Facebook might buy Microsoft’s Atlas Ad platform to compete with Google












Is Facebook (FB) preparing to compete with Google (GOOG) in online advertising? According to AllThingsD and BusinessInsider’s sources Facebook might be taking steps to build its own advertising network for online websites. AllThingsD says that rather than build a new advertising network from scratch, Facebook could just buy Microsoft’s (MSFT) Atlas Solutions platform “that already delivers billions of ad impressions a day.”


BusinessInsider reports that Facebook will reportedly pay a lower price than the $ 6 billion that Microsoft paid for aQuantive in 2007 that included Atlas Solutions. It’s estimated that Atlas is worth more than $ 30 million — a small price to pay to compete with Google’s DoubleClick ad network.












So why is Facebook interested in advertising now? Well, it’s got over 1 billion active users with emails, phone numbers, and unprecedented amounts of “likes.” As BusinessInsider puts itFacebook has so much data it could “tell marketers whether or not a Facebook user saw, on Facebook.com, an ad for a product before going to the store and buying it.”


Get more from BGR.com: Follow us on Twitter, Facebook


Social Media News Headlines – Yahoo! News


Read More..

Kristen Wiig may join “Anchorman: The Legend Continues”












LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) – Kristen Wiig is being eyed for a role in “Anchorman: The Legend Continues” for Paramount Pictures, a person familiar with the negotiations has told TheWrap.


Wiig would play opposite Steve Carell, as a love interest in the sequel. The script is still being written, and no cast beyond the principals has been set.












Adam McKay is directing the feature, which is being produced by Judd Apatow through his Apatow Productions banner. The film is a sequel to the 2004 hit, “Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy” and is due to be released in October 2013.


Best known for her work on “Saturday Night Live,” Wiig is one of the most in-demand actresses in Hollywood, since appearing in the film “Bridesmaids.” She could recently be seen at the Toronto International Film Festival in the indie feature “Imogene,” and has been busy filming a number of titles, including “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty,” and “Hateship Friendship,” with Guy Pearce.


“Anchorman: The Legend Continues” will see the original film’s cast return, including Will Ferrell, Christina Applegate, Paul Rudd and Carell. The story follows the on-set adventures of San Diego’s top newsman who is played by Ferrell. “Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy” made around $ 85 million at the box office.


Movies News Headlines – Yahoo! News


Read More..

Massachusetts sanctions three more pharmacies, recasts oversight board












BOSTON (Reuters) – Massachusetts regulators on Thursday continued their crackdown on pharmacies in the wake of a deadly meningitis outbreak, announcing sanctions on three companies while recasting an oversight board that has been criticized for being too lax.


Massachusetts pharmacy operations have been under close scrutiny since New England Compounding Center, a specialty pharmacy, shipped thousands of vials of a tainted steroid to medical facilities throughout the United States. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 36 people have died and 541 have been injured from injections of methylprednisolone acetate, a drug typically used to ease back pain.












Massachusetts regulators said they ordered the temporary shutdown of one pharmacy, Oncomed Pharmaceuticals, on November 21, over concerns about how it stored chemotherapy drugs. It also ordered partial shutdowns of Pallimed Solutions, after it used improper components in preparing one drug, and the Whittier Pharmacist for violations in its sterile compounding operations.


All three pharmacies are working with regulators and are expected to reopen once the concerns are addressed, said David Kibbe, a spokesman for the Massachusetts Department of Public Health. Representatives of the three pharmacies could not be reached for immediate comment.


The DPH also announced three new members to fill seats on the Massachusetts pharmacy board. Unlike past appointments, the new board members are not necessarily pharmacists. The new picks are executives from a large healthcare system, a large health insurer and a rehabilitation and skilled nursing center.


“These respected health care professionals will use their experience to bring change to the Board of Pharmacy to enhance our oversight of this industry,” Interim Commissioner Lauren Smith said in a press release. “We expect additional changes to the board after the Commission on Pharmacy Compounding issues its recommendations to Governor Deval Patrick at the end of the month.”


This week, the Massachusetts Board of Pharmacy held a public hearing on emergency regulations that were put in place by Patrick’s administration to enhance monitoring and scrutiny of the compounding industry.


(Reporting by Tim McLaughlin; Editing by Dan Grebler)


Medications/Drugs News Headlines – Yahoo! News


Read More..

White House preps Plan B if debt talks fail


White House press secretary Jay Carney (Charles Dharapak/AP)President Barack Obama's budget office is preparing for the possibility that "fiscal cliff" talks will fail, triggering painful automatic cuts to domestic and defense programs that he and his Republican foes officially want to avoid. White House press secretary Jay Carney described the planning as an abundance of caution, not pessimism about the seemingly stalled negotiations.


The White House's Office of Management and Budget this week "issued a request to federal agencies" for information needed to finalize calculations on the spending cuts required under what is technically known as "sequestration," Carney told reporters at his daily briefing. OMB is "acting responsibly," he added.


"The administration remains focused on reaching agreement, as we've been discussing, on a balanced deficit-reduction plan that avoids sequestration" he said. "This action should not be read … as a change in the administration's commitment to reach an agreement and avoid sequestration."Leaders of both parties have pledged to work together in the coming weeks, and we are confident, as I just said, that we can reach an agreement. However, with less than one month left before a potential sequestration order would have to be issued, the Office of Management and Budget must take certain steps to ensure the administration is ready to issue such an order should Congress fail to act."


Carney's comments came as talks on the fiscal cliff—a series of tax hikes and government spending cuts that could plunge the economy into a new recession—seemed to be making no headway. Obama and congressional Republicans have each put a proposal on the table but do not appear to be actively involved in negotiating a compromise. The president and Republican House Speaker John Boehner spoke by telephone, a House Republican aide said. They spoke "this afternoon—no other information," the aide said.


"If our offer is not acceptable to the president, then he has an obligation to show leadership by presenting a credible plan of his own that can pass both houses of Congress," Boehner said earlier. He accused Obama of snubbing spending cuts he accepted in the past (notably in failed 2011 negotiations) and failing to lay out "serious spending cuts."


"This is preventing us from reaching an agreement," Boehner continued. "With the American economy on the brink of the fiscal cliff, we don't have time for the president to continue shifting the goal posts. We need to solve this problem."


Obama, meanwhile, flatly dismissed the idea that Republicans might use next year's vote on raising the country's debt limit as leverage in current fiscal cliff negotiations, saying it won't be entertained by the White House.


While talks between Obama and Boehner appeared to be in a deep freeze, the president and congressional leaders met separately with top executives of the Business Roundtable association in Washington. A BRT official said the group met with Republican House Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy, then Democratic Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus and Republican Sen. John Thune, who sits on the Finance and Budget committees.


BRT Chairman Jim McNerney, president and CEO of Boeing, described the discussion with Obama as "candid and constructive" and the chat with congressional leaders as "constructive."


He noted that "we encourage both sides to work around the clock, if necessary, to avoid the severe repercussions that inaction would have on U.S. economic growth and job creation."



Read More..

Death toll from Philippine typhoon nears 300












NEW BATAAN, Philippines (AP) — Stunned parents searching for missing children examined a row of mud-stained bodies covered with banana leaves while survivors dried their soaked belongings on roadsides Wednesday, a day after a powerful typhoon killed nearly 300 people in the southern Philippines.


Officials fear more bodies may be found as rescuers reach hard-hit areas that were isolated by landslides, floods and downed communications.












At least 151 people died in the worst-hit province of Compostela Valley when Typhoon Bopha lashed the region Tuesday, including 78 villagers and soldiers who perished in a flash flood that swamped two emergency shelters and a military camp, provincial spokeswoman Fe Maestre said.


Disaster-response agencies reported 284 dead in the region and 14 fatalities elsewhere from the typhoon, one of the strongest to hit the country this year.


About 80 people survived the deluge in New Bataan with injuries, and Interior Secretary Mar Roxas, who visited the town, said 319 others remained missing.


“These were whole families among the registered missing,” Roxas told the ABS-CBN TV network. “Entire families may have been washed away.”


The farming town of 45,000 people was a muddy wasteland of collapsed houses and coconut and banana trees felled by Bopha’s ferocious winds.


Bodies of victims were laid on the ground for viewing by people searching for missing relatives. Some were badly mangled after being dragged by raging flood waters over rocks and other debris. A man sprayed insecticide on the remains to keep away swarms of flies.


A father wept when he found the body of his child after lifting a plastic cover. A mother, meanwhile, went away in tears, unable to find her missing children. “I have three children,” she said repeatedly, flashing three fingers before a TV cameraman.


Two men carried the mud-caked body of an unidentified girl that was covered with coconut leaves on a makeshift stretcher made from a blanket and wooden poles.


Dionisia Requinto, 43, felt lucky to have survived with her husband and their eight children after swirling flood waters surrounded their home. She said they escaped and made their way up a hill to safety, bracing themselves against boulders and fallen trees as they climbed.


“The water rose so fast,” she told AP. “It was horrible. I thought it was going to be our end.”


In nearby Davao Oriental, the coastal province first struck by the typhoon as it blew from the Pacific Ocean, at least 115 people perished, mostly in three towns that were so battered that it was hard to find any buildings with roofs remaining, provincial officer Freddie Bendulo and other officials said.


“We had a problem where to take the evacuees. All the evacuation centers have lost their roofs,” Davao Oriental Gov. Corazon Malanyaon said.


The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies issued an urgent appeal for $ 4.8 million to help people directly affected by the typhoon.


The sun was shining brightly for most of the day Wednesday, prompting residents to lay their soaked clothes, books and other belongings out on roadsides to dry and revealing the extent of the damage to farmland. Thousands of banana trees in one Compostela Valley plantation were toppled by the wind, the young bananas still wrapped in blue plastic covers.


But as night fell, however, rain started pouring again over New Bataan, triggering panic among some residents who feared a repeat of the previous day’s flash floods. Some carried whatever belongings they could as they hurried to nearby towns or higher ground.


After slamming into Davao Oriental and Compostela Valley, Bopha roared quickly across the southern Mindanao and central regions, knocking out power in two entire provinces, triggering landslides and leaving houses and plantations damaged. More than 170,000 fled to evacuation centers.


As of Wednesday evening, the typhoon was over the South China Sea west of Palawan province. It was blowing northwestward and could be headed to Vietnam or southern China, according to government forecasters.


The deaths came despite efforts by President Benigno Aquino III’s government to force residents out of high-risk communities as the typhoon approached.


Some 20 typhoons and storms lash the northern and central Philippines each year, but they rarely hit the vast southern Mindanao region where sprawling export banana plantations have been planted over the decades because it seldom experiences strong winds that could blow down the trees.


A rare storm in the south last December killed more than 1,200 people and left many more homeless.


The United States extended its condolences and offered to help its Asian ally deal with the typhoon’s devastation. It praised government efforts to minimize the deaths and damage.


___


Associated Press writers Jim Gomez, Teresa Cerojano and Oliver Teves in Manila contributed to this report.


Asia News Headlines – Yahoo! News


Read More..

25 top-rated Facebook games from 2012












Games can be both a welcome and an annoying diversion on Facebook, the world’s most popular online social network. This year, Facebook crossed a big milestone — reaching 1 billion active users. Game companies such as “FarmVille” creator Zynga Inc. and Rovio Entertainment Ltd. of “Angry Birds” fame seek to tap into that vast base of users to gain more players for their games.


This week, Facebook Inc. issued a list of the 25 top-rated games that launched on Facebook in 2012. The company says the rankings are based on user ratings and engagement with the games. It’s the same methodology that Facebook uses to rank apps in its App Center.












Some of the games are played on Facebook’s website, while others are only on Apple Inc.‘s iOS or Google Inc.‘s Android devices using Facebook’s app.


Here’s the list:


1. “SongPop” (by FreshPlanet, on Facebook.com, iOS and Android)


2. “Dragon City” (by Social Point, on Facebook.com)


3. “Bike Race” (by Top Free Games, on iOS)


4. “Subway Surfers” (by Kiloo, on iOS and Android)


5. “Angry Birds Friends (by Rovio, on Facebook.com)


6. “FarmVille 2″ (by Zynga, on Facebook.com)


7. “Scramble with Friends” (by Zynga, on iOS)


8. “Clash of Clans” (by Supercell, on iOS)


9. “Marvel: Avengers Alliance” (by Playdom, on Facebook.com)


10. “Draw Something” (by Zynga, on iOS and Android)


11. “Hay Day” (by Supercell, on iOS)


12. “Baseball Heroes” (by Syntasia, on Facebook.com)


13. “ChefVille” (by Zynga, on Facebook.com)


14. “CSR Racing” (by NaturalMotion Games, on iOS)


15. “Candy Crush Saga” (by King.com, on Facebook.com and iOS)


16. “Matching With Friends” (by Zynga, on Facebook.com)


17. “Legend Online” (by Oasis Games, on Facebook.com)


18. “Jurassic Park Builder” (by Ludia, on Facebook.com)


19. “Dungeon Rampage” (by Rebel Entertainment, on Facebook.com)


20. “Pockie Ninja II Social” (by NGames Ltd., on Facebook.com)


21. “Jetpack Joyride” (by Halfbrick, on Facebook.com)


22. “Social Empires” (by Social Point, on Facebook.com and iOS)


23. “Bil ve Fethet” (by Peak Games, on Facebook.com)


24. “Ruby Blast Adventures” (by Zynga, on Facebook.com and iOS)


25. “Pyramid Solitaire Saga” (by King.com, on Facebook.com)


Social Media News Headlines – Yahoo! News


Read More..

Kathie Lee Gifford’s “Scandalous” musical to close after three weeks












LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) – So much for Kathie Lee Gifford‘s career as a playwright. The former “Live!” co-host’s Broadway musical “Scandalous: The Life and Times of Aimee Semple McPherson,” is shuttering a little after three weeks after it opened.


The musical, which opened November 15, will have its final performance December 9 at the Neil Simon Theatre in New York.












Gifford wrote the book and lyrics for “Scandalous,” which chronicled the life of evangelist and proto-celebrity Aimee Semple McPherson, who rose to prominence in the 1920s, only to fall from public grace amid scandalous love affairs and other controversies.


In all, “Scandalous” will have played 29 regular performances before it goes dark and 31 previews. The musical stars Carolee Carmello (left) and George Hearn, among others, and is directed by David Armstrong (“A Christmas Story the Musical,” “Catch Me if You Can”).


Though Gifford had ample opportunity to plug the production via her “Today” co-hosting duties – and she certainly took advantage of the opportunity – critics were generally unkind in their appraisal of the show.


“‘Scandalous’ isn’t so much scandalously bad as it is generic and dull,” wrote the New York Times’ Charles Isherwood.


Newsday’s Linda Winer took specific aim at Gifford’s “bombardment of nursery-rhyme lyrics.”


Talkin’ Broadway’s Matthew Murray, meanwhile, scoffed that the play “is not distinctive in one positive way.”


Music News Headlines – Yahoo! News


Read More..

Asthma symptoms may vary during menstrual cycle












NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – Some women may have more or fewer asthma symptoms, such as coughing and wheezing, depending on their time of the month, a new study suggests.


Researchers said spikes and dips in estrogen and other hormones likely affect the lungs and other physiological responses involved in breathing. However, it’s still unclear whether the findings could improve doctors’ treatment of women with asthma.












The menstrual cycle “is a very important cycle… with all the biological changes and physiological things that happen,” said Dr. Samar Farha from the Cleveland Clinic, who studies asthma and other respiratory diseases but wasn’t involved in the new research.


“(Some) asthmatics describe that just before their menses, they get a worsening of their symptoms,” she told Reuters Health – but more scientific assessments of what’s going on have come to conflicting conclusions.


For the new study, researchers surveyed close to 4,000 women in Northern Europe who had normal periods and weren’t taking birth control pills.


Along with other health and lifestyle questions, they asked women to report when their last period started, as well as whether they’d had any breathing-related problems in the past three days – such as wheezing or waking up with a coughing attack.


Just under eight percent of women in the study had been diagnosed with asthma. Between two and six percent reported recent wheezing, coughing and/or shortness of breath.


Dr. Ferenc Macsali of Haukeland University Hospital in Bergen, Norway, and colleagues found the number of women with of each of those symptoms changed depending on where they were in their menstrual cycle.


For example, wheezing spiked just before and just after mid-cycle (ovulation). The dip in between corresponds to peaks in estrogen, follicle stimulating hormone and luteinizing hormone, the researchers write in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine.


Complaints of shortness of breath and coughing both declined just after women got their periods, and shortness of breath was also more rare right before menses started.


Macsali’s team saw cyclical patterns in breathing symptoms in women with and without asthma.


What explains those patterns is still up for debate. Estrogen may affect the lungs directly, the researchers said. Insulin resistance and markers of general inflammation are known to vary during the menstrual cycle, which could also play a role in when breathing symptoms get better or worse.


“The observed patterns in our study are most likely a result of… complex hormonal processes,” the researchers wrote, “and it does not seem plausible that one sex hormone should explain the variation in respiratory symptoms during the menstrual cycle.”


Women with asthma should “be aware of a possibility that their symptoms are influenced by day in cycle,” Macsali told Reuters Health in an email.


Not all asthmatics will notice those changes, Farha pointed out.


For women whose symptoms do get a little worse at certain times of the month, it’s also unclear whether that ever puts them in serious danger, she added. But Farha said it may still be worth bringing up the issue with their doctor.


“It could lead to more personalized therapy, based on where their symptoms are getting worse, in which phases of their menstrual cycle,” Farha said. “You could change therapy and escalate therapy based on (those) phases.”


SOURCE: http://bit.ly/SGe7b0 American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, online November 29, 2012.


Diseases/Conditions News Headlines – Yahoo! News


Read More..

GOP leaders pluck conservative lawmakers, reveal growing divide


WASHINGTON (AP) — House Speaker John Boehner's decision to take plum committee assignments away from four conservative Republican lawmakers after they bucked party leaders on key votes isn't going over well with advocacy groups that viewed them as role models.


Reps. Tim Huelskamp of Kansas and Justin Amash of Michigan will lose their seats on the House Budget Committee chaired by Rep. Paul Ryan next year. And Reps. Walter Jones of North Carolina and David Schweikert of Arizona are losing their seats on the House Financial Services Committee.


The move is underscoring a divide in the Republican Party between tea party-supported conservatives and the House GOP leadership.


"This is a clear attempt on the part of Republican leadership to punish those in Washington who vote the way they promised their constituents they would — on principle — instead of mindlessly rubber-stamping trillion dollar deficits and the bankrupting of America," said Matt Kibbe, president of the tea party group FreedomWorks.


Michael Steel, a spokesman for Boehner, would only say Tuesday that the party's steering committee chaired by the speaker made the decision "based on a range of factors."


Groups aligned with the tea party movement were generally big supporters of Huelskamp, Amash and Schweikert. Jones is viewed more as a conservative maverick than a tea party Republican. He has frequently siding against GOP leaders on a range of issues over the years. For example, he voted against the GOP budget because he opposed the changes proposed for Medicare.


Schweikert said it was made clear to him "I should vote for the team more."


"Look, we're walking into the 113th Congress with a smaller majority," Schweikert said. "I would have though the fixation would have been family unity. This isn't the way you start a family meeting."


"The GOP leadership might think they have silenced conservatives, but removing me and others from key committees only confirms our conservative convictions," Huelskamp said in a statement Tuesday. "This is clearly a vindictive move and a sure sign that the GOP establishment cannot handle disagreement."


All four lawmakers had voted against the summer 2011 deal negotiated between Republican leaders and President Barack Obama for extending the government's ability to borrow money in exchange for $1 trillion in spending cuts and the promise of another $1 trillion in reduced deficits. Three of the four, the exception being Schweikert, voted against the Ryan-written GOP budget blueprint that the House passed last March.


Their removal from key committees with jurisdiction over the two issues was viewed by some as a signal to other Republican lawmakers to look favorably on whatever final deal Boehner and Obama put together to avert a "fiscal cliff" combination of automatic tax increases and spending cuts in January.


"It's sending a clear message to get behind the leadership no matter what the policy is, and that is contrary to what the Republicans supposedly stand for," Freedomworks' Kibbe said.


"If it was intended to be a signal, it's going to be a weak signal because the majority of conservatives are going to do what they think is right based on principle," Jones, the North Carolina congressman, said.


Amash said he has not been told specifically why he was removed, only that it was not based on his votes and that he should go talk to leadership. He said he voted with the Budget Committee's leadership 95 percent of the time. He said the move is likely to make him more independent in the future.


"Being nice to leadership and playing well with them doesn't pay off," Amash said. "They expect a near total agreement with their approach."


The changes in committee assignments could bring about more discipline from the GOP on high-priority issues next Congress, but conservatives were taking the news as an attack on their priorities.


"As the sun rises this morning we can look at John Boehner, Eric Cantor and Kevin McCarthy and know the opposition is not just across the aisle, but in charge of our own side in the House of Representatives," Erick Erickson wrote on the conservative website, RedState. "All the time and energy I would otherwise have to spend to convince conservatives that these gentlemen would be a problem for the GOP has been spared. They've proven it themselves."


Read More..

WestJet embraces tech to woo business travelers












TORONTO (Reuters) – WestJet Airlines Ltd will use technological innovation, including a new Internet ticket booking system, to help it transform from a no-frills carrier to a lower-cost full-service airline courting lucrative corporate travelers, its chief executive said on Monday.


Canada’s second-biggest airline plans to launch a series of technology systems, most notably the new online booking engine, which will sell three tiers of tickets, in the next two months.












“Companies evolve or they die,” Chief Executive Gregg Saretsky told Reuters in a phone interview from the company’s Calgary head office.


“We’re 16 and going on 17 years old and we can’t stay just as we were 17 years ago. The world has changed. And we are changing to be more relevant for a broader segment of guests.”


The new Internet booking system, which WestJet hopes to launch in late January, will sell economy, mid-tier and premium tickets. That is a major shift from its current system, which sells only the lowest-priced ticket available.


Economy tickets under the new system will continue to sell the lowest available fare, but the cancellation fee for them will jump to C$ 75 ($ 75.48) from C$ 50. Mid-tier tickets will have a C$ 50 cancellation fee.


Premium tickets, unavailable until late March when WestJet finishes reconfiguring its 100 Boeing 737 planes to allow more leg room, will include priority screening and boarding, free cancellations and flexibility on ticket changes.


Pricing for those tickets, which may include free meals and drinks and an extra baggage allowance, has not yet been determined. Fares will be well below half the price for business class at WestJet’s bigger competitor, Air Canada, Saretsky said.


“It’s time for us to be more serious with respect to going after business travelers because frankly, they’re the ones who are booking last-minute and are happy to pay for the conveniences,” Saretsky said.


WestJet will launch its premium economy service with 24 seats per plane, but will consider expansion if it proves “wildly successful,” he added.


POISED FOR CHANGE


WestJet, which has spent about C$ 40 million over the past two years on technology projects, is poised for major changes in 2013 as it readies to launch a new regional airline, Encore.


Saretsky hopes that WestJet’s switch in coming weeks to a new Internet phone system will allow ticket reservation agents to work from home and help make room for Encore staff.


Some 750 reservation agents work at WestJet’s Calgary offices, which house about 2,400 staff. Space will be needed for Encore employees over the next 18 months while their office, hangars and maintenance stores are constructed at the WestJet campus.


Encore will be launch in the second half of 2013, “probably closer to July than December,” Saretsky said, with seven Bombardier Q400 planes.


While WestJet won’t announce Encore’s schedule until Jan 21, the carrier will initially serve only “a handful” of new cities, with ticket prices up to 50 percent below Air Canada’s, he added.


Over the next two months, WestJet will also roll out a guest notification system that alerts travelers via email about their flights, allowing them to check in remotely.


Such self-service technology will be critical as WestJet faces increasing labor costs, Saretsky said.


Wage and benefit costs, which represent about a third of operating costs, have climbed 50 percent since WestJet was founded in 1996.


“You can see that creates a little bit of drag on earnings,” Saretsky said. “We’ve got to find ways of reducing our component costs.”


If WestJet can increase self service options for travelers, that could limit the need for new employees, Saretsky said. Management also wants to improve attendance management, so that fewer employees book off sick around long weekends, and more quickly clean and process planes between flights, he said.


(Reporting By Susan Taylor; Editing by Peter Galloway)


(This story was corrected to show that WestJet is replacing its Internet booking engine, not entire reservation system, in the first and second paragraphs)


Canada News Headlines – Yahoo! News


Read More..