Source: member.bnamericas.com --- Wednesday, July 10, 2013
Brazil's iron ore exports to China in 1H13 were down 3.1% to 70.57Mt year-on-year, reaching their lowest level in the last two years, according to the China-Brazil Business Council CEBC. In the fir... ...
Source: http://member.bnamericas.com/news/metals/brazilian-iron-ore-exports-to-china-down-31-in-h1
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Published: Wednesday, July 10, 2013, 12:36?a.m.
Updated 5 hours ago
After starring in football and baseball at Plum High School, John Wojciechowski has parlayed his life's experiences into a NFL player personnel career that has served three classic franchises: the Steelers, the Cowboys and the Packers.
Wojciechowski is in his 17th NFL season as a scout and player development aide.
On Nov. 14, he will join seven others in this year's Plum Sports Hall of Fame induction class.
The ninth annual banquet will be at Edgewood Country Club at 7 p.m.
Wojciechowski, a 1992 Plum graduate, was named first-team, all-conference in football and baseball. He was a three-year captain and a football All-American at Duquesne University where he held the school record for career sacks as a defensive end.
Wojciechowski also was a three-year starter in baseball with the Dukes. He is an area scout for the Packers.
There are plenty of other people with Pittsburgh ties in Green Bay.
Head coach Mike McCarthy grew up in the Greenfield section of Pittsburgh and attended the former Bishop Boyle High School in Homestead; offensive coordinator Tommy Clements was one of the most celebrated area athletes in the early '70s at Canevin Catholic High School (now Bishop Canevin); defensive coordinator Dom Capers held the same position with the Steelers; outside linebackers coach Kevin Greene and secondary coach Darren Perry played for the Steelers; and running backs coach Alex Van Pelt started four years at quarterback for Pitt.
Also set for induction is Lou Klauss, who was Plum's wrestling coach for 11 seasons and helped found the community's junior wrestling program.
He also coached Plum to WPIAL team golf titles in 1968-69.
John Ratesic will be inducted as a coach and an administrator. He was the school's assistant principal for 20 years and principal for five years and helped create the Hall of Fame. Ratesic was also a well-liked, long-time WPIAL football steering committee member.
Here are the other inductees:
? Steve Marsalese (1981). After lettering in football, basketball, volleyball and track, he was a member of the school's 1981 PIAA championship volleyball team. He was an all-state honorable mention selection in football in 1980.
? Jeff Schmeck (1976). An all-state honorable mention pick at center from Plum's first WPIAL football playoff team in 1975, he also held the school record in the shot put, since broken, at 55 feet, 9 inches.
? Erica Van Tassel Carter (1994). A three-time WPIAL champion in swimming, Van Tassel Carter qualified for 12 PIAA championship events during her career. She earned a swimming scholarship to Penn State and was a four-time academic all-American.
? Monica Zalevsky Williams (1984). As a letterwinner in volleyball, basketball and track, Zalevsky Williams was a member of the school's volleyball team that defeated North Allegheny for the 1984 PIAA title. She later excelled in volleyball and basketball at Carnegie Mellon University.
? Paul Shish (1966). A posthumous inductee, Shish participated in football, basketball, baseball and track. He was all-WPIAL in football and the Plum Athlete of the Year for the 1965-66 academic year. He earned a football scholarship to Clemson and played four years for the Tigers.
George Guido is a Valley News Dispatch scholastic sports correspondent. His column appears Wednesdays.
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BEIJING (AP) ? A new study links heavy air pollution from coal burning to shorter lives in northern China. Researchers estimate that the half-billion people alive there in the 1990s will live an average of 5? years less than their southern counterparts because they breathed dirtier air.
China itself made the comparison possible: for decades, a now-discontinued government policy provided free coal for heating, but only in the colder north. Researchers found significant differences in both particle pollution of the air and life expectancy in the two regions, and said the results could be used to extrapolate the effects of such pollution on lifespans elsewhere in the world.
The study by researchers from China, Israel and the United States was published Tuesday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
While previous studies have found that pollution affects human health, "the deeper and ultimately more important question is the impact on life expectancy," said one of the authors, Michael Greenstone, a professor of environmental economics at Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
"This study provides a unique setting to answer the life expectancy question because the (heating) policy dramatically alters pollution concentrations for people who appear to be of otherwise identical health," Greenstone said in an email. "Further, due to the low rates of migration in China in this period, we can know people's exposure over long time periods," he said.
The policy gave free coal for fuel boilers to heat homes and offices to cities north of the Huai River, which divides China into north and south. It was in effect for much of the 1950-1980 period of central planning, and, though discontinued after 1980, it has left a legacy in the north of heavy coal burning, which releases particulate pollutants into the air that can harm human health. Researchers found no other government policies that treated China's north differently from the south.
The researchers collected data for 90 cities, from 1981 to 2000, on the annual daily average concentration of total suspended particulates. In China, those are considered to be particles that are 100 micrometers or less in diameter, emitted from sources including power stations, construction sites and vehicles.
The researchers estimated the impact on life expectancies using mortality data from 1991-2000. They found that in the north, the concentration of particulates was 184 micrograms per cubic meter ? or 55 percent ? higher than in the south, and life expectancies were 5.5 years lower on average across all age ranges.
The researchers said the difference in life expectancies was almost entirely due to an increased incidence of deaths classified as cardiorespiratory ? those from causes that have previously been linked to air quality, including heart disease, stroke, lung cancer and respiratory illnesses.
Total suspended particulates include fine particulate matter called PM2.5 ? particles with diameters of no more than 2.5 micrometers. PM2.5 is of especially great health concern because it can penetrate deep into the lungs, but the researchers lacked the data to analyze those tiny particles separately.
The authors said their research can be used to estimate the effect of total suspended particulates on other countries and time periods. Their analysis suggests that every additional 100 micrograms of particulate matter per cubic meter in the atmosphere lowers life expectancy at birth by about three years.
The study also noted that there was a large difference in particulate matter between the north and south, but not in other forms of air pollution such as sulfur dioxide and nitrous oxide.
Francesca Dominici, a professor of biostatistics at Harvard School of Public Health who has researched the health effects of fine particulate matter in the U.S., said the study was "fascinating."
China's different treatment of north and south allowed researchers to get pollution data that would be impossible in a scientific setting.
Dominici said the quasi-experimental approach was a good approximation of a randomized experiment, "especially in this situation where a randomized experiment is not possible."
She said she wasn't surprised by the findings, given China's high levels of pollution.
"In the U.S. I think it's pretty much been accepted that even small changes in PM2.5, much, much, much smaller than what they are observing in China, are affecting life expectancy," said Dominici, who was not involved in the study.
___
AP researcher Yu Bing contributed to this report.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/study-air-pollution-cut-northern-china-lifespans-195345711.html
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The central Working Committee of The future Awards Africa (TFAA) has announced its partnership with The British Council on The Future Awards Prize in Media Enterprise 2013. The Founder and the Marketing Director with The Future Project, Adebola Williams expressod their excitement with the partnership. ?We are very excited to announce the introduction of a special category, The British Council and The Future Awards Africa Prize for ?The International Young Media Entrepreneur of the Year?. This is a first with TFAA as we step on the continental stage, and it furthers the search for outstanding young entrepreneurs in the media and entertainment sectors where our continent has many trailblazers?.
The search begins for young persons working in the creative sectors. The young entrepreuners?who are able to demonstrate business success in the classic terms of business growth (profit, market share, employees) and/or in terms of his or her reputation (creativity, quality and aesthetic) amongst peers.
According to the Assistant Country Director, the British Council in Nigeria, Ojoma Ochai ?We are excited to partner with The Future Awards Africa to identify spectacular young entrepreneurs in these sectors as part of our support for creativity and enterprise. We are particularly heartened that TFAA has sustained its integrity and capacity to highlight the brightest and best young people over the past eight years. With the incredible energy of its team and excellent board of judges, we echo the endorsement by the World Bank of the awards as The Noble Prize for Young Africans?.
Nominees should be young, working in the media, have?entrepreneurial and leadership abilities, posses the potential to change their sector, market awareness and have understanding. This category will be judged by the British Council alongside members of The Future Awards Africa team.
The winner gets a trip to the United Kingdom to participate in a programme with valuable networking and idea exchange with their international and UK peers in the media sector, some of whom are themselves winners of the same award in their own countries.
The nominations open today and close on Thursday 25th July 2013 at 8:30AM.
The awards event holds in August 2013. There will be no public voting for this edition of The Future Awards Africa.
For more information, visit @TFAAfrica on Twitter or the website http://thefutureafrica.com/awards/.
Media Partners include Channels TV , Silverbird TV, Nigeria Info, TW, Ventures Africa & Guardian Life. Online Partners are BellaNaija, LindaIkejiBlog, Information Nigeria, Premium Times, 360Nobs, LadunLiadiBlog, and Jobberman. Official Media Partners are Africa Magic, Cool FM, Wazobia FM and Y!/YNaija.com.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________
BellaNaija is a partner of The Future Awards Africa 2013
Tags: 360nobs, Africa Magic, BellaNaija, Channels TV, Chude Jideonwo, Cool FM, Guardian Life, Information Nigeria, Jobberman, LadunLiadiBlog, LindaIkejiBlog, Nigeria Info, Premium Times, Silverbird TV, The British Council, The Future Awards Africa, TW, Ventures Africa, wazobia fm, Y!, YNaija.com.
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By Alistair Barr and Dhanya Skariachan
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Barnes & Noble Inc
Chairman and founder Leonard Riggio, the largest shareholder of Barnes & Noble, said the company is reviewing its strategic plan and announced a series of executive changes.
The new appointments suggest Riggio may be stepping up efforts to re-organize the company by separating the Nook business from the chain of hundreds of Barnes & Noble physical stores.
But with Microsoft Corp
Signs that Barnes & Noble had come to a turning point with Nook came in the latest quarter, when it reported dismal results, led by a 34 percent drop in Nook sales. It also said it would stop making Nook tablets, marking the end of a costly attempt to compete with Amazon , Apple and Google
The operator of the largest chain of bookstores in the United States, has been hit hard by Amazon, which has won market share by selling physical books more cheaply online. Amazon, the world's largest Internet retailer, inflicted more damage when its Kindle e-reader became a hit and e-book sales took off about five years ago.
Borders, another big bookstore chain, went bust in 2011. But Barnes & Noble survived to challenge Amazon in the e-book market. Lynch became CEO about three years ago and led the development of the Nook e-book store, e-readers and tablets.
"Lynch was highly instrumental in making Nook a centerpiece in Barnes & Noble's broader operational strategy," Alan Rifkin, an analyst at Barclays, wrote in a note to investors on Monday.
"With this announcement, Barnes & Noble is, in our view, signaling that it is attempting to reduce its dependence upon the Nook."
The company did not name a new CEO but Chief Financial Officer Michael Huseby was named chief executive of the Nook Media unit and president of the parent company. Max Roberts, CEO of the company's education business, will report to Huseby. Huseby and Mitchell Klipper, CEO of the retail stores, will report to Riggio.
Shares in the Barnes & Noble fell 2.6 percent to $17.20 in after-market trading on Monday.
MINORITY INTERESTS
Last year, Microsoft acquired 17 percent of Nook in a deal that valued the unit at $1.7 billion. In December, British publisher Pearson bought a 5 percent stake in the business, valuing it at $1.8 billion.
Barnes & Noble shares surged more than 20 percent in May after technology website TechCrunch reported that Microsoft was considering an offer to buy the tablet and e-book parts of the Nook business. The stock has since given up those gains.
Meanwhile, Riggio said earlier this year that he wanted to buy Barnes & Noble's chain of nearly 700 namesake bookstores from the parent company.
"The next step is Chairman Leonard Riggio deciding if he's going to bid to buy the retail division and from that they'll then decide what to do with the Nook," Maxim Group analyst John Tinker said.
"Do they close it down? Do they reintegrate it back in the company? What happens to minority investors, Microsoft and Pearson? It all can be driven by the Chairman," he added.
Barnes & Noble spokeswoman Mary Ellen Keating declined to comment on Riggio's plans.
The company is looking for a partner to make Nook color tablets under a "co-branding" agreement. It will continue to make black and white Nook e-readers and will still sell the tablets in its stores, she said.
(Additional reporting by Arpita Mukherjee in Bangalore; Editing by Carol Bishopric, Leslie Gevirtz and Edwina Gibbs)
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/barnes-noble-ceo-resigns-nook-sales-slump-001401567.html
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Am?rica M?vil (NYSE: AMX) has acquired a 10.8% stake in Shazam, a media company known for its song-identification app for mobile devices, for US$40mn, according...
This news article is one of hundreds published daily by Business News Americas about the commodities, markets, movements, companies, projects, economics and politics integral to the development of Latin America. Including news and insight from South America, Central America and the Caribbean, BNamericas includes Telecommunications insight and forecasts for business opportunities in Mexico. The business development service focuses on major projects, active companies, such as America Movil M?xico; and business and sales contacts, providing networking opportunities with leading executives throughout Latin America.
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Today, 12:06 AM
Registered User
?Join Date: Jul 2013
Posts: 1
Lets play 20 questions and then some?.
I've been randomly researching stuff and have never been in a relationship, so leaves me wondering and asking questions and i would love to get some decent answers please
1)what do men really think of women in their presence (do they find them obnoxious, overbearing, sweet, funny etc.)
2)do most men actually know when women are doing the most, and do they find them annoying when they do?
3)how do men feel about the average women now and days
4) what are some of men?s general opinion of most women period
5) how do men truly feel about their relationships (use it for sex, don't like their significant other, cheats on them, feel like they settled
6) how do you know they girl you have is the right one, do you regret losing some one..not having the courage to step up
7) are some men angry at some women and their choices in men (are women more superficial then men?)
8)have you ever met the perfect girl (not physically) or describe your perfect girl (non physical)
9) Do most men find women more annoying now that there is facebook, twitter, and texting or is it easier to be in a relationship. How does social media annoy men, do you feel women uses this as a venting exercise unhealthily, what are some secrets spilled? Profile pics, updates, tweets?
10) do men think women make themselves to available and too accessible for sex making them value them less?
11) do some men find that picking up women is almost too easy?, do men think sometimes their relationship is too convenient and their girlfriend let them get away with too much bull**** and is up their asses about too many superficial things? Example: don?t feel like putting the effort in your relationship anymore, but still use her for sex and even more put off that she doesn?t notice it or just coping and in denial, but complain when you don?t buy her nice things or impress her friends more often. Replacing conversation with material items
12) Have you ever lost respect from having sex with a woman who has not had multiple partners, but didn?t think she would give it up so easily.
13) Think women are too clingy and divulge too much of their lives in you, but want you to do all the heavy lifting also. in other words too much pressure from women to ?be a man? pay all the bills, work all the time, spend all your time with her also.
14) do men sometimes consider sex pointless and empty, want more from wife?s or girlfriends but they don?t understand it themselves
15) Why do men feel relationship are too complicated?
16) do women over complicate relationships?
17) would you go celibate for the loved one you have now? Or are you out soon as the sex is
18) are men looking for women that will make them a better man?
19) do men believe in true love?
20) does being cheated on change your view of women as a whole?
I know this is long and pointless but PLEASE vent your frustrations and your true feelings I am so very interested, and I?m not judging just never get to ask these types of questions usually
?
Source: http://talkaboutmarriage.com/general-relationship-discussion/96290-mens-view-women.html
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At least two people have been wounded after multiple low-intensity blasts hit a Buddhist temple complex in the eastern state of Bihar, police say.
Police said that eight blasts took place early on Sunday on the campus of the Mahabodhi Temple in Bodhgaya. Three other explosions were reported at the nearby Karma temple and a shrine with a 55m-high Buddhist tower.
The site attracts thousands of pilgrims every year, the centre of attraction being a huge tree under which Buddha was supposed to have sat and gained enlightenment.
"The holy bodhi tree is safe and there is no damage to it," Bihar police?chief Abhayanand told the AFP news agency while confirming the blasts and injuries.
Senior police officer S K Bhardwaj told the AP news agency a gate at one of the shrines was?badly damaged.
No other damage was reported to the Buddhist?centres.
One Tibetan and one pilgrim from Myanmar received minor injuries and were?taken to a hospital, Bhardwaj said.
Another explosion damaged an empty tourist bus parked near the Mahabodhi?Temple, he said.?
"A terror attack"
Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has condemned the blasts at the complex?saying "such attacks on religious places will never be tolerated."
Indian home secretary Anil Goswami called the blasts "a terror attack" but?no one has so far claimed responsibility, according to the Press Trust of India.
The national government has sent two teams of investigators to probe the blasts, said Goswami, the top interior ministry official.
District police official N H Khan told AFP that "additional security?forces were deployed" while the NDTV channel reported that another unexploded device had been discovered.
The Bodhgaya complex, 110km south of the state capital?Patna, was named a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2002.
The temple complex houses the holy bodhi tree as well as the giant Mahabodhi statue of Buddha, and multiple shrines.
After his meditations beneath the tree, Buddha is said to have devoted the rest of his life to teaching and he founded an order of monks before dying aged 80.
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Source: http://www.aljazeera.com/news/asia/2013/07/20137741716538320.html
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NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam has struggled almost from the start of his administration to fulfill a campaign pledge to avoid handling matters relating to Pilot Flying J, the family-owned truck stop chain run by his brother, Cleveland Browns owner Jimmy Haslam.
Now, an FBI investigation of alleged fraud by the sales staff at the nation's largest diesel retailer has brought increased scrutiny of the company and raised more questions about links between the governor and Pilot. They include:
_ A top political adviser to the governor who also is orchestrating Pilot's public response to the Justice Department investigation.
_ A current board member and part-owner of Pilot being appointed by the governor as the interim president of University of Memphis.
_ Another board member running the parent company of a mining firm that wants to extract coal from public land in Tennessee.
Haslam's connections to Pilot were a central theme in the 2010 Republican primary and general election. Opponents attacked Haslam for refusing to disclose his personal ownership stake in the company, hammered the company for price gouging settlements after gas shortages caused by a hurricane, and derided the candidate as a billionaire oil man who would do the bidding of his father, Pilot founder Jim Haslam, and brother, Jimmy, the company's CEO, if elected.
The Haslam campaign rebutted those attacks largely by citing Pilot's "history of operating with integrity" and by criticizing "smears about a home-grown successful company." Those blanket dismissals will be harder to make in the future as the company grapples with fallout from the raid by federal agents and subsequent guilty pleas of five Pilot employees.
Haslam's chief campaign strategist was Tom Ingram, who has remained a paid adviser since the election while orchestrating Pilot's public response to the FBI raid.
Ingram, who also lobbies state government on behalf of other private clients such as the mining company seeking to extract coal from public lands, has said he doesn't lobby the governor directly. He shrugged off a reporter's question about whether he will stop his outside activities on behalf of Pilot once he's brought on to Haslam's re-election campaign payroll this summer.
"Of course not," he said. "Why would I?"
The governor also declared himself unconcerned about Ingram's other roles, including his position with Pilot.
"That's just how life works a lot of time," Haslam said recently. "Look, there's a whole lot of lobbyists who represent a whole lot of different people."
Dick Williams, who chairs Common Cause Tennessee, said the governor's deep connections to the business world ? and his refusal to make full disclosures ? raise questions about his impartiality.
"He just has so many relationships, business agreements and investments that it causes a serious potential for a conflict of interest," Williams said. "It's just hard to untangle that."
As he persevered in a tough GOP primary and trounced his Democratic opponent in the 2010 general election, Haslam promised that he wouldn't participate directly in government matters relating to Pilot. That pledge faced an early test in the governor's first year in office over a decision to request a federal waiver on gasoline standards after explosion at the Valero refinery in Memphis, which was Pilot's largest fuel supplier in the area.
Haslam acknowledged that he had spoken to his brother about earlier problems at the refinery but said he had delegated that decision to his deputy, Claude Ramsey.
"Obviously as governor I can't just totally abdicate my responsibilities," he said at the time. "But because I knew that somebody like you someday would ask a question, I said find out the right answer, talk to the local folks as well as our (Department of Environment and Conservation) people and come up with the right answer."
The state ultimately requested and was later granted permission by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to relax fuel standards.
A month later, Haslam endorsed his brother's right to speak out in a letter to the governor and other state officials against privatizing state-run rest stops along interstate highways.
"He's the CEO of a major Tennessee business that has their interests to defend," Haslam said. "And that's nothing new: Pilot's been talking about that, as has everybody else that has an interstate business ? from McDonald's to everybody ? else for years."
Jimmy Haslam has been doing furious damage control since the April 15 raid on company headquarters and the subsequent release of an FBI affidavit with transcripts of secretly recorded conversations among the sales staff. Federal agents say the conversations outline a scheme to defraud trucking companies of fuel rebates. Five members of the sales staff have pleaded guilty to mail fraud and are cooperating with prosecutors, as are two further current and former Pilot staffers.
The governor has maintained that he has had no active role in Pilot since leaving the company to run for Knoxville mayor in 2003. But his family continues to own a majority share in the privately-held company with annual revenues of $31 billion, and Haslam has kept his personal share outside of a blind trust established for his other investments.
Haslam earlier this year named businessman Brad Martin ? who once hired him as an executive at Saks Inc. in New York ? as interim president of the University of Memphis. While Pilot has refused to publicly disclose the makeup of its board, it identified Martin as a director when it announced he would supervise the internal investigation into the FBI allegations. Incorporation papers field in Kentucky also indicate that Martin is a co-owner in the company.
The Kentucky filings also show that Mike Loya, president and CEO of the Vitol Group's North and South American operations, is another board member. Vitol owns the company seeking coal mining permits in the Catoosa Wildlife Management Area near Crossville. Haslam adviser Ingram is also a lobbyist for the coal company.
Haslam has said he doesn't know Loya personally, and that he has had no part in the negotiations.
State Democratic Party spokesman Brandon Puttbrese said the multiple Pilot connections should cause Haslam to reconsider his refusal to disclose his income.
"The governor should quit hiding his income and come clean with taxpayers about how much money he's personally making from his endless inside dealing and show how much money he's been paid by his company Pilot Oil, which padded its corporate profits by stealing from small business owners," he said.
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WASHINGTON (AP) ? Clad in an authentic Hungarian blue vest, Suto Levente Lehel, a 14th-generation family furniture-maker and wood artisan from Transylvania, shows off his carefully carved cabinets and furnishings to passers-by on the National Mall.
"I take this chisel and carve and then use paint to bring the piece to life," Lehel explains to visitors.
Lehel is among a team of carpenters who came to Washington from Hungary to build a traditional Hungarian village on the National Mall as part of the 47th Smithsonian Folklife Festival. Bringing traditional craftsmen from their native countries to build structures for the annual festival has been done before, but never to build complete traditional buildings as they have for this year's "Hungarian Roots to Revival" program.
"This is not standard procedure," said Jozsef Siklosi, the architect who designed the buildings, which blend features from traditional Hungarian styles and more modern American structures. "We tried to have an architectural component that far exceeds regular installations."
The carpenters spent about a month in Hungary working on intricate wood carvings that adorn many of the buildings, and then traveled to the United States a month prior to the festival to construct the buildings.
"It's a part of the identity, and the buildings give you the feeling of what it is like in Hungary," Lehel said. "It's important to show others our tradition and pass on our culture to the younger generations."
The Dance Barn is inspired by the traditional Hungarian dry mill, but its wooden columns are more contemporary to fit the barn's function as a performance venue and a dance studio for lessons during the festival. The 23-foot Peacock Tower is a fusion between the traditional Hungarian peacock facade and the Chrysler building in New York, a city that is home to tens of thousands of Hungarian immigrants.
The designs and construction were completed in close collaboration with curators from the Smithsonian Institution who specialize in Hungarian history and culture. Because construction methods were largely traditional, carpenters who were trained in the Hungarian tradition were needed, Siklosi said.
"In order to stay with the tradition of the Hungarian culture, we went right to the source. We wanted to bring the experts here," said Jim Deutsch, co-curator of the Hungarian program.
After the festival, the buildings will go to various Hungarian American community organizations, where they will function as communal spaces, Siklosi said. The Peacock Tower, he said, will be donated to a summer camp in Fillmore, N.Y.
Other themes presented this year include exploring endangered languages and a look into African-American diversity, style and identity. Festival coordinators expect more than 1 million people will attend the free event, which runs through Sunday.
___
Follow Valerie Bonk on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/valeriebonk
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/carpenters-build-hungarian-village-dc-mall-082842476.html
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Support for gay marriage by companies as varied as Goldman Sachs Group Inc., Microsoft Corp. and Starbucks Corp. is gathering steam to change policies in states that bar same-sex couples from tying the knot.
Two U.S. Supreme Court decisions on June 26 heartened supporters of the cause while showing an increased willingness of business to back the effort. In one case, more than 200 companies signed a brief against a federal law that denied benefits to same-sex couples. Five years ago, only a handful had lobbied against California?s Proposition 8 ban on same-sex marriages, the target of the high court?s other decision.
State legislators stand to feel the heat as more businesses speak out against laws in states including Texas, Florida and Michigan that recognize only heterosexual marriage. While fewer than half the companies in the Standard & Poor?s 500 are based in states that allow gays to wed, most already have policies that ban discrimination based on sexual orientation.
?Companies do have the choice where they locate, where they set up shop,? said Kellie McElhaney, founding faculty director of the Center for Responsible Business at the University of California Berkeley. Local policies on sexual orientation ?will eventually become part of the choice process.?
Goldman Sachs and Expedia Inc. are among businesses gearing up to support a federal bill to prevent workforce discrimination based on sexual orientation. Of Fortune 500 companies, 88 percent include orientation in their nondiscrimination policies and more than 60 percent offer domestic partner health benefits, according to the Human Rights Campaign.
?
?We thrive as an organization because we embrace that diversity -- diversity of opinion, of orientation, of race,? said Dara Khosrowshahi, Expedia?s chief executive officer, in an e-mail response to questions. The online travel-booking service is based in Bellevue, Washington.
Companies moved ahead on providing health benefits for same-sex couples and adopting nondiscrimination rules since the 1990s just as Congress went in the opposite direction to approve the federal government?s rejection of gay marriage in the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act. Now, corporate America is pushing for uniform laws that protect against workplace discrimination, said Edith Hunt, Goldman Sachs?s chief diversity officer.
?Now you can be fired in some places just for being gay or lesbian, and that seems totally unacceptable to us,? Hunt said in a Bloomberg Television interview last week. ?The firm has long embraced a wide array of diversity activities and issues. There?s really a very strong business case around it.?
Austin Example
Kevin Johns, who heads the economic development office for the city of Austin, Texas, can attest to how a more liberal stance on social issues can help lure companies. Johns makes trips to California, New York and Chicago to tout Austin?s support of domestic-partner benefits and tolerant attitude toward sexual orientation, even though it?s the capital city of a state whose governor, Rick Perry, is an outspoken conservative. Austin has reeled in investment from Apple Inc., EBay Inc. and International Business Machines Corp.
?We?re trying to attract the most creative, smartest people regardless of their orientation, color, sex or anything,? Johns said. ?It?s been very successful here.?
States that have authorized same-sex marriage have jumped to 13 from none at the beginning of 2004, and others, such as New Jersey, are debating legislation for approval. Of the states that bar gay unions, 29 have the prohibition written in their constitutions, including Texas and Michigan.
?
The federal law made it difficult to treat all employees equally, interfered with diversity efforts and caused ?significant? costs and administrative burdens, said Brad Smith, Microsoft?s general counsel and executive vice president for legal and corporate affairs, in a statement.
Starbucks, which has offered domestic partner benefits for more than two decades, is pleased with the court?s decision, said Zack Hutson, a spokesman, in an interview.
?Equality and inclusion are core values of our company,? Hutson said.
The corporate support for same-sex couples, combined with the high acceptance among young people, could make it costly for states to buck the trend, said Richard Florida, author of the best-selling book ?The Rise of the Creative Class.? Higher- paying jobs that require more education and creativity will gravitate toward those regions of the country that are more open and tolerant, he said.
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?I see this as a pretty fractious divide in our economy between the kind of places that get it and the places that don?t,? he said. ?Pressure will mount in those communities, but people will also dig in their heels.?
The movement has picked up speed because people look back on those who opposed civil rights for blacks during the 1960s and now want to be on the right side of history on this issue, Florida said.
?I?ve always looked at this as the current-day equivalent to the civil-rights movement,? he said. ?The gay and lesbian community is kind of the last frontier.?
Companies had a more practical motive for wanting to strike down the Defense of Marriage Act, known as DOMA, said Paul Fronstin, a director at the Employee Benefit Research Institute. The ruling lowers the tax bill on federal benefits for married couples for both employees and the company, and will streamline some accounting rules.
?Employers are getting a tax break that they weren?t getting before,? he said. ?Companies like simplicity.?
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The decision has created confusion, he said. Companies aren?t clear how to treat a same-sex couple that?s legally married in one state and lives in another that doesn?t recognize the union. Many are looking to the Internal Revenue Service to provide guidance, Fronstin said.
Time Warner Cable Inc. has had trouble answering employees? questions on the decision?s impact, said Mark Imhoff, group vice president of human resources. Most types of benefits for workers won?t change because the company already offers dependent health coverage and life insurance for same-sex partners, he said.
?The frustrating part for us is that there?s still a lot of questions out there -- probably more questions than answers at this point,? Imhoff said.
It?s also unclear how DOMA?s demise may affect companies such as Exxon Mobil Corp., which doesn?t extend benefits to same-sex unions based on how federal law defined marriage. ?In the United States, we have adopted the definition of spouse used in federal law, which has the effect of limiting coverage to heterosexual couples only,? Exxon Mobil said in a May filing. Alan Jeffers, a company spokesman, declined to comment.
?
On the heels of the Supreme Court?s decision, Deena Fidas, deputy director of the workplace project at the Human Rights Campaign, is focused on lobbying for the Employment Non- Discrimination Act, a bill to protect gay and transgender workers that was introduced in the Senate in April. Her group is about to celebrate the 100th company announcing support of the bill, she said.
?The remarkable fact that in 2013 you can still be fired for being gay in 29 states is so stunning and so unpalatable to most businesses that you will continue to see many more lend their name in support of legislation to fix those issues,? Fidas said.
? Copyright 2013 Bloomberg News. All rights reserved.
Source: http://www.newsmax.com/US/goldman-microsoft-gays-states/2013/07/07/id/513676
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Source: http://in-the-news.net/llamas-as-pets-llama-lovers-start-new-exotic-pet-trend/
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Each week, our friends at gdgt go through the latest gadgets and score them to help you decide which ones to buy. Here are some of their most recent picks. Want more? Visit gdgt anytime to catch up on the latest, and subscribe to gdgt's newsletter to get a weekly roundup in your inbox.
Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/b0EbeXuwqbk/
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It's a beat!
195K new private sector jobs was well ahead of the 165K new jobs that was expected.
Yet the unemployment rate stayed at 7.6% vs. expectations that it would fall to 7.5%.
Private payrolls added 202K new jobs.
Last month saw a big upward revisions, to 207K jobs, from 178K.
Meanwhile stocks are up (Dow up 188), the dollar is up, and gold is getting crushed.
The full report can be downloaded here.
Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/june-non-farm-payrolls-report-2013-7
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Source: http://www.consilium.europa.eu/uedocs/cms_data/docs/pressdata/en/ec/137767.pdf
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Bay Area Rapid Transit trains are shown sitting on the platform at the station in Millbrae, Calif., Monday, July 1, 2013. Early Monday, two of San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit's largest unions went on strike after weekend talks with management failed to produce a new contract. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)
Bay Area Rapid Transit trains are shown sitting on the platform at the station in Millbrae, Calif., Monday, July 1, 2013. Early Monday, two of San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit's largest unions went on strike after weekend talks with management failed to produce a new contract. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)
OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) ? Commuter rail service will resume Friday in the San Francisco Bay area after unions called off a strike, agreeing with the transit agency to extend a labor contract for a month while they continue bargaining.
Though trains were not yet running Friday morning, commuters appeared relieved and happy to get a reprieve from crowded buses and clogged roadways because of the July 4 holiday. Traffic at the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge toll plaza moved smoothly and free charter buses at selected Bay Area Rapid Transit stations had ample room.
Commuter Caitlin McKenzie was stunned to hear the strike was over ? for now ? as she waited for a shuttle bus to go to her childcare job in San Francisco outside the West Oakland BART station Friday morning.
"It's over? Really? Thank God!" said McKenzie, 26, of Oakland. "So, are you sure I can take the train home?"
BART, the nation's fifth-largest rail system, will begin operating trains by 3 p.m. PDT Friday, ending a four-day strike that crippled commutes across the Bay Area, California Labor Secretary Marty Morgenstern announced late Thursday.
The current contract between BART and the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), Local 1021 and the Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU), Local 1555, will be extended for 30 days after expiring earlier this week.
"The parties will continue to negotiate just as hard as they are now," Morgenstern said. "The battle's not over. The job's not done."
She said he and two top state mediators urged the bargaining parties to agree to an extension of the current labor deal as both groups said repeatedly they were far apart in terms of reaching a new deal.
BART General Manager Grace Crunican agreed there is still a wide gap. Key sticking points in the labor dispute include salaries, pensions, health care and safety.
"Unfortunately, the issues that brought us to this point remain unresolved," Crunican said.
Josie Mooney, a chief negotiator for SEIU, Local 1021, asked the public late Thursday to help keep the parties on task.
"We stand together tonight and we expect to be standing together with a new contract at the end of August 4 and we hope to goodness that you insist that all the parties do the right thing," Mooney said.
BART serves more than 400,000 commuters each weekday. It carries passengers from the farthest reaches of San Francisco's densely populated eastern suburbs to San Francisco International Airport across the bay.
The strike began early Monday after negotiations broke off. Talks resumed Tuesday amid mounting political and public pressure. Negotiations continued on Wednesday and again for nearly 12 hours on Thursday before the parties announced the strike was over.
The stoppage caused stress and frustration in the region. Commuters lined up early in the morning to either carpool, wait for BART's free charter buses or catch ferries heading to San Francisco while enduring heavy rush-hour traffic on the Bay Bridge, especially on Monday and Tuesday.
Commuter Star Salgado, 27, of Richmond, said Friday that while she hasn't given up on BART, she may continue carpooling.
"This week was such an inconvenience that I don't know if I can put up with BART right now," said Salgado, who opted to take the transit agency's free shuttle into San Francisco on Friday. "I just want to get through today."
Prior to this week's four-day work stoppage, BART's last strike lasted for six days in 1997.
BART said workers from the two unions average about $71,000 in base salary and $11,000 in overtime annually. The workers also pay a flat $92 monthly fee for health insurance.
The unions ? which represent nearly 2,400 train operators, station agents, mechanics, maintenance workers and professional staff ? want a 5 percent raise each year over the next three years.
BART said it is offering an 8 percent salary increase over the next four years as well as reducing the amount of employee contributions it originally requested for pension and medical benefits.
___
Follow Terry Collins at https://twitter.com/APtcollins .
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Popular Chinese-made mobile browser?UCWeb?has beefed up its offerings for developers, launching an open platform which is now publicly available after having been in a testing stage for almost two months.
Developers have already been building for the UC WebApp Center, which has been available since September 2011. However, its UC+ Open Platform?packages various elements together: it is made up of three separate parts focusing on HTML5 Web apps, plugins and application bookmarks.
The open platform supports plugin development by enabling bi-directional communication between UC Browser and Android?s system services, which allows the browser and add-on to share data. Users can then?browse for plugins available on UC Browser?s plugin panel and add them to get a more personalized Internet browsing experience.
UCWeb says it had invited software developer QVOD to create a player plugin, which was introduced on UC Browser v9.1 as a pilot, and saw 300,000 downloads within a month of the launch.
The company says that the first browser loaded with plugins developed under its latest open platform framework will be publicly available ?in days?, when the Chinese version of UC Browser for Android V9.2 is released, while the English version is expected to come ?in weeks?.
The open platform also supports a feature called UC Application Bookmark, which allows partner websites to put up a QR code on UC Browser for users?to scan the code and add the website to its bookmarks.
UCWeb notes that UC WebApp Center currently has 47 million monthly active users, more than 1,500 apps in 20 categories available, with total downloads exceeding 180 million ? which would likely appeal to developers seeking a wide reach.?Buoyed by strong adoption in India, UCWeb?passed a new milestone of?400 million?global users late last year.
Headline image via Thinkstock
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheNextWeb/~3/N38hsS-d6_Y/
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While we're waiting (and rather impatiently, we might add) for Motorola to officially take the wraps off the Droid Ultra and Moto X, a pair of mystery devices from the company have popped up at the FCC. We can't say for sure what the Motorola XT1030 and XT1080 are, but we can tell you these unannounced devices are likely headed for Verizon here in the US. Inside both handsets you'll find support for LTE bands 4 and 13, along with EVDO Rev. A and WCDMA on 850/900/1900/2100. There's even room for NFC, Bluetooth 4.0 and 802.11ac radios as well.
The combination of practically every available wireless technology in a single handset has us pretty excited, but we're also pretty confident that inside beats a beefy Qualcomm heart. The filings reveal little else, besides the fact that the XT1080 appears to be quite a bit larger than the XT1030. Is the 1030 the briefly leaked Droid Ultra? Could the XT1080 be Big Red's variant of the Moto X? Who knows? Heck, the RAZR family is just about due for an update too. You know the drill: hit up the source if you like highly technical filings, or just sit and play the waiting game.
Filed under: Cellphones, Google
Source: Motorola XT1080, Motorola XT1030
Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/94Jjeffk1cM/
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Grilling and patriotic holidays go together like stars and stripes, so New Jersey-based designer Jacob Riley-Wasserman's Star Spangled Spatula is a perfect fit for your July 4 barbecue.
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Facebook brought stickers to its Android and iOS apps this spring, and they're reaching the web right as summer hits full stride. As in the mobile space, desktop users can now use critters, giant smileys and other over-the-top graphics in their private messages. A store is on hand for those who want to venture beyond Facebook's free catalog. Web stickers are available today -- if :) just won't cut it for your conversations, you'll now have a more expressive set of emoticons wherever you go.
Filed under: Internet, Facebook
Source: Facebook
Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/3fuOlCgjQkA/
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The Fujifilm X100S ($1,299.95 list) is the follow-up to Fuji's groundbreaking X100 digital camera. Like its predecessor it features a retro design that makes it look more like a 1960s-era Leica than a modern digital camera, a hybrid viewfinder system that can toggle between a big, bright optical view and an EVF, and a fast f/2 lens with a 35mm (full-frame equivalent) field of view. The sensor has been upgraded to a 16-megapixel X-Trans CMOS design that is capable of producing some incredible results at extremely high ISO settings, and a notoriously sluggish autofocus system is now a reasonably quick one.
The X100S's field of view is a little narrower than?our current Editors' Choice prime-lens compact camera, the 28mm-equivalent Ricoh GR. The Ricoh has some things working in its favor that the X100S can't match?it's small enough to slide into the pocket of your jeans, and its asking price is $500 less. The X100S is a low-light king, and even though its lens isn't as sharp edge-to-edge as the Ricoh's, you'll be anything but disappointed with the images that it captures. It too deserves to be called Editors' Choice.
Design and Features
Olympus was the first company to wow us with a chic retro design camera with its original digital PEN Micro Four Thirds body. But Fujifilm took the torch and ran with it when it announced the X100 in 2010. From a distance it looks a bit like a chrome Leica M camera, albeit with a few extra dials and a smaller footprint. A silver finish adorns the top plate, bottom plate, and lens, and black leatherette surrounds the body of the camera. It measures just 2.9 by 5 by 2.1 inches (HWD) and weighs just a smidge under a pound. That's a bit heavy for its size, but there's no skimping on the build quality?the X100S feels like a solidly built product. The Leica X2 is almost the same size (2.7 by 4.9 by 2 inches), but a bit lighter at 11.2 ounces. That camera features a 35mm f/2.8 equivalent lens and an image sensor of equal size, but doesn't include any sort of built-in viewfinder.
The lens is a 23mm f/2 design, which delivers the field of view of a 35mm lens in terms of full-frame photography. It's a classic prime design that delivers a moderately wide-angle field of view. There are a few other premium compacts that match that perspective, including the full-frame Sony Cyber-shot DSC-RX1. There is a wide-angle adapter available ($349) that broadens the perspective of the X100S to match the 28mm field of view delivered by the Ricoh GR, but it adds a good amount of size and cost to the camera.
Rather than using a mode dial, the X100S takes a more classic approach to setting a shooting mode. The lens has a physical aperture ring with 1-stop clicks from f/2 through f/16, as well as an A setting. The shutter speed dial, located on the top plate, allows you to set the shutter in one-stop increments from 1/4-second to 1/4,000-second, and also has an A setting. Setting the shutter to A and controlling the aperture ring manually puts you in aperture priority mode; setting the aperture to A and adjusting the shutter speed is the equivalent of shutter priority mode. And if you leave both settings to A, you'll experience the equivalent of program shooting. Full manual shooting is also available?just set your ISO, shutter speed, and aperture and go to town. There's an EV indicator bar on the left of the rear LCD and visible in the optical finder as well; it lets you know if you are under or overexposed at current settings. A half-press of the shutter will also show you what the scene will look like when captured, assuming you are using the EVF or rear LCD at that time.
Any shift in exposure can be dialed in using the top-mounted exposure compensation dial. It ranges from -2 to +2 EV in 1/3-stop increments. There's also a programmable Fn button on the top plate, to the right of the shutter release; by default it adjusts the current ISO setting. It can be set manually, or to auto; it's also from here that you'll be able to set the desired minimum shutter speed for auto ISO shooting. The default is 1/60, but you can set it to values ranging from 1/4 to 1/125-second.
There's one way to take control of your shooting, which is essentially an ISO priority mode. If you set the camera to auto ISO but manually select the shutter speed and aperture, the camera will do its best to capture the correct exposure. It's still possible to select a combination that will result in an over or underexposed image. The camera will tell you that you've done this in a couple ways: The shutter speed will turn to red on the information display, and the EV bar will let you know how far over or underexposed that the shot will be. Pentax SLRs have had this feature for years, and it carried on to the Ricoh GR as TAv mode. Recent Nikon SLRs, including the D800 and D7100 have it as well.
There are some additional controls on the rear of the camera. There's a jog switch at the top?pressing it left or right will shift the aperture or shutter speed when shooting in program mode, but only if the ISO is set to a specific value. Pressing it in magnifies the live view frame, helpful for confirming focus. There's also an AEL/AFL button, a button to select the active autofocus point, one to enable macro shooting, another to control the flash output, and a button for white balance control. These last four are at each point of a four-way controller/control wheel that is used to navigate through menus and to move the active autofocus point.
To the left of the LCD you'll find controls to enter playback mode, change the metering pattern, select from continuous drive shooting options, and change between the rear LCD, eye-level finder, or activate an eye-sensor to make that changeover automatic; there's also a control button to the right of the rear LCD that changes how much information is overlaid over the optical finder and live view frame. Finally there's the Q button, in the rear right corner. It brings up a menu that allows you to change most of the settings that we've just listed off, as well as some that relate to the JPG output. These include the color balance (there are some film emulation modes that emulate classic Fuji emulsions like Velvia and Provia) as well as image sharpening and noise reduction, and the LCD brightness. This is also the quickest way to enable or disable the self-timer?you'll have to dive into the camera's main menu to do so if you don't utilize the Q function.
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ziffdavis/pcmag/~3/rrPmI3O5ips/0,2817,2421099,00.asp
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