Freely write what you think

YouTube has lifted a block on users viewing official music videos after the website reached an agreement with songwriters’ group PRS for Music.

In March, the service blocked thousands of music videos to UK users after failing to reach agreement over fees.

YouTube, owned by Google, is paying an undisclosed lump sum to PRS, backdated until January and lasting until 2012.

Adam Shaw from PRS for Music told the BBC that he was pleased that an agreement had finally been reached.

“We have 60,000 song-writer and composer members and many of them don’t earn very much money at all – 90% of them earn less then £5,000 a year,” he said.

“The money we receive is really their living.”

Sanctioned

YouTube’s decision in March theoretically blocked all premium music video content – owned by record labels – in the UK.

However, many fan videos and official videos continued to be available on the site, including some sanctioned by the record labels themselves.

If content owners start to see the video site as just another useful platform rather than a threat, then everyone can start making money

Rory Cellan-Jones
BBC’s technology correspondent

For example, EMI-owned Parlophone recently became the site’s most popular UK channel of the year, with 240 million hits, despite the ban.

However, YouTube said the “tens of thousands” of videos which had disappeared “will come back over the next few days”.

“The music videos are an extremely popular part of YouTube and this deal doesn’t only cover the music videos but also music included in TV programmes like the X Factor and also for the inclusion of music in user videos as well,” YouTube’s Patrick Walker told the BBC.

The deal will also mean that new material will appear on YouTube as the site signs partnerships with other record labels and guest editors introduce their favourite videos.

‘Outraged’

In the UK, PRS for Music acts on behalf of member publishers as a collecting society for licensing fees relating to the use of music.

At the start of the row Mr Walker told the BBC that PRS was seeking a rise in fees “many, many factors” higher than the previous agreement.

He said the two were “so far apart” that YouTube had no choice but to remove content while negotiations continued.

If the public can access videos for free, and the artist still gets paid then it sounds like everyone’s a winner

Richard Hill, Birmingham

At the time, Steve Porter, head of PRS, said he was “outraged… shocked and disappointed” by the decision.

He said the move “punishes British consumers and the songwriters whose interests we protect and represent”.

The Music Publishers Association (MPA) joined PRS in urging Google to rethink, while Lord Carter, who was the UK’s minister for communications, technology and broadcasting, also waded into the debate.

Giving evidence before the Business Select Committee, the minister said he suspected a degree of “commercial posturing on the part of both parties” but said the row was indicative of a wider issue.

YouTube is the world’s most popular online video site but has been under increased pressure to generate more revenue since its purchase by Google for $1.65bn (then £875m) in 2006.

Services such as Pandora.com, MySpace UK and Imeem have also had issues securing licensing deals in the UK in the past 12 months.

SOURCE: BBC News

Each of us has at least 100 new mutations in our DNA, according to research published in the journal Current Biology.

Scientists have been trying to get an accurate estimate of the mutation rate for over 70 years.

However, only now has it been possible to get a reliable estimate, thanks to “next generation” technology for genetic sequencing.

The findings may lead to new treatments and insights into our evolution.

In 1935, one of the founders of modern genetics, JBS Haldane, studied a group of men with the blood disease haemophilia. He speculated that there would be about 150 new mutations in each of us.

Others have since looked at DNA in chimpanzees to try to produce general estimates for humans.

However, next generation sequencing technology has enabled the scientists to produce a far more direct and reliable estimate.

They looked at thousands of genes in the Y chromosomes of two Chinese men. They knew the men were distantly related, having shared a common ancestor who was born in 1805.

By looking at the number of differences between the two men, and the size of the human genome, they were able to come up with an estimate of between 100 and 200 new mutations per person.

Impressively, it seems that Haldane was right all along.

Unimaginable

One of the scientists, Dr Yali Xue from the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute in Cambridgeshire, said: “The amount of data we generated would have been unimaginable just a few years ago.

“And finding this tiny number of mutations was more difficult than finding an ant’s egg in an emperor’s rice store.”

New mutations can occasionally lead to severe diseases like cancer. It is hoped that the findings may lead to new ways to reduce mutations and provide insights into human evolution.

Joseph Nadeau, from the Case Western Reserve University in the US, who was not involved in this study said: “New mutations are the source of inherited variation, some of which can lead to disease and dysfunction, and some of which determine the nature and pace of evolutionary change.

“These are exciting times,” he added.

“We are finally obtaining good reliable estimates of genetic features that are urgently needed to understand who we are genetically.”

SOURCE: BBC News

Seven-figure top lines abound — if not in the most obvious places.

Best friends Adrian Salamunovic and Nazim Ahmed weren’t looking for the next million-dollar idea. They were just two guys hanging out on a Friday night, enjoying a good bottle of wine, when the light bulb went on.

Ahmed worked for Bio-Rad, which markets DNA-imaging equipment. Salamunovic noticed Bio-Rad’s brochure on the table and to his untrained eye, the images looked like art.

Turns out others saw it that way too. Smelling opportunity, in 2005 the twosome plunked down $2,000 in savings for initial prints and a Web site to feature their work; they outsourced DNA imaging to a DNA-extraction lab in Montreal. Working out of Ahmed’s apartment, they sold a few prints to family and friends. As the work caught on, they were invited to showcase at an Absolut Vodka-sponsored party in Ottawa’s SOHO neighborhood. The new company, called DNA 11, sold $40,000 worth of art in the first month. An 8″x10″ mini-DNA portrait goes for $200, while a 36″x54″ wall canvas garners $1,300. The Museum of Modern Art features DNA 11 art in its museum stores in New York and Tokyo. The company’s revenue in 2008: $1.4 million.

Have a nutty idea for a business? It just might work. For inspiration (and even a few chuckles), we went looking for small companies that pull in at least $1 million in annual revenue in unexpected ways. Look hard enough and they are legion. So before you toss that nutty idea aside, check out some entrepreneurs who didn’t. Here are a few highlights from our search.

1. Fairy Tales Hair Care
Passaic, N.J.

Entrepreneur: Risa Barash, 43
Product/Service: Head-lice prevention shampoos and conditioners
Start Date: 1999
Start-up Costs: $1,000
Revenue in 2008: $6 million

Business ideas come from anyone, anywhere, anytime. In 1999, Risa Barash, a 33-year-old stand-up comic, heard from her then-fiancé’s cousin (got that?) about a rash of head lice cases at his Hewlett, N.Y.-based children’s salon. After doing some research (including a lot of chatting with relatives in Israel, where head lice was a big problem), Barash hit upon an organic preventative shampoo, as opposed to chemical-based products applied only after the louse has taken up residence. Her big break came one morning while watching The Rosie O’Donnell Show — Rosie was lamenting her own children’s lice outbreak. Barash wrote a letter (in the voice of a fellow well-known comic), walked over to the NBC studio and told the security guard she was delivering some hair products for O’Donnell’s kids. The next day, Fairy Tales Hair Care’s Rosemary Repel Shampoo was the talk of the show.

2. The Fiero Store
Stafford Springs, Conn.

Entrepreneur: Matthew Hartzog, 32
Product/Service: Parts and accessories for the Pontiac Fiero
Start Date: 1991
Start-up Costs: $5,000
Revenue in 2008: $2.3 million

Matthew Hartzog, 32, spent his teenage summers and school breaks working for his stepfather selling parts and accessories for GM Opels. But the long-defunct, two-seat, mid-engine Fiero was where his heart lay. Approximately 370,000 Fieros rolled off the lines between 1984 and 1988 before Pontiac stopped producing the car; less than 75,000 are currently registered in the U.S. Keeping them purring proved a tidy little business. Fanatics make great customers.

3. Jimmy Beans Wool
Reno, Nev.

Entrepreneur: Laura Zander, 35
Product/Service: Knitting and crochet supplies
Start Date: 2002
Start-up Costs: $30,000
Revenue in 2008: $2.1 million

Laid off from her software engineering gig, Laura Zander decided to open a yarn store with her husband Doug in 2002. They plowed $30,000 into hanks of yarn, a Web site and a lease on a new store in Truckee, Calif. Good timing: The knitting market spiked in 2003 after a few celebrities, such as Julia Roberts and Vanna White, were seen knitting and crocheting. Zander found success with walk-in customers; she could teach them how to knit in less than five minutes, and many walked away with $100 worth of novelty yarns, enough to make five scarves, a fashion craze at the time. Zander, 35, now boasts an average of 20,000 customers per month, mostly through the Web site.

4. PetRelocation.com
Austin, Texas
Entrepreneur: Kevin O’Brien, 34, and Angie O’Brien, 34
Product/Service: Pet travel
Start Date: 2004
Start-up Costs: $97,000
Revenue in 2008: $2.5 million

“Pets aren’t just household goods — they’re beings, just like people are.” Such is the mantra of Kevin and Angie O’Brien, the husband-and-wife team who sold a doggy day-care business to get into the pet-moving game. They invested $97,000 of the proceeds in a new van, Google ads, a Web site, a USDA-backed carriers and intermediate handlers license (allowing the couple to transport animals over state lines) and a $300 membership to IPATA, an international trade association of animal handlers. The couple says it can move any live animal, anywhere around in world — say, a dog from Seattle to Shanghai, mole rats from South Africa to San Antonio and dart frogs from Switzerland to the U.S. It’s a turn-key service, covering airline bookings, blood tests, vet check-ups, logistics, customs and quarantine. The company expects to pull in $3.5 million in revenue this year, has been debt free since day one and turned a profit in its second month.

5. DNA 11,
Ottawa, Ontario

Entrepreneurs: Adrian Salamunovic, 33, and Nazim Ahmed, 33
Product/Service: DNA artwork
Start Date: 2005
Start-up Costs: $2,000
Revenue in 2008: $1.4 million

Best friends Salamunovic and Ahmed blend science and medicine with modern art–and make money doing it. With a simple cheek swab, they can collect enough organic matter to create an image of human DNA using specialized equipment, similar to the machines Ahmed used to sell for a Canadian biotech firm. Working out of Ahmed’s apartment, the twosome sold a few prints to family and friends, and were invited to showcase their work at an Absolut Vodka-sponsored party in Ottawa’s SOHO neighborhood. They sold $40,000 worth of art in the first month. An 8″x10″ mini-DNA portrait goes for $200, while a 36″x54″ wall canvas garners $1,300. The Museum of Modern Art features DNA 11 art in its museum stores in New York and Tokyo.

SOURCE: Forbes.com

A French climber known as Spiderman for his amazing feats has climbed one of the world’s tallest buildings, in Malaysia, on his third attempt.

Witnesses said it took Alain Robert, 47, just over two hours to complete his ascent of the 88-storey Tower Two of the Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur.

He has scaled many of the tallest buildings, using no safety equipment.

Mr Robert was reported to have been arrested for trespassing on completing the feat.

Mr Robert began his climb of the 452m (1,483ft) tower before dawn, after apparently eluding security, and reached the top by 0730 local time.

Once there, he unfurled a Malaysian flag and waved his arms in celebration.

“He climbed using his bare hands and reached the top very fast as no security personnel noticed him or stopped him,” said Ee Wee Kiat, a cameraman who filmed the ascent.

‘A bit stubborn’

It was Mr Robert’s third attempt to conquer the Petronas Towers, the third tallest building in the world.

On both previous occasions – in March 1997 and again in 2007 – he was arrested on reaching the 60th floor but released without charge.

“With due respect to Malaysia, I came to finish something,” he told news agency Reuters before he set out.

“Climbing the Petronas all the way to the top is one of my dreams,” he said, describing himself as determined but also “a little bit stubborn”.

Mr Robert was reported to have been detained by Malaysian police as he went back into the building on the 88th floor.

Kuala Lumpur police chief Muhammad Sabtu Osman said he could be charged with criminal trespass.

“He climbed the building without a permit from the management,” he told the AFP news agency.

Mr Robert has climbed more than 70 buildings in his career, always without ropes, and has had several serious falls, resulting in fractures and operations.

In February this year, he scaled the 62-storey Cheung Kong Centre in Hong Kong to draw attention to the issue of climate change.

He has also conquered the Eiffel Tower in Paris, the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco and Taipei 101 in Taiwan, which at the time was the tallest in the world.

SOURCE: BBC News

I just found something that might be interesting to read and learn. This is from a bible quote, telling about “Love”.

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when perfection comes, the imperfect disappears. When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me. Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.

And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.

Enjoy reading and understanding the meaning of this Bible passage.

Imbibing some of the best, the worst and the oddest beverages to be had in Shibuya

My Little Pony and Throbbing Gristle make strange bedfellows. No, not in that way. The plastic horse and a poster of the industrial noiseniks both decorate Shirokuma, a funny little bar on Shibuya’s Center Gai.

Give a kindergarten art class a room, some pocket money and a buffet of hallucinogens, and you’d get something like Shirokuma.

Hand-cut cardboard stars dangle from the ceiling; 8-bit Nintendos have been glued to the wall. Stuffed toys hang like victims of a lynching; a stuffed squirrel probably was lynched. Technics 1200s incongruously share a DJ booth with a collection of bootleg cassette tapes. The toilet is devoted to Fuss, a hand-sketched character that makes Hello Kitty seem photo-realistic.

You could recreate the look with a visit to a flea market, a rummage in your gran’s attic and a bump on the head.

“This is the New Aesthetic,” said Donald, my deep-thinking drinking companion and, until recently, the editor of this column. Donald sees profundity where others might not.

It’s not really the New Aesthetic. It’s just a couple of girls having fun with colors and scissors.

And drinks. At Shirokuma, it’s out with the whisky, vodka, gin and brandy bases, in with the Dita, amaretto, Malibu and Tiffin. I thought Tiffin was an understudy that never gets called, but here it is the star of the show.

“I’ll have a Jack and ginger,” said another former Times editor.

“Sorry, we don’t have Jack Daniel’s.”

“Whisky and ginger ale?”

“We don’t have whisky.”

I suggested some Tiffin. Whoever composed the menu either hasn’t been to any other bars or finds their uniformity perplexing. After a few nights here, I’m starting to agree. The drinks are as kooky as the setting: umeshu beer, apricot-jam beer, Denki Bran cola — but some are surprisingly good.

The umeshu beer is different each time you order it. Sometimes it’s a fruity beer, other times a beery umeshu. Sometimes it has an unripe plum in the glass, sometimes not. When it’s a fruity beer, without the plum, it’s great.

A honey-ginger beer is a Yebisu packed with root ginger and an imperceptible dash of honey. Sometimes it contains slices of ginger, sometimes not. Either way, it’s refreshing. In 18th-century England, ginger beer meant a beer with ginger. The revival starts here.

The apricot-jam beer works better on paper than in practice, and let’s be honest, it sounds terrible on paper.

The yuzu vodka tasted neither of citrus fruit nor vodka, and the Denki Bran cola — a blend of brandy, gin, wine, vermouth, curacao and herbs mixed with cola — was better than it sounds but weaker than it should have been. Perhaps the young, girly crowd enjoy light drinks.

This is part two of the Center Gai bar crawl that began in last month’s column. Part one was a journey of fine cocktails and rare single malts. The return trip is a little bumpier.

Across the street from Shirokuma is Standing Lounge O. Last year, an acquaintance took me to this basement bar. I haven’t been drinking with him since. From the outside it looks like an S&M club, and in a sense it is. Only a masochist would drink here.

“My drink tastes like diesel,” complained Will the photographer. He had ordered a Tom Cat, one of the bar’s many original cocktails. It combines overproof rum, cranberry, lemon and sugar into a liquid that indeed resembles some form of petroleum.

“It’s not as bad as mine,” said Donald the deep thinker. He was drinking a Maridor, which, according to the bartender, is a Matador with more tequila.

O’s bartenders understand what so few others do: Cocktails aren’t a finely balanced medley of ingredients, but rather a core of goodness diluted by superfluous mixers. If a Matador is good, a Maridor must be better.

“I think that’s possibly the worst drink I’ve had in Tokyo,” said the snapper, after tasting the Matador suplementario. I’ve had worse, but not for a while.

To be fair, the bar serves recession- cheap shochu and beer. But so do convenience stores, and they have a better atmosphere.

Head instead to The Aldgate, a faux English pub with 19 beers on tap and Samuel Smiths by the bottle. A sign declares this the home of the world’s greatest rock collection. It’s a bold and mendacious claim, but the place does have a lot of records.

The Aldgate was a straight-up rock bar for its first six years, before restyling itself as a pub eight years ago. The transformation was meticulous; there’s Marmite on the menu and Princess Di on the mantelpiece. Menus are written in sterling, though you can’t pay in pounds and the prices are fictional.

The taps dispense everything from pilsners to IPAs to stouts, mainly craft brews selected by owner Hiroyuki Hanaka. For malt and hops in Shibuya, this is as good as it gets.

There’s something else about The Aldgate. It’s not a roaring, gregarious pub atmosphere, but the staff are chipper, earnest and eager to please. The music, menu and beers might be British, but the service is way off the mark.

A couple of blocks south is The Oil. It specializes in Jack Daniel’s, Guinness and rock music. It has fake retro ads and neon signs. The first time I entered, there were two old timers nodding their heads to prog rock. It’s the antithesis of everything I like.

But I loved it. The bar thrives on the charisma of the boss, Shu.

“You should be ashamed of such lousy Japanese” was his unorthodox greeting on my first visit, and I warmed to him immediately. Shu loves Jack Daniel’s. I don’t. We can agree to disagree.

From The Oil you could round off the night in Gas Panic, a basement pit that serves Negro Modelo and plays Rihanna loudly enough to make your bones vibrate. Or head back to Correos, where the crawl began, for a nightcap.

SOURCE: The Japan Times Online

Last week, Google was forced to reveal the electronic identity of an anonymous blogger who had defamed an international cover girl online. While cyber victims welcome the move, some Internet users are outraged at the invasion of online privacy.

UNTIL recently, few people had heard of Liskula Cohen even though she has appeared on past covers of European Vogue and Elle.

Last week, the blonde Canadian-born model made the headlines in the US media and became a household name on the Internet and in the fashion world when she won a court case to compel Google to reveal the IP and e-mail addresses of an anonymous blogger who called her a “skank”.

Google initially refused to unmask the blogger, whom Cohen, 37, claimed defamed her by posting words like “skanky”, “ho”, and “whoring” beneath unflattering photographs of her. (The Urban Dictionary describes skank as a derogatory term implying trashiness or tackiness, lower-class status or promiscuity).

On Aug 18, a Manhattan Supreme Court judge ruled that a blogger cannot hide behind a web of anonymity while flinging ugly words at somebody online. Google did not appeal and proceded to hand over the electronic identity of the anonymous blogger.

In a statement, the company said: “We sympathise with anyone who may be the victim of cyber-bullying. We also take great care to respect privacy concerns and will only provide information about a user in response to a subpoena or other court order.”

It did not divulge the blogger’s name, though, saying it did not have it.

The electronic identity was good enough for Cohen to conduct her own investigation. Within a day, the anonymous skank-blogger had been unmasked: she turned out to be a brunette beauty from Florida, Rosemary Port, whom Cohen knew for three years and had met socially a few times.

Cohen is now entitled to file a defamation suit against her “frenemy”. She initially wanted to sue Port for US$3mil (RM10.6mil) but decided to be magnanimous and changed her mind.

The story goes that Port, a 29-year-old former nightclub hostess, was hurt and angry when Cohen allegedly gossiped about Port to her boyfriend.

In August last year, Port set up “Skanks in New York” on Google’s Blogger.com which she used to blast the former cover girl. Cohen was the only person featured on the website.

The blogsite was ordered by the court to be taken down in March this year after Cohen sued Google and the then anonymous blogger in January demanding to know the site creator’s identity.

While some quarters have dismissed the feud between the two women as a petty catfight that had wasted precious court time, there is concern the case has far reaching implications on bloggers who wish to remain anonymous.

Blogger Stan Schroeder believes the court decision would make people think twice about posting offensive posts and comments about someone, as they would no longer be protected by a shroud of anonymity.

“On the other hand, it might trigger a flood of similar lawsuits, perhaps for trivial reasons, which can in turn have serious implications on everyone’s online privacy,” he opined.

Michael Roberts, who calls himself an Internet Libel Survivor, is all for the victim seeking justice.

“The point is that defamation hurts the subject of a libel. Most of the population believe that these types of issues are petty and shouldn’t be clogging up the justice system,” said Roberts, an e-libel victim’s advocate.

“With all due respect to those who flippantly dismiss Internet libel as a petty issue, until you have personally experienced the 24/7 harassment and persistence presence of horrible things being said about you for all the world to see, you simply will not be able to relate to how debilitating and painful it can be.”

The Committee to Protect Bloggers however criticised the “skank” ruling, saying it would open the doors for countless others, including political and business interests out to silence legitimate critics through the threat of expensive legal challenges.

“The result highlights what bloggers need to pay more attention to: the law, how it applies to them and what they plan to do with their online writing,” the committee said in its blog.

“Those who will be putting their names to their writing would do well to peruse the links on this website regarding blogger’s rights, free speech, libel and copyright.”

CNBC.com managing editor Allen Wastler felt the interesting court decision had some potential to change the blogosphere.

He admitted that he got a “little riled” when mainstream media – in comparison to blogs – got tagged for not being tough or hard on certain people or subjects.

“Hey, I could be the roughest, toughest bully Corporate America has ever seen … if I could be anonymous and not worry about threatening calls from lawyers,” he wrote.

“But when you work for a newspaper, a TV network, or an established Net news site, you have to follow the journalistic rules: you back things up, with your identity and your reporting … or you get sued.

“Now some bloggers, anonymous and otherwise, may get a taste of that legal repercussion.”

Cohen’s lawyer, Steven Wagner, said he hoped the decision would send a message to bloggers, Twitterers, and whoever else using the anonymity of the Internet for “cowardly defamation”.

“The rules for defamation for actual reality as well as virtual reality are the same,” Wagner said. “The Internet is not a free-for-all.”

When asked why she persisted with the case, Cohen, interviewed by Diane Sawyer on Good Morning America, snapped: “Why should anybody let it go? If somebody attacks somebody on the street, you’re not going to let it go … why should I just ignore it? I couldn’t find one reason to ignore it.”

In another interview with a New York tabloid last week, Cohen shared: “I’m a human being. I bleed. I have feelings. When I saw that blog … it was awful.”

Port meanwhile is crying foul over the revelation of her identity. “I’m shocked that my right to privacy has been tampered with,” she said in a statement.

Her lawyer Sal Strazzullo said his client did not regret the blog but regretted the court’s decision that her identity be revealed.

If Google had thought the matter would rest after the Cohen suit, they couldn’t be more wrong. Port’s lawyer has indicated they plan to sue Google.

SOURCE: The Star Online

A 17-year-old boy on Thursday became the youngest person to sail solo around the world with assistance, as he entered British waters after 156 days at sea.

A 17-year-old boy on Thursday became the youngest person to sail solo around the world with assistance, as he entered British waters after 156 days at sea.

Mike Perham crossed the finishing line between Lizard Point, the most southerly point in the country, and Ushant in northern France, in his 50-feet yacht shortly before 10:00am, escorted by a Royal Navy guard ship.

“I’ve made it, I’ve made my dream come true and it feels amazing,” he said.

His father Peter, who climbed on board after his son had crossed the line for the final two-day sail into Portsmouth, said: “Mike is a very special son, he has done incredibly well.

“He has shown that with determination, you can succeed even in the most adverse circumstances.”

Mike hoped to complete the challenge non-stop, but problems with his boat’s rudder and other hitches forced him to pull into port three times, meaning his world record is the youngest solo circumnavigation with assistance.

He took the record aged 17 years and 164 days, two months younger than Zac Sunderland, an American who completed his voyage last month.

Guinness World Records must still verify the record, but its editor-in-chief, Craig Glenday, said: “Even the most experienced of sailors would be tested by the mental and physical stamina required to achieve a record of this magnitude.

“Mike achieved it at a young age and this is a testament to his courage and unparalleled sense of adventure.”

At an age when most of his peers are still at school, Mike set off in November for a voyage that took him via Portugal, the Canaries, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand and celebrated his 17th birthday on the Indian Ocean in March.

His route also took him via the Panama Canal after he missed the weather window to sail around Cape Horn at the southern tip of South America.

Mike frequently had to carry out repairs to his battered yacht during the voyage and he ate almost constantly to keep his strength up.

His success comes as social workers in the Netherlands have taken action to prevent 13-year-old Laura Dekkers from trying to break the same record.

They want to strip her parents, who support their daughter’s plans, of parental rights and have her declared a ward of court to stop her setting sail.

According to Guinness World Records, the youngest person to circumnavigate the globe, sailing solo, non-stop and unsupported is Jesse Martin, of Australia.

He sailed from Melbourne, Australia, on December 8, 1998 aged 18 years 104 days and returned on October 31 1999, taking 327 days 12 hours 52 minutes.

SOURCE: MSN News

Adult video broadcaster’s take on a top television fundraiser trains a spotlight on Japan’s growing HIV problem

It is no surprise that an adult entertainment broadcaster would be concerned about the spread of the HIV virus and AIDS. But for one satellite channel in Japan known for silly parodies and wacky porn programming, that concern goes beyond immediate commercial interests — to trying to reverse wilting media attention on these debilitating illnesses even as they affect more lives in our communities.

“A decade ago, the AIDS issue was a priority in all media around the world,” says Paradise TV President Tsuyoshi Shiba from his office in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward. “But now global warming — and its consequences, such as rising sea levels — is the main topic. Of course, that is important, but AIDS directly impacts our lives now.”

The channel’s response is “24-Hour TV: Eroticism Saves the Earth,” a telethon to raise funds to combat the growing incidence of HIV/AIDS in Japan.

Starting Saturday evening and continuing through Sunday on satellite network Sky PerfecTV!, the event, in its seventh year, will feature a mix of in-studio attractions and live and recorded shows produced by Paradise TV, whose content includes news broadcasts in which the female anchorwomen are naked and sex-toy shopping segments.

The drive’s title is a stab at major broadcaster Nippon Television’s telethon “24-Hour TV: Love Saves the Earth,” which is transmitted live from Tokyo’s Budokan Hall on the same weekend and raised more than ¥1 billion for environmental causes last year.

Critics might deem Paradise’s satirical approach to be in poor taste, but Shiba begs to differ. “Paradise TV’s main concept is that we have to make things fun,” he says. “If the issue is serious, we still have to do it in our own way. A deep, dramatic theme is NTV’s thing. For us, we are happy that we can present an opportunity for discussions relating to AIDS to take place.”

Last year, the marquee draw for Paradise’s telethon gave viewers a chance for viewers to visit station headquarters, enter a special booth and fondle either the buttocks or breasts of two noted actresses five times for a suggested offering of ¥1,000. Returning this year will be a similar attraction but with three ladies — Mami Hoshikawa, Rika Shibuya and Yuna Hirose, collectively dubbed “Nyus” — offering up only their chests for the cause. (It is worth noting that “Nyus,” written with the kanji character for “breast,” is a play on words with the talent agency Johnny’s Jimusho six-member J-pop act NEWS, who are scheduled to appear on the NTV program.)

Over the two days, Paradise’s programming, which encourages contributions by phone or via the Web, will include five of the station’s female newsreaders (disrobed, of course) testing viewers’ sex knowledge by phone, women’s sumo wrestling (perhaps surprisingly, with clothed participants — albeit in traditional fundoshi [underwear]) and 24 hours of phone sex — which will upend convention, so to speak, as male callers try to arouse a selection of female receptionists in the studio into erotic bliss.

Additional funds will be collected through the auction of undergarments worn by popular AV (porn) actresses. In past years, similar on-air sales have topped ¥50,000.

Those making donations at the studios will receive condoms and red bracelets imprinted with AIDS-awareness slogans.

The event’s promotional graphic, penned by Yoshikazu Ebisu, is a cartoon of a bikini-wearing woman atop Mount Fuji exclaiming the campaign’s recurring message: “STOP! AIDS.” Last year, the same slogan appeared along with the famous manga character Machiko Sensei from a 2006 work by famed artist Go Nagai, which showed a female emerging from the end of a condom.

A lack of condom use and the rising frequency of new sex partners are reasons experts have cited for the higher number of HIV and AIDS cases in Japan. New HIV infections reached a record 1,126 in 2008, according to the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry. The number of AIDS cases over the same period was 431, bringing the combined total to 1,557 — also an all-time high.

This continues a trend in which reported HIV infections have generally risen since 1996. However, there is one positive within the demographic breakdown of infections, explains the Japan Foundation for AIDS Prevention, which supports the telethon again this year.

“The number of cases within the general population is not rising,” says Yasushi Sawazaki, director of the program operation section at JFAP. “Over the last five or six years, more than 60 percent of new HIV cases were as a result of men having sex with men.”

The overall situation remains of great concern, however, maintains Sawazaki. The foundation focuses much of its efforts on educating the gay population, which in Tokyo means working with committees that hand out condoms in bars in the gay quarter of Shinjuku 2-chome. The group also attempts to reach out to commercial sex workers and minorities that might not have access to adequate HIV information.

“Young people and teenagers will learn the basics about HIV in school,” Sawazaki explains. “But HIV is an issue related to sexual behavior. . . . We have to intervene and link knowledge to behavior.”

Actress agencies require that girls undergo HIV checks once every three to six months. Most male stars are hired on a freelance basis and are tested independently. Paradise requires all actors to wear protection during regular filming. “It is just a matter of common sense within the adult video field,” says Shinichiro Fukuyama, a Paradise representative. “We have to do it to protect the bodies of the actresses.”

Shiba is committed to continuing the pledge drive into the future, saying that it is a rare chance to show a positive side to the adult entertainment business.

“I feel that in taking a stance on the AIDS problem, we can convey that we are concerned with important issues shaping the world today,” he says.

Last year, the telethon raised a total of about ¥2 million. Besting that sum is not a concern for Shiba.

“The donation amount is not a priority,” he explains. “We think that raising awareness (about HIV and AIDS) among as many people as possible is the point. We have to help make some noise in Japan. That is what motivates us.”

“24-Hour TV: Eroticism Saves the Earth” will air from 7 p.m. Saturday until 8 p.m. Sunday on Sky PerfecTV! channel 913. Brett Bull is editor in chief of online magazine The Tokyo Reporter (www.tokyoreporter.com). He can be reached at captain.japan@gmail.com

SOURCE: The Japan Times Online

French consumer groups are investigating reports of iPhones that explode or crack spontaneously.

An 80-year-old from the Paris suburbs was among eight people who said their phones’ screens were affected, according to the AFP news agency.

Consumers in the UK, Holland and Sweden have reported similar problems, prompting an earlier EU investigation.

Apple said it was aware of the reports and was waiting to receive the handsets from the affected customers.

The firm has been accused of trying to hush-up cases of iPhones and iPods heating up or bursting into flames in the US and the UK.

Ken Stanborough and his daughter, from Liverpool, have accused the firm of trying to silence them with a gagging order after the child’s iPod exploded and the family sought a refund.

Apple reportedly offered to pay the money to Mr Stanborough, but only if he kept the terms of the settlement confidential.

It has been reported that the device’s lithium ion batteries could be the source of the problem.

European alert

In the latest case, Rolland Caufman, a pensioner from a Paris suburb, said his iPhone screen had broken up without explanation in July, the week after he bought it.

“I took it out of my pocket and held it to my ear and saw the screen crack up like a car windscreen,” he told AFP.

We are waiting to receive the iPhones from the customers
Alan Hely, Apple

Mr Caufman has since been issued a replacement phone.

However, there have been other, similar reports.

On Tuesday, a 26-year-old security guard claimed he was hit in the eye with a glass shard when his Iphone screen cracked up.

He has said he would seek a full refund and file suit for damages.

The incidents have prompted investigations by French consumer affairs groups.

“An investigation is under way. We have been alerted to the problem and we are looking into it closely,” said a spokesman from watchdog DGCCRF.

The European Commission has also asked the 27 EU nations to keep it informed of any problems, under its Rapex scheme.

Rapex is the EU rapid alert system for dangerous consumer products.

The system issue alerts for multiple products every week, sometimes leading to mass product recalls, but often with no consequence.

Apple, which has sold 26 million iPhones and 200 million iPods to date, said it was aware of the reports.

“We are waiting to receive the iPhones from the customers,” said Alan Hely, head of European Communications for Apple.

“Until we have the full details, we don’t have anything further to add.”

SOURCE: BBC News