LONDON (Reuters) - Nearly half of Britons expect their living standards to fall further by the time they vote in the next election in 2015, but the opposition Labour Party could still struggle to win if the economy does rebound, a pollster said on Monday.
A YouGov poll showed 46 percent of respondents thought they would be worse off in 2015 than now. Only seven percent saw a full recovery in the next two to three years.
YouGov president Peter Kellner said the level of pessimism was higher than usual, but said Labour's lead over the Conservatives, the senior ruling coalition partner, in other opinion polls of about eight or nine points could prove too small if the economy recovers.
"If the pessimism is confounded and the economy does show signs of steady growth between now and the next election, then the Conservative argument that the medicine is working, the economy has turned a corner and they are cleaning up Labour's mess would be quite a powerful message which Labour would have real difficulty counteracting," Kellner said.
"As long as Labour is blamed more than the Tories (Conservatives) for the mess that Britain is in, the Conservatives will have a fighting chance of winning the next election."
The questions in the poll about living standard expectations and how long it will take for the economy to recover were put to 1,761 respondents between February 27 and 28. It was conducted for The Resolution Foundation, a think tank
For more on the poll, click on: http://www.resolutionfoundation.org/publications/2015-living-standards-election/
(Reporting by William Schomberg Editing by Jeremy Gaunt.)
(This story was refiled to fix typo in paragraph 2)
MILAN (AP) ? Italian carmaker Fiat SpA reported a first-quarter loss of 83 million euros ($108 million) as European sales and profits at is U.S. partner Chrysler tumbled.
The loss posted Monday by the automaker, based in the northern Italian city of Turin, compares with a restated first-quarter profit of 35 million euros last year.
Revenues were down 2 percent to 19.75 billion euros, as performance in Latin America, Asia and its premium brands helped to compensate for declines in North America and Europe. Revenues were down 3 percent to 10 billion euros in North America and 4 percent to 4.4 billion euros in Europe.
Chrysler first-quarter profits dropped 65 percent as shipments of cars and trucks were down in preparation for new vehicle launches. Fiat's European operations lost 157 million euros.
Another simple but neat Evernote hack that came out of the 24-hour Disrupt NY Hackathon earlier today was Squirrel. Created by coder duo Zainab Ebrahimi and Jabari Bell, the hack turns articles Evernote readers have saved for reading later into a personalised newsletter. So, unlike the average email newsletter, Squirrel is populated with content the user actually wants to read.
Apr. 25, 2013 ? Most of us are familiar with the "winter blues," the depression-like symptoms known as "seasonal affective disorder," or SAD, that occurs when the shorter days of winter limit our exposure to natural light and make us more lethargic, irritable and anxious. But for rats it's just the opposite.
Biologists at UC San Diego have found that rats experience more anxiety and depression when the days grow longer. More importantly, they discovered that the rat's brain cells adopt a new chemical code when subjected to large changes in the day and night cycle, flipping a switch to allow an entirely different neurotransmitter to stimulate the same part of the brain.
Their surprising discovery, detailed in the April 26 issue of Science, demonstrates that the adult mammalian brain is much more malleable than was once thought by neurobiologists. Because rat brains are very similar to human brains, their finding also provides a greater insight into the behavioral changes in our brain linked to light reception. And it opens the door for new ways to treat brain disorders such as Parkinson's, caused by the death of dopamine-generating cells in the brain.
The neuroscientists discovered that rats exposed for one week to 19 hours of darkness and five hours of light every day had more nerve cells making dopamine, which made them less stressed and anxious when measured using standardized behavioral tests. Meanwhile, rats exposed for a week with the reverse -- 19 hours of light and five hours of darkness -- had more neurons synthesizing the neurotransmitter somatostatin, making them more stressed and anxious.
"We're diurnal and rats are nocturnal," said Nicholas Spitzer, a professor of biology at UC San Diego and director of the Kavli Institute for Brain and Mind. "So for a rat, it's the longer days that produce stress, while for us it's the longer nights that create stress."
Because rats explore and search for food at night, while humans evolved as creatures who hunt and forage during the daylight hours, such differences in brain chemistry and behavior make sense. Evolutionary changes presumably favored humans who were more active gatherers of food during the longer days of summer and saved their energy during the shorter days of winter.
"Light is what wakes us up and if we feel depressed we go for a walk outside," said Davide Dulcis, a research scientist in Spitzer's laboratory and the first author of the study. "When it's spring, I feel more motivation to do the things I like to do because the days are longer. But for the rat, it's just the opposite. Because rats are nocturnal, they're less stressed at night, which is good because that's when they can spend more time foraging or eating."
But how did our brains change when humans evolved millions of years ago from small nocturnal rodents to diurnal creatures to accommodate those behavioral changes?
"We think that somewhere in the brain there's been a change," said Spitzer. "Sometime in the evolution from rat to human there's been an evolutionary adjustment of circuitry to allow switching of neurotransmitters in the opposite direction in response to the same exposure to a balance of light and dark."
A study published earlier this month in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine found some correlation to the light-dark cycle in rats and stress in humans, at least when it comes to people searching on the internet for information in the winter versus the summer about mental illness. Using Google's search data from 2006 to 2010, a team of researchers led by John Ayers of San Diego State University found that mental health searches on Google were, in general, 14 percent higher in the winter in the United States and 11 percent higher in the Australian winter.
"Now that we know that day length can switch transmitters and change behavior, there may be a connection," said Spitzer.
In their rat experiments, the UC San Diego neuroscientists found that the switch in transmitter synthesis in the rat's brain cells from dopamine to somatostatin or back again was not due to the growth of new neurons, but to the ability of the same neurons there to produce different neurotransmitters.
Rats exposed to 19 hours of darkness every 24 hours during the week showed higher numbers of dopamine neurons within their brains and were more likely, the researchers found, to explore the open end of an elevated maze, a behavioral test showing they were less anxious. These rats were also more willing to swim, another laboratory test that showed they were less stressed.
"Because rats are nocturnal animals, they like to explore during the night and dopamine is a key part of our and their reward system," said Spitzer. "It's part of what allows them to be confident and reduce anxiety."
The researchers said they don't know precisely how this neurotransmitter switch works. Nor do they know what proportion of light and darkness or stress triggers this switch in brain chemistry. "Is it 50-50? Or 80 percent light versus dark and 20 percent stress? We don't know," added Spitzer. "If we just stressed the animal and didn't change their photoperiod, would that lead to changes in transmitter identity? We don't know, but those are all doable experiments."
But as they learn more about this trigger mechanism, they said one promising avenue for human application might be to use this neurotransmitter switch to deliver dopamine effectively to parts of the brain that no longer receive dopamine in Parkinson's patients.
"We could switch to a parallel pathway to put dopamine where it's needed with fewer side effects than pharmacological agents," said Dulcis.
The other researchers involved in the study, which was funded by grants from the Ellison Medical Foundation, were Pouya Jamshidi and Stefan Leutgeb of UC San Diego.
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Journal Reference:
D. Dulcis, P. Jamshidi, S. Leutgeb, N. C. Spitzer. Neurotransmitter Switching in the Adult Brain Regulates Behavior. Science, 2013; 340 (6131): 449 DOI: 10.1126/science.1234152
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Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.
JOHANNESBURG (AP) ? Laurie Kay, a South African pilot best known for flying a Boeing 747 passenger jet low over a Johannesburg stadium before the final of the 1995 Rugby World Cup, has died at the age of 67.
Kay had a suspected heart attack on Wednesday at the offices of the anti-rhinoceros poaching unit in Kruger National Park, South Africa's showcase game reserve, according to the country's parks service. Kay flew helicopters on patrols aimed at stopping poachers and was also doing technical work on a new anti-poaching surveillance aircraft, said Ike Phaahla, a parks spokesman.
"He was a great aviator," Phaahla said. "He was a gentleman. He had this outgoing personality. He made you feel very easy around him."
Kay was a South African Airways pilot when he swooped twice over Ellis Park stadium in a big jet at the start of the June 24, 1995 rugby final in which South Africa defeated New Zealand by a score of 15-12. The stenciled underside of the plane read "Good Luck Bokke" in a message of support for South Africa's national team, the Springboks.
The daring stunt, depicted in the Hollywood movie "Invictus," electrified tens of thousands of fans who had no inkling that authorities had planned for a giant passenger jet to roar overhead. South Africa's ensuing victory on the field was a euphoric, unifying occasion for a country that had recently emerged from white racist rule.
Nelson Mandela, the anti-apartheid leader who became South Africa's first black president in 1994 elections, attended the game in a South African team shirt. It was a powerful gesture of reconciliation because rugby was a cultural bastion of white Afrikaners, who were guardians of the apartheid system.
Kay's flyover in a densely populated city flouted the most basic guidelines in international aviation, said John Carlin, author of "Playing the Enemy: Nelson Mandela and the Game That Made a Nation."
"The idea was to release maximum vibrations, noise and power into the stadium with a view to energizing the crowd and energizing the players," Carlin said in a telephone interview from Spain. "He got the plane very near to stalling in order to get that maximum power effect when he was over the stadium. It was pretty outrageous."
According to South African Airways, Kay and his crew had spent the previous week plotting the course, flying it many times in a light plane, and spending hours in a flight simulator. Director Clint Eastwood included the flyover episode in "Invictus," the 2009 film about South Africa's rugby victory that starred Morgan Freeman as Mandela.
The Boeing 747 was empty save for a small crew during the flyover, making it highly maneuverable despite its large size, noted Tony Smit, a longtime friend and pilot.
"There was nothing daredevil about Laurie," said Smit, who praised Kay for charity work and the mentoring of young pilots. "Everything that he did in aerobatics shows, everything is calculated to the finest degree."
Carlin said Kay, like many South African whites, initially had reservations about Mandela as the African National Congress leader negotiated an end to apartheid in the early 1990s. But that changed when the pair met on an international flight, according to the author. Mandela asked Kay, the captain, if he could upgrade members of his delegation from economy class, and Kay was charmed by Mandela's gracious manner.
"He was one more in a long, long line of people who succumbed to Mandela's charisma and general seductive abilities," Carlin said.
Even Mandela was startled during the 1995 flyover, said Carlin, who interviewed some of the president's bodyguards afterward.
"I don't think he had been prepared for this particular detail of the day's choreography," he said.
LOS ANGELES (AP) ? Gwyneth Paltrow says she's thrilled to be picked by People magazine as "World's Most Beautiful Woman" for 2013 but it's "obviously not true."
Paltrow questioned her own selection as she walked the red carpet at the Hollywood premiere of "Iron Man 3" Wednesday night wearing a colorblocked illusion gown with wide sheer panels down the side ? shoulder to hip, except for the waistband ? that left almost nothing to the imagination.
"It's funny, these things, because it's like obviously not true. But it's very sweet to be named that," Paltrow told The Associated Press. "Because I mean you can't say that, you know! But it's been wonderful. It's been very wonderful. And as my friend said, it's so nice that someone who has kids and is a mom and is not like 21 is named that. It's really an honor."
Paltrow said her two children weren't aware of the news in this week's edition of the magazine, but she'd been getting plenty of congratulatory emails from friends and family.
The 40-year-old actress stars as Pepper Potts, Tony Stark's love interest and assistant-turned-business partner in the "Iron Man" trilogy. Her co-stars in "Iron Man 3" praised People's proclamation.
"Completely justified. Completely justified. She's gorgeous," said Guy Pearce.
"Let me tell you: She is as gracious and beautiful inside as she is outside. She's got a good heart. She's got a good heart. A lovely girl," said Ben Kingsley.
Apr. 25, 2013 ? Melatonin injections delayed symptom onset and reduced mortality in a mouse model of the neurodegenerative condition amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), or Lou Gehrig's disease, according to a new study by researchers at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. In a report published online ahead of print in the journal Neurobiology of Disease, the team revealed that receptors for melatonin are found in the nerve cells, a finding that could launch novel therapeutic approaches.
Annually about 5,000 people are diagnosed with ALS, which is characterized by progressive muscle weakness and eventual death due to the failure of respiratory muscles, said senior investigator Robert Friedlander, M.D., UPMC Endowed Professor of neurosurgery and neurobiology and chair, Department of Neurological Surgery, Pitt School of Medicine. But the causes of the condition are not well understood, thwarting development of a cure or even effective treatments.
Melatonin is a naturally occurring hormone that is best known for its role in sleep regulation. After screening more than a thousand FDA-approved drugs several years ago, the research team determined that melatonin is a powerful antioxidant that blocks the release of enzymes that activate apoptosis, or programmed cell death.
"Our experiments show for the first time that a lack of melatonin and melatonin receptor 1, or MT1, is associated with the progression of ALS," Dr. Friedlander said. "We saw similar results in a Huntington's disease model in an earlier project, suggesting similar biochemical pathways are disrupted in these challenging neurologic diseases."
Hoping to stop neuron death in ALS just as they did in Huntington's, the research team treated mice bred to have an ALS-like disease with injections of melatonin or with a placebo. Compared to untreated animals, the melatonin group developed symptoms later, survived longer, and had less degeneration of motor neurons in the spinal cord.
"Much more work has to be done to unravel these mechanisms before human trials of melatonin or a drug akin to it can be conducted to determine its usefulness as an ALS treatment," Dr. Friedlander said. "I suspect that a combination of agents that act on these pathways will be needed to make headway with this devastating disease."
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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by University of Pittsburgh Schools of the Health Sciences, via EurekAlert!, a service of AAAS.
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Yi Zhang, Anna Cook, Jinho Kim, Sergei V. Baranov, Jiying Jiang, Karen Smith, Kerry Cormier, Erik Bennett, Robert P. Browser, Arthur L. Day, Diane L. Carlisle, Robert J. Ferrante, Xin Wang, Robert M. Friedlander. Melatonin inhibits the caspase-1/cytochrome c/caspase-3 cell death pathway, inhibits MT1 receptor loss and delays disease progression in a mouse model of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. Neurobiology of Disease, 2013; 55: 26 DOI: 10.1016/j.nbd.2013.03.008
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Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.
TORONTO (Reuters) - Canada's main stock index closed little changed on Tuesday as sluggish economic data from China, Germany and the United States revived concerns about the global recovery. Lackluster earnings reports from some Canadian companies also weighed down investor sentiment.
Apple unlocks more cash for investors as profit slides
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Apple Inc on Tuesday bowed to investors' demands to share more of its $145 billion cash pile, while posting its first quarterly profit decline in more than a decade. The new expanded capital plan includes issuing debt for the first time to fund $100 billion in share repurchases and higher dividends until the end of 2015. That doubles the amount from a program set up last year and makes Apple the largest dividend-paying company in the world.
Analysis: Sleeping ad giant Amazon finally stirs
SAN FRANCISCO/NEW YORK (Reuters) - Amazon.com Inc is known in the advertising industry as the "sleeping giant" because the world's largest Internet retailer harbors a trove of consumer-spending data that many marketers have called an unrealized opportunity. Now it's awakening to the potential. After running ads on its own website for years, the company has taken the first steps toward becoming a true Internet advertising network, using the knowledge garnered from its data to place targeted ads for some of the world's biggest advertisers across thousands of other websites.
Barclays first-quarter profit hit by restructuring charge
LONDON (Reuters) - British bank Barclays said first-quarter profit fell a quarter from a year ago after a rise in losses in its European business and a hefty bill for the cost of a restructuring plan by its new chief executive. Barclays on Wednesday reported an adjusted pretax profit for the three months ended March of 1.79 billion pounds ($2.74 billion), down from 2.4 billion a year ago and just below a mean forecast of 1.85 billion from analysts polled by the company.
BOJ's new price forecasts Friday to be credibility test
TOKYO (Reuters) - The Bank of Japan is set on Friday to project that it will meet its 2 percent inflation target in two years, a forecast analysts say may be too optimistic and could put the bank's credibility on the line. The central bank, charged with overturning years of dogged deflation, is not expected to come up with any fresh policy initiatives after new Governor Haruhiko Kuroda stunned markets on April 4 by promising to inject about $1.4 trillion into the economy to hit the inflation target in roughly two years.
Asian shares rise on firm U.S. earnings, soft money outlook
TOKYO (Reuters) - Asian shares advanced on Wednesday, tracking global equities higher on the back of solid U.S. earnings, but the euro was pressured by soft German data tipping a possible rate cut to support the fragile euro zone economy. European equities will likely remain underpinned by this expectation of further monetary easing, and European stock markets are seen rising. Financial spreadbetters predict London's FTSE 100 <.ftse>, Paris's CAC-40 <.fchi> and Frankfurt's DAX <.gdaxi> will open up to 0.3 percent higher. <.l><.eu/>
ZURICH (Reuters) - Credit Suisse's quarterly earnings beat analysts' expectations and the bank flagged a cash dividend for this year, as the restructuring of its investment banking division starts to bear fruit. Switzerland's second-largest bank reported first-quarter net profit of 1.303 billion Swiss francs ($1.38 billion), up from 44 million francs a year earlier. The result beat the average estimate of 1.255 billion francs in a Reuters poll Of analysts.
Apple's cash plan takes heat off Cook, buys him time
(Reuters) - Tim Cook wants investors to "think different" about Apple: less as a hyper-growth startup-like company and more as a mature but robust technology corporation with the world's most lucrative dividend. If Wall Street follows Apple's famous advertising slogan of old, it may relieve some of the pressure on Apple's chief executive, quiet investors' grumbling about its recent share price slide, and buy the company time to do what it says it does best: come up with and market new products.
Nasdaq may set aside $10 million to settle probe on Facebook IPO: WSJ
(Reuters) - Nasdaq OMX Group Inc is planning to set aside $10 million in anticipation of settling a probe over its botched handling of Facebook Inc's initial public offering last year, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing people familiar with Nasdaq internal discussions. Nasdaq executives had been hoping for a settlement of about $5 million, the Journal said.
Bank of Canada's Macklem confirms interest in governor role
OTTAWA (Reuters) - Tiff Macklem, currently second in command at the Bank of Canada and widely seen as the lead contender to succeed Governor Mark Carney, confirmed on Tuesday that he would be interested in running the central bank. "Yes if asked I will serve, but there is a process that is ongoing and I don't think it would be appropriate to start asking interview questions here when there is a separate process," Macklem told a House of Commons committee, when asked if he would take the job.
Amazon doesn’t share details on how well its Amazon Appstore apps sell, but according to mobile app analytics firm App Annie, the app marketplace is seeing growing traction among developers. The company surveyed over 1,500 developers, and found that 22.5 percent of them were now publishing to the Amazon Appstore, and half of that group (50 percent) cited the game category on the Amazon Appstore as their leading revenue driver. Previous reports have confirm roughly the same thing: that Android developers are turning to Amazon’s Appstore in greater numbers, and are seeing the benefits. Amazon Appstore’s revenue per user tops that of Google Play, or even iOS, in some cases. Last summer, for example, mobile gaming startup TinyCo, was saying that its revenue per user was higher on Amazon than on iTunes or Google Play. However, another report from Flurry?said that iTunes was number one, and Amazon was in second place in terms of its revenue generation capabilities. Flurry had found that for every $1 spent on the iOS store, Amazon’s store generated $0.89, and Google Play $0.23. But this was over a year ago;?App Annie itself said this month that Apple’s was still the store to beat, in terms of revenue. Today’s report also found that top paid iOS and Google Play applications have higher average price points than those on Amazon. Comparing the average price of the top 400 paid apps, the company noted that Amazon’s average was $1.73 compared with $2.21 on iPhone, $3.39 on iPad, and $3.55 on Google Play. However, it might be a little early to paint such a rosy picture, depending on whose data you believe more. For instance, App Annie competitor Distimo also released a report this month, examining similar trends among the two leading Android app marketplaces. Its findings were a bit different. Although it too saw Amazon’s influence growing, it found that overall, Google Play was still beating on revenue. Distimo said that the number of paid downloads in Google Play is twice the size of paid downloads on Amazon, but the revenue gap was smaller.?According to its analysis, the top 200 paid applications in Google Play in the U.S. made $5.2 million in March 2013, making Google Play 1.7 times bigger than the Amazon Appstore by revenue. However, that report noted that there were some examples of applications that did better on Amazon, which essentially backs up the broad
Mayor Billy Kenoi and the Hawai?i County Department of Parks and Recreation are proud to welcome the public back to a thoroughly renovated and improved Wai?kea Recreation Center.
Under renovations a few months ago.
A public blessing and re-dedication ceremony will be held from 5:30 p.m. to 7 p.m. Friday, April 26, at the Hilo facility. Refreshments will be served, and several martial arts and other groups that use the Wai?kea Recreation Center will perform free athletic demonstrations.
Located at 1634 Kamehameha Avenue, the Wai?kea Recreation Center has undergone a five month, $1.7 million makeover that has made it more comfortable, accessible and safer for the numerous groups and individuals who use it.
New roof insulation, ceiling fans and lighting have been installed in the main gym area. Extensive termite and water damage have been repaired, new roofing systems installed, hazardous building materials removed, existing bathrooms and showers renovated, the entire facility repainted, and various other improvements performed to meet federal accessibility standards.
General contractor Stan?s Contracting Inc. also installed an underground drainage system in the parking lot, graded and repaved the parking area and three driveway entrances, and connected the facility to the County?s wastewater treatment system.
Many others helped to make an improved Wai?kea Recreation Center and save taxpayer money. Several martial arts organizations volunteered their time to complete various finishing touches in preparation for this weekend?s reopening, while personnel from the Department of Parks and Recreation?s Maintenance Division performed numerous repair tasks that complemented the contractor?s efforts.
The Department of Parks and Recreation wishes to thank the Shudokan Judo Club for improving the judo mat area, the Hilo Seishikan Aikido Club for repainting the kitchen, the Hilo Shin Shin Toitsu Aikido Club for beautifying the planter boxes, and the Kongo Zen Shorinji Ryu Son Ryu Karate Club for repainting the wooden floor of the martial arts practice area.
The department also wishes to recognize the following organizations for their monetary contributions and/or volunteer efforts toward improving the facility: Hilo Reshinkan Kendo Club; Hilo Tae Kwon Do Association; Wai?kea Judo Club; Hawai?i International Karate League; Hilo Kobukan Kendo Club; Hayaite Shotokan Karate; Atkins Martial Arts; Mo Min Kuen; Danish Fitness; Morning Fitness; Evening Fitness; and Insane Workout.
A sincere mahalo is extended to all Wai?kea Recreation Center users and the general public for their patience and understanding while this important recreational center was being enhanced, repaired, and made more accessible.
For more information, please contact Jason Armstrong, Public Information Officer, at 345-9105, or jarmstrong@co.hawaii.hi.us.
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Filed under: aloha, Announcements, Big Island, Community, Entertainment, Hawaii, Hawaii County Public Notices, Hilo, Kids, Sports Tagged: | Hawaii County Parks and Recreation, Mayor Billy Kenoi, Waiakea Recreation Center
Pride, prejudice and strategic thinking: Jane Austen wrote the book on game theoryPublic release date: 23-Apr-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Meg Sullivan msullivan@support.ucla.edu 310-825-1046 University of California - Los Angeles
Quiz: This beautiful mind was promoting game theory long before Cold War think tanks used mathematics to understand strategic maneuvering. Plotting, as a result, has never been the same.
Is it John Nash, the Nobel Prizewinning mathematician portrayed in a 2001 Oscar-winning biopic? John von Neumann, game theory's founding father? Go back further, much further, urges a UCLA game theory expert and fan of 19th-century novelist Jane Austen.
"Austen's novels are game theory textbooks," Michael Suk-Young Chwe writes in "Jane Austen, Game Theorist," which Princeton University Press published April 21. "She's trying to get readers to use their higher thinking skills and to think strategically."
At its most basic level, game theory assesses all the choices available to two (or more) people in a given situation and assigns a numerical value to the benefit each person reaps from each choice. Often, the choice that is most valuable to one player comes at the expense of the other; hence, game theory's best-known phrase "zero-sum game." But just as frequently, there is a choice with unexpected benefits for both players.
"In game theory, you make choices by anticipating the payoffs for others," Chwe explains.
Chwe argues that Austen explores this concept in all six of her novels, albeit with a different vocabulary than the one used by Nash, von Neumann and other game theory greats some 150 years later. In Austen's romantic fiction, this type of strategic thinking is described as "penetration," "foresight" or "a good scheme."
In "Pride and Prejudice," for instance, Mrs. Bennet, a mother eager to marry off her five daughters, sends her oldest, Jane, on horseback to a neighboring estate, even though she's aware a storm is on the way. "Mrs. Bennet knows full well that because of the rain, Jane's hosts will invite her to spend the night, thus maximizing face time with the eligible bachelor there, Charles Bingley, whom Jane eventually marries," Chwe said.
In "Persuasion," the unmarried heroine, Anne Elliot, is approached by Sophia Croft, the sister of a man whose marriage proposal Anne spurned eight years earlier a decision she still bitterly regrets. Mrs. Croft casually asks Anne whether she's heard that her brother has married. Anne flinches, thinking the reference is to her former beau, Captain Frederick Wentworth, but relaxes upon learning that Mrs. Croft is actually referring to their younger brother, Edward.
"It's hard to imagine a better way for Mrs. Croft to gauge Anne's visceral interest in her unmarried brother," said Chwe, a UCLA associate professor of political science (whose last name is pronounced like "chess" without the "ss"). The rest of the novel involves schemes to give Captain Wentworth so many signals of Anne's enduring love that he finds the courage to propose to her again.
And readers may recall how, in "Mansfield Park," the 18-year-old heroine, Fanny Price, intervenes when her 5-year-old sister, Betsey, brazenly appropriates a knife that had been given as a gift to their older sister, Susan, by their departed sister, Mary. Calculating that the youngster is more interested in the object itself than its sentimental value, Fanny buys a new knife and gives it to Betsey. In response, Betsey returns the keepsake to Susan, and domestic harmony is restored. The incident so clearly demonstrates game theory for Chwe that he illustrates it in his book using game theory's mathematical language: the matrix and decision tree.
(Hear Chwe interviewed on game theory by a UCLA colleague: http://ucla.in/178rw0U.)
By Chwe's count, more than 50 such strategic manipulations appear in "Pride and Prejudice," "Sense and Sensibility," "Persuasion," "Northanger Abbey," "Mansfield Park" and "Emma." Indeed, the entire plot of "Pride and Prejudice," which ranked second in a 2002 BBC poll of the 200 best novels in the English language, can be seen as a series of manipulations and schemes, Chwe contends.
In many cases, by making tough choices and predicting how others will respond, Austen's young, often financially deprived heroines triumph over seemingly stronger forces, including well-to-do men and older women of higher status, he argues. In so doing, they find happiness and just as importantly in an era with limited employment and inheritance possibilities for women financial security.
"They build a theory of strategic thinking," writes Chwe, "not to better chase a Soviet submarine, but to survive."
And such machinations don't just enable beloved characters to lure mates; they allow them to bond and fall in love. "Austen argues that strategic partnership, two people joining together to strategically manipulate a third person, is the surest foundation for friendship and marriage," Chwe writes.
The film 'Clueless' becomes a game-changer
Although whiffs of game theory have been discerned in writings as old as Plato, its conventional history begins with the 1944 publication of von Neumann's seminal "Theory of Games and Economic Behavior." The techniques gained prominence as a means of anticipating attacks and counterattacks among superpowers during the Cold War, and they played a role in determining the quantity and positioning of U.S. nuclear warheads. Today, game theory is more frequently deployed in non-military applications, particularly in business and economics.
Chwe, in his more traditional research, applies game theory to the dynamics of political protests, but he is no stranger to unconventional approaches, having studied the ways in which slave folktales such as Brer Rabbit and the Tar Baby embody key principles of strategic thinking.
Still, no one had considered Austen as an unheralded pioneer of game theory until Chwe stumbled on her work at age 40 after taking his son and daughter to see the film "Clueless," a 1995 romantic comedy loosely based on "Emma." Set in late 20th-century Los Angeles, the movie follows a scheming Beverly Hills teenager as she blunders in her matchmaking attempts.
Soon the game theorist was reading one Austen novel after another, shaking his head at her seeming obsession with the nuts and bolts of his discipline choice, preference and strategy. In the tales of women dependent on men, Chwe came to see a parallel with African American folktales about slaves struggling for autonomy.
"Game theory," he said, "may be associated with hegemonic Cold War strategy, but it's also one of the original weapons of the weak."
Chwe sees Austen's heroines as possessing strategic abilities in different measures. Calm and level-headed Elinor Dashwood ("Sense and Sensibility") and feisty and clever Elizabeth Bennet ("Pride and Prejudice") are set up from the beginning as master strategists. One of the reasons "Pride and Prejudice" is so popular, Chwe contends, is its heroine's aptitude in this regard: "Elizabeth is always doing this rapid-fire strategic stuff."
Meanwhile, he sees motherless Anne Elliot ("Persuasion"), one-time tomboy Catherine Morland ("Northanger Abbey") and Fanny Price ("Mansfield Park") as characters who develop strategic skills as the novels progress. At the other end of the spectrum is Emma Woodhouse ("Emma"), whose scheming nearly prevents her gentlemanly neighbor George Knightley from proposing to her. The heroine embodies the hubris of being "overstrategic."
But it's with her least strategically adept characters that Austen may actually tread on the boldest frontier, Chwe contends.
Remember Lady Catherine, Fitzwilliam Darcy's imperious aunt in "Pride and Prejudice," who demands that the heroine, Elizabeth, promise not to marry him? When Elizabeth refuses, Lady Catherine reports the response to Mr. Darcy as an example of the young woman's impertinence, disregard for social rank and general unsuitability for him.
But what Lady Catherine fails to anticipate is that Mr. Darcy still has feelings for Elizabeth. So when his aunt conveys the news, it emboldens him to propose, signaling to him that Elizabeth would likely accept. Lady Catherine's efforts blow up in her face.
What is Chwe's phrase for this tendency that has yet to be mathematized by modern game theory? Prepare yourself because it is a bit technical: "Cluelessness."
###
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Pride, prejudice and strategic thinking: Jane Austen wrote the book on game theoryPublic release date: 23-Apr-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Meg Sullivan msullivan@support.ucla.edu 310-825-1046 University of California - Los Angeles
Quiz: This beautiful mind was promoting game theory long before Cold War think tanks used mathematics to understand strategic maneuvering. Plotting, as a result, has never been the same.
Is it John Nash, the Nobel Prizewinning mathematician portrayed in a 2001 Oscar-winning biopic? John von Neumann, game theory's founding father? Go back further, much further, urges a UCLA game theory expert and fan of 19th-century novelist Jane Austen.
"Austen's novels are game theory textbooks," Michael Suk-Young Chwe writes in "Jane Austen, Game Theorist," which Princeton University Press published April 21. "She's trying to get readers to use their higher thinking skills and to think strategically."
At its most basic level, game theory assesses all the choices available to two (or more) people in a given situation and assigns a numerical value to the benefit each person reaps from each choice. Often, the choice that is most valuable to one player comes at the expense of the other; hence, game theory's best-known phrase "zero-sum game." But just as frequently, there is a choice with unexpected benefits for both players.
"In game theory, you make choices by anticipating the payoffs for others," Chwe explains.
Chwe argues that Austen explores this concept in all six of her novels, albeit with a different vocabulary than the one used by Nash, von Neumann and other game theory greats some 150 years later. In Austen's romantic fiction, this type of strategic thinking is described as "penetration," "foresight" or "a good scheme."
In "Pride and Prejudice," for instance, Mrs. Bennet, a mother eager to marry off her five daughters, sends her oldest, Jane, on horseback to a neighboring estate, even though she's aware a storm is on the way. "Mrs. Bennet knows full well that because of the rain, Jane's hosts will invite her to spend the night, thus maximizing face time with the eligible bachelor there, Charles Bingley, whom Jane eventually marries," Chwe said.
In "Persuasion," the unmarried heroine, Anne Elliot, is approached by Sophia Croft, the sister of a man whose marriage proposal Anne spurned eight years earlier a decision she still bitterly regrets. Mrs. Croft casually asks Anne whether she's heard that her brother has married. Anne flinches, thinking the reference is to her former beau, Captain Frederick Wentworth, but relaxes upon learning that Mrs. Croft is actually referring to their younger brother, Edward.
"It's hard to imagine a better way for Mrs. Croft to gauge Anne's visceral interest in her unmarried brother," said Chwe, a UCLA associate professor of political science (whose last name is pronounced like "chess" without the "ss"). The rest of the novel involves schemes to give Captain Wentworth so many signals of Anne's enduring love that he finds the courage to propose to her again.
And readers may recall how, in "Mansfield Park," the 18-year-old heroine, Fanny Price, intervenes when her 5-year-old sister, Betsey, brazenly appropriates a knife that had been given as a gift to their older sister, Susan, by their departed sister, Mary. Calculating that the youngster is more interested in the object itself than its sentimental value, Fanny buys a new knife and gives it to Betsey. In response, Betsey returns the keepsake to Susan, and domestic harmony is restored. The incident so clearly demonstrates game theory for Chwe that he illustrates it in his book using game theory's mathematical language: the matrix and decision tree.
(Hear Chwe interviewed on game theory by a UCLA colleague: http://ucla.in/178rw0U.)
By Chwe's count, more than 50 such strategic manipulations appear in "Pride and Prejudice," "Sense and Sensibility," "Persuasion," "Northanger Abbey," "Mansfield Park" and "Emma." Indeed, the entire plot of "Pride and Prejudice," which ranked second in a 2002 BBC poll of the 200 best novels in the English language, can be seen as a series of manipulations and schemes, Chwe contends.
In many cases, by making tough choices and predicting how others will respond, Austen's young, often financially deprived heroines triumph over seemingly stronger forces, including well-to-do men and older women of higher status, he argues. In so doing, they find happiness and just as importantly in an era with limited employment and inheritance possibilities for women financial security.
"They build a theory of strategic thinking," writes Chwe, "not to better chase a Soviet submarine, but to survive."
And such machinations don't just enable beloved characters to lure mates; they allow them to bond and fall in love. "Austen argues that strategic partnership, two people joining together to strategically manipulate a third person, is the surest foundation for friendship and marriage," Chwe writes.
The film 'Clueless' becomes a game-changer
Although whiffs of game theory have been discerned in writings as old as Plato, its conventional history begins with the 1944 publication of von Neumann's seminal "Theory of Games and Economic Behavior." The techniques gained prominence as a means of anticipating attacks and counterattacks among superpowers during the Cold War, and they played a role in determining the quantity and positioning of U.S. nuclear warheads. Today, game theory is more frequently deployed in non-military applications, particularly in business and economics.
Chwe, in his more traditional research, applies game theory to the dynamics of political protests, but he is no stranger to unconventional approaches, having studied the ways in which slave folktales such as Brer Rabbit and the Tar Baby embody key principles of strategic thinking.
Still, no one had considered Austen as an unheralded pioneer of game theory until Chwe stumbled on her work at age 40 after taking his son and daughter to see the film "Clueless," a 1995 romantic comedy loosely based on "Emma." Set in late 20th-century Los Angeles, the movie follows a scheming Beverly Hills teenager as she blunders in her matchmaking attempts.
Soon the game theorist was reading one Austen novel after another, shaking his head at her seeming obsession with the nuts and bolts of his discipline choice, preference and strategy. In the tales of women dependent on men, Chwe came to see a parallel with African American folktales about slaves struggling for autonomy.
"Game theory," he said, "may be associated with hegemonic Cold War strategy, but it's also one of the original weapons of the weak."
Chwe sees Austen's heroines as possessing strategic abilities in different measures. Calm and level-headed Elinor Dashwood ("Sense and Sensibility") and feisty and clever Elizabeth Bennet ("Pride and Prejudice") are set up from the beginning as master strategists. One of the reasons "Pride and Prejudice" is so popular, Chwe contends, is its heroine's aptitude in this regard: "Elizabeth is always doing this rapid-fire strategic stuff."
Meanwhile, he sees motherless Anne Elliot ("Persuasion"), one-time tomboy Catherine Morland ("Northanger Abbey") and Fanny Price ("Mansfield Park") as characters who develop strategic skills as the novels progress. At the other end of the spectrum is Emma Woodhouse ("Emma"), whose scheming nearly prevents her gentlemanly neighbor George Knightley from proposing to her. The heroine embodies the hubris of being "overstrategic."
But it's with her least strategically adept characters that Austen may actually tread on the boldest frontier, Chwe contends.
Remember Lady Catherine, Fitzwilliam Darcy's imperious aunt in "Pride and Prejudice," who demands that the heroine, Elizabeth, promise not to marry him? When Elizabeth refuses, Lady Catherine reports the response to Mr. Darcy as an example of the young woman's impertinence, disregard for social rank and general unsuitability for him.
But what Lady Catherine fails to anticipate is that Mr. Darcy still has feelings for Elizabeth. So when his aunt conveys the news, it emboldens him to propose, signaling to him that Elizabeth would likely accept. Lady Catherine's efforts blow up in her face.
What is Chwe's phrase for this tendency that has yet to be mathematized by modern game theory? Prepare yourself because it is a bit technical: "Cluelessness."
###
For more news, visit the UCLA Newsroom and follow us on Twitter.
[ | E-mail | Share ]
?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Specialist Michael Pistillo, right, works with traders at his post on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange Tuesday, April 16, 2013. Stocks are sharply higher in early trading, a day after the market's worst drop this year, as the government reported a surge in home construction last month. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)
Specialist Michael Pistillo, right, works with traders at his post on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange Tuesday, April 16, 2013. Stocks are sharply higher in early trading, a day after the market's worst drop this year, as the government reported a surge in home construction last month. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)
NEW YORK (AP) ? Stocks were little changed in early trading on Wall Street Wednesday as investors considered mixed earnings results from several major U.S. companies.
Yum Brands, which owns KFC, Pizza Hut and Taco Bell, was among the early gainers, advancing 7 percent to $68.70. Yum Brands reported earnings late Tuesday that exceeded the expectations of financial analysts. General Dynamic, the aerospace and defense company, also surged after posting a profit that was better than expected. The stock jumped 5 percent to $70.46.
Other companies disappointed investors.
Procter & Gamble, the world's largest consumer goods maker, fell 4.9 percent to $77.97 after the maker of Tide and Gillette issued a weak forecast for the next quarter. AT&T dropped 5.8 percent to $36.75 after it lost phone subscribers from its contract-based plans for the first time as sales of smartphones slow.
The Dow Jones industrial average was down 28 points, or 0.2 percent, at 14,691 as of 10:16 a.m. EDT. The Standard & Poor's 500 index fell two points, or 0.1 percent, to 1,576. The Nasdaq composite was down 11 points, or 0.3 percent, at 3,258.
While the majority of companies have been exceeding Wall Street's expectations on earnings, their performance on sales hasn't been as strong.
About 67 percent of S&P 500 companies that have reported earnings so far have beaten expectations, better than the 10-year average of 62 percent, according to S&P Capital IQ. However, only 42 percent of companies have reported better revenue than forecast.
A report that orders for long-lasting U.S. factory goods fell more than economists expected last month also weighed on the stock market. The Commerce Department said orders for durable goods declined 5.7 percent in March following a 4.3 percent gain the previous month. February's figure was revised lower.
The report will add to concerns that the U.S. economy is slowing. Stocks logged their biggest weekly drop in five months last week after growth in China, the world's second-biggest economy, slowed.
Among other companies that reported earnings Wednesday, Boeing rose 3.6 percent to $91.27 after the airplane maker said its first-quarter net income rose 20 percent despite problems with the 787 Dreamliner. The company said it would still meet its financial and delivery targets this year even after the 787 was grounded in mid-January because of problems with its batteries.
In government bond trading, the yield on the 10-year Treasury note, which moves inversely to its price, was little changed at 1.71 percent.
SANTA MONICA, Calif. (AP) ? NBC Sports announcer Al Michaels was arrested over the weekend in Southern California on suspicion of drunken driving, authorities said Sunday.
Michaels was pulled over at about 9:30 p.m. Friday after officers manning a DUI checkpoint witnessed him make an illegal U-turn, Santa Monica police Sgt. Richard Lewis said.
Michaels, the play-by-play man for "Sunday Night Football," was taken to the station, where he registered a blood alcohol level over the .08 percent legal limit, according to Lewis.
He was booked for suspicion of DUI and held for about five hours before being released on his own recognizance, Lewis said.
"We are aware of the situation and we've been in contact with Al," said Greg Hughes, a spokesman for NBC Sports. "We have no further comment at this time."
A call Sunday by The Associated Press to Michaels' agent was not immediately returned.
Michaels was ordered to appear in court June 26.
An Emmy Award winner and broadcaster on "Sunday Night Football," the 68-year-old Michaels spent nearly three decades at ABC Sports before moving to NBC in 2007.
Michaels worked NFL games and other sports for ABC, and called "Monday Night Football" for nearly 20 years. He also is known for his call of the U.S.-Soviet Union "Miracle on Ice" game at the 1980 Winter Olympics and the earthquake-interrupted Game 3 of the 1989 World Series.
Last year he received the Vin Scully Lifetime Achievement Award in Sports Broadcasting.
Inquiring minds in the US note the upcoming German election and may be wondering about the platforms of the major political parties. Reader Bernd from Germany explains.
Die Linke (The Left): Die Linke is made up of the former SED/PDS (The East German Communist Ruling Party), some former West German Communist and Socialist Parties and a ?rebel group? of the SPD. They all have merged and are now called "Die Linke". By and large they have a communist/socialist platform, albeit not Stalinist. Their main requests are: dissolve NATO and replace it with a new organization to include Russia in it, end all wars, control or nationalize all relevant banks and some crucial industries, increase support for the poor, raise taxes for the rich (above income of 60k Euros gradually go to 75%), introduce a stiff wealth and inheritance? tax. They are pro Euro and want the introduction of Eurobonds immediately. To alleviate the economic crisis in Europe they advocate some serious deficit spending for social and work programs. They have voted against ESM; EFSF and Cyprus deal in Parliament.
SPD (Social Democrats): SPD is the grand old Social Democratic Party, with a wonderful and long tradition. SPD originated from the worker's movement. Its first party program is from 1869. It the only party that tried to stop Hitler's power grab by opposing the emergency laws in 1933. Many went to concentration camps for opposing Hitler. In post-World War II Germany SPD provided three Chancellors, Willy Brandt, Helmut Schmidt and Gerhard Schr?der. All three Chancellors were major reformers in Germany for one or the other topic.? SPD lost its original power base in the wake of Schr?der's reforms in the early 2000s. SPD is a staunch pro Euro party. They also want Eurobonds immediately, as well as a common fiscal policy, a bank union and a quick unification of Europe.
Die Gr?nen (The Green Party): Die Gr?nen started as a mix of 1968 communists/socialists and anti-nuclear energy activists in West Germany. The second part is made up of some left over former East German anti SED ?rebels? who helped to bring down East Germany.? Today this is the party for so the so-called "politically correct". In Germany we call them the Latte Macchiato Moms/Dads. The typical party member is a well-paid Government official or teacher with a work week of 36 hours. They believe firmly in manmade climate change and want to tax and spend their way to eliminate the CO-2 footprint. No amount of money is too much for preventing climate change. They are staunch pro Euro advocates similar to the SPD.
WEST, Texas (AP) ? Gas tanks damaged by a massive explosion at a Texas fertilizer plant are leaking and have triggered small fires that are keeping displaced residents from returning to see what's left of their homes, officials said Saturday.
The initial blast at the West Fertilizer Co. on Wednesday killed 14 people, injured more than 200 others and damaged or completely destroyed at least 80 homes. The new fires at the site are small, have been contained and have not caused any further injuries, said Bryce Reed, a paramedic and spokesman for the town of West.
The news was another setback for evacuated residents who have waited anxiously to return and assess what remains after the blast. Many are hoping to find key documents such as insurance papers and family records to help with recovery. Others simply hope to reclaim any belongings that might be buried under splintered homes.
Reed said there are dozens of portable, white tanks at the site that are typically filled with anhydrous ammonia from larger storage tanks for when farmers request them. The tanks get weak when they are exposed to fire, he said, and bleed.
"The whole place is still on fire, smoldering, all that kind of stuff. It could spark up," Reed told a hotel lobby crammed with residents waiting to get beyond police blockades to their homes. But, he said, "there isn't really enough structure left to light up and burn."
The tanks are attached to plows pulled by tractors and feed streams of the chemical into the ground as the plow passes to fertilize. Reed said they resemble large, horizontal propane tanks, and told residents to imagine a very big hot water heater.
He told residents, "You're safe where you're at. Otherwise I'd be dragging you out of here myself."
Gene Anderson, 64, said Reed's comments would help avoid panic: "He just nipped it in the bud like it should be."
But closer to the site, things were far more tense. Ron Price, a 53-year-old construction worker, said he approached the police barricade Saturday to check on his son's home, which was damaged in the explosion Wednesday night.
Price said he drove his truck up to the roadblock and was trying to get in when state troopers "came flying down the road" from a half block away and told everyone to get back because there was another chance of explosion. People in their backyards outside the barricade were also told to get back, he said.
"It was pretty scary everybody just jumped and took off running," Price said. "They jumped in their cars and we all started heading back."
Displaced residents have been expressing increasing frustration that the area around the blast site has remained off-limits. Among them was Dorothy Sulak, who lost her home and her job.
Sulak worked as a secretary at the fertilizer plant that exploded in a thunderous fireball. She fled so fast she only had time to leave with the clothes on her back. There's a hole in her roof now, and her medicine, cash, even her glasses are somewhere in the rubble.
"Yes, it's just stuff. But it's my stuff," said Sulak, 71, who used reading glasses to see for three days, but finally got a ride to nearby Waco on Saturday to get fitted for new prescription frames.
The blast, which charred a four-to-five block radius extending from the plant, also smashed an apartment building, schools and a nursing home with its incredible force and fire. Sulak said she had been told that her home on North Reagan Street was so close to the explosion site that she may not be able to return until at least Monday.
The death toll remained steady at 14 and federal and state emergency-response teams that had once been searching for survivors had shifted entirely to recovery efforts.
The cause of the blast is still unknown, although authorities have said it appears to be nothing more than an accident. Franceska Perot, a spokeswoman for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, said investigators still were combing through debris.
Ernesto Castro works for a local church and has been allowed past the police barricades to feed investigation teams working inside. He said that if authorities determine homes are structurally sound, they've told him they plan to begin letting residents return in in waves, but only to pick up essentials at first.
"There are people raising all kinds of Cain because they can't get back," Castro said. "But it's not safe yet."
___
Associated Press writer Paul J. Weber in West, Texas, contributed to this report.
Security firm Lookout has detailed a clever new bit of Android Malware lurking in the Google Play store. The good news: unless you're downloading questionable Russian clone apps, you're probably not affected. The bad news: that hasn't kept it from being downloaded a few million times.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Chancellor suffered a double setback on Friday when the head of the IMF said it might now be time for a change in his austerity push and the country lost its AAA status from a second ratings agency.
George Osborne came to the twice-yearly meetings of the International Monetary Fund this week vowing to stick to his plan to fix Britain's still-wide budget deficit.
But the pressure on him to alter course grew further when Christine Lagarde, the IMF's managing director, said the weak state of the British economy meant it was appropriate to consider a change.
Lagarde was asked in an interview on Friday with BBC television whether the government should show more flexibility.
"We are saying with this medium-term, strong anchoring of fiscal consolidation, the pace has to be adjusted depending on the circumstances and given the weak growth that we have observed lately ... now might be the time to consider," Lagarde said.
A few hours earlier, Osborne had dismissed suggestions by the IMF's chief economist Olivier Blanchard that he should consider relaxing his austerity program.
"I think he is just one voice," Osborne told reporters, adding it was more important that Lagarde had said on Thursday that the Fund was not changing its position on Britain's economy. "She speaks for the whole organization. She was clear that the IMF's position has not changed," Osborne said.
But that was before Lagarde's interview with the BBC when she used language similar to Blanchard.
The IMF has previously said Britain should consider relaxing its belt-tightening should growth slow.
Data due next week could show the British economy slipped into its third recession in less than five years in early 2013 although many economists expect it might just escape that fate.
The bad news kept on coming for the government on Friday when Fitch Ratings stripped the country of its top-notch credit rating, citing a weaker economic and fiscal outlook.
Moody's downgraded Britain in February. Standard & Poor's has said there is at least a one-in-three chance it will follow suit.
Britain's opposition Labour party seized on Friday's news to ramp up its criticism of the government's economic policy.
"When even your biggest allies - the IMF and the credit rating agencies - abandon you it really is time to put political pride aside and finally act to kickstart the economy," said Ed Balls, Labour's main spokesman on economic issues.
OSBORNE SAYS MAY NOT HEED IMF
The IMF is due to carry out an annual review of Britain's economy in May and Osborne suggested that he would not heed a formal call for a change of policy, which now seems likely after the comments from the IMF this week.
"It depends on whether you agree with that advice," he said when asked whether countries should follow IMF policy recommendations.
The IMF's so-called Article IV recommendations are often ignored by member countries.
Osborne defended his response to Britain's slowdown, saying he had already shown flexibility by allowing a target for cutting the country's debt to slip and announcing new measures to boost the housing market.
He also said the government and the Bank of England would announce "fairly shortly" changes to their Funding for Lending Scheme. It provides banks and other lenders with cheap financing if they keep or raise lending to households and businesses.
The FLS was launched last year to increase lending for mortgages and businesses but so far it has not resulted in much more borrowing by small and medium-sized companies.
Osborne said Britain's problems were small compared with those of the euro zone.
"The principal cause of uncertainty has been the weakness of the real economy in the euro zone and the ongoing problems there," he said.
SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) ? Shares of Yahoo Inc. on Tuesday fell sharply in late trading after the Web portal reported a gain in profit, but posted a decline in sales, missing Wall Street?s estimates.
Yahoo /quotes/zigman/59898/quotes/nls/yhoo YHOO
-0.38%
was down 4.5% in after-hours trading. A key factor was its dismal display ad revenue, said BGC Partners analyst Colin Gillis.
?Display was a relative disaster,? he told MarketWatch.
The company reported a first-quarter profit of $390.9 million, or 35 cents a share, compared with a profit of $286.3 million, or 23 cents a share, in the year-earlier period.
Revenue excluding traffic acquisition costs was $1.07 billion, compared to $1.08 billion in the same period the previous year. Adjusted profit was 38 cents a share.
Analysts polled by FactSet on average were expecting the Web portal to post a profit of 25 cents a share on revenue of $1.1 billion.
In a statement, Yahoo Chief Executive Marissa Mayer said, ?We saw continued stability in our business, strengthened our team, and started the year with fast execution against our products and partnerships.?
But analysts quickly pointed out problems in Yahoo?s core display business. Adjusted revenue for that business totaled $402 million, down 11% from the year-ago quarter. Gillis said Wall Street?s consensus estimate was for revenue of about $432 million.
Yahoo's ad struggles persist
Yahoo reports its first-quarter earnings with a 36% jump in profit while quarterly revenue falls 7% from a year ago as Yahoo's core online-advertising business deteriorates. (Photo: Getty Images)
On the other hand, Yahoo?s financials continued to get a lift from its Asian assets. Profit from its equity interests, which make up mainly earnings from Yahoo Japan and Alibaba, jumped sharply to $217.6 million from $172.2 million in the year-earlier period.
?If you own Yahoo because you want exposure to Alibaba and Yahoo Japan, then you?re fine,? Gillis told MarketWatch. ?If you own Yahoo because the core business is turning around, you gotta be worried with display because that?s the one thing they completely control.?
However, on a call with analysts, Mayer said she was optimistic about Yahoo?s ability to grow display ad revenue.
?It?s a series of sprints and a chain reaction,? she said. ?While I don?t want to put a precise timeline on it, we do anticipate we will see some growth already in the second half of the year.?
/quotes/zigman/59898/quotes/nls/yhoo
US
: U.S.: Nasdaq
Volume: 44.95M
April 17, 2013 4:00p
Rev. per Employee
$426,202
Benjamin Pimentel is a MarketWatch reporter based in San Francisco. Follow him on Twitter @BenPimentel.
Another simple but neat Evernote hack that came out of the 24-hour Disrupt NY Hackathon earlier today was Squirrel. Created by coder duo Zainab Ebrahimi and Jabari Bell, the hack turns articles Evernote readers have saved for reading later into a personalised newsletter. So, unlike the average email newsletter, Squirrel is populated with content the user actually wants to read.
Amazon doesn’t share details on how well its Amazon Appstore apps sell, but according to mobile app analytics firm App Annie, the app marketplace is seeing growing traction among developers. The company surveyed over 1,500 developers, and found that 22.5 percent of them were now publishing to the Amazon Appstore, and half of that group (50 percent) cited the game category on the Amazon Appstore as their leading revenue driver. Previous reports have confirm roughly the same thing: that Android developers are turning to Amazon’s Appstore in greater numbers, and are seeing the benefits. Amazon Appstore’s revenue per user tops that of Google Play, or even iOS, in some cases. Last summer, for example, mobile gaming startup TinyCo, was saying that its revenue per user was higher on Amazon than on iTunes or Google Play. However, another report from Flurry?said that iTunes was number one, and Amazon was in second place in terms of its revenue generation capabilities. Flurry had found that for every $1 spent on the iOS store, Amazon’s store generated $0.89, and Google Play $0.23. But this was over a year ago;?App Annie itself said this month that Apple’s was still the store to beat, in terms of revenue. Today’s report also found that top paid iOS and Google Play applications have higher average price points than those on Amazon. Comparing the average price of the top 400 paid apps, the company noted that Amazon’s average was $1.73 compared with $2.21 on iPhone, $3.39 on iPad, and $3.55 on Google Play. However, it might be a little early to paint such a rosy picture, depending on whose data you believe more. For instance, App Annie competitor Distimo also released a report this month, examining similar trends among the two leading Android app marketplaces. Its findings were a bit different. Although it too saw Amazon’s influence growing, it found that overall, Google Play was still beating on revenue. Distimo said that the number of paid downloads in Google Play is twice the size of paid downloads on Amazon, but the revenue gap was smaller.?According to its analysis, the top 200 paid applications in Google Play in the U.S. made $5.2 million in March 2013, making Google Play 1.7 times bigger than the Amazon Appstore by revenue. However, that report noted that there were some examples of applications that did better on Amazon, which essentially backs up the broad
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