Source: Zynga Lowering IPO Valuation To $10 Billion Range, Due To Larger Economic Fears

Social game developer Zynga will start talking to potential public investors this Monday ahead of a mid-December IPO, according to reports earlier this week. The question is: how much will it be selling its stock for? That information has been expected to surface in an amended filing on Monday, but Reuters has some early details, that we've confirmed with a source close to the company. Zynga is seeking to raise around $900 million by selling 10% of its stock at a range between $8 and $10 per share, for a valuation of around $10 billion, according to the report. Speculation had previously been that it would go for between $15 billion and $20 billion, and a third-party valuation analysis that Zynga had provided in a recent filing amendment indicated it was worth $14.05 billion. Our source says Reuter's range is correct, and adds that the decrease is due to Zynga's concerns over larger economic issues, like any fallout out from Europe's financial crisis, and the poor reception that other tech IPOs have had recently. Deals site group Groupon went public at $17.8 billion, but has dropped to towards $10 billion recently (although it's climbing back up in the last couple days).

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/0qymTuhXg08/

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Gumming Up Appetite to Treat Obesity

News | Health

Researchers plan to create chewing gum that sneaks an appetite-suppressing hormone through the gut and into the blood

By Ferris Jabr ?| December 1, 2011?|

CHEMICAL COUPLE: The appetite-suppressing hormone hPYY hitches a ride with vitamin B-12 from the stomach to the bloodstream. Image: Damian Allis, Syracuse University

Losing weight is not always about anticipating swimsuit season or squeezing into skinny jeans?for the clinically obese, losing weight is about fighting serious illness and reclaiming health. But the primal part of the brain that regulates appetite will not place a moratorium on hunger just because someone and their doctor acknowledge the need to lose weight. Researchers at Syracuse University are working toward a unique solution: a stick of chewing gum that suppresses appetite.

There are many appetite-suppressing drugs on the market, a large number of which are based on stimulating amphetamines that carry the risk of serious side effects such as high blood pressure and heart failure. Syracuse Chemist Robert Doyle's research focuses on a hormone called human peptide YY (hPYY), which is released from cells that line the intestine whenever you eat and exercise. The more calories consumed, the more hPYY travels from intestinal cells into the bloodstream, eventually reaching the hypothalamus?an almond-size, evolutionarily ancient part of the brain that helps to regulate hunger, thirst, body temperature and sleep cycles.

Previous studies have shown that injections of hPYY suppress appetite in rodents, monkeys and people. In one study, both obese and lean people consumed about 30 percent fewer calories than usual at a buffet lunch only two hours after receiving a dose of hPYY.

Doyle wanted to know if hPYY still works when taken orally because pills and tablets are easy and painless compared with injections. The problem is that if you ingest pure hPYY, the caustic soup of acids and digestive enzymes in your stomach and intestine will destroy the hormone before it reaches your blood. In the body, intestinal cells secrete a precursor to hPYY that is transported into the blood and sliced into the right molecular shape in ways that are not well understood.

Doyle knew exactly how to protect hPYY in the stomach and gut. In earlier work, he found a way to safely ferry the hormone insulin through the digestive system by chemically linking insulin to vitamin B12. Since we do not produce B12 on our own, we have evolved a complex bucket brigade of molecules that ushers the essential vitamin on a journey from the food in our mouth to the bloodstream, where it nourishes all our cells. Doyle used this same trick with hPYY.

After bonding hPYY to vitamin B12, Doyle pumped a stream of the chemical couple directly into the stomachs of healthy rats. When he sampled the rats' blood for several hours after the feeding, he found levels of hPYY high enough to suppress appetite in a human adult. The findings show that B12 grants hPYY safe passage from the stomach to the bloodstream, as discussed online in the Journal of Medicinal Chemistry in November. Next, Doyle hopes to show that hPYY pumped into the stomachs of obese rats reduces their appetite and how many calories they consume.

The ultimate goal is hPYY medication that obese people can take orally in pill or tablet form?or even as chewing gum. Because recent research suggests there are PYY receptors in the tongue, hPYY chewing gum could promote feelings of satiety even sooner than hPYY pills.

Gregory Russell-Jones of Mentor Pharmaceutical Consulting in Sydney, who has saddled vitamin B12 with all kinds of peptides in the hopes of devising new drugs, says the new study "adds quite a bit of good work to the area. I think we are very close to oral delivery of peptides." Peptides are chains of amino acids, typically smaller than proteins, that function as hormones and signaling molecules in people and animals. They are small and chemically fragile enough to be destroyed by the stomach and gut but too large to pass into the blood unaided.

Source: http://rss.sciam.com/click.phdo?i=e9ff98577a1c9ffb9adf11c3984cab72

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CA-CANADA Summary (Reuters)

Ottawa raises "serious concerns" about TMX deal

TORONTO (Reuters) ? Canada's competition regulator has "serious concerns" about a C$3.8 billion ($3.7 billion) proposal to take over TMX Group, a deal that would bring most of the country's financial exchanges under one roof. Maple Group's bid would unite the Toronto Stock Exchange and the TSX Venture Exchange for small-cap stocks with their largest competitor, Alpha Group, a so-called alternative trading system. Maple is also seeking to put the exchanges under the same umbrella as CDS, which clears and settles all trades in Canada.

TSX jumps 2 percent on Europe hopes, China move

TORONTO (Reuters) - Toronto's main stock index rose more than 2 percent on Wednesday morning as resource issues jumped on an agreement by global central banks to tackle the euro zone debt crisis and a move by China to ease credit strains. Commodity prices, particularly for oil, gold and base metals, rose on renewed investor optimism for the global economy, lifting the TSX's heavily weighted materials sector, which rose more than 3 percent.

Oil sands opponents turn focus to Enbridge project

CALGARY, Alberta (Reuters) - Enbridge Inc's proposed C$5.5 billion ($5.3 billion) pipeline to British Columbia poses a raft of environmental risks, according to a new report that signals the project will become the next battleground over the future of Canada's oil sands. The study by a trio of environmental groups, released on Tuesday, comes on the heels of a U.S. decision to push back approval of TransCanada Corp's Alberta-to-Texas Keystone XL pipeline by more than a year.

Cenovus say research proves Weyburn CO2 project safe

(Reuters) - Cenovus Energy Inc said on Tuesday studies have confirmed that carbon dioxide sequestered underground at its Weyburn, Saskatchewan, field has not been leaking or causing high concentration of the gas at a neighboring property. The company said independent research proved that carbon dioxide injected into its oil field to boost production and remove the gas from the atmosphere was not escaping.

Canada mum on telecom spectrum rules, ownership

TORONTO (Reuters) - Canada has yet to decide whether it will loosen foreign ownership restrictions in the telecom sector, Industry Minister Christian Paradis said on Tuesday. Nor has the Conservative government decided if it will set aside airwaves for recent wireless entrants in next year's spectrum auction as a way to boost competition, Paradis said.

Fulcrum to stay the course as Canada independent

TORONTO (Reuters) - Fulcrum Capital plans to stay the course with its meat-and-potatoes approach to investing in resources now that it has completed a spin-off from HSBC and embarked as an independent Canadian private equity fund. "What we have done in the past, and which I'm sure we would do in the future, is investments in these traditional industries where for the most part you don't need a PhD to understand them," David Mullen, the fund's chairman and managing partner, said in an interview. "Our target market is the middle market in Canada."

Analysis: Low rates put Canadian insurers under pressure

TORONTO (Reuters) - The prospect of a prolonged period of stagnant or falling interest rates could force Canada's life insurers into a long-term struggle to raise the value of their shares from their current 2-1/2 year lows. Because they are not reaping sufficient funds from investments, the insurers could be forced to go to markets to raise more capital, or to cut dividends, which would tend to push stock prices down even further. A dividend cut at Sun Life Financial is a possibility in the near term, analysts say.

Bill to scrap Canadian Wheat Board monopoly advances

WINNIPEG, Manitoba (Reuters) - A government bill to scrap the Canadian Wheat Board's grain marketing monopoly cleared the final stage of approval by Canada's House of Commons on Monday, leaving it all but certain to become law next month. The bill would end the Wheat Board's six-decade old marketing monopoly for Western Canada's wheat and barley for milling or export, as of August 2012, the start of the 2012/13 crop marketing year.

Liberals return to second place in poll

OTTAWA (Reuters) - The Liberals have returned to the position they had held for the past several years as the most popular opposition party, a poll released on Monday showed. The federal election in May had reduced the center-left Liberals to a distant third place behind the governing Conservatives and the leftist New Democratic Party, but the Nanos poll now has them edging out the NDP.

Canada won't confirm it's pulling out of Kyoto

OTTAWA (Reuters) - Canada dismissed the Kyoto Protocol on climate change on Monday as a thing of the past, but declined to confirm a media report it will formally pull out of the international treaty before the end of this year. Although the Conservative government walked away from its Kyoto obligations years ago, a formal withdrawal would deal a symbolic blow to global talks to save the agreement, which opened in Durban, South Africa on Monday.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/energy/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111130/wl_canada_nm/canada_summary

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'Tree,' 'Beginners' tie at Gotham Film Awards

Actress Charlize Theron attends the IFP's 21st Annual Gotham Independent Film Awards at Cipriani Wall Street on Monday, Nov. 28, 2011 in New York. (AP Photo/Evan Agostini)

Actress Charlize Theron attends the IFP's 21st Annual Gotham Independent Film Awards at Cipriani Wall Street on Monday, Nov. 28, 2011 in New York. (AP Photo/Evan Agostini)

Actor Gary Oldman attends the IFP's 21st Annual Gotham Independent Film Awards at Cipriani Wall Street on Monday, Nov. 28, 2011 in New York. (AP Photo/Evan Agostini)

Actor Patton Oswalt, left, actress Charlize Theron and director Jason Reitman attend the IFP's 21st Annual Gotham Independent Film Awards at Cipriani Wall Street on Monday, Nov. 28, 2011 in New York. (AP Photo/Evan Agostini)

Actor Gary Oldman and wife Alexandra Edenborough attend the IFP's 21st Annual Gotham Independent Film Awards at Cipriani Wall Street on Monday, Nov. 28, 2011 in New York. (AP Photo/Evan Agostini)

Actress Vera Farmiga attends the IFP's 21st Annual Gotham Independent Film Awards at Cipriani Wall Street on Monday, Nov. 28, 2011 in New York. (AP Photo/Evan Agostini)

New YORK (AP) ? Award season kicked off with a tie for Best Feature at the annual Gotham Independent Film Awards as Terrence Malick's highly imaginative "The Tree of Life" shared the night's high honor with Mike Mills's flashback comedy, "Beginners."

Presenter Tilda Swinton introduced the nominees, but before opening the envelope, deferred to a prerecorded message on the venue's large video screens. The unprecedented ruling was then announced by jury member Natalie Portman who explained her peers were faced with the extraordinary dilemma of being "stuck" when it came to selecting a winner, so they "made a bold and independent decision" and "chose to honor both."

Swinton then read off the winner's names live, and presented the award.

"The Tree of Life" starred Brad Pitt and Sean Penn, and also won the Palm d'Or at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival. "Beginners" was released last year and stars Ewan McGregor and Christopher Plummer.

Some of the evening's other winners included Felicity Jones for Breakthrough Actor in "Like Crazy"; the cast of "Beginners" for Ensemble Cast; and "Scenes of a Crime" for Best Film Not Playing at a Theater Near You. The Audience Award went to "Girlfriend," a film about a young man with Down syndrome who has a crush on a troubled single mother.

Hosted by Edie Falco and Oliver Platt, the presenters were mostly darlings of the independent film world like Stanley Tucci, Melissa Leo, and actress, directorial nominee Vera Farmiga, and Swinton.

"Independent film is my amniotic fluid. It's like the sea I swim in," Swinton said when she arrived.

This year's Gotham Tributes went to director David Cronenberg; film executive Tom Rothman, actor Gary Oldman, and actress Charlize Theron.

Actor-comedian Patton Oswalt introduced Theron, and then made self-deprecating jokes while standing next to her at the podium.

"I'm only here because I'm armpit height," the much shorter Oswalt said. Later he said: "I feel like you're accepting me for the award."

"The irony is that you are the award," Theron joked.

The pair star in the upcoming dark comedy "Young Adult," written by Diablo Cody and directed by Jason Reitman.

Theron called Reitman "one the best directors" she ever worked with, and her mother, who was sitting next to him, "for giving me the character and the strength to be who I am."

Before the ceremony, Theron said the best award she ever got was that she "never had to get a second job to pay the bills."

The Gotham Independent Film Awards are presented by the Independent Feature Project, the largest organization in the United States committed to independent film.

Since its inception in 1991, Gotham Independent Film Awards has honored many Oscar-nominated films, including the 2008 winner for best Picture, "The Hurt Locker."

Next week, nominees for the Film Independent Spirit Awards will be announced in Los Angeles.

___

Associated Press writer Nicole Evatt contributed to this report.

Online:

http://gotham.ifp.org

___

John Carucci covers entertainment for The Associated Press. Follow him at http://www.twitter.com/jcarucci_ap

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/4e67281c3f754d0696fbfdee0f3f1469/Article_2011-11-29-Film-Gotham%20Film%20Awards%202nd%20Ld%20Writethru/id-ecd0a3626d7f4b7b976282f50f49497d

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Senate pushes to hurry up Afghanistan pullout (Reuters)

WASHINGTON (Reuters) ? The Senate voted on Wednesday to require President Barack Obama to devise a plan for expediting the pullout of U.S. troops from Afghanistan, signaling growing impatience in Congress.

Obama in June called for about a third of U.S. forces, or 33,000 troops, to leave Afghanistan by the end of next summer. The remaining 66,000 U.S. troops are to be slowly withdrawn until a final transition to Afghan security control in 2014.

The Democratic-controlled Senate's vote for accelerating that drawdown came on an amendment to an annual defense bill, but the chances of the requirement becoming law are slim.

A similar demand for an accelerated transition of military operations from U.S. to Afghan authorities was narrowly defeated in the Republican-controlled House of Representatives in May.

The sponsor of the version that passed the Senate on Wednesday, Democrat Jeff Merkley, said the chamber's vote was above all a message to the Democratic president that it was time to end the U.S. combat role.

"Our American forces have successfully pursued the two main goals set when we went to Afghanistan: stamping out the al Qaeda training camps and hunting down and bringing to justice those responsible for 9/11," Merkley said in a statement, referring to the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States.

"It is time to bring our men and women home. The Senate sent that message to the President today in unequivocal terms," Merkley said.

The amendment passed on a voice vote. Republican John McCain, who opposed it, declared that senior U.S. military commanders were already uncomfortable with the drawdown Obama announced in June, and said stepping it up would be "reckless and wrong."

The Senate vote came as U.S. lawmakers continued to look for ways to cut government spending and rein in massive budget deficits. Unease in Washington over the decade-long war in Afghanistan has escalated amid rising worries about tight budgets and high unemployment.

During debate on the amendment, Merkley said the conflict in Afghanistan had cost the United States nearly a half-trillion dollars, and that it was time to "bring our troops and our tax dollars home".

His amendment had 20 co-sponsors in the 100-member Senate, including two Republicans - Mike Lee and Rand Paul, both members of the chamber's conservative Tea Party caucus.

(Editing by Paul Simao)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/obama/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111201/pl_nm/us_afghanistan_usa_senate

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NYC judge rejects $285M SEC-Citigroup agreement (Providence Journal)

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Apple puts Galaxy Tab 10.1N on the chopping block, asks German court for preliminary injunction

It wasn't long ago that Samsung modified its Galaxy Tab 10.1 to get it back on the German market, and it didn't take long for Apple to respond. Apparently, Cupertino didn't take kindly to Sammy's sneaky workaround, and has filed for an injunction to stop the 10.1N from showing up on store shelves in Germany. The slate's fate will be determined on December 22nd, so we'll have to wait and see whether it joins its siblings on the sidelines, or is around to deliver some Honeycomb delights to those in Deutschland come Christmas morn.

Apple puts Galaxy Tab 10.1N on the chopping block, asks German court for preliminary injunction originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 29 Nov 2011 17:34:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://www.engadget.com/2011/11/29/apple-puts-galaxy-tab-10-1n-on-the-chopping-block-asks-german-c/

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