(Reuters) - Cisco Systems Inc said it will buy Israeli software maker Intucell for about $475 million in cash to expand its mobile network management offerings.
Privately held Intucell makes software that helps mobile carriers manage cellular networks automatically.
(Reporting by Supantha Mukherjee in Bangalore; Editing by Maju Samuel)
The family of Junior Seau has sued the NFL, claiming the former linebacker's suicide was the result of brain disease caused by violent hits he sustained while playing football.
The wrongful death lawsuit, filed Wednesday in California Superior Court in San Diego, blames the NFL for its "acts or omissions" that hid the dangers of repetitive blows to the head. It says Seau developed chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) from those hits, and accuses the NFL of deliberately ignoring and concealing evidence of the risks associated with traumatic brain injuries.
Seau died at age 43 of a self-inflicted gunshot in May. He was diagnosed with CTE, based on posthumous tests, earlier this month.
An Associated Press review in November found that more than 3,800 players have sued the NFL over head injuries in at least 175 cases as the concussion issue has gained attention in recent years. More than 100 of the concussion lawsuits have been brought together before U.S. District Judge Anita B. Brody in Philadelphia.
Helmet manufacturer Riddell Inc., also is being sued by the Seaus, who say Riddell was "negligent in their design, testing, assembly, manufacture, marketing, and engineering of the helmets" used by NFL players. The suit says the helmets were unreasonably dangerous and unsafe.
Seau was one of the best linebackers during his 20 seasons in the NFL. He retired in 2009.
"We were saddened to learn that Junior, a loving father and teammate, suffered from CTE," the family said in a statement released to the AP. "While Junior always expected to have aches and pains from his playing days, none of us ever fathomed that he would suffer a debilitating brain disease that would cause him to leave us too soon.
"We know this lawsuit will not bring back Junior. But it will send a message that the NFL needs to care for its former players, acknowledge its decades of deception on the issue of head injuries and player safety, and make the game safer for future generations."
Plaintiffs are listed as Gina Seau, Junior's ex-wife; Junior's children Tyler, Sydney, Jake and Hunter, and Bette Hoffman, trustee of Seau's estate.
The lawsuit accuses the league of glorifying the violence in pro football, and creating the impression that delivering big hits "is a badge of courage which does not seriously threaten one's health."
It singles out NFL Films and some of its videos for promoting the brutality of the game.
"In 1993's 'NFL Rocks,' Junior Seau offered his opinion on the measure of a punishing hit: 'If I can feel some dizziness, I know that guy is feeling double (that)," the suit says.
The NFL consistently has denied allegations similar to those in the lawsuit.
"The NFL, both directly and in partnership with the NIH, Centers for Disease Control and other leading organizations, is committed to supporting a wide range of independent medical and scientific research that will both address CTE and promote the long-term health and safety of athletes at all levels," the league told the AP after it was revealed Seau had CTE.
The lawsuit claims money was behind the NFL's actions.
"The NFL knew or suspected that any rule changes that sought to recognize that link (to brain disease) and the health risk to NFL players would impose an economic cost that would significantly and adversely change the profit margins enjoyed by the NFL and its teams," the Seaus said in the suit.
The National Institutes of Health, based in Bethesda, Md., studied three unidentified brains, one of which was Seau's, and said the findings on Seau were similar to autopsies of people "with exposure to repetitive head injuries."
"It was important to us to get to the bottom of this, the truth," Gina Seau told the AP then. "And now that it has been conclusively determined from every expert that he had obviously had CTE, we just hope it is taken more seriously. You can't deny it exists, and it is hard to deny there is a link between head trauma and CTE. There's such strong evidence correlating head trauma and collisions and CTE."
In the final years of his life, Seau went through wild behavior swings, according to Gina and to 23-year-old son, Tyler. There also were signs of irrationality, forgetfulness, insomnia and depression.
"He emotionally detached himself and would kind of 'go away' for a little bit," Tyler Seau said. "And then the depression and things like that. It started to progressively get worse."
LONDON (Reuters) – Live Nation Entertainment said on Tuesday it had secured exclusive rights to host major music concerts in London’s Olympic Park and Stadium complex in 2013.
Live Nation, which hosted more than 400 concerts and performances across Europe in the past year, said it has already planned to hold its Wireless Festival and Hard Rock Calling events at the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in the summer.
“We are delighted to be staging music concerts at the London Olympics venue, which last year became a globally-recognized site for outstanding performances – both in sport and music,” John Reid, president of concerts at Live Nation Europe said in a statement on the company’s website.
The announcement is a boost for the British government, which provided almost 9 billion pounds ($ 14.25 billion) of public money to build and provide security for the London 2012 Games, quashing criticism that the east London site could become an expensive white elephant after a glorious summer of sporting drama.
The London Legacy Development Corp (LLDC), set up to transform the park into a viable space for entertainment, leisure and work, said the concerts will form part of a series of events that include a cycling festival, a weekend of music and other activities.
LLDC Chairman and London Mayor Boris Johnson said the Live Nation deal was a ringing endorsement of the efforts made to transform the park.
“Along with the other major international sports events we have already secured this latest news proves that the park has a very bright future indeed,” Johnson said in a statement on the LLDC website.
The LLDC is negotiating with West Ham United to try to finalise a deal for the Premier League soccer club to move into the Olympic Stadium.
The deal also provides Live Nation with a venue to stage events that had become a bone of contention for some residents living near London’s Royal Parks, who complained that its summer concerts failed to end at the appointed time and were too loud.
Concert-goers were surprised in July when microphones were suddenly switched off on Paul McCartney and Bruce Springsteen in mid-duet when a Hyde Park concert ran over time.
Financial terms of the London Olympic venue contract have not been disclosed. Details of the music acts and dates to perform at the site will be announced in the first quarter of 2013, Live Nation said.
($ 1 = 0.6316 British pounds)
(Reporting by Paul Casciato; editing by Keith Weir)
Music News Headlines – Yahoo! News
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — A group of Utah doctors is declaring a health emergency over the Salt Lake City area's lingering air pollution problem.
Utah Physicians for a Healthy Environment planned to deliver a petition Wednesday demanding immediate action by elected officials.
The group wants Gov. Gary Herbert and mayors of northern Utah cities to cut the pollution.
The doctors suggest lowering highway speed limits, making mass transit free for the winter and curbing industrial activities. They want a permanent ban on wood-burning. And they want large employees to let people work from home.
The doctors are advising people to avoid the outdoors. They say people can help their bodies fight toxic exposure by introducing anti-oxidants in their diet, like fish oil or chocolate.
PARK CITY, Utah (AP) — The Sundance Film Festival isn't home to many shoot-'em-up movies, but action-oriented actors at the festival are being questioned about Hollywood's role in American gun violence.
Guy Pearce, Ellen Page and Alexander Skarsgard all say Hollywood shares in the blame.
Pearce is in Park City, Utah, to support the family drama "Breathe In," but he's pulled plenty of imaginary triggers in violent films such as "Lockdown" and "Lawless." He says Hollywood may make guns seem "cool" to the broader culture, but there are vast variations in films' approach to guns.
Skarsgard says that despite the existence of violent video games and Hollywood movies in his native country of Sweden, there aren't nearly as many gun deaths there. Page says the availability of "crazy assault rifle(s)" makes her feel less safe.
Hotel occupancy rose to 75.2 percent, up from 72.2 percent in 2011, according to an announcement by Choose Chicago, the city's tourism and convention agency, and Mayor Rahm Emanuel. The 2012 level matched a previous record set in 2007.
Hotel operators also saw increases in two other key measures, though those remain slightly below their peaks. The average daily room rate rose to $187.27, from $177.33 in 2011. And the revenue per available room, a key indicator of profitability, increased by 10 percent to $140.76.
The data comes from STR Global, with analysis by Choose Chicago.
Among the factors affecting performance, officials said, was a more aggressive marketing strategy. They cited Choose Chicago's regional advertising campaigns. An eight-week winter and 12-week summer campaign, at a combined cost of $2 million, targeted Cincinnati, Detroit, Grand Rapids, Indianapolis, Milwaukee and St. Louis.
The improved performance, along with a hike in the city's hotel tax rate, brought the city's hotel tax revenue to more than $100 million for the first time. This was an increase of $25 million, or 33 percent, from 2011.
The city share of the hotel tax increased by 1 percentage point last year, bringing the total Chicago hotel tax rate to 16.39 percent. The city's share of that is 4.5 percentage points.
kbergen@tribune.com | Twitter@kathy_bergen
CAPTIONS
Ice-bound dog
A dog is stranded at Jackson Park Harbor this morning. Marine Unit officers were called to the 6700 block of South Lake Shore Drive to attempt to rescue it. (Antonio Perez, Chicago Tribune /January 22, 2013)
11:38 a.m. CST, January 22, 2013
Marine Unit officers were called to the 6700 block of South Lake Shore Drive at about 7:30 a.m. after someone spotted the black dog in the middle of the frozen harbor, police said.
Officers had tethered themselves and put on cold weather gear as they tried to reach the dog, police said. At one point, the dog appeared to make it to shore, only to dart back onto the ice, police said.
Witnesses called police when they couldn't reach the animal, officials said.
chicagobreaking@tribune.com
Twitter: @ChicagoBreaking
LONDON (Reuters) - Witnessing friends' vacations, love lives and work successes on Facebook can cause envy and trigger feelings of misery and loneliness, according to German researchers.
A study conducted jointly by two German universities found rampant envy on Facebook, the world's largest social network that now has over one billion users and has produced an unprecedented platform for social comparison.
The researchers found that one in three people felt worse after visiting the site and more dissatisfied with their lives, while people who browsed without contributing were affected the most.
"We were surprised by how many people have a negative experience from Facebook with envy leaving them feeling lonely, frustrated or angry," researcher Hanna Krasnova from the Institute of Information Systems at Berlin's Humboldt University told Reuters.
"From our observations some of these people will then leave Facebook or at least reduce their use of the site," said Krasnova, adding to speculation that Facebook could be reaching saturation point in some markets.
Researchers from Humboldt University and from Darmstadt's Technical University found vacation photos were the biggest cause of resentment with more than half of envy incidents triggered by holiday snaps on Facebook.
Social interaction was the second most common cause of envy as users could compare how many birthday greetings they received to those of their Facebook friends and how many "likes" or comments were made on photos and postings.
"Passive following triggers invidious emotions, with users mainly envying happiness of others, the way others spend their vacations and socialize," the researchers said in the report "Envy on Facebook: A Hidden Threat to Users' Life Satisfaction?" released on Tuesday.
"The spread and ubiquitous presence of envy on Social Networking Sites is shown to undermine users' life satisfaction."
They found people aged in their mid-30s were most likely to envy family happiness while women were more likely to envy physical attractiveness.
These feelings of envy were found to prompt some users to boast more about their achievements on the site run by Facebook Inc. to portray themselves in a better light.
Men were shown to post more self-promotional content on Facebook to let people know about their accomplishments while women stressed their good looks and social lives.
The researchers based their findings on two studies involving 600 people with the results to be presented at a conference on information systems in Germany in February.
The first study looked at the scale, scope and nature of envy incidents triggered by Facebook and the second at how envy was linked to passive use of Facebook and life satisfaction.
The researchers said the respondents in both studies were German but they expected the findings to hold internationally as envy is a universal feeling and possibly impact Facebook usage.
"From a provider's perspective, our findings signal that users frequently perceive Facebook as a stressful environment, which may, in the long-run, endanger platform sustainability," the researchers concluded.
(Reporting by Belinda Goldsmith, editing by Paul Casciato)
NEW YORK (AP) — The woman whose photo was used as the "face" of the Twitter account of Manti Te'o's supposed girlfriend says the man allegedly behind the hoax confessed and apologized to her.
Diane O'Meara told NBC's "Today" show Tuesday that Ronaiah Tuiasosopo used pictures of her without her knowledge in creating a fake woman called Lennay Kekua. Te'o asserts he was tricked into an online romance with Kekua and, until last week, believed she died of leukemia in September.
O'Meara went to high school in California with Tuiasosopo, but she says they're not close. He called to apologize Jan. 16, the day Deadspin.com broke the hoax story, she said.
"I don't think there's anything he could say to me that would fix this," said O'Meara, a 23-year-old marketing executive in Los Angeles.
O'Meara said she had never had any contact with Te'o, and that for five years, Tuiasosopo "has literally been stalking my Facebook and stealing my photos."
Tuiasosopo has not spoken publicly since the news broke. His family has said they may speak out this week.
LONDON (Reuters) – Veteran British rockers The Rolling Stones, who celebrated their 50th anniversary last year, were nominated for four NME music awards on Monday.
The Stones, back in the limelight after a photo book, greatest hits album, documentary film and mini tour to mark their 2012 golden jubilee, were shortlisted for best live band, best book, music moment of the year and best music film.
They were one of four acts with four nominations each. The others were LA sisters Haim, an up-and-coming band tipped for the top by several industry polls, Australian rock band Tame Impala and British alternative hip hop artist M.I.A.
Music magazine NME’s nominations were decided by fans voting online, and the winners will be announced at The Troxy in east London on February 27.
“When I first heard it was four things, I thought, ‘Ooh, blimey! That’s very nice!’” Stones lead singer Mick Jagger said.
“It’s funny, because when we were rehearsing at Wembley Arena last year, it was where we used to do the NME Pollwinners,” he said, referring to concerts the magazine staged in the 1960s featuring acts voted on by NME readers.
“We remembered, it was the first time we ever played ‘Jumpin’ Jack Flash’, at one of those Pollwinners concerts!”
Nominated three times was another comeback king David Bowie, who took the music world by surprise earlier this month by releasing his first new music in a decade and promising a studio album in March.
“All the early plaudits will go to Haim, Tame Impala, M.I.A. and the legendary Rolling Stones … but it’s testament to the exquisite taste of the NME audience that artists as wide ranged as Frank Ocean, Jake Bugg, Pussy Riot and David Bowie are recognized too,” said NME editor Mike Williams.
Russian punk band Pussy Riot were shortlisted in the music moment of the year category for a protest against President Vladimir Putin in Moscow’s main cathedral that landed some of them in jail.
Rounding out the category was Bowie’s comeback, the Olympic Games opening ceremony, The Stone Roses reuniting to play Heaton Park in Manchester and Green Day’s secret set at the Reading Festival.
Following are the NME Awards 2013 nominees in the main categories:
BEST BRITISH BAND:
- Arctic Monkeys; Kasabian; The Vaccines; Biffy Clyro; The Maccabees; The Cribs
BEST ALBUM:
- Channel Orange/Frank Ocean; Jake Bugg/Jake Bugg; Given To The Wild/The Maccabees; An Awesome Wave/Alt-J; Come Of Age/The Vaccines; Lonerism/Tame Impala
BEST INTERNATIONAL BAND
- The Killers; Tame Impala; The Black Keys; Odd Future; Crystal Castles; Foo Fighters
BEST TRACK
- R U Mine?/Arctic Monkeys; Don’t Save Me/Haim; Bad Girls/M.I.A.; Inhaler/Foals; Best Of Friends/Palma Violets; Elephant/Tame Impala
BEST MUSIC FILM:
- Searching For Sugar Man; LCD Soundsystem: “Shut Up And Play The Hits”; Hit So Hard : The Life & Near Death Story of Patty Schemel; Marley; The Rolling Stones: “Crossfire Hurricane”; Led Zeppelin: “Celebration Day”
BEST SOLO ARTIST:
- Jake Bugg; Noel Gallagher; Florence Welch; Miles Kane; Grimes; Paul Weller
BEST NEW BAND:
- Alt-J; Peace; Palma Violets; Django Django; Alabama Shakes; Haim
BEST MUSIC VIDEO:
Oblivion/Grimes; Bad Girls/M.I.A.; Where Are We Now?/David Bowie; R U Mine?/Arctic Monkeys; Don’t Save Me/Haim; Feels Like We Only Go Backwards/Tame Impala
BEST LIVE BAND:
- The Maccabees; The Cribs; Blur; Biffy Clyro; Foals; The Rolling Stones
BEST DANCEFLOOR ANTHEM:
What You Came For/Mosca featuring Katy B; Sweet Nothing/Calvin Harris featuring Florence Welch; Gangnam Style/Psy; Bad Girls/M.I.A.; In Paris/Kanye West and Jay-Z; Losing You/Solange
MUSIC MOMENT OF THE YEAR:
- David Bowie returns; The Stone Roses play Heaton Park; Olympics opening ceremony; The Rolling Stones play London’s O2 Arena; Green Day’s secret set at Reading Festival; Pussy Riot’s punk prayer
HERO OF THE YEAR:
- David Bowie; Bradley Wiggins; Pussy Riot; Barack Obama; Frank Ocean; Dave Grohl
(Reporting by Mike Collett-White, editing by Paul Casciato)
Music News Headlines – Yahoo! News
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