbps
play -> DBSK - LOVE IN THE ICE - 21.19mb 625~ kbps

If the video opened in your player, you're ready! Yay! If you found this guide useful, let us know how we did ^_^; If it opened in something else (like iTunes, Windows Media Player) then you didn't set up the file association correctly. See the next section.

For Windows & Winamp:
1. Download the stream playlist file (.m3u) to your desktop. Select and right-click it, and go into properties.
2. In the properties window, click and select Change (next to 'Opens with'), then click on Winamp or Browse and navigate to your Winamp.exe in the Winamp folder (should be C:\Program Files (x86)\Winamp\ by default).
3. Make sure the Always use the selected program to open this kind of file check box is activated.
4. Winamp will now open by default when you open any .m3u files.

see China webite -need oreginal websit player!
http://www.pps.tv
http://www.pptv.com
http://www.letv.com
http://www.todou.com
http://www.youku.com
http://www.funshion.com

see English webite-
http://www.stagevu.com(vclplayer,DivXplayer)
http://freemoiveland.com

see Thai webite-
Http://www.clipdee.com

anything want 18+
http://www.dailymotion.com
http://www.burmesex.com and more---

other link- Do u love Asia Drama moive(2)
http://www.blogger.com/post-edit.g?blogID=1627872956489113631&postID=4958701811143516039

Corruption in Burma, Part V: Applying for a passport

Thursday, 28 April 2011 18:29 Kyaw Win 

Rangoon (Mizzima) – If you’re a Burmese citizen eager to obtain a passport, you need to be patient and willing to wait, unless you stoop to grease the wheels.

The Myanmar Passport Office on Pansodan Street in Rangoon is a busy place. As one applicant found recently, standing for ages in line, filling out forms, running up and down stairs, and paying various fees gets you only so far. The applicant, John Htay, a pseudonym, then faced the prospect of waiting for a month to have his passport issued.

Getting a Burmese passport requires time, official fees and––if you're in a hurry––grease money during every step of the process. Photo: Mizzima

The passport process in Burma is said to have been improved. The office used to be notorious for red tape and complicated procedures. But as John Htay found, the process was still laboured and paying a relatively large sum of money could speed things up.

‘I had come to this office in order to then seek a job in either Singapore or Malaysia and to avoid being an unemployed graduate’, he said.

‘If you want the passport urgently, you must pay a tout at the passport office 200,000-300,000 kyat (US$ 234-351) but you have to contact this tout daily’, he said.

John Htay decided to go it alone. Unfortunately, he had chosen a Monday, which is a particularly crowded day to commence the process.

The people standing in the queue rushed towards the office as soon as the gates were opened. Iron bar barriers are erected outside with two rows, one for entry and another for exit.

John Htay said he rushed to the entry gate, only to be stopped by a security guard, who told him to leave his bag outside. That cost him a small fee for looking after the bag, even before entering.

‘Full of anxiety, I entered the office with a lot of papers in my hand. Then I asked a police officer about the complicated procedures of this office. He explained to me in detail from A to Z and also suggested I look at the procedures pasted on the office wall’.

Passport application in any country is seldom a simple process, although some countries have tried to improve their systems or outsourced the process to commercial firms.

But in the Myanmar Passport Office, there are a number of hurdles to jump.

First, he had to get his photo taken, which cost him 3,500 kyat ($4). Then he lined up in another queue, to verify the details of his household registration and his ID card. He handed over 1,000 kyat, as people ahead of him in the queue did, because he had heard this would ease passage.

Then he walked upstairs to buy a set of passport application forms for 2,000 kyat. It was hard to find a space in the crowded room to fill them out. While he was standing in a queue of over 100 people to pay the passport application fee, he filled out a cash remittance form, following the example of a sample form pasted on the wall.

He paid the $22 passport fee and a $1.20 service fee. ‘I don’t know why they charge for this unpleasant and uneasy service of standing in a long queue, which made me dizzy’, he complained.

On the next day, he returned to pick up his passport photos. He photocopied his cash remittance receipt and then had to pay another small fee, which was said to be for the cost of passport ink, paper and maintenance of office equipment. He was then to go upstairs to buy another form, paying $2.34.

He said he felt exhausted and upset with all the forms to fill out that included spaces for the names of cousins, brothers and sisters, both maternal and paternal. Then he had to have the forms checked and verified. The woman behind the counter checked the forms thoroughly. John Htay said the clerk told him the process was much more user-friendly than it used to be, but then asked him if he wanted the process finished in one day. When he said yes, she said it would cost $35. He bargained the price down to $29. After some time, the process was finished and an appointment date was set to then submit another form.

At this point, it was made clear that if he wanted his passport issued within a few days, he would have to pay 150,000 kyat ($174) to a tout, otherwise it would take a month. He paid the extra fee.

Clearly, he said, the smartly dressed policemen with their mobile phones are busy, even in their lunchtime, with this lucrative business.

But as John Htay said, even once he had his new passport in hand, he still would have to pay for the tax clearance forms he needed to fill out to hand in at the airport on departure. This was one more expense in the greasing of the wheels.

Ref; mizzimanews

Exhibition at Changi Airport to mark 100 years of aviation

By Hetty Musfirah Abdul Khamid | Posted: 08 August 2011 1636 hrs

The "Our Journey, Our Future" aviation exhibition at Changi Airport.
SINGAPORE: Singapore marks 100 years of aviation this year. To commemorate this, a centennial exhibition is now on at Singapore's Changi Airport.

Transport Minister Lui Tuck Yew launched the exhibition, titled "Our Journey, Our Future" on Monday.

The exhibition, which goes on till the end of October, traces the rich journey of Singapore's aviation history.

It also wants to provide Singaporeans with a deeper understanding of how aviation has contributed significantly to Singapore's economy.

The aviation industry contributes over three per cent to Singapore's GDP and provides some 45,000 jobs.

And for Singapore to remain competitive as an aviation hub, Mr Lui said it needs greater productivity, innovation and flexibility when responding to fast-changing business needs.

He said: "We need to seize opportunities brought about by greater freedom of the skies, cutting edge aircraft and engine technologies and new airline business models. More importantly, we need to hold strong to the pioneering spirit and passion of those who have made possible the remarkable Singapore aviation story thus far."

The Singapore Aviation Centennial Exhibition is held at Terminal 3's Departure Hall. Admission is free.

-CNA/ac

Bloodbath across global markets

Wall Street triggers mayhem with worst mauling since 2008

Published on Aug 6, 2011






Buy SPH photos

It was just too much to take for this currency dealer at the Korea Exchange Bank yesterday. Spooked investors wiped off a total of $3 trillion in value from global shares this week. -- PHOTO: REUTERS
By Jonathan Kwok
FEARS of another global recession sent panicked investors fleeing yesterday in the biggest share market bloodbath since the darkest days of the financial crisis.

Hundreds of billions of dollars were wiped off the value of stocks as a wave of selling swept across the globe, starting in Wall Street on Thursday before rolling across the Asia-Pacific and into Europe yesterday.

'You can't say much other than it's been a bloodbath today,' wrote Australian analyst Ben Potter of IG Markets. 'Nothing has been spared.'

RELATED LINKS

REGIONAL STOCKS PLUNGE
Yesterday's turmoil capped a savage week for shares as concerns over Europe's worsening debt crisis and the faltering United States economy sent investors rushing for the exits.

But the bloodshed earlier this week could hardly have prepared investors for the carnage that was unleashed yesterday.

Wall Street triggered the mayhem after the Dow Jones Industrial Average plunged 513 points, or 4.31 per cent, on Thursday, the worst mauling since December 2008.

Singapore's Straits Times Index (STI) then plunged 112.23 points, or 3.61 per cent, to 2,994.78 points, wiping $18 billion in market value off the index's 30 component stocks. The losses this week now amount to $31 billion.

The last time the STI lost more than 100 points was in October 2008 in the wake of the Lehman Brothers collapse. 'It's like deja vu,' said Singapore remisier Charles Chua. 'There could be a rebound going forward, but it's most probably going to be a short-lived one.'

There was plenty of pain to go around elsewhere.

Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index dropped 4.29 per cent, Taiwan's Taiex index plunged 5.58 per cent and Australian stocks dropped 4 per cent.

Around A$100 billion (S$128 billion) of value has been erased from Aussie shares this week while the global total is around US$2.5 trillion (S$3 trillion) - almost the size of the French economy.

The share sell-off sparked a rush into safe haven assets. Gold hit a record US$1,662.75 per ounce while Japan's and Switzerland's central banks had to intervene to curb the rises of their safe haven currencies.

The feeling is that there is more bloodshed to come although there was a welcome respite last night when far better US job figures were released.

There were 117,000 new jobs added last month, bringing unemployment down from 9.2 per cent to 9.1 per cent.

It gave shares an immediate lift. Paris shares were up 1.4 per cent in early trade while Britain's FTSE 100 index was down only 0.7 per cent after plunging more than 3 per cent earlier. On Wall Street, the Dow Jones Industrial Average opened 1 per cent higher.

In absolute terms, markets are still slightly higher than the levels they hit after March's Japan earthquake.

But what has shocked investors this time is the speed and size of the falls, which surpass even the Japan disaster, February's Arab Spring protests and last May's initial outbreak of euro zone debt woes.

'Markets endure a body slam,' declared the title of a research note by Citigroup. 'Reality sets in, but in an ugly way.'

Citi said that 'the US stock market's relative complacency has been shattered'.

The European debt crisis is at the centre of the storm with growing fears that Spain and Italy are now in the line of fire alongside Greece, Ireland and Portugal.

Interest rates for Spanish and Italian bonds have soared to levels considered unsustainable by some experts, raising the prospect that some sort of bailout will be needed.

European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso sent already nervy investors into overdrive on Thursday when he declared that developments in Italy and Spain are 'a cause of deep concern', and that the crisis is no longer in the euro area periphery.

Mr Barroso also said investors are sceptical about the European Union's ability to respond to the crisis.

Mr Vasu Menon, OCBC Bank's head of content and research for wealth management for Singapore, urged calm.

'While there are good reasons for investors to stay vigilant and brace themselves for more volatility, we do not see a reason for panic as fundamentals, valuations and liquidity are still supportive of equity markets in the medium term.'

jonkwok@sph.com.sg

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Location:Tampines Avenue 1,Singapore,Singapore