Cornell University posts guards at bridge after series of suicides

An Ivy League university has posted guards on a bridge over a deep gorge after several student suicides this year.

Three students at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York state, have killed themselves in the last month. As well as posting guards, the university is sending staff members to knock on the door of every student living on campus to check on them, and has extended the hours of its student counselling centres.

"While we know that our gorges are beautiful features of our campus, they can be scary places at times like this," Susan Murphy, vice-president of student services and activities, said in a video message to the campus.

Students have speculated that the long, cold winter and stress from Cornell's rigorous academic programme may have contributed to the suicides. Campus officials maintain that the suicide rate is in line with national statistics and point out that the university had none between 2006 and 2008.

Timothy Marchell, Cornell's director of mental health initiatives, said the area's gorges contributed to unfounded fears of a suicide epidemic. "When a death occurs at Cornell in one of our gorges it's a very public experience," he told the Associated Press.

Founded in 1865 in the aftermath of the US civil war, Cornell is one of America's top universities. It has more than 21,000 students, including its medical and law schools.

Other US universities have grappled with the issue of student suicides, even though a 1997 University of Chicago study found that the suicide rate among higher education students was about half that of non-students.

Obama to Talk Health Care on FOX But Conservatives Won't Be Swayed

Obama will take to FOX News tonight to talk health-care reform. "Many of the falsehoods and myths about health reform gained traction with Glenn Beck and others on FOX, so the president is returning to the scene of the crime to make the final sale," a White House official explained to Politico earlier today.

It sounds like a sensible calculation: dismantle arguments about government takeovers and death panels, up popular support. In fact, NEWSWEEK tested out that idea in our most recent poll. We wanted to know: when Americans learn more about health-care reform, do they support it more? Turns out, while that is indeed the case for liberals, conservatives are not likely to support health-care reform when they know what it actually does.

More from the poll: in late February, we asked Americans if they supported Obama’s health-reform plan and got a pretty predictable response: only 15 percent of self-described conservatives supported the plan versus 72 percent of liberals.

We then dug a little deeper. We explained eight specific proposals to change the health-care system, things like requiring all Americans to have health insurance and barring insurer discrimination against those with preexisting conditions. After getting through the list, we revealed that these eight proposals were the main components of the Democrats' plan. We asked our question again: do you support Obama’s plan to reform health care?

Liberals were a whole lot more likely to favor health-care reform after hearing information: 72 percent support prior to learning about health reform shot up to 83 percent afterward.

Conservatives, however, were a completely different story: they moved from 15 to 18 percent support. This shift, I should point out, was within the poll’s 3.6 percent margin of error, meaning that, statistically speaking, conservatives did not change their opinions at all.

Why don’t conservatives support health-care reform? Perhaps the myths—which are indeed plentiful—have gotten too much traction for the Democrats to dispel at this point. Conservatives may have soured on health-care reform because of the drawn-out political battles and have philosophical objections to Obama’s plan. My bet is it's some combination of these elements. Taken as a whole, they mean Obama is battling a pretty formidable opponent tonight.

'Obama is Responsible for the Crisis in Jerusalem'

Why, then, the outbreak of violence now? Why Hamas's "day of rage" over Jerusalem and the Palestinian Authority's call to gather on the Temple Mount to "save" the Dome of the Rock from non-existent plans to build the Third Temple? Why the sudden outrage over rebuilding a synagogue, destroyed by the Jordanians in 1948, in the Old City's Jewish Quarter, when dozens of synagogues and yeshivas have been built in the quarter without incident?

The answer lies not in Jerusalem but in Washington. By placing the issue of building in Jewish neighborhoods in East Jerusalem at the center of the peace process, President Obama has inadvertently challenged the Palestinians to do no less.

Astonishingly, Obama is repeating the key tactical mistake of his failed efforts to restart Middle East peace talks over the last year. Though Obama's insistence on a settlement freeze to help restart negotiations was legitimate, he went a step too far by including building in East Jerusalem. Every Israeli government over the last four decades has built in the Jewish neighborhoods of East Jerusalem; no government, let alone one headed by the Likud, could possibly agree to a freeze there. Obama made resumption of negotiations hostage to a demand that could not be met. The result was that Palestinian leaders were forced to adjust their demands accordingly.

Obama is directly responsible for one of the most absurd turns in the history of Middle East negotiations. Though Palestinian leaders negotiated with Israeli governments that built extensively in the West Bank, they now refused to sit down with the first Israeli government to actually agree to a suspension of building. Obama's demand for a building freeze in Jerusalem led to a freeze in negotiations.

Internet explorer 9 - Microsoft's answers

“HTML5 will enable a new class of applications,” says Dean Hachamovitch, Microsoft's Internet Explorer general manager, speaking to the press at the company's Mix10 conference in Las Vegas.

But exactly what parts of HTML5 will the company support? And what will happen when changes are made as the standard evolves? Hachamovitch tends to avoid straight answers, but still gave some insight into the company’s approach.

“When you release a platform you make a promise to developers that the code that they wrote will continue to run,” he says. “The only time you’re allowed to break that promise is a trust issue: privacy, security, safety.”

So how do you change behavior when the specification is amended? “One thing you notice when you run the IE9 platform preview is that there are all these modes listed there. Those modes are there because there are sites built expecting the promise."

Hachamovitch plays a game with the press when he is quizzed about specific HTML5 features that are not in the current IE9 preview. What about the Canvas element? “All the graphics that run in IE9 are GPU-powered, they are hardware accelerated. We said there’ll be updates to the preview and we’ll see what else is coming in the next preview.” So that’s a maybe.

How about SMIL, the animation standard that works in conjunction with SVG (which is supported)? “There’s a lot of overlap and a lot of redundancy with CSS3 animations and transitions,” he says. “There’s a lot of discussion in the SVG working group ... developers want to have one consistent set of patterns that they reuse. The feedback I’ve seen is that CSS3 is a more dominant pattern, and the SMIL stuff less so.” In other words, probably not.

What about video codecs, a contentious issue which has left the Video tag without any officially standardized codec? “For IE9, the demonstration that we gave involved the H.264 codec, which is a great industry standard for video, and we will support the H.264 codec.” says Hachamovitch. Other codecs, like the open source Ogg Theora? He says nothing, but the signs are not good. He even adds, “If I made a list of all the things for the HTML5 spec to do next, it’s not clear that the HTML5 video codec would be near the top.”

The IE9 preview does a better job with the Acid3 standards test than earlier versions, but at 55 per cent, it remains poor, considering that some other browsers pass completely. Is 100 per cent a goal? Hachamovitch is defensive.

“The Acid3 test is something that some folks use as a proxy for standards support. It’s 100 tests. It exercises about a dozen different technologies, some of which are under construction, some of which are less under construction. The most important thing: as IE9 supports more of the markup that developers actually use, the score will continue to go up, as a side effect.”

He positions Microsoft as pragmatic. “The end, that we’re all trying to get to, is that developers can use the same markup everywhere. There are a variety of means of getting there. I talked about using data to find what developers are actually using to make that work.”

One of the puzzles of HTML is the tension between browser makers dreaming up features that later may get standardized, and standards committees pumping out specifications for browser makers to implement. In the worst case you get something like Netscape’s LAYER tag, introduced in 1997 but which never became part of the W3C standard. Has the world changed since then?

“You could say that the world hasn’t changed. There are a variety of browser vendors that have gone ahead and done stuff and said: ‘Well, we’ve done this, here you go.’” says Hachamovitch. “On the other hand I’ll say that the world has changed, because our approach is to work much more closely with these standards guys, in order to minimize surprises and maximize interoperability.”

And no, Windows XP will not be supported by IE9. “Building a modern browser requires a modern operating system,” he says. “There are facilities in Windows Vista and Windows 7 around security, for example the integrity-level work that gave us protected mode. There are performance improvements, there is graphics infrastructure to take advantage of the GPU, that doesn’t exist in previous operating systems.”

What this means is that Internet Explorer will not deliver on the “same markup everywhere” dream - at least until XP is obsolete. Bearing in mind that some new machines still ship with Windows XP today, developers face a long wait.

Another question that Hachamovitch is frequently asked concerns Silverlight. Does the overlap between HTML5 and Silverlight, for features such as video and animation, imply that Microsoft might eventually move away from the plug-in approach?

“Every browser has some moral equivalent to ActiveX, a set of binary APIs that enable other code to run. To me that’s part of building a browser, you accept that there is a need for plug-ins,” he says. “Developers choose what technology to use. Developers who want to use the exact same markup across browsers and devices, choose to use a plug-in today.”

The truth is that even if IE9 proves to be an excellent platform for HTML5 applications, a plug-in like Silverlight will solve deployment problems because it spans multiple browsers and runs on Windows XP. Another factor is that Microsoft’s tooling in Visual Studio is geared towards Silverlight rather than HTML5. If there is a move away from plug-ins for rich internet applications, it will not be a speedy one on Microsoft’s platform.

Health-care bill is not yet a law

Even as House Democrats search for the votes to send the bill to President Obama, dozens of Republican lawmakers and candidates have signed a pledge to back an effort to repeal the bill, should the GOP take control of either house of Congress after this fall's elections.

Started by the conservative activist group Club for Growth, the "Repeal It" movement first won the backing in January of some of the most conservative Republicans in Congress, such as "tea party" favorite Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.). It has since expanded to include some of the party's Senate candidates in liberal-leaning states such as New Hampshire and Illinois.

Congressional Republicans are currently battling the Democrats over the House procedures they could use to pass the health-care bill. But they are promising this fall to continue the spirited debate over the substance of the bill that has dominated the last year on Capitol Hill. And the repeal will likely be a key issue, even as lawmakers on both sides acknowledge any repeal would be highly unlikely as long as President Obama remains in office, as he could veto any such legislation.

While the GOP still awaits the outcome of competitive primaries in many states to pick its candidates, all of the major Senate hopefuls in Kentucky, Nevada, Kansas and Missouri have pledged "sponsor and support legislation to repeal any federal health care-takeover passed in 2010, and replace it with real reforms that lower health care costs without growing government."

Republican leaders have played down the largely grassroots pledge, saying they want to focus on making sure the health-care reform bill is stopped from passing. But Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.), a favorite of the tea party movement, said "this would be smart politically and it's the right thing to do."

Some Democrats view this development with glee. They say the health-care bill will become more popular as soon as it's signed, particularly since some of the provisions most favored by the public start this year, such as allowing young adults to stay covered by their parents' health-care plans up to age 26. Like many other parts of the legislation, that provision would become effective six months after the law is signed -- right around election time if the overall bill passes this week.

The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee is already calling on its candidates to demand their GOP opponents take a stand on the pledge. Asked about the GOP idea, David Axelrod, a senior White House adviser, said Sunday, "Let's have that fight." He added of GOP threats to call for the law's repeal: "Make my day."

And other Democrats say it's very difficult to run on a platform of taking away new rights for Americans.

"When it comes to health care and insurance, once reform passes, the tangible benefits Americans will realize will trump the fear-mongering rhetoric opponents are stoking today," Obama pollster Joel Benenson wrote in a recent piece in The Post. "And when that reality kicks in, the political burden will shift... there is every reason to believe that for Republicans, the negative consequences will be their own."

In what has become a intra-party pollster battle, other Democrats dispute the idea that the bill will help the party in the fall. Pollsters Patrick H. Caddell and Douglas E. Schoen have written Democrats "will be punished severely at the polls" unless they turn around the current negative perceptions of the health-care bill.

Republicans say the bill won't be that popular by November, because the public has already soured on the bill and the modest changes it makes by November won't change the overall perception of it.

"Democrats think by passing the bill they'll be able to get it behind them and change the subject to something else, like jobs," said Senator John Cornyn (R-Tex.), head of the National Republican Senatorial Committee. "But this will do the opposite. This will make sure health care is the number one issue that the election is won or lost on in November."

But some analysts say a debate over dumping the health care bill or keeping it may not affect voters who do not already have strong views on the reform effort, if only because its effects may not be felt by November.

"Republicans have been saying this is the end of America as we know it and it will bring socialism," said Norman Ornstein, a congressional scholar at the American Enterprise Institute. "If it passes and not much happens, it's not as if there's going to be a huge backfire [on the Republicans], but in the overall argument they have not done themselves much political good."

Schiff Nutrition International announced a special cash dividend.

Investors were swallowing up shares of Schiff Nutrition International Wednesday after the company beat The Street in its third quarter and announced a special cash dividend.

Showing confidence in its ability to generate cash flow, the Salt Lake City-based manufacturer of branded and private-label vitamins said its board of directors approved a 50 cent per share dividend, payable on Apr. 14 to shareholders on record as of Mar. 31. Anxious to take advantage, investors clamored for the stock, sending shares up 14.3%, or $1.30, to $10.40 in Wednesday morning trading. Shares of Schiff Nutrition International have more than doubled in the past year.

According to B. Riley analyst Ian Corydon, Schiff is sitting on roughly $59 million in cash and has been looking to acquire other branded vitamin makers. Corydon tells Forbes that "Schiff is looking for companies with niche products to add into their distribution." But unable to find suitable targets so far, the firm's board decided to share some of the wealth with investors through the special dividend.

Corydon says that MegaRed, Schiff's Omega-3 krill oil intended to support cardiovascular health, has been a big growth driver for the company. After getting sales started in Costco a year ago, Corydon notes the product is now being sold in Walgreens as well and "[Schiff] is gearing up to launch MegaRed in Wal-Mart soon."

For its third quarter Schiff earned $5.7 million, or 20 cents per share, up from $3.6 million, or 13 cents per share in the year-ago period. Sales for the quarter ended Feb. 28 climbed to $53.3 million, up from just under $50 million in the third quarter of 2009. Those figures beat the estimates of analysts polled by Thomson Reuters, who predicted earnings of 14 cents per share on sales of $51.4 million.

World Bank Urges China to Cool Economy

The World Bank on Wednesday urged China's government to take more measures to cool its economy and head off inflation, as the bank expects the country's economic growth to accelerate to 9.5% this year.

In its quarterly report on China's economy, the World Bank raised its forecast for China's growth this year from the 8.7% increase the bank projected in November and suggested Beijing use interest rate rises and a stronger yuan to avoid inflation and the formation of asset bubbles in the domestic property market.

Beijing has been gradually exiting the stimulus measures put in place during the financial.

BLOCKBUSTER BANKRUPCY?

Blockbuster Inc. (BBI) again warned it may have to file for bankruptcy protection as the movie-rental giant continues to lose money.

In its annual report filed Tuesday, Blockbuster said its declining sales and cash flow, coupled with increasingly competitive industry conditions, "raise substantial doubt about our ability to continue as a going concern." Blockbuster provided similar warnings nearly a year ago before it was able to refinance its long-term debt in the fall.

Nonetheless, the latest warning reminds investors of the serious challenges that the company faces.

Blockbuster is scrambling to expand in new distribution channels as rentals and sales at its 6,500 stores worldwide continue to decline amid intense competition from by-mail movie-rental services such as Netflix Inc. (NFLX) and rental kiosks such as those operated by Coinstar Inc.'s (CSTR) Redbox unit.

As of Jan. 3, Blockbuster said its total liabilities were $314.3 million more than its total assets.

Blockbuster shares fell 29% to 28 cents in recent trading. Blockbuster's 9% notes due 2012 are down 2.9 points to 22 cents on the dollar in very active trade Wednesday, according to MarketAxess.

Blockbuster has its own brand of by-mail service and kiosks, owned and operated by NCR Corp. (NCR), and it has worked with TiVo and other electronics makers to boost its digital-download offerings. But those businesses so far haven't taken off quickly enough to offset the declining rentals and sales at its stores.

Indeed, while Blockbuster's filing Tuesday said NCR expected to have 10,000 kiosks under the Blockbuster Express brand name by mid year, NCR has about 4,000, some of which are operating under kiosk brands NCR purchased last year. And an NCR spokesman called "inaccurate" Blockbuster's characterization, reiterating that NCR expects to have as many as 10,000 kiosks by year end, and some will not be under the Blockbuster name.

With its growth efforts constrained by debt and declining cash flow, Blockbuster is closing hundreds of underperforming stores, including 500 to 545 this year, and has outlined $200 million in fresh cost cuts tied to staffing and advertising spending. Since last year, it has pursued options for overseas assets, selling its business in Ireland in August for up to $45 million in cash, but it so far has been unable to close deals on other divestitures.

Blockbuster said Tuesday that it also seeks to boost its balance sheet, including modifying terms of its senior notes and the possible swap of senior subordinated debt with Class A common stock. The exchange could be implemented in late second quarter or early third quarter, but some of potential moves may require the company to file a pre-packaged or other filing under Chapter 11 bankruptcy-protection laws, Blockbuster said.

"It may not be possible to turn Blockbuster's business around," Gimme Credit analyst Kim Noland said. "While its high-yield issuance last fall appeared to buy it some time, its recent negative revision in guidance and the inroads into its business by competitors bode very ill for its long term health."

Noland said Blockbuster isn't yet in a liquidity crunch, but it could be if the poor results of the fourth quarter are repeated.