A B C D E F G H I J K L
  SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY, R&D, AND HEALTH NEWS: 1-JAN-12 - 9-APR-12    
From 01-Jan-12 Copyright © 2011-2012 by Macroknow Inc. All Rights Reserved.
To 09-Apr-12  
Days 100  
News Items 292
Date Event Category Authors Title X Event Source URL Item
7-Jan-12 M&A HEAL Bristol-Myers Squibb to Acquire Inhibitex Bristol-Myers Squibb to acquire Inhibitex in a transaction valued at ~2.5 billion Bristol-Myers Squibb 1
8-Jan-12 TECH Nick Wingfield A Tech Show Loses Clout as Industry Shifts Las Vegas: The International Consumer Electronics Show, 10-13-Jan-2012 [http://www.cesweb.org] NYT 2
9-Jan-12 SCIE RES NUC Iran Starts Uranium Enrichment Underground Iran initiated a program to enrich uranium to 20% purity at the underground Fordo complex (nuclear weapons require 90% purity) VOA News-AFP-Reuters 3
13-Jan-12 RES GOV DEBT Moritz Kraemer; Frank Gill Standard & Poor's Takes Various Rating Actions On 16 Eurozone Sovereign Governments Standard & Poor's Ratings Services announced rating actions on 16 members of the European Economic and Monetary Union (EMU or eurozone): S&P "lowered the long-term ratings on Cyprus, Italy [from A/Watch Neg/A-1 to BBB+/Negative/A-2], Portugal, and Spain [from AA-/Watch Neg/A-1+ to A/Negative/A-1] by two notches; lowered the long-term ratings on Austria, France [from AAA/Watch Neg/A-1+ to AA+/Negative/A-1+], Malta, Slovakia, and Slovenia, by one notch; and affirmed the long-term ratings on Belgium, Estonia, Finland, Germany [affirmed at AAA/Watch Neg/A-1+], Ireland, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands" Standard & Poor's 4
18-Jan-12 HEAL VIO Gilda Sedgh et al. Long-Term Worldwide Decline In Abortions Has Stalled: Plateau Coincides With Slowdown In What Had Been A Steady Increase In Contraceptive Use New research from the Guttmacher Institute and the World Health Organization (WHO): "Between 1995 and 2003, the overall number of abortions per 1,000 women of childbearing age (15–44 years) dropped from 35 to 29; . . . the global abortion rate in 2008 was virtually unchanged, at 28 per 1,000" [Gilda Sedgh et al., Induced Abortion: Incidence and Trends Worldwide from 1995 to 2008, The Lancet, 18-Jan-2012] Guttmacher Institute; WHO 5
19-Jan-12 HEAL RES David Brown Government survey finds that 5 percent of Americans suffer from a ‘serious mental illness’ National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH):~20% of American adults suffer some sort of mental illness; ~5% suffer from a serious disorder; ~4% of adults contemplate suicide each year Washington Post 6
19-Jan-12 BUS TECH FIN IBM Reports 2011 Fourth-Quarter and Full-Year Results IBM 2011 results: revenue, $106.9 billion (up 7%, up 3% adjusting for currency); net income (GAAP), $15.9 billion (up 7%). 2011Q4 results: revenue, $29.5 billion (up 2%, 1% adjusting for currency YOY); net income (GAAP), $5.5 billion (up 4% YOY) IBM 7
19-Jan-12 BUS TECH FIN Patrick Darling Intel Reports Record Year $54 Billion in Annual Revenue Up 24 Percent, $2.39 in Annual EPS Up 19 Percent Intel Corporation 2011 GAAP results: record revenue, $54 billion (up 24%); record net income, $12.9 billion (up 13%). 2011Q4 GAAP results: revenue, $13.9 billion (up 21% YOY); net income, $3.4 billion (up 6% YOY) Intel 8
19-Jan-12 BUS TECH FIN Microsoft Reports Record Revenue of $20.9 Billion in Second Quarter Microsoft Q2 (ended 31-Dec-2011) results: revenue, $20.89 billion (up 5% YOY); net income, $6.62 billion $6.63 billion (down 0.15% YOY) Microsoft 9
19-Jan-12 BUS TECH FIN Google Announces Fourth Quarter and Fiscal Year 2011 Results Google 2011 GAAP results: revenues, $37.905 billion (up 29.3%); net income, $9.737 (up 14.5%). 2011Q4 GAAP results: revenues, $10.584 (up 25.4% YOY); net income, $2.705 (up 6.4% YOY) Google 10
20-Jan-12 BUS TECH FIN GE Reports 4Q’11 Operating EPS of $0.39, Up 11%; Industrial Segment Revenues of $26.8B, Up 10%; Industrial Segment Organic Revenue Up 5%; Infrastructure Orders Up 15%; Largest Infrastructure Backlog in GE History at $200B; Record Industrial CFOA of $5.5B in 4Q; FY‘11 of $12.1B; GE Positioned to Deliver Double-Digit Earnings Growth in 2012 GE 2011 results: revenue, $147.3 billion (down 2%); net earnings attributable to the company, $14.151 billion (up 22%). 2011Q4 results: total revenues, $37.973 billion (down 8%); net earnings attributable to the company, $3.730 billion (down 18%) General Electric 11
24-Jan-12 BUS TECH FIN Apple Reports First Quarter Results: Highest Quarterly Revenue and Earnings Ever Apple 2012Q1 results: revenue, $46.33 billion (up 73.3% YOY); net profit, $13.06 billion (up 117.6% YOY) Apple 12
26-Jan-12 ELITE FIN HEAL Foundation Commits $750 Million to Global Fund The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation gave $750 million through a promissory note to the Global Fund to fight AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria (annoucement made at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland) Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation 13
30-Jan-12 M&A TECH ABB to acquire Thomas & Betts for $3.9 billion to become major player in North American low-voltage products market ABB to acquire Thomas & Betts for $3.9 Billion ABB 14
1-Feb-12 BUS TECH JOBS Steven D. Jones Microsoft Cuts 200 Marketing Jobs Microsoft cut ~200 marketing jobs; Microsoft reportedly has ~6,000 marketing employees WSJ 15
1-Feb-12 LAW RES David S. Law; Mila Versteeg The Declining Influence of the United States Constitution (February 1, 2012) [New York University Law Review, Vol. 87, No. 3, June 2012; Washington University in St. Louis Legal Studies Research Paper No. 11-09-01; Virginia Public Law and Legal Theory Research Paper No. 2011-39] David S. Law and Mila Versteeg on The Declining Influence of the United States Constitution: "In this Article, we show empirically that other countries have, in recent decades, become increasingly unlikely to model either the rights-related provisions or the basic structural provisions of their own constitutions upon those found in the U.S. Constitution. . . We find some support in the data for the notion that the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms has influenced constitution-making in other countries." Social Science Research Network 16
3-Feb-12 GOV RES SPACE Iran to Set up Base for Satellite Launch Iran's Space Agency (ISA) to set up a base for launching satellites FARS News Agency 17
5-Feb-12 HEAL CNN Wire Staff. Contributor: Dave Alsup Nearly 500 on 2 cruise ships stricken by Norovirus FL, U.S.: 499 cases of Norovirus were reported on 2 Princess Cruises ships CNN 18
9-Feb-12 BUS TECH FIN Lenovo Reports Third Quarter 2011/2012 Results Lenovo Group 2011/2012 Q3 results: sales, $8.4 billion (up 44% YOY); profit attributable to equity holders, $153 million; worldwide market share, 14.0%; market share in China, 35.3% Lenovo Group 19
9-Feb-12 M&A BUS TECH Oracle Buys Taleo: Adds Leading Talent Management Cloud Offering to the Oracle Public Cloud Oracle to acquire Taleo Corporation (provider of cloud-based talent management) for ~$1.9 billion, net of Taleo’s cash and debt Oracle 20
10-Feb-12 RES BANK DEBT Italian Banks Downgraded; S.&P. Cites Lending Risk Standard & Poor’s (S&P) downgraded 34 Italian financial firms, including UniCredit, Intesa Sanpaolo, and Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena NYT: Bloomberg 21
13-Feb-12 RES GOV DEBT Rating Action: Moody's adjusts ratings of 9 European sovereigns to capture downside risks Moody's Investors Service downgraded the sovereign debt ratings of 9 EU countries, including Italy, Malta, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia, and Spain; the ratings for Austria, France, and the U.K. were changed to negative Moody's Investors Service 22
13-Feb-12 BUS BANK RES Kevin Roose Wall Street’s Reputation Still Falling Harris Interactive: The 2012 Harris Poll Annual RQ Study: key survey findings: the financial sector is the 3rd lowest ranked sector by reputation (the 2 lowest ranked sectors are government and tobacco); the reputations quotients (RQ) of Bank of America, Berkshire Hathaway, Wells Fargo, JPMorgan Chase and Goldman Sachs fell significantly NYT-DealBook 23
15-Feb-12 SCIE NUC Iran Touts Uranium Enrichment Advances Iran unveiled a new generation of centrifuges to speed up uranium enrichment and Iran-produced fuel rods FARS News Agency 24
15-Feb-12 RES BANK DEBT Rating Action: Moody's Reviews Ratings for European Banks Moody's Investors Service announced rating actions affecting 114 financial institutions in 16 European countries: the following were placed on review for downgrade: (i) the standalone credit assessments for 99 financial institutions; (ii) the long-term debt and deposit ratings for 109 institutions; (iii) the short-term ratings for 66 institutions. The distribution of the headquarters of the financial institutions affected by this announcement, by country and rank, is as follows: Italy (24), Spain (21), France (10), UK (9), Austria (8), Denmark (8), Germany (7), Netherlands (6), Portugal (6), Sweden (5), Slovenia (4), Switzerland (2), Belgium (1), Finland (1), Luxembourg (1), Norway (1). Moody's Investors Service, Inc.,  25
15-Feb-12 RES Bank DEBT Announcement: Moody's Reviews Ratings for Banks and Securities Firms with Global Capital Markets Operations Moody's Investors Service announced a review of 17 banks and securities firms with global capital markets operations; the long-term ratings and standalone credit assessments  for Bank of America, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase, Morgan Stanley, and Royal Bank of Canada were placed under review. Moody's Investors Service, Inc.,  26
17-Feb-12 BUS TECH SEC Nick Wingfield; Somini Sengupta Drones Set Sights on U.S. Skies U.S.: new federal law allows use of drones for commercial purposes, including policing, reconnaissance, monitoring, and surveillance; the market for drones is estimated at $5.9 billion NYT 27
22-Feb-12 RES GOV DEBT Paul Rawkins (Primary Analyst); Chris Pryce (Secondary Analyst); David Riley (Committee Chairperson) Fitch Downgrades Greece to 'C' from 'CCC' Fitch Ratings downgraded Greece's Long-term foreign and local currency Issuer Default Ratings (IDRs) from 'CCC' to 'C' Fitch Ratings 28
22-Feb-12 BUS TECH FIN HP Reports First Quarter 2012 Results HP 2012Q1 resuts: GAAP net revenue, $30 billion (down 7% YOY); GAAP net earnings, $1.5 billion (down 44% YOY) Hewlett-Packard Development Company-Martketwire via Comtex 29
23-Feb-12 HEAL REL VIO Alberto Giubilini; Francesca Minerva After-birth abortion: why should the baby live? [J Med Ethics doi:10.1136/medethics-2011-100411] Alberto Giubilini and Francesca Minerva argue that "what we call ‘after-birth abortion’ (killing a newborn) should be permissible in all the cases where abortion is, including cases where the newborn is not disabled," because: "(1) both fetuses and newborns do not have the same moral status as actual persons, (2) the fact that both are potential persons is morally irrelevant and (3) adoption is not always in the best interest of actual people" Journal of Medical Ethics 30
28-Feb-12 BUS RES COMP IBM Research Advances Device Performance for Quantum Computing Scientists at IBM Research announced major advances in quantum computing device performance; using 3D superconducting qubits (research initiated at Yale University), IBM scientists were able to "extend the amount of time that the qubits retain their quantum states up to 100 microseconds," thus enabling "effective error correction schemes" and suggesting "broader engineering aspects for scalability" IBM 31
29-Feb-12 GOV MEDIA SCIE Frozen out: Canada's government should free its scientists to speak to the press, as its US counterpart has [Nature 483,6(01 March 2012)doi:10.1038/483006a] Nature Editorial: "Since Prime Minister Stephen Harper's Conservative Party won power in 2006, there has been a gradual tightening of media protocols for federal scientists and other government workers. Researchers who once would have felt comfortable responding freely and promptly to journalists are now required to direct inquiries to a media-relations office, which demands written questions in advance, and might not permit scientists to speak. . . Policy directives and e-mails obtained from the government through freedom of information reveal a confused and Byzantine approach to the press, prioritizing message control and showing little understanding of the importance of the free flow of scientific knowledge." Nature-Editorial 32
4-Mar-12 RES GOV DEBT Moody's downgrades Greece after debt swap 2-Mar-2012: Moody's Investors Service cut Greece's local and foreign-currency bond ratings from Ca to C – the lowest possible rating Ahram Online: Reuters 33
6-Mar-12 BANK DEBT RES Sarah Mulholland; Zeke Faux; Alan Goldstein (ed.) S&P Blocked by Banks in CMBS Market After Derailed Goldman Deal: Mortgages Five big banks – Goldman Sachs Group Inc., Citigroup Inc., JPMorgan Chase & Co., Deutsche Bank AG, and Morgan Stanley – dumped S&P’s credit ratings as they issued $11.3 billion of commercial mortgage bond market debt Bloomberg 34
7-Mar-12 VIO HEAL Will Englund Teens choosing death in Russia Countries with the highest teenage suicide rates: 1. Belarus; 2. Kazakhstan; 3. Russia; Russia's teenage suicide rate is ~5 per day (>4 times that of the United States) NYT 35
12-Mar-12 ELITE TECH MON Rob Cox The Ruthless Overlords Of Silicon Valley Rob Cox, on "the Overlords of Silicon Valley": "Though Silicon Valley’s newest billionaires may anoint themselves the saints of American capitalism, they’re beginning to resemble something else entirely: robber barons. Behind the hoodies and flip-flops lurk businesspeople as rapacious as the black-suited and top-hatted industrialists of the late-19th century." The Daily Beast 36
12-Mar-12 M&A BUS HEAL Asahi Kasei Announces Agreement to Acquire ZOLL Medical
 Japan/U.S.: Asahi Kasei Corporation to acquire ZOLL Medical Corporation for ~$2.21 billion Asahi Kasei Corporation 37
12-Mar-12 RES ECON EDU Michelle Kaske; Mark Tannenbaum (ed.) New York City Tops Global Competitiveness, Economist Report Says Top ranked cities for global competitiveness according to an Economist Intelligence Unit report commissioned by Citigroup Inc.: 1. New York; 2. London; 3. Singapore; 4. Paris and Hong Kong (tied). 120 cities were surveyed. According to the report, a joint Cornell University and Technion-Israel Institute of Technology campus is expected to generate $6 billion. Bloomberg 38
13-Mar-12 GOV BANK RES Federal Reserve announces summary results of latest round of bank stress tests The Federal Reserve announced results of the latest round of bank stress tests; the hypothetical stress scenario includes "a peak unemployment rate of 13 percent, a 50 percent drop in equity prices, and a 21 percent decline in housing prices"; 4 out of 19 banks failed the stress test; the 4 banks include Ally Financial Inc., Citigroup Inc., MetLife Inc. and SunTrust Banks Inc. [see also Ronald D. Orol, Citi among banks that fail Fed stress test, MarketWatch, http://www.marketwatch.com/story/citi-among-banks-that-fail-fed-stress-test-2012-03-13] Federal Reserve Board 39
14-Mar-12 LAW MON RES Ellen M. Ryan; Laura E. Simmons Securities Class Action Settlements: 2011 Review and Analysis The number of court-approved securities class action settlements in 2011 decreased to 65 (a 10-year low; down 25% YOY); and settlement funds in 2011 tumbled to $1.362 (down 58% YOY) [see also http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2012/03/14/court-approved-class-action-settlements-at-decade-low/] Cornerstone Research 40
15-Mar-12 M&A BUS TECH Cisco Announces Intent to Acquire NDS San Jose, CA/London, UK: Cisco Systems Inc. to acquire NDS Group PLC (video software and content security solutions) for ~$5 billion Cisco 41
16-Mar-12 GOV SCIE TECH Choe Sang-hun; Steven Lee Myers. Contributor: William J. Broad North Korea Says It Will Launch Satellite Into Orbit North Korea annouced it will launch a satellite into orbit NYT 42
19-Mar-12 RES MIL MKT Rise in international arms transfers is driven by Asian demand, says SIPRI [Trends in International Arms Transfers, 2011: Paul Holtom, Mark Bromley, Pieter D. Wezeman and Siemon T. Wezeman]
 Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI): the volume of worldwide arms transfers in 2007-2011 was 24% higher than in 2002-2006. The 5 biggest suppliers in 2007-11 were: 1. the United States (30% of international arms exports; up 24% between 2002-2006 and 2007-2011); 2. Russia (24%; up 12%); 3. Germany (9%; up 37%); 4. France (8%; up 12%); 5. the United Kingdom (4%; up 2%). The 5 largest recipients of arms in 2007-2011 were: 1. India (10% of global arms imports); 2. South Korea (6%); 3. Pakistan (5%); 4. China (5%); 5. Singapore (4%). China has become the 6th largest supplier of arms in the world; Chinese arms exports increased by 95% from 2002-2006 to 2007-11. Stockholm International Peace Research Institute 43
19-Mar-12 RES GOV Investigation Ranks 50 State Governments for Corruptibility [See Caitlin Ginley, "50 states and no winners," http://www.stateintegrity.org/state_integrity_invesitgation_overview_story] State Integrity Investigation: "State governments are largely doing a poor job delivering transparency and accountability to their citizenry. Meanwhile, statehouses remain ripe for corruption and self-dealing." Center for Public Integrity 44
20-Mar-12 BUS FIN TECH Oracle Reports Q3 GAAP EPS Up 20% To 49 Cents; Q3 Non-GAAP EPS Up 15% To 62 Cents: Trailing Twelve Month Operating Cash Flow Up 35% To $13.5 Billion Oracle fiscal 2012Q3 results: total revenues, $9.0 billion (up 3% YOY); net income, $2.5 billion (up 18% YOY); operating cash flow on a trailing 12-month basis, $13.5 billion (up 35% YOY) Oracle 45
21-Mar-12 RES REL Dr. Gudrun Kugler (director of the Observatory) Report 2011 Dr. Gudrun Kugler, director of the Observatory on Intolerance and Discrimination against Christians: "Studies suggest that 85% of all hate crimes with an anti-religion background in Europe are directed against Christians . . ." Observatory on Intolerance and Discrimination against Christians 46
27-Mar-12 HEAL Brigid Fitzgerald Reading Growth in World Contraceptive Use Stalling; 215 Million Women’s Needs Still Unmet Earth Policy Institute: ≥215 million women want to prevent or delay pregnancy but use no effective contraception; ~40% of all pregnancies are unintended; modern contraception methods include oral contraception (“the pill”), condoms, injections, intrauterine devices (IUDs), and sterilization [for more information, see World on the Edge: How to Prevent Environmental and Economic Collapse by Lester R. Brown at http://www.earth-policy.org/books/wote] Earth Policy Institute 47
28-Mar-12 RES GOV ELITE Dan Hind [author of "The Threat to Reason and The Return of the Public" and "Occupy movement and deliberative politics, Common Sense: Occupation, Assembly and the Future of Liberty"] The third British Empire – London is considered the "capital of capitalism" allowing foreign billionaires to stash tax free income offshore. Dan Hind, on the 3 British Empires, the first 2 being "deeply criminal projects . . . they relied heavily on profits from slavery and the sale of narcotics": Empire 1. "an Atlantic empire built on North American colonies and Caribbean possessions"; Empire 2. "an Asian empire, built on control of India and coercive trade with China"; Empire 3. "organised around the country's offshore financial infrastructure and its substantial diplomatic, intelligence and communications resources" Al Jazeera 48
29-Mar-12 GOV MIl RES Ron Ben-Yishai Analysis: US thwarting Israeli strike on Iran Analysis by Ron Ben-Yishai alleging that the U.S. is leaking classified information to the media in order to hinder an Israeli strike in Iran; the leak operation is described as a "practical, targeted assassination of potential Israeli operations in Iran" Ynet News 49
30-Mar-12 HEAL RES Jon Baio Prevalence of Autism Spectrum Disorders — Autism and Developmental Disabilities Monitoring Network, 14 Sites, United States, 2008 CDC survey: Prevalence of Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASDs) among the 14 Autism and Developmental Disabilities Monitoring (ADDMs) sites in 2008: 11.3 per 1,000 (1 in 88) children aged 8 years (up 78% when compared with statistics for 2002) Centers for Disease Control and Prevention 50
3-Apr-12 RES BUS DEBT Rating Action: Moody's downgrades GE rating to Aa3, GE Capital to A1 Moody's Investors Service downgraded (1) the senior unsecured debt rating of General Electric Company (GE) to Aa3 from Aa2; and (2) the senior unsecured rating of its finance subsidiary, General Electric Capital Corporation, to A1 from Aa2. The rating outlook for GE and GECC is stable Moody's Investors Service 51
4-Apr-12 M&A RES Graphics: Mergers and Acquisitions, Top Financial and Legal Advisers Mergers and acquisitions in 2012Q1: wordwide, $481 billion (down 34%): U.S., $146 billion [source: Thomson Reuters] NYT-DealBook 52
4-Apr-12 M&A BUS TECH EBX Group and IBM Announce Strategic Agreement IBM to acquires 20% of SIX Automacao's capital, a subsidiary of SIX Solucoes Inteligentes, an EBX Group technology company; IBM and EBX Group to collaborate on research, and to create Joint Industry Solutions Center at SIX Automacao; EBX Group to outsource IT operations to IBM for ~$1 billion over 10 years IBM 53
9-Apr-12 BUS TECH JOBS Tiffany Hsu Sony Corp. to cut 10,000 jobs, or 6% of global workforce Sony Corporation to cut 10,000 jobs (~6% of its global workforce) [Sony's net loss in 2011Q4 was $2.038 billion; sales and operating revenue was down 17.4%; see http://www.sony.net/SonyInfo/IR/financial/fr/11q3_sony.pdf] Los Angeles Times 54
9-Apr-12 M&A TECH WWW Facebook to Acquire Instagram Facebook to acquire Instagram (photo-sharing app for mobile devices) for $1 billion in cash and shares of Facebook Facebook 55