HSBC has recruited Jim Comey, a former US deputy attorney general, as a non-executive director. Comey will start work in March and will be a member of a new committee to combat financial crime. ? Reuters pic
LONDON, Jan 30 ? HSBC is hiring a former US deputy attorney general with a background in fighting drug cartels to help the global bank avoid a repeat of lapses in its anti-money-laundering controls that led to a US$1.9 billion (RM5.86 billion) fine.
The penalty, the largest ever paid by a bank, followed a long US investigation into HSBC?s Mexican and US operations that concluded last month with scathing criticism of the systems it used to stop the proceeds of organised crime passing through its accounts.
Jim Comey, who was US deputy attorney general from 2003 to 2005, will join Europe?s biggest bank as a non-executive director in March and will be a member of a new committee to combat financial crime.
As US attorney for the southern district of New York from 2002 to 2003, Comey set up a specialised unit to prosecute international drug cartels and supervised the prosecution of executives on fraud and securities-related charges.
He will be joined by two other non-executives ? Rona Fairhead and Simon Robertson ? and five independent advisers, including Bill Hughes, a former head of the UK?s Serious Organised Crime Agency, and Dave Hartnett, who retired last year as the permanent secretary for tax at Britain?s tax authority.
HSBC said today the Financial System Vulnerabilities Committee would help Chief Executive Stuart Gulliver simplify its business activities and enhance risk management and control by improving standards across the bank.
It will help HSBC meet tax transparency and compliance standards, the prevention of terrorist financing and association with illegal drugs activities.
HSBC said the committee would identify areas where the bank could be exposed to financial crime or system abuse, or where its bankers might ?abuse their participation in the system by undertaking transactions or activities that are reputationally damaging to HSBC, even if not actually illegal?.
Comey is the latest big American name hired by the bank to improve its controls and structure.
Stuart Levey, a former undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence in the US Treasury, joined last year as chief legal officer. Bob Werner, who had headed sanctions action against drugs traffickers and money launderers, became head of financial crime compliance, a new role. ? Reuters
Quitting smoking requires great sacrifice and commit to not smoking anymore. If you are a smoker then girlfriend told him to stop smoking if necessary give quit threat if not better off. Based on the case study of the success rate of this method is great.
How to quit smoking is actually not that difficult. Most people quit after feeling the effects of smoking. For those of you who sutah addictive smoking can be difficult to leave this habit quickly. But if you want to try there is still some way to quit smoking that you should try.
But you do not need to worry because here are some ways to stop smoking naturally. However, some of these tips can work well with someone, but these tips may not work when applied to others. Therefore we need a way most appropriate for each individual.
How to Stop Smoking Naturally
1. Stop By Gradual. To be truly free from smoking addiction is better you do it gradually. In this way we can control our own thoughts if your body slowly not need nicotine from day to day. For example like this: if you spend a day usually 1 pack of cigarettes, so make sure you consume enough daily 6 pieces, then 3 pieces and so on until you can truly escape from the snare of cigarettes.
2. Support From Family. If you really want to stop smoking then ask for help from your family to remind you. In addition to the role of the family's closest friends you can also help your efforts to quit smoking.
3. Yourself borrow. Usually when people smoke in my spare time, by finding something else to make you forget the cigarettes. Fill your time doing what you love such as sports and berrekreasi
4. Consultation With Doctor. This is one way that you should try, ask your doctor or health care professional how to quit smoking quickly. Usually the doctor has prescribed to eliminate dependence on nicotine.
?5. Avoid Triggers. Largely influenced by the desire to smoke triggers. triggers can come from a variety of things, such as the environment and the social, psychological state, and a variety of other reasons. Try to identify triggers, and also try to avoid it. Sometimes we unknowingly had a habit of smoking in certain circumstances, try to identify the triggers that make you really want to smoke, and try to avoid it.
6. Perform a physical activity or sport
Physical activity can distract you from tobacco addiction, and will directly reduce your smoking intensity. A time to time for physical activity for a while. Perform light exercise, such as jogging, sit-ups, push-ups, or just a leisurely walk. In addition to distract you from the addiction of smoking, physical activity is also very useful to improve your fitness, increase vitality, and also allows you to remove the psychological stress, but it also can improve the quality of your rest time.
7. Find True Benefits Life without cigarettes
It is now easy to find articles about quit smoking, too easy for you to find information about the harm of smoking to your body. By reading various references and may share medical article describing the adverse effects of cigarettes for health, you will find many reasons why you should immediately quit smoking. And common sense certainly easier for you to make the decision to quit smoking.
8. Chew or taste something
It is undeniable that raises tobacco taste sensation for the smoker mouth, and the sensation of smoking almost can not be replaced with other flavors. Taste chew or something, eg, candy or gula2, or light snacks, or other foods that you like best. But keep in mind, this method should be done with caution, lest with plenty to eat sweets or other food makes you exposed to other health problems.
9. Join a smoking cessation program
Today many programs that specifically address smoking addiction, either online via the internet or around your town. Usually these programs offer steps that have been compiled by experts, so effective to follow. In addition, you can also learn from other people's experiences, or the experiences with fellow smokers trying to quit.
10. Relaxation
Since long relaxation techniques can be used for medical purposes, as well as for the smoking issue. There are many kinds of relaxation techniques such as breathing exercises, muscle relaxation, yoga, visualization, hypnosis and massage. Choose a technique that suits you, that you will do and not be a burden. Relaxation itself is very beneficial to your body and your mind, so it does not hurt to try.
Of all the tips above, there is one important point that you should hold fine. Although there are thousands of ways to quit smoking if you do not have a strong determination then everything will be in vain. Convince yourself if you can stop completely, as the saying goes "Where There's a will there is way".
Ireland is shouldering the biggest bank debt burden in the European Union.
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It is not our debt but was the cost of 'saving' the Irish banks, whose collapse brought down the whole economy. ?They were part of a corrupt culture among senior Eurozone bankers that saw the biggest bonuses awarded to the most reckless lenders.
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That is why the NUJ is supporting a series of demonstrations on Saturday 9 February, 1.30pm.
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Assembly Point
DUBLIN: Cook Street (near Civic Offices, Wood Quay);
We take communication for granted because if we want to talk to someone we have multiple ways of contacting them: home phones, cell phones, email, and instant messaging. We are used to instant gratification by calling or texting and pretty much getting an immediate response from virtually everyone on our contact list.
EXTREME CAUTION !!!!!
O? PINHEAD !!!!!
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obampoint (Photo credit: GunnyG1345)
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But after all the electronic infrastructure is gone, how will we get in contact with people? Cell phones, landlines, and the internet will be useless. However there are multiple radio options. Which ones will be of the best use and which ones will be basically useless?
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General Mobile Radio Service (GMRS), Family Radio Service (FRS) and Multi-Use Radio Service (MURS) use basic handheld radios that are available commercially with pre-programmed frequencies. The person responsible for the GMRS radio must be licensed by the FCC, while FRS and MURS users do not require a license. These are all basically high end walkie talkies. The upside: easy to use, inexpensive and requires no training. The down side: there are only 23 channels on GMRS, 14 on FRS and 5 on MURS and when all other forms of communications are unavailable they will be overloaded and basically useless. Another drawback is that they are basically line of site communication only. In other words, you will have to be very close to who you want to speak to for them to hear you.
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Citizen Band (CB) is a step up from the previously mentioned radio communication possibilities. CB radio is easy to use and requires no training or license. CB allows communication on 40 pre-programmed frequencies. Like the other radio options the major problem is with the limited number of frequencies, they will be overloaded. Range is also limited to around 2 to 5 miles.
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The GMRS, FRS, and MURS systems are only useful for small groups to communicate with each other while they are in proximity of each other. They are not useful to communicate with other groups or people outside your immediate area. CB radio falls in the same category. Other forms of radio communications which are utilized by police, fire, EMS and military require outside equipment such as repeaters and infrastructure to operate properly. In other words the radio is rather useless without the other equipment that you have no control over (or might not be able to acquire).
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Amateur Radio (Ham) provides users with???
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EXCERPT!!!!!
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via Ham Radio, The Only Form of Communication After T-SHTF | Survival.
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IS THIS MAN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, THE LEADER OF THE FREE WORLD, MENTALLY ILL? (Photo credit: SS&SS)
Contact: Jim Sliwa jsliwa@asmusa.org 202-942-9297 American Society for Microbiology
Scientists have developed a way to grow iron-oxidizing bacteria using electricity instead of iron, an advance that will allow them to better study the organisms and could one day be used to turn electricity into fuel. The study will be published on January 29 in mBio, the online open-access journal of the American Society for Microbiology.
The method, called electrochemical cultivation, supplies these bacteria with a steady supply of electrons that the bacteria use to respire, or "breathe". It opens the possibility that one day electricity generated from renewable sources like wind or solar could be funneled to iron oxidizing bacteria that combine it with carbon dioxide to create biofuels, capturing the energy as a useful, storable substance.
"It's a new way to cultivate a microorganism that's been very difficult to study. But the fact that these organisms can synthesize everything they need using only electricity makes us very interested in their abilities," says Daniel Bond of the BioTechnology Institute at the University of Minnesota Twin Cities, who co-authored the paper with Zarath Summers and Jeffrey Gralnick.
To "breathe", iron oxidizers take electrons off of dissolved iron, called Fe(II) a process that produces copious amounts of rust, called Fe(III). Iron-oxidizing bacteria are found around the world, almost anywhere an aerobic environment (with plenty of oxygen) meets an anaerobic environment (which lacks oxygen). They play a big role in the global cycling of iron and contribute to the corrosion of steel pipelines, bridges, piers, and ships, but their lifestyle at the interface of two very different habitats and the accumulation of cell-trapping Fe(III) makes iron oxidizers difficult to grow and study in the lab.
Scientists think these bacteria must carry out the iron oxidation step on their surfaces. If that's true, Bond reasoned, the outsides of the organisms should be covered with proteins that interact with Fe(II), so you should be able to provide a stream of pure electrons to the outsides of the bacteria and get them to grow.
Bond and his colleagues added the marine iron oxidizer Mariprofundus ferrooxydans PV-1, along with some nutrient medium, to an electrode carefully tuned to provide electrons at the same energy level, or potential, as Fe(II) would provide. The idea, says Bond, was to "fool the bacteria into thinking they're at the world's best buffet of Fe(II) atoms."
It worked. The bacteria multiplied and formed a film on the electrode, Bond says, and eventually they were able to grow M. ferrooxydans with no iron in the medium, proof that the bacteria were living off the electrons they absorbed from the electrode to capture carbon dioxide and replicate. And since the electron donor is a solid surface, say the authors, it's pretty likely that the bacterial electron-harvesting machinery is exposed on the outer membrane of the cell.
It's this capture of carbon dioxide that could enable electrochemical cultivation to create biofuels or other useful products one day, Bond says.
"Bacteria are experts at the capture of carbon dioxide. They build cells and compounds" with the carbon, he says. They might one day be exploited as microscopic energy packagers: bacteria like M. ferrooxydans could capture electricity from an electrode, combine it with carbon dioxide, and package it as a carbon-rich compound we could use as fuel. This would take the energy in electricity, which is ephemeral, and convert it into a tangible product that could be stored in a tank. But that kind of work is a long way off, cautions Bond.
"If there are 100 steps to making this work this is step one," he says.
###
mBio is an open access online journal published by the American Society for Microbiology to make microbiology research broadly accessible. The focus of the journal is on rapid publication of cutting-edge research spanning the entire spectrum of microbiology and related fields. It can be found online at http://mBio.asm.org.
The American Society for Microbiology is the largest single life science society, composed of over 39,000 scientists and health professionals. ASM's mission is to advance the microbiological sciences as a vehicle for understanding life processes and to apply and communicate this knowledge for the improvement of health and environmental and economic well-being worldwide.
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?
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.
Contact: Jim Sliwa jsliwa@asmusa.org 202-942-9297 American Society for Microbiology
Scientists have developed a way to grow iron-oxidizing bacteria using electricity instead of iron, an advance that will allow them to better study the organisms and could one day be used to turn electricity into fuel. The study will be published on January 29 in mBio, the online open-access journal of the American Society for Microbiology.
The method, called electrochemical cultivation, supplies these bacteria with a steady supply of electrons that the bacteria use to respire, or "breathe". It opens the possibility that one day electricity generated from renewable sources like wind or solar could be funneled to iron oxidizing bacteria that combine it with carbon dioxide to create biofuels, capturing the energy as a useful, storable substance.
"It's a new way to cultivate a microorganism that's been very difficult to study. But the fact that these organisms can synthesize everything they need using only electricity makes us very interested in their abilities," says Daniel Bond of the BioTechnology Institute at the University of Minnesota Twin Cities, who co-authored the paper with Zarath Summers and Jeffrey Gralnick.
To "breathe", iron oxidizers take electrons off of dissolved iron, called Fe(II) a process that produces copious amounts of rust, called Fe(III). Iron-oxidizing bacteria are found around the world, almost anywhere an aerobic environment (with plenty of oxygen) meets an anaerobic environment (which lacks oxygen). They play a big role in the global cycling of iron and contribute to the corrosion of steel pipelines, bridges, piers, and ships, but their lifestyle at the interface of two very different habitats and the accumulation of cell-trapping Fe(III) makes iron oxidizers difficult to grow and study in the lab.
Scientists think these bacteria must carry out the iron oxidation step on their surfaces. If that's true, Bond reasoned, the outsides of the organisms should be covered with proteins that interact with Fe(II), so you should be able to provide a stream of pure electrons to the outsides of the bacteria and get them to grow.
Bond and his colleagues added the marine iron oxidizer Mariprofundus ferrooxydans PV-1, along with some nutrient medium, to an electrode carefully tuned to provide electrons at the same energy level, or potential, as Fe(II) would provide. The idea, says Bond, was to "fool the bacteria into thinking they're at the world's best buffet of Fe(II) atoms."
It worked. The bacteria multiplied and formed a film on the electrode, Bond says, and eventually they were able to grow M. ferrooxydans with no iron in the medium, proof that the bacteria were living off the electrons they absorbed from the electrode to capture carbon dioxide and replicate. And since the electron donor is a solid surface, say the authors, it's pretty likely that the bacterial electron-harvesting machinery is exposed on the outer membrane of the cell.
It's this capture of carbon dioxide that could enable electrochemical cultivation to create biofuels or other useful products one day, Bond says.
"Bacteria are experts at the capture of carbon dioxide. They build cells and compounds" with the carbon, he says. They might one day be exploited as microscopic energy packagers: bacteria like M. ferrooxydans could capture electricity from an electrode, combine it with carbon dioxide, and package it as a carbon-rich compound we could use as fuel. This would take the energy in electricity, which is ephemeral, and convert it into a tangible product that could be stored in a tank. But that kind of work is a long way off, cautions Bond.
"If there are 100 steps to making this work this is step one," he says.
###
mBio is an open access online journal published by the American Society for Microbiology to make microbiology research broadly accessible. The focus of the journal is on rapid publication of cutting-edge research spanning the entire spectrum of microbiology and related fields. It can be found online at http://mBio.asm.org.
The American Society for Microbiology is the largest single life science society, composed of over 39,000 scientists and health professionals. ASM's mission is to advance the microbiological sciences as a vehicle for understanding life processes and to apply and communicate this knowledge for the improvement of health and environmental and economic well-being worldwide.
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?
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.
Eating bright-colored fruits and vegetables may prevent or delay ALSPublic release date: 29-Jan-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Dawn Peters sciencenewsroom@wiley.com 781-388-8408 Wiley
New research suggests that increased consumption of foods containing colorful carotenoids, particularly beta-carotene and lutein, may prevent or delay the onset of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). The study, published by Wiley in Annals of Neurology, a journal of the American Neurological Association and Child Neurology Society, found that diets high in lycopene, beta-cryptoxanthin, and vitamin C did not reduce ALS risk.
Carotenoids give fruits and vegetables their bright orange, red, or yellow colors, and are a source of dietary vitamin A. Prior studies report that oxidative stress plays a role in the development of ALS. Further studies have shown that individuals with high intake of antioxidants, such as vitamin E, have a reduced ALS risk. Because vitamin C or carotenoids are also antioxidants, researchers examined their relation to ALS risk.
According to the National Institutes of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) roughly 20,000 to 30,000 Americans have ALSalso known as Lou Gehrig's diseaseand another 5,000 patients are diagnosed annually with the disease. ALS is a progressive neurological disease that attacks nerve cells (neurons) in the brain and spinal cord, which control voluntary muscles. As the upper and lower motor neurons degenerate, the muscles they control gradually weaken and waste away, leading to paralysis.
"ALS is a devastating degenerative disease that generally develops between the ages of 40 and 70, and affects more men than women," said senior author Dr. Alberto Ascherio, Professor of Epidemiology and Nutrition at Harvard School of Public Health in Boston, Mass. "Understanding the impact of food consumption on ALS development is important. Our study is one of the largest to date to examine the role of dietary antioxidants in preventing ALS."
Using data from five prospective groups: the National Institutes of Health (NIH)AARP Diet and Health Study, the Cancer Prevention Study II-Nutrition Cohort, the Multiethnic Cohort, the Health Professionals Follow-up Study, and the Nurses' Health Study, researchers investigated more than one million participants for the present study. A total of 1093 ALS cases were identified after excluding subjects with unlikely food consumption.
The team found that a greater total carotenoid intake was linked to reduced risk of ALS. Individuals who consumed more carotenoids in their diets were more likely to exercise, have an advanced degree, have higher vitamin C consumption, and take vitamin C and E supplements. Furthermore, subjects with diets high in beta-carotene and luteinfound in dark green vegetableshad a lower risk ALS risk. Researchers did not find that lycopene, beta-cryptoxanthin, and vitamin C reduced the risk of ALS. Long-term vitamin C supplement intake was also not associated with lower ALS risk.
Dr. Ascherio concludes, "Our findings suggest that consuming carotenoid-rich foods may help prevent or delay the onset of ALS. Further food-based analyses are needed to examine the impact of dietary nutrients on ALS."
###
This study is published in Annals of Neurology. Media wishing to receive a PDF of this article may contact sciencenewsroom@wiley.com
Full citation: "Intakes of Vitamin C and Carotenoids and Risk of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis." Kathryn C Fitzgerald, Eilis J O'Reilly, Elinor Fondell, Guido J Falcone, Marjorie L McCullough, Yikyung Park, Laurence N Kolonel and Alberto Ascherio. Annals of Neurology; Published Online: January 29, 2013 (DOI:10.1002/ana.23820).
Author Contact: To arrange an interview with Dr. Ascherio, please contact Todd Datz with the Harvard School of Public Health at tdatz@hsph.harvard.edu.
About the Journal
Annals of Neurology, the official journal of the American Neurological Association and the Child Neurology Society, publishes articles of broad interest with potential for high impact in understanding the mechanisms and treatment of diseases of the human nervous system. All areas of clinical and basic neuroscience, including new technologies, cellular and molecular neurobiology, population sciences, and studies of behavior, addiction, and psychiatric diseases are of interest to the journal. The journal is published by Wiley on behalf of the American Neurological Association and Child Neurology Society. For more information, please visit http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/10.1002/ana.
About Wiley
Founded in 1807, John Wiley & Sons, Inc. has been a valued source of information and understanding for more than 200 years, helping people around the world meet their needs and fulfill their aspirations. Wiley and its acquired companies have published the works of more than 450 Nobel laureates in all categories: Literature, Economics, Physiology or Medicine, Physics, Chemistry, and Peace.
Wiley is a global provider of content and content-enabled workflow solutions in areas of scientific, technical, medical, and scholarly research; professional development; and education. Our core businesses produce scientific, technical, medical, and scholarly journals, reference works, books, database services, and advertising; professional books, subscription products, certification and training services and online applications; and education content and services including integrated online teaching and learning resources for undergraduate and graduate students and lifelong learners. Wiley's global headquarters are located in Hoboken, New Jersey, with operations in the U.S., Europe, Asia, Canada, and Australia. The Company's Web site can be accessed at http://www.wiley.com. The Company is listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbols JWa and JWb.
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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.
Eating bright-colored fruits and vegetables may prevent or delay ALSPublic release date: 29-Jan-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Dawn Peters sciencenewsroom@wiley.com 781-388-8408 Wiley
New research suggests that increased consumption of foods containing colorful carotenoids, particularly beta-carotene and lutein, may prevent or delay the onset of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). The study, published by Wiley in Annals of Neurology, a journal of the American Neurological Association and Child Neurology Society, found that diets high in lycopene, beta-cryptoxanthin, and vitamin C did not reduce ALS risk.
Carotenoids give fruits and vegetables their bright orange, red, or yellow colors, and are a source of dietary vitamin A. Prior studies report that oxidative stress plays a role in the development of ALS. Further studies have shown that individuals with high intake of antioxidants, such as vitamin E, have a reduced ALS risk. Because vitamin C or carotenoids are also antioxidants, researchers examined their relation to ALS risk.
According to the National Institutes of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) roughly 20,000 to 30,000 Americans have ALSalso known as Lou Gehrig's diseaseand another 5,000 patients are diagnosed annually with the disease. ALS is a progressive neurological disease that attacks nerve cells (neurons) in the brain and spinal cord, which control voluntary muscles. As the upper and lower motor neurons degenerate, the muscles they control gradually weaken and waste away, leading to paralysis.
"ALS is a devastating degenerative disease that generally develops between the ages of 40 and 70, and affects more men than women," said senior author Dr. Alberto Ascherio, Professor of Epidemiology and Nutrition at Harvard School of Public Health in Boston, Mass. "Understanding the impact of food consumption on ALS development is important. Our study is one of the largest to date to examine the role of dietary antioxidants in preventing ALS."
Using data from five prospective groups: the National Institutes of Health (NIH)AARP Diet and Health Study, the Cancer Prevention Study II-Nutrition Cohort, the Multiethnic Cohort, the Health Professionals Follow-up Study, and the Nurses' Health Study, researchers investigated more than one million participants for the present study. A total of 1093 ALS cases were identified after excluding subjects with unlikely food consumption.
The team found that a greater total carotenoid intake was linked to reduced risk of ALS. Individuals who consumed more carotenoids in their diets were more likely to exercise, have an advanced degree, have higher vitamin C consumption, and take vitamin C and E supplements. Furthermore, subjects with diets high in beta-carotene and luteinfound in dark green vegetableshad a lower risk ALS risk. Researchers did not find that lycopene, beta-cryptoxanthin, and vitamin C reduced the risk of ALS. Long-term vitamin C supplement intake was also not associated with lower ALS risk.
Dr. Ascherio concludes, "Our findings suggest that consuming carotenoid-rich foods may help prevent or delay the onset of ALS. Further food-based analyses are needed to examine the impact of dietary nutrients on ALS."
###
This study is published in Annals of Neurology. Media wishing to receive a PDF of this article may contact sciencenewsroom@wiley.com
Full citation: "Intakes of Vitamin C and Carotenoids and Risk of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis." Kathryn C Fitzgerald, Eilis J O'Reilly, Elinor Fondell, Guido J Falcone, Marjorie L McCullough, Yikyung Park, Laurence N Kolonel and Alberto Ascherio. Annals of Neurology; Published Online: January 29, 2013 (DOI:10.1002/ana.23820).
Author Contact: To arrange an interview with Dr. Ascherio, please contact Todd Datz with the Harvard School of Public Health at tdatz@hsph.harvard.edu.
About the Journal
Annals of Neurology, the official journal of the American Neurological Association and the Child Neurology Society, publishes articles of broad interest with potential for high impact in understanding the mechanisms and treatment of diseases of the human nervous system. All areas of clinical and basic neuroscience, including new technologies, cellular and molecular neurobiology, population sciences, and studies of behavior, addiction, and psychiatric diseases are of interest to the journal. The journal is published by Wiley on behalf of the American Neurological Association and Child Neurology Society. For more information, please visit http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/10.1002/ana.
About Wiley
Founded in 1807, John Wiley & Sons, Inc. has been a valued source of information and understanding for more than 200 years, helping people around the world meet their needs and fulfill their aspirations. Wiley and its acquired companies have published the works of more than 450 Nobel laureates in all categories: Literature, Economics, Physiology or Medicine, Physics, Chemistry, and Peace.
Wiley is a global provider of content and content-enabled workflow solutions in areas of scientific, technical, medical, and scholarly research; professional development; and education. Our core businesses produce scientific, technical, medical, and scholarly journals, reference works, books, database services, and advertising; professional books, subscription products, certification and training services and online applications; and education content and services including integrated online teaching and learning resources for undergraduate and graduate students and lifelong learners. Wiley's global headquarters are located in Hoboken, New Jersey, with operations in the U.S., Europe, Asia, Canada, and Australia. The Company's Web site can be accessed at http://www.wiley.com. The Company is listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbols JWa and JWb.
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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.
Passengers and a worker walk past accumulated garbage during a cleaners strike, at Barajas international airport in Madrid, Monday Jan. 28, 2013. Battling to reduce a swollen deficit and avoid a bailout, the year-old conservative government has brought major financial and labor reforms and applied severe cutbacks in wages and spending but so far the economy has shown few signs of recovery. (AP Photo/Paul White)
Passengers and a worker walk past accumulated garbage during a cleaners strike, at Barajas international airport in Madrid, Monday Jan. 28, 2013. Battling to reduce a swollen deficit and avoid a bailout, the year-old conservative government has brought major financial and labor reforms and applied severe cutbacks in wages and spending but so far the economy has shown few signs of recovery. (AP Photo/Paul White)
Passengers pass by accumulated garbage during a cleaners strike, at Barajas international airport in Madrid, Monday Jan. 28, 2013. Battling to reduce a swollen deficit and avoid a bailout, the year-old conservative government has brought major financial and labor reforms and applied severe cutbacks in wages and spending but so far the economy has shown few signs of recovery. (AP Photo/Paul White)
A passenger walks past accumulated garbage during a cleaners strike, at Barajas international airport in Madrid, Monday Jan. 28, 2013. Battling to reduce a swollen deficit and avoid a bailout, the year-old conservative government has brought major financial and labor reforms and applied severe cutbacks in wages and spending but so far the economy has shown few signs of recovery. (AP Photo/Paul White)
MADRID (AP) ? Empty bottles, cans and trash are piling up at Madrid's airport as cleaners enter the fifth day of a strike to protest proposed layoffs.
The strike continues to affect terminals 1, 2 and 3 on Tuesday, a day after a similar strike at Terminal 4, the airport's main terminal, was suspended after one day.
The strike is made worse by the fact that the airport has very few trash containers for the public to use.
The cleaners are protesting plans by their cleaning company to lay off 54 out of 270 workers at the airport.
CAIRO (Reuters) - Three people were shot dead and hundreds were injured in Egypt's Port Said on Sunday during the funerals of 33 protesters killed at the weekend, part of a wave of violence piling pressure on Islamist President Mohamed Mursi.
State television said Mursi would address the nation later on Sunday. Forty-five people have been killed in demonstrations around the country since Thursday and his opponents have called for more protests on Monday.
Port Said's head of hospitals, Abdel Rahman Farag, told Reuters an 18-year-old man and two other people died from gunshot wounds on Sunday. More than 416 people suffered from teargas inhalation, while 17 were wounded by gunshots, he said.
As coffins were carried through the streets earlier, some in the crowd chanted for revenge or shouted anti-Mursi slogans. "Our soul and blood, we sacrifice to Port Said," they said.
Gunshots had killed many of the 33 who died on Saturday when residents went on the rampage after a court sentenced 21 people, mostly from the Mediterranean port, to death for their role in deadly soccer violence at a stadium there last year.
A military source said many people in Port Said, which lies next to the increasingly lawless Sinai Peninsula, possess guns. But it was not clear who was behind the deaths and injuries.
In Cairo, police fired teargas at dozens of stone-throwing protesters in a fourth day of clashes over what demonstrators there and in other cities say is a power grab by Islamists two years after Hosni Mubarak was overthrown.
The protesters accuse Mursi, elected in June with the support of his Muslim Brotherhood group, of betraying the democratic goals of the revolution. Most of the deaths since Thursday were in Port Said and Suez, both cities where the army has now been deployed.
The violence adds to the daunting task facing Mursi as he tries to fix a beleaguered economy and cool tempers before a parliamentary election expected in the next few months which is supposed to cement Egypt's transition to democracy.
It has exposed a deep rift in the nation. Liberals and other opponents accuse Mursi of failing to deliver on economic promises and say he has not lived up to pledges to represent all Egyptians. His backers say the opposition is seeking to topple Egypt's first freely elected leader by undemocratic means.
Although Sunday's violence was less severe than the previous two days, Mursi may have little respite. The opposition Popular Current and other groups have called for more protests on Monday to mark what was one of the bloodiest days of the 2011 uprising.
The Popular Current, led by leftist Hamdeen Sabahy, said it "denounces the state of silence of the presidency and the government during the sad events that the country went through the past 48 hours".
"BLOOD BEING SPILT"
On a bridge close to Tahrir Square, youths hurled stones at police in riot gear who fired teargas to push them back towards the square, the cauldron of the uprising that erupted on January 25, 2011 and toppled Mubarak 18 days later.
"None of the revolution's goals have been realized," said Mohamed Sami, a protester in Cairo's Tahrir Square on Sunday.
"Prices are going up. The blood of Egyptians is being spilt in the streets because of neglect and corruption and because the Muslim Brotherhood is ruling Egypt for their own interests."
Clashes also erupted in other streets near the square. The U.S. and British embassies, both close to Tahrir, said they were closed for public business on Sunday, normally a working day.
The army, Egypt's interim ruler until Mursi's election, was sent back onto the streets to restore order in Port Said and Suez, which both lie on the Suez canal. In Suez, at least eight people were killed in clashes with police.
Egypt's defense minister who also heads the army, Abdel Fattah al-Sissi, called for the nation to stand together and said the military would not prevent peaceful protests. But he called on demonstrators to protect public property.
Many ordinary Egyptians are frustrated by the regular escalations that have hurt the economy and their livelihoods.
"They are not revolutionaries protesting," said taxi driver Kamal Hassan, 30, referring to those gathered in Tahrir. "They are thugs destroying the country."
CALL FOR DIALOGUE
The National Defence Council, headed by Mursi, called on Saturday for national dialogue to discuss political differences.
That offer has been cautiously welcomed by the opposition National Salvation Front. But the coalition has demanded a clear agenda and guarantees that any agreements will be implemented.
The Front, formed late last year when Mursi provoked protests and violence by expanding his powers and driving through an Islamist-tinged constitution, has threatened to boycott the parliamentary poll and call for more protests if its demands are not met, including for an early presidential vote.
Egypt's transition has been blighted from the outset by political rows and turbulence on the streets that have driven investors out and kept many tourists away. Its currency, the pound, has steadily weakened against the dollar.
The Port Said clashes erupted after a judge sentenced 21 men to death for involvement in 74 deaths at a soccer match on February 1, 2012 between Cairo's Al Ahly club and the local al-Masri team. Many of the victims were fans of the visiting team.
There were 73 defendants in the case. Those not sentenced on Saturday will face a verdict on March 9, the judge said.
Al Ahly fans cheered the verdict after threatening action if the death penalty was not meted out. But Port Said residents were furious that people from their city were held responsible.
(Additional reporting by Yusri Mohamed in Ismailia and Yasmine Saleh in Cairo; editing by Philippa Fletcher)
Using Twitter to track the flu: A better way to screen the TweetsPublic release date: 28-Jan-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Phil Sneiderman prs@jhu.edu 443-287-9960 Johns Hopkins University
Sifting through social media messages has become a popular way to track when and where flu cases occur, but a key hurdle hampers the process: how to identify flu-infection tweets. Some tweets are posted by people who have been sick with the virus, while others come from folks who are merely talking about the illness. If you are tracking actual flu cases, such conversations about the flu in general can skew the results.
To address this problem, Johns Hopkins computer scientists and researchers in the university's School of Medicine have developed a new tweet-screening method that not only delivers real-time data on flu cases, but also filters out online chatter that is not linked to actual flu infections. Comparing their method, which is based on analysis of 5,000 publicly available tweets per minute, to other Twitter-based tracking tools, the Johns Hopkins researchers say their real-time results track more closely with government disease data that takes much longer to compile.
"When you look at Twitter posts, you can see people talking about being afraid of catching the flu or asking friends if they should get a flu shot or mentioning a public figure who seems to be ill," said Mark Dredze, an assistant research professor in the Department of Computer Science who uses tweets to monitor public health trends. "But posts like this don't measure how many people have actually contracted the flu. We wanted to separate hype about the flu from messages from people who truly become ill."
Dredze, who also is a research scientist at the Johns Hopkins Human Language Technology Center of Excellence, led a team that in mid-2011 released one of the first and most comprehensive studies showing that Twitter data can yield useful public health information. Since then, this strategy has become so popular that the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services last summer sponsored a contest challenging researchers to design an online application that could track major disease outbreaks.
This winter, as the United States entered an unusually severe and early flu season, Twitter-based flu projections have drawn increasing attention. Many public tweets, such as, "I'm so sick this week with the flu," can indicate a rise in the flu rate. Collecting enough of these tweets can help health officials gauge the scope and severity of an epidemic.
But the reliability of many computer models can be weakened by too many tweets that point to flu-related news reports and other matters not directly linked to a specific flu case, said David Broniatowski, a School of Medicine postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Emergency Medicine's Center for Advanced Modeling in the Social, Behavioral, and Health Sciences.
"For example," he said, "a recent spike in Twitter flu activity was caused by discussions about basketball legend Kobe Bryant's flu-like symptoms during a recent game. Mr. Bryant's health notwithstanding, such tweets do very little to help public health officials prepare our nation for the next big outbreak."
To improve their accuracy when using tweets to track the flu, the John Hopkins team developed sophisticated statistical methods based on human language processing technologies. The methods are designed to filter out the chatter. The system can distinguish, for example, between "I have the flu" and "I'm worried about getting the flu."
Another advantage of the Johns Hopkins flu projection method is that it can produce real-time results. By comparison, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which record flu-related symptoms from hospital visits, typically take two weeks to publish data on the flu's prevalence.
To check the reliability of their enhanced system, the Johns Hopkins researchers recently compared their results to CDC data for the same period. The researchers said that during November and December 2012, their system demonstrated a substantial improvement in tracking with CDC figures as compared to previous Twitter-based tracking methods. "In late December," Dredze added, "the news media picked up on the flu epidemic, causing a somewhat spurious rise in the rate produced by our Twitter system. But our new algorithm handles this effect much better than other systems, ignoring the spurious spike in tweets."
The researchers have also used their Twitter data to produce United States maps that document the stark differences between last year's mild flu season and the much higher incidence of the virus in the winter of 2012-2013.
While their new method was only recently developed, the Johns Hopkins researchers chose to release information on the flu tracking system because of the higher incidence of illness this winter. Team members hope to share the enhanced flu tracking method with leading government health agencies.
"This new work demonstrates that Twitter posts can be used to guide public health officials in their response to outbreaks of infectious diseases," Dredze said. "Our hope is that the new technology can be used track other diseases as well."
###
Other Johns Hopkins researchers participating in the Twitter flu project are doctoral student Michael Paul and recent bachelor's degree graduate Alex Lamb, both in the Department of Computer Science.
The Johns Hopkins researchers noted that their enhanced Twitter flu analysis system looked only at public tweets in which all user names and gender information had been removed. The system was tested only on messages from the United States. The research was funded in part by the National Institutes of Health's Models of Infectious Disease Agent Study.
View a video produced by Twitter about Johns Hopkins' use of tweets to track public health trends here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HmDIh-YS0GI
Read an earlier news release about Johns Hopkins' use of tweets to track public health trends at: http://releases.jhu.edu/2011/07/06/tracking-public-health-trends-from-twitter-messages/
Color U.S. flu maps and video available; contact Phil Sneiderman.
Related links:
Human Language Technology Center of Excellence at Johns Hopkins:
http://hltcoe.jhu.edu
Mark Dredze's website: http://www.cs.jhu.edu/~mdredze/
Johns Hopkins Department of Computer Science: http://www.cs.jhu.edu/
Center for Advanced Modeling in The Social, Behavioral, and Health Sciences:
http://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/emergencymedicine/center_for_advanced_modeling/
[ | 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.
Using Twitter to track the flu: A better way to screen the TweetsPublic release date: 28-Jan-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Phil Sneiderman prs@jhu.edu 443-287-9960 Johns Hopkins University
Sifting through social media messages has become a popular way to track when and where flu cases occur, but a key hurdle hampers the process: how to identify flu-infection tweets. Some tweets are posted by people who have been sick with the virus, while others come from folks who are merely talking about the illness. If you are tracking actual flu cases, such conversations about the flu in general can skew the results.
To address this problem, Johns Hopkins computer scientists and researchers in the university's School of Medicine have developed a new tweet-screening method that not only delivers real-time data on flu cases, but also filters out online chatter that is not linked to actual flu infections. Comparing their method, which is based on analysis of 5,000 publicly available tweets per minute, to other Twitter-based tracking tools, the Johns Hopkins researchers say their real-time results track more closely with government disease data that takes much longer to compile.
"When you look at Twitter posts, you can see people talking about being afraid of catching the flu or asking friends if they should get a flu shot or mentioning a public figure who seems to be ill," said Mark Dredze, an assistant research professor in the Department of Computer Science who uses tweets to monitor public health trends. "But posts like this don't measure how many people have actually contracted the flu. We wanted to separate hype about the flu from messages from people who truly become ill."
Dredze, who also is a research scientist at the Johns Hopkins Human Language Technology Center of Excellence, led a team that in mid-2011 released one of the first and most comprehensive studies showing that Twitter data can yield useful public health information. Since then, this strategy has become so popular that the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services last summer sponsored a contest challenging researchers to design an online application that could track major disease outbreaks.
This winter, as the United States entered an unusually severe and early flu season, Twitter-based flu projections have drawn increasing attention. Many public tweets, such as, "I'm so sick this week with the flu," can indicate a rise in the flu rate. Collecting enough of these tweets can help health officials gauge the scope and severity of an epidemic.
But the reliability of many computer models can be weakened by too many tweets that point to flu-related news reports and other matters not directly linked to a specific flu case, said David Broniatowski, a School of Medicine postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Emergency Medicine's Center for Advanced Modeling in the Social, Behavioral, and Health Sciences.
"For example," he said, "a recent spike in Twitter flu activity was caused by discussions about basketball legend Kobe Bryant's flu-like symptoms during a recent game. Mr. Bryant's health notwithstanding, such tweets do very little to help public health officials prepare our nation for the next big outbreak."
To improve their accuracy when using tweets to track the flu, the John Hopkins team developed sophisticated statistical methods based on human language processing technologies. The methods are designed to filter out the chatter. The system can distinguish, for example, between "I have the flu" and "I'm worried about getting the flu."
Another advantage of the Johns Hopkins flu projection method is that it can produce real-time results. By comparison, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which record flu-related symptoms from hospital visits, typically take two weeks to publish data on the flu's prevalence.
To check the reliability of their enhanced system, the Johns Hopkins researchers recently compared their results to CDC data for the same period. The researchers said that during November and December 2012, their system demonstrated a substantial improvement in tracking with CDC figures as compared to previous Twitter-based tracking methods. "In late December," Dredze added, "the news media picked up on the flu epidemic, causing a somewhat spurious rise in the rate produced by our Twitter system. But our new algorithm handles this effect much better than other systems, ignoring the spurious spike in tweets."
The researchers have also used their Twitter data to produce United States maps that document the stark differences between last year's mild flu season and the much higher incidence of the virus in the winter of 2012-2013.
While their new method was only recently developed, the Johns Hopkins researchers chose to release information on the flu tracking system because of the higher incidence of illness this winter. Team members hope to share the enhanced flu tracking method with leading government health agencies.
"This new work demonstrates that Twitter posts can be used to guide public health officials in their response to outbreaks of infectious diseases," Dredze said. "Our hope is that the new technology can be used track other diseases as well."
###
Other Johns Hopkins researchers participating in the Twitter flu project are doctoral student Michael Paul and recent bachelor's degree graduate Alex Lamb, both in the Department of Computer Science.
The Johns Hopkins researchers noted that their enhanced Twitter flu analysis system looked only at public tweets in which all user names and gender information had been removed. The system was tested only on messages from the United States. The research was funded in part by the National Institutes of Health's Models of Infectious Disease Agent Study.
View a video produced by Twitter about Johns Hopkins' use of tweets to track public health trends here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HmDIh-YS0GI
Read an earlier news release about Johns Hopkins' use of tweets to track public health trends at: http://releases.jhu.edu/2011/07/06/tracking-public-health-trends-from-twitter-messages/
Color U.S. flu maps and video available; contact Phil Sneiderman.
Related links:
Human Language Technology Center of Excellence at Johns Hopkins:
http://hltcoe.jhu.edu
Mark Dredze's website: http://www.cs.jhu.edu/~mdredze/
Johns Hopkins Department of Computer Science: http://www.cs.jhu.edu/
Center for Advanced Modeling in The Social, Behavioral, and Health Sciences:
http://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/emergencymedicine/center_for_advanced_modeling/
[ | 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.
Google continues to deal with the fallout from ?Safari-gate? privacy scandal that led to a record fine (for a single company) from the U.S. Federal Trade Commission last August. The company was fined $22.5 million.
Now, iPhone users in the UK are getting together to sue Google over the debacle. The Guardian reports:
At least 10 British iPhone users have started legal proceedings and dozens more are being lined up, according to Dan Tench, the lawyer behind the action at the London-based firm Olswang.
?This is the first time Google has been threatened with a group claim over privacy in the UK,? he said. ?It is particularly concerning how Google circumvented security settings to snoop on its users. One of the things about Google is that it is so ubiquitous in our lives and if that?s its approach then it?s quite concerning.?
There is a Facebook Group called ?Safari Users Against Google?s Secret Tracking,? which has been set up by the law firm in connection with the users who are going after Google. In the ?About? section, the description says:
This group has been set up to provide information for anyone who used the Safari internet browser between September 2011 and February 2012, and who was illegally tracked by Google.
Any users in the UK may have a claim against Google for this breach of their privacy. Other users, who have set up this group, are taking action against Google to hold them to account.
?
Members of this informal group have instructed the leading technology and media law firm, Olswang, to begin an action against Google.
If you have concerns or want to join the action, contact us via this group and we will share your views or put you in touch with the legal team.
It will be interesting to see how many users get on board with this, and what it ends up meaning for Google. A press release from Olswang has more on the case.
Social cells: The slime mold Dictyostelium discoideum spends much of its time as an apparently typical microscopic single-celled amoeba, oozing around in wet soil as it grazes on bacteria. Something truly odd happens, however, when the food runs out. Starving D. discoideum band together to form a conglomerate organism. A multicellular slug of sorts, the group grows into a spore-making tower, a beacon for sending amoebae out to richer grounds. The sudden lifestyle change is interesting enough, but the real evolutionary puzzle is the cells that make up the delicate stalk. They die without reproducing, which means cells at the top of the tower can turn into more effective spores. This form of altruistic sacrifice has fascinated biologists for decades. (It appears that related amoebae are more likely to group together, so even the dying cells get to pass on their genes.) Here is an organism that is both solitary and fully, suicidally social, a nearly perfect model creature for understanding how multicellular life emerged from the amoebae. In this shot, a slice through a culture dish, you can see a progression of slugs into towers.
We hear that around the office nearly every day ? from professional traders to money managers to even the ?most-hedged? of the hedge fund community. This year?s markets have perplexed the best of them. Each week brings another event that sets up some confusing crosscurrent: call them reversals or head fakes or bear traps or (my personal favorite) the ?fake-out break-out? ? this is a volatile, trendless market has been unkind to Wall Street pros and Main Street investors alike.
Indeed, buy & hold investors have had more ups and downs this year than your average rollercoaster. The third and fourth quarters alone had more than a dozen market swings, ranging from 5 percent to more than 20 percent. Despite all of that action, the S&P 500 is essentially unchanged year-to-date. It doesn?t take much to push portfolios into the red these days.
Three Opponents in Investing
With markets more challenging than ever, individual investors need to understand exactly whom they are going up against when they step onto the field of battle. You have three opponents to consider whenever you invest.
The first is Mr. Market himself. He is, as Benjamin Graham described him, your eternal partner in investing. He is a patient if somewhat bipolar fellow. Subject to wild mood swings, he is always willing to offer you a bid or an ask. If you are a buyer, he is a seller ? and vice versa. But do not mistake this for generosity: he is your opponent. He likes to make you look a fool. Sell him shares at a nice profit, and he happily takes their prices so much higher you are embarrassed to even mention them again. Buy something from him on the cheap, and he will show you exactly what cheap is. And perhaps most frustrating of all, Mr. Market has no ego ? he does not care about being right or wrong; he only exists to separate the rubes from their money.
Institutional Competitors
Yes, Mr. Market is a difficult opponent. But your next rivals are nearly as tough: They are everyone else buying or selling stocks.
Recall what Charles Ellis said when he was overseeing the $15-billion endowment fund at Yale University:
?Watch a pro football game, and it?s obvious the guys on the field are far faster, stronger and more willing to bear and inflict pain than you are. Surely you would say, ?I don?t want to play against those guys!?
Well, 90% of stock market volume is done by institutions, and half of that is done by the world?s 50 largest investment firms, deeply committed, vastly well prepared ? the smartest sons of bitches in the world working their tails off all day long. You know what? I don?t want to play against those guys either.?
Ellis lays out the brutal truth: investing is a rough and tumble business. It doesn?t matter where these traders work ? they may be on prop desks, mutual funds, hedge funds, or HFT shops ? they employ an array of professional staff and technological tools to give themselves a significant edge. With billions at risk, they deploy anything that gives them even a slight advantage.
These are who individuals are doing battle with. Armed only with a PC, an internet connection, and CNBC muted in the background, investors face daunting odds. They are at a tactical disadvantage, outmanned and outgunned.
We Have Met the Enemy and They Is Us
That is even before we meet your third opponent, perhaps the most difficult one to conquer of all:
You.
You are your own third opponent. And, you may be the opponent you understand the least of all three. It is more than time constraints, lack of discipline, and asymmetrical information that challenges you. The biggest disadvantage you have is that melon perched atop your 3rd opponent?s neck. It is your big ole brain, and unless you do something about it, it is going to lose all of your money for you.
See it? There. Sitting right behind your eyes and between your ears. That ?thing? you hardly pay any attention to. You just assume it knows what it?s doing, works properly, doesn?t make too many mistakes. I hate to disabuse you of those lovely notions; but no, sorry, it does not work nearly as well as you assume. At least, not when it comes to investing. The wiring is an historical remnant, hardly functional for modern living. It is overrun with desires, emotions, and blind spots. Its capacity for cognitive error is nearly endless. It was originally developed for entirely other purposes than risk assessment in capital markets. Indeed, when it comes to money, the way most investors use those 100 billion neurons or so of grey matter, they might as well not even bother using their brains at all.
Let me give you an example. Think of any year from 1990-2005. Off of the top of your head, take a guess how well your portfolio did that year. Write it down ? this is important (that big dumb brain of yours cannot be trusted to be honest with itself). Now, pull your statement from that year and calculate your gains or losses.
How?d you do? Was the reality as good as you remembered? This is a phenomenon called selective retention. When it comes to details like this, you actually remember what you want to, not what factually occurred. Try it again. Only this time, do it for this year ? 2011. Write it down.
Go pull up your YTD performance online. We?ll wait.
Well, how did you do? Not nearly as well as you imagined, right? Welcome to the human race. This sort of error is much more commonplace than you might imagine. If we ask any group of automobile owners how good their driving skills are, about 80% will say ?Above average.? The same applies to how well we evaluate our own investing skills. Most of us think we are above average, and nearly all of us believe we are better than we actually are.
(Despite having taken numerous high-performance driving courses and spending a lot of time on various race tracks, I am only an average driver. I know this because my wife reminds me constantly.)
As it turns out, there is a simple reason for this. The worse we are at any specific skill set, the harder it is for us to evaluate our own competency at it. This is called the Dunning?Kruger effect. This precise sort of cognitive deficit means that areas we are least skilled at ? let?s use investing decisions as an example ? also means we lack the ability to identify any investing shortcomings. As it turns out, the same skill set needed to be an outstanding investor is also necessary to have ?metacognition? ? the ability to objectively evaluate one?s own abilities. (This is also true in all other professions.)
Unlike Garrison Keillor?s Lake Wobegon, where all of the children are above average, the bell curve in investing is quite damning. By definition, all investors cannot be above average. Indeed, the odds are high that, like most investors, you will underperform the broad market this year. But it is more than just this year ? ?underperformance? is not merely a 2011 phenomenon. The statistics suggest that 4 out of 5 of you underperformed last year, and the same number will underperform next year, too.
Underperformance is not a disease suffered only by retail investors ? the pros succumb as well. In fact, about 4 out of 5 mutual fund managers underperform their benchmarks every year. These managers engage in many of the same errors that Main Street investors make. They overtrade, they engage in ?groupthink,? they freeze up, some have been even known to sell in a panic. (Do any of these sound familiar to you?)
These kinds of errors seem to be hardwired in us. Humans have evolved to survive in competitive conditions. We developed instincts and survival skills, and passed those on to our descendants. The genetic makeup of our species contains all sorts of elements that were honed over millions of years to give us an edge in surviving long enough to procreate and pass our genes along to our progeny. Our automatic reactions in times of panic are a result of that development arc.
This leads to a variety of problems when it comes to investing in equities: our instincts often betray us. To do well in the capital markets requires developing skills that very often are the opposite of what our survival instincts are telling us. Our emotions compound the problem, often compelling us to make changes at the worst possible times. The panic selling at market lows and greedy chasing as we head into tops are a reflection of these factors.
The sort of grinding market we had in 2011 only exacerbates investor aggravation, and therefore increases poor decision making. Facts and logic go out the window, and thinking gets replaced with naked emotions. We get annoyed, angry, frightened, frustrated ? and that does not help returns. Indeed, our evolutionary ?flight or fight? response developed for a reason ? it helped keep us alive out on the savannah. But the adrenaline necessary to fight a Cro-Magnon or flee from a sabre-toothed tiger does not help us in the capital markets. Indeed, study after study suggests our own wetware works against us; the emotions that helped keep us alive on the plains now hinder our investment performance.
The problem, as it turns out, lies primarily in those large mammalian brains of ours. Our wiring evolved for a specific set of survival challenges, most of which no longer exist. We have cognitive deficits that are by-products of that. Much of our decision making comes with cognitive errors ?secretly? built in. We are often unaware we even have these (for lack of a better word) defects. These cognitive foibles are one of the main reasons that, when it comes to investing, we humans just ain?t built for it.
We Are Tool Makers
But we are not helpless. These large mammalian brains of ours can do a whole lot more than merely overreact to stimulus. We think up new ideas, ponder new tools, and create new technologies. Indeed, our ability to innovate is one of the factors that separates us from the rest of the animal kingdom.
As investors, we can use our big brains to compensate for our known limitations. This means creating tools to help us make better decisions. When battling Mr. Market ? as tough as any Cro-Magnon or sabre-toothed tiger ? it helps to be able to make informed decisions coolly and objectively. If we can manage our emotions and prevent them from causing us to make decisions out of panic or greed, then our investing results will improve dramatically.
So stop being your own third opponent. Jiu jitsu yourself, and learn how to outwit your evolutionary legacy. Use that big ole melon for a change. You just might see some improvement in your portfolio performance.
Individual Investors Have Certain Advantages Over Institutions
One final thought. Smaller investors do not realize that they possess quite a few strategic advantages ? if only they would take advantage of them. Consider these small-investor pluses:
? No benchmark to meet quarterly (or monthly), so you can have longer-term time horizons and different goals; ? You can enter or exit a position without impacting markets; ? There is no public scrutiny of your holdings and no disclosures required, so you don?t have to worry about someone taking your ideas; ? You don?t have to limit yourself to just the largest stocks or worry about position size (this is huge); ? Cost structure, fees, and taxes are within your control; ? You can reverse errors without professional consequences ? you don?t get fired for admitting a mistake; ? You can have longer-term time horizons and different goals;
And with those thoughts, good luck and good trading in 2012!
~~~
This was originally published as part of a longer piece in?Thoughts from the Frontline exactly one year ago, on January 25, 2012.
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Public release date: 29-Jan-2013
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Social cells: The slime mold Dictyostelium discoideum spends much of its time as an apparently typical microscopic single-celled amoeba, oozing around in wet soil as it grazes on bacteria. Something truly odd happens, however, when the food runs out. Starving D. discoideum band together to form a conglomerate organism. A multicellular slug of sorts, the group grows into a spore-making tower, a beacon for sending amoebae out to richer grounds. The sudden lifestyle change is interesting enough, but the real evolutionary puzzle is the cells that make up the delicate stalk. They die without reproducing, which means cells at the top of the tower can turn into more effective spores. This form of altruistic sacrifice has fascinated biologists for decades. (It appears that related amoebae are more likely to group together, so even the dying cells get to pass on their genes.) Here is an organism that is both solitary and fully, suicidally social, a nearly perfect model creature for understanding how multicellular life emerged from the amoebae. In this shot, a slice through a culture dish, you can see a progression of slugs into towers.