Caterpillar Fungus Has Anti-Inflammatory Properties

In the Tibetan mountains, a fungus attaches itself to a moth larva burrowed in the soil. It infects and slowly consumes its host from within, taking over its brain and making the young caterpillar move to a position from which the fungus can grow and spore again.

Sounds like something out of science fiction, right? But for ailing Chinese consumers and nomadic Tibetan harvesters, the parasite called cordyceps means hope—and big money. Chinese markets sell the "golden worm," or "Tibetan mushroom"—thought to cure ailments from cancer to asthma to erectile dysfunction—for up to $50,000 (U.S.) per pound. Patients, following traditional medicinal practices, brew the fungal-infected caterpillar in tea or chew it raw.

Now the folk medicine is getting scientific backing. A new study published in the journal RNA finds that cordycepin, a chemical derived from the caterpillar fungus, has anti-inflammatory properties.

"Inflammation is normally a beneficial response to a wound or infection, but in diseases like asthma it happens too fast and to too high of an extent," said study co-author Cornelia H. de Moor of the University of Nottingham. "When cordycepin is present, it inhibits that response strongly."

And it does so in a way not previously seen: at the mRNA stage, where it inhibits polyadenylation. That means it stops swelling at the genetic cellular level—a novel anti-inflammatory approach that could lead to new drugs for cancer, asthma, diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis, and cardiovascular-disease patients who don't respond well to current medications.

From Worm to Pill

But such new drugs may be a long way off. The science of parasitic fungi is still in its early stages, and no medicine currently available utilizes cordycepin as an anti-inflammatory. The only way a patient could gain its benefits would by consuming wild-harvested mushrooms.

De Moor cautions against this practice. "I can't recommend taking wild-harvested medications," she says. "Each sample could have a completely different dose, and there are mushrooms where [taking] a single bite will kill you."

Today 96 percent of the world's caterpillar-fungus harvest comes from the high Tibetan Plateau and the Himalayan range. Fungi from this region are of the subspecies Ophiocordyceps sinensis, locally known as yartsa gunbu ("summer grass, winter worm"). While highly valued in Chinese traditional medicine, these fungi have relatively low levels of cordycepin. What's more, they grow only at elevations of 10,000 to 16,500 feet and cannot be farmed. All of which makes yartsa gunbu costly for Chinese consumers: A single fungal-infected caterpillar can fetch $30.

Brave New Worm

Luckily for researchers, and for potential consumers, another rare species of caterpillar fungus, Cordyceps militaris, is capable of being farmed—and even cultivated to yield much higher levels of cordycepin.

De Moor says that's not likely to discourage Tibetan harvesters, many of whom make a year's salary in just weeks by finding and selling yartsa gunbu. Scientific proof of cordycepin's efficacy will only increase demand for the fungus, which could prove dangerous. "With cultivation we have a level of quality control that's missing in the wild," says de Moor.

"There is definitely some truth somewhere in certain herbal medicinal traditions, if you look hard enough," says de Moor. "But ancient healers probably wouldn't notice a 10 percent mortality rate resulting from herbal remedies. In the scientific world, that's completely unacceptable." If you want to be safe, she adds, "wait for the medicine."

Ancient Chinese medical traditions—which also use ground tiger bones as a cure for insomnia, elephant ivory for religious icons, and rhinoceros horns to dispel fevers—are controversial but popular. Such remedies remain in demand regardless of scientific advancement—and endangered animals continue to be killed in order to meet that demand. While pills using cordycepin from farmed fungus might someday replace yartsa gunbu harvesting, tigers, elephants, and rhinos are disappearing much quicker than worms.

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Two Winners in Record Powerball Jackpot

Winning tickets for the record Powerball jackpot worth more than $579 million were purchased in Arizona and Missouri.

Missouri Lottery official Susan Goedde confirmed to ABC News this morning that one of the winning tickets was purchased in the state, but they would not be announcing a town until later this morning. Powerball's website reports the other winning ticket was purchased in Arizona.

The winning numbers for the jackpot were 5, 23, 16, 22 and 29. The Powerball was 6.

Before the numbers were drawn on Wednesday, the jackpot swelled to $579.9 million, making the cash option $379.8 million.

An additional 8,924,123 players won smaller prizes, according to Powerball's website.

"There were 58 winners of $1 million and there were eight winners of $2 million. So a total of $74 million," said Chuck Strutt, Director of the Multi-State Lottery Association.

In Photos: Biggest Lotto Jackpot Winners

Hopeful players bought tickets at the rate of 131,000 every minute up until an hour before the deadline of 11 p.m. ET, according to lottery officials.

The jackpot had already rolled over 16 consecutive times without a winner. That fact, plus the doubling in price of a Powerball ticket, accounted for the unprecedented richness of the pot.

"Back in January, we moved Powerball from being a $1 game to $2," said Mary Neubauer, a spokeswoman at the game's headquarters in Iowa. "We thought at the time that this would mean bigger and faster-growing jackpots."

AP Photo/Patrick Semansky

That proved true. The total, she said, began taking "huge jumps -- another $100 million since Saturday." It then jumped another $50 million.

The biggest Powerball pot on record until now -- $365 million -- was won in 2006 by eight Lincoln, Neb., co-workers.
As the latest pot swelled, lottery officials said they began getting phone calls from all around the world.

"When it gets this big," said Neubauer, "we get inquiries from Canada and Europe from people wanting to know if they can buy a ticket. They ask if they can FedEx us the money."

The answer she has to give them, she said, is: "Sorry, no. You have to buy a ticket in a member state from a licensed retail location."

About 80 percent of players don't choose their own Powerball number, opting instead for a computer-generated one.
Asked if there's anything a player can do to improve his or her odds of winning, Neubauer said there isn't -- apart from buying a ticket, of course.

Lottery officials put the odds of winning the $579 Powerball pot at one in 175 million, meaning you'd have been 25 times more likely to win an Academy Award.

Skip Garibaldi, a professor of mathematics at Emory University in Atlanta, provided additional perspective: You are three times more likely to die from a falling coconut, he said; seven times more likely to die from fireworks, "and way more likely to die from flesh-eating bacteria" (115 fatalities a year) than you are to win the Powerball lottery.

Segueing, then, from death to life, Garibaldi noted that even the best physicians, equipped with the most up-to-date equipment, can't predict the timing of a child's birth with much accuracy.

"But let's suppose," he said, "that your doctor managed to predict the day, the hour, the minute and the second your baby would be born."

The doctor's uncanny prediction would be "at least 100 times" more likely than your winning.

Even though he knows the odds all too well, Garibaldi said he usually plays the lottery.

When it gets this big, I'll buy a couple of tickets," he said. "It's kind of exciting. You get this feeling of anticipation. You get to think about the fantasy."

So, did he buy two tickets this time?

"I couldn't," he told ABC News. "I'm in California" -- one of eight states that doesn't offer Powerball.

ABC News Radio contributed to this report.

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Man fined for molesting woman at bus stop

SINGAPORE: A 62-year-old gardener was fined $3,000 on Wednesday for molesting a woman at a bus stop outside Peace Centre in Sophia Road.

Low Hock Leng admitted that he brushed the upper inner thigh of the 32-year-old woman at about 1pm on March 3 this year.

The court heard that Low had earlier brushed against her left shoulder when he walked past her at the bus stop, which was not crowded.

The woman thought it was accidental and did not confront him.

Five minutes later, as she was about to board a bus, Low walked towards her and brushed against her upper inner thigh with his right hand.

The victim shouted at him, grabbed his bag when he tried to flee and detained him with the help of a passer-by.

For using criminal force with the intention to outrage modesty, Low could have been jailed up to two years, fined and caned.

- CNA/de

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Can you ditch your smartphone data plan for Wi-Fi?

Wi-Fi is just about everywhere these days, so why do you still have to pay an arm and a leg for pricey 3G and 4G wireless data service from a carrier if you want to get online from your smartphone?

This is a very good question. Now that every smartphone on the market comes with Wi-Fi capability built-in, some frugal wireless customers are wondering whether they can subscribe to a voice-only service and use Wi-Fi instead of a costly data plan to access the Internet.

In this edition of Ask Maggie, I explain why the major carriers don't offer such a plan for their customers. And I offer some advice for getting around it. I also explain why carriers don't allow their basic feature phones and quick messaging devices, which don't require expensive data plans, to offer Wi-Fi. I'll give you a hint to my answer: It comes down to wireless carriers wanting to squeeze as much revenue out of their customers as possible.

Why can't I buy just the services I want?

Dear Maggie,
I know that Verizon Wireless makes you get a data plan with any smartphone purchase. The question I have is, once your two-year contract expires can you drop the data plan and continue using your old smartphone on Verizon? The phone then would be used for voice and text. And I could get Internet access on Wi-Fi only. Is this possible? Can Verizon, or any other carrier, prevent a user from doing this?

Thanks,
Angel

Dear Angel,
The short answer to your question is that Verizon will not allow you to only subscribe to voice if you're using a smartphone. Unfortunately, the company requires that you sign up for data service, too. In fact, each of the four major wireless providers requires that you sign up for a data plan if you use a smartphone on their service, whether your device is fully paid for or not.

The reason for that is simple. These wireless providers don't make money on voice service anymore. The real money is in data. In fact, that's why you see AT&T and Verizon offering the unlimited talk and text messaging services for a flat rate while they charge more for different levels of data.

The truth is that some wireless subscribers would do just fine with a voice-only service on their smartphones, so long as they could still access Wi-Fi. And since Wi-Fi is available in so many places now, it probably wouldn't be that difficult for these folks. And it would save them a ton of money.

But that is the last thing that the major carriers want consumers to do. They need more of their subscribers to sign up for data plans. And they need those already with data plans to use more data so the subscribers can pay more money. It's the only way wireless operators will be able to increase revenue.

That said, all hope is not lost for people who really want to forgo a carrier data plan on their smartphones. There are ways to do this, but there are catches. Unfortunately for you, it's not really possible to do what you're asking on Verizon Wireless. But if you were to switch to a GSM carrier, such as AT&T or T-Mobile, you should be able to pull this off.

The reason why is that Verizon is a CDMA carrier. And this service does not use SIM cards in devices. So to activate a phone on Verizon's network, you need to tell the carrier to activate the device. That's not the case with a GSM phone. On an unlocked GSM phone, you can simply pop out the SIM card and put in a new SIM card to activate service.

You can do this to switch carriers or to get local access to a wireless network while traveling. It also allows you to pop in a SIM from your same carrier that is provisioned only for voice. For example, lots of people will sign up for a voice-only service with a basic feature phone or as part of a prepaid service on AT&T or T-Mobile and then put that SIM card into the smartphone. If you turn off the carrier data on your smartphone, your device will only use voice services. And your wireless carrier won't likely discover that the device you're using isn't a feature phone.

That said, there are instances in which a carrier finds out that a subscriber is using a smartphone on a service provisioned only for voice, and it then forces the customer to pay for a data plan.

While this work-around has worked for some consumers, it's getting a little trickier to pull off as more and more smartphones are now using microSIM cards instead of standard size SIMs. Regular SIM cards can be cut down to fit into a microSIM slot. But it's an extra step in the process.

This solution may work for you, but you likely won't be able to use your existing Verizon smartphone on AT&T or T-Mobile. (The one exception is if you have a "world" phone from Verizon that has already been unlocked. If it's unlocked and it is compatible with GSM networks, then you could use a SIM from one of these carriers.) Otherwise, you will have to pay for an unlocked smartphone at full price.

Another option for you is to sign up for a prepaid service that uses Verizon's 3G network. Some of them allow you to use Verizon devices, and then you can sign up for a voice service only. If voice-only services aren't available, you can get one that has very minimal data. For example, PagePlus is a prepaid carrier that uses Verizon's network and charges $29.95 a month for 1,200 voice minutes, 3,000 text messages and 250MB of data per month.

There are other prepaid services that use Verizon's network, so you'd have the same coverage that you have right now. Wal-Mart has the Straight Talk service, which uses both Verizon's and AT&T's networks. But unfortunately, you can't take your old Verizon phone to the Straight Talk service. Instead you have to buy a new device from the service.

If you're willing to ditch Verizon and any of the other major carriers, you could try a new service from Republic Wireless, which costs only $19.99 a month for unlimited talk, text, and data. The carrier buys and resells capacity from Sprint Nextel's network. But it also uses Wi-Fi networks. And because it uses Wi-Fi to carry the bulk of its data traffic, the company can offer such a low-cost service.

The company launched a beta version of its service about a year ago. But it was quickly so overwhelmed with users interested in the service that it had to shut down. It relaunched its beta service earlier this year. And starting next month, the service will be available to anyone.

The only catch is that, at least for now, it only supports one device, the Motorola Defy XT. That device is available for preorder now and costs $249 (plus $10 activation fee). Other smartphones will likely follow. And there's even a chance that eventually, customers will be able to bring their own smartphones to the service. But for now, it's just the Motorola Defy XT.

I'm sorry that it's so complicated to get the service you actually want. I'm hoping that some readers out there can also contribute their thoughts on this topic and share their experiences as well. So be sure to check back here for the reader comments. Good luck!

Wi-Fi-enabled feature phones?

Dear Maggie,
Dear Maggie,
I just read your article on "Back to cell phone basics: Buying a non-smartphone." My husband and I are looking to get new phones but we don't want to get caught up in the smartphone mania, mostly because of the high cost of the data plans. Are there any non-smartphones out there that can allow access to local Wi-Fi without requiring a data plan? We are currently with Verizon and like their service. We have also thought of just buying
iPod Touches, but don't like the idea of carrying around two devices.

Thank you for any advice you may have,
Deborah

Dear Deborah,
Unfortunately, Verizon doesn't sell any Wi-Fi-enabled feature phones. In fact, you will be hard pressed to find any quick messaging or feature phones that include Wi-Fi. Wireless operators would likely tell you that these phones don't include Wi-Fi because it's too expensive to add the Wi-Fi chip. And customers who want these devices are usually cost-conscious.

But I doubt that is the reason. Verizon and the other major carriers make more money from data services than they do voice services. And they want as many customers as possible using data services. Right now, they don't require customers with these "basic" phones to have a data plan even though the phones are able to access the Internet.

If the carriers allowed these devices to have Wi-Fi built in, then many customers, such as yourself, might opt out of the data plan and instead use Wi-Fi when it's available. This would eat into the carriers' revenue stream too much.

What this means for you is that you could follow the advice in my first question and try to get a smartphone, which will have Wi-Fi, at full price and use a SIM card for a voice-only service. Or you could get a separate Wi-Fi device. The iPod Touch as well as some smaller tablets like the
iPad Mini,
Nexus 7, or the Kindle Fire are good alternatives. But as you mentioned, it does mean you'll be carrying around two devices, one to access the Internet when you're on Wi-Fi and the other to take phone calls.

I'm sorry I don't have better news for you. Good luck!

Ask Maggie is an advice column that answers readers' wireless and broadband questions. The column now appears twice a week on CNET offering readers a double dosage of Ask Maggie's advice. If you have a question, I'd love to hear from you. Please send me an e-mail at maggie dot reardon at cbs dot com. And please put "Ask Maggie" in the subject header. You can also follow me on Facebook on my Ask Maggie page.

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Pictures: Falcon Massacre Uncovered in India

Photograph courtesy Conservation India

A young boy can sell bundles of fresh Amur falcons (pictured) for less than five dollars. Still, when multiplied by the thousands of falcons hunters can catch in a day, the practice can be a considerable financial boon to these groups.

Since discovering the extent of Amur hunting in Nagaland this fall, Conservation India has taken the issue to the local Indian authorities.

"They have taken it very well. They've not been defensive," Sreenivasan said.

"You're not dealing with national property, you're dealing with international property, which helped us put pressure on [them]." (Related: "Asia's Wildlife Trade.")

According to Conservation India, the same day the group filed their report with the government, a fresh order banning Amur hunting was issued. Local officials also began meeting with village leaders, seizing traps and confiscating birds. The national government has also requested an end to the hunting.

Much remains to be done, but because the hunt is so regional, Sreenivasan hopes it can eventually be contained and stamped out. Authorities there, he said, are planning a more thorough investigation next year, with officials observing, patrolling, and enforcing the law.

"This is part of India where there is some amount of acceptance on traditional bush hunting," he added. "But at some point, you draw the line."

(Related: "Bush-Meat Ban Would Devastate Africa's Animals, Poor?")

Published November 27, 2012

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Study Finds Most Pork Contaminated

Nov 27, 2012 6:24pm

A sample of raw pork products from supermarkets around the United States found that yersinia enterocolitica, a lesser-known food-borne pathogen, was present in 69 percent of the products tested, according to a study released today by Consumer Reports.

The  bacteria  infects more than 100,000 Americans a year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, but  for every case that is confirmed with a laboratory test, about 120 more cases escape diagnosis. Symptoms can include fever, cramps and bloody diarrhea.

For its sample, Consumer Reports included the same pork products millions of Americans buy every day at their supermarkets. The study included 148 pork chops and 50 ground pork samples from around the United States.

In the samples tested, 69 percent tested positive for yersinia and 11 percent for enterococcus, which can indicate fecal contamination that can lead to urinary-tract infections. Salmonella and listeria, the more well-known bacterium, registered at 4 percent and 3 percent, respectively.

“The results were concerning,”  Urvashi Rangan, one of the authors of the report, told ABCNews.com. “It’s hard to say that there was no problem.  It shows that there needs to be better hygiene at animal plants. Yersinia wasn’t even being monitored for.”

In a written statement, the Pork Producer’s Council questioned the methods used by Consumer Reports, saying the number of samples tested, 198, did  ”not provide a nationally informative estimate of the true prevalence of the cited bacteria on meat.”

Despite the findings, Rangan said  it’s good to know that the bacteria can be killed by cooking the pork properly and by being vigilant about cross-contamination.

Pork cuts should be cooked to 145 degrees, while ground pork needs to reach a temperature of 160 degrees to kill the bacteria.

“Anything that touches raw meat should go into the dishwasher before touching anything else,” Rangan said. ”Juices from raw meat that touch the counter should be washed with hot soapy water.”

The U.S. Department of Agriculture  said the findings “affirm that companies are meeting the established guidelines for protecting the public’s health.

“USDA will remain vigilant against emerging and evolving threats to the safety of America’s supply of meat, poultry and processed egg products, and we will continue to work with the industry to ensure companies are following food safety procedures in addition to looking for new ways to strengthen the protection of public health,” the department said in a statement.

ABC News’ Dr. Anita Chu contributed reporting. 

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Lake life survives in total isolation for 3000 years

It is seven times as salty as the sea, pitch dark and 13 degrees below freezing. Lake Vida in East Antarctica has been buried for 2800 years under 20 metres of ice, but teems with life.

The discovery of strange, abundant bacteria in a completely sealed, icebound lake strengthens the possibility that extraterrestrial life might exist on planets such as Mars and moons such as Jupiter's Europa.

"Lake Vida is a model of what happens when you try to freeze a lake solid, and this is the same fate that any lakes on Mars would have gone through as the planet turned colder from a watery past," says Peter Doran of the University of Illinois, Chicago. He is co-leader of a team working in the Dry Valleys of Antarctica where Vida is situated. "Any Martian water bodies that did form would have gone through this Vida stage before freezing solid, entombing the evidence of the past ecosystem."

The Vida bacteria, brought to the surface in cores drilled 27 metres down, belong to previously unknown species. They probably survive by metabolising the abundant quantities of hydrogen and oxides of nitrogen that Vida's salty, oxygen-free water has been found to contain.

Co-research leader Alison Murray of the Desert Research Institute in Reno, Nevada, is now investigating this further by growing some of the extracted cells in the lab. "We can use these cultivated organisms to better understand the physical or chemical extremes they can tolerate that might be relevant to other icy worlds such as Europa," she says.

Surprise composition

Murray and her colleagues were surprised to find so much hydrogen, nitrous oxide and carbon in the water. They speculate that these substances might originate from reactions between salt and nitrogen-containing minerals in the surrounding rock. Over the centuries, bacteria denied sunlight may have evolved to be completely reliant on these substances for energy. "I think the unusual conditions found in the lake have likely played a significant role in shaping the diversity and capabilities of life we found," she says.

But the existence of life in Lake Vida does not necessarily increase the likelihood that life exists in much older, deeper lakes under investigation in Antarctica, most notably Vostok and Ellsworth, which are 3 kilometres down and have been isolated for millions rather than thousands of years.

"It doesn't give us clues about whether there's life in Vostok or Ellsworth, but it says that under these super-salty conditions, life does OK," says Martin Siegert of the University of Bristol, UK, and leader of an expedition to Ellsworth which set off on 25 November. "We'll be drilling down 3 kilometres into the lake," he says.

Journal reference: PNAS, DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1208607190

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Sec-Gen Surin seeks bigger mandate to represent ASEAN

JAKARTA: ASEAN's outgoing Secretary-General Surin Pitsuwan has made an impassioned plea for the grouping to re-examine its decision-making process.

Dr Surin said the grouping's chief should be given a bigger mandate to represent and act on behalf of the 10-member organisation.

This will be the last major briefing by 63-year-old Dr Surin as ASEAN's secretary-general, capping what has probably been the toughest year of his five-year term.

The former Thai foreign minister was considered one of the most qualified to head the ASEAN Secretariat at a time when the world's attention is on the region.

But the seasoned diplomat said he could have done more.

Dr Surin said: "I don't have the space, the power, the authority to enter into even an MOU (Memorandum of Understanding). That's difficult to drive the place if it's going to be the nerve centre, if it's going to be the central mechanism of this place."

That structural shortcoming was exposed twice this year during Cambodia's chairmanship of ASEAN.

In July, the regional grouping failed to issue a joint communique - the first time in ASEAN's 45-year history.

And earlier this month, several member states publicly dismissed the summit's statement by Cambodia before it was eventually amended.

On both occasions, the issue related to the overlapping claims on the South China Sea.

Dr Surin said, "I think if the secretariat has been given a larger space, more engagement - the impasse in July could have been avoided - not that I did not try but it is the structure that would not allow me to be involved."

He believes the ASEAN secretary-general should have the mandate to play a more active role and make decisions on behalf of the grouping.

The Harvard graduate said he has submitted a comprehensive proposal to ASEAN leaders.

"And I call my proposal The ASEAN Challenge. And that is how to move the organisation forward into the future - within all these demands, expectations that we are facing as we grow. We are now having a problem of our own success on how to manage it," he said.

And it seems ASEAN's dialogue partners and institutions too hope to see this change - including US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

Dr Surin said: "She expressed it in a very clear, precise, short - and that is we would like to discuss policies with you here. I think what she meant by that is we certainly don't want to come here and have to wait few weeks, few months until you get all the answers from the capitals. That's not quite community, that's not quite ASEAN. And that's not quite the behaviour of what we call a central mechanism for a regional organisation. It should be more effective than that."

He believes overall, member-states are aware of the need to stay united despite pressures from within and outside of the groupings.

Dr Surin said: "If we can't manage well here, we have problems contending among them and between them, external parties around them in our region. We are going to be in what you call a rock and a hard place, which we don't want. And that ASEAN ministers and leaders are very much aware of. And I have certainly contributed to that awareness. Shape up!"

ASEAN's next Secretary-General - Vietnam's deputy foreign minister - has his work cut out for him. Among his first major tasks would be to put the ASEAN house in order as the grouping prepares to become an ASEAN Community in 2015. And that includes getting the governments and related agencies in the 10-member states to embrace a new mindset and think ASEAN.

- CNA/de

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Bing's top searches reveal iPhone 5 as No. 1 news story

Bing reveals the top searches for 2012.

Believe it or not but the No. 1 most searched for news story on Bing this year has been the launch of Apple's iPhone 5. In fact, the debut of this device beat out the 2012 presidential election, the Olympics, and Superstorm Sandy, which followed respectively for the next top searches. The Honey Boo Boo reality TV show came in at No. 5.

Microsoft released its data on the top searched terms for 2012 today. The lists include information on travel destinations, fashion labels, celebrities, consumer electronics, fast food chains, and more. The tallies of the data are based on the aggregation of billions of user search queries.

Besides Internet users' typical celebrity fascination with Kim Kardashian, Justin Bieber, and Rihanna, technology also made a splash in searches this year. Not only did the
iPhone 5 top the news stories, but the launch of the Kindle Fire HD and Facebook's IPO also made the list at places 9 and 10.

Another category Bing rated was the most searched social networks -- and it's no surprise that Facebook came in No. 1 with its more than 1 billion users. Falling in line next came Twitter, MySpace, LinkedIn, and Tumblr. As far as consumer electronics, the iPhone 5 also won this category with the
iPad, Samsung Galaxy S3,
Kindle, and the iPad 3 coming in next. Even with a launch late in the year, Windows 8 also made the list at No. 10.

"People's fascination with the latest smart phones, tablets and games consoles remains unfettered in 2012, with products from Apple, Amazon, Microsoft and Samsung topping the list," Bing wrote in a blog post.

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