Latin American*s key stocks Indexes

Brazilian stocks were little
changed on Monday as investors awaited the outcome of an
economic policy-setting meeting in top trade partner China,
while shares of shipbuilder OSX were suspended from trading
until its bankruptcy filing is made official.
    Mexico's IPC index snapped a five-session decline,
while Chile's bourse fell slightly.
    China's Communist Party leaders gathered over the weekend
for a landmark conclave, due to end on Tuesday, that will set
the economic agenda for the next decade. 
    China is Brazil's No. 1 trading partner and a top purchaser
of Latin American commodities exports such as iron-ore, soy,
copper and petroleum. Changes in the outlook for the world's
second-largest economy tend to move shares of raw materials
exporters such as Vale SA and state-run oil company
Petroleo Brasileiro SA, known as Petrobras. 
    "We could see some type of (market) catalyst if something
noteworthy comes out of the statement linked to reforms in the
financial system," said Gustavo Mendonca, an economist with Saga
Capital in Rio de Janeiro.
    Mendonca said trading volumes in the Bovespa should be
reduced due to the Veteran's Day holiday in the United States. 
    Brazil's benchmark Bovespa stock index hovered near
52,295 points, little changed from Friday's close.
    Shares of shipbuilder OSX Brasil SA were
suspended from trading on Monday after the company said on
Friday it will file for bankruptcy protection. 
    While its shareholders approved the bankruptcy protection
request, it has not yet been filed to a Rio de Janeiro court.
    Exchange operator BM&F Bovespa halted trading in the shares
pending the official filing, according to a statement Monday.

Latin America's key stock indexes at 1448 GMT:
     Stock indexes                   daily %   YTD %
                      Latest         change    change
 MSCI LatAm           3,254.09       0.74      -14.94
                                               
 Brazil Bovespa       52,295.79      0.09      -14.20
                                               
 Mexico IPC           39,932.06      0.17      -8.63
                                               
 Chile IPSA           3,819.37       -0.48     -11.21
                                               
 Chile IGPA           18,851.75      -0.4      -10.53
                                               
 Argentina MerVal     5,323.09       0.54      86.49
                                               
 Colombia IGBC        13,478.88      -1.78     -8.41
                                               
 Peru IGRA            15,943.62      0.16      -22.71
                                               
 Venezuela IBC        2,655,762.22   -0.53     463.33

 Source: Reuters

Analysts remain Bullish on European Stocks

"European stocks remain a buy ... Even though the fundamentals remain weak there is not much to stop them from rallying into year-end, including a supportive Fed which might well not start tapering until March next year," said Lex van Dam, hedge fund manager at Hampstead Capital.

Technical analysts were bullish on the Euro STOXX 50, trading just above its 20-day moving average, at 3,036.

Craig Erlam, analyst at Alpari, said this helped build a picture of the bullish trend for the index remaining intact, and targeted 3,106, the five-year high hit last week".

Source: Reuters

For many Fukushima evacuees, the truth is they won't be going home

For many of Japan's oldest nuclear refugees, all they want is to be allowed back to the homes they were forced to abandon. Others are ready to move away, severing ties to the ghost towns that remain in the shadow of the wrecked Fukushima nuclear plant.

But among the thousands of evacuees stuck in temporary housing more than two and a half years after the worst nuclear accident since Chernobyl, there is a shared understanding on one point - Japan's government is unable to deliver on its ambitious initial goals for cleaning up the areas that had to be evacuated after the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami disaster.

Lawmakers from Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's coalition parties on Monday recommended the government step back from the most ambitious Fukushima clean-up goals, and begin telling evacuees that a $30 billion clean-up will not achieve the long-term radiation reduction goal set by the previous administration. "The government and ruling party will act as one and deal with this firmly," said Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga, adding that Abe would consider the proposal seriously.

The government is also considering a proposal floated earlier this month to offer new compensation to residents in the areas of highest radiation who have no prospect of returning home, officials involved have said.

"There will come a time when someone has to say, 'You won't be able to live here any more, but we will make up for it'," the secretary general of the LDP, Shigeru Ishiba, said in a speech earlier this month.

Source:  Reuters

WSJ :Worries about a Trigger for Market Correction

"Economic information from China and Japan over the last couple of days helped maintain the impression of stabilization in Asia. Even though Italian industrial production numbers offered further evidence the euro zone’s recovery will be sluggish, on balance this all provides a positive backdrop for markets. One question weighing on policy makers’ minds, however, is whether the highly accommodative monetary policies of the past year are starting to overheat certain asset markets. There is little sign of consumer inflation in the world’s biggest economies, but housing markets in lots of places are showing worrying signs of excess–the latest being Australia, which reported a pickup in speculative investment home lending. Meanwhile, various measures, including the return of retail investors to the market, have some calling for a correction in the U.S. stock market following a relentless rally over the summer and the first half of the fall.

There is no mystery about the trigger that analysts most worry about for a downturn in investor sentiment: all eyes are on the U.S. Federal Reserve and its plans to taper bond buying. Friday’s sharp rally in U.S. stocks suggested investors think the Fed is restrained from acting until about March, even if the economy warrants a reduction in bond buying. (Hence the glass-half-full read of the stronger-than-expected jobs report.) Any signal to the contrary–during Thursday’s Senate hearings into Fed Vice Chair Janet Yellen’s nomination to take over as Chair of the central bank, for example–and the party could be over."

Source: the Wall Street Journal

Syrian Kurds' military gains stir unease

With a string of military gains across northeastern Syria, a Kurdish militia is solidifying a geographic and political presence in the war-torn country, posing a dilemma for regional powers.

Long oppressed under Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and his father before him, Kurds view the civil war as an opportunity to gain the kind of autonomy enjoyed by their ethnic kin in neighboring Iraq.

But their offensive has stirred mixed feelings, globally, regionally and locally, even among some fellow Kurds, who say the Kurdish fighters have drifted into a regional axis supporting Assad, something they deny.

To Assad and his Shi'ite allies, their gains mean more territory out of Sunni rebel hands two and a half years into a revolt against his rule.

Foreign powers supporting the opposition, meanwhile, hope they will deliver a blow to al Qaeda-linked fighters, whose rising power in northern Syria had gone unchecked for months.

"The advance has basically been accepted by all," said Piroz Perik, a Kurdish activist from the town of Qamishli.

Such statements overlook widespread concerns over the impact of the Kurdish militia gains in a conflict that not only threatens Syria's unity, but the stability of neighboring countries with similar ethnic and sectarian divisions.

Numbering more than 25 million, non-Arab Kurds are often described as the world's largest ethnic group without a state. Territories where they predominate, which they call Kurdistan, span parts of Turkey and Iran as well as Syria and Iraq.

Source: Reuters

Beijing sees lung cancer cases soar

The number of lung cancer cases in the Chinese capital Beijing has soared over the last decade.

According to figures published by the state-run Xinhua news agency, they have increased by more than 50%.

Beijing health officials say smoking is still the number one cause of lung cancer, but they admit air pollution is also a factor.

The World Health Organization (WHO) recently estimated that polluted air kills millions of people every year.

Pollution kills millions

Xinhua said the latest figures - which are for only one city and one disease - were issued by Beijing municipal health bureau.

They show the number of lung cancer patients per 100,000 people was 39.56 in 2002, but had jumped to 63.09 by 2011.

The article gave no reason for the increase in patients.

Beijing health officials said lung cancer was linked to lifestyle choices, with smoking still the top cause. But they said passive smoking and air pollution could also be a factor.

Last month the WHO issued a scientific report detailing the link between air pollution and a number of different diseases and illness.

It estimated that breathing in fine particles contributed to 3.2 million premature deaths a year across the world and killed more than 200,000 from lung cancer.

"More than half of the lung cancer deaths attributable to ambient fine particles were projected to have been in China and other East Asian countries," said the WHO.

Source: BBC

U.K. Press Round-Up

Britain's big energy companies will offer to cut bills by up to 7% if the Government removes costly green schemes, the Sunday Telegraph reported. One proposal would scrap costs from the Energy Companies Obligation, causing bills to fall between 6% and 7%. The second would delay implementation of the plan by 18 months and allow a wider range of cheaper energy efficiency measures. The paper said the proposals could seize back the initiative for the energy companies, which include Centrica and SSE. They have been attacked for price rises. The Chancellor could announce a deal in his Autumn Statement, set for early December. 

The Bank of England (BoE) is likely to raise its growth and employment forecasts when it releases its quarterly inflation report on November 13th, the Sunday Times said. Growth could reach 3% next year, a rate unseen since before the credit crunch and above the long-term average. The BoE is also set to bring forward its forecast for when unemployment will fall to its 7% threshold for beginning to consider an increase in interest rates. Economists expect the BoE to move the date from mid- 2016 to early 2016 or late 2015. 

BT's Chief Executive told the Sunday Telegraph he had not overpaid for exclusive rights to show the UEFA Champions League. Gavin Patterson said the £900m price of the three-year deal was "what it was worth to us". The paper said BT's bid was almost twice that of BSkyB, which pulled out when it saw BT's offer. Patterson said claims by BSkyB and ITV, which also lost out on the rights, were to be expected after they failed to win. He added that shareholders approved of the deal, which was supported by a "business case".

Lloyds Banking Group could make a one-off gain of £400m in the first half of 2014 from a change to employees' pensions, the Sunday Times said. Pay rises will no longer mean bigger pensions at retirement and instead staff will be paid using their current salary, the paper said. Analysts at Investec calculated the potential gain for Lloyds and said it was an important reason for them upgrading the bank to "buy".

Consumers tightened their belts in October as the bad weather deterred shoppers from visiting high streets, the Mail on Sunday reported, citing Barclaycard figures. Total spending in real terms fell for the first time since March and was a contrast to September, when buoyant spending raised hopes of a consumer boom. In October, total spending rose by only 1.9% compared with 12 months ago - lower than the 3.2% rise in the Retail Prices Index. Some sectors did well. Restaurants had a strong month and DIY stores enjoyed double-digit percentage rises in spending. 
Vodafone will increase its capital investment in the UK to more than £1bn to upgrade its mobile network across London, the Sunday Telegraph said. The Project Metropolis plan will extend 4G coverage to Vodafone's London customers. The paper said Vodafone is likely to outline the Metropolis project as part of its £6bn additional spending plan, called Project Spring, at its half-year results on November 12th. The £150m is on top of Vodafone's annual £900m UK capital spending. 

Just one in ten people in Britain believe they are benefiting from the economic recovery, the Mail on Sunday reported, citing a survey. A third of people think the economy is recovering, but far less feel they are part of the upturn, the survey by accountants KPMG and housing charity Shelter said. Half said they would only start to feel that conditions were improving when their salaries began to rise. The paper said the poll of more than 4,000 British adults exposed the fragility of consumer confidence.

Barclays exoects Fed to start taper of Quantative Easing on March 2014

Economists at Barclays Research , explained to clients that they continue to see March 2014 as the most likely date for the Fed to initiate the tapering of its quantitative easing (QE). 

In their opinion the Fed wants to see some combination of stronger payroll growth, an acceleration in economic activity, and some indication that inflation is returning towards its long-run goal before it begins the tapering process. 

"We believe the November report will be an important determining factor in the committee's assessment of recent employment trends," they wrote.

Source: LiveCharts

Asia,Nikkei leds Gains

Stocks in Tokyo led gains among Asian markets on Monday after sentiment was boosted by a surprisingly strong US jobs report on Friday.

The Labor Department reported an unexpected acceleration in US job creation in October. The economy added 204,000 non-farm payrolls, ahead of a revised 163,000 increase the month before. October's figure was also well above the 120,000 expected by most analysts.

While the data lifted confidence about the underlying health of the US economy, it also increased expectations that the Federal Reserve could start tapering its $85bn bond-buying programme before the end of 2013.

The Nikkei 225 index advanced 183 points at 14,269 in Tokyo while the Hang Seng rallied 1.43% or 325 points at 23,069 in Hong Kong, its first gain in six sessions. 

Renewed confidence in the pace of the US economic recovery boosted the dollaragainst the Japanese yen and, in turn, increased demand for Japanese exporters. The Japanese currency was trading at its lowest level against the dollar since mid September.

Meanwhile investors mulled a string of Chinese data over the weekend including consumer price inflation for October. It came in a touch below expectations at 3.2% year-on-year. However, producer prices declined 1.5% year-on-year last month compared to forecasts for a 1.4% drop.

Industrial production data came in stronger than expected for October, rising 10.3% year-on-year.

Source: LiveCharts

WSJ: Signs Multiply That Sentiment Is Too Upbeat. Surveys of Retail Investors, Advisers, Point to Froth

   According to the Wall Street Journal, for those worried that irrational exuberance is back,Twitter's Inc. hyped initial public offering provides yet another bit of anecdotal evidence.
More quantifiable measures of investors' mood going into the end of 2013 may support that view, too. A particularly worrisome one is the Investors Intelligence gauge of adviser sentiment. Its last reading showed that 55.2% of respondents were bullish and just 15.6% bearish, tying the highest difference between the two this year. The last time the gap was bigger was April 8, 2011, which preceded the sharpest stock-market correction of the current bull market.

Another signal of froth comes from a weekly survey of retail investors by the American Association of Individual Investors, which has been tracking sentiment since 1987. Though it is volatile, a four-week average of the difference between bullish and bearish respondents is the highest since February and near the upper end of the historical range since 1987.

China's (Small) Margin for Error

   According to a report from the Wall Street Journal,the latest October economic data show growth has stabilized since a spring slump.But 

Beijing Is in a Tight Spot for Managing Economy

Industrial production accelerated to 10.3% year on year. Retail sales remained solid. Exports grew 5.6% with a noticeable pickup to the U.S. and Europe, China's most important customers.
The latest October economic data show growth has stabilized since a spring slump. Industrial 
production accelerated to 10.3% year on year. Retail sales remained solid. Exports grew 5.6% with a noticeable pickup to the U.S. and Europe, China's most important customers.
Inflation is again on the scene,with consumer prices up 3.2% in October compared with the year earlier, the fastest rate since February and inching toward the government's full-year target of 3.5%. Vegetable prices, an important component of China's inflation basket, surged. Property prices remain bubbly.

To prevent inflation from becoming sticky, Beijing will need to keep credit scarce. The inflow of funds from a trade surplus that more than doubled in October to $31.1 billion compared with September signals the central bank has more excess liquidity to soak up. It may also mean continued currency appreciation.

China's economy is operating in a narrow comfort zone.

 Premier Li Keqiang said last month "China needs 7.2% growth to achieve the government's target of creating 10 million urban jobs a year". While some quibble with the precision of Mr. Li's figure, anything much lower than that and party officials worry the masses may get restless.

"On the upside, it appears China's economy can't grow much faster than the third quarter's 7.8% year-over-year pace without inflation rising. Let prices get loose, and again policy makers have to worry about social discontent".

WSJ: Current Account Surplus Masks Japan's Trade Woes

    The Wall Street Journal reports,"the current account, the broadest measure of Japan's trade with the rest of the world, came to a surplus of ¥587.3 billion in September, up 14% from the year-before month, data released by the Ministry of Finance showed Monday. That was better than what the market had expected: a surplus of ¥430 billion".
The result was helped in part by smaller increases in import volumes in September than in the preceding months, and by a sharp increase in dividend payments by overseas subsidiaries of Japanese companies. But once these and other seasonal peculiarities are taken into account, the balance actually came to a deficit of ¥125.2 billion, the largest ever deficit since the current data series began in 1996.
Japan's current account surplus has been on a declining trend in recent years. Relative to the nation's gross domestic product, it has dropped from around 5% in 2007 to only 1% in 2012, according to the International Monetary Fund. The main contributing factor is rising commodity prices as more emerging economies industrialized. The situation has also been exacerbated by Japan's increased consumption of fossil fuels in the last couple of years, due to the shutdown of nuclear power plants following the March 2011 nuclear disaster.

The sharp weakening of the yen, sparked by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's policy of aggressive monetary easing, has prompted some Japanese companies to repatriate reserved profits at foreign subsidiaries back to Japan, in what is seen as a window-dressing move. Such transactions have boosted the nation's income balance—thus the current account—in recent months, including March and September. But these are only one-off developments that won't permanently improve the balance.

"The more important issue is that the weak yen hasn't boosted Japan's export volumes," Mr. Shiono said economist with Credit Suisse in Tokyo, explaining why Japan's current account balance remains on a deteriorating trend.

Harvard scientists develop a transistor that learns

In a development that may enable a wholly new approach to artificial intelligence, researchers at Harvard University's School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) have invented a type of transistor that can learn in ways similar to a neural synapse. Called a synaptic transistor, the new device self-optimizes its properties for the functions it has carried out in the past.

One of the more remarkable features of the human brain is it gets better at whatever it does. While your first day on an assembly line may be full of fumbling and confusion, in a week or two you will find yourself seemingly on autopilot, performing the set of required tasks without much mental effort. After a few months, you will respond automatically when a part comes through damaged or improperly oriented. Plasticity is the name for the brain's ability to change its own structure through thought and activity.

Most of this plasticity results from changes in the 100 trillion or so synapses, or interconnections, between brain cells. One of the ways through which sets of behaviors are reinforced, or learned, is called spike-timing dependent plasticity, or STDP.

Often summed up by the aphorism "Cells that fire together, wire together", when neuron A repeatedly sends a signal across a synapse that causes neuron B to fire, the synapse will strengthen, in effect making that decision easier to make in the future.

The synaptic transistor could mark the beginning of a new kind of artificial intelligence: one embedded not in smart algorithms but in the very architecture of a computer. In principle, a system integrating millions of tiny synaptic transistors and neuron terminals could take parallel computing into a new era of ultra-efficient high performance.

"This kind of proof-of-concept demonstration carries that work into the 'applied' world," says research team leader Professor Shriram Ramanathan, "where you can really translate these exotic electronic properties into compelling, state-of-the-art devices." Hopefully those SOTA devices can someday be assembled into SOTA learning machines.

Source:  Gizmag

China aviation market: CAAC scraps floor price for tickets to boost air travel

China scrapped a rule that requires local airlines to keep a price floor for domestic tickets. The move comes in a bid to boost air travel demand within China. The Civil Aviation Administration says it will also consider adding a budget airline terminal to a planned second airport in the southern outskirts of Beijing.

Many Chinese airlines are feeling the pinch due to fiercer competition from cheaper high speed train tickets that have dampened air travel demand in the world’s most-populous market. Chinese Mainland airlines previously had to set fares not higher than 1.25 times and not lower than 60 percent of a base price.

Source: CCTV

Thailand: rescue workers struggle to reach ravaged towns in central Philippines

 Rescue workers struggled to reach ravaged towns and villages in the central Philippines on Monday as they tried to deliver aid to survivors of a powerful typhoon that killed an estimated 10,000 people and displaced more than 600,000.

The United Nations said some survivors had no food, water or medicine. Relief operations were hampered because roads, airports and bridges had been destroyed or were covered in wreckage, it said.

Super typhoon Haiyan destroyed about 70 to 80 percent of structures in its path as it tore through Leyte province on Friday, said police chief superintendent Elmer Soria. After weakening, the storm headed west towards Vietnam.President Benigno Aquino, facing one of the biggest challenges of his three-year rule, deployed soldiers to the devastated city of Tacloban to quell looting and said he might impose martial law or a state of emergency to ensure security.

Source: Reuters

China Investment Corporation to buy west-London Office Development from Blackstone

China Investment Corporation is set to buy Chiswick Park, a west-London office development, from U.S. private equity group Blackstone for about 800 million pounds, the Financial Times reported, citing people familiar with the matter.

The talks are at an advanced stage and a deal could be finalised before end of November, the FT said.

If successful, the deal would be the second acquisition by CIC in the UK property market after it bought Deutsche Bank's City of London headquarters last year, the newspaper added.

Real estate has been the chief driver of Blackstone's financial success and it has moved aggressively to sell or take public its real estate assets. Brixmor Property Group Inc, the shopping centre operator owned by Blackstone, raised $825 million (515.4 million pounds) its initial public offering last month.

Source: Reuters

Temasek, Hopu buy $213 million stake in Chinese dairy maker

Singapore state investor Temasek Holdings TEM.UL and China-focused private equity firm Hopu were among five investors buying a $213 million stake in Yashili International Holdings Ltd , after parent China Mengniu Dairy Co Ltd  sold down shares to meet Hong Kong listing requirements.

Temasek, through one of its Mauritius subsidiaries, Hopu and three individual investors agreed to buy 471.13 million shares of Yashili from Mengniu for HK$3.50 each, putting the total deal at HK$1.65 billion ($213 million), the dairy companies said in a securities filing on Monday.

Mengniu offered $1.6 billion in June for all of Yashili, but it received offers for 89.82 percent of Yashili's stock. That fell just short of a 90 percent threshold that would have enabled Mengniu to make a "compulsory acquisition" of the remaining shares and delist Yashili from the exchange.

Source: Reuters

South Korea air force asks for stealthier jets

South Korea's air force has asked for enhanced stealth capability for fighter jets set to be purchased, a government source briefed on the matter said on Monday, further bolstering the chances of Lockheed Martin (LMT.N) winning the tender with its F-35s.

In September, South Korea's government bowed to public pressure and voted down a bid by Boeing (BA.N) to supply 60 warplanes, saying it would restart the multi-billion tender process to get a more advanced, radar-evading fighter.

At the time, only Boeing's bid had come within budget.

Source: Reuters

Asian Shares rise away from a four-week low

Asian shares edged away from a four-week low on Monday, while the dollar rose against the euro and yen as a surprise surge in U.S. jobs growth signalled the world's largest economy was on a firmer footing.

U.S. employers took on 204,000 new employees last month, almost twice the number forecast by analysts and defying expectations that the partial U.S. government shutdown would hamper job growth.

The strong data raised the prospect the Federal Reserve may soon decide to start winding down its $85 billion-a-month bond-buying programme.

But Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke and two other top policymakers suggested continued support for the U.S. central bank's massive stimulus campaign.

Adding to the positive sentiment, China's factory output and investment data pointed to signs of stabilisation in the economy, though annual inflation climbed to an eight-month high in October, fuelling market worries about policy tightening.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan added 0.1 percent after shedding 1 percent on Friday to a four-week low.

Australian shares firmed after the robust Chinese data, reflecting the countries' strong trade. The S&P/ASX 200 index gained 0.4 percent, while the Australian dollar stabilised at $0.9373, having fallen 0.8 percent in the previous session.

Source: Reuters

Facebook Inc director sold 1/3 of its stake in Facebook

Facebook  Inc director Marc Andreessen's venture-capital firm sold a third of its stake in the world's No. 1 online social network, according to a recent regulatory filing.

Andreessen Horowitz sold 2.28 million shares on November 6 at about $49 to $50 a share, according to a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Friday. It still holds 4.57 million shares in Facebook.

Source: Reuters

The Western- Backed Syrian opposition agrees to partcipate international peace talks in Geneva

The Western-backed Syriann opposition agreed to participate in international peace talks in Geneva, the Syrian National Coalition said in a statement early on Monday.

The statement, translated from Arabic, outlined conditions that must be met before the talks, which aim to end Syria's two-and-a-half year civil war, by creating a transitional governing body.

There must be a guarantee that relief agencies would be allowed access to besieged areas, the release of political prisoners and any political conference should result in a political transition, the statement said.

Following some opposition to the Geneva process from rebel fighters, the statement said that a committee had been assigned to continue talks with revolution forces inside and outside Syria to explain its stance on "Geneva 2," as the talks are referred to in diplomatic circles.

The Syrian National Coalition reached the consensus decision after two days of discussions.

"All we can do is hope is that these (Geneva) talks will end with the departure of Bashar al-Assad," said Adib Shishakly, a member of the coalition.

Source: Reuters

Thailand becomes China's second-biggest tourist destination

The number of Chinese visitors to Thailand in the first nine months of 2013 more than doubled year on year, making it the second-biggest tourist destination country for Chinese, latest data has showed.

Over 3.24 million journeys were made from China to Thailand, up 107.7 percent year on year, Xinhua learned on Sunday.

In Jan.-March, a period containing China's Spring Festival holiday, the number of Chinese visitors to Thailand was 93 percent more than in the same period of 2012. Experts predicted the figure will surpass four million by the end of this year.

"If the two countries can simplify visa procedures in the near future, we will see another surge in tourism," said Shao Qiwei, director of the China National Tourism Administration.

Chinese tourists are choosing Thailand because of its low prices, proximity to China, easy visa procedure and more airline choices, added Guo Dongjie, vice president of Ctrip, China's biggest online tour operator.

Source: Xinhua

Neurocam Wearable Camera Reads Your Mind & Records What You Like

The Neurocam wearable camera remembers every nice thing you see while wearing it, even if you forget about it later. It “knows” what you like because an integral brainwave sensor monitors the wearer's emotions: if you like the look of something, your Neurocam will record & save a 5-second clip for posterity .
 is the latest project from Japan's Neurowear, the company that previously gave us innovative brainwave-controlled fashion accessories including Neocomini cat ears and the fluffy (and slightly silly)Shippo wearable wagging tail . With Neurocam, however, Neurowear has moved into an area less frivolous and more practical – clunky headset notwithstanding.

That clunkiness is mainly due to the presence of a user-supplied smartphone that clips onto the Neurocam's right side, resting just above the wearer's ear. The rest of the device consists of a Neurosky Mind Wave Mobile and a newly developed custom brainwave sensor linked to the latest BMD chip. - 
So, how does Neurocam work? The key is a unique analytics algorithm software program specially developed by Professor Mitsukura of Keio University and adapted for the forthcoming Neurocam by Neurowear's in-house research team. After receiving brainwave data from the Neurocam sensor mounted on the device's left side, the software assigns sensitivity values reflecting the wearer's "interest" and "like" of what they're viewing

These values are then quantified on a scale of 0 to 100, and when the interest value exceeds 60 the smartphone's camera automatically records and saves 5-second GIF file clips of the viewed scenes. The files are then timestamped with the location noted.

Unlike Necomimi and Shippo, Neurowear's product planners see Neurocam as a stepping stone to more powerful, less obtrusive wearable brainwave-operated cameras that will offer vastly more functions. For example, the company is currently refining "manual mode" and automatic "effect function" software for a possible Neurocam v2.0 sometime in the future. 

These features will enable emotion tagging on the recorded scene clips and, even more exciting, will automatically overlay filters and visual effects based on the wearer's emotions... sort of like looking at the world through rose-colored glasses, but after the fact. 

Source:  Inventorspot

China calls for Strategic, Comprehensive China-Russia-India Cooperation

Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi said on Sunday here that China, Russia and India should regard and push forward the trilateral cooperation from a strategic and comprehensive point of view, during a meeting of the three countries' foreign ministers.

Wang said China, Russia and India stride two continents, link three oceans and have 40 percent of the world population as well as over 22 percent of world territorial surface.

He said the three countries are both global powers and emerging economies. If they work together in furthering their cooperation, not only the people of the three countries but also the whole world will benefit from such cooperation, he said.

Wang said that pragmatic cooperation among the three countries will instill great new dynamic into the global economy. To strengthen strategic coordination among the three countries will also add an important guarantee to Asia-European Continent's peace and stability, he said, adding that to utter a common voice by the three countries will bring tremendous positive energy to human historical evolution as well.

He suggested that the three countries should focus their cooperation on three aspects: firstly, increasing strategic trust among them and regarding each other as true strategic partner rather than rival. Secondly, coordinating in major international affairs to safeguard their own interests and promoting democratization of international relations as well as the construction of a multipolar world. Thirdly, deepening and strengthening pragmatic cooperation and playing a major role in building the Silk Route Economic Corridor and Asia-European Continental Bridge.

Wang also expressed his hope that their cooperation goes deep and solid in the fields of think tanks, industry, commerce, agriculture, disaster prevention & relief, medical & sanitation, high technology, environmental protection, energy, communication & transport and cyber space security.

Source: Xinhua

Japan voices hopes for Iran Nuclear deal

Japanese Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida expressed strong hopes Saturday that Iran and six world powers will reach an agreement on Tehran's nuclear program.

An agreement will mark a major step forward, Kishida said in a meeting with Iranian President Hasan Rowhani in Tehran.Kishida proposed that Iran ratify the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty and allow unannounced nuclear inspections by the International Atomic Energy Agency to end the nuclear standoff.

Source: NewsOnJapan