Man in Critical Condition in Ricin Case

A man who stayed in a Las Vegas hotel room where ricin was discovered on Thursday has been hospitalized in critical condition since Feb. 14 with symptoms consistent with exposure to the deadly toxin, Las Vegas police said Friday.

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The man’s identity, age and hometown were being withheld on Friday as investigators tried to determine why ricin, as well as castor beans from which is it derived, were found in a room at an Extended Stay America hotel one mile west of the Las Vegas Strip.

Deputy Chief Kathleen Suey said the man had been staying in the room where the ricin was found for an unknown length of time and was leasing the room when the substance was discovered. A man, said to be a relative or friend of the sick man, had gone into the room to retrieve the patient’s belongings when he found the vials of white powder and showed it to the hotel’s manager, Deputy Chief Suey said.

Police were called by the hotel. The man had been hospitalized on Feb. 14 with respiratory distress but did not indicate to doctors that he may have been exposed to ricin, so the health district and police were not notified of the prospect, she said.

An evacuation ensued and seven people were taken to local hospitals for treatment, though they were released when they showed no signs of exposure, Deputy Chief Suey said. The hotel was reopened early Friday after public health officials determined they had found and removed all the ricin.

The patient has not yet been questioned and is believed to be unconscious, she said.

F.B.I. national spokesman Richard Kolko said the incident did not appear to be related to terrorism “based on the information gathered so far.”

Still, Deputy Chief Suey said police could not explain why the ricin was present or what its intent might have been.

Strip resort executives were watching the developments carefully. A weekly scheduled conference call between police and heads of casino security was coincidentally held on Friday morning and included a statement from officials that the ricin incident was “very contained and isolated,” said Harrah’s Entertainment spokesman Gary Thompson, whose company owns the Rio All-Suites Casino-Resort and Caesars Palace. Both are within a mile of the Extended Stay America hotel involved.

Laboratory tests conducted on Friday confirmed Thursday’s initial tests that found the substance was ricin, a deadly poison derived from beans of the common weed castor.

“Ricin has no medical uses other than cancer research,” said Captain Joseph Lombardo, head of the Homeland Security unit for Las Vegas police. “An individual citizen, other than being involved in cancer research or cancer prevention, would not have any legal means or proper means of having that.”

Dr. Nicholas J. Vogelzang, director of the Nevada Cancer Institute, said none of his researchers use the substance and nobody involved with the institute has stayed at the hotel in recent months, if ever.

“We’re not doing anything here with it,” Dr. Vogelzang said. “It’s not a currently active treatment,” he said, explaining that most cancer researchers have abandoned experimenting with ricin because it is so dangerous to people.

That the incident occurred off the Strip was a slight relief for resort owners.

“Yeah, I suppose you could say that, but I think it’s a shame that it happened at all,” Mr. Thompson said. “It’s alarming that this material is out there and somebody is ill.”

Ricin can be extremely lethal. As little as 500 micrograms, or about the size of the head of a pin, can kill a human, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Web site.

This is the second major public health scare in Las Vegas this week. On Wednesday, the Southern Nevada Health District sent out as many as 40,000 letters to people who may have been exposed to hepatitis C at a local clinic after it was discovered the clinic was reusing dirty syringes as standard procedure since May 2004.

The scale of the potential problem prompted the nation’s largest public notification on the matter in U.S. history.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/29/us/31cnd-ricin.html?_r=1&ref=health&oref=slogin

Google transforms JotSpot into Web-site-building tool

Google Sites' ease-of-use, tight integration with Google services strengthens company's position in Web-app race

Google Sites infoworldGoogle today unveiled a powerful new weapon in its arsenal of lightweight Web-based productivity applications: a tool for easily and collaboratively creating and editing Web sites. Dubbed Google Sites, it's built around JotSpot, the wiki platform that Google acquired in October of 2006 -- and whose previously unclear fate has been cause for quite a bit of hand-wringing.

The search behemoth appears to have a broad range of applications in mind for the freely available tool, from building a private company intranet, accessible and customizable by users on a permissions basis, to developing a public-facing Web site for all the world to see.

Google has aimed to make the Google Sites easy enough for a beginner yet feature-rich enough for a power user. For example, building a Google Site requires no HTML, according to the company: It's "as easy as editing a document," the company says. There's also a "growing list" of page templates to get users started, including "Web page, announcements, file cabinet, dashboard, and list," according to Google.

At the same time, Google Sites lets page creators easily insert content such as videos, docs, spreadsheets, presentations, photo slide shows, and calendars -- thanks in part to its integration with other Google apps and offering.

Ah yes, Google's collection of shining Web gems: Google Docs, Google Calendar, YouTube, and Picasa. By integrating Google Sites with those aforementioned services, Google boosts the value of the entire array significantly. "This is a key last hole in the Google Apps suite," Matt Glotzbach, product management director for Google Enterprise, told CNET. "It is the nucleus for other pieces to fit into for online collaboration."

Moreover, the unveiling of Google Sites further fortifies Google's enviable position in the increasingly important Web services space -- a point that Microsoft clearly can't ignore. (I say that as someone who buys into the theory that Redmond's bid for Yahoo had a lot to do with having an eye on extending its own Web-app reach.)

http://weblog.infoworld.com/techwatch/archives/016122.html

Pete Seeger: "I Feel Optimistic"

The 88-year-old spiritual godfather of American folk music discusses Dylan, Springsteen, Bush and Obama

This week PBS will debut Pete Seeger: The Power of Song (watch a clip below), which traces the eighty-eight year-old folk legend's life from his time with the Weavers through the Joe McCarthy witch hunts to his days as elder statesmen of the folk community. It's loaded with archival footage of Seeger singing such classics as "Turn, Turn, Turn" and "If I Had A Hammer" and interviews with fans such as Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen and Natalie Maines from the Dixie Chicks. Seeger called into Rolling Stone recently to chat about the documentary, his memories of Bob Dylan and Lead Belly — as well his thoughts on the presidential election.

What do you think of the new documentary? Well, it's too much a eulogy if you ask me. It didn't tell all the stupid things I've done. I've done hundreds of stupid things.

Tell me one. Not realizing that I had an extraordinarily talented wife, and there were things that she wanted to do sometimes. But she put them aside to help me do the things that I wanted to do. She was an artist and projects that she undertook ended up having to put aside because my projects took precedent.

The film also has the nice things that I've done. I've had some good songs if I say so myself. The best songwriting I did was to think of three new words for an old gospel song, "We Are Climbing Jacob's Ladder." The old song used to end "Soldiers of the cross," and I wanted to sing it for all sorts of people, whether they were Christians or Jews or Atheists or what. And now I simply sing 'Brothers, sisters, all,' and then after a couple of verses, I say, 'Sisters, brothers, all.' It sings well, and they have a nice shot in the movie of the whole crowd joining in with me on it.

Were you opposed to the idea of a documentary when they first approached you?

Well, it's created problems that I never foresaw. I usually joke that I was protected all my life by my left wing reputation. Now, the telephone rings every five minutes and the mail comes in by a half bushel a day. "Mr. Seeger, will you please sign autographs for these pictures? Will you come to our school and speak to the children? Will you accept this award?" Just answering the mail takes up most of the free time I used to have.

http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/18911374/pete_seeger_i_feel_optimistic

Airline: Pilot Fired for Buzzing Airport

A Cathay Pacific Airways pilot was fired after he swooped down and buzzed a Seattle-area airfield without permission while taking delivery of a Boeing 777-300ER passenger jet, the airline said Wednesday.

The Hong Kong carrier — which would not identify the pilot — said it was still investigating the Jan. 30 fly-by event at Paine Field, 30 miles north of downtown Seattle and home to a Boeing plant.

Cathay spokeswoman Carolyn Leung said the pilot was dismissed last week because he did not seek or obtain approval for the fly-by, which has been done several times before at air shows with the airline's permission.

An airline statement said another pilot on the plane has been subject to disciplinary proceedings, but Leung would not elaborate on the case or other details.

Hong Kong's South China Morning Post reported Sunday that the airline's chairman, Christopher Pratt, was on the plane when the pilot swooped back over the Boeing plant shortly after taking off.

Images of the stunt were posted on YouTube and the Web site of a Seattle-area plane spotter, Matt Cawby.

The 777-300ER is 242 feet long, weighs about 350 tons and is listed at $264 million.

A Federal Aviation Administration spokesman, Mike Fergus, told The Seattle Times the flyby was under investigation.

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5jWkJ315JoCDLGmGvwVfXikeO8WugD8V2NQO80

Nokia opens satellite design studio in Rio de Janeiro

Move reflects growing influence of Latin American design and culture on global design trends

Nokia has opened a satellite design studio in Rio de Janeiro reflecting the increasing impact Latin American style and culture is expected to have on the future design of mobile devices and services. Based at the Design School of UniverCidade, it will bring together Nokia designers, students and established local designers to explore new trends and ideas that will influence products for the Latin American and global markets.

The satellite studio is the second in a series Nokia is establishing in the world's hottest new design capitals. The first was opened in Bangalore, India, last year. Set up in partnership with leading design schools in each country, the fixed term studios bring Nokia designers directly into contact with local cultures and influences that will help inspire new design ideas and provide local students with hands on experience of working with a world class global design team.

Alastair Curtis, Nokia's Chief Designer, said, "Brazil is an incredibly vibrant and diverse place and one that is constantly transforming and developing itself in new ways. This makes it a perfect place to inspire designers. It also has a wealth of emerging new design talent that will play a key role in shaping many of the global design trends we will see in the next few years. Combining the experience of our global design team with the local creativity and perspective of the students is a very exciting and creative way to explore new ideas in this important market for Nokia."

Over the next two years, the Rio satellite studio will be involved in a range of research projects exploring new cultural, social and design influences across Brazil. Nokia designers from around the world will visit the studio to take part in the research and work directly with the students.

One of the first projects will be to study graphical design trends in Rio, looking at a range of influences from street art and graffitti through to more formal billboard advertising and promotion. Insights from this work may influence visual elements in mobile devices such as wallpapers or screen savers, or areas like packaging and marketing.

The designers will also look beyond the city to consider how mobile devices or services could be designed to meet the needs of more rural communities in Brazil and other countries around the world.

João Lutz, Design Manager of UniverCidade, said "This is an incredible opportunity for design students to work alongside one of the world's leading design teams and gain valuable new experiences and insight. We welcome this investment by Nokia in the design talent of the future and look forwarding to participating in some really creative and stimulating projects."

In addition to the the development of the new satellite studio, Nokia's design team has been working on a number of projects exploring Latin American culture and trends. In 2003 Nokia extended its student program to Latin America and has worked with design schools in Argentina, Brazil and Chile.

Nokia has more than 300 designers in its global team representing 34 different nationalities. This team includes a range of specialists including industrial designers, psychologists, researchers, colors and material designers, graphics experts, anthropologists, and user interface specialists. They are based in many different locations around the world including studios at Nokia's corporate headquarters at Espoo in Finland, London, Beijing, Copenhagen, Calabassas in Los Angeles, and Dallas.

About Nokia

Nokia is the world leader in mobility, driving the transformation and growth of the converging Internet and communications industries. Nokia makes a wide range of mobile devices and provides people with experiences in music, navigation, video, television, imaging, games and business mobility through these devices. Nokia also provides equipment, solutions and services for communications networks.

http://www.newsdesk.se/view/pressrelease/nokia-opens-satellite-design-studio-in-rio-de-janeiro-198516

Ohio Debate Between Clinton and Obama

The Ohio Debate, organized by MSNBC, is on between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. Below is an information summary about the Ohio Debate provided by Daily Kos.

First in the Ohio Debate Hillary denies the recent Obama photo came from her camp and Obama graciously accepts that response and is moving on to the differences in his health care plan versus hers -- and defending the health care mailer that she complained about last week.

The moderators are starting out the Ohio Debate wanting a fight, which is what you get with an MSNBC debate. In this case it's slightly more warranted than in prior debates, given that things have been somewhat more heated lately. It's still telling about the quality of moderation you get on this channel.

So far the candidates are going over the exact same health plan ground covered in the last debate, but framed around the issue of campaign tactics and negative campaigning.

Clinton and Obama ended up getting into what they got into last week - trading the exact same points about their healthcare plans. Obama says mandates are bad and Clinton doesn't cover everyone anyway, Clinton says Obama does have a mandate, Obama says "wait, let me answer that..." and the debate does not move on.

It's an important issue, but we've gotten to the point where there's no value being added in the discussion. I can't tell if it's the moderation or something about the candidates, but to this point Clinton has had to talk over the moderators a couple times to keep the healthcare debate going where Obama has not.

Clinton clearly thinks there's a moderation issue, asking specifically why she always gets the first question and referring to the SNL sketch and suggesting that maybe the moderators should ask Obama if he wants another pillow.

http://www.huliq.com/51809/msnbc-ohio-debate-between-clinton-and-obama

Global crunch 'will leave Brazil unaffected'

The effects of the global credit crunch will not impact on the economy in Brazil, according to one commentator.

Regis Abreu, an asset manager at Rio de Janeiro's Mercatto Gestao de Recursos, told Bloomberg that the country will continue to see "robust earnings growth" despite the slowdown that has been prompted by the implosion of the US's sub-prime mortgage market.

The credit crunch has also impacted on the UK's market, causing Northern Rock to run into financial difficulties and require an investment from the Bank of England to remain afloat. The bank has now been privatised by the government.

Mr Abreu's comments come as Brazil's stock market enjoyed its fourth consecutive day of growth. The share prices of a number of real estate developers - such as Gafisa SA - also rose, the news agency reports.

The news follows falling interest rates and low inflation in Brazil - two factors that could also benefit the Brazilian property market - have also been credited for the turnaround in the Brazil's furniture industry, reports the IHB website.

http://www.propertyshowrooms.com/brazil/property/news/global-crunch-will-leave-brazil-unaffected_1728.html