Daiwa CEO sees 2013 Nikkei rally on Abe economy boost

TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan's Nikkei stock average could rally nearly 30 percent in 2013 due to an aggressive push to reflate the economy under the country's new premier, the chief executive of Daiwa Securities Group told Reuters in an interview.

While securities executives are known for their bullish market predictions, the comments from Takashi Hibino reflect an optimism among business leaders that the policies of Shinzo Abe will give Japan's sluggish economy a needed jolt.

Abe, who is set to become prime minister on Wednesday after his opposition Liberal Democratic Party won this month's lower house election, is a proponent of fiscal expansion and aggressive monetary policy to defeat deflation, which has sapped the world's third-largest economy for nearly two decades.

"If the correct policies are enacted the market will rise," Hibino said in an interview on Friday. His comments were embargoed for release on December 26.

"There has not been an administration as committed to escaping deflation. And that's why this time I choose to be optimistic."

Hibino predicted that the Nikkei, which has surged 15 percent since mid-November when elections were called, would likely trade between 9,500 and 13,000 next year. The upper limit would mark a 29 percent gain on Tuesday's close of 10,080.12.

On the back of the upturn in stocks, Hibino said he was confident Japan's second-largest brokerage would generate a net profit in the current financial year through March 2013, after losing a combined 76.7 billion yen ($904.5 million) in the previous two years.

Daiwa cut more than 500 jobs overseas starting in 2011 to stem the losses. Its biggest weakness has been investment banking, where it has struggled since ending a joint venture with Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group in 2009.

Hibino said Daiwa, whose chief rival is industry leader Nomura Holdings Inc, was not looking for a partner in investment banking, noting that speculation it could come under the umbrella of a Japanese lender had recently died down.

He said Daiwa was not planning any further headcount cuts overseas but was shifting some staffing numbers within Europe. This included putting more people in regions such as Germany where demand for banking services was strong and trimming staff elsewhere, although he did not specify where cuts would take place.

Daiwa's biggest focus will be on encouraging customers to shift more of their savings into investment products, Hibino said. This strategy hinges in part on expanding its online bank, which has amassed 2 trillion yen in assets since its launch last year.

Japanese households hold the bulk of their 1,500 trillion yen in assets in low-yielding savings accounts, and persuading them to invest more has been a long-held ambition of the securities industry that has been slow to materialize.

Hibino believes conditions are now ripe for capturing that latent demand. He said Japanese stocks have bottomed out and the decades-long strengthening of the yen came to an end last year, boding well for corporate profits.

"Savings to investment is something that has been talked about for a long time but hasn't happened. That's because the markets have been going down," he said.

($1 = 84.7950 Japanese yen)

(Editing by Edmund Klamann)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/daiwa-ceo-sees-2013-nikkei-rally-abe-economy-031311604--sector.html

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The Kindle Fire HD

The Kindle Fire HD delivers a tablet experience many folks will love, but is it the right choice for me? Have a read and see what a total Android nerd thinks of Amazon's latest offering.

Amazon’s new Kindle tablets don’t get the attention that other Android tablets get. Android purists tend to scoff at them, thinking that the operating system being used -- a true custom fork of Android 4.0 -- is entirely too basic, lacking many of the features and customization settings that stock Android or the more traditional OEM builds like Sense or TouchWiz have.

But simple -- and consistent -- software has a place. Amazon’s removal of some of the more advanced parts of the Android OS are also part of the reason not much talk goes on about the Kindle Fire HD -- it tends to just work, and users have few issues they need to sort out. Amazon has perfected the K.I.S.S. (Keep It Simple, Stupid) philosophy of smart devices.

I’ve had both Kindle Fire HD devices here for a while, and have spent a good bit of time playing with the hardware and Amazon’s operating system as shipped. It’s time I put down a few words about them.

read more

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/androidcentral/~3/TpTiL3tqG64/story01.htm

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Share With Friends: | | Politics - Top Stories News, RSS and RSS Feed via Feedzilla.

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Hawaiian Islands are dissolving from within, study says

Dec. 21, 2012 ? Most of us think of soil erosion as the primary force that levels mountains, however geologists have found that Oahu's mountains are dissolving from within due to groundwater.

Someday, Oahu's Koolau and Waianae mountains will be reduced to nothing more than a flat, low-lying island like Midway.

But erosion isn't the biggest culprit. Instead, scientists say, the mountains of Oahu are actually dissolving from within.

"We tried to figure out how fast the island is going away and what the influence of climate is on that rate," said Brigham Young University geologist Steve Nelson. "More material is dissolving from those islands than what is being carried off through erosion."

The research pitted groundwater against stream water to see which removed more mineral material. Nelson and his BYU colleagues spent two months sampling both types of sources. In addition, ground and surface water estimates from the U.S. Geological Survey helped them calculate the total quantity of mass that disappeared from the island each year.

"All of the Hawaiian Islands are made of just one kind of rock," Nelson said. "The weathering rates are variable, too, because rainfall is so variable, so it's a great natural laboratory."

Forecasting the island's future also needs to account for plate tectonics. As Oahu is pushed northwest, the island actually rises in elevation at a slow but steady rate. You've heard of mountain climbing; this is a mountain that climbs.

According to the researchers' estimates, the net effect is that Oahu will continue to grow for as long as 1.5 million years. Beyond that, the force of groundwater will eventually triumph and the island will begin its descent to a low-lying topography.

Undergraduate student Brian Selck co-authored the study, which appears in the journal Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta. Unfortunately for him, he joined the project only after the field work in Hawaii took place.

Instead, Selck performed the mineralogical analysis of soil samples in the lab back in Provo. The island's volcanic soil contained at least one surprise in weathered rock called saprolites.

"The main thing that surprised me on the way was the appearance of a large amount of quartz in a saprolite taken from a 1-meter depth," Selck said.

After he graduates from BYU, Selck will pursue a career in hydrogeology. BYU geology professor David Tingey joins Nelson and Selck as a co-author on the new study.

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Brigham Young University.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.

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Journal Reference:

1. Stephen T. Nelson, David G. Tingey, Brian Selck. The denudation of ocean islands by ground and surface waters: The effects of climate, soil thickness, and water contact times on Oahu, Hawaii. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta, 2013; 103: 276 DOI: 10.1016/j.gca.2012.09.046

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/top_environment/~3/iIgbOTg7c0U/121221114044.htm

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Sensory Persuasion For Sensible Marketing - Work On the Internet

The new age marketing scenario is extremely aggressive in its promotion and sales tactics and media exploitation techniques. The pressures on modern day businesses to keep up with constant competition in meeting consumer demands, and maintaining popularity in the market, has been driving marketersinto introducing innovative ideas and styles into the field, and to keep on constantly experimenting with all sorts of advertising trends. All kinds of traditional platforms like news papers, banners, radio and television are still being fully exploited, along with modern day avenues like the internet and other visual medias. All sorts of promotions through email marketing, pop ups, search engine optimizations, online catalogue shops and web ads are filling up the internet, and direct marketing options are being revolutionized by firms that deal with experiential marketing gimmicks for bringing about quick and effective changes in meeting sales targets.

Many businesses in the small scale market, and the international corporate arena, are concentrating on employing unique attention grabbing and outstanding ad promotions, that register impressively in the minds of the audience and reign in customers, by etching their name in the audience memory. Guerilla marketing stunts are forever being crafted and presented in public spaces, and are creating waves in the advertisement arena. The best experiential marketing firms have already established their names in the business field, with their team of innovative marketers regularly coming up with the most effective and successful ad campaigns. They are experienced in providing customers with interactive platforms, where they can try out the new products or business services to test their credibility, and the special promotions are tested out through sensory aspects of sight touch or taste, to etch the experience in the mind and memory of the prospective customer.

This speeds up the audience in connecting with the promoted brand, and creates a niche for the product in their list of preferences, by letting them judge independently and intelligently by comparing with already patronized products. Experiential marketing can boost up revolutionary sales margins in introductory products, as this type of publicity is strategically different from other conventional types of ad campaigns, which only informs or reminds the customer of the arrival or existence of a specific product in the market, and doesn???t give chance for hands on comparison with other products.

Although this type of marketing through sensory experience was prevalent in the food industry, especially in patisseries, for informing regular customers of the introduction of new menus and tastes, it is only in the recent times that this kind of strategy has been tried out in all sorts of other products and services. In the computer and information arena itself, the introduction of certain informative sites, introductory free usage of antivirus packages and basic trial offers of all kinds of downloadable services, are examples of experiential marketing. Special Media Agency gimmicks like Pop Up Shops, introductory Freebies, smart vending machines and interactive installations in popular public spaces are quite effective in creating impressions beyond ordinary ads, and are usually quick in covering initial publicity costs and raising profit margins discernibly.

This content has been taken from http://www.cybershimla.com/article.php?id=120943

Pop Up Shops results in viral word of mouth which leads to exponential outcomes. We are dedicated in providing innovative and creative ideas, that translate into long term brand building strategies.To know more about News for Media Agency Please have a look at our website.

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Source: http://www.workoninternet.com/business/reviews/miscellaneous/221632-article.html

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Obama And Gun Control: A Timeline On The President's Mixed Record Of Advocacy And Inaction

It may have taken him four years in the White House, but President Barack Obama is signaling that he is at last ready to do something to prevent more of the kinds of mass shootings that have taken place on his watch.

Obama was a vocal advocate of gun control in his early days as an Illinois politician, and during his term in the U.S. Senate, he routinely backed gun control bills. It wasn't until he became president that he went quiet on the matter; in fact, the only two gun measures he's signed into law actually expanded gun rights.

Below, a look at the pivotal moments in Obama's on-again, off-again relationship with gun control reforms.

Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/12/20/obama-gun-control-timeline_n_2338860.html

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Putin: Russia recognizes need for change in Syria

Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks during a news conference in Moscow, Russia, Thursday, Dec. 20, 2012. Putin says a draft bill banning U.S. adoptions of Russian children is a legitimate response to a new U.S. law that calls for sanctions on Russians deemed to be human rights violators. But he has not committed to signing it. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko)

Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks during a news conference in Moscow, Russia, Thursday, Dec. 20, 2012. Putin says a draft bill banning U.S. adoptions of Russian children is a legitimate response to a new U.S. law that calls for sanctions on Russians deemed to be human rights violators. But he has not committed to signing it. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko)

Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks during a news conference in Moscow, Russia, Thursday, Dec. 20, 2012. Putin says a draft bill banning U.S. adoptions of Russian children is a legitimate response to a new U.S. law that calls for sanctions on Russians deemed to be human rights violators. But he has not committed to signing it. (AP Photo/RIA Novosti, Alexei Nikolsky, Presidential Press Service)

Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks during a news conference in Moscow, Russia, Thursday, Dec. 20, 2012. Putin says a draft bill banning U.S. adoptions of Russian children is a legitimate response to a new U.S. law that calls for sanctions on Russians deemed to be human rights violators. But he has not committed to signing it. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko)

Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks during a news conference in Moscow, Russia, Thursday, Dec. 20, 2012. Putin says a draft bill banning U.S. adoptions of Russian children is a legitimate response to a new U.S. law that calls for sanctions on Russians deemed to be human rights violators. But he has not committed to signing it. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko)

Members of the media raise their hands to ask questions as Russian President Vladimir Putin gives a news conference in Moscow, Russia, Thursday, Dec. 20, 2012. Putin says a draft bill banning U.S. adoptions of Russian children is a legitimate response to a new U.S. law that calls for sanctions on Russians deemed to be human rights violators. But he has not committed to signing it. (AP Photo/Misha Japaridze)

MOSCOW (AP) ? Russian President Vladimir Putin distanced himself further than ever before from his longtime ally in Syria on Thursday, saying he understands Syria needs change and that he is not protecting its president.

Putin, however, warned that efforts to unseat Bashar Assad could plunge Syria even deeper into violence. He insisted that Russia has not changed its stance and believes that only a negotiated settlement can end the civil war.

Putin's assessment came a week after Russia's top envoy for Syria was quoted as saying Assad's forces were losing control of the country. Although the Foreign Ministry backpedaled on that statement, analysts have suggested for months that the Kremlin is resigned to Assad's fall.

Russia has blocked international attempts to step up pressure on the Assad regime, leading to accusations that it is supporting Assad.

Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has long stated that Russia is not propping up Assad, as did Putin in strong words on Thursday.

"We are not preoccupied that much with the fate of the Assad regime; we realize what's going on there and that the family has been in power for 40 years," Putin said during his annual hours-long news conference. "Undoubtedly, there is a call for changes."

"We are worried about another thing: what happens next," he said. "We don't want to see the opposition come to power and start fighting the government that becomes the opposition, so that it goes on forever."

Fyodor Lukyanov, the editor of the Russia in Global Affairs journal, said Moscow's stance has been consistent and Putin's statements do not signal a change.

"Russia has always said it did not support Assad personally, that it wanted a political dialogue" between Assad's government and the opposition, Lukyanov said.

Putin said Russia's position "is not to keep Assad and his regime in power at any cost, but to allow the people to come to an agreement on how they will live further and how they will ensure their safety and their participation in governing the country and then start changing the current order based on those agreements."

Only a negotiated settlement, he said, would "prevent a breakup of the country and an endless civil war."

"Agreements based on a military victory cannot be effective," Putin said.

___

Mansur Mirovalev contributed reporting.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2012-12-20-Russia-Syria/id-73665193975b4575b958fe79f3db3191

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Mars Curiosity rover explores 'Yellowknife Bay'

Dec. 19, 2012 ? The NASA Mars rover Curiosity this week is driving within a shallow depression called "Yellowknife Bay," providing information to help researchers choose a rock to drill.

Using Curiosity's percussive drill to collect a sample from the interior of a rock, a feat never before attempted on Mars, is the mission's priority for early 2013. After the powdered-rock sample is sieved and portioned by a sample-processing mechanism on the rover's arm, it will be analyzed by instruments inside Curiosity.

Yellowknife Bay is within a different type of terrain from what the rover has traversed since landing inside Mars' Gale Crater on Aug. 5, PDT (Aug. 6, UTC). The terrain Curiosity has entered is one of three types that intersect at a location dubbed "Glenelg," chosen as an interim destination about two weeks after the landing.

Curiosity reached the lip of a 2-foot (half-meter) descent into Yellowknife Bay with a 46-foot (14-meter) drive on Dec. 11. The next day, a drive of about 86 feet (26.1 meters) brought the rover well inside the basin. The team has been employing the Mast Camera (Mastcam) and the laser-wielding Chemistry and Camera (ChemCam) for remote-sensing studies of rocks along the way.

On Dec. 14, Curiosity drove about 108 feet (32.8 meters) to reach rock targets of interest called "Costello" and "Flaherty." Researchers used the Alpha Particle X-Ray Spectrometer (APXS) and Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) at the end of the rover's arm to examine the targets. After finishing those studies, the rover drove again on Dec. 17, traveling about 18 feet (5.6 meters) farther into Yellowknife Bay. That brings the mission's total driving distance to 0.42 mile (677 meters) since Curiosity's landing.

One additional drive is planned this week before the rover team gets a holiday break. Curiosity will continue studying the Martian environment from its holiday location at the end point of that drive within Yellowknife Bay. The mission's plans for most of 2013 center on driving toward the primary science destination, a 3-mile-high (5-kilometer) layered mound called Mount Sharp.

NASA's Mars Science Laboratory Project is using Curiosity during a two-year prime mission to assess whether areas inside Gale Crater ever offered a habitable environment for microbes. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the project for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington.

More information about Curiosity is online at http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/msl , http://www.nasa.gov/msl and http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/ . You can follow the mission on Facebook at: http://www.facebook.com/marscuriosity and on Twitter at: http://www.twitter.com/marscuriosity .

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Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/~3/_mK5Njodqys/121219112659.htm

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Students to skype with troops in Afghanistan

ANDERSON TOWNSHIP, OH (FOX19) - Students at Anderson High School are getting the opportunity to cyber-chat with troops in Afghanistan.

The social studies students are going to interview the members of the 361?Expeditionary Reconnaissance Squadron (Ravens).

The soliders will answer questions posed by the students that will include: what day-to-day life is like at Kandahar Air Field; Why they feel it?s important to serve their country; About ?our cause? in Afghanistan; and talk about politics in 21st Century United States.?

Source: http://anderson-mtwashington.fox19.com/news/news/101895-students-skype-troops-afghanistan

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Birdsong bluster may dupe strange females, but it won't fool partners

Wednesday, December 19, 2012

Male birds use their song to dupe females they have just met by pretending they are in excellent physical condition.

Just as some men try to cast themselves in a better light when they approach would-be dates, so male birds in poor condition seek to portray that they are fitter than they really are. But males do not even try to deceive their long-term partners, who are able to establish the true condition of the male by their song.

Researchers at the University of Exeter studied zebra finches to establish how trustworthy birdsong was in providing honest signals about the male's value as a mate. Singing is a test of the condition of birds because it uses a lot of energy. Fit and healthy birds are thought to be able to sustain a high song rate for longer, making them more attractive to females.

The research team, which included scientists from the Universit? de Bourgogne in France, looked at short and longer encounters with unknown females, as well as patterns of song around females who were familiar to them.

The team discovered that males in poor condition could "cheat" and vary their song to give a false impression to stranger females. But they did not even try to fool those who knew them, who used song as a reliable test of their underlying qualities. The research is published on December 19 in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B.

Dr Sasha Dall, of the University of Exeter, was involved in the research. He said: "Every man wants to cast himself in a favourable light when he meets an attractive female, and we have shown that birds are no different. But just like many humans, it seems zebra finch males are unable to dupe females who know them well enough. When the birds were in an established relationship, the female could tell the true condition of a male by his song, and judge whether he would make a good father for her next brood."

Zebra finches are Australia's most popular finch. They make common pets and are widely used in scientific research. They are particularly easy to keep, and adapt extremely well to their surroundings. For zebra finches, both colour and birdsong are important factors in choosing a mate.

The research was funded through a young researcher prize of the Bettencourt-Schueller Foundation for life sciences and a PhD grant, as well as two honorific master grants provided by the Conseil R?gional de Bourgogne in France.

The team studied 91 male and 91 female birds from a colony at the Universit? de Bourgogne and 12 of each gender from a colony at the University of Exeter. The body condition of each of the birds was measured. Scientists then videoed both brief and longer encounters between birds of each gender who were unknown to each other, and patterns of behaviour when they were with their mate, with whom they pair for life. They were also monitored to see if they showed signs of mutual attraction and going on to breed.

In the study, there was no difference in the singing of male single birds in either short or long encounters with unknown females. But, when in front of their partners, paired birds who were in good condition sang at a higher rate than those in poor condition.

Dr Morgan David, who led the research, said: "This is the first study to find evidence that the link between male body condition and birdsong differs depending on the context of the encounter with the opposite sex. It could have significant implications for learning more about the evolution of courtship patterns such as birdsong."

###

University of Exeter: http://www.exeter.ac.uk

Thanks to University of Exeter for this article.

This press release was posted to serve as a topic for discussion. Please comment below. We try our best to only post press releases that are associated with peer reviewed scientific literature. Critical discussions of the research are appreciated. If you need help finding a link to the original article, please contact us on twitter or via e-mail.

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Source: http://www.labspaces.net/126003/Birdsong_bluster_may_dupe_strange_females__but_it_won_t_fool_partners

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AP Interview: Syria rebels fear chemical weapons

ANTAKYA, Turkey (AP) ? Syrian rebels are closely monitoring the regime's chemical weapons sites, but don't have the means to seize and secure them, their newly elected military commander told The Associated Press.

Gen. Salim Idris, who defected from the Syrian army in July, said he is "very afraid" a cornered Syrian President Bashar Assad will unleash such weapons on his own people.

Syria is said to have one of the world's largest chemical arsenals. Earlier this week, Syria's U.N. ambassador said the regime would not use such weapons under any circumstances. However, recent U.S. intelligence reports indicated the regime may be readying chemical weapons and could be desperate enough to use them.

Idris, a 55-year-old German-trained electronics professor, was chosen earlier this month as chief of staff by several hundred commanders of rebel units meeting in Turkey.

With the election of Idris and a 30-member military command center, Syria's opposition hopes to transform largely autonomous groups of fighters into a unified force. The reorganization came after Syria's political opposition won international recognition this month as the sole representative of the Syrian people.

In an interview late Tuesday, Idris said the rebels could defeat the regime within a month if supplied with anti-aircraft weapons. Assad's troops are stretched thin and have lost ground in recent months, particularly in northwestern Syria, but have kept rebel fighters pinned down with massive air bombardments.

The West has refused to supply Syria's opposition with weapons for fear they could fall into the hands of Islamic militants among the rebels, such as Jabhat al-Nusra, which was designated a terrorist group by the U.S. last week. Idris played down possible threats posed by al-Nusra, saying that while the group was not part of the new unified command, "they are not terrorists."

Without foreign military help, driving out the regime could take "one, two or three months," Idris said, speaking in a hotel lobby in the southern Turkish town of Antakya near the Syrian border.

He claimed that more than 120,000 armed men are fighting Assad's military, a figure difficult to confirm independently in the chaos of Syria's civil war. Idris said the new military command represents the vast majority of these fighters, and that he has begun taking command inside Syria in recent days.

Idris said that on Tuesday, he spent much the day near the central city of Hama, observing a successful rebel attempt to capture five regime checkpoints.

Syria's conflict began with a popular uprising in March 2011, but quickly turned violent, with protesters taking up arms in response to a brutal regime crackdown. Activists say more than 40,000 Syrians have been killed and aid officials estimate some 3 million people have been displaced by the fighting.

Idris portrayed Assad as a powerless figurehead, saying decisions are made by his inner circle of fellow Alawites, followers of an offshoot of Shiite Islam.

The ruling elite won't surrender and is willing "to set everything on fire," warned Idris, who served in the military for 35 years, including as dean at the military's technical college in the city of Aleppo, now a major battleground.

The regime "can and will" use chemical weapons unless the international community forces Assad to leave, Idris said, speaking in fluent German.

He said rebel fighters are trying to monitor the chemical weapons sites. "We know exactly where they are and we are watching everything," Idris said. "But we don't have the capability to put them under our control."

The West has shown little desire to intervene militarily in Syria's conflict, but President Barack Obama has said the regime's use of chemical weapons against the rebels would be a "red line."

U.S. officials have said the regime launched more than a half-dozen Scud missiles in recent days, the first time it has used such weapons in this conflict.

Idris said he was aware of three launches, adding that two missiles fell in Syria's eastern desert and a third on the outskirts of a town close to Aleppo.

Idris, citing information from rebel sympathizers within the regime, said Scud missiles are being trained at northwestern Syria, the area close to the Turkish border, and could be fired at any moment.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/ap-interview-syria-rebels-fear-chemical-weapons-050612819.html

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