Monday, May 18, 2015

Monday 05-18-15


Exclusive: Sysco sees U.S. bird flu hurting egg supply up to 18 months


NEW YORK (Reuters) - Food distributor Sysco Corp said on Friday that a record U.S. outbreak of avian flu would limit its supply of eggs and chickens that lay them for nine to 18 months, based on information provided to the company by its suppliers.
Sysco is the biggest U.S. food distributor, whose clients include restaurants, hotels and hospitals. The company is discussing options with its customers, including creating alternative menu items during the period, a Sysco spokesman said in an email.
It is too soon to tell whether the supply squeeze will have a material impact on financial results, spokesman Charley Wilson said. Eggs represent a small portion of the company's dairy products segment, which accounted for 11 percent of revenue in 2014.
The U.S. poultry and egg industry is grappling with the country's biggest outbreak on record of avian influenza, which has proven highly infectious and deadly for poultry. Governors in Nebraska, Wisconsin, Minnesota and Iowa have declared a state of emergency, and the outbreak has shown few signs of waning.
Earlier this week, Cargill Inc [CARG.UL] said it has implemented increased biosecurity measures at its facilities receiving liquid egg tankers and shell eggs from impacted states and that it is working with egg suppliers to ensure they are employing measures to prevent spread of the flu.
Meanwhile, on Thursday, Post Holdings Inc, calling the flu a "force majeure event," said it now estimates that 25 percent of its egg supply has been affected. Sysco is a major customer for Post's Michael Foods business, which sells egg products, according to filings.
Stifel Nicolaus analyst Christopher Growe expects Post's previous estimate of a $20 million financial impact in 2015 to at least double, according to a research note.
Growe said that Post's contracts require the company to go to the open market and to third parties to replace the lost supply at high prices. "We believe that by declaring force majeure, the company will be able to either pass higher prices onto customers or be relieved from the mandatory supply requirements," he wrote.

https://ca.news.yahoo.com/exclusive-sysco-sees-u-bird-flu-hurting-egg-031251016--finance.html


Live forever? Maybe, by uploading your brain

Uploading your brain to a computer is closer to becoming a reality.
"Taking a mind and offloading it to software is consistent with physics, and it's something that I think will be done in this century," said Martine Rothblatt, founder of Sirius Satellite Radio and CEO of United Therapeutics, during an interview at eMerge Americas on Monday. (Tweet This)
Rothblatt said she shares the beliefs of computer scientist Ray Kurzweil that technology advancements will ultimately enable human being to live forever. And one of the first stages in this process could include preserving a human's brain in software to keep them alive after the body has died.
Rothblatt's company United Therapeutics does work in transplanting organs, and she said her experience in the field has helped shape her views on the matter.
      
"I think it was not a very big stretch for me to ask myself: 'What if you transplanted their minds into software? Would they be able to stay alive in the software while perhaps technology continued to advance?'" she said. "And just like we regenerate lungs and we regenerate hearts, perhaps, ultimately, people can regenerate brain tissue so their minds can rewritten into brain tissue."
While uploading a human brain is obviously not yet a reality, pieces of a person's habit and mannerism can be captured and stored by collecting data from their digital life, she said.
Rothblatt said she has created a nonprofit where people can store their "mind files," which are basically records of a person's digital life, including Facebook, Google and other social media posts.
"All of these things are kept in a mind file and so in the future when software does catch up with Kurzweil's predictions, all of their thoughts and memories will be there [for that use]," Rothblatt added.

http://www.cnbc.com/id/102646887
 

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