FSA seeks to mend "broken" Libor, not end it

LONDON (Reuters) - The Financial Services Authority (FSA) delivered a 10-point plan to overhaul Libor on Friday but stopped short of scrapping the benchmark interest rate discredited by a rigging scandal.

The Financial Services Authority's plan marks the first concrete step by regulators to repair a system of interest rates that underpins more than $300 trillion (185.8 trillion pounds) of contracts and loans from U.S. mortgages to Japanese interest-rate swaps.

Faith in the system plummeted after Barclays was fined in June for rigging Libor. Other banks are under investigation.

"The system is broken and needs a complete overhaul," said Martin Wheatley, head of the FSA.

But there are no better alternatives now and any transition to a new benchmark would be difficult because Libor is so deeply embedded in the financial system, Wheatley said, adding that it made sense to look at other possible benchmarks long term.

Britain's government sees the reform of Libor as critical to restoring global confidence in London as a financial centre.

"The longer the situation prevails that trust has been eroded, the more difficult it is to restore," Britain's financial services minister Greg Clark told Reuters.

The FSA plan includes oversight by a new panel from 2013. Until now, Libor rates have been set daily by the British Bankers Association (BBA) industry body on the basis of estimates submitted by global banks.

"Bringing Libor under an independent regulator will take away the notion that this was a system run by banks for the benefit of banks," said Matthew Fell, director for competitive markets at the Confederation of British Industry lobby group.

Short sterling futures jumped in London as some in the market had expected Wheatley's reforms to be tougher, with the result that Libor rates would be higher than in the past.

CHARGES OF MANIPULATION

Most responses to the plan were supportive, but Stephen Gilchrist, head of regulatory law at Saunders Law, said regulation of individuals as proposed by Wheatley had not stopped abuses in other financial markets.

"The FSA only authorise persons in the financial services sector who pass a ?fit and proper' test, which goes to probity and integrity. Where has that got us in the recent past?" Gilchrist said in an email.

Multiple banks have been accused of trying to manipulate Libor. Barclays Plc agreed to pay over $450 million to U.S. and British authorities in June to settle allegations it tried to move Libor to help its trading positions.

Wheatley's programme for reform includes auditing banks that contribute data used to calculate the rates. The number of rates calculated will be cut from 150 to 20, with more banks required to contribute to the remaining ones.

Libor, which is meant to reflect the rates at which banks borrow from one another, will also include actual borrowing transactions. Previously, banks could estimate where they think they would borrow, which left room for manipulation.

Bank employees making Libor submissions will have to be approved by the FSA. Wheatley is looking for authorisation to criminally sanction anyone who attempts to rig the rate.

Reuters parent company Thomson Reuters Corp collects information from banks and uses it to calculate Libor rates according to specifications drawn up by the BBA.

Thomson Reuters and Bloomberg LP, which compete in providing news and data to markets, both said they were working with the financial industry in response to the Libor review.

David Craig, president of Financial & Risk at Thomson Reuters, said the company was considering whether to tender for the new administrator role. Dan Doctoroff, President and CEO of Bloomberg said it was consulting on developing an index to meet the needs raised by Wheatley.

A major remaining problem is that in financial crises, such as the one in 2008, banks cease lending to one another, effectively removing data needed to calculate Libor.

Mervyn King, governor of the Bank of England, said: "Over the medium to long term, further thinking will be needed to meet the challenge of benchmarks based on thinly traded markets, especially when they are quote-based."

The reforms come amid more crackdowns on the banks that submitted rates used to calculate Libor. Royal Bank of Scotland is expected to be next to settle Libor charges.

Britain's government commissioned Wheatley to report on reforming Libor and is expected to back the findings in full. Legislative changes will be inserted into a financial services bill now being approved by parliament.

(Additional reporting by Olesya Dmitracova in London, Rick Rothacker in Charlotte, North Carolina and Carrick Mollenkamp and Jennifer Saba in New York; Writing by Dan Wilchins and Steve Slater; Editing by Matthew Tostevin)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/fsa-says-broken-libor-needs-complete-revamp-013916275--finance.html

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Multiple similarities discovered between cancer cells and induced pluripotent stem cells

ScienceDaily (Sep. 28, 2012) ? UC Davis investigators have found new evidence that a promising type of stem cell now being considered for a variety of disease therapies is very similar to the type of cells that give rise to cancer. The findings suggest that although the cells -- known as induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) -- show substantial promise as a source of replacement cells and tissues to treat injuries, disease and chronic conditions, scientists and physicians must move cautiously with any clinical use because iPSCs could also cause malignant cancer.

The article, "Induced pluripotency and oncogenic transformation are related processes," is now online in the journal, Stem Cells and Development.

"This is the first study that describes the specific molecular pathways that iPSCs and cancer cells share from a direct comparison" said Paul Knoepfler, associate professor of cell biology and human anatomy, and principal investigator of the study. "It means that much more study is required before iPSCs can be used clinically. However, our study adds to a growing knowledge base that not only will help make stem cell therapies safer, but also provide us with new understandings about the cancer-causing process and more effective ways to fight the disease."

Since 2007, cell biologists have been able to induce specialized, differentiated cells (such as those obtained from the skin or muscle of a human adult) to become iPSCs. Like embryonic stem cells, iPSCs are a type of stem cell that is able to become any cell type. This "pluripotent" capability means that iPSCs have the potential of being used in treatments for a variety of human diseases, a fundamentally new type of clinical care known as regenerative medicine.

iPSCs are considered particularly important because their production avoids the controversy that surrounds embryonic stem cells. In addition, iPSCs can be taken from a patient's own skin and induced to produce other needed tissues, thereby evading the possibility of immunologic rejection that arises when transplanting cells from a donor to a recipient. In contrast to therapies based on ES cells, iPSCs would eliminate the need for patients to take immunosuppressive drugs.

Earlier research indicated that both ES cells and iPSCs pose some health risks. Increasing evidence suggests that pluripotency may be related to rapid cellular growth, a characteristic of cancer. iPSCs, as well as embryonic stem cells, are well known by scientists to have the propensity to cause teratomas, an unusual type of benign tumor that consists of many different cell types. The new UC Davis study demonstrates for the first time that iPSCs -- as well as ES cells -- share significant similarities to malignant cancer cells.

The investigators compared iPSCs to a form of malignant cancer known as oncogenic foci that are also produced in laboratories; these cell types are used by medical researchers to create models of cancer, particularly sarcoma. Specifically, the scientists contrasted the different cells' transcriptomes, composed of the RNA molecules or "transcripts." Unlike DNA analysis, which reflects a cell's entire genetic code whether or not the genes are active, transcriptomes reflect only the genes that are actively expressed at a given time and therefore provide a picture of actual cellular activity.

From this transcriptome analysis, the investigators found that the iPSCs and malignant sarcoma cancer cells are unexpectedly similar in several respects. Genes that were not expressed in iPSCs were also not expressed in the cancer-generating cells, including many that have properties that guide a cell to normally differentiate in certain directions. Both cell types also exhibited evidence of similar metabolic activities, another indication that they are related cell types.

"We were surprised how similar iPSCS were to cancer-generating cells," said Knoepfler. "Our findings indicate that the search for therapeutic applications of iPSCs must proceed with considerable caution if we are to do our best to promote patient safety."

Knoepfler noted, for example, that future experimental therapies using iPSCs for human transplants would most often not involve implanting iPSCs directly into a patient. Instead, iPSCs would be used to create differentiated cells -- or tissues -- in the laboratory, which could then be transplanted into a patient. This approach avoids implanting the actual undifferentiated iPSCS, and reduces the risk of tumor development as a side effect. However, Knoepfler noted that even trace amounts of residual iPSCs could cause cancer in patients, a possibility supported by his team's latest research.

Encouragingly, the UC Davis team also found important differences between the cell types that could provide clues to making iPSCs safer. As part of this study, the researchers transformed tumor-generating cell types into iPS-like cells by manipulating their genetic make up. Although the reprogrammed cancer cells did not behave identically to iPSCs, and had reduced ability to produce different cell types, the findings are exciting because they suggest that cancer cells can be reprogrammed into more normal cell types, possibly opening the door to new cancer therapies.

"We found that we could reprogram the cancer cells to behave more akin to normal stem cells," said Knoepfler. "This suggests that such cancer cell reprogramming could become a new way of treating cancer patients, in essence telling their tumors to turn into normal stem cells."

Knoepfler said the team is continuing to study the differences and similarities between iPSCs and cancer cells, as well as investigate possible ways to make iPSCs safer. It appears that targeting specific metabolic pathways may enhance iPSC formation, while modulating other pathways may improve safety.

Other study authors are John Riggs, Bonnie Barrilleaux, Natalia Varlakhanova, Kelly Bush and Vanessa Chan, all of the UC Davis Department of Cell Biology and Human Anatomy.

The study was funded by grants from the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine and from the National Institutes of Health (NIH grant 5R01GM100782-01).

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Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by University of California - Davis Health System.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.


Journal Reference:

  1. John W Riggs, Bonnie Barrilleaux, Natalia Varlakhanova, Kelly Bush, Vanessa Chan, Paul Knoepfler. Induced pluripotency and oncogenic transformation are related processes. Stem Cells and Development, 2012; : 120921101948002 DOI: 10.1089/scd.2012.0375

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/~3/cxC7BCZc-5g/120928141100.htm

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Chemistry blogging and journalism: Eat the fruit, don't count the trees

I have been blogging about chemistry and related topics since 2004. Since then I have had the chance to witness the rise of the chemistry blogosphere. What started as a small, loose collection of opinionated men and women has turned into a group of serious and well-informed bloggers who blog with authority and nuance. Partly because blogging about chemistry is not as attractive as blogging about cosmology or evolutionary biology, the chemistry blogosphere has relatively few blogs. However in my view this has also translated into an unusually high ratio of signal to noise. Speak to people who frequent this world and ask them who they think the good bloggers are, and you will usually hear lists of names that are not only similar but also exhaustive. My own contributions to this world have been very modest but there are others who have set high standards and who will undoubtedly continue to guide the high-quality discourse.

With this background in mind, I was a little disappointed to see a parting editorial by Rudy Baum who has served as editor-in-chief of Chemical and Engineering News (C&EN), the flagship publication of the American Chemical Society. C&EN has been the main source of chemical information and analysis for the chemical community for almost a hundred years. In his capacity Mr. Baum has contributed valuable input to the magazine. He has done an admirable job in keeping the whole enterprise together and has also been very active in interacting with the chemical community, including chemists who write blogs. In fact his own team of outstanding writers, scientists and journalists publish their own blog which has consistently produced insightful, high-quality content.

In his parting editorial Mr. Baum had the following words to say about blogs:

?Technology has profoundly changed journalism during my tenure with C&EN. Much of the change has been positive?who can imagine doing research on a topic without access to the Internet??but the business model for journalism remains very much in a state of flux. The silly mantra, ?Information wants to be free,? overlooks the fact that quality information requires effort, and effort costs money.

Blogs are all well and good, they add richness to the exchange of information, but they are not journalism, and they never will be.?

Blogs also made an appearance in another discussion arising from a university library?s decision to cancel their subscription to ACS journals because of high prices. A post by the librarian about this was met with the following response by the ACS?s Director of Public Affairs

?We find little constructive dialogue can be had on blogs and other listservs where logic, balance, and common courtesy are not practiced and observed,?

I would like to address the C&EN editorial first. I was not aware of the source of that ?silly mantra? that ?information should be free? until a few fellow bloggers pointed out that it originated with Stewart Brand, creator of the Whole Earth Catalog, the same lavish volume which inspired Steve Jobs during the early phases of his career. It was reiterated by Richard Stallman who started the open software movement at MIT. The quote is more subtle than what it appears in Mr. Baum?s editorial. The point is that throughout human history, for reasons related not just to cost but also to availability and censorship, information has had to tread the fine line between being withheld and being widely available. Stallman made it clear that by ?free? he was not talking about the price but about availability. He was alluding to the fact that information by its very nature is like a restless beast that wants to spread around through the human medium. History has amply demonstrated that we as a society want to know, and at some point we do. And Stallman was saying this in an age when the internet was still very limited and access to information was severely constrained compared to today.

The age has changed but information is still restricted or expensive in many cases where it should not be so. Unfortunately, simply quoting the ?information wants to be free? gives the impression that consumers of information really think that it doesn?t cost anything to produce it. That?s simply not true. Almost every person who I have talked to about open access realizes that it takes cost and effort to edit, referee and produce information. However we are also aware of how much cheaper this process can be compared to what it is, especially because of the exceedingly low costs of bandwidth and storage space. These low costs make it possible for enterprises to be supported mainly through volunteer donations. The fact is that journals and magazines as a whole are still mainly stuck in the old model where a group of editors make it their full-time job to finely craft, edit and publish information. Although the technology for disseminating information has changed, the mindsets find it hard to let go. There is of course still a prominent role for official high-quality information that is carefully vetted and journal editors still do an admirable job of striving for quality, but the fact is that there are now multiple ways of producing and accessing the same information, with blogging being one of the simplest. This proliferation of content creation and production channels has resulted in the entirely reasonable mantra that ?most information should be very cheap, and at least some information should be free?.

The difference between free and cheap is huge; it?s the same as the difference between zero and any finite number. And it?s this mantra that?is the source of the campaign against publishers like Elsevier who practice unfair ?bundling? and sport huge profit margins. More importantly though, I think there?s at least some evidence to refute Mr. Baum?s statement that ?quality information requires effort, and effort costs money?. By now Wikipedia has been proven to be a resounding example of the fact that quality can come without money through the efforts of millions of volunteers who contribute knowledge and information for a variety of reasons. Most of these contributors have contributed an immense amount of their time without asking us for a penny and the Wikipedia servers are mainly maintained through volunteer donations. Articles on Wikipedia have been vetted by experts in their respective areas (including Nature) and have been consistently found to contain high-quality information.

However I find myself more disappointed to hear Mr. Baum?s thoughts on blogging. What exactly does he mean when he says ?science blogs will never be journalism?? I see journalism defined mainly in three terms; news, opinion and analysis. As far as I am concerned, science blogs have contributed to each of these phases of journalism over the last decade or so. High-quality content not driven by money has been an outstanding feature of the chemical blogosphere.

Let?s start with opinion. Opinion has always been a principal function of blogging; in fact that?s why many of us started our blogs, to hold forth in all our self-important erudition on a variety of topics. As far as news is concerned, those of us who are reporting on the latest chemical breakthroughs, safety issues, chemical controversies and the human side of chemistry are communicating exactly the kind of news that magazines like C&EN report. I am not saying that magazines are not doing a good job of reporting the relevant news, just that bloggers can also be equal to the task.

And then there?s analysis. I believe this is an area in which bloggers have been outstanding. Whether it?s?Derek Lowe analyzing the state of the pharmaceutical industry,?Chemjobber analyzing the state of the job market,?Chembark analyzing the state of chemical publishing or?SeeArrOh analyzing the state of chemophobia, I believe that bloggers have repeatedly subscribed to the highest standards of fact checking, careful thinking and clear exposition. Sure, we all make mistakes, but I think many of us can agree that when it comes to episodes like the sodium hydride ?oxidation? debacle or the structure of?hexacyclinol, chemistry bloggers have been at the forefront of sounding the alarm and of meticulously charting the flaws, often before more ?official? news sources scoop the story up. This is even more true of the rest of the science blogosphere where bloggers are fighting creationism, climate change denial and the anti-vaccination movement. In some cases their analysis has been far more thorough and well-informed than the official sources. Even a preliminary look at some of the major blog posts written by chemistry bloggers would convince the ACS?s PR director that ?logic, balance and common courtesy? are not just alive but are thriving in the chemical blogosphere.

The benefit of a magazine like C&EN is of course that all this information is in one place instead of being scattered around various sites and it has done a great job in achieving this goal, but this is hardly a general argument against the ability of blogs to do good science journalism. Perhaps what Mr. Baum means that all blogs don?t contribute to journalism, but that?s a far cry from saying that they?can?t and that they never will. Surely Mr. Baum is familiar with the high-quality service that veteran chemistry bloggers have provided over the last decade. Surely he is aware of the fact that members of his own very capable staff have often featured and linked to posts, both their own and others. At the very least his opinion should have been tempered by a recognition of the good that has come out of chemistry blogging during the last few years.

I will leave you with an?excellent post regarding this very perceived distinction between science blogging and science journalism written by Ed Yong, one of the most accomplished science bloggers around. It seems that Ed really hits the nail on the head in locating the source of criticism of science blogs:

To an extent, I get why it?s played. I think people are rightly worried about their industry. As I said at the start: massive sinking ship. People see a profession in trouble, they want to save and protect it. They see these random interlopers trying to claim a stake and they think that it somehow devalues this noble thing that they?re trying to defend. I certainly agree that good journalism in all its forms is a necessary thing that is worth defending. But no one has ever saved something by playing with definitions. You protect journalism by trumpeting its values, criticising people who do it poorly and supporting those who do it well, regardless of the medium they happen to use. You won?t buoy up journalism through taxonomy.

Indeed, you don?t buoy up journalism through conventional, narrow-minded classification. You buoy it up by recognizing high-quality content in your field, irrespective of the source. There?s an old proverb which roughly says ?Enjoy the fruit, don?t count the trees?. If the fruit is sweet and satisfying, do you really care where the trees come from and how many there are?

This is an updated and revised version of a post I wrote on my FoS blog The Curious Wavefunction.

Source: http://rss.sciam.com/click.phdo?i=1616f2fdbb5e34205b1ad87333e1b864

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Throwback Thursday - Sonic-16 Demo (SAtAM cartoon) | Playstation ...

Last night I randomly thought of watching Sonic the Hedgehog the Saturday Morning that came on ABC back in 1993-1995. It was a spin-off of the Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog that came on weekday mornings on UPN (now CW but was called WDCA back then) and WNUV 54 Baltimore. That particularly series lasted from 1993-1994. However, they did come out with the Sonic Christmas Blast in 1996. At any rate, what I did not know is that they actually tried pitching a game based off the Saturday Morning series. As you know the Archie Comics made a whole comic book series based off the SAT-AM series which included Knuckles, Super Sonic, and the Chaos Emeralds.

The interesting thing is that although there is only a demo up of what was called ?Sonic-16?, Sally was included in Sonic Spinball as a quick cameo. Additionally, the Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog was featured in Dr. Robotnik?s Mean Bean Machine with Grounder and Scratch as bosses. I find it kind of funny and interesting how I?m finding out all of this information like 18-19 years later. Hey, better late than never, right? If this game got worked on more and they could actually pitch it, I think it would have made an excellent title. I mean, the whole climbing, dodging, and elusive aspect of the demo, it?s something you never see in Sonic Games these days. It was definitely ahead of it it?s time. I think you should check it for yourself! Enjoy! Oh yeah, as a little treat, I will post up an episode of the old Sonic the Hedgehog SAT-AM. Peace!

Source: http://playstation3gameconsole.com/throwback-thursday-sonic-16-demo-satam-cartoon/

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Herbert Lom, boss in Pink Panther movies, dies

Everett Collection

Herbert Lom, left, and Peter Sellers in "The Pink Panther Strikes Again."

By Reuters

LONDON -- Czech-born film star Herbert Lom, best known as the deranged Chief Inspector Charles Dreyfus in the "Pink Panther" comedies, has died, according to British media. He was 95.

His agent was not immediately able to confirm the reports that Lom died peacefully in his sleep on Thursday. They did not specify where, but he had been based in London.

Born into a poor aristocratic family in Prague in 1917, he shortened his complicated name to Lom and appeared in a handful of locally made movies before emigrating to Britain before the outbreak of World War Two and making his home there.

There he built a career that spanned over 100 films and included more than its fair share of villains.

"In English eyes all foreigners are sinister," he was quoted as saying resignedly in 1991.

He portrayed Napoleon Bonaparte twice, including in "War and Peace" in 1956 alongside Henry Fonda and Audrey Hepburn, and the King of Siam in the first London production of the stage musical "The King and I" in 1953.

Two years later he collaborated with Peter Sellers in the dark comedy "The Ladykillers", and they would work together again in the 1960s and 1970s on the Pink Panther series.

In them Lom played the increasingly crazed Dreyfus alongside Sellers' hapless Inspector Clouseau, and the success of his character owed much to Lom's own improvisations.

In an interview with the Independent newspaper in 2004, Lom recalled that it was him who invented Dreyfus's nervous twitch that became his trademark gesture.

"I started winking out of nervousness, and couldn't stop," he said. "It wasn't in the script but (director) Blake Edwards loved it. But it became a problem. I made those films for 20 years, and after 10 years they ran out of good scripts.

"They used to say to me, 'Herbert, wink here, wink.' And I said, 'I'm not going to wink. You write a good scene and I won't have to wink.'"

He also wrote two novels, "Enter A Spy" published in 1971 and "Dr Guillotine" in 1993. (Reporting by Mike Collett-White, editing by Paul Casciato.

Source: http://todayentertainment.today.com/_news/2012/09/27/14123328-herbert-lom-chief-inspector-in-pink-panther-movies-dies-at-95?lite

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Liberal Legal Internationalism: A History (and Present) of Double ...

By Mohsen al Attar on September 27, 2012

In late August 2012, Archbishop Desmond Tutu pulled out of the Discovery Invest Leadership Summit in Johannesburg to which he was scheduled to attend as an invited speaker. The prod for his 11th hour withdrawal was the likely (and eventual) participation of former British Prime Minister Tony Blair who was also slated to speak at the same event. With a mix of contrition and conscientiousness, Tutu declared his unwillingness to share the stage with an individual responsible for spearheading an invasion that ?destabilised and polarised the world a greater extent than any other conflict in history.?[i]

Hyperbole aside, the full version of Tutu?s statement stresses several points regarding the double-standards of international law that even a casual observer is surely all-too familiar with:

?On what grounds do we decide that Robert Mugabe should go the International Criminal Court, Tony Blair should join the international speakers? circuit, bin Laden should be assassinated, but Iraq should be invaded, not because it possesses weapons of mass destruction, as Mr Bush?s chief supporter, Mr Blair, confessed last week, but in order to get rid of Saddam Hussein?

?in a consistent world, those responsible for this suffering and loss of life should be treading the same path as some of their African and Asian peers who have been made to answer for their actions in the Hague.? [ii]

With the key pretext for the invasion of Iraq nowhere to be found, Blair has placed much stock in the overthrow of former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein as a type of ex-post-facto vindication of the assault: ?Hussein?s slaughter of his political opponents, the treatment of the Marsh Arabs and the systematic torture of his people make the case for removing him morally strong.?[iii] While he does not disavow the seemingly calculated canard of weapons of mass destruction ? ?the basis of action was as stated at the time? ? Blair does again seek to highlight the prospective value of the invasion ? ?I would also point out that despite the problems, Iraq today has an economy three times or more in size?[iv] ? as cover for the disturbing state of the nation which, after a decade of UN sanctions and a protracted British-American occupation, is looking more like Mesopotamia than it did when the British last saw fit to occupy the region.

Upon closer examination, the dust-up between Tutu and Blair provides a window into competing perceptions of the purpose and practice of international law. Their contrasting viewpoints, I suggest in this brief article, are borne of the distinct trajectories international law has taken for the First and Third World respectively. They also transcend a variety of jurisprudential trends observable across the history of international law.

Pursuing Universal Morality(ies) Through International Law

With colonial ambitions as compass, burgeoning European powers set forth to conquer much of the New World. Until that point, historical mandates for conquest were drawn from the Pope who, as divine vicegerent, commanded authority over the entirety of God?s kingdom including the lands of believers and heretics alike. In the 16th century, however, a Catholic theologian and jurist of minor fame challenged the alleged universality of papal authority, restricting the Pope?s jurisdiction to Christian lands. He then set about developing a new system to mediate the colonial encounter and the novel legal problems that arose as a result: who or, more to the tone of the time, what were the Indians? Did they possess rights? Could they own land? Were they sovereign?[v]

Answers to these questions, Antony Anghie explains, laid the groundwork for jus gentium or the law of nations. Exhibiting forms of social organisation caused Vitoria to conclude that the Indians were in possession of reason, binding them to a hitherto unknown ? but all-knowing ? universal system of natural law. Like the Spaniards now engaging them, the Indians could avail themselves of the rights to travel, sojourn and proselytise, as far away as Granada if they fancied. Nor should they anticipate any obstruction from their hypothetical hosts if they made their way to Spanish shores for, in addition to a negative duty not to interfere with the avowal of these rights, both Indians and Spaniards alike were bound by a positive duty to bring non-conforming societies in line with their mutual obligations. In practice, this meant that societies who resisted either settlement or conversion were, in Vitoria?s language, subject to war, captivity, enslavement and death.[vi] The inability of the Indians to avail themselves of any of these rights and the actuality of Spanish colonial ambitions and efforts were, it seemed, of little consequence. As equal members of the law of nations, they too could do unto the Spaniards as the Spaniards were doing unto them and this possibility alone was sufficient.

Equality, however, only went so far. On the question of sovereignty ? were they Indians sovereign? ? Vitoria reverts to the doctrinal Christian supremacist starting point he began by challenging. He argued that sovereignty was dependent on two additional rights: the right to wage a just war and to acquire title. With tautological vigour, Vitoria concluded that only Christians could wage a just war ?otherwise even Turks and Saracens might wage just wars against Christians, for they think they are thus rendering God service?,[vii] paving the way for the lawful annexation of Indian lands. Within this particular manifestation of the law of nations, European political subjectivity stood as universal moral objectivity.

We observe similar effusions toward the natural law based character of international law in statements by Tutu and Blair, as well as inferences about the universal validity of European morality from the former prime minister specifically. While Tutu condemns ?[t]he immorality of the United States and Great Britain?s decision to invade Iraq in 2003, premised on the lie that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction?,[viii] Blair defends his action with equal moralistic bravado: ??[Hussein?s actions] make the case for removing him morally strong.?[ix] Nor was this the first time Blair flashed universal morality in support of his position. In 2003, appearing before the American Congress to make the case for the invasion, Blair described the ?fight? as one not for ?Western values? but ?universal values of the human spirit?.[x]

We see both men utilising notions of morality to make their respective cases. While their religious credentials may help explain this inclination ? Tutu is a retired Anglican bishop and Blair a born-again Catholic ? Vitoria?s reasoning confirms that international law has long been steeped in ethnocentric moral aspirations. To Vitoria, to the extent the Indians possessed reason, they fell within the ambit of jus gentium. However, to the extent they were not Christians and might resist becoming so, they fell outside the sovereigntist embrace and were thus deserving of untold viciousness. Two centuries later, Robert Ward, a British jurist and member of the House of Commons, while recognising an assortment of laws of nations among varied civilisations, hastened to deny to all but the European articulation the legitimacy of law.[xi] Ignorance, ignominy and barbarity among non-Europeans, he declared, was the basis of their exclusion. Drawing upon a rich tradition, Blair makes similar claims, seemingly indifferent to the many moralities opposed to both the specific action as well as the general sense of entitlement upon which the former was based. In international law, some moralities consistently appear more equal than others.

From Moral to Instrumental

Neither Tutu nor Blair ends there, however, with each drawing upon the positivist strand of international legal reasoning to further buttress their claims. Tutu, for his part, bemoans the double standards of the International Criminal Court, calling for zeal of the variety displayed toward Charles Taylor, Joseph Kony, Saif Qaddafi and sundry Africans, this time in the investigation and prosecution of Blair. Consistency is a critical characteristic of a legal framework, promoting greater compliance and deeper confidence ? or compliance through confidence ? in the relevant law(s). Indeed, from a positivist perspective, all who fall within the law?s jurisdiction are equally subject to the law?s application.

Blair, too, seems equally moved by positivist reasoning, albeit for entirely different reasons. He initially defends himself by restating his belief in the case that was made about the presence of weapons of mass destruction on Iraqi soil: ?to repeat the old canard that we lied about the intelligence is completely wrong as every single independent analysis of the evidence has shown.? While he follows with the moral argument discussed above, he returns to the allegation of his supposed deception once more: ?But the basis of action was as stated at the time.?[xii] The phrasing of this last sentence is most revealing, reiterating his belief ? at that time ? in the evidence presented (and since disproved).

From a criminal law vantage point, the burden of proof that dominates in most Western legal systems ? and by extension in the international legal regime ? is reasonable doubt. In practice, this means that a defendant need only raise reasonable doubt to defeat a charge presented against them. As is often the case in rape, perjury or fraud trials, one of the more common defences is the sincerity claim: at the time, I genuinely believed that she consented, that I was using my own credit card or that the evidence presented to the UN Security Council about mobile laboratories and Nigerian yellow cake was authentic.[xiii]

While geo-politics form the core of international legal happenings, due to the contributions of John Austin and other 19th century legal thinkers, international law is also denoted by a positivist streak.[xiv] Positivism is a clever way of eliciting buy-in in a community of equally sovereign states. This is an important distinction with national legal systems: while compliance can be compelled domestically, enforcement is clearly problematic in the international realm. The doctrine of voluntarism was conceived to sidestep this particularity, encouraging states to sign on voluntarily while committing to respecting a refusal to do so. The positivist strand has triggered the proliferation of tribunals and courts in the last decade as more and more states come to favour the consistency quality that can be drawn from ? or read into ? the majesty of The Hague and other international criminal legal institutions.

While his comrade-in-ideology, former American President George Bush Jr, may be secure ? the United States is not party to the Statute of the International Criminal Court, effectively inoculating him from its jurisdiction ? the situation for Blair is a little more precarious as the United Kingdom is a fervent supporter of the institution. Blair is fully aware that should the winds of global power shift unfavourably (read BRIC), then gaol may no longer be such an unlikely destination, hence the claim made ad nauseam that the basis of the action was as stated at the time. Of course, a quick glance at the prosecutorial practices of the ICC or of special tribunals in general reveals that since the days of Nuremberg, not a single European has ever been brought before an international court for countless violations of international law, international humanitarian law, international criminal law and the Geneva Conventions committed against the Third World during the postcolonial period. With this partiality as backdrop, I presume Blair is unlikely to interrupt his speaker schedule over Tutu?s beckoning.

What?s Good for the Gander?

A final statement by Blair can be explained through the pragmatist strand of international law that emerged during the neoliberal era.[xv] While Tutu admonishes Blair for immorality, global polarisation, suffering and loss of life, the former primer minister hits back by highlighting improvements to the Iraqi economy and increased foreign investment. In this instance, Blair is applying the pragmatist strand seeking to counter-balance, perhaps offset, the human toll with allusions to economic growth. Of course, to the Third World, the links between political and economic rights have always been self-evident but to have them made in such uncouth tones is unlikely to appease any of the wretched of the earth.[xvi]

There is little doubt that the Iraqi economy has grown between 2003 and 2012. What Blair leaves out, however, including a decade of crippling economic sanctions and a bombing campaign (shock and awe) that annihilated whatever remained of social institutions, infrastructure and industry developed during the 60s, 70s and 80s, is potentially of relevance in the accuracy and validity of his claim. There is more. Queer in its own regard, the presumptuousness and ethno-chauvinism inherent in Blair?s balancing act has unfortunate but palpable roots in international law. Whether Francisco de Vitoria, Lord Coke, Justice Marshall, Bush Jr. or Blair, James Gathii provides striking evidence of the ?genealogical similarity? between their respective pronouncements on international law.[xvii] No matter the context, each of them rationalised ?European conquest and acquisition of non-European territory and resources?, always buttressed by the self-satisfaction of a just cause.[xviii] Highly racialised and racist arguments, Gathii asserts, effectively sanctioned ?the disregard not only of private property rights, but also of the lives and dignity of [Third World] people.?[xix] Indeed, Blair tactically omits the array of free market policies implemented throughout Iraq post-invasion, all of which have sought to facilitate foreign ownership of domestic resources and prospects, suggesting that economic growth in Iraq does not necessarily indicate improved Iraqi prosperity.[xx]

Liberal Imperialism or A New Legal Order?

The way forward, I admit, is a little murky. International law today is as rife with double standards as it was nearly five centuries ago when Vitoria sought to legitimise colonial conquest. There is, Edward Said remarked, ?always appeal to power and national interest in running the affairs of lesser peoples?.[xxi] Tellingly, a similar view was expressed by Samuel Huntington, hardly a sympathiser with Third World causes, when he described ?[h]ypocrisy, double standards, and ?but nots?? as ?the price of universalist pretensions.?[xxii] While seemingly spoken with a soupcon of contrition, even a cursory read of the text from which this quote was lifted ? Clash of Civilizations ? reveals a more celebratory than remorseful character. Whether or not Blair drew any inspiration from Huntington is uncertain. What is plain as day however is the contribution of Robert Cooper, senior British diplomat and former prime ministerial adviser, to Blair?s thinking.

In the year prior to the Anglo-American coalition invaded Iraq, Cooper published an article in The Observer, a renowned British newspaper, detailing what he termed the new liberal imperialism.[xxiii] Laden with the usual self-congratulatory bluster about benevolence and lifting all boats, Cooper proceeded to celebrate with dizzying candour both the absence of equality in international law and the importance of preserving double-standards:

?The challenge to the postmodern world is to get used to the idea of double standards. Among ourselves, we operate on the basis of laws and open cooperative security. But when dealing with more old-fashioned kinds of states outside the postmodern continent of Europe, we need to revert to the rougher methods of an earlier era ? force, pre-emptive attack, deception, whatever is necessary to deal with those who still live in the nineteenth century world of every state for itself. Among ourselves, we keep the law but when we are operating in the jungle, we must also use the laws of the jungle.?[xxiv]

This article on double standards in international law could have saved both reader(s) and author much time had I opened and closed with Cooper?s statement for it reveals, with far greater persuasiveness than any historical data I can point to, the extent to which liberal legal internationalism is anything but liberal, legal or international. Of course, there is nothing new in Cooper?s proposal. Vitoria?s community of nations, Robert Ward?s standard of civilisation or Blair?s universal values of the human spirit establish, in the words of Brett Bowden, international law?s implication ?in a long-running universalizing Western imperial project.?[xxv] Anghie takes this point a step further ? perhaps to its logical conclusion ? proclaiming international law to be ?mired in the history of subordinating and extinguishing alien cultures.?[xxvi] While these statements may seem overly provocative and potentially anachronistic, when preceded by the pleas of both Cooper and Blair, the indictments read more modern than does international law.

What then, if any, is the way forward? I return to Edward Said, whom I quote at length (with a minor edit), for his appeal captures the essence of Third World aspirations with such eloquence and precision that it deserves to be read and re-read, as well as being wallpapered to Blair?s cell should he every find himself in gaol:

?The world today does not exist as a spectacle about which we can be either pessimistic or optimistic, about which our ?texts? can be either ingenious or boring. All such attitudes involve the deployment of power and interests. To the extent that we see [Blair] both criticizing and reproducing the imperial ideology of his time, to that extent we can characterize our own present attitudes: the projection, or the refusal, of the wish to dominate, the capacity to damn, or the energy to comprehend and engage with other societies, traditions, histories.?[xxvii]

Cooper and Blair, Europe and the United States, the IMF and the World Bank, may want the Third World to beseech their tutelage but such is not always the wish of the Third World, at least not as their wishes have been communicated through the Non-Aligned Movement, the Third World project, the Five Principles of Peaceful Co-existence, the New International Economic Order and sundry Third World political, legal, social, cultural and, indeed, moral movements launched over the decades. While many of these have had their epitaphs written, when considered alongside the brutally chauvinistic thoughts and actions of the First World, no other outcome was indeed possible.

And yet, despite these defeats, the Third World trudges on. The World Social Forum brings people(s) together, the Bolivarian Alliance of the Americas codifies their aspirations and certain Third World nations pursue these aspirations with the resolve that prevailed during the decolonisation era. While Tutu may wish to see Blair hauled before the ICC, we should not expect First World institutions to turn on their patrons. Instead, we should move forward by drawing strength from the leadership of the Third World in its refusal to dominate or to damn and from its courage in seeking to comprehend and engage with others; whether the First World or its international legal instrument is up to such moral aims remains, history evidences, far murkier than the way forward.

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Dr Mohsen al Attar is a Senior Lecturer at the University of Auckland. His research interests oscillate between Third World legal studies, intellectual property law and legal pedagogy, with emphasis on the development of emancipatory pedagogical methods in the practice of international legal education. For the forthcoming year (2012-2013), he has been appointed a Visiting Professor at McGill University Faculty of Law where he will be teaching two critical courses on international law entitled ?Rethinking International Law? and ?Intellectual Property Law and Its Discontents?. A compilation of his work is available at www.mohsenalattar.org.?He invites dialogue and exchange of ideas via email at m.alattar@auckland.ac.nz.?In the spirit of decolonisation efforts everywhere,?a?luta continua?

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[v] Antony Anghie, Imperialism, Sovereignty and the Making of International Law (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005) at 22 [Anghie, Imperialism].

[viii] Tutu, Spurn Tony Blair, supra note 1.

[ix] Helm, Trial Over Iraq War, supra note 2.

[x] Cited in James Gathii, War, Commerce, and International Law (Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2010) at 33 [Gathii, Commerce].

[xi] Brett Bowden, ?The Colonial Origins of International law. European Expansion and the Classical Standard of Civilization? (2005) Journal of the History of International Law ?[Bowden, Colonial Origins].

[xii] Helm, Trial Over Iraq War, supra note 2.

[xiv] Antony Anghie, ?The Evolution of International Law: colonial and postcolonial realities? (2006) 27:5Third World Quarterly 739 at 740 [Anghie, The Evolution of International Law].

[xvi] See e.g. Mohsen al Attar and Ciaron Murnane, ?The Neoliberal Challenge to the Pursuit of Human Rights? in Jeffrey F. Addicott et al. (eds), Globalization, International Law, and Human Rights (Oxford University Press: Oxford, 2010).

[xvii] Gathii, Commerce, supra note 25 at 33.

[xxi] Edward W. Said, Culture and Imperialism (New York: Vintage Books, 1993) at xxiii [Said, Culture and Imperialism].

[xxii] ?Hypocrisy, double standards, and ?but nots? are the price of universalist pretensions. Democracy is promoted, but not if it brings Islamic fundamentalists to power; nonproliferation is preached for Iran and Iraq, but not for Israel; free trade is the elixir of economic growth, but not for agriculture; human rights are an issue for China, but not with Saudi Arabia; aggression against oil-owning Kuwaitis is massively repulsed, but not against non-oil-owning Bosnians. Double standards in practice are the unavoidable price of universal standards of principle.?

[xxv] Bowden, Colonial Origins, supra note 11 at 23.

[xxvii] Said, Imperialism , supra note 21 at xx.

Tags: Desmond Tutu, double standards, international law, liberal imperialism, Liberal Legal Internationalism, tony blair

Source: http://www.e-ir.info/2012/09/27/liberal-legal-internationalism-a-history-and-present-of-double-standards/

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Exclusive: Vitol trades Iranian fuel oil, skirting sanctions

SINGAPORE/BEIJING (Reuters) - Vitol, the world's largest oil trader, is buying and selling Iranian fuel oil, undermining Western efforts to choke the flow of petrodollars to Tehran and put pressure on Iran's suspected nuclear weapons program.

Vitol last month bought 2 million barrels of fuel oil, used for power generation, from Iran and offered it to Chinese traders, Reuters established in interviews with 10 oil trading, industry and shipping sources in Southeast Asia, China and the Middle East. A spokesman for Vitol declined to comment.

Swiss-based Vitol is not obliged to comply with a ban imposed in July by the European Union on trading oil with Iran because Switzerland decided not to match EU and U.S. sanctions against Tehran.

The company earlier in the year stopped trading Iranian crude oil from its main European offices before the July 1 EU embargo deadline. But the trading sources said it has continued to deal in Iranian fuel oil from the Middle East.

The tale of the cargo of Iranian fuel oil involves tanker tracking systems being switched off, two ship-to-ship transfers, and blending of the oil with fuel from another source to alter the cargo's physical specification.

Privately-held Vitol SA is led by its long-time CEO Ian Taylor, a Briton. Taylor was among leading donors to Britain's ruling Conservative Party named in March by the Prime Minister's office as having dined with David Cameron at his private apartment in Downing Street amid the fall-out from a "cash for access" party funding scandal. Britain is a vociferous critic of Tehran's nuclear program and a leading advocate of the EU sanctions.

SWISS LOOPHOLE

Vitol has said previously it is in compliance with sanctions against Iran, but has declined to say whether or not it would follow the strict EU regulations rather than Switzerland's.

Rival Swiss-based traders Glencore and Trafigura said in July they had halted all Iranian oil trade, even though the Swiss government opted against following measures imposed by Washington and Brussels.

The measures have halved OPEC member Iran's crude oil export revenues, devaluing the rial currency and bringing financial hardship to millions of Iranians.

On top of the EU ban, Iran's four biggest oil buyers - China, India, Japan and South Korea - have reduced their imports by at least a fifth to secure exemptions from the threat of U.S. financial sanctions on their companies.

Vitol last year earned record revenue of $297 billion, a near-five-fold increase since 2004. It does not reveal profits.

Fuel oil is a small part of its trading portfolio, accounting for $24 billion of revenue last year compared to $105 billion from crude and $100 billion from other refined products.

Profit margins on oil trade are typically very low, but traders said Iran's difficulties in finding buyers because of sanctions are likely to have made for a fat profit margin for trading its fuel oil.

SHIP-TO-SHIP

Vitol acquired the Iranian fuel oil early this month in a ship-to-ship transfer off Malaysia from a National Iranian Tanker Company (NITC) vessel, the Leadership, onto a Vitol-chartered tanker, the Ticen Ocean.

The Ticen Ocean was sub-contracted by Vitol for floating storage off the Malaysian port of Tanjung Pelepas from Titan Petrochemicals, a Hong Kong company which itself hired it from shipowner Frontline of Norway.

Frontline said Titan had told it the ship was not used to store Iranian oil. "Our only counterpart in this matter is Titan and they have said it is not correct that there has been Iranian oil on the boat," said Frontline CEO Jens Martin Jensen.

Titan did not return calls or emails seeking comment.

The Leadership left Iran's main oil export terminal at Kharg Island during the week of August 23, passing through the Strait of Malacca before disappearing from freight tracking systems off the Malaysian coast on September 4. Since sanctions were imposed, Iranian vessels have frequently switched off the onboard 'black-box' transponders used in the shipping industry to monitor vessel movements.

Industry sources in Tanjung Pelepas who monitor shipping transfer operations in Malaysian waters said Vitol later brought alongside another tanker, the Speranza, to replace the Ticen Ocean as floating storage. The Speranza, owned by China's Sino Shipping Holdings, arrived at Tanjung Pelepas on September 13-14, Reuters data shows.

Vitol also transferred some of its fuel oil from the Ticen Ocean between September 11-12 to another vessel, the Kamari I, according to Reuters data. That cargo was delivered to Vitol's storage terminal on the Malaysian island of Tanjung Bin, inside Tanjung Pelepas port, one trading source said.

'SPECIAL BLEND'

Traders said the company then blended the oil in storage with fuel oil sourced from Europe, calling it a "special blend" and offered it to Chinese traders. Reuters was given a copy of the specifications of the cargo on offer.

Vitol first asked a $30 premium to Singapore's benchmark 180-centistoke fuel oil price, said a Chinese industry executive who manages some of China's many small, independent refineries, known as teapots. That would have valued the 2-million-barrel cargo at about $250 million.

"Because the offer was too high, our people didn't really carry on the talks," the Chinese executive said. "Vitol also appeared not in a hurry to sell, so was not being aggressive."

Two Asian refinery buyers who were then offered the oil said the asking price was cut to a $12-$14 premium to Singapore benchmark prices, or around $175 million in total.

"Vitol is offering the cargo as a special blend to teapot refiners in Shandong," said a China-based trader. "No one's agreed to buy the Vitol cargo. I declined because I wasn't sure of the quality and specifications."

At the time of publication it is not known whether Vitol had agreed a deal to sell the oil.

INSURANCE

Vitol's use of the Ticen Ocean to store Iranian oil could put the tanker's insurance at risk. The vessel is insured by the North of England P&I Association.

The EU's oil embargo bans EU insurers who underwrite around 90 percent of the world's tanker fleet from providing cover for ships carrying Iranian oil.

Mike Salthouse, director of North Insurance Management, which acts as manager for the North of England P&I Association, said it would not provide cover for tankers storing or transporting Iranian oil.

"We would not expect to continue to insure any fleet actively engaged in this trade," he said, but declined comment specifically on the Ticen Ocean.

(Additional reporting by Manash Goswami in SINGAPORE; Editing by Ian Geoghegan and Richard Mably)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/exclusive-vitol-trades-iranian-fuel-oil-skirting-sanctions-040047937--sector.html

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Retweeted health messages may not be what the patient ordered

[ Back to EurekAlert! ] Public release date: 26-Sep-2012
[ | E-mail | Share Share ]

Contact: Matt Swayne
mls29@psu.edu
814-865-9481
Penn State

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. -- People are more likely to trust health messages tweeted by doctors who have a lot of followers, but not the messages they retweet, according to researchers.

A study of the credibility of health messages on Twitter showed that credibility dips when doctors who have a large number of Twitter followers passed on messages, instead of composing their own tweets, said Ji Young Lee, a former master's degree student in media studies, Penn State. When non-medical professionals with a lot of Twitter followers forward messages about health on Twitter, however, their followers tend to find those messages more credible.

"Our study results imply that people may perceive tweets and retweets differently depending on the source of the content," said Lee, who is now a doctoral student in communication at Ohio State. "They do care about whether a message is originally created by someone or retweeted by someone, as well as whether the source is a professional and popular."

A tweet is a message that is 140 characters or less that a user posts on Twitter, the popular microblogging site. When a Twitter user forwards a post from another person, it is called a retweet.

The study, which appears online ahead of its publication in the journal Health Communication, shows how people infer credibility and trust based on certain cues, said S. Shyam Sundar, Distinguished Professor of Communications and co-director of the Media Effects Research Laboratory, who worked with Lee on the study.

"It does show that people are aware of all of these cues," said Sundar. "And they are likely to use all three cues -- bandwagon, authority and proximity -- when they're reviewing online health communications."

The authority cue indicates the source's reputation for expertise and bandwagon is a cue that suggests how popular the source is. Proximity refers to whether the content is original -- a tweet -- or forwarded information -- a retweet.

A total of 63 undergraduate college students took part in the study and were asked to follow the Twitter accounts of either a doctor with many followers, the same doctor with a few followers, a layperson with many followers, or a layperson with a few followers.

The researchers added information to the Twitter accounts of these four fictitious sources to suggest the cues. For instance, they added "MD" on account names to indicate that the sources were doctors. To signal that the source was popular, the researchers increased the number of followers on those accounts from 21 to 983.

Subjects found original tweets from the doctor with a large Twitter following to be the most credible. However, the perceived credibility decreased when that doctor retweeted a message from another doctor, according to the researchers.

The credibility increased when the popular layperson retweeted the same message from a doctor.

"In the social media universe, the number of followers that a layperson has seems to translate into trustworthiness," said Sundar. "While tweets are judged based on the expertise of the person tweeting them, retweets depend on the trustworthiness of the person forwarding the health messages." Sundar said subjects received Twitter messages that were controversial statements about weight loss that were tweeted to them over a one-week period. For example, one tweet read, "Exercising less than one hour per day can help one lose weight. Exercising more than one hour increases appetite and results in weight gain."

The researchers used controversial statements to make sure subjects would challenge the credibility of the message.

"We selected controversial messages because one of the major outcome variables in our study was perceived credibility of the content," said Sundar. "The question of judging credibility of a particular message will be moot if the message is a well known truism." The research could help health communications professionals and doctors how best to spread the word about health and medicine, as well as help raise awareness on how web users process online information, said Sundar.

"With many laypeople posting health information, there is a greater need for online users to assess the credibility of what they read," said Sundar. "And, as more and more people go online for health information, we want to learn how they use the unique cues present in online media, so that we can find the best ways to communicate health information."

###


[ Back to EurekAlert! ] [ | E-mail | Share Share ]

?


AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.


[ Back to EurekAlert! ] Public release date: 26-Sep-2012
[ | E-mail | Share Share ]

Contact: Matt Swayne
mls29@psu.edu
814-865-9481
Penn State

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. -- People are more likely to trust health messages tweeted by doctors who have a lot of followers, but not the messages they retweet, according to researchers.

A study of the credibility of health messages on Twitter showed that credibility dips when doctors who have a large number of Twitter followers passed on messages, instead of composing their own tweets, said Ji Young Lee, a former master's degree student in media studies, Penn State. When non-medical professionals with a lot of Twitter followers forward messages about health on Twitter, however, their followers tend to find those messages more credible.

"Our study results imply that people may perceive tweets and retweets differently depending on the source of the content," said Lee, who is now a doctoral student in communication at Ohio State. "They do care about whether a message is originally created by someone or retweeted by someone, as well as whether the source is a professional and popular."

A tweet is a message that is 140 characters or less that a user posts on Twitter, the popular microblogging site. When a Twitter user forwards a post from another person, it is called a retweet.

The study, which appears online ahead of its publication in the journal Health Communication, shows how people infer credibility and trust based on certain cues, said S. Shyam Sundar, Distinguished Professor of Communications and co-director of the Media Effects Research Laboratory, who worked with Lee on the study.

"It does show that people are aware of all of these cues," said Sundar. "And they are likely to use all three cues -- bandwagon, authority and proximity -- when they're reviewing online health communications."

The authority cue indicates the source's reputation for expertise and bandwagon is a cue that suggests how popular the source is. Proximity refers to whether the content is original -- a tweet -- or forwarded information -- a retweet.

A total of 63 undergraduate college students took part in the study and were asked to follow the Twitter accounts of either a doctor with many followers, the same doctor with a few followers, a layperson with many followers, or a layperson with a few followers.

The researchers added information to the Twitter accounts of these four fictitious sources to suggest the cues. For instance, they added "MD" on account names to indicate that the sources were doctors. To signal that the source was popular, the researchers increased the number of followers on those accounts from 21 to 983.

Subjects found original tweets from the doctor with a large Twitter following to be the most credible. However, the perceived credibility decreased when that doctor retweeted a message from another doctor, according to the researchers.

The credibility increased when the popular layperson retweeted the same message from a doctor.

"In the social media universe, the number of followers that a layperson has seems to translate into trustworthiness," said Sundar. "While tweets are judged based on the expertise of the person tweeting them, retweets depend on the trustworthiness of the person forwarding the health messages." Sundar said subjects received Twitter messages that were controversial statements about weight loss that were tweeted to them over a one-week period. For example, one tweet read, "Exercising less than one hour per day can help one lose weight. Exercising more than one hour increases appetite and results in weight gain."

The researchers used controversial statements to make sure subjects would challenge the credibility of the message.

"We selected controversial messages because one of the major outcome variables in our study was perceived credibility of the content," said Sundar. "The question of judging credibility of a particular message will be moot if the message is a well known truism." The research could help health communications professionals and doctors how best to spread the word about health and medicine, as well as help raise awareness on how web users process online information, said Sundar.

"With many laypeople posting health information, there is a greater need for online users to assess the credibility of what they read," said Sundar. "And, as more and more people go online for health information, we want to learn how they use the unique cues present in online media, so that we can find the best ways to communicate health information."

###


[ Back to EurekAlert! ] [ | E-mail | Share Share ]

?


AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.


Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2012-09/ps-rhm092612.php

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'The Hobbit' Toy Box Reveals First Look At Evangeline Lilly's Character

At long last we have our first look at Evangeline Lilly as Tauriel in "The Hobbit," but it comes from from a rather unlikely source. Some of the first toys and collectibles from "The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey" have begun to be released, and TheOneRing.net stopped by Toys"R"Us to check them out. Lilly's likeness as [...]

Source: http://moviesblog.mtv.com/2012/09/25/the-hobbit-evangeline-lilly/

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11 Reasons Why The Coppola Family Tree Is The Coolest Family ...

A family that has influenced every dimension of culture ? encompassing film, music, and fashion ? it is no doubt that the Coppola family is ultimately the coolest family in Hollywood?the world. If you?re wondering why this is even slightly relevant to you, well, the next time you run into a creative block, your first instinct should be to bust out the Coppola family tree ? each stem will lead you to inspiration, and teach you about a thing or two about being dropdeadawesome.

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1. FRANCIS FORD COPPOLA

IMDb

Francis Ford Coppola?s films are, essentially, the root of the Coppolas? success. This legendary filmmaker directed undeniably astounding films, including: Apocalypse Now, The Godfather films, Bramstoker?s Dracula, and The Conversation.

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2. CARMINE COPPOLA

Wikia

Former student at Julliard and Manhattan School of Music, Carmine Coppola worked with son, Ford Coppola, on award-winning score for Apocalypse Now. He also composed scores for The Godfather, and made cameo appearances as conductor.

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3. TALIA ROSE COPPOLA

Fanpop

Sister of Francis Ford Coppola, Talia is an actress who starred in The Godfather films as Connie Corleone and Adriana Balboa in the Rocky movies.

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4. SOFIA COPPOLA

T Magazine

Daughter of Francis Ford Coppola, Sofia is also making her mark in the film industry with exceptional films including Virgin Suicides, Lost in Translation, and Marie Antoinette.

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5. ROMAN COPPOLA

Brother of Sofia Coppola, Roman studied at NYU?s film school, and directed all music videos for the Strokes? Is This It album, and later directed 12:51 and Room on Fire. He also directed Phoenix?s music video for Funky Squaredance, which is a permanent feature at the New York Museum of Modern Art. Do you remember when MTV 2 Dollar Bill featured The Strokes? Roman directed the entire show.

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6. ROBERT & JASON COPPOLA SCHWARTZMAN

IMDb / The Reelist

Sons of Talia Rose Coppola, and cousins to Sofia, Robert and Jason have both featured in countless popular films. Robert starred in The Virgin Suicides, and in Princess Diaries as cute and mysterious Michael Moscovitz. Jason has played remarkable roles in films including Rushmore, Marie Antoinette, Funny People, and Scott Pilgrim vs. The World.

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Important note:?Under Carmine Coppola?s direct family, they have acquired a total of 23 Academy Award nominations, with 9 wins ? including: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Actor, Best Original Score, and Best Original Screenplay.

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7. THOMAS MARS (PHOENIX)

JustJared

Sofia Coppola married lead singer of Phoenix, Thomas Mars. They have two kids ? who will unquestionably grow up to be film or musical geniuses of their generation.

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8. ROONEY AND COCONUT RECORDS

Awmusic

Robert Coppola Schwartzman is the lead singer and guitarist of Rooney (read: the official band of The O.C.), while older brother, Jason holds it down for Coconut Records. Jason also composed the musical score for Funny People.

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9. THE STROKES CONNECTION

Gigwise / Somewhere

As we?ve discussed, Roman directed a huge amount of The Strokes? music videos. Sofia also used I?ll Try Anything Once by the Strokes in her film, Somewhere. Lead singer, Julian Casablancas also thanks Robert Schwartzman in his solo album credits. Cool.

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10. H&M

Sofia Coppola directed the ever-flawless commercials for Marni at H&M. (This is when we stop explaining and you just have to watch.)

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11. ?BAND OF OUTSIDERS

Band of Outsiders

Jason Schwartzman has been featured on clothing line & blog the Band of Outsiders countless times. Really, though? so many times.

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Convinced yet? Start planning your marriage into the Coppola family now. If you want.

Source: http://fora.mtv.ca/2012/09/11-reasons-why-the-coppola-family-tree-is-the-coolest-family-tree/

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