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Research In Motion gave explanation on Wednesday on what’s behind the BlackBerry outage or “service delays” that have struck Europe, the Middle East, Africa, India, parts of South America, Canada, Mexico and the United States, resulting in massive amounts of undelivered emails to BlackBerry smartphones.

In a conference call, RIM’s CTO for Software David Yach says that the BlackBerry outages have caused a backlog of undelivered messages, but RIM doesn’t see any reason to believe that the problems are due to a hacking or other security breach.

RIM clarifies that the BlackBerry outage should not result in any lost emails or BlackBerry Messenger correspondence and offered assurances that the problems weren’t the result of any hacking or anything other than its own core switch failure. Canada-based telecommunication giant has been having some serious server issues and, in a conference call, has just explained how things have only gone from bad to worse in the past few days. The company did not offer a prediction as to when the problems would be resolved.

Yach assures BlackBerry users that they will get their email and no purge will be necessary, but the company has quite a lot of work still to do, in fact stating numerous times that the work is why RIM hasn’t been in more constant communication with its customers. Robin Bienfait, RIM’s chief information officer, says in a statement. “We are taking BlackBerry outage very seriously and have people around the world working around the clock to address this situation.”

Apple Inc co-founder and former CEO Steve Jobs died on Wednesday at the age of 56, after a years-long and highly public battle with pancreatic cancer and other health issues. Jobs’ death was announced by Apple in a statement late on Wednesday. The Silicon Valley icon who gave the world the iPod and the iPhone had resigned as CEO of the world’s largest technology corporation in August, handing the reins to current chief executive Tim Cook.

Job’s health had been a controversial topic for years long before Steve Job’s death news. His battle with cancer had been a deep concern to Apple fans, investors and the company’s board alike. In past years, even board members have confided to friends their concern that Jobs, in his quest for privacy, wasn’t being forthcoming enough with directors about the true condition of his health. Now, despite investor confidence in Cook, who has stood in for his boss during three leaves of absence, there remain concerns about whether the company would stay a creative force to be reckoned with beyond the next year or so without its founder and visionary at the helm.

The death of Apple co-founder Steve Jobs prompted an outpouring of comments and tributes from political, technology, entertainment and business leaders. Steve Jobs death news also triggered an immediate outpouring of sympathy. Among others, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates said he will miss Jobs “immensely”.

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Vitiligo is an autoimmune skin disorder, or leukoderma, mainly characterized by a loss of the skin pigment melanin. The cause of vitiligo seems to be multi-factorial and there are several treatments available, medical and surgical. The response to vitiligo treatment may differ. People whose skin exposed to the sun are likely to be affected. The skin in vitiligo typically develops areas with blanched or white dots, macules or patches that sometimes itch and at times have hyper-pigmented borders. The degree of pigmentation loss (depigmentation) in vitiligo varies in severity, ranging from mild skin blanching to severe or complete depigmentation. Unpigmented patches frequently attach near body orifices such as the lips, genitals, gingiva, areolas, and nipples.

It occurs when melanocytes, the cells responsible for skin pigmentation, die or are unable to function. The cause of vitiligo is still unknown, but research suggests that it may arise from autoimmune, genetic, oxidative stress, neural, or viral causes. The incidence worldwide is less than 1%.

The treatment for vitiligo needs to be tailored to the specific patient. Not all patients will respond in the same way to treatment given. The medical treatment aims at encouraging repigmentation to take place in the depigmented areas. The source of remaining melanocytes to multiply is the hair follicles, the borders of some lesions, and a few spared epidermal melanocytes from the depigmentation process.

Michael Jackson was diagnosed with vitiligo in 1986. In a 90-minute interview with Oprah Winfrey in February 1993, the King of Pop claimed that he didn’t bleach his skin, stating for the first time that he had vitiligo. A friend claimed he started wearing his signature sequin glove to cover the vitiligo that had started to appear in the early 80s. It was also claimed by Jackson during a leaked deposition tape in 1996, that he did not “bleach” his skin. The video tape was leaked months after his death in June 2009. This is further reinforced in the official autopsy report which confirms Michael Jackson’s diagnosis with the skin condition.

Author/writer Michael Lewis predicted on Tuesday that Greece and Ireland will default on its debts and Greek PM George Papandreou and German Chancellor Angela Merkel are likely to be forced out as Europe’s financial crisis plays out. Lewis -starting his career exposing the culture of excess at Salomon Brothers in “Liar’s Poker”- is currently promoting his new book “Boomerang: Travels in the New Third World”, published this week by W.W. Norton.

The “Boomerang: Travels in the New Third World” book details three years of research and reporting on Iceland, Ireland, Greece, Germany and California, revealing aspects of the global economy’s woes and the national characteristics behind them. It follows his bestseller “The Big Short” about the U.S. subprime mortgage meltdown.

Lewis believes efforts by European leaders to bail out Greece again and stave off contagion in Ireland, Portugal, Italy and even Spain only put off the inevitable. While Lewis cautions that no one knows exactly how matters will play out, his predictions are closely watched given his position as one of America’s best selling and most respected business journalists.

Michael Lewis isn’t just a disturbingly prolific journalist who elevated Billy Beane to mythic status. He’s also a one-man center of power who enriches and ennobles all those with whom he consorts, according to New York Magazine, which neglects to really examine why having so much influence concentrated in a journalist who signs autographs for senators might itself be disturbing:

“What other journalist can claim to have changed the way the game of baseball is played, influenced resolutions like the Dodd-Frank Act, and possibly inspired Sandra Bullock to adopt a black baby?”

Hedge fund manager Kyle Bass is a big character in Michael Lewis’ new book, Boomerang: The Meltdown Tour. Bass believes a Greek default is inevitable, and will be messy. He also correctly called the subprime mortgage explosion, but now Hayman Capital Management, his hedge fund, is big enough to make some Paulson-sized profit if he’s right again.