Entrepreneur's Guide Names Just For Small Business To Top 10 Blogs

Blogs aren't just for news anymore. They've become a critical
communication tool for small business owners. That's the approach
Small Business Expert Denise O'Berry took when she launched her small
business tips blog "Just for Small Business" --
http://www.justforsmallbusiness.com -- a year ago. This week, "Just
for Small Business" was named as one of the Top 10 Most Practical
Blogs for Entrepreneurs.

Just for Small Business is "Full of thought-provoking tips for small
business owners. The topics are often unexpected - not your usual
small business fare," said Scott Allen, Entrepreneur's Guide at
About.com.

WebLogReview.com agrees that the blog is an invaluable resource for
small business owners:

"The 'Just for Small Business' blog contains great information for
those in small business. Anyone running a business of any size could
benefit from the wisdom and examples in this blog. It takes just a few
minutes to read a month of entries. The information could potentially
make a major different in the success, or failure of one's business.

Each entry has some tidbit of useful information to share to help
business owners in various areas such as staffing, planning,
proposals, marketing, taxes, etc. The writing is straightforward and
accessible for all readers; even those outside of business may find
some benefit to reading this blog.

The solid content in 'Just for Small Business' makes it an impressive
resource for anyone interested in improving their bottom line. Even
the casual non-business reader may enjoy some of the examples O'Berry
provides. Bottom line: An accessible, easy to read resource that
should be mandatory reading for every small business owner.

The sheer volume of links to resource material makes it an invaluable
tool for anyone who owns or will possibly own a small business. If you
follow the advice O'Berry gives, perhaps your small business will not
fail. Spread the word to your small business friends to check out this
blog. I honestly don't believe you'll find a more comprehensive site
out there on this subject."

"I'm honored to have my blog included in the Top 10 Most Practical
Blogs for Entrepreneurs," says O'Berry. "My objective is to help other
small business owners succeed. I know they have only a short amount of
time each day to add one more thing to their list of things to do.
Just for Small Business provides meaty tips that can help them improve
without taking forever to digest."

For a complete look at the Top 10 Most Practical Blogs for
Entrepreneurs list, visit
http://entrepreneurs.about.com/b/a/213119.htm

About Denise O'Berry:

With more than two decades of operational and management experience,

Denise O'Berry has developed a sharp eye for how businesses get
bloated with inefficiencies, cross-purposes and miscommunication --
and how they can retool for a sleeker, smoother, strategically focused
organization. An entrepreneur who quickly built her own successful
consulting business, she helps other small business owners set
priorities, take action to grow their business and create the balance
they want between life and work. Her clients have ranged from
telecommunications giants like Verizon to Mom-and-Pop retail shops
with a primary focus on those having 10 or fewer employees and up to
$2.5 million in annual sales.

Denise frequently speaks to professional organizations, is the author
of three booklets, and several "how-to" manuals. She writes a weekly
small business column, hosts an online small business owner's forum
and is called upon regularly by publications such as Entrepreneur,
Bank Rate Small Business, Florida Trend, Inc., various newspapers,
radio and television to provide expert comments on small business
issues.

www.emediawire.com

Ibis Technology wins third i2000 order

Danvers-based Ibis Technology Corp. has received an order for an Ibis
i2000 oxygen implanter from SUMCO, a Japanese manufacturer of silicon
wafers, valued at approximately $7 million.

This is the second i2000 implanter purchased by SUMCO. In addition,
Ibis has completed a purchase agreement with SUMCO that will govern
the general contractual terms of all future SUMCO orders.

Ibis has received three orders to date from wafer manufacturers for an
i2000 implanter, the first having been placed last year by an unnamed
chipmaker in the United States. That deal was worth &8 million, and
the first SUMCO order was valued at $6 million.

Ibis officials say they expect to ship the system at the end of the
first quarter of 2006 depending on customer acceptance of the tool at
Ibis' facility.

The Ibis i2000 oxygen implanter is designed to be a high-throughput,
high-volume production tool for manufacturing 300-millimeter
Silicon-on-Insulator (SOI) wafers. Silicon-on-Insulator (SOI) is a
manufacturing technology where an insulating layer is created within a
silicon wafer, isolating the top layer of silicon where the active
transistors will be manufactured from the rest of the bulk silicon
wafer.

Ibis Technology stock was trading at mid-morning for $1.81, up 36
cents from its close yesterday.

www.masshightech.com

Cancer expo to emphasize early detection

Could a bowl of minestrone soup or Manhattan clam chowder lower a
man's risk for prostate cancer?

The American Journal of Epidemiology reports that lycopene, an
antioxidant found in cooked tomato products, may contribute to a
decreased risk for the disease.

"Italian-Americans and those with a Mediterranean diet, which has a
lot of tomato sauce in it, have a slightly lower incidence of prostate
cancer than other American men," said Dr. John Martin, a urologist
with offices in Poway and San Diego's Hillcrest neighborhood.

Each year, about 200,000 men are diagnosed with prostate cancer. There
are about 30,000 deaths from the disease annually.

Martin is one of several physicians who will discuss ways to detect
and prevent cancer during Palomar Pomerado Health's Collaborating
Against Cancer expo from 5 to 8:30 p.m. tomorrow at Carmel Mountain
Ranch Country Club.

The expo will include information about the risks of colon, breast,
prostate, skin, cervical, lung and other cancers. Exhibits, free
health screenings, a panel discussion and nutritional information will
be offered. The cost is $25 per person. A buffet dinner is included.

Japanese and Chinese men also have a significantly lower incidence of
prostate cancer than American men, Martin said. However,
Chinese-American and Japanese-American men are diagnosed with prostate
cancer at the same rate as American men.

Though the theory has not been proved, Martin said researchers believe
the reduction in prostate cancer among Asian men may be due to a diet
rich in soy and low in animal fat.

Regular screening and early detection of the disease have resulted in
an increased ability to treat it, he said.

"Early detection means having at least an annual blood test and a
digital rectal examination. We recommend that for every man over the
age of 50 and every man over the age of 40 who has a (family) history
of prostate cancer. ... If your father had prostate cancer, you have a
three times greater chance of developing it than someone who does
not."

Kay Kimball, manager of the cancer resource center at Palomar Medical
Center, said the conference is designed to provide the public with
information about preventing lesser-known cancers.

"October is breast cancer awareness month," Kimball said. "We wanted
to take advantage of the attention that's placed on breast cancer to
also provide information on other cancers that don't have a highly
publicized month of their own."

According to statistics published by the American Cancer Society, a
little fewer than one in two men and a little more than one in three
women will contract some form of cancer during their lifetime, Kimball
said.

"It's just imperative that people understand what the risk factors
are, the signs and symptoms, and become proactive in screening," she
said. "People need to learn what kind of screenings they need, because
they don't necessarily get them if they're not aware and asking for
them."

A registered dietitian at the expo will discuss the link between
nutrition and cancer. According to the American Cancer Society, about
a third of the 570,000 cancer deaths expected to occur this year will
be related to nutrition, obesity and physical inactivity.

Each paid admission to the expo will include a copy of "The New
American Plate: Recipes for Healthy Weight and a Healthy Life," by the
American Institute for Cancer Research. A blood cholesterol screening
is available for an additional $15.

www.signonsandiego.com

Juniper Launches VoIP Protection System

The hardware/software combo provides intrusion detection and
prevention, and allows enterprises to respond individually to
denial-of-service attacks.

Juniper Networks has announced a network security solution designed to
defend voice over IP (VoIP) systems from session initiation protocol
(SIP)-based attacks.

The Dynamic Threat Mitigation solution brings Juniper's routers and
intrusion detection and prevention (IDP) systems with its service
deployment system (SDX) to create a single unified security solution.
The solution mitigates SIP-based denial of service (DoS) attacks and
worms by allowing enterprises and providers to identify and respond to
them individually.

Juniper's IDP system identifies potential threats to the centralized
IDP Manager, which generates requests for action to the SDX. The SDX
invokes the appropriate response, applying rate limits and filters on
traffic flows. In the event that the IDP system detects an actual
infection, the SDX policy server can quarantine and notify the
affected user, redirecting him to a captive web portal

"With more services being pushed across the IP network, it is
essential to also maintain increased levels of security and control to
ensure services delivered to the enterprise or residential customer
are not compromised," Juniper Networks senior marketing manager of
voice solutions Scott Heinlein said.

"Juniper's combined use of intrusion detection and prevention with our
service deployment system is a natural and very useful progression
that provides threat protection to the edge without disrupting the
customer's environment or installing new equipment at the customer
location."

Juniper's Dynamic Threat Mitigation solution is being demonstrated
today and tomorrow at the Internet Telephony Conference and Expo in
Los Angeles. It requires Juniper's M-series or E-series router, IDP
and SDX products, and is available today.

www.informationweek.com

DaimlerChrysler bullish on U.S. prospects

A day after its Mercedes division helped it to forecast-beating
results, DaimlerChrysler

said on Wednesday that new products would help shield its U.S. arm
Chrysler from margin-eroding price wars.

Slugging it out with badgered U.S. rivals General Motors Corp and Ford
Motor Co while trying to fend off foreign competitors in the world's
biggest car market poses a major challenge for Chrysler, but one it
has mastered so far.

Chrysler's third-quarter operating profit gained 43 percent to 310
million euros ($374.5 million) million unit sales and revenues both up
12 percent despite the toughest market conditions in living memory. It
also maintained its operating margin, excluding one-off factors.

In a conference call with investors, group Chief Financial Officer
Bodo Uebber acknowledged Chrysler had faced slight downward pressure
on net prices in the third quarter, but added the pressure had been
worse in the first half of the year.

"Having all our new products out ... we can compete even better in the
fourth quarter" in terms of the prices Chrysler can command, he added.

Chrysler has outshone its U.S. rivals thanks to hot models like the
Chrysler 300 sedan, Jeep Grand Cherokee and minivans with stow-flat
seats.

It recently launched the "Mega Cab" version of its big Dodge Ram
pickup and the Jeep Commander with three rows of seats. Uebber said 10
new vehicles were due in 2006. These include the Dodge Caliber
mid-size car and the Dodge Nitro crossover.

Chrysler's performance and a rebound by the premium Mercedes Car Group
division helped the world's fifth-biggest carmaker report late on
Tuesday that third-quarter operating profit rose 38 percent to 1.84
billion euros, beating analysts' forecasts.

MERCEDES ON TRACK

Uebber said Mercedes was on track to reach the goal of boosting its
operating margin to 7 percent by 2007.

Mercedes was making progress with plans to reduce costs, boost
revenue, ensure quality and revamp the loss-making Smart small car
business, which Uebber reiterated was due to break even in 2007.

Long the group's cash machine, the division has been dogged this year
by the strong euro, model changeovers, spending to fix quality
problems at Mercedes-Benz and losses at Smart, which has responded by
cutting staff and its model line-up.

The quality offensive meant warranty costs would now start to decline,
Uebber said.

Mercedes' third-quarter operating profit increased 43 percent to 436
million euros as new models came onto the market and it wrung out
efficiency gains, cementing a rebound that began in the second quarter
after a rare first-quarter loss.

Slides on the company website also cited challenges "for 2005 and
ahead," including an "intensely competitive car market, especially in
the U.S.," a further rise in interest rates, high oil prices and
translation effects from foreign exchange rates.

DaimlerChrysler's foreign currency exposure for 2005 is "nearly fully"
hedged at 95 percent, Uebber said. It uses a three-year rolling plan
for hedging, and Daimler had already executed initial hedging
contracts for 2008, he said.

He thought the burden from higher raw material costs would rise
somewhat next year, but not nearly as much as in 2005 compared to
2004.

Shares in DaimlerChrysler gained as much as 3.1 percent on Wednesday
after the German-American group posted surprisingly strong
third-quarter results after the market closed on Tuesday.

The stock touched a peak of 42.07 euros before easing back to 41.88 by
1030 GMT, up 2.7 percent, ahead of a conference call with analysts and
the media at 1130 GMT.

DaimlerChrysler stock has risen more than 18 percent this year, now
narrowly outperforming the DJ Stoxx European car sector index, and
trades at around 11.9 times estimated 2006 earnings versus 10.6 times
for arch-rival BMW.

Italian carmaker Fiat beat forecasts for group third-quarter trading
profit on Wednesday, while France's Renault releases third-quarter
sales figures later in the day.

www.today.reuters.com

European health officials assess preparedness for possible avian flu pandemic

European health officials end a three-day review Wednesday of the
continent's readiness to contain an influenza pandemic with fears
growing that bird flu is closing in on Europe's heartland.

World Health Organization and EU experts have been meeting in
Copenhagen since Monday to analyze the threat of the bird flu virus
mutating into a type that can be spread between humans.

At the start of the meeting, experts said Europe was better prepared
to contain outbreaks of bird flu than Asia because of better resources
and communication between countries.

The deadly H5N1 strain of the virus, which has killed more than 60
people in Asia, has been detected in birds in Romania, Russia and
Turkey, raising fears it could spread to the rest of Europe.

There are 144 known strains of avian flu, most of them harmless.

On Tuesday, the EU said it will ban the import of exotic birds and
impose stricter rules on the private ownership of parrots and other
pet birds. Last weekend, a parrot imported from Suriname died in
quarantine in Britain after contracting the H5N1 strain.

In Germany, officials said that preliminary tests on wild geese found
dead there came back positive for bird flu. And even though the fowl
died of poisoning - not influenza - further tests would be carried to
see whether they carried H5N1.

Croatia, Slovenia and Hungary were also testing birds found dead for
signs of bird flu, underscoring the extreme sensitivity of the issue
even though officials have urged Europeans not to panic.

The virus is hard for humans to contract, and most of the 62 people in
Asia who have died from the disease since 2003 were poultry farmers
directly infected by sick birds.

www.cbc.ca

Bridging the business-IT divide - experts show how

The reality is this: accountability for IT success should fall not
only on IT managers but more importantly on business leaders, said
Frank Koelsch, executive vice-president, corporate strategy and
research for Info-Tech Research Group in London, Ont.

And by the same token, he said, CIOs must have an equally important
role in defining business strategy as the CEO.

Koelsch's views are echoed by Paul Williams, a trustee with the
Rolling Meadows, Ill.-based IT Governance Institute (ITGI) and author
of a book released earlier this month titled IT Alignment: Who is in
Charge? The book discusses strategies for business-IT alignment, and
provides guidance on the responsibilities of the CIO, CEO and board.

Research indicates that these are the issues being neglected by many
businesses. More than 50 per cent of organizations polled in a recent
ITGI survey lacked any formal structure to align IT investments with
business strategy. And fewer than 25 per cent engaged board members
directly in the IT strategy-setting process.

Business should actively involve IT to better understand the realities
of technology's capabilities and risks; and IT has to learn to think,
communicate and plan in business lingo, say both Koelsch and Williams.

"There are no IT projects; there are only business projects. That's a
baseline, so it's incumbent upon the business executive to include and
to drive IT initiatives as part of business initiatives, as part of
the business deployment process," said Koelsch.

He says business objectives and IT's ability to support these are
doomed if there is no business and IT alignment.

According to Koelsch, a common vision between both units is essential
to achieve agreement on issues such as: how much a project will cost,
how long it will take, what resources it will consume. "Often IT
managers are told they have to do something, at a certain cost, within
a certain time frame and deliver certain IT capabilities, all of which
are unrealistic."

Williams said companies should look at "buying IT" as akin to
embarking on a major business change initiative, in which IT plays a
significant, but not an isolated or discrete, part.

"One of the most common reasons for [IT] failure is a lack of
understanding of the way that the business [itself] needs to change or
adapt to benefit from the [IT] initiative," said Williams.

He said this business change component is rarely understood fully, and
is always more complex than anticipated. For this reason, he said,
business leaders need to be educated, not just on what IT can do, but
also on what it can't do -- and that includes bringing about [people
and business] change in itself.

IT managers have to be realistic and not have unreasonably high
expectations about the business benefits of a project. "Sometimes they
will have to downgrade business expectations."

Williams said businesses must work in full partnership with IT
departments (including third party outsourcers) to build reliable
metrics for project performance and ultimate success. These metrics
would consider things like active IT investment portfolio management
and the impact of risk on project performance and delivery.

"Business often sees IT as a 'magic box' solution in that all you need
to do is buy the [product], plug it in and miraculously it will give
you the [expected] benefits," said Williams. "We all know it cannot be
that simple. There needs to be a joint understanding that IT of itself
will never deliver benefit."

He said businesses must specify statements of value expectation that
are specific and measurable. "Too often the benefits are articulated
in soft terms such as improved staff morale or improved product or
service quality. These are too vague."

"Improved staff morale should lead to lower staff turnover and
therefore [support] quantifiable measures such as reduced costs for
recruitment or new staff training. Similarly, improved product quality
should lead to higher revenues and reduced costs for dealing with
returns.

"What needs to be understood, of course, is that all of this becomes
totally academic unless the value achieved is actually measured across
the life cycle of the solution. Without such measurement there can be
little accountability and minimal learning," Williams said.

John Sloan, senior research analyst at Info-Tech, says business
success comes from a combination of a CEO who wishes to "include and
drive IT" and a CIO who is an aggressive student of the business.
"It's equally important that the IT leader be able to speak the
language of business," said Sloan. "This needs to be a priority."

The focus should be on achieving a business strategy and creating
success measures. "IT and business can only see eye-to-eye on the
business value of IT if they both speak the same language. As this is
a business value discussion, that language should be a common set of
business value measures," Sloan said.

According to Sloan, IT governance has created the framework for
planning, measurement, control, execution and accountability. "Through
governance, the enterprise asserts its ownership of IT. The IT group
and business stakeholders start by agreeing on goals and how success
will be measured."

According to Sloan IT decision-makers should place a higher priority
on formal management systems that document a set of repeatable and
measurable procedures. "The biggest impact of formal systems is not so
much on the speed and efficiency of projects themselves, as on the
management of expectations. Repeatable and measurable procedures
provide benchmarks that everybody can understand and accept."

This process is often best led through a properly constituted and
representative investment committee, said Williams. One option is to
outsource this task to an independent investment office to avoid
internal bias and politics. "The outsourced service would not make the
final decisions, but would ensure proper, objective comparison of the
facts to enable an informed decision to be made.'

He said the CEO must ensure that decisions on IT-related investments
match the business priorities and -- through active involvement of the
CIO -- take into account skill and resource limitations.

"It needs to be made clear that IT is there to deliver the IT
component of key projects, but ultimately it is the business'
responsibility to deliver value from the total project. This needs to
be done in full partnership and shared accountability between the
business and IT," Williams said.

www.itworld.com

Cambridge Antibody Technology and Abbott Agree Regarding Royalties

England and ABBOTT PARK, Ill., October 26, 2005 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/
-- Cambridge Antibody Technology and Abbott today announce that they
have reached an agreement regarding royalties payable to CAT under a
licence agreement between the parties. Accordingly, the hearing
scheduled to start this week in the Court of Appeal will not take
place.

Paul Nicholson MD, Chairman, CAT, commented: "We are very pleased to
have reached resolution of this issue with Abbott. We can now
concentrate fully on CAT's business going forward. CAT is already
benefiting from Abbott's successful development and marketing of
HUMIRA(R) and we are hopeful of future success with ABT-874."

Jeffrey M Leiden MD PhD, president, Abbott Pharmaceutical Products
Group, said: "We are pleased to find a solution that benefits both
companies and resolves our differences."

Under the terms of the settlement agreement:

-- Abbott will pay CAT the sum of US$255 million, which CAT will pay to
its licensors, the Medical Research Council (MRC), Scripps Institute
and Stratagene, in lieu of their entitlement to royalties arising on
sales of HUMIRA from 1 January 2005 onwards.

-- Abbott will also pay to CAT five annual payments of US$9.375 million
commencing in January 2006, contingent on the continued sale of HUMIRA.
US$2 million from each of these payments will be payable to CAT's
licensors.

-- Abbott will pay CAT a reduced royalty of 2.688% from approximately 5.1%
on sales of HUMIRA from 1 January 2005. CAT will retain all of these
royalties. CAT will also retain royalties received from Abbott in
respect of sales of HUMIRA up to 31 December 2004, net of approximately
7.6 million pounds sterling which will be paid to its licensors. CAT
will refund to Abbott approximately 9.2 million pounds for royalties
paid from 1 January 2005 through 30 June 2005.

-- Abbott will also pay CAT a reduced royalty of 4.75% on any future sales
of ABT-874, from which CAT will pay a portion to the MRC and other
licensors (according to CAT's 1997 agreement with the MRC).

-- Abbott will capitalise and amortise the upfront payment, net of the
refund, and annual payments to CAT through the term of the agreement.
When this amortisation is combined with the revised royalty rate of
2.688%, the blended effective royalty rate is reduced from the
approximate 5.1% as previously instructed by the Court.

Application of the Safe Harbor of the Private Securities Litigation
Reform Act of 1995: This press release contains statements about
Cambridge Antibody Technology Group plc ("CAT") that are forward
looking statements.

All statements other than statements of historical facts included in
this press release may be forward looking statements within the
meaning of Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. These
forward looking statements are based on numerous assumptions regarding
the company's present and future business strategies and the
environment in which the company will operate in the future.

Certain factors that could cause the company's actual results,
performance or achievements to differ materially from those in the
forward looking statements include: market conditions, CAT's ability
to enter into and maintain collaborative arrangements, success of
product candidates in clinical trials, regulatory developments and
competition. We caution investors not to place undue reliance on the
forward looking statements contained in this press release. These
statements speak only as of the date of this press release, and we
undertake no obligation to update or revise the statements.

www.medadnews.com

Gov announces new open source technology initiative by Oregon universities

Google Contributes $350,000 to Joint Oregon State, Portland State
University Program.
Governor Ted Kulongoski today announced the contribution of $350,000
by search technology leader Google Inc. to a joint open source
technology initiative of Oregon State University and Portland State
University.

With the grant, the universities will collaborate to encourage open
source software and hardware development, develop academic curricula
and provide computing infrastructure to open source projects
worldwide. The universities will also help provide a bridge between
Oregon's universities and Oregon's growing open technology industry.

"Oregon is home to many of the leading companies, institutions and
executives driving the global market for open source software and
hardware," Governor Ted Kulongoski said. "Google's support will
strengthen the leadership role of our universities in fostering the
next generation of open source technologies, projects and experts in
Oregon and enhance our aggressive efforts to bring jobs and investment
to Oregon's burgeoning open technology cluster."

Google's contribution demonstrates its continued commitment to
advancing open source software development. This summer, Google funded
a $2 million "Summer of Code" program, which gave grants of $4,500 to
more than 400 students performing work on open source projects,
including several hosted by the Oregon State University Open Source
Lab (OSUOSL).

"Google leverages open source software in its development efforts and
strongly believes in supporting the open source community," said Chris
DiBona, open source program manager at Google. "Supporting the
projects and institutions advancing open source software and hardware
helps ensure the continued success and advancement of open source
technologies. The teams at Oregon State and Portland State have done
great open source work in the past and we're excited to back their
joint efforts."

The new open source initiative will create a joint-university open
source technology center and organization in early 2006 to: design and
coordinate curricula across the Oregon University System; offer
student internships and expand its technology capacity for the growing
number of open source projects and communities it supports; further
the commercialization of open source innovations by facilitating
linkages to the region's network of venture capital firms, technology
companies and incubators such, as the Beaverton-based Open Technology
Business Center; and partner on key educational events, such as the
inaugural Government Open Source Conference (GOSCON) recently held in
Portland.

Ed Ray, president of Oregon State University (OSU), and Daniel O.
Bernstine, president of Portland State University (PSU), expressed
their appreciation to Google for its commitment to support innovation
and economic growth in Oregon, as well as for this sizable
contribution.

"Google's support to Oregon State University and Portland State
University signals their commitment to Oregon's knowledge economy and
we're pleased to welcome a new partner in our contributions to the
state's growing technology research and development industries," said
OSU President Ed Ray.

"Our universities are committed to strengthening teaching and research
to enhance the open source community and we will continue to provide
industry with well-prepared graduates," said PSU President Daniel O.
Bernstine.

Leading the university collaboration is Scott Kveton and Bart Massey.
Kveton is the Associate Director of the Oregon State University Open
Source Lab in Corvallis, which provides custom open source software
development and offers facilities hosting some of the world's largest
open source projects, including the Linux(r) operating system, the
Mozilla web browser and the Apache web server.

Massey, an Assistant Professor of Computer Science in the Maseeh
College of Engineering and Computer Science at Portland State
University, is a long-time open source developer and a leader in
academic open source research and teaching. Kveton and Massey will
coordinate with the School of Electrical Engineering and Computer
Science at OSU, also a recipient of funding from Google.

The Growing Open Source Industry

Open source software, including the Linux(r) operating system, is among
the fastest growing technology sectors. Developed using a
collaborative process often involving commercial vendors and
communities of enthusiasts and students, open source generally gives
users the rights to use, copy, modify and redistribute the software
created.

Increasingly, open source technologies are being used across the gamut
of computing systems, from desktops and servers to telecommunications
infrastructure and embedded devices. Analyst firm IDC estimates that
the Linux(r) hardware and software markets will grow to $38 billion by
2008, with annual growth rates topping 25%.

"Back in 1997, IDC anticipated the impact of open source technologies
and predicted the Linux operating environment would be a mainstream
choice by the end of 2004," said Dan Kusnetzky, IDC's VP of System
Software research. "Our survey data indicates this occurred even
earlier and by the end of 2003, this technology was found worldwide,
in organizations of all sizes and in every vertical market. This
partnership between Google and important research universities is yet
another indicator of the continued evolution and maturity of the Linux
and open source markets."

www.bend.com

Michigan Senate approves business tax cuts

The Michigan Senate approved a plan Tuesday to cut business taxes by
$1 billion over six years and tie the potential for even more tax
relief to limits on state spending.

Over Democratic objections, the Republican-controlled Senate sent the
legislation to the state House, where Republicans passed their own tax
package in August.

One bill would reduce the state's main business tax rate from 1.9
percent to 1.84 percent in January, saving companies about $50 million
over nine months. Other bills would create a nonrefundable credit for
property taxes paid on industrial equipment and base a company's taxes
solely on sales rather than the current combination of sales, payroll
and personal property.

Another $1.4 billion in tax cuts would be tied to a measure that would
limit the annual growth in state tax revenues to no more than the
inflation rate plus 1 percentage point. Business would get the
additional cuts if tax revenues exceeded that rate plus another $50
million. Some of the extra money would go into the state's rainy day
fund.

In the last 20 years, revenues have gone above inflation plus 1
percentage point 11 times, though the last increase occurred in the
1999-2000 budget year. Most increases came during the boom years of
the 1990s.

www.freep.com

Health inequalities between ethnic groups persist but reducing

Ministry of Health reports show a reduction in inequalities between
ethnic groups in suicide rates, smoking rates and infant mortality
rates, director-general of health Dr Karen Poutasi said yesterday.

The Ministry of Health's annual report for 2004/05, was released
yesterday with the annual Health and Independence Report.

The reports reveal that initiatives such as low cost access to primary
health care and the meningococcal B immunisation programme are
expected to further reduce health disparities.

By September 22, over 2.5 million doses of the meningococcal vaccine
had been given. More than 960,000 children had been given the vaccine,
of whom more than 600,000 had completed the three-vaccine schedule.

The annual report is the ministry's key accountability document, while
the Health and Independence Report is the director-general's report on
the state of public health and focuses on the progress the health and
disability system is making toward strategic goals.

Key findings of the independence report include:

Research shows that acceptance of people with mental illness increased
between 1997 and 2004;

The Government spent on average $1959 per person on health in the 2003/04 year;

The number of patients waiting longer than six months for their first
specialist assessment has decreased slightly;

Smoking has dropped significantly over the past five years;

The percentage of diabetics enrolled in the national Get Checked
programme increased from 33 per cent in 2001 to 59 per cent in 2004;
and

Smoking among adults has declined from 24.5 per cent in 2001 to 23.4
percent in 2004. Cigarette consumption dropped by 26 per cent over the
five years to December 2004.

The annual report reiterates that health inequalities persist,
affecting mostly Maori and Pacific people and those economically
disadvantaged.

The suicide rate in 2002 of 10.7 per 100,000 is the lowest since 1985,
however the suicide rate continues to be higher for Maori than
non-Maori.

In 2002, there were 19.7 deaths per 100,000 for Maori males, compared
to 15.6 for non-Maori, and 5.9 deaths per 100,000 for Maori females
compared to 4.8 for non-Maori.

The infant mortality rate decreased from 22.8 deaths per 1000 live
births in 1961 to 5.6 deaths per 1000 live births in 2004 - lower than
that of the United States (7.0 in 2002).

In 1996 the infant mortality rate for Maori was 11.5 deaths per 1000
live births compared with 7.1 for the total population.

In 2004, the infant mortality rate had declined to 7.2 for Maori ,
with 7.1 for Pacific people.

The report says despite the low proportion of Maori and Pacific people
in the health workforce, the numbers employed are increasing overall.

In 1992, Maori made up just 3.7 per cent of nurses and midwives. By
2004 this had doubled to 7.5 per cent. Of Pacific people, there were
1.4 per cent in 1992 working in nursing and midwifery, and by 2004
this was 2.9 per cent.

In 2003, 2.7 per cent of medical practitioners were Maori, with most
practising GPs.

However the number of Maori health providers has grown from 20 in 1992
to 286 in 2005.

The annual report says the total net result of all District Health
Boards (DHBs) has substantially improved from 2001/02 to 2004/05, with
the net total deficit falling from $286.7 million to $15.2 million.

"There has been increased government funding over this time, but DHBs
have made significant efforts to operate within their funding," the
report says.

www.stuff.co.nz

Intel Changes CPU Road Map

Intel has announced several changes to its road map for server
processors, delaying its first dual-core Itanium 2 processor and
replacing a future multicore Xeon processor with a new design that
eliminates the performance penalty of shared connections to a chipset.

Montecito, the dual-core version of the Itanium 2 processor, will not
be available in large volumes until the middle of next year, instead
of the early part of next year as originally planned, said Scott
McLaughlin, an Intel spokesperson, on Monday. While preliminary
shipments of the processor are already under way, Intel decided to
make a few changes to the chip in order to reach the company's
standard for "production level quality," McLaughlin said, declining to
specify the nature of the changes.

But Montecito will no longer ship with Foxton, a sophisticated
power-management technology, and the speed of its front-side bus
connection to memory will run at 533MHz instead of the 667MHz speed
originally scheduled for the design, he said.

Chips Killed
Intel also has killed Whitefield, a multicore Xeon processor for
servers with four or more processors, McLaughlin said. It is being
replaced by a new processor code-named Tigerton that will appear in
2007, the same time-frame in which Whitefield was expected to arrive.

Tigerton processors will use a high-speed interconnect technology that
will allow each processor to connect directly to the server's chipset,
McLaughlin said. Current Xeon processors in multiprocessor servers
must share a front-side bus connection to the chipset in order to
access data from system memory or I/O, a bottleneck that industry
analysts have blamed for the current performance gap between Intel's
server chips and Advanced Micro Devices Inc.'s Opteron processors.

Intel's next-generation architecture, announced by President and Chief
Executive Officer Paul Otellini in August, will be used as the
blueprint for Tigerton. This architecture is based on low-power design
principles used to build Intel's Pentium M processor for notebooks.

Whitefield had been expected to help tip the performance battle back
toward Intel in 2007, but Tigerton should be even more powerful,
McLaughlin said. AMD has enjoyed favorable reviews from industry
analysts, and even companies such as Hewlett-Packard, for the
performance of its Opteron server processors as compared to Intel's
Xeon chips.

Intel is not specifying exactly how the Tigerton processors will
connect to the server's chipset, such as whether they will use
integrated memory or I/O controllers or a next-generation interconnect
technology that Intel has vaguely discussed at previous Intel
Developer Forums.

Socket Compatibility Sought
The Caneland platform, or the combination of Tigerton and its related
chipset, is not the design that will bring socket compatibility to
Intel's Xeon and Itanium processors, McLaughlin said. Intel wants to
make a chipset that can accommodate either a Xeon processor or an
Itanium processor, which will help reduce product development costs
for both Intel and its partners. That compatibility is slated to
arrive along with Tukwila, a multicore Itanium 2 processor now
scheduled to arrive in 2008 as a result of the Montecito delay, he
said. Intel is still evaluating when its Xeon processors will be
designed for that compatibility.

Intel had been expected to introduce an integrated memory controller
design at the same time it engineered the compatibility between
Itanium and Xeon, said Nathan Brookwood, principal analyst with
Insight 64 in Saratoga, California. Intel had never publicly confirmed
those plans, but the company has spoken in general terms about the
need for integrated memory controllers at some point in the future.

An integrated memory controller means the logic responsible for
coordinating the exchange of information between the processor and
memory is built right onto the processor, allowing it to run at the
same speed as the processor and improving overall system performance.
Since Intel would have had to make significant changes to its
processor and chipset designs in order to make the Xeon and Itanium
processors fit into the same chipset, it was considered a logical time
to introduce an integrated memory controller, he said.

Cache Changes to Come?
AMD's Opteron uses both point-to-point interconnects like Tigerton's
and an integrated memory controller. But Intel has been reluctant to
embrace integrated memory controllers, said Dean McCarron, principal
analyst with Mercury Research in Cave Creek, Arizona. Leaving the
memory controller on the chipset allows Intel to more easily
accommodate changes in memory standards, because it's much easier to
change a chipset design than a processor design, he said.

One reason for moving out the common architecture target date, and
therefore the potential integrated memory controller, could be that
Intel plans to increase the size of cache memory on its future
processors, McCarron said. Cache memory stores frequently used data
right next to the CPU where it can be accessed much more quickly than
data stored in the main memory chips.

The combination of larger cache memory and the direct connections
between Tigerton processors and chipsets could provide a significant
performance boost for Intel-based servers in 2007, McCarron said. It's
very early to know for sure, with even sample chips still far away, he
said.

However, Tigerton will certainly be more efficient than Whitefield
because of the new interconnect design, Brookwood said. "What happens
on the chip matters a lot, obviously, but ultimately the performance
of these chips is constrained by how fast you can feed them data," he
said.

www.pcworld.com

Group angered by billboards linking cancer to abortion

The Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation is upset that an anti-abortion
group is linking the procedure to breast cancer, and appropriating the
foundation's pink ribbon trademark to do it.

Life Canada has put up three billboards in Alberta that display a
large pink ribbon and the words "stop the cover up" along with the
address of a website that claims that having an abortion is a factor
in getting breast cancer.

Jim Hudson, with the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation, says the
website is misleading, and that they are looking at whether Life
Canada has infringed on their trademark by using the pink ribbon.

"The best piece of evidence that's been published was actually quite a
large, 2004 Oxford study that is a re-analysis from 53 studies,
including 83,000 women from 16 countries," Hudson said. "And they
concluded abortion did not increase a woman's risk."

Joanne Byfield, president of Life Canada and who also belongs to
Pro-Life Alberta, says more than 70 studies "have looked at the
relationship between the two and about 80 per cent of those studies
have shown some sort of link between the two."

Hudson says Life Canada is sending the wrong message to women.

"We are concerned about this campaign, the evidence that they're
presenting about a link between abortion and breast cancer is not what
we would accept as the current evidence for a relationship between
abortion and breast cancer," he said.

The Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation estimates that 21,600 women will
be diagnosed with the disease this year, and about 5,300 will die from
it. Breast cancer is the most frequently diagnosed cancer in women,
and the second-most deadly, after lung cancer.

October is breast cancer awareness month, following the annual CIBC
Run for the Cure fundraising event held in September. In August,
almost 2,300 people participated in the Calgary Weekend to End Breast
Cancer 60-kilometre walk-a-thon, which raised more than $7 million.

www.calgary.cbc.ca

Ericsson Buys Marconi: $2.1B

U.K.'s iconic telecommunications equipment supplier is finally gobbled
up as the British press applauds a surprisingly good deal. Ericsson,
the Swedish telecommunications equipment supplier, announced on
Tuesday it would acquire roughly 75 percent of its British rival
Marconi for $2.1 billion.

Ericsson will acquire Marconi's network products businesses,
including its optical networking, broadband, radio access, and
softswitch units. It will also acquire Marconi's related services and
research arms, along with its trademarks and brand names.

In addition, Ericsson will purchase Marconi's data networking
business based in the United States.

What's left of the old, iconic Marconi will be a small local services
business that will be renamed Telent plc. The new company will gain a
major customer in Ericsson, which passed on buying Telent's assets.

Shares of Ericsson were up $0.79 to $33.71 in recent trading, while
shares of Marconi were up $0.05 to $13.25.

Ericsson will gain a solid presence in the United Kingdom and the
benefit of Marconi's long experience with BT Group, a major Ericsson
customer

"The acquisition of the Marconi businesses has a compelling strategic
logic and is a robust financial case," said Ericsson CEO Carl-Henric
Svanberg. "As fixed and mobile services converge, our customers will
substantially benefit from this powerful combination."

There will be some overlap between Ericsson and its new Marconi units
so the company expects to shed between 15 to 20 percent of Marconi's
6,500 employees.

Ericsson was one of two players rumored to be sizing up Marconi since
it began dressing itself up for sale back in April after it was shut
out of BT Group's lucrative $19-billion construction of its broadband
network.

Ericsson and Chinese equipment supplier Huawei both showed interest in
Marconi, but Huawei may have stumbled over Marconi's complex pension
liabilities.

As part of the Ericsson deal, Marconi will retain its U.K. pension
plan and its net cash, which amounts to approximately $491 million.

Gaining Scale
"This deal strengthens Ericsson in a number of areas," said Bill
Owens, a London-based vice president of the consulting firm Adventis.
"Marconi just did not have the scale to continue as an independent
business, but they are well-known for solid products, very good R&D,
and technical expertise."

For Ericsson, the acquisition also takes a European competitor out of
the market and adds to the Swedish company's scale as one of the top
global players.

"Marconi now gets the benefit of scale and a true global brand, which
it truly needed," said Mr. Owens.

Marconi's management wowed the British press with the size of the
deal, which was larger than generally expected, according to Mr.
Owens. The trials and tribulations of Marconi, the U.K.'s largest and
most successful telecommunications equipment supplier, have been
playing out very loudly in the U.K press.

"The press is patting [Marconi CEO] Mike Parton on the back for
achieving a good deal. That seemed difficult not too long ago," said
Mr. Owens. "It is a good deal for Marconi's shareholders and most of
its employees."

www.redherring.com

Health ministers, WHO experts, convene to prepare for bird flu pandemic

OTTAWA The possibility of a bird flu pandemic is the topic, as health
ministers and experts from around the world gather in Canada's
capital.

Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin says the ministers should enter
the conference with the understanding that no one country can stand
along in trying to deal with a potential spread. He says developed
nations have an obligation to help poorer countries by sharing
strategies, drugs and testing procedures.

Martin is holding up his country's preparations as a model. Canada has
stockpiles of the antiviral drug Tamiflu, and an action plan in place.
It also has the experience of 44 lives claimed to the deadly SARS
epidemic in Toronto two years ago.

Copyright 2005 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material
may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

www.kxan.com

Integra incorporates Panopticon tree-mapping technology with AltioLive

Panopticon Software, the leading supplier of real-time visualisation
solutions to the world's financial markets, and Integra SP with its
Altio, real-time integration software, today announced a strategic
alliance to enable the use of Panopticon's proven visualisation
technology within Integra's AltioLive presentation environment.

This will provide added capability to Integra SP's award winning Rich
Internet Application product.

Panopticon's treemap visualisation solutions are dynamic, interactive
tools used for analysis and data exploration. A treemap from
Panopticon is packed with functionality and controls that enable the
user to do on-the-fly comparisons, slicing-and-dicing of data, look at
aggregates along any dimension, change the characteristic assigned to
size or colour and much more. Panopticon products handle true real
time data updates.

Unlike spreadsheets and pivot tables, Panopticon treemaps instantly
appeal to human curiosity and perceptive ability. The size and colour
of objects is easy and intuitive to understand. They trigger users to
investigate anomalies and outliers in the data sets by appealing not
only to the logical, left part of your brain but also to the right,
artistic part.

Integra SP's AltioLive technology enables companies to build and
deploy rich interactive applications that look, feel and perform like
traditional desktop applications, yet run with the convenience of a
web page in a browser. Based on standard Java and XML, AltioLive can
be deployed on a vast range of platforms and application servers and
easily integrates into existing web and portal architectures.
AltioLive Studio, the development environment, enables applications to
be quickly designed in a zero-code/drag-drop interface, resulting in
reduced time to market while enhancing the end-user experience.

Ben Nathan, Director of Strategic Alliances at Integra SP, says: "This
is a great fit of complementary technologies that will be of major
benefit to new and existing customers. Combining AltioLive's data
delivery and application framework with Panopticon's cutting edge
visualisation technology will even further revolutionise the
end-user's ability to analyse and respond to business issues as they
happen. With respect to web applications - you can't be too rich or
too thin. AltioLive just got richer."

Martin Porter, Business Development Director UK at Panopticon, adds:
"We are moving treemaps to the next level by combining Panopticon's
visualisation solution with AltioLive's data delivery. We see clear
value in being able to offer this to the financial community."

Both AltioLive and Panopticon's solutions are generic and can be
applied to any information. While the respective technologies have
independently shown a high ROI in the financial sector, both products
have been deployed across a vast range of industry sectors and
application areas.

www.finextra.com

Business news in brief from around New Jersey

SKILLMAN, N.J. -- Personal Products Co. has entered into a definitive
agreement to purchase the Rembrandt Brand of oral care products from
The Gillette Co.

Terms of the transaction were not disclosed, but it was anticipated to
take place in the fourth quarter of 2005, Personal Products said
Monday.

Personal Products, a Johnson & Johnson company, produces and markets
oral health, women's health and sanitary protection products. It is a
division of McNeil-PPC Inc.

"The Rembrandt Brand is the perfect complement to our existing oral
care portfolio," said Michael Sneed, chairman of Johnson & Johnson's
consumer company group in North America.

FAIRFIELD, N.J. (AP) _ Kyocera Mita America on Monday announced the
appointments of Tony Pater as chief executive officer and Mike
Pietrunti as president and chief operating officer.

Pater is currently president of KMA and Pietrunti is the company's
senior vice president of marketing and technical operations. Both men
assume their new positions on Nov. 1.

KMA is a leading provider of computer-connectable peripherals. KMA is
a group company of Kyocera Corp., the world's leading developer and
manufacturer of advanced ceramics and associated products.

TURNERSVILLE, N.J. (AP) _ Two more Wal-Mart stores will open Wednesday
in southern New Jersey, the company said.

The Wal-Mart in Turnersville will be a supercenter, the first such
Wal-Mart store in the state, and will be open 24 hours a day. The
company will also open a store in Audubon. The stores will create more
than 550 new jobs, Wal-Mart said.

www.nynewsday.com

Wal-Mart to introduce new health plan

BENTONVILLE, Ark. -- Wal-Mart Stores Inc. is launching a plan to lower health-insurance premiums for workers, allowing some to buy coverage for as little as $11 per month.

The world's largest retailer has been under criticism for not offering health coverage to enough workers and for high costs to employees who are eligible for insurance. Wal-Mart's critics have worked to demonstrate that some company workers have had to rely on government-funded programs to pay for health care.

Wal-Mart spokesman Dan Fogleman would not say how much the plan would cost the company, which has 1.2 million domestic employees. The plan is to go in effect in 2006.
Bentonville-based Wal-Mart said the new plan was not a response to the mounting criticism from outside but instead reflected demands for more coverage options from its employees, who it calls associates.

"Just like at other employers in the U.S., our associates are concerned about the skyrocketing costs of health care," Fogleman said.

Wal-Mart's opponents were not impressed, dismissing the plan as a publicity stunt.
Wake-Up Wal-Mart, a union-backed group that is organizing campaigns against the retailer, said the new plan was just a repackaging of Wal-Mart's existing coverage.

"Wal-Mart fails to address the key reasons more than half of its employees aren't covered under their health care plan - ridiculously high deductible costs and overly strict eligibility requirements," Wake-Up Wal-Mart campaign director Paul Blank said in a news release.

Monthly premiums under the new plan would require workers to pay between 40 percent and 60 percent less than under the current plan. The plan would have a $1,000 deductible but would allow individuals three doctor visits before having to pay the deductible, according to The New York Times, which first reported the plan.
The company said the plan would emphasize preventative care and workers would be able to pay into tax-deductible health savings accounts.

The $11 monthly premium won't be widely available. The plan would have most individuals pay about $25 per month, and $65 for a family. A single parent would pay $37 per month. The plan has a $25,000 cap for a worker's first year with the insurance.

Wal-Mart Watch, a group that has called for Wal-Mart to offer better pay and benefits, said the new health plan is designed to meet the needs of only young, healthy people. Group spokeswoman Tracy Sefl also said it is impractical to expect Wal-Mart workers to be able to afford to pay into health savings accounts.
Shares of Wal-Mart rose 11 cents to $45.83 in morning trading on the New York Stock Exchange.


www.seattlepi.nwsource.com

Mobile TeleSystems Selects NetCracker Technology to Manage Its Service-Base of 50 Million Subscribers;

NetCracker's OSS Solution Deployment Will Occur Enterprisewide in One of the Top-10 Global Information Companies
NetCracker Technology, the leading Global Solution Company enabling service providers to rapidly deliver and effectively manage convergent and content-rich offerings, today announced that Mobile TeleSystems (NYSE: MBT), the largest mobile phone operator in Russia and the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), has chosen NetCracker's OSS infrastructure and services for its resource and service inventory provisioning to support its exploding customer base. Mobile TeleSystems (MTS) is deploying the NetCracker Resource and Service Management Operations Support Systems (OSS) Solution in its advanced network.

"NetCracker's portfolio will allow MTS to enhance the utilization of network resources and service provisioning activities while continuing to provide sophisticated, content-rich services to our customers," said Yuri Gromakov, chief technology officer at MTS. This capability, in turn, will enable the rapid delivery and management of services to the largest mobile customer base in Russia.

MTS's services cover 79 of the 89 regions in Russia and the entire territories of Ukraine, Belarus, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan. BusinessWeek has rated MTS as number six in the fastest growing companies category in its "Info Tech100." MTS looks to NetCracker to help it provide the most reliable mobile services and equip the company with the infrastructure to grow its business.

"The growth of MTS is due in large part to its commitment to offering its customers the best services," said Andrew Feinberg, president and CEO of NetCracker Technology. "With NetCracker, MTS can excel in resource and service management, which will help the company achieve greater control and profitability in its network. NetCracker is pleased to help MTS drive its next phase of growth and market dominance."

About NetCracker Technology
NetCracker Technology is the leading Global Solution Company enabling Service Providers to rapidly deliver and effectively manage convergent and content-rich offerings. NetCracker delivers service and resource management through its software and implementation expertise.

NetCracker's pre-integrated product modules include Service Inventory, Resource Inventory, Service Provisioning & Activation, Discovery & Reconciliation, Design and Planning, Customer Impact Analysis, Outside Plant, Order Management, Asset Management and Telecom Cost Management. Founded in 1993, NetCracker Technology is headquartered in Waltham, MA, and can be reached at 1-781-419-3300 or www.netcracker.com.
About Mobile TeleSystems (MTS)

Mobile TeleSystems (NYSE: MBT) is the largest mobile phone operator in Russia and the CIS. Together with its subsidiaries, the Company services 50 million subscribers. The regions of Russia, as well as Belarus, Ukraine, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan, in which MTS and its subsidiaries are licensed to provide GSM services, have a total population of approximately 233.1 million. Since June 2000, MTS's Level 3 ADRs have been listed on the New York Stock Exchange with the ticker symbol MBT. Additional information about MTS can be found on MTS's website at www.mtsgsm.com.

NetCracker is a registered trademark of NetCracker Technology Corp. All other company or product names mentioned in this press release may be trademarks or registered trademarks of the respective companies of which they are associated.


www.home.businesswire.com

Big vendors do well out of small business

The SME sector has proved lucrative for two industry stalwarts, with improved profits for both IBM and software vendor Sage.

IBM posted turnover of $21.5bn for its third quarter ended 30 September, an increase of four per cent on the same period last year.

Big Blue reported profit of $1.52bn for Q3, this is down from the $1.55bn the firm reported as profit for Q3 2004.

Sam Palmisano, chief executive at IBM, said: “IBM had a good quarter, showing the strength of our business model across hardware, software and services.”

Mark Loughridge, chief financial officer of IBM, said the SME segment was the strongest in Q3, with 10 per cent growth over the same time last year. He attributed this to the vendor’s “Express offerings and strong network of Business Partners and ISVs”.

Big Blue’s Global Services division grew by three per cent to $11.7bn, software turnover grew by five per cent to $3.8bn and hardware turnover grew by seven per cent to $5.1bn.

Ian Wesley, IBM research director at Ovum, said: “IBM can be pleased with these results, but it’s a sign of the times that four per cent growth is considered encouraging.”

Financial software vendor Sage announced a 13 per cent increase in pre-tax turnover to £777m, in line with market expectations for its year ended 30 September.

David Bradshaw, principal analyst at Ovum said: “These are good results in a very mixed market. The only complaint is that Sage merely met, rather than exceeded, market expectations.”


www.vnunet.com

GM's call for health care reform the latest push by auto industry

When General Motors Corp. struck a tentative deal with its union to
cut health care benefits, it renewed a call that has been pushed by
automakers in recent years for more help from Washington on health
care.

GM, the world's No. 1 automaker, expects to spend $5.6 billion on
health care this year and says the escalating costs places it at a
disadvantage competing against foreign companies whose national
governments largely pay for health care.

"Health care costs in this country are out of control," said GM
Chairman and CEO Rick Wagoner, announcing the agreement with the
United Auto Workers on Monday. "We would really like to see much more
focus and leadership from elected officials, especially in
Washington."

Wagoner's pitch comes amid trying times for the U.S. auto industry and
the decision by GM's financially troubled parts supplier, Delphi
Corp., to seek bankruptcy protection. This past week, GM posted a $1.6
billion third-quarter loss, while Ford reported a loss of $284
million.

Ford Chairman and CEO Bill Ford also brought up health care in talking
about his company's losses.

"We need to have a debate nationally that includes business and
obviously includes the politicians," said Bill Ford, who argues that
health care costs cannot be dealt with simply by shifting them around
between companies and workers. "It's got to come up and it's got to
come fast."

While members of Michigan's congressional delegation support steps to
help the auto industry and other manufacturers saddled with mounting
costs for health care and pensions, it's unclear whether the
automakers can rouse enough support in Congress to address a problem
much larger than the industry.

Some members of Congress say interim steps can be taken, such as using
technology to reduce medical paperwork costs and helping companies and
insurers pay an employee's catastrophic medical costs in exchange for
firms holding down premiums.

But with Congress facing many other obligations -- such as paying for
the post-Hurricane Katrina recovery -- special treatment is not
likely.

"The federal government isn't going to come out and bail out their
health care -- the government isn't going to assume their health care
costs," said Rep. Mike Rogers, a Brighton Republican. "It has to be a
partnership."

Under the tentative agreement, the UAW would reduce GM's health care
costs by $3 billion a year before taxes and cut its retiree health
care liabilities by $15 billion, or 25 percent.

GM retirees, who now pay nothing for their health care coverage, would
be required to pay up to $752 annually in premiums for health care for
a family, while active hourly workers would pay more for their
prescription drugs and defer $1 an hour in future pay increases to
help pay for retirees' health care.

David Cole, chairman of the Center for Automotive Research in Ann
Arbor, Mich., said mounting health care costs have become a problem
larger than the auto industry and are amplified by increased
globalization. He argues the long-term issues have yet to be tackled.

"I think we haven't really connected this to quite the level we should
with the sense of urgency to really begin to deal with this in a
fundamental way," Cole said.

Health care premiums have grown dramatically in recent years. A survey
released last month by the Kaiser Family Foundation found that
premiums have soared 73 percent since 2000 and grew an average of 9.2
percent in 2005. The rate of growth this year is more than three times
the growth in workers' earnings.

"There has to be a major restructuring of how we fund health care and
all that takes is political will," said U.S. Sen. Debbie Stabenow, a
Democrat from Lansing.

Stabenow is backing legislation that would help computerized health
care information systems, providing $4 billion in grants and tax
incentives over five years for hospitals and other medical facilities.
The program could save the nation's health care system $300 billion a
year, Stabenow says, and the funding would offset the cost of putting
the new technology in place.

Rep. John Dingell, D-Dearborn, has long supported a national health
insurance plan. He said an improved health care system remains a
pressing need, but notes there are many obstacles.

"You've got to get the support of the administration, get support of
Republicans and overcome the opposition of the insurance lobby and
pharmaceuticals," he said.

Other political leaders are beginning to focus attention on the
problems of the auto industry. Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-New
York, urged President Bush on Thursday to convene a national auto
industry summit to look at issues such as health care and pension
costs, fuel efficiency and foreign competition.

GM said it plans to work with the UAW to ask the federal government to
help reduce health care costs. It does not back the union's support
for a national health care plan.

Art Luna, president of UAW Local 602, which represents nearly 3,000
UAW members who will be working at GM's new Delta Township plant just
west of Lansing next year, said labor agreements can only do so much.

"The Big three needs to understand that health care issues aren't
something that can be negotiated across the bargaining table. They can
be bandaged, but they need to be fixed in Washington," Luna said.

www.freep.com

US Discriminates in Medicines for Minorities

People of Color (Latinos, Afro-Americans, and other minorities) in the
United States are victims of secondhand medicines and non-inclusion in
medicine research.

California legislators and the NAACP recently denounced that only 10
percent of Latinos, Blacks or Asians are included in research on
effects of medicines, which is responsible for greater mortality among
minorities.

The American Medical Association has found great disparities between
the health of Anglo-Saxons and the rest of the population caused by
failure to include other groups in research of medicines.

At the "Evidence and Impact of Medicine on Communities of Color" forum
in Los Angeles this week, Dr. Randall Maxey, an internal medical
specialist, explained, "What is good for the Anglo-Saxon organism is
not necessarily good for an Afro-American, Latino, or other group."

He added that some medicines react better on Afro-Americans but they
are not selected because they were not the majority during the testing
process."

The physician said that generally, decisions on which medicines to
produce are made based on the reaction they cause in the majority of
the population, so adequate remedies for minorities are never chosen.

The NAACP has proposed inclusion of these groups in research to close
the existing gap in mortality rates between whites and other racial
groups.

www.plenglish.com

Google's Stock Scales New Heights

Google Inc.'s market value briefly surpassed $100 billion for the
first time Friday, its stock scaling new heights after an earnings and
revenue spike that astonished investors.

The online search leader's shares traded as high as $346.43 on the
Nasdaq Stock Market before backtracking as the day progressed. The
shares gained $36.70, or 12.1 percent, to close at $339.90.

The slight retreat left Google's market value $98 billion after just
seven years in business. That was nearly $20 billion above the market
value of Hewlett Packard Co. _ a Silicon Valley pioneer founded 66
years ago.

Google's shares have nearly quadrupled since their initial public
offering at $85 just over 14 months ago _ a stretch that has been
marked by stunning financial growth and a steady stream of new
products designed to lure even more traffic to a search engine that
seems to spit out profits as efficiently as it does answers.

The innovation, combined with media consumption habits that are
shifting more advertising to the Web, paid off in a big way during the
third quarter.

Google's profit, announced after the market closed Thursday, increased
by more than sevenfold to $381.2 million. Excluding advertising
commissions, revenue more than doubled to $1.05 billion.

After crunching the numbers, some of the most optimistic analysts
became even more enthusiastic about Google's prospects.

ThinkEquity Partners analyst John Tinker and Hoefer & Arnett analyst
Martin Pyykkonen both raised their targets for Google shares to $425,
up from $350, while Citigroup analyst Mark Mahaney predicted the
shares would hit $430 within the next year.

"There is definitely a bit of a 'wow factor' here," Pyykkonen said.
"The (company's) earnings are looking better than you could have
imagined in your wildest dreams."

Google probably will make even more money during the next two
quarters, Mahaney said. That's because advertisers typically spend
more during the holidays and people usually are connected to the
Internet more frequently during the dreariness of winter, creating
more opportunities for them to visit Google and click on ads.

Mahaney and other analysts also expect Google's stock to be added to
the Standard & Poor's 500, a move that would provide another lift to
its stock as portfolios tied to that blue-chip index snap up more
shares.

In another bullish sign, Google executives on Thursday said more
Fortune 500 companies are lining up to join an online advertising
network that so far has been dominated by mostly small and
medium-sized businesses.

The company "appears to be tapping into new growth opportunities that
may be just as significant as the ones that it already has tapped
into," Mahaney said.

Google is outperforming Yahoo Inc., the owner the Internet's other
major advertising network, largely because it has developed a formula
to display ads more likely to intrigue its visitors.

That connection to the consumer zeitgeist is generating more
revenue-generating clicks on the ads. Google's system, which relies
heavily on low-cost automation, ensures that a big chunk of revenue
turns into pure profit.

Investors, in turn, have rewarded Google for its technical savvy.
Google is currently worth nearly twice as much as Yahoo, whose market
value during Friday's trading stood at $52 billion.

Although it may seem like everything that Google touches turns to
gold, the Mountain, View, Calif.-based company still faces significant
risks.

"The higher their stock price goes, the more likely that others are
going to spend more money to get a piece of the action," Mahaney said.

Microsoft Corp. and Yahoo already have been investing heavily in
search, hoping to narrow its lead and, more recently, veteran media
mogul Barry Diller entered the space when his InterActiveCorp bought
Ask Jeeves Inc. for $2.3 billion.

Despite the tougher competition, Google remains well ahead of its
rivals, according to comScore Media Metrix and Nielsen/NetRatings.

Although it keeps introducing new products, Google's profits remained
tied to advertising _ a field susceptible to volatile swings of
fortune.

"In terms of prudence, you would like to see other revenue streams,"
Pyykkonen said.

Finally, Google is expanding so quickly that it's bound to test the
management skills of its multibillionaire brain trust _ co-founders
Larry Page and Sergey Brin, along with CEO Eric Schmidt. The company
has been hiring about 10 new employees per day during the past six
months, a spree that's expected to continue for several years.

Friday, though, Google's leadership had little reason to stress.

After the day's big market gains, Page and Brin, both 32, each held
Google stakes worth $12 billion while Schmidt's holdings were worth
$4.7 billion.

Copyright 2005 Associated Press. All right reserved. This material may
not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed

www.baynews9.com

Movie review: Mirromask

The beauty and appeal of fantasy is that it doesn't have to make
sense. The things you see in a fantasy world do not have to have exact
allegorical or symbolic equivalents in the "real" world. Sometimes,
fantasy worlds just run away from their creators, taking on their own
bizarre and idiosyncratic personalities. The joy of being a reader or
viewer of the genre lies in getting caught up in these flights of pure
fancy.

I suspect that this is why many people despise fantasy. "But it isn't
real! Why should I watch this, when it's all fake? It doesn't relate
to my life." Some just shrug off fantasy as silly and irrelevant.

If you see yourself in the above crowd, I can tell you now, you
probably won't like Mirrormask. Unapologetically fantastical, the
movie has the organic feel of a garden run completely wild. Its
creators, Neil Gaiman and Dave McKean, plotted out the beds, laid the
stones for the paths, planted and fertilized the seedlings, and then
let it all grow as it would.

Mirrormask could be classified as a children's movie, with a young
lead and themes that will appeal to kids. But it's not the sort of
mindless drivel that often masquerades as children's cinema. The
visual splendor and timelessness of the story will enthrall people of
all ages, and no one will confuse the heroine Helena with Lizzie
Maguire. Mirrormask successfully combines a child's fascination with
adventure and the unreal and an adult's fascinations with children
growing up.

The movie's plot is as basic and familiar as they come: a
fifteen-year-old girl wants to carve out her own life, separate from
her parents'. Just one twist: her parents own a circus, and she's a
performer. All Helena wants is a "normal life," she tells her mother,
right before adding that she wishes her mother were dead. But be
careful what you wish for - her mother, Joanne, collapses in the
middle of a show the very same evening. Suddenly, Joanne is sick, and
the girl is convinced it's her fault. The night of Joanne's surgery,
Helena goes to sleep and wakes up in Gaiman and McKean's surreal
version of Wonderland.

Shortly after wandering out of what isn't exactly her apartment
complex, she meets the masked Valentine (Jason Barry). The two nearly
get swallowed up by a carbon blackness thatis apparently sweeping
through the entire world. Predictably, the fantasy realm faces
extinction, and our young protagonist quickly volunteers to save it.
The Queen of Light has fallen into a coma, and Helena has to find the
Mirrormask to wake her and restore balance to this world.

Anyone who has ever so much as looked at the back of a book in the
sci-fi/fantasy section of Barnes & Noble could foresee this plot. It's
Joseph Campbell's classic hero-myth formula. Where this movie shines
is not in the originality of the basic storyline but in its execution.

Helena soon discovers that this strange universe is actually the world
of her own drawings, a multitude of which cover an entire wall of her
bedroom. For the adults watching this film, the story becomes a
parable of creativity. Helena brings this world into being with her
pen and her mind, and then enters into it to work out her issues with
herself and her mother. Through her art, she is able to externalize
her internal conflict and see it more clearly.

The young actress playing Helena, Stephanie Leonidas, has appeared in
several popular television shows in the UK. Leonidas rescues a role
that could easily have been irritating to the extreme and makes Helena
sympathetic, even at her most frustrating. She avoids the obnoxious
precociousness typical of leads in children's movies, displaying a
believable adolescent combination of childishness and maturity.

Director McKean's credits include a few TV projects and the covers for
Gaiman's Sandman comics. Personally, I wondered how his mind-bending
art would translate to the movie screen. I tend think of animation as
either entirely computer-generated or entirely hand-drawn, but
Mirrormask combines live-action and CG while also layering in elements
of Helena's static drawings. These techniques produce a wonderfully
real-looking otherworld. What you see on screen is a fantasy universe
that you can believe in.

McKean's gleeful use of the technology makes the movie work. When he
litters the background with flying books, schools of fish drifting by
in mid-air, bird-beaked gorillas, and rainbow-winged, human-faced
cats, the sheer uselessness of it all gives the world a depth all its
own. There's a sense that there are elements of the fantasy that
you're missing just out of the corner of your eye. McKean never drops
the illusion of reality - he refuses to acknowledge that this world is
fake or contrived. It may exist only in Helena's mind and in her art,
but that doesn't make it any less beautiful, or any less true.

www.harvardindependent.com

Single men may forgo retreatment of prostate cancer

NEW YORK - Single men with prostate cancer that has spread to the
bone are less likely to receive repeat radiation therapy to alleviate
the pain than their married counterparts, a team at Fox Chase Cancer
Center in Philadelphia reports.

Dr. Andre Konski presented the results of the Radiation Therapy
Oncology Group at the American Society for Therapeutic Radiation and
Oncology annual meeting, being held this week in Denver.

Investigators analyzed data from men with metastatic prostate cancer
who were treated with various radiation doses. The main objective was
to evaluate outcomes based upon marital status.

Konski found that single men were less likely to seek retreatment than
married men.

The difference in retreatment rates may be due to less social support
and encouragement among single men, Konski said. "We need to come up
with strategies to support them, such as nurse follow-up and patient
navigators who can help them through the healthcare system."

"We are just starting to scratch the surface of this population as far
as what they need or their attitudes," he told Reuters Health. He
added that these findings "might suggest a more aggressive first
treatment, knowing that the patient is unlikely to come back."

www.leadingthecharge.com

Sharp Showcases Latest LCD Technology at ADEAC

WHO: Sharp Microelectronics of the Americas, Camas, Wash., a Sharp
Corporation company. Sharp is a worldwide leader in Liquid Crystal
Display ( LCD ) technology.

WHAT: At the Americas Display Engineering and Applications Conference
(ADEAC), Sharp will highlight its broad line of Liquid Crystal Display
panels incorporating the latest advances in LCD technology. The
company will also announce its newest TFT- LCD displays for mobile A/V
products and industrial applications.

To demonstrate its strong commitment to providing industry-leading LCD
solutions for a range of applications, Sharp will exhibit an array of
small, medium and large display modules for mobile/handheld,
automotive and industrial/medical markets in its booth, No. 21.

As the market for handheld media-rich devices grows, design engineers
must meet needs for video and photographic-quality still images and
text by incorporating displays that feature a wide range of colors,
high brightness and low power consumption. Ranging from 2.0 to 8.4
inches, and in landscape and portrait orientations, Sharp's LCD
modules are ideally suited for next-generation mobile devices such as
handheld gaming, portable media players and portable DVD players.
These modules also offer outstanding on-screen performance for PDAs,
GPS devices, instrumentation and portable medical equipment.

Sharp's handheld panels on exhibit at ADEAC will include the 2.2 inch,
3.5 inch, 3.7 inch and 4.3 inch modules as well as a 2 inch cell phone
display.

LCDs for Industrial Applications

Sharp's displays for the industrial market range in size from 2.0 to
28.0 inches and offer design engineers at-a-glance viewability,
meaning better contrast and a wider viewing cone. With optimal
contrast ratio in strong-light conditions, product longevity, broad
operating temperatures, durability, and high resistance to shock and
vibration, as well as a low total cost of ownership, the modules
provide reliable solutions to industrial design challenges.

Among the applications for these modules are process control and
programmable logic control systems for factory automation, human
machine interfaces such as ATMs, outdoor kiosks used for mass-transit
and public information, security/surveillance, and factory automation.
They are also ideal for medical systems applications such as patient
monitoring.

Sharp's 6.4 inch, 7.0 inch, 12.1 inch, and 15.0 inch LCD displays for
industrial applications will be demonstrated at its ADEAC booth.
Breakthrough LCD Technology on Display.

Also on display in Sharp's booth will be proprietary LCD technologies
including:

-- Advanced-TFT (AD-TFT) Technology, which combines reflective HR-TFT
LCD technology with backlit Transmissive LCD technology to offer
bright, high-contrast images in almost all ambient lighting
conditions.

-- Super Mobile LCDs combine Sharp's proprietary Advanced Super
View and Advanced-TFT LCD technologies to enable devices with
excellent visibility in any lighting situation, while offering
a wide viewing angle, high contrast ratio, and superior color
reproduction.

-- CG-Silicon is a next-generation LCD technology developed
jointly by Sharp and Semiconductor Energy Laboratory Co., Ltd.
(head office: Atsugi, Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan; president
Shunpei Yamazaki). CG-Silicon mounts a screen and its
peripheral circuits on the same substrate, which will result
in high-density, multifunctional, and energy efficient mobile
devices.

Sharp experts will make the following presentations at ADEAC:
-- "TFT LCD Technology for Industrial Applications," by Noel C.
Giamello, Sharp Field Application Engineering Director , Sharp
Microelectronics of the Americas, Tuesday, October 25, 3:40 - 5:20 pm,
Holladay Room.

-- "Making Dreams a Reality for the Large Area LCD Market," by
Thomas A. Spears, Senior Product Marketing Manager, Sharp
Microelectronics of the Americas, Thursday, October 27, 10:30 am -
12:10 pm, Multnomah Room.

In addition, Sharp, along with a consortium of Oregon LCD technology
specialists, is sponsoring the ADEAC conference special event on
Wednesday, October 26, 2005, 7:00-10:00 pm at the Oregon Museum of
Science and Industry (OMSI), one of the nation's top 10 science
museums. OMSI is located at 1945 SE Water Avenue, Portland, Ore.

www.mediaworkstation.com

Public Company Management Corporation Lists ANTs Software on New PCMC Bulletin Board 30 Index

LAS VEGAS, NEVADA - Public Company Management Corporation (OTCBB:PUBC)
announced that it has included high performance database developer
ANTs software, inc. (OTCBB:ANTS) on the newly created PCMC Bulletin
Board 30 IndexTM.

"ANTs Software is an excellent example of an exciting, high-quality
OTCBB company that is often overlooked by analysts and investors,"
said Stephen Brock, president of Public Company Management Corporation
and founder of the PCMC Bulletin Board 30 IndexTM. "We look forward to
tracking its progress on the Index and to bringing greater awareness
to the OTCBB, which is the premier staging ground for growing
businesses to raise capital and establish a shareholder base."

About the PCMC Bulletin Board 30 Index

The Bulletin Board 30 Index is the only resource of its kind available
for those interested in the performance of stocks traded on the Over
the Counter Bulletin Board (OTCBB). Companies in the Index currently
have an average stock price of $5.85, average market capitalization of
$170 million, and an average 3-month volume of 131,370. As the Index
evolves, the long-term objective is to establish either an ETF or a
closed-end fund that fosters greater OTCBB awareness and investment
opportunities. A complete listing of the 30 companies comprising the
index, along with the selection criteria can be found as
http://pcmc.stockgroup.com/pcmc30.asp

About The Over The Counter Bulletin Board

The OTCBB is a regulated quotation service that displays real-time
quotes, last-sale prices, and volume information. OTCBB securities
include national, regional, and foreign equity issues, warrants,
units, American Depositary Receipts (ADRs), and Direct Participation
Programs (DPPs). To be eligible for quotation on the OTCBB, issuers
must remain current in their filings with the SEC or applicable
regulatory authority. OTCBB issuers are subject to many of the
provisions of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, some of which are now in
effect.

Over the past five years volume on the OTCBB has grown approximately
ten-fold. There was nearly a 300 percent increase from 1998 to 1999.
Through the end of April 2005, there were 77 billion shares traded on
the OTCBB, according to the OTC Journal.

About ANTs Software, Inc.

ANTs software inc., based in Silicon Valley, California, develops,
affordable high-performance data management software that is
compatible with all popular databases. The company's mission is to
help customers reduce hardware, software, and development costs by
providing exceptional database price performance. For more information
on ANTs software, visit www.ants.com.

About Public Company Management Corporation

PUBC provides a number of consulting and advising services to
companies seeking to access public capital markets. PUBC focuses on
the small business market segment, traditionally underserved by large
management consulting firms like Accenture Ltd. and Corporate
Executive Board Co. PUBC's primary service is to help promising
private companies become publicly traded companies and with consulting
and advising services relating to compliance with SEC reporting
requirements. For more information on PUBC's services, visit:
www.publiccompanymanagement.com/services.

PUBC supports the full lifecycle of entering the public market through
its various subsidiaries:

Education - Pubco White Papers (http://www.PubcoWhitePapers.com) hosts
a comprehensive body of knowledge on private and public equity
markets.

Registration and listing -- Go Public Today
(http://www.GoPublicToday.com) provides a complete solution to help
small companies register securities for public offerings and obtain a
listing on the OTCBB.

Regulatory compliance -- Public Company Management Services
(http://www.PCMS-Team.com) assists new and existing public companies
in negotiating the new complexities of maintaining a public company
and creating sustainable and affordable compliance processes.

PUBC leads by example, demonstrating to current and future clients'
best practices in taking a company public, investor relations, public
relations, regulatory compliance, and raising capital.

Safe Harbor

This press release contains or may contain forward-looking statements
such as statements regarding PUBC's growth and profitability, growth
strategy, liquidity and access to public markets, operating expense
reduction, and trends in the industry in which PUBC operates. The
forward-looking statements contained in this press release are also
subject to other risks and uncertainties, including those more fully
described in PUBC's filings with the Securities and Exchange
Commission. PUBC assumes no obligation to update these forward-looking
statements to reflect actual results, changes in risks, uncertainties
or assumptions underlying or affecting such statements, or for
prospective events that may have a retroactive effect

www.ccnmatthews.com