ADB president nominated to head Japan central bank

Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, center, acknowledges foreign delegations who are attending a plenary session at the lower house of parliament in Tokyo, Thursday, Feb. 28, 2013. Abe vowed to push ahead with more aggressive monetary easing with the nomination Thursday of Asian Development Bank President Haruhiko Kuroda to head Japan?s central bank. (AP Photo/Junji Kurokawa)

Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, center, acknowledges foreign delegations who are attending a plenary session at the lower house of parliament in Tokyo, Thursday, Feb. 28, 2013. Abe vowed to push ahead with more aggressive monetary easing with the nomination Thursday of Asian Development Bank President Haruhiko Kuroda to head Japan?s central bank. (AP Photo/Junji Kurokawa)

Japan's Finance Minister Taro Aso, left, has a light moment with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe during a plenary session at the lower house of parliament in Tokyo, Thursday, Feb. 28, 2013. Abe vowed to push ahead with more aggressive monetary easing with the nomination Thursday of Asian Development Bank President Haruhiko Kuroda to head Japan?s central bank. (AP Photo/Junji Kurokawa)

Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe delivers his policy speech during a plenary session at the lower house of parliament in Tokyo, Thursday, Feb. 28, 2013. Abe vowed to push ahead with more aggressive monetary easing with the nomination Thursday of Asian Development Bank President Haruhiko Kuroda to head Japan?s central bank.(AP Photo/Junji Kurokawa)

FILE - In this Feb. 8, 2013 file photo, Haruhiko Kuroda, president of Asia Development Bank (ADB), talks to journalists during a press conference in Yangon. The government has nominated Asian Development Bank President Kuroda to head Japan's central bank, counting on his support for more aggressive monetary policy to help the world's third-biggest economy escape recession and deflation. (AP Photo/File)

TOKYO (AP) ? Japan's prime minister Shinzo Abe vowed to push ahead with more aggressive monetary easing as he Thursday nominated Haruhiko Kuroda to head the country's central bank.

The current Bank of Japan governor, Masaaki Shirakawa, will step down on March 19, three weeks before his term is due to end. The nomination of 68-year-old Kuroda, an Oxford-educated former vice minister of finance, was widely expected. He is currently president of the Asian Development Bank. A parliamentary vote on Kuroda's appointment is due next month.

Abe is counting on Kuroda's support to help Japan escape from a long, debilitating bout of deflation that he says is hindering consumer spending and corporate investment.

Bolder monetary easing is one of Abe's "three arrows" or main strategies, for helping salvage the ailing economy. The central bank under Shirakawa was reluctant to embrace Abe's monetary push and it emphasized that Japan's economy has deep seated problems that the central bank alone can't solve.

After months of lobbying by Abe that started even before his Liberal Democrat party took power following a landslide win in a Dec. 16 election, the Bank of Japan joined with the government in setting a 2 percent inflation target. So far, massive asset purchases by the central bank and years of near-zero interest rates have done little to boost investment or hiring by corporations put off by slack domestic demand.

In a speech to the parliament Thursday, Finance Minister Taro Aso pledged more drastic measures to help revive growth.

"Deflation is a deep-rooted problem that has undermined the Japanese economy" as it has "hampered investment toward the future," said Aso, noting that Japan is not the only country grappling with weak demand and an aging population.

"As a pioneer, Japan should achieve the end of deflationary recession and present a solution to the world," Aso said.

Kuroda has criticized central bank policies in the past. His perceived alignment with Abe's views on the economy has added to worries that the Bank of Japan's independence could be undermined. Central bank autonomy, which aims to ensure monetary policy decisions aren't captive to the short-term considerations of political leaders, is enshrined in law in many countries. However, the deep economic malaise that followed the 2008 financial crisis has resulted in many central banks, the U.S. Federal Reserve in particular, accommodating calls for unprecedented monetary easing.

Along with Kuroda, the government proposed that Kikuo Iwata, a professor at Tokyo's Gakushuin University, and Hiroshi Nakaso, an executive director at the BOJ, become the bank's top two deputy governors. The ADB said Kuroda had resigned effective March 18.

Kuroda is viewed as part of the global "currency mafia" in Japan. With his long experience and fluent English, he is accustomed to dealing with the world's major central banks and other financial leaders. During his years as Japan's top financial diplomat, he often decried the Japanese yen's rise against the U.S. dollar, saying it did not reflect the fundamentals of the economy.

Despite frequent central bank interventions in the currency markets, the yen has strengthened significantly over the past decade thanks to its status as a safe-haven, and low interest rates that encouraged an international "carry trade" of borrowing in yen and using the money to invest in the bonds of countries with higher interest rates. In 2002, a dollar bought 130 yen compared with 80 yen in November last year before Abe's election.

The prime minister's advocacy of a weaker yen to help support Japanese export manufacturers has lifted share prices and spurred a decline in the value of the Japanese currency, which has weakened by about 20 percent against the U.S. dollar since last fall.

The Nikkei 225 stock index Thursday jumped 2.7 percent to 11,559.36. The dollar was slightly higher at 92.37 yen.

Though Kuroda is seen as more likely to ease monetary policy more aggressively, his leeway to take bolder action on the monetary front is limited, said Julian Jessop, an economist with Capital Economics in London.

The most likely options of increasing government bond purchases, and giving them a longer maturity, would fall short of what the U.S. is doing, while more drastic moves, such as buying foreign bonds or setting a timetable for meeting the 2 percent inflation target, would be unlikely to win support, he said.

This is "setting up the markets for some major disappointment," Jessop said in a commentary.

Once it became clear that the government intended to move ahead with its plan to nominate Kuroda, attention in Japan turned to who will replace him as head of the Manila, Philippines-based ADB, which is a regional development lender. Local reports suggested that the current vice finance minister in charge of international affairs, Takehiko Nakao, be named to take his place. However Japan would need to win support from other ADB member countries for that choice.

Japan's economy is struggling with the aftermath of the 2011 natural and nuclear disasters, rapid aging of its population and the biggest public debt burden among leading industrial economies.

Data from the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry released Thursday showed a glimmer of progress, with industrial production up 1 percent in January from the month before. But that was down 5.1 percent from a year earlier and below economists' forecasts for a 1.5 percent month-on-month increase. Retail spending dropped 1.1 percent in January from a year earlier, despite higher spending on food and beverages, the ministry reported earlier.

The ministry cited rising shipments of vehicles, iron and steel and electronics equipment, and of semiconductors and auto parts as the main factors behind the increase from the previous month.

So far, the economy has shown only scant signs of recovery, and that thanks largely to stronger demand overseas as the global economy has gradually improved and the Japanese yen has weakened, helping make exports from Japan more price competitive in overseas markets.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/f70471f764144b2fab526d39972d37b3/Article_2013-02-28-Japan-Central%20Bank/id-e1d88cb9d46e4588b2c21ef3d3a338b8

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Fun.'s 'Why Am I The One' Video: Lost Luggage And Laments

In their brand-new video, Fun. lose their luggage ... something they've done more than a few times in real life.
By James Montgomery

Fun. in their video for "Why Am I the One"
Photo: MTV News

Source: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1702723/fun-why-am-i-the-one-video.jhtml

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JPMorgan to cut up to 17,000 jobs by end of 2014

NEW YORK (Reuters) - JPMorgan Chase & Co said on Tuesday that it plans to cut 17,000 jobs by the end of 2014, representing about 6.6 percent of the company's overall workforce, as the bank sheds staff that helped it deal with bad home loans.

The bank is optimistic that it can generate record income this year and is planning to add 4,000 employees in commercial and investment banking and credit cards to help it win business, bank executives said at an investor conference.

That hiring will be more than offset by job cuts in areas like mortgage servicing and retail banking, where the bank is positioning for a recovering housing market and new forms of branch banking. The net impact of the additions and cuts will be 17,000 fewer employees on the bank's payrolls.

The job cuts reflect the pressure that banks are under, even as the U.S. housing market and overall economy show signs of recovery. Many banks are looking to automate more of their businesses to make their staff more productive and improve profits.

For example, at JPMorgan's branches, where it plans to cut about 6,000 tellers and other employees, the bank hopes customers will use automated teller machines for every day transactions and that remaining staff can focus on higher-margin activities like selling wealth management services.

JPMorgan is one of the few big U.S. banks that is still adding branches to its network, but it is hoping to staff the branches with fewer workers. The bank's 5,614 branches have 63,500 employees, representing about a quarter of JPMorgan Chase's total. Chase's branch network is second to Wells Fargo & Co's in size.

For overall staffing levels, JPMorgan Chase had 258,965 employees globally at the end of 2012. Its headcount rose following the financial crisis to 262,882 in the second quarter of 2012 from 219,569 in the first quarter of 2009. Since last year's second quarter, staffing levels have drifted lower.

JPMorgan Chase overall earned $21.9 billion last year, excluding accounting charges linked to changes in the value of its debt. The bank said it has the potential to earn about $27.5 billion, thanks in part to efficiency gains. It aims to cut overall expenses by $1 billion in 2013.

To reach the $27.5 billion profit figure, the bank is also counting on costs for lawsuits to fall as disputes over bad mortgages are resolved, as well as seeing a one percentage point rise in interest rates, said Chief Financial Officer Marianne Lake.

The profit scenario also depends on the bank not being hit by another trading debacle like the $6.2 billion loss last year on derivatives trades placed by the London Whale, the nickname given a London-based JPMorgan trader for the size of the positions.

Chief Executive Jamie Dimon acknowledged that many of his top lieutenants who spoke to investors on Tuesday were in new jobs after changes he made last year in his management team and the bank's divisions.

"It is a little bit too much change in one year," Dimon said. "Some of it was the Whale. Some of it was the re-org" to better align product divisions with customer interests, he said.

All of the top executives, however, have been at the company several years and know its businesses, Dimon said.

JPMorgan Chase shares were down 0.2 percent at $47.60 at the close of trading on Tuesday on the New York Stock Exchange.

(Reporting By David Henry; Additional reporting by Rick Rothacker in Charlotte, North Carolina; Writing by Dan Wilchins; Editing by Gerald E. McCormick, John Wallace and Matthew Lewis)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/jpmorgan-chase-cut-4-000-jobs-2013-010505461--sector.html

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Whoa! Check Out Pink's Ripped Bikini Body

Pink flaunts her fit figure while playing on the beach! Plus, see more photos of celebs spending time with their loved ones!

Source: http://www.ivillage.com/star-snapshots-celebrity-kids-and-family-photos-2012/1-b-462723?dst=iv%3AiVillage%3Astar-snapshots-celebrity-kids-and-family-photos-2012-462723

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Wall Street gains on Bernanke comments, S&P above 1,500

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stocks rose on Wednesday, with major indexes posting their best daily gains since early January, as Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke remained steadfast in supporting the Fed's stimulus policy and data pointed to economic improvement.

In a second day before a congressional committee, Bernanke defended the Fed's buying of bonds to keep interest rates low to boost growth. The market's jump of more than 1 percent also came on better-than-expected data on business spending plans and the housing market.

Bernanke's remarks helped the market rebound from its worst decline since November and put the S&P 500 index back above 1,500, a closely watched level that has been technical support until recently. The Dow Jones industrial average <.dji> closed at a level not seen since 2007 as it again pulled within striking distance of an all-time high.

Speaking before the House Financial Services Committee, Bernanke downplayed signs of internal divisions at the Fed, saying the policy of quantitative easing, or QE, has the support of a "significant majority" of top central bank officials.

Bernanke removed a headwind from markets arising from concerns the Fed's quantitative easing might end earlier than anticipated. Doubts about the Fed's intentions had broken a seven-week streak of gains by stocks.

"The Fed continues to encourage risk-taking in markets, which is a powerful tool that makes the danger not being long stocks, not in being too long," said Tom Mangan, a money manager at James Investment Research Inc in Xenia, Ohio.

The Dow Jones industrial average <.dji> was up 176.32 points, or 1.27 percent, at 14,076.45. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index <.spx> was up 19.07 points, or 1.27 percent, at 1,516.01. The Nasdaq Composite Index <.ixic> was up 32.61 points, or 1.04 percent, at 3,162.26.

Pending home sales jumped 4.5 percent in January, three times the rate of growth that had been expected. While orders for durable goods fell more than expected in January, non-defense capital goods orders excluding aircraft - a closely watched proxy for business spending plans - showed the biggest gain since December 2011.

About 74 percent of stocks traded on the New York Stock Exchange closed higher while 64 percent of Nasdaq-listed shares closed up.

The S&P turned very slightly higher on the week, recovering from the index's biggest daily drop since November on Monday. That drop came on concerns over Italy's election, as well as over sequestration - U.S. government budget cuts that will take effect starting on Friday if lawmakers fail to reach an agreement on spending and taxes.

The index had climbed 6.3 percent for the year before pulling back on concerns about Fed policy and inconclusive elections in Italy, which rekindled fears of a new euro zone debt crisis.

"While the rally remains intact and there are reasons to be long-term bullish here, there are also reasons to not be surprised if we get a correction," said Mangan, who helps oversee $3.7 billion.

In earnings news, Priceline.com gained 2.6 percent to $695.91 after reporting adjusted earnings that beat expectations. TJX Cos Inc jumped 2.5 percent to $44.75 after the retail chain operator posted higher fourth-quarter results.

The S&P retail index <.spxrt> climbed 1.6 percent.

Target Corp offered a cautious outlook for consumer spending in 2013 following a weak holiday quarter. The stock dipped 1.1 percent to $63.32.

First Solar Inc plunged 14 percent to $27.04 after failing to give a full-year earnings and sales outlook, though it also swung to a quarterly profit.

Groupon Inc plunged 21 percent to $4.70 after the bell after reporting its fourth-quarter results.

With 93 percent of the S&P 500 companies having reported results so far, 69.5 percent beat profit expectations, compared with a 62 percent average since 1994 and 65 percent over the past four quarters, according to Thomson Reuters data.

Fourth-quarter earnings for S&P 500 companies are estimated to have risen 6.2 percent, according to the data, above a 1.9 percent forecast at the start of the earnings season.

About 6.23 billion shares changed hands on the New York Stock Exchange, the Nasdaq and NYSE MKT, slightly below the daily average so far this year of about 6.48 billion shares.

(Editing by Nick Zieminski and Kenneth Barry)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/stock-index-futures-signal-mixed-open-103038684--finance.html

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Ex-Surgeon General Koop Dies in NH

Dr. C. Everett Koop has long been regarded as the nation's doctor? even though it has been nearly a quarter-century since he was surgeon general.

Koop, who died Monday at his home in Hanover, N.H., at age 96, was by far the best known and most influential person to carry that title. Koop, a 6-foot-1 evangelical Presbyterian with a biblical prophet's beard, donned a public health uniform in the early 1980s and became an enduring, science-based national spokesman on health issues.

He served for eight years during the Reagan administration and was a breed apart from his political bosses. He thundered about the evils of tobacco companies during a multiyear campaign to drive down smoking rates, and he became the government's spokesman on AIDS when it was still considered a "gay disease" by much of the public.

"He really changed the national conversation, and he showed real courage in pursuing the duties of his job," said Chris Collins, a vice president of amfAR, the Foundation for AIDS Research.

Even before that, he had been a leading figure in medicine. He was one of the first U.S. doctors to specialize in pediatric surgery at a time when children with complicated conditions were often simply written off as untreatable. In the 1950s, he drew national headlines for innovative surgeries such as separating conjoined twins.

His medical heroics are well noted, but he may be better remembered for transforming from a pariah in the eyes of the public health community into a remarkable servant who elevated the influence of the surgeon general ? if only temporarily.

"He set the bar high for all who followed in his footsteps," said Dr. Richard Carmona, who served as surgeon general a decade later under President George W. Bush.

Koop's religious beliefs grew after the 1968 death of his son David in a mountain-climbing accident, and he became an outspoken opponent of abortion. His activism is what brought him to the attention of the administration of President Ronald Reagan, who decided to nominate him for surgeon general in 1981. Though once a position with real power, surgeon generals had been stripped of most of their responsibilities in the 1960s.

By the time Koop got the job, the position was kind of a glorified health educator.

But Koop ran with it. One of his early steps involved the admiral's uniform that is bestowed to the surgeon general but that Koop's predecessors had worn only on ceremonial occasions. In his first year in the post, Koop stopped wearing his trademark bowties and suit jackets and instead began wearing the uniform, seeing it as a way to raise the visual prestige of the office.

In those military suits, he surprised the officials who had appointed him by setting aside his religious beliefs and feelings about abortion and instead waging a series of science-based public health crusades.

He was arguably most effective on smoking. He issued a series of reports that detailed the dangers of tobacco smoke, and in speeches began calling for a smoke-free society by the year 2000. He didn't get his wish, but smoking rates did drop from 38 percent to 27 percent while he was in office ? a huge decline.

Koop led other groundbreaking initiatives, but perhaps none is better remembered than his work on AIDS.

Source: http://abcnews.go.com/Health/wireStory/everett-koop-surgeon-general-dies-nh-18592170

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Fitness And Dental Health! | Gain Quick: Gain & Build Muscle with ...

The link between dental health and fitness may not seem obvious, but your oral health actually has much more of a bearing on your general health than you may think.? There is a growing body of evidence to support a link between dental health and general health, meaning that looking after your teeth and gums have never been more important.

How does oral health affect fitness?

Oral health does not directly affect fitness levels but it does affect your health, and if you are not in good health you may struggle to train properly, which will influence your fitness level.? The most common causes of oral health issues, such as gum disease and tooth decay, is poor oral hygiene.? Studies have shown that poor oral health also increases your risk of medical illnesses, many of which are very serious.

Oral health and general health

Studies have suggested a link between gum disease and heart disease, which has a huge bearing on exercise and fitness.? The heart needs to be working efficiently to pump blood around the body when you are exercising.? If your heart isn?t working properly your muscles will become tired due to a lack of oxygen, you may feel faint and you may suffer even more serious consequences.? Brushing up on oral hygiene in addition to exercising and eating well will help to keep your heart ticking over and enable you to train as hard as you want to.

Gum disease has also been linked to diabetes, another condition which can be problematic for fitness fanatics, as hypoglycemia (low blood sugar) and hyperglycemia (high blood sugar) both affect the body?s ability to function properly.? Low blood sugar is particularly dangerous for sport enthusiasts and may cause dizziness, confusion and fainting.

How can I prevent dental health problems?

The good news is that oral health problems are largely preventable and you don?t need to dedicate a lot of time to achieving good oral health.? Here are some tips for keeping dental illnesses at bay?so that you can?train hard:

• Brush your teeth twice a day using fluoride toothpaste.
• Brush for at least two minutes each time and cover each quadrant of your mouth.
• Use an electric toothbrush for best results.
• Floss on a regular basis.
• Visit your dentist every 6 months for a routine check-up.
• See your dentist if you experience symptoms of gum disease or decay, including tooth pain, bleeding gums, sore and swollen gums.
• Avoid snacking on sugary foods and drinking sugary drinks on a regular basis.

Your general health is really important for fitness.? If you don?t feel well or you have an injury or an illness, this can affect your ability to train and you will be less fit.? By sticking to a good oral hygiene routine, keeping an eye on your diet and going for regular check-ups, you can help to keep your body in tip-top shape so that you can enjoy life.

About the author

This is a guest article from the dental guys at the Dental implants Website where you can learn more about how to care for your dental health.

Source: http://www.gainbuildmuscle.com/2013/02/27/fitness-and-dental-health/

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Ancient shoes found hidden in Egyptian temple

Franco M. Giani - Milano - Italy

The unwrapped shoe bundle showing the two pairs of children's shoes and the adult isolated adult shoe.

By Owen Jarus
LiveScience

More than 2,000 years ago, at a time when Egypt was ruled by a dynasty of kings of Greek descent, someone, perhaps a group of people, hid away some of the most valuable possessions they had ? their shoes.

Seven shoes were deposited in a jar in an Egyptian temple in Luxor, three pairs and a single one. Two pairs were originally worn by children and were only about 7 inches (18 centimeters) long. Using palm fiber string, the child shoes were tied together within the single shoe (it was larger and meant for an adult) and put in the jar. Another pair of shoes, more than 9 inches (24 cm) long that had been worn by a limping adult, was also inserted in the jar.

The shoe-filled jar, along with two other jars, had been "deliberately placed in a small space between two mudbrick walls," writes archaeologist Angelo Sesana in a report published in the journal Memnonia.

?Whoever deposited the shoes never returned to collect them, and they were forgotten, until now. [See Photos of the Ancient Egyptian Shoes]

In 2004, an Italian archaeological expedition team, led by Sesana, rediscovered the shoes. The archaeologists gave Andr? Veldmeijer, an expert in ancient Egyptian footwear, access to photographs that show the finds.

Franco M. Giani - Milano - Italy

Archaeologists discovered seven shoes, which appear to be made out of bovine, within a jar in an Egyptian temple. The shoes date back more than 2,000 years and this picture shows the inside of the jar before the shoes were removed.

"The find is extraordinary as the shoes were in pristine condition and still supple upon discovery," writes Veldmeijer in the most recent edition of the Journal of the American Research Center in Egypt. Unfortunately, after being unearthed the shoes became brittle and "extremely fragile," he added.

Pricey shoes
Veldmeijer's analysis suggests the shoes may have been foreign-made and were "relatively expensive." Sandals were the more common footwear in Egypt and?the style and quality of these seven shoes was such that "everybody would look at you," and "it would give you much more status because you had these expensive pair of shoes," said Veldmeijer, assistant director for Egyptology of the Netherlands-Flemish Institute in Cairo.

The date of the shoes is based on the jar they were found in and the other two ?jars, as well as the stratigraphy, or layering of sediments, of the area. It may be possible in the future to carbon date the shoes to confirm their age.

Why they were left in the temple in antiquity and not retrieved is a mystery. "There's no reason to store them without having the intention of getting them back at some point," Veldmeijer said in an interview with LiveScience, adding that there could have been some kind of unrest that forced the owners of the shoes to deposit them and flee hastily. The temple itself predates the shoes by more than 1,000 years and was originally built for pharaoh Amenhotep II (1424-1398 B.C.).

Design discoveries
Veldmeijer made a number of shoe design discoveries. He found that the people who wore the seven shoes would have tied them using what researchers call "tailed toggles." Leather strips at the top of the shoes would form knots that would be passed through openings to close the shoes. After they were closed, a long strip of leather would have hung down, decoratively, at either side. The shoes are made out of leather, which is likely bovine.

Most surprising was that the isolated shoe had what shoemakers call a "rand," a device that until now was thought to have been first used in medieval Europe. A rand is a folded leather strip that would go between the sole of the shoe and the upper part, reinforcing the stitching as the "the upper is very prone to tear apart at the stitch holes," he explained. The device would've been useful in muddy weather when shoes are under pressure, as it makes the seam much more resistant to water.

In the dry (and generally not muddy) climate of ancient Egypt, he said that it's a surprising innovation and seems to indicate the seven shoes were constructed somewhere abroad.

Health discoveries
The shoes also provided insight into the health of the people wearing them. In the case of the isolated shoe, he found a "semi-circular protruding area" that could be a sign of a condition called Hallux Valgus, more popularly known as a bunion. [The 9 Most Bizarre Medical Conditions]

"In this condition, the big toe starts to deviate inward towards the other toes," Veldmeijer writes in the journal article. "Although hereditary, it can also develop as a result of close-fitting shoes, although other scholars dispute this ...."

Another curious find came from the pair of adult shoes. He found that the left shoe had more patches and evidence of repair than the shoe on the right. "The shoe was exposed to unequal pressure," he said, showing that the person who wore it "walked with a limp, otherwise the wear would have been far more equal."

Still, despite their medical problems, and the wear and tear on the shoes, the people who wore them were careful to keep up with repairs, Veldmeijer said. They did not throw them away like modern-day Westerners tend to do with old running shoes.

"These shoes were highly prized commodities."

Veldmeijer hopes to have the opportunity to examine the shoes, now under the care of the Ministry of State for Antiquities, firsthand.

Follow LiveScience on Twitter @livescience. We're also on Facebook?and Google+.

?

Source: http://science.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/02/26/17104950-ancient-shoes-found-hidden-in-egyptian-temple?lite

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Keith Ellison and Sean Hannity Had an Epic Battle on Fox News Tuesday (Atlantic Politics Channel)

Share With Friends: | | Politics - Top Stories Stories, RSS Feeds and Widgets via Feedzilla.

Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/287688624?client_source=feed&format=rss

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BP executive testifies at Gulf oil spill trial

Lamar McKay, former president of BP America and current chief executive of BP's Upstream unit, left, leaves Federal Court after testifying in New Orleans, Tuesday, Feb. 26, 2013. McKay, who was president of BP America at the time of the Deepwater Horizon disaster, became the first BP executive to testify at the federal trial intended to identify the causes of BP's Macondo well blowout and assign percentages of blame to the companies involved. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

Lamar McKay, former president of BP America and current chief executive of BP's Upstream unit, left, leaves Federal Court after testifying in New Orleans, Tuesday, Feb. 26, 2013. McKay, who was president of BP America at the time of the Deepwater Horizon disaster, became the first BP executive to testify at the federal trial intended to identify the causes of BP's Macondo well blowout and assign percentages of blame to the companies involved. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

Lamar McKay, former president of BP America and current chief executive of BP's Upstream unit, leaves Federal Court after testifying in New Orleans, Tuesday, Feb. 26, 2013. McKay, who was president of BP America at the time of the Deepwater Horizon disaster, became the first BP executive to testify at the federal trial intended to identify the causes of BP's Macondo well blowout and assign percentages of blame to the companies involved. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

Lamar McKay, former president of BP America and current chief executive of BP's Upstream unit, leaves Federal Court after testifying in New Orleans, Monday, Feb. 25, 2013. McKay, who was president of BP America at the time of the Deepwater Horizon disaster, became the first BP executive to testify at the federal trial intended to identify the causes of BP's Macondo well blowout and assign percentages of blame to the companies involved. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

NEW ORLEANS (AP) ? A ranking BP executive testified Tuesday that the London-based oil giant and its contractors share the responsibility for preventing blowouts like the one that killed 11 workers and spawned the nation's worst offshore oil spill in 2010.

Lamar McKay, who was president of BP America at the time of the Deepwater Horizon disaster, became the first BP executive to testify at a federal trial intended to identify the causes of BP's Macondo well blowout and assign percentages of blame to the companies involved.

Rig owner Transocean and cement contractor Halliburton also are defendants at trial, which opened Monday.

A plaintiffs' attorney pressed McKay to agree with him that BP bore ultimate responsibility for the blowout, but McKay insisted that managing the hazards of deepwater drilling are a "team effort."

"I think that's a shared responsibility, to manage the safety and the risk," said McKay, now chief executive of BP's Upstream unit. "Sometimes contractors manage that risk. Sometimes we do. Most of the time it's a team effort."

McKay also defended BP's internal probe of the spill, which outlined a series of mistakes by rig workers and faulted decisions by other companies but didn't assign any blame to BP's upper-level management.

"I think it was a substantial investigation," McKay said. "I think we've learned what we can from the accident and we're trying to put those things into practice right now."

McKay, whose testimony will resume Wednesday, called the disaster a "tragic accident" resulting from a "risk that was identified."

It wasn't the first time McKay testified under oath about the spill. He appeared before Congress less than a month after the explosion.

U.S. District Judge Carl Barbier is hearing the case without a jury. Barring a settlement, Barbier will decide how much more money BP and other companies owe for their roles in the disaster.

McKay's testimony followed that of an expert witness for people and businesses suing the company. University of California-Berkeley engineering professor Robert Bea testified that BP PLC didn't implement a 2-year-old safety management program on the rig, which exploded on April 20, 2010.

"It's a classic failure of management and leadership in BP," said Bea, a former BP consultant who also investigated the 1989 Exxon Valdez spill and New Orleans levee breaches after Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

BP has said its "Operating Management System" was designed to drive a rigorous and systematic approach to safety and risk management. During cross-examination by a BP lawyer, Bea said the company made "significant efforts" to improve safety management as early as 2003.

However, the plaintiffs say BP only implemented its new safety plan at just one of the seven rigs the company owned or leased in the Gulf at the time of the disaster.

Bea said it was "tragic" and "egregious" that BP didn't apply its own safety program to the Deepwater Horizon before the Macondo well blowout. Transocean owned the rig; BP leased it.

BP lawyer Mike Brock said the company allows contractors like Transocean to take the primary responsibility for the safety of rig operations as long as the contractor's safety system is compatible with BP's ? an arrangement that Brock suggested is a standard industry practice.

In his May 2010 congressional testimony, McKay said BP's Operating Management System is "as good as anyone."

"I know of nothing that points me in a direction that we have deficiencies" in the system, McKay said.

As he questioned Bea, Brock recited a long list of steps that BP took to improve safety, citing them as evidence that the company wasn't "cutting corners" on safety.

A plaintiffs' lawyer showed Bea a transcript of a deposition of Tony Hayward, BP's CEO at the time of the disaster. Hayward was asked if the blowout could have been averted if BP had implemented the safety management program in the Gulf.

"There is possible potential," Hayward responded. "Undoubtedly."

Bea said BP's "culture of every dollar counts" was reflected in a May 2009 email sent by BP well team leader John Guide: "The DW Horizon embraced every dollar matters since I arrived 18 months ago," Guide wrote. "We have saved BP millions and no one had to tell us."

"Financially, BP had the resources to effectively put into place a process safety system that could have prevented the Macondo disaster," Bea testified.

BP has already pleaded guilty to manslaughter and other criminal charges and has racked up more than $24 billion in spill-related expenses, including cleanup costs, compensation for businesses and individuals, and $4 billion in criminal penalties.

Plaintiffs' attorney Robert Cunningham read portions of the plea agreement as he pressed McKay to say how much responsibility BP takes for the catastrophe. Cunningham noted that nothing in the document assigns blame to specific BP executives.

"That is not written in there. That's true," McKay said.

Two BP rig supervisors, however, have been indicted on manslaughter charges for the workers' deaths and are awaiting a separate trial.

"There were some misinterpretations and mistakes made" on the rig, McKay said.

One of the biggest questions facing Barbier is whether BP acted with gross negligence.

Under the Clean Water Act, a polluter can be forced to pay a minimum of $1,100 per barrel of spilled oil; the fines nearly quadruple to about $4,300 a barrel for companies found grossly negligent, meaning BP could be on the hook for nearly $18 billion.

___

Follow Kunzelman at https://twitter.com/Kunzelman75

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2013-02-26-Gulf%20Oil%20Spill-Trial/id-90308b2bacf24ccdac5979bc3fb3928a

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Bathroom pipe breaks, makes mess at Oscars

By Alyssa Toomey, E! Online

It's the Oscars -- accidents happen. Less than an hour before the 85th Annual Academy Awards began, a pipe burst in the women's bathroom at the Dolby Theatre, causing an embarrassing (and very speedy!) cleanup after the floor was totally flooded.

Guests were shuttled around the waterlogged location to prevent any further mishaps while more than half a dozen workers attacked the mess.

All the details on Ben and Jen's pre-Oscar "mayhem"

Of course, the water was mopped up in no time, and the bathroom was back in business by the time the show began.

But luckily, Hollywood Reporter's Matthew Bellani snapped a quick shot?and posted it on his social media page before the clean-up was complete.

It's just one of many unexpected moments bound to occur on movie's biggest night.

And hey, no one got hurt, so no harm done!

See all the red carpet arrivals!

Related content:

Source: http://todayentertainment.today.com/_news/2013/02/24/17080265-oscars-theater-floods-after-pipe-bursts-in-womens-bathroom?lite

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One corner of Manhattan still a ghost town months after Sandy

NEW YORK (AP) -- The historic cobblestone streets and 19th-century mercantile buildings near the water's edge in lower Manhattan are eerily deserted, a neighborhood silenced by Superstorm Sandy.

Just blocks from the tall-masted ships that rise above South Street Seaport, the windows of narrow brick apartment buildings are still crisscrossed with masking tape left by their owners before the storm. Store interiors are stripped down to plywood and wiring. Restaurants are chained shut, frozen in time, saddled with electrical systems that were ruined by several feet of salt water that raced up from the East River and through their front doors.

"People have no clue that this corner of Manhattan has been hit so badly," said Adam Weprin, manager of the Bridge Cafe, one of the city's oldest bars that sits on a quiet street near the seaport. "Right now, it's a ghost town and a construction site."

Nearly four months after the storm, roughly 85 percent of small businesses near the South Street Seaport are still boarded up. It could be months before some reopen, while others may never return. On Fulton Street, the wide tourist-friendly pedestrian walkway that comprises the seaport's main shopping district, not a single one of the major chain stores ? which include Coach, Ann Taylor and Brookstone ? has reopened.

Among local business owners, there is a pervasive sense that their plight has been ignored by the rest of the city. A state senator who represents the area estimates at least 1,000 jobs were lost in lower Manhattan ? 450 of them in the seaport neighborhood alone.

From its red wood-frame building in the shadow of the Brooklyn Bridge, the Bridge Cafe has dealt with its share of changes over the last two centuries, including stints as a Civil War-era brothel and a bootlegging speakeasy during Prohibition. It has endured economic slumps, nor'easters and the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. But after the basement was flooded to the rafters and water destroyed the building's wood foundation, Weprin faced the prospect of shutting its doors for good.

"The neighborhood's been beaten," Weprin said. "You walk around here and it's like Chernobyl. At night, it's vacated."

The small businesses of the seaport were far less resilient than the neighboring skyscrapers that house many of lower Manhattan's large financial companies.

Some corporations were displaced for weeks after the storm, forced to relocate to temporary office space farther uptown while flood-damaged skyscrapers fixed their infrastructure and moved electrical systems to higher floors. Con Edison said 10 major buildings remained without power as of Feb. 13, most operating on emergency generators.

At 110 Wall St., a 27-story office tower that occupies a full block near the New York Stock Exchange, all leases were terminated because the building was so badly damaged by flooding. It remains empty while its management company comes up with a long-term plan for weathering future storms.

"How do we protect the lobby?" said William Rudin, the company's CEO. "How do we protect the retail spaces?"

Spotty phone and Internet service also hampered business activity after underground copper cables operated by Verizon, the area's largest network provider, were wrecked by flooding. By mid-February, Verizon said 10 percent of its customers still had little or no service.

It's unclear how many residents of lower Manhattan fled the neighborhood after Sandy. But 2 Gold St., a flood-damaged luxury residential skyscraper with nearly 1,000 residents, did not allow tenants to start moving back in until last week.

"These offices, these high-rise apartments, they need to be reoccupied," said Lee Holin, who owns Meade's Restaurant, which sits on the edge of the seaport a few blocks from Sandy-damaged skyscrapers on Water Street. "All of our customers who live there have not been here in a long time."

Meade's was only able to reopen thanks to a $25,000 grant that Holin received from the Downtown Alliance, a neighborhood association that has doled out 100 grants to small businesses totaling about $1.5 million.

The grant program was so popular that it was suspended two weeks after its debut in mid-November.

"We don't have a lot of traffic," said Nicole Osborne, who was tending the bar at Meade's on a weekday afternoon. "It's like we've been forgotten."

In the darkened window of Stella Manhattan Bistro, an Italian restaurant on Front Street, hung an American flag reminiscent of those displayed all over the city after Sept. 11. Alongside it, someone had posted a sign that said: "Thank you for all your support. Stay strong."

Most of the Front Street buildings had a geothermal heating and cooling system that was destroyed in the flood, said Jordan Barowitz, a spokesman for the developer, The Durst Organization, Inc. The repairs, which include moving the mechanical systems to the roof, are expected to drag on for months.

"We hope that they will come back," Barowitz said of the shuttered businesses. "It's very challenging."

The future of the South Street Seaport is equally uncertain. Howard Hughes Corp, which controls the former 19th-century counting houses that are home to the retail chains, said it does not yet know which ? if any ? of the major retailers will come back. The hope is to have Fulton Street in working order again before Memorial Day, when the summer season kicks off and the seaport will desperately need an influx of visitors.

But in a case of unfortunate timing, Pier 17, the shopping mall housed inside a rustic wooden building on the pier, is slated to close for a long-planned renovation in June that will transform it into a modern glass-walled structure with a rooftop plaza. The impending renovation has only added to the misery of shop owners who lost so much revenue since the storm and haven't recouped their losses.

Milad Doos, an immigrant from Egypt, is planning to close his jewelry and collectibles store for good.

"Like you see, there's nobody," said Doos, who earned just $5 on a recent afternoon. "After the storm, this whole place has become dead place."

At the Bridge Cafe, most of the wood foundation will be gutted, sparing only two pillars and a wall behind the bar that are part of the original building. Repairs will cost around $400,000.

Weprin, who has no flood insurance, launched a fundraising page online to appeal for financial help from the restaurant's many loyal patrons. To his astonishment, many of them didn't even realize the place was closed.

That's because nobody has frequented the neighborhood for weeks.

"During the day, you have tourists who are coming to look at the carnage," Weprin said. "That's about it. Before Sandy, it was a neighborhood."

___

Associated Press Writer Tom Hays contributed to this report.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/nyc-seaport-ghost-town-months-074608566.html

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New device to monitor fetal heart development

Feb. 25, 2013 ? Technology developed at The University of Nottingham has been used in a breakthrough study aimed at developing the first comprehensive model of a fully functioning fetal heart.

The abdominal fetal ECG device, designed originally by academics in the University's Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering and on commercial sale throughout the world since 2008 through the University spin-out company Monica Healthcare Ltd, has been used to observe living fetal hearts of babies in their mothers' wombs.

The collaborative study led by experts at The University of Leeds has discovered that the walls of the human heart are a disorganised jumble of tissue until relatively late in pregnancy -- with development much slower compared to other mammals.

Professor Barrie Hayes-Gill, Professor of Electronic Systems and Medical Devices at The University of Nottingham and joint founder and research director at Monica Healthcare said: "It's absolutely fantastic to see our device being used to detect fetal ECG morphology (i.e. ECG shape) in a non-invasive manner from the surface of the maternal abdomen. In this study the Monica device has been specifically deployed to observe the development of the fetal heart as it goes through gestation.

The fetal heart monitor is a portable, non-invasive device which attaches to the mother's abdomen and measures the electrical activity from the heart of the baby inside her womb. It is currently being used worldwide to monitor fetal heart rates during labour and delivery.

The device uses complex algorithms to correctly identify signals related to the fetal heart rate (FHR) using sensitive ECG-style electrodes. This method of using electrophysiological signals differs from current external monitoring devices that collect FHR and uterine activity data based on physical changes (e.g. change in reflected sound waves and changes on strain gauge) that may cause problems in data interpretation.

The monitor is simple to use, beltless, requires no wires to connect to the display or printer. There is also no need for the constant re-positioning of transducers, which is required with older technology and the mother is free to walk around if necessary.

As part of their study, which has been published in the Journal of the Royal Society Interface Focus, the team from the University of Leeds used the device to administer a weekly fetal ECG recording from 18 weeks until just before delivery.

The data from this, alongside two different MRI scans from the hearts of dead fetuses, was incorporated into a 3D computerised model built up using information about the structure, shape and size of the different components of the heart.

Early results suggest that the human heart may develop on a different timeline from other mammals. While the tissue in the walls of a pig heart develops a highly organised structure at a relatively early stage of a fetus' development, their work suggests there is little organisation in the human heart's cells until 20 weeks into pregnancy. Despite this, the human heart has a regular heartbeat from about 22 days.

Developing an accurate, computerised simulation of the fetal heart is critical to understanding normal heart developments in the womb and, eventually, to opening new ways of detecting and dealing with some functional abnormalities early in pregnancy.

Dr Eleftheria Pervolaraki, lead researcher on the project at the University of Leeds' School of Biomedical Sciences, said: "For a heart to be beating effectively, we thought you needed a smoothly changing orientation of the muscle cells through the walls of the heart chambers. Such an organisation is seen in the hearts of all healthy adult mammals.

"Fetal hearts in other mammals such as pigs, which we have been using as models, show such an organisation even early in gestation, with a smooth change in cell orientation going through the heart wall. But what we actually found is that such organisation was not detectable in the human fetus before 20 weeks," she said.

Professor Arun Holden, from The University of Leeds' School of Biomedical Sciences, said: "The development of the fetal human heart is on a totally different timeline, a slower timeline, from the model that was being used before. This upsets our assumptions and raises new questions. Since the wall of the heart is structurally disorganised, we might expect to find arrhythmias, which are a bad sign in an adult. It may well be that in the early stages of development of the heart arrhythmias are not necessarily pathological and that there is no need to panic if we find them. Alternatively, we could find that the disorganisation in the tissue does not actually lead to arrhythmia."

A detailed computer model of the activity and architecture of the developing heart will help make sense of the limited information doctors can obtain about the fetus using non-invasive monitoring of a pregnant woman.

Professor Holden said: "It is different from dealing with an adult, where you can look at the geometry of an individual's heart using MRI (Magnetic Resonance Imaging) or CT (Computerised Tomography) scans. You can't squirt x-rays at a fetus and we also currently tend to avoid MRI, so we need a model into which we can put the information we do have access to."

He added: "Effectively, at the moment, fetal ECGs are not really used. The textbooks descriptions of the development of the human heart are still founded on animal models and 19th century collections of abnormalities in museums. If you are trying to detect abnormal activity in fetal hearts, you are only talking about third trimester and postnatal care of premature babies. By looking at how the human heart actually develops in real life and creating a quantitative, descriptive model of its architecture and activity from the start of a pregnancy to birth, you are expanding electrocardiology into the fetus."

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Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by University of Nottingham.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.

---

Journal Reference:

1. E. Pervolaraki, R. A. Anderson, A. P. Benson, B. Hayes-Gill, A. V. Holden, B. J. R. Moore, M. N. Paley, H. Zhang. Antenatal architecture and activity of the human heart. Interface Focus, 2013; 3 (2): 20120065 DOI: 10.1098/rsfs.2012.0065

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/~3/EMcB8fNUsCE/130225102534.htm

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SHOW BITS: With work done, time to go play

LOS ANGELES (AP) ? Show Bits brings you the 85th annual Academy Awards in Los Angeles through the eyes of Associated Press journalists. Follow them on Twitter where available with the handles listed after each item.

___

QUICKQUOTE: OCTAVIA SPENCER

"I'm good now. Now I can go play!" ? Octavia Spencer, backstage after presenting the night's first Oscar.

? Sandy Cohen ? http://www.twitter.com/APSandy

___

BASSEY HITS IT OUTTA THE PARK

For all the sparkling young starlets and the edgy new host, it was none other than Dame Shirley Bassey who truly set the joint on fire early in the Oscar telecast.

The 76-year-old singer's rendition of the theme from "Goldfinger" ? or, as she sang so memorably, "GoldfinGAH" ? was a feel-good moment that won what was at the time the biggest ovation of the night.

Bassey, who recorded the song in the '60s to great acclaim, reprised it as part of the Academy's 50th anniversary tribute to the James Bond franchise.

On social networks, as people were debating vigorously how the telecast was going, there was no question as to how Bassey did: She was an unqualified hit.

Minutes after the performance, the singer and her song were trending on Twitter.

Adele, who was to perform her "Skyfall" theme later in the show, had her work cut out for her.

? Jocelyn Noveck ? Twitter http://twitter.com/JocelynNoveckAP

___

WALTZ PULLS OSCAR UPSET

It didn't take long for the first big upset of Oscar night.

Christoph Waltz claimed the first statuette, winning best supporting actor for his role as a refined bounty hunter in "Django Unchained."

Waltz briefly found himself in a bizarre moment in the backstage interview room when actor David Arquette popped up and asked if he was excited about the possibility of a black man being chosen as the next pope.

"It would be an exciting thing," he said. "I'm an adamant non-racist. I don't care whether the pope is black or white or whatever color. If we are non-racists then we have to stay non-racists all the way."

? Beth Harris ? http://www.twitter.com/bethharrisap

___

QUICKQUOTE: CHRISTOPH WALTZ

"Quentin writes poetry and I like poetry." ? Supporting actor winner Christoph Waltz of "Django Unchained" about working with writer-director Quentin Tarantino.

? Beth Harris ? http://www.twitter.com/bethharrisap

___

MAYBE IT LOOKED EASY ...

Charlize Theron, Channing Tatum, Daniel Radcliffe and Joseph Gordon-Levitt were one big bundle of nerves before they took the stage for their opening song-and-dance numbers.

Radcliffe danced by himself. Theron dabbed at her eyes and Gordon-Levitt stood silently as Oscar host Seth MacFarlane delivered the Oscar show's opening monologue.

Then it was time to hit the stage.

"Thank God!" Theron said afterward as she let out a sigh of relief.

"You stepped on my dress," she told Tatum.

Radcliffe and Gordon-Levitt bear-hugged after their dance routine.

"We did all right! We did all right," they told each other.

"It felt good! How did it look?" Gordon-Levitt asked.

"Well done," Radcliffe told him. "See you later!"

? Sandy Cohen ? http://www.twittermcom/APSandy

___

QUICKQUOTE: BEN AFFLECK

"We don't expect to depart with anything but our integrity." ? Ben Affleck, shunning the nominations his film "Argo" received.

? Beth Harris ? http://www.twitter.com/bethharrisap

___

AND THE FANS SAY ... 'ARGO'

However it fared with Academy voters, the clear fan favorite among fans in the Oscar bleachers was "Argo."

The bleacher crowd forced actor-director Ben Affleck to stop an interview with their loud chants of "Ben! Ben! Ben!"

They gave the film's producer, George Clooney, similar treatment and lavished applause on supporting actor nominee Alan Arkin.

Perhaps the strongest sign of fans' love for the CIA thriller was when the group was polled for its choice for best picture before any actors hit the red carpet.

While the chanting was spirited for "Les Miserables" and some other films, it was clearly loudest for "Argo."

? Anthony McCartney ? Twitter http://twitter.com/mccartneyAP

___

JENNIFER BLEEPED

It's always fun to hear what Jennifer Lawrence has to say ? even if you have to lip read because she's being bleeped.

The bleeping started early for the charmingly blunt Lawrence, a best actress nominee for "Silver Linings Playbook," as ABC silenced her cheeky red carpet response to actress Kristin Chenoweth.

The two were bonding over "Dance Moms," the Lifetime reality series, when Lawrence asked Chenoweth if she liked it too.

Chenoweth: "Is the pope Catholic?"

Lawrence: "... ?" (We can't print her reply here, but the reference was to something a bear does in the woods.)

And the night, as they say, was still very young.

? Jocelyn Noveck ? Twitter http://twitter.com/JocelynNoveckAP

___

AMY ADAMS SITTING PRETTY

To slide, plop or shimmy?

That's the dilemma that faced Amy Adams in her flowing Oscar de la Renta gown when she approached her front-row seat inside the Dolby Theatre before the Oscars began.

After greeting fellow nominee Phillip Seymour Hoffman in the row behind her with a big hug, "The Master" co-star tilted to her right side and sort of shimmied down into her seat.

While Jennifer Aniston and Samuel L. Jackson mingled with attendees nearby, Adams held court in her fluffy dove grey fabric cloud.

Across the aisle, Bradley Cooper rushed his mother to meet Jean Dujardin, who took home the best actor Oscar last year.

? Derrik J. Lang ? Twitter http://twitter.com/derrikjlang

___

JOAQUIN PHOENIX: THE GUY CAN MOVE

Joaquin Phoenix didn't waste any time getting into the Dolby Theatre, and the Oscar-nominated actor's dash across the red carpet didn't go unnoticed.

Red carpet host Chris Connelly heckled Phoenix, who has criticized the awards show, as he rushed by, saying he was setting new speed records.

Connelly then added, "You should be at the (NFL) combine," a reference to the athletic tests NFL recruits go through.

? Anthony McCartney ? Twitter http://twitter.com/mccartneyAP

___

SHOWING OSCAR FANS LOVE

Oscar bleacher fans got a wave from some stars such as Jane Fonda, and a peace sign from others, including Channing Tatum.

Then there were those who pulled out all the stops.

Tim Burton and Helena Bonham Carter paused on the red carpet to pose for pictures for star-struck fans.

Melissa McCarthy stopped to beam and wave at every section of the bleachers, all but ignoring the professional photographers surrounding her.

Jessica Chastain blew the crowd a kiss.

And Joseph Gordon-Levitt topped it all off with an appreciative bow to his audience.

? Anthony McCartney ? Twitter http://twitter.com/mccartneyAP

___

A FOODIE FEAST FIT FOR A RED CARPET

Even the food gets the red-carpet treatment at the Academy Awards.

Celebrity chef Wolfgang Puck rolled a tray out onto the carpet to show off just a few of the goodies that will be served at the annual Governor's Ball following the show.

Making the scene were baked potatoes with caviar, smoked salmon, chicken pot pie with truffle, Kobe steak, sushi, sashimi and of course Puck's famous gold-dusted chocolate Oscar statuettes.

"It's going to be the greatest party ever," he said.

? Beth Harris Twitter http://twitter.com/bethharrisap

___

FROM FRONT LINE TO RED CARPET

A few months ago, Army Sgt. 1st Class Walter Talens was shooting footage in Afghanistan. On Sunday, he had a prime seat to watch the stars at the Academy Awards.

Talens was one of dozens of service members sprinkled around the fan bleachers, where he hoped to get a glimpse of actress Jennifer Lawrence from his second-row seat.

It was a new vantage point for him after working two Oscar shows filming shout-outs to troops overseas.

His boss, Maj. John Reynolds, relocated from a posting in Fort Leavenworth, Kan., a few months before last year's show and was hoping for a glimpse of Denzel Washington, Ben Affleck and Lawrence.

"I never thought I would be this close to the red carpet," said Reynolds, who had a front row seat where the stars entered the Dolby Theatre.

Talens, who noted the Oscars' longtime support of the troops, said, "I'm very happy the academy supports the military and allows us to see the glitz and glamour."

? Anthony McCartney ? Twitter http://twitter.com/mccartneyAP

___

TAKE TWO FOR OSCAR RESULTS

Sometimes in Hollywood it takes more than one try to get the perfect shot.

On Sunday afternoon, that was the case for the accountants bringing in the Oscar ballot results.

The men walked calmly down the red carpet clutching briefcases as a film crew recorded their every move. But before they could enter the Dolby Theatre, they had to repeat the last leg of their walk.

This time fans in the bleachers cheered. The cameras rolled and everyone was satisfied.

Cut. The men walked into the theater.

It's Hollywood.

? Anthony McCartney ? Twitter http://twitter.com/mccartneyAP

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/show-bits-done-time-play-032506723.html

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SME Advisor Middle East ? Innovation a key focus for UAE businesses

GE has announced the findings of its third annual GE Global Innovation Barometer survey, revealing that 89% of UAE businesses regard innovation as a strategic priority to help drive business growth, with more than half the respondents stating that developing new business models is a promising way to boost future performance.

The UAE is one of only two countries in the region where the study was conducted, highlighting GE?s commitment to the country, which has identified innovation, knowledge and sustainable development as key drivers of its growth. The only Arab country classified as an innovation-driven economy by the World Economic Forum Global Competitiveness Report 2012-13, the UAE is ranked 24^th out of 144 globally in overall competitiveness.

In all 3,000 executives from 25 countries were surveyed with 73% of the respondents in the country stating that innovation, marked by improvement of products and services, had contributed to stronger business performance in the past.

Nabil Habayeb, GE?s President & Chief Executive Officer for the Middle East, North Africa and Turkey, said: ?In its third year now, the GE Global Innovation Barometer underlines the strategic importance that businesses in the UAE place on innovation. Quite significantly, UAE businesses demonstrate their openness to partnerships to drive innovation, with 88% of the respondents stating that their firms are increasingly looking at innovating through partnerships.?

He added: ?In other significant findings, UAE businesses feel that the government and public authorities are allocating an adequate share of budget to support innovative companies. A majority of the respondents, at 86%, state that SMEs and individuals can be as innovative as large corporations, highlighting the success of the UAE in promoting the SME sector, which contributes significantly to the non-oil GDP. The findings complement GE?s growth approach to the UAE, where we are focused on building business partnerships, knowledge sharing and human capital development, which the country?s business executives identify as key drivers to innovation.?

Power of collaboration

An overwhelming 91% of UAE respondents said they would be more successful at innovation through partnerships than by going about it alone ? four points more than the global average of 87%.

• The UAE executives said partnerships are important to enter new markets (80%), access new technology (79%), speed up time to market (78%) and improve an existing product or service (75%)
• 72% said collaborations will help their businesses in benefiting from the partner company?s sales force ? 14 points higher than the global average
• Barriers to collaborative innovation, according to UAE respondents, are lack of protection of confidentiality/IP (58%) and lack of trust in partner companies (43%)

Innovation as driver for growth

81% of the UAE respondents said that understanding customers and anticipating market evolutions is the most important ability needed by businesses to innovate successfully

• 81% believe innovating on improving products and services will drive business performance
• Respondents said developing new technology (70%), creating an environment conducive to innovation (69%), and mining data inside and outside the company (62%) are key abilities businesses have to muster to innovate successfully
• 62% said localised innovation to meet domestic needs will play a key role in driving business performance

New business models and talent development?

Reiterating the growing emphasis that UAE businesses place on innovation, the survey identified that 54% of the executives believe creating new business models is important to boost performance.

• 62% said attracting and retaining innovative people is another key driver for innovation
• While 58% of UAE business executives report that the country has a strong innovation-conducive environment, 54% expect decision-makers to encourage a stronger entrepreneurial culture in the education system through stronger linkages between students and business-savvy individuals
• 46% said creating? financial environment that encourages the development of venture capital to support innovation is important

Although, UAE executives largely perceive innovation as a positive force and key economic driver, 45% of the respondents believe that with innovative practices creating more competition among businesses and making some products and services obsolete, it could have a negative impact on the economy in the long-run. This perception is shared by more business executives in the country than the global average of 30%.

This emerging ?Innovation Vertigo? ? an uneasiness with the changing dynamics of today?s business landscape and uncertainty over the best path forward ? is challenging leaders to think differently about how they will achieve growth. Many executives, however, seem to be embracing this complexity by exploring new and sometimes unexpected opportunities to innovate.

?Innovators must be resilient or risk being left behind,? said Beth Comstock, senior vice president and chief marketing officer of GE. ?Change has become constant and we see leaders responding by betting big on more unconventional approaches to innovation to unlock growth. At GE, we are exploring different markets, partnerships structures and business models ? all in the pursuit of uncovering new ways to better serve our customers and meet the world?s biggest challenges head on.?

The Barometer was commissioned by GE and conducted by independent research and consulting firm StrategyOne to explore how business leaders around the world view drivers and barriers to innovation and how those perceptions influence strategy.

For more information on the study and a detailed report, visit: www.ge.com/innovationbarometer

Related posts:

1. GITEX global leaders summit to focus on the importance of innovation
2. Innovation and customer service focus of ?Cards and Payments Middle East 2012?
3. Study: Family owned-businesses
4. UAE should have central agency for innovation: Abu Dhabi Innovation Forum 2010
5. Emiratisation efforts in focus

Source: http://www.smeadvisor.com/2013/02/innovation-a-key-focus-for-uae-businesses/

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Fingerprint Purchasing Technology Ensures Buyer Has a Pulse

An anonymous reader writes "A small U.S. university has come up with a novel solution to reduce the possibility of using a dead person's hand to get past a fingerprint scanner through the use of hemoglobin detection. The device quickly checks the fingerprint and hemoglobin 'non-intrusively' to verify the identity and whether the individual is alive. This field of research is called Biocryptology and seeks to ensure that biometric security devices can't be easily bypassed."

Source: http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdotScience/~3/0ChCo2K6zS8/story01.htm

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New maps depict potential worldwide coral bleaching by 2056

Feb. 25, 2013 ? In a study published February 24 in Nature Climate Change researchers used the latest emissions scenarios and climate models to show how varying levels of carbon emissions are likely to result in more frequent and severe coral bleaching events.

Large-scale 'mass' bleaching events on coral reefs are caused by higher-than-normal sea temperatures. High temperatures make light toxic to the algae that reside within the corals. The algae, called 'zooxanthellae', provide food and give corals their bright colors. When the algae are expelled or retained but in low densities, the corals can starve and eventually die. Bleaching events caused a reported 16 percent loss of the world's coral reefs in 1998 according to the Global Coral Reef Monitoring Network.

If carbon emissions stay on the current path most of the world's coral reefs (74 percent) are projected to experience coral bleaching conditions annually by 2045, results of the study show. The study used climate model ensembles from the upcoming Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

Around a quarter of coral reefs are likely to experience bleaching events annually five or more years earlier than the median year, and these reefs in northwestern Australia, Papau New Guinea, and some equatorial Pacific islands like Tokelau, may require urgent attention, researchers warn.

"Coral reefs in parts of the western Indian Ocean, French Polynesia and the southern Great Barrier Reef, have been identified as temporary refugia from rising sea surface temperatures," said Ruben van Hooidonk, Ph.D., from the Cooperative Institute for Marine and Atmospheric Studies (CIMAS) at the University of Miami and NOAA's Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory. "These locations are not projected to experience bleaching events annually until five or more years later than the median year of 2040, with one reef location in the Austral Islands of French Polynesia protected from the onset of annual coral bleaching conditions until 2056."

The findings emphasize that without significant reductions in emissions most coral reefs are at risk, according to the study. A reduction of carbon emissions would delay annual bleaching events more than two decades in nearly a quarter (23 percent) of the world's reef areas, the research shows.

"Our projections indicate that nearly all coral reef locations would experience annual bleaching later than 2040 under scenarios with lower greenhouse gas emissions." said Jeffrey Maynard, Ph.D., from the Centre de Recherches Insulaires et Observatoire de l'Environnement (CRIOBE) in Moorea, French Polynesia. "For 394 reef locations (of 1707 used in the study) this amounts to at least two more decades in which some reefs might conceivably be able to improve their capacity to adapt to the projected changes."

"More so than any result to date, this highlights and quantifies the potential benefits for reefs of reducing emissions in terms of reduced exposure to stressful reef temperatures."

"This study represents the most up-to-date understanding of spatial variability in the effects of rising temperatures on coral reefs on a global scale," said researcher Serge Planes, Ph.D., also from the French research institute CRIOBE in French Polynesia.

The researchers involved in the study all concur that projections that combine the threats posed to reefs by increases in sea temperature and ocean acidification will further resolve where temporary refugia may exist.

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Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by University of Miami Rosenstiel School of Marine & Atmospheric Science, via EurekAlert!, a service of AAAS.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.

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Journal Reference:

1. R. van Hooidonk, J. A. Maynard, S. Planes. Temporary refugia for coral reefs in a warming world. Nature Climate Change, 2013; DOI: 10.1038/nclimate1829

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/~3/qPqev71g7Fs/130225122045.htm

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Guess Who Got to Sit Next to Michelle Obama at the Governor's Ball

As the rest of the country gawked at dresses on the red carpet, President Obama welcomed the governors from all 50 states to the White House on Sunday evening. It was a fancy affair with tuxedos and sequins. Michelle wore earrings the size of small chandeliers and to her right, looking rather sharp himself, was a smiling, bow-tied Chris Christie. The New Jersey governor and the president have been in an extended hugfest since Hurricane Sandy charged up the East Coast, and the seating arrangement surely meant to send a message of bipartisanship.

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Obama's speech matched that message. "I'm looking for good partners, because while nobody in this room sees eye to eye on everything, we know that when we work together, Democrats and Republicans, north, south, east and west, we can accomplish so much more than we can on our own," said the president. "We're stronger when we work together as a team."

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The dinner is the high point of the the annual meeting of the National Governors Association, and Obama will have more to say on Monday morning when he speaks the same group again. In many ways, Sunday night's speech will serve as a pep talk for that Monday meeting, when the president is expected to hit on the very touchy subject of the massive budget cuts that take effect on March 1. If Congress can't reach a deal by then, the country's going to see an $85 million reduction in government spending.

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Around the same time that the president was speaking, the Obama administration released state-by-state reports detailing exactly how the so-called sequester will affect everyone. Obama's been personally appealing to lawmakers as well. ?"We just need Republicans in Washington to come around,"?he said in his weekly radio address on Saturday.?"Unfortunately, it appears that Republicans in Congress have decided that instead of compromising -- instead of asking anything of the wealthiest Americans -- they would rather let these cuts fall squarely on the middle class."?

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/guess-got-sit-next-michelle-obama-governors-ball-020923451.html

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