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Anti-tear reinforced heel socks exert
- DRYTEX: The rice-grain construction of the yarn and the interlock weave guarantee the maximum breathability and lightness of this fabric, ideal for athletes.
Polyester: High-tech fabric specially designed for match kits. It's light, very malleable, and tear resistant. Guaranteed to dry super fast.
For garments: Machine wash cold (30° C) - Do not bleach - Do not tumble dry - Do not use softener - Iron at low temperature - Do not iron on prints or logos - Do not dry clean
For Padel Rackets: Dry rackets off if they come into contact with water - Keep away from heat sources - Store in a Macron Padel bag, with pockets lined with waterproof material.
The FSC (Forest Stewardship Council) label indicates that the material belongs to the 'forest management and chain of custody' chain. Macron will use FSC Mixed, which contains FSC-certified materials (at least 70%), 'controlled wood' and/or post-consumer recycled materials
- 3 new polybags in different sizes made from recycled material.
- Use of GRS - Global Recycled Standard certified recycled materials
- 100% recycled low density polyethylene.
- One hole for breathability and airtight closure.
- New monochrome graphics.
The packaging process will begin 24 hours after the order has been registered. From that moment on, delivery is carried out abroad within the following 48-72 hours. Shipping costs depend on the destination country. You will be able to see the total amount to be paid directly in checkout before confirming the order.
You may return the purchased products within 60 days of receipt of the shipment. Items must be in an undamaged condition and with original labels not removed.


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Malaysia's government will begin meeting investors on Monday to discuss a potential dollar-denominated sovereign sukuk, as it looks to repay some of the debt raised by its struggling state fund 1MDB.
The fund's debt of over $11 billion is weighing on Malaysia's sovereign credit rating and has also been a factor contributing to ringgit weakness in recent months.
The government has appointed CIMB, HSBC and Standard Chartered to arrange meetings in Kuala Lumpur on Monday, Singapore on Tuesday, Hong Kong on Wednesday, Abu Dhabi and Dubai on Thursday, London on Friday and New York the following Monday, a document from lead arrangers showed.
No details on the size and tenor of the issue were provided, but sources with knowledge of the deal previously told Reuters that it would be up to $2 billion with a maturity of more than five years.
The Malaysian government would use the proceeds for sharia-compliant purposes including the redemption of 1MDB's $1.25 billion sukuk that matures in June, the document showed.
Prime Minister Najib Razak this month ordered the auditor general to examine the fund's accounts, after allegations of corruption and mismanagement.
The fund, which owns real estate and power assets, will eventually be dismantled and most of its assets will be disposed of, sources have told Reuters.
A draft prospectus seen by Reuters showed the bond issue would use the wakala format, in which certificates are issued by an originator to purchase assets that are given to an agent for management.
(Reuters / 02 April 2015)---
Alfalah Consulting - Kuala Lumpur: www.alfalahconsulting.com
Consultant-Speaker-Motivator: www.ahmad-sanusi-husain.com
Islamic Investment Malaysia: www.islamic-invest-malaysia.com

subset: commoncrawl


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The United States opened up a potentially decisive four-point lead on day three of the Presidents Cup at Muirfield Village in Ohio.
The home side led the International Team 10.5-6.5 following the completion of the four remaining foursomes matches which had been carried over from Friday and Saturday's five fourballs matches.
The American charge had been delayed due to yet more bad weather midway through the fourballs, but upon the resumption they soon wrapped up wins in four of the five matches to seize control of the contest ahead of Saturday's foursomes.
With the hosts 6.5-5.5 in front going into the fourballs, Bill Haas and Webb Simpson completed a 4&3 win over Angel Cabrera and Branden Grace.
Birdies from Haas at the sixth and ninth and Simpson at the seventh and 10th did most of the damage to put the hosts two points ahead.
Keegan Bradley and Phil Mickelson earned a 2&1 win over Ernie Els and Brendon de Jonge, who had been two up at one stage.
The American pair went from two shots down to three in front from the eighth to the 15th.
Jason Day and Graham DeLaet reduced the deficit thanks to a two-up success over Steve Stricker and Jordan Spieth, a birdie apiece over the last three holes earning the win, but it was a rare cause for cheer for the international team.
Brandt Snedeker and Hunter Mahan swifty restored the hosts' three-point lead with a two-up triumph over Louis Oosthuizen and Charl Schwartzel.
And that became four points when Tiger Woods and Matt Kuchar beat Hideki Matsuyama and Adam Scott two up, having taken three straight holes from 13 to turn the match around.
Earlier four of the six matches carried over from Friday due to a long rain delay were completed and the teams won two apiece.
Stricker and Spieth extended the hosts' lead with a 2&1 win over Grace and Richard Sterne, having held the advantage since the third hole.
Cabrera and Marc Leishman responded straight away for the international team with a 2&1 success over Simpson and Snedeker.
Birdies on the 15th and 17th did the trick after the international pair had gone from two up after 12 to all square after 14.
Woods and Kuchar convincingly beat Oosthuizen and Schwartzel 4&2 to give the Americans a two-point cushion again, but that was reduced to one when Matsuyama and Scott survived losing three straight holes from 13 to beat Jason Dufner and Zach Johnson 2&1.


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A busy news day of combative Congressional Obamacare hearings and Presidential speeches did CNN no favors in primetime last night. The Jeff Zucker-run cable network hit its lowest primetime time result among adults 25-54 in over a year Wednesday despite all the cable newers being up double digits over the day before during Health and Human Services Sec. Kathleen Sebelius' morning testimony. Between 8 PM and 11 PM last night, CNN had a mere 67,000 viewers among the key news demo. That's the worst its done in the demo since August 10 last year. With the Olympics were on NBC last August, CNN drew just 62,000 among the 25-54s that Friday. Not only was CNN behind rivals Fox News Channel (396,000) and MSNBC (127,000) but also it did worse than sister station HLN (93,000) and CNBC (79,000). The most watched show on CNN last night was Piers Morgan Live at 9 PM which got a soft 83,000 in the demo and 340,000 viewers overall. Overall CNN had 285,000 viewers in primetime last night compared to MSNBC's 683,000 and FNC's 2.312 million.
Fox Tops October Cable News Ratings With Revamped Primetime
'The Daily Show' Slams CNN Over "Dumb" Good/Bad Questions: Video
As CNN tanked, FNC's The Kelly File was back at No. 1 last night for the first time since its October 7 debut week. Building on her O'Reilly Factor lead-in, Megyn Kelly's 9 PM Fox News Channel show pulled in 445,000 in the adult 25-54 demo Wednesday. Kelly first topped heavyweight Bill O'Reilly on the second night of her show on October 8 with 623,000 in the demo to The Factor's 578,000. The spread wasn't so big last night with O'Reilly drawing 433,000 among the 25-54s. Kelly won again with 376,000 to O'Reilly's 343,000 on October 10 before settling into second place ever since. In total viewers, O'Reilly remained first last night with 2.96 million watching to Kelly's 2.350 million. Against her time slot rivals however Kelly was the easy winner. In fact, her show had more in the demo than CNN's Piers Morgan Live had in total viewers. MSNBC's Rachel Maddow Show was second in the 9 PM slot with 810,000 total viewers and 136,000 among the 25-54s. Now moved from his previous 9 PM slot to 10 PM, FNC's Hannity lost some of Kelly's crowd with his demo at 305,000 and total viewers at 1.59 million. Still that was better than CNN AC360 Later (52,000 in the demo and 193,000 total viewers) and MSNBC's Last Word With Lawrence O'Donnell (139,000 in the demo and 679,000 total viewers) put together in both categories.
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In season two of Downton Abbey, the inimical Dame Maggie Smith (who plays the "Dowager Countess") finds out that one of the family's servants will be allowed to live out his final days (after suffering an incurable war wound) in the family's lavish second floor quarters. The Countess is displeased by this and opines that "It always happens when you give these little people power, it goes to their heads like strong drink."
If you are a fan of the show, one of the 7.9 million US viewers who watched Downton Abbey kick off its third season on PBS earlier this month, you know full well that the "little people" in this early 20th century British world—the kitchen maids, ladies' maids, footmen, valets, chauffeurs, cooks, housekeepers, and butlers—have very little power. They scheme and scrap for the merest improvements in pay and job title. A few of them rise above their station, but class divisions are brutally enforced, and if anyone seems deluded with power by "strong drink," it is the titled and wealthy upstairs residents who are served an impressive array of wines and spirits on a nightly basis.
I am a fan of the show, transfixed by the class differences represented in the series which tries very hard—from the dialogue, the sumptuous costumes, and the setting—to be about another time and place. But is it? Let's look at a few of the myths that swirl around Downton Abbey and consider what we can learn about the real history behind the show— and about ourselves.
Myth #1. Noblesse oblige, the idea that nobility must act nobly, was an effective system for class management in late Victorian England. In Downton Abbey the nobles are incredibly kind to their servants. In one episode, Lady Grantham catches the kitchen staff setting up a soup kitchen (with stores from Downton Abbey) for unemployed WWI veterans. Instead of firing her staff, Lady Grantham offers to help. In another episode, as Lady Grantham is battling the Spanish flu, Lord Grantham starts a series of clandestine make-out sessions with the new maid, a war widow named Jane. She has a smart son but no connections to get him into a good school. Lord Grantham realizes that he cannot continue the affair, and Jane nobly resigns. But not before Lord Grantham gives her some financial and string-pulling aid that will help her son get a good education. In the world of Downton Abbey, servants are cared for, and sometimes even cherished.
But what about the real life English servants who toiled under the staircase in the first quarter of the 20th century? According to a California blogger the gap between rich and poor in England a century ago was frightful. The effects of poverty and malnutrition produced a five-inch difference in average height between rich and poor young men! As for the secret lives of servants, the long running British series Upstairs, Downstairs as well as Downton Abbey were both "inspired" by the real-life memoir of a servant girl, Margaret Powell, born in 1907. Her 1968 best seller, Below Stairs (recently released in the US), gave a much more negative and varied portrait of English employers. In one kind family, like that of Lady and Lord Dowell, servants received gifts of silk underwear at Christmas time. But the servants in Mrs. Hunter-Jones employ were issued thin straw mattresses (not a perk), older servants were "accidently" left out of family wills and left to age with nothing, and female servants were often impregnated by a male member of the employer's family and cast out. Powell recalls, as one reviewer explains, "how easy it was for the master to manipulate the servant."
Finally, according to historian Jennifer Newby, the servants on Downton Abbey are far too clean and well rested to approach the standards of historical realism. Most servants of the period had limited access to bathing facilities, and they were forced to work from before dawn until long after dark with few breaks. Instead of getting their own servants' party on Christmas day (as they are permitted in Downton Abbey), one servant whose diary Newby read described eating Christmas dinner "on the draining board, by the sink (again)."
Myth #2. The class hierarchies in Downton Abbey are a relic of a distant place and time. As a writer for Bitch magazine explained, "what Downton Abbey…offers for the modern viewer is the idea that, today, class differences have been overcome." Indeed on Downton Abbey the bleak separation between "upstairs" and "downstairs," the great divide in speech, dress, quarters and manner, seem utterly remote to our American sensibilities. We still believe that in America of all places a child born into a poor or working class family can rise—with relatively frequency—to become rich and famous (or at least middle class). Ironically, however, The New York Times reported just a year ago that social mobility in the United States is lower than it has been in decades and that it is lower in the US than in Canada and all of Western Europe. According to a study from 2006, only eight percent of American men born into the lowest fifth of American society were able to rise to the top fifth, compared to 12 percent in Britain and 14 percent in Denmark.
Myth #3. Americans don't have servants. First of all, yes we did. In addition to the US being a slave holding society for more than 300 years, many 19th century immigrants to the US worked as servants, as Daniel Sutherland has shown.
And, second, yes we do. The 2010 the Census Bureau reported that there were more than 700,000 nannies alone working in the US, a number which is certainly much smaller than the actual number, since so many domestic workers receive pay "under the table" and/or are undocumented immigrants. According to a shocking 2012 report on the state of domestic workers in the US today, 67 percent of live-in domestic workers are paid below their state's minimum wage, and nearly half are paid less than is required to support a family. 65 percent do not have health insurance. Many work without contracts, without a day off, and with numerous work-related pain and illnesses—including sleep deprivation. They encounter unreasonable requests from employers, about which they remain silent: "91 percent of workers who encountered problems with their working conditions…did not complain because they were afraid they would lose their job." These jobs are especially abusive, the report explains, because of the intimate nature of the work. The report described one awful (but not atypical story) of a live-in nanny who was given no bedroom of her own and was forced to sleep on a mattress on the floor—in between the children she cared for during the day.
Yesterday during his inauguration, President Obama said, "We are true to our creed when a little girl born into the bleakest poverty knows that she has the same chance to succeed as anybody else." But she does not—not today. In the US we have a large and growing underclass that has virtually no hope of advancement. We have servants that we mistreat as badly as any ruling class has ever done. And the noblesse oblige of Downton Abbey is either an aberration or a complete fiction—perhaps the most remarkable achievement of Julian Fellowes's vivid, and narratively compelling, imagination. Through Downton Abbey we transport ourselves back to a glorious past that never existed, and, at the same time, we escape from own brutal, unequal, and empire-crumbling present.
If that strikes you as too extreme, consider this. The Earl of Carnarvon, the owner of Highclere Castle where Downton Abbey is filmed, and who actively campaigned to have the series filmed there because he needed the money, thinks that people love Downton Abbey because "they miss the feudal system…because the feudal system made people feel secure." And if that sounds too extreme, consider this. Recently a group of economists determined that Tsarist Russia distributed its wealth more equally than we do in America today.
Perhaps I am being too defeatist? If so, I can't help it. As the Dowager Countess says, "Don't be defeatist dear, it's terribly middle class."
Kathy M. Newman


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(Video, Natural Society) – The following may just be one of the most hard-hitting GMO (danger) reports ever aired by the mainstream media. Who would have ever thought Fox news would admit the dangers of GMOs? After all, the mainstream media (MSM) have all but done a complete shut-out concerning activist concerns and anti-GMO marches that have happened around the globe. It looks like the evidence was piling up to be far too incontrovertible, though, as Carol Alt (a super model who has been on over 700 magazine covers) and Max Goldberg of LivingWell.com discussed the many studies that articulate the dangers of GMO crops.
If you are going to deliver bad news, it may as well come from a pretty face, right? At least Alt has a history for standing up for true alternative health methods, including raw milk, and the lessening of vaccine use.
Goldberg admits there are no long-term studies on human beings, but that lab tests involving animals are showing atrocious liver damage, kidney problems, and after just three generations of being fed a GMO diet, hamsters are basically sterile. The hosts of the show point out that the main problem is that GMOs are not labeled, but that is just the tip of the iceberg. Even if labeling were to occur, it doesn't change the fact thatGMOs are spreading uncontrollably around the world, contaminating non-GM crops and wild plants.
And those in power are pushing GMOs hard – making it difficult to fight back. Bill Gates, for example, proudly supports GMOs and has even purchased half a million shares of Monsanto stock back in 2010, so his connection with GMO development is undeniable.
This is a small caveat that the MSM offers the public, a tiny admission of the larger problem with GMOs overall when there should be a sounding of alarms to a much larger degree as an admonition of the genetically modified world. And it goes beyond food. Paper and lumber companies already have plans to liter the forests with GMO trees, another sign big business is more concerned with their wallets than the health of the planet and its people.
After Monsanto, and multiple large corporations spent millions to defeat a GMO labeling bill in Washington just weeks ago, perhaps they are finally getting the hint that GMO activists aren't going to back down. If Fox News is delivering this message, it might be a sign that the GMO Goliath is stumbling on his shoe laces, and will finally be taken down.
"No long-term studies have ever been done on humans, but when you look at the studies that have been done on animals, it's pretty appalling," Goldberg said. "You're talking about liver damage and kidney damage and when they fed it to hamsters, the third generation of hamsters weren't able to produce babies, so there's real safety issues."
"The real big issue in our country Carol, is that genetically modified food's are not labeled, so people do not know that they are eatinggenetically modified foods. Over 60 countries around the world require GMOs to be labeled but the US does not," Goldberg added. "And why is that? According to the Food & Water Watch, the Ag-Bio tech industry, which owns all these GMOs, has spent $572 million on campaign contributions and lobbying to make sure that they don't get labeled."


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Biz Bits: 'In da club' and in the stores, 50 Cent rules
The List
Hip-hop can be a lucrative business, what with the music, endorsements and side projects. Here are hip-hop's biggest earners of the year, according to Forbes.com:
1. Curtis "50 Cent" Jackson: $150 million
2. Shawn "Jay-Z" Carter: $82 million
3. Sean "Diddy" Combs: $35 million
4. Kanye West: $30 million
5. Timothy "Timbaland" Mosley: $22 million
6. Pharrell Williams: $20 million
7. Kasseem "Swizz Beatz" Dean: $17 million
8. Calvin "Snoop Dogg" Broadus: $16 million
9. André "Dr. Dre" Young: $15 million
10. Christopher "Ludacris" Bridges: $14 million
Tip of the Week: Women, boost your financial confidence
According to a new survey, while overall women tend to have clear financial priorities, many are experiencing a confidence gap. Here's some advice from www.prudential.com/women on gaining financial confidence:
- Invest in some user-friendly financial planning software and start reviewing your records. Know where your money is invested, how much debt and insurance you have. Next, make a list of areas of interest that you'd like to learn more about, such as annuities, stocks and bonds, insurance and IRAs.
- Meet with a financial planner. Ask friends and colleagues for referrals and look for someone that you feel comfortable with who specializes in financial planning for women.
- Carefully review your life and disability insurance needs, especially if you are the primary breadwinner. Life insurance can help protect a family from the devastating loss of a wage earner. Be sure to ask your financial planner if long-term care insurance is right for you.
- Max out your 401(k). This is one of the easiest, smartest things you can do to help prepare for retirement.
- Make a will or estate plan. (ARA)
Tech Tip: Customize your Web experience
Tired of all the ads, banners or images on a Web page? Thanks to a new add-on from Firefox, you can now get rid of them. The RIP (Remove It Permanently) program lets you take almost any item off a Web page. For more information, go to http://rip.mozdev.org.
In the News
Looking for a Chevy pickup with 1 million miles? Head to eBay and check out Frank Oresnik's Silverado. His first attempt at selling the truck on eBay failed to produce results (the minimum bid was $30,000), so he's trying again, this time without a minimum.
Quote of Note
"Quite frankly, the results were pretty dismal."
FDIC Chairman Sheila Bair said at a news conference announcing that the number of troubled banks has climbed to the highest number in five years.
Number to Know: $40 million
Amount of money Mattel was awarded by a federal jury in a hearing over copyright infringement of MGA's Bratz dolls. The popular dolls were conceptualized at Mattel by a designer who then went to MGA, which made Bratz.
GateHouse News Service


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Android devices has totally flooded today's smartphone market. That includes a handful of really good ones and a bunch of mediocre ones. The Android invasion has provided a lot of choices at a lot of different price points, but that makes it nearly impossible to keep up with which phones are currently the best.
So, I'm updating my list of the best Android smartphones now that we're heading into the year-end holiday season and all of the phone makers are basically done releasing big devices until the beginning of 2012.
There have been so many strong Android phones released in the last few months that my list has almost completely changed since my last big update in the spring. Only one device (the Samsung Galaxy 4G) remains on the list since April.
Another thing that's different in this update of the leaderboard is that HTC is no longer the big player. HTC owned four of the top ten spots in the spring, but only one HTC device made the list this time. The company has been passed up by Motorola, which has unleashed a fleet of high-end designs during the second half of 2011, and five of them made it on to this list, including the No. 1 choice.
Slide show
The best way to view this list is the companion photo gallery, which offers a slide show of each of the 10 Android devices. If you don't like slide shows, you can view it as a list below. I've also included a link to the full CNET review for each of the devices.
1. Motorola Droid Razr
I was extremely skeptical about this device when it was announced. Bringing back the Razr brand (Motorola's wildly popular flip phone from almost a decade ago) seemed like a bad gimmick. However, brand names aside, the exterior design of this device is thin, light, and sturdy — a great combination. It's also super fast (thanks to a 1.2 GHz CPU and Verizon LTE service), has a great screen, solid battery life, and Motorola's Webtop docking capability. Some people will find the 4.3-inch screen a little oversized and it doesn't have a removable battery, but the Razr represents the best all-around design in the Android universe, for now.
2. Samsung Galaxy Nexus
The smartphone that could soon overtake the Droid Razr for the top spot is the Galaxy Nexus, which is just hitting the market at the time I'm writing this list. This is the new "Google phone," following in the footsteps of the Nexus One and the Nexus S. It's the first phone to run Android 4.0 "Ice Cream Sandwich." It has a similar curved design to the Nexus S, which was made by Samsung. I honestly preferred the Nexus One design (made by HTC) to either of the latest Nexus hardware model. Still, the Galaxy Nexus is a versatile, fast, well-designed device that will be available on Verizon in the U.S. and a variety of other carriers worldwide.
3. Motorola Atrix 2
I called the Motorola Atrix "groundbreaking" when it was released in April. That was mostly due to its ability to dock into a laptop or desktop experience with the help of Motorola's Webtop software. Motorola has now extended Webtop to several more smartphones, and six months after releasing the first Atrix, Motorola has upgraded the product with faster internals, a newer version of Android (2.3), and a better camera. The device is sized perfectly (not oversized like the Razr) and feels sturdy and comfortable in your hand. With its docking capability and overall versatility, it's an especially good choice for professionals.
4. Samsung Galaxy S II
As I've said before, I've never been much of a fan of Samsung's smartphone designs. They use a lot of plastic, which makes the phones very light, but they also tend to feel slippery and not very sturdy. The Galaxy S II has a much nicer feel to it. The exterior is still mostly plastic but it's textured, so it feels much better in your hand. This phone is super-thin, has a great screen, and a powerful feature set. The TouchWiz UI is pretty weak, but Samsung has minimized it to the point that the standard Android UI shines through a lot more. The Galaxy S II is also one of the phones that is most universally available worldwide.
5. Motorola Droid Bionic
We had to wait all year for the Droid Bionic to arrive. It was announced at CES 2011 in January and expected to be one of the top smartphones of the year, but it faced repeated delays. The Bionic that arrived this fall looked nothing like the Bionic shown at CES (which had a similar design to the original Atrix). The Bionic now available looks like a stockier version of the old Droid X. It features an industrial-looking design, great battery life, and high-speed performance from top-notch hardware and Verizon LTE 4G service. It's not the flashiest phone on the market, but it's highly functional.
6. HTC Amaze (a.k.a. HTC Sensation)
HTC has had a tough time keeping up with Motorola in the second half of 2011, but the one HTC device that made this list is a very good one. The HTC Amaze is the name of the HTC Sensation available in the U.S. on T-Mobile. It has a compact, rounded design that reminds me of the Nexus One and the original HTC Desire. The HTC Amaze also has a dual core processor, 8MP camera, hefty design, and T-Mobile's HSPA+ network.
7. Motorola Photon
This is a cousin of the Droid Bionic mentioned above, only this one has a better hardware design and it runs on Sprint instead of Verizon. It's another speed demon. It has a dual-core NVIDIA Tegra processor and runs on the Sprint/Clearwire WiMAX network for 4G. Like the Bionic and Motorola Atrix 2, the Photon includes Motorola's Webtop software and the ability to dock into a PC-like experience on the desktop or into the laptop dock. It even has a nice little kickstand like many of the HTC devices like the ThunderBolt. This device has 4G WiMAX capability since it's exclusive to Sprint (in the U.S.).
8. T-Mobile G2x (LG)
One of the best kept secrets is the T-Mobile G2x, made by LG. Along with the Galaxy Nexus, this is the only phone on the list that runs the stock Android OS, and that's a big plus in my opinion. The G2x has a very polished, high-quality design with lots of metal. It has plenty of speed to burn and the form factor is a little smaller, similar to the HTC Amaze. It's not huge like the Droid Razr, so it's going to appeal to people who want a smaller, more portable design or simply have smaller hands.
9. Motorola Droid 3
The original Motorola Droid was the device that really launched the Android smartphone revolution (the earlier Android devices were unimpressive and failed to attract the public). The third generation Moto Droid is on this list because it's the best Android device with a hardware keyboard. Most Android buyers — even BlackBerry converts — are moving away from hardware keyboards to full touch screens, but since there are still some die-hards out there, I wanted to put at least one hardware keyboard device on the list. Other than the keyboard, the Droid 3 hardware doesn't have anything special and it lacks Verizon's 4G LTE, so keep that in mind before opting for it solely based on the keyboard.
10. Samsung Galaxy S 4G
Samsung joined the Android ecosystem with a bang in 2010, putting its Galaxy S line of smartphones on lots of different carriers in lots of different form factors. The first successor to its initial line of Android phones was the Samsung Galaxy S 4G in early 2011. It was very similar to last year's Galaxy S line but it added HSPA+ capability (which T-Mobile dubiously calls "4G") and a svelte form factor that doesn't feel quite as placticy as most of last year's models. It's not quite as nice or as powerful at the Galaxy S II, but it's also much less expensive and still a solid choice.


text: Dear Art Lover, i am eva, for me painting is an escape into the realm of colour. If my quirky paintings make you smile, I'm happy! and If you have requests or questions,, you may feel free to contact me at firstname.lastname@example.com, or send me massage 6192461547 . Thank you.


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19/08/2013 - Climate change combined with rapid population increases, economic growth and land subsidence could lead to a more than 9-fold increase in the global risk of floods in large port cities between now and 2050.
Future Flood Losses in Major Coastal Cities, published in Nature Climate Change Magazine is part of an ongoing OECD project to explore the policy implications of flood risks due to climate change and economic development.This study builds on past OECD work which ranked global port cities on the basis of current and future exposure, where exposure is the maximum number of people or assets that could be affected by a flood.
The authors estimate present and future flood losses – or the global cost of flooding - in 136 of the world's largest coastal cities, taking into account existing coastal protections. Average global flood losses in 2005, estimated at about US$6 billion per year, could increase to US$52 billion by 2050 with projected socio-economic change alone.
The cities ranked most 'at risk' today, as measured by annual average losses due to floods, span developed and developing countries: Guangzhou, Miami, New York, New Orleans, Mumbai, Nagoya, Tampa-St. Petersburg, Boston, Shenzen, Osaka-Kobe, and Vancouver. The countries at greatest risk from coastal city flooding include the United States and China. Due to their high wealth and low protection level, three American cities (Miami, New York City and New Orleans) are responsible for 31% of the losses across the 136 cities. Adding Guangzhou, the four top cities explain 43% of global losses as of 2005.
Total dollar cost is one way to assess risk. Another is to look at annual losses as a percentage of a city's wealth, a proxy for local vulnerability. Using this measure, Guangzhou, China; Guayaquil, Ecuador; Ho Chi Minh City, Viet Nam; Abidjan, Ivory Coast are among the most vulnerable.
To estimate the impact of future climate change the study assumes that mean sea level, including contributions from melting ice sheets, will rise 0.2-0.4 meters by 2050. In addition, about a quarter of the 136 cities are in deltas and exposed to local subsidence and local sea level change, especially where groundwater extraction accelerates natural processes.
An important finding of this study is that, because flood defences have been designed for past conditions, even a moderate rise in sea level would lead to soaring losses in the absence of adaptation. Inaction is not an option as it could lead to losses in excess of $US 1 trillion. Therefore, coastal cities will have to improve their flood management, including better defences, at a cost estimated around US$50 billion per year for the 136 cities.
Even with better protection, the magnitude of losses will increase, often by more than 50%, when a flood does occur. According to Dr. Stephane Hallegatte, lead author of the study, "There is a limit to what can be achieved with hard protection: populations and assets will remain vulnerable to defence failures or to exceptional events that exceed the protection design". To help cities deal with disasters when they do hit, policy makers should consider early warning systems, evacuation planning, more resilient infrastructure and financial support to rebuild economies.
The report also notes that large increases in port city flood risk may occur in locations that are not vulnerable today, catching citizens and governments off-guard. The five cities with the largest estimated increase in flood risk in 2050 are Alexandria, Egypt; Barranquilla, Colombia; Naples, Italy; Sapporo, Japan; and Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic.
For further information, journalists are invited to contact Jan Corfee-Morlot of the OECD's Development and Environment group, (tel. + 33 6 29 50 53 14).
Other author contact details:
Stephane Hallegatte, World Bank, tel: + 1 202 594 4252; firstname.lastname@example.com;
Robert Nicholls, University of Southampton and Tyndall Centre, + 44-23-8059-4139; + 44-777-8592564; firstname.lastname@example.com;
For more information on the OECD's work on development and environment please see: www.oecd.org/dac/environment-development , and on climate change, please see: www.oecd.org/env/cc or http://www.oecd.org/greencities.
Further reading (past work):
Nicholls, R., S. Hanson, C. Herweijer, N. Patmore, S. Hallegatte, J. Corfee-Morlot, J. Chateau, and R. Muir-Wood (2008) "Ranking Port Cities with High Exposure and Vulnerability to Climate Extremes: Exposure Estimates", OECD Environment Working Paper 1, OECD, Paris. Executive Summary. Supplemental scenario data.
Related Documents


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Welcome to the electric future.
What does an all-electric future look like? It looks sleek, with bold styling that gives way to a roomy, refined interior. It looks bright, with an illuminated charge port for convenience and flair. The all-electric future looks like the New Bolt EUV. And it's here today.


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First renders of 1.1M square foot 'Bay View' Google-plex designed with architecture firm NBBJ
Vanity Fair today posts the first renderings of Google's first 'from scratch' building dubbed Bay View which it is building on land it leased from NASA in 2008 for 40 years and which overlooks San Francisco Bay. The project is designed by Architecture firm NBBJ.
The more you look at the complex, however, the more intriguing it is. The new campus, which the company is calling Bay View, consists of nine roughly similar structures, most of which will be four stories high, and all of which are shaped like rectangles that have been bent in the middle. The bent rectangles are arranged to form large and small courtyards, and several of the buildings have green roofs. All of the structures are connected by bridges, one of which will bring people directly to one of the green roofs that has been done up with an outdoor café and gathering space. And cars, the bane of almost every suburban office complex, including the Googleplex, are hidden away.
By comparison, Apple's new 'Spaceship Campus' building is about 2.5 times as big.
The project was actually announced in 2011 but the press release no longer lives on the company website. From the *ahem* Google cache:
We are thrilled to announce that NBBJ has been selected to design a new 1.1 million square foot facility for Google in Mountain View, California. The scope of work includes integrated new construction, interiors and workplace design. This will be Google's first build-to-suit new construction project. Both Google and NBBJ have high expectations for sustainability and healthy, creative work environments. Together, we will explore innovative materials and processes for construction.


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Paul Begala and Mary Matalin argue the effects of Pres. Obama's speech, and why Clint Eastwood spoke to an empty chair at the RNC.
Anderson Cooper goes beyond the headlines to tell stories from many points of view, so you can make up your own mind about the news. Tune in weeknights at 8 and 10 ET on CNN.
Questions or comments? Send an email
Want to know more? Go behind the scenes with AC361°


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Jan. 28, 2009 -- Exposure to a type of chemical found in everyday items such as clothing, carpets, and food packaging may be adversely affecting women's fertility, delaying the time it takes them to become pregnant, according to a new study.
In the study, the higher the concentrations of these chemicals -- called perfluorinated chemicals (PFCs) -- in the women's blood samples, the more likely the women were to take more than 12 months to get pregnant.
"In our study, 75% of the women had concentrations that were associated with a longer waiting time [to pregnancy]," says study researcher Jorn Olsen, MD, PhD, professor and chair of epidemiology at the University of California School of Public Health. Olsen heads the Danish National Birth Cohort at the University of Aarhus in Denmark.
The study is published online in the journal Human Reproduction.
Meanwhile, representatives of manufacturers who use the chemicals say the study shows only an association, not a cause and effect, as Olsen also emphasizes. Major manufacturers who use the chemicals are participating in a voluntary phase-out of them.
Measuring PFC Levels
Olsen and his colleagues took blood samples from 1,240 women during their first pregnancy visit, when they were about four to 14 weeks pregnant, and measured concentrations of the chemicals. The researchers asked the women how long it took to become pregnant; they defined infertility as a "time to pregnancy" of longer than 12 months or the need for infertility treatment to become pregnant.
The women were part of the Danish National Birth Cohort, a study of women recruited from 1996 to 2002; most were 25 to 34. "We divided the women into equal size groups, lowest, higher, [even] higher, and highest values [of the chemicals]," Olsen tells WebMD. "We made the comparison between these groups'' in looking at the time to pregnancy.
They measured concentrations of two types of PFCs: PFOS (perfluorooctane sulfonate) and PFOAs (perfluorooctanoate). The chemicals are used to make such products as nonstick cookware and breathable clothing, among other items.
Compared to the women with the lowest levels of PFOS, women in the next three groups, with progressively higher levels of PFOS concentrations, had greater odds of taking more than 12 months to become pregnant. For instance, those in the group with the third highest concentration range of PFOS had a 2.34 times greater odds of taking more than 12 months to become pregnant than the women in the group with the lowest blood levels of the chemical.
The same was true for the concentrations of PFOAs, with women in the groups with the higher concentrations taking longer to become pregnant than women in the lowest concentration group. For instance, those with the next highest concentration of PFOAs had a two times greater odds of taking 12 months or more to become pregnant, compared to the women with the lowest concentrations of PFOAs.
"This is just an association study," Olsen says. It doesn't prove cause and effect, nor does it explain how the chemical exposures might affect fertility.
It's possible that high levels of the chemicals in the blood stream may affect the menstrual cycle, Olsen speculates, and that in turn could affect fertility.
In recent decades, the fertility rates in developed countries have declined, Olsen notes in the study report. While much of the decline can be explained by wishes to have a smaller family size and better contraception, he says some may also be due to reduced fertility. And chemical exposures may partially explain that reduction, he says.
Olsen hopes others will study the same association to see if they come up with the same findings. "If this finding can be replicated, I think we have one of the explanations for the frequent problem of long waiting times [to pregnancy]," he says.
Second Opinions
The majority of Americans probably have concentrations of PFCs in their blood, says Olga Naidenko, PHD, a senior scientist at the Environmental Working Group, a nonprofit environmental research organization based in Washington, D.C., who reviewed the study for WebMD.
"It has been used very widely and has now contaminated the environment," she says of the chemicals. The new study adds information about the effects of exposure to the chemicals on reproduction, she says.
"What they are basically seeing is that the reproductive health of these women has been severely affected by the PFCs," she says. "It is a painful shock. I don't know if I would call it a surprise."
"This is a preliminary finding," says John Heinze, PhD, a special consultant to the Fluoropolymer Products Information Center of the Society of Plastics Industries, who also reviewed the study for WebMD.
Much follow-up research will be needed, he says, to demonstrate meaning for human health.
Dan Turner, a spokesman for DuPont, which makes the chemicals, issued a statement that says, in part: "We are reviewing the study. The weight of evidence continues to indicate to us that there is no health risk to the general population."
Goals to Reduce Use of PFOAs
Efforts are under way to reduce the use of the chemicals. In 2006, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) launched the 2010/15 PFOA Stewardship Program, in which eight major companies, including DuPont, agreed voluntarily to reduce the use of PFOA and related chemicals by 95% no later than 2010.
The plan is to eliminate use of the chemicals by 2015.
The EPA began to investigate PFOA "because it is very persistent in the environment,'' according to information on the EPA web site. ''It was being found at very low levels both in the environment and in the blood of the general U.S. population, and it caused developmental and other adverse effects in laboratory animals."
What can consumers do to minimize exposure, especially if they are trying to become pregnant?
"Exposures that come from products are very low," Heinze, the industry consultant, says. "It's not a reason to discontinue using consumer products." Exposure to environmental chemicals is more the issue, he says.
According to the EPA, routine use of household products made with the chemicals does not pose a concern, based on the information available to the agency.


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(CNSNews.com) - Archbishop Timothy Broglio, who leads the Roman Catholic Archdiocese for the Military Services, wrote a letter to be read at all Sunday Masses for U.S. military personnel around the world that said that a regulation issued by the Obama Administration under the new federal health care law was "a blow" to a freedom that U.S. troops have not only fought to defend but for which some have recently died in battle.
"It is a blow to a freedom that you have fought to defend and for which you have seen your buddies fall in battle," the archbishop wrote.
Another line in his letter said: "We cannot—we will not—comply with this unjust law."
The message from the archbishop touched off a controversy both in and outside the military when the Army's Office of the Chief of Chaplains told the service's senior chaplains that Catholic priests serving as Army chaplains should be told not to read the archbishop's letter from the pulpit.
The Archdiocese for the Military Services has described that move as a violation of the archbishop's First Amendment rights as well as the First Amendment rights of the Catholic chaplains involved and their congregations.
The regulation the archbishop spoke about was finalized by Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius on Jan. 20. It mandates that all health-care plans in the United States cover sterilizations and all FDA-approved contraceptives, including those that cause abortions. A "religious" employer exemption included in the regulation only applies to organizations that primarily focus on inculcating the tenets of the church in question, primarily employ members of the church, primarily serve members of the church, and is organized under the section of the Internal Revenue Code used by actual parishes.
Catholic hospitals, universities and charitable institutions would not be exempt from the regulation, nor would Catholic individuals, business owners, or insurers.
Because the Catholic Church teaches that sterilization, artificial contraception, and abortion are morally wrong and that Catholics cannot be involved in them, and because the Obamacare law requires that all individual purchase health insurance and that larger employers provide health insurance to their workers or face a penalty, the regulation would force Catholics to act against the teachings of their faith and against their consciences.
Archbishop Broglio's letter opposing the regulation and describing it as a violation of the constitutional rights of Catholics was read verbatim at Masses served by Navy and Air Force chaplains around the world.
However, the Army's Office of the Chief of Chaplains attempted to silence Catholic Army chaplains from reading it at their Masses—an effort rejected and resisted by Archbishop Broglio.
"On Thursday, January 26, Archbishop Broglio emailed a pastoral letter to Catholic military chaplains with instructions that it be read from the pulpit at Sunday Masses the following weekend in all military chapels," the Catholic Archdiocese for the Military said in a statement.
"The letter calls on Catholics to resist the policy initiative, recently affirmed by the United States Department of Health and Human Services, for federally mandated health insurance covering sterilization, abortifacients and contraception, because it represents a violation of the freedom of religion recognized by the U.S. Constitution," said the statement by the archdiocese.
"The Army's Office of the Chief of Chaplains subsequently sent an email to senior chaplains advising them that the Archbishop's letter was not coordinated with that office and asked that it not be read from the pulpit," said the archdiocese's statement. "The Chief's office directed that the letter was to be mentioned in the Mass announcements and distributed in printed form in the back of the chapel."
On Saturday, Jan. 28, after the Army's Office of the Chief of Chaplains issued this directive, Archbishop Broglio spoke with Secretary of the Army John McHugh, a political appointee of President Barack Obama.
Archbishop Broglio's position was that, in trying to stop Catholic Army chaplains from reading his pastoral letter, the Army was violating his First Amendment rights to free speech and the free exercise of religion and the First Amendment rights of Catholic chaplains and Catholic service members.
"Archbishop Broglio and the Archdiocese stand firm in the belief, based on legal precedent, that such a directive from the Army constituted a violation of his Constitutionally-protected right of free speech and the free exercise of religion, as well as those same rights of all military chaplains and their congregants," said the statement from the archdiocese.
In his Jan. 28 telephone conversation with Army Secretary McHugh, Archbishop Broglio was able to extract from the secretary an admission that it had been wrong for the secretary to try to silence the Catholic chaplains. The archbishop decided that the line in his letter that said Catholics cannot and will not comply with the "unjust law" of the HHS regulation would not be read aloud in Catholic Masses by the chaplains, but that the rest of the letter would.
The line stating "we will not ... comply with this unjust law" did remain, however, in the printed letter that was distributed at Masses said by Army chaplains and it remains in the copies of the letter posted on the website of the Archdiocese for the Military.
"Following a discussion between Archbishop Broglio and the Secretary of the Army, The Honorable John McHugh, it was agreed that it was a mistake to stop the reading of the Archbishop's letter," said the statement by the archdiocese. "Additionally, the line: 'We cannot--we will not--comply with this unjust law' was removed [from the reading of the letter] by Archbishop Broglio at the suggestion of Secretary McHugh over the concern that it could potentially be misunderstood as a call to civil disobedience.
"The AMS did not receive any objections to the reading of Archbishop Broglio's statement from the other branches of service," said the archdiocese's statement.
Archbishop Broglio's letter minced no words in telling Catholics in the Armed Forces that the federal government was not only violating their constitutional rights through the new Obamacare regulation but was also violating the constitutional rights of all Catholics, while harming the freedom of religion generally.
"It is imperative that I call to your attention to an alarming and serious matter that negatively impacts the Church in the United directly, and that strikes at the fundamental right to religious liberty for all citizens of any faith," wrote the archbishop.
"The federal government, which claims to be 'of, by, and for the people,' has just dealt a heavy blow to almost a quarter of those people—the Catholic population—and to the millions more who are served by the Catholic faith," wrote the archbishop.
"It is a blow to a freedom that you have fought to defend and for which you have seen your buddies fall in battle," said Archbishop Broglio.
The archbishop made clear that the regulation seeks to force not only Catholic institutions but also individuals, employers and insurers to provide and/or purchase immoral services.
"The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services announced last week that almost all employers, including Catholic employers, will be forced to offer their employees' health coverage the includes sterilization, abortion-inducing drugs, and contraception," said Archbishop Broglio. "Almost all health insurers will be forced to include these immoral 'services' in the health policies they write. And almost all individuals will be forced to buy that coverage as a part of their policies."
Archbishop Broglio declared that the Administration's regulation was an "unjust law" and warned that Catholics would resist it.
"In so ruling," he wrote, "the Administration has cast aside the First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States, denying Catholics our Nation's first and most fundamental freedom, that of religious liberty.
"And, as a result, unless the rule is overturned, we Catholics will be compelled to choose between violating our consciences or dropping health care coverage for our employees (and suffering the penalties for doing so)," said the archbishop.
"We cannot—and will not—comply with this unjust law," he wrote.
When she finalized the regulation last month, HHS Secretary Sebelius said she would give religious non-profit organizations—such as Catholic hospitals, universities and charitable institutions—until Aug. 1, 2013 to "adapt" to the new regulation and comply with it. For Catholic business owners, insurers and individuals the rule will take effect this Aug. 1.
In comments on the regulation submitted to HHS in September, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops called it an "unprecedented attack on religious liberty" and urged the administration to completely rescind it. "The HHS mandate should be rescinded in its entirety," the bishops said.
In November, Archbishop Timothy Dolan of New York, the president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, personally made the Catholic Church's case for rescinding the regulation to President Barack Obama.
Over the past week, White House Press Secretary Jay Carney has repeatedly defended the regulation, saying at one point that it did not raise any "constitutional issues."
A spokesman for the Army's Office of the Chief of Chaplains told CNSNews.com that the office sent an email out to senior chaplains around the world a week ago Friday asking that Archbishop Broglio's letter not be read during Mass last Sunday but only be mentioned during Mass and then handed out afterwards.
A spokesman for the Army's Office of the Chief of Chaplains told CNSNews.com that the office sent an email out to senior chaplains around the world a week ago Friday asking that Archbishop Broglio's letter not be read during Mass last Sunday but only be mentioned during Mass and then handed out afterwards.
"The Army was concerned that the letter included language that could be misunderstood in a military environment," the spokesman said.
An Army spokesman told National Review Online on Friday that "the Army became aware of the Archbishop's letter last Friday (Jan. 27) and was concerned that the letter contained language that might be misunderstood in a military setting. The Army asked that the letter not be read from the pulpit. Instead, the letter would have been referenced in announcements and made available in the back of the chapel for the faithful, if they wished, as they departed after the Mass. The Army greatly appreciates the Archbishop's consideration of the military's perspective and is satisfied with the resolution upon which they agreed."


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H-P leads Dow to its fourth day of gains in May
NEW YORK – Hewlett-Packard helped pull the Dow Jones industrial average to a slight gain Thursday, giving the index only its fourth gain this month.
Stocks flipped between gains and losses throughout the day after a meeting of European leaders failed to deliver new steps to ease the region's debt crisis.
The Dow closed up 33.60 points at 12,529.75. Fears that Europe's troubles could turn into a worldwide financial crisis have pushed the 30-stock average down 5 percent this month, erasing most of its gains for the year.
U.S economic news gave traders little direction. Orders for long-lasting factory goods edged up in April, but a key category that tracks business investment spending fell for the second month in a row. The number of people applying for unemployment benefits dipped last week.
The potential for bad news to roil markets is so high that many investors would prefer to sit it out, said Stephen Carl, head equity trader at the Williams Capital Group.
"Uncertainty is playing a big part here," Carl said. "You don't know which way things are going to go."
Hewlett-Packard rose 3 percent after the maker of personal computers and printers said it plans to purge 27,000 employees, nearly 8 percent of the company's payroll. H-P expects the layoffs, part of a turnaround program under CEO Meg Whitman, to save $3 billion or more.
European leaders wrapped up their latest summit Thursday with no new concrete steps to fix the continent's financial crisis, even as worries rise about a messy Greek exit from the euro currency union.
Markets in Europe recovered from a huge sell-off the day before. Germany's DAX increased 0.5 percent and the CAC-40 in France 1 percent.
In U.S. trading, the Standard & Poor's 500 index edged up 1.82 to 1,320.68. The Nasdaq composite index fell 10.74 points to 2,839.38.
Fears that Greece will drop the euro and set off a wider financial crisis have driven traders out of stocks and into the Treasury market this month. The surge in demand for Treasurys has knocked yields to all-time lows.
As a result, the U.S. federal government has been borrowing from bond markets at ever cheaper rates. The Treasury auctioned off seven-notes Thursday afternoon at 1.20 percent, the lowest rate on record.
Airline stocks surged. Analysts at JPMorgan Chase expect a drop in jet-fuel prices over the past three months to lift airlines' profits. US Airways Group jumped 11 percent and Delta Air Lines rose 5 percent. Southwest Airlines climbed 5 percent after the company said it plans to offer international flights from Houston's Hobby Airport.
Among other stocks making big moves:
— Tiffany & Co. plunged 7 percent after the luxury retailer cut its 2012 sales forecast, citing slower spending growth in the U.S. and other countries.
— Data-storage company NetApp sank 12 percent. NetApp expects much weaker profit in the current quarter as a result of "increasing uncertainty" in the global economy.
— Pandora Media surged 12 percent after the online radio provider reported a smaller quarterly loss than analysts had expected. Ad sales and subscriptions soared over the year before. Pandora said it accounted for nearly 6 percent of all radio listening in the U.S..


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DALLAS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The Women Presidents' Organization (WPO) today released the sixth ranking of the 50 Fastest-Growing Women-Owned/led companies in North America in its annual program sponsored by American Express OPEN, the small business division of American Express. The Top 50 generated a combined $3.2 billion in 2012 revenues and collectively employed 24,000 people in 2012.
Happy Family, which offers a complete line of organic meals and snacks for families based in New York, has taken the top spot for 2013. Shazi Visram, founder and chief executive officer saw her 10-year-old company's revenue quadruple in two years from $13.3 million in 2010 to $62.3 million in 2012.
Strategic Communications, a Louisville-based provider of technology services, tripled her company's employment within a two year span to take second place this year. Kathy Mills, chief executive officer, has also nearly doubled the company's revenues from $23.1 million in 2010 to $41.2 million in 2012.
"This year more than half of the companies in the Top 50 are new to the ranking and this trend illustrates how diverse women-owned and led companies are," said Marsha Firestone, Ph. D., president and founder of WPO. "We are so pleased to continue our partnership with American Express OPEN in honoring these trailblazing women and their amazing accomplishments."
Research commissioned by American Express OPEN earlier this year shows that the number of women-owned firms pulling in $10 million or more in annual sales has jumped by 57% over 10 years.
"American Express OPEN is honored to support this elite group of women who represent the full spectrum of industries and have become leaders within the women business community," said Randi Schochet, vice president at American Express OPEN. "Entrepreneurship is an exciting option for women, and the honorees we recognize today are excellent role models for women entrepreneurs, focusing on growth and thereby creating jobs and boosting the economy."
All submitted companies were ranked according to a sales growth formula that combines percentage and absolute growth. From this list, the 50 Fastest were selected. To be qualified for the ranking, businesses are required to be privately held, woman-owned/led companies in the U.S. or Canada and reached annual revenue of at least $500,000 in 2007 and $2 million in 2012.
More about the 2013 WPO Top 50:
- The average revenue grew from $24.9 million in 2008 to $64.5 million in 2012
- Founded the business: 90%
- Average age: 47
- Average number of projected 2013 employees: 641
In order to help the Top 50 continue to seize even more business opportunities, each of the honored business owners will be offered a $500 American Express gift card.
All 50 companies will be honored at a special event hosted by American Express OPEN at the 2013 WPO Annual Conference in Dallas, TX on May 2, 2013. The awards reception will take place from 6 – 9PM at the Fairmont Dallas Hotel.
The WPO's 2013 Top 50 Fastest-Growing Women-Owned/Led Companies are:
|Entrepreneur Name
|Company Name
|City, State/Province
|Shazi Visram
|Happy Family
|New York, NY
|Kathy Mills
|Strategic Communications
|Louisville, KY
|Shelly Sun
|BrightStar Franchising, LLC
|Gurnee, IL
|Tiffany Crenshaw
|Intellect Resources
|Greensboro, NC
|June Ressler
|Cenergy International Services, LLC
|Houston, TX
|Sue Bhatia
|Rose International, Inc.
|Chesterfield, MO
|Anita Emoff
|Boost Technologies
|Dayton, OH
|Kathleen Croddick
|Suite K Value Added Services, LLC
|South Brunswick, NJ
|Lani Hay
|Lanmark Technology
|Vienna, VA
|Ranjini Poddar
|Artech Information Systems, LLC
|Cedar Knolls, NJ
|Tracy Balazs
|Federal Staffing Resources, LLC
|Annapolis, MD
|Lori Ann Blaker
|TTi Global
|Rochester Hills, MI
|Phyllis W. Newhouse
|Xtreme Solutions, Inc.
|Atlanta, GA
|Claudine George
|Troy, MI
|Joy Taylor
|TayganPoint Consulting Company
|Lambertville, NJ
|Sarah Valentini
|Radius Financial Group, Inc.
|Norwell, MA
|Jacqueline B Wilson
|American Fashion Network, LLC
|Manlius, NY
|Elizabeth Elting
|New York, NY
|Therese Tucker
|BlackLine Systems
|Los Angeles, CA
|Terry Lehmann
|True Green Enterprises, Inc.
|Boca Raton, FL
|Pamela O'Rourke
|ICON Information Consultants LP
|Houston, TX
|Allison McGrath Judge
|Statesboro, GA
|Leslie A. Firtell, Esq.
|Tower Legal Solutions
|New York, NY
|Shari Sandifer
|Avant Healthcare Professionals
|Casselberry, FL
|Jennifer Smith
|Innovative Office Solutions, LLC
|Burnsville, MN
|Kara Trott
|Quantum Health
|Columbus, OH
|Valerie Freeman
|Anserteam, LLC
|Dallas, TX
|Leonora Valvo
|Norwalk, CT
|Keeli Jernigan
|Trans-Expedite, Inc.
|El Paso, TX
|Noha Waibsnaider
|Peeled Snacks
|Brooklyn, NY
|Sonja Hines
|H&S Resources Corporation
|Columbia, MD
|Elaine Osgood
|Atlas Travel
|Milford, MA
|Annalisa Xioutas
|Florida's Finest Industries, Inc.
|Fort Myers, FL
|Rebecca Cenni
|Atrium Staffing, LLC
|New York, NY
|Marianne Lancaster
|Lancaster Packaging, Inc.
|Hudson, MA
|Anjali Ramakumaran
|Ampcus, Inc.
|Chantilly, VA
|Carol Craig
|Craig Technologies
|Cape Canaveral, FL
|Barbara Levine
|Exam Coordinators Network
|Boca Raton, FL
|Bernadette Milito
|CSS Building Services, Inc.
|Dayton, NJ
|Celeste Gudas
|24 Seven, Inc.
|New York, NY
|Carrie Kerpen
|Likeable Media
|New York, NY
|Nancy McFarlane
|MedPro RX, Inc.
|Raleigh, NC
|Marie Seipenko
|Preferred Solutions, Inc.
|Northville, MI
|Orit Koren
|Trillium FSB Inc.
|Concord, ON
|Lisa David
|eCapital Advisors, LLC
|Bloomington, MN
|Suzanne Bachur
|Premiere Executive Suites/Atlantic Limited
|Halifax, NS
|Jessica Firestone
|Tempest Telecom Solutions, LLC
|Santa Barbara, CA
|Barbara Ross-Denroche
|The Refinery Leadership Partners, Inc.
|Vancouver, BC
|Cheryl Y Biron
|One Horn Transportation
|Wayne, NJ
|Stephanie Point
|Point 2 Point Global Security, Inc.
|Addison, TX
About the Women Presidents' Organization (WPO)
The WPO is the premier peer advisory organization connecting women who own multi-million dollar companies. In monthly meetings across four continents (North America, South America, Europe, and Africa) chapters of 20 women presidents – from diverse industries – invest time and energy in themselves and their businesses to drive their corporations to the next level. Local WPO chapters are coordinated by a professional facilitator and meet monthly to share business expertise and experience in a confidential setting. For more information, call 212-688-4114 or visit www.womenpresidentsorg.com.
About American Express OPEN
American Express OPEN is the leading payment card issuer for small businesses in the United States and supports business owners and entrepreneurs with products and services to help them run and grow their businesses. This includes business charge and credit cards that deliver purchasing power, flexibility, rewards, savings on business services from an expanded lineup of partners and online tools and services designed to help improve profitability. Learn more at www.OPEN.com and connect with us at openforum.com and twitter.com/openforum.
American Express is a global services company, providing customers with access to products, insights and experiences that enrich lives and build business success. Learn more at americanexpress.com and connect with us on facebook.com/americanexpress, foursquare.com/americanexpress, linkedin.com/companies/american-express, twitter.com/americanexpress, and youtube.com/americanexpress.
Key links to products and services: charge and credit cards, business credit cards, travel services, gift cards, prepaid cards, merchant services, business travel, and corporate card.


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While camera manufacturers such as Minolta are exiting the photography market altogether, computer companies are sneaking in through the back door. Along with the likes of BenQ, which sell rebadged Pentax compact cameras, Acer has also joined the fray. The 6Mp Acer CE-6430 looks a bit of a bargain at just £110, with some other 6Mp compact cameras like the impressive Fujifilm F30 costing more than twice the price.
The Acer's specification list puts ticks in most of the right boxes. Along with a sizeable 2.4-inch LCD, the 3x zoom lens gives an equivalent focal length to a 34-102mm lens on a 35mm camera. This offers a useful wide-angle setting at one end and a short telephoto at the other. Distortion is reasonably well controlled even at both extremities of the zoom range. For a top-up at the telephoto end, there's also 1x to 4x digital zoom, although image quality drops off quite alarmingly the more digital zoom you use.
Along with fully automatic and 'Program' shooting modes, you get four scene modes: Portrait, Landscape, Sport and Night settings. These all do pretty much what they say on the tin. Further tweaks enable burst shooting mode, with up to three shots per second, manual override of white balance, /-2 EV exposure compensation and all the usual flash modes. However, there are no slow-sync or rear-curtain settings.
Other standard fare includes a self-timer and a macro mode, which works down to a distance of 5cm. Frustratingly, however, Macro mode is only useful at wide-angle zoom lengths, and a minimum focus distance of 30cm is required at the telephoto end.
Switching the camera on, our review model took about four seconds to ready itself, which is pretty average. More frustratingly, after each shot, the camera took almost four seconds to write to even a high-speed SanDisk Ultra II SD card. You can take a second shot in slightly less than this four second period, but you can't adjust the zoom for full use of the camera until the write phase is completed.
Cost cutter
One cost-cutting measure in the CE-6430 is its relatively small 1/2.5-inch CCD sensor. Squeezing 6Mp out of this makes image noise diffi cult to deal with, which is no doubt why the Acer's maximum sensitivity is a disappointing 200 ISO.
By contrast, the Kodak EasyShare C360 and Panasonic DMC-LS2 opt for a more conservative 5Mp resolution from this sensor size, offering maximum sensitivities of 800 and 400 ISO respectively. As it is, image noise on the Acer is minimal at its base 64 ISO setting, rather noticeable at 100 ISO and quite poor at 200 ISO.
The Acer was poor at shooting at 200 ISO, with images being appallingly over-exposed. Strangely, the problem didn't occur when the camera selected ISO 200 while it was in Auto ISO mode, but dialling the setting in manually made the camera unusable.
Auto white balance performance was also poor, often giving dreadful colour accuracy in our tests. Overall, we'd be much happier spending the money on a Panasonic DMC-LS2 or a Kodak C360 instead. Matthew Richards


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Rival gangs face off on the basketball court in Chicago once a week. It's an effort to foster peace between sworn enemies on the streets and reduce violence. CNN's Gary Tuchman reports courtside on the initiative and the man behind the league, Reverend Michael Pfleger.
Post by: Gary Tuchman
Filed under: Chicago Killings • Guns
Anderson Cooper goes beyond the headlines to tell stories from many points of view, so you can make up your own mind about the news. Tune in weeknights at 8 and 10 ET on CNN.
Questions or comments? Send an email
Want to know more? Go behind the scenes with AC361°


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This year has felt like a year of big changes for me – aside from the arrival of a new family member, my photographic focus has also changed. This is true of both professional and personal work; the former has become increasingly freestyle and less considered, and the latter has done the opposite and become more deliberate and structured. I'll frequently go out with a tripod on a walk but haven't used it on my last two assignments. I've set up flash still lifes at home, but opted for natural light during my last portrait (!) shoot. I've made three system changes (so far) and it's only August. The problem is, none of them quite sit right. And I think this means it's time to go back to the beginning. I've always said the gear doesn't matter, your vision does. That has not changed. But the right – or wrong – hardware can make your life much more enjoyable or just a struggle. And if you notice your camera when shooting, it's usually a problem: it means you can't get in 'the zone' and you're wasting attention on technical problems when it should really be focused on the idea and the composition. This is my current problem: I've somehow landed up in a position where I'm not just noticing the camera, but frequently fighting it. (Attempting to pull critical focus at f1.4 with a manual focus lens on a moving target at 50MP in twilight might have something to do with it).
I wrote an article on selecting equipment about a month ago; ironic that I'm now having to revisit the process myself. The problem is twofold: firstly, there are very specific tools for very specific purposes that excel at that and that task only – think studio macro tripod work with flashes, or architecture in confined spaces – and the rest of the time, it's merely an expensive paperweight. This isn't so bad if you have the work to pay for it, but the problem comes when you're on assignment or travelling and you have a weight budget imposed by both your airline and your spine. It's all good and well to suggest a gym, and you might be able to carry 25kg of gear for a week in the field, but that doesn't mean you're going to be relaxed and happy and creative after doing so. Assuming of course you get past the check in people to begin with. And here comes the crux of my current problem: there is specific gear for specific tasks, but I typically have to do many tasks on one job/trip, and that means either compromising some, not doing some, or being a mule.
None of those options is ideal: the first because you know there's a compromise, the second not just because it's bad for business but most critically results in creative frustration, and the third because…well, it's just unpleasant. I would like to have the 5DSR and Otuses and the Cube and geared Gitzo 5-series for when I have time to work slowly with a static subject. I'd like to have the set of PCEs and D810 for challenging dynamic range situations and things that must be straight. I'd like to have the 24-120VR for when I see something I need to grab quickly, and I'd like to have my fast AF primes for when I need to record something in low light. It's somewhat easier on assignment because you can tell yourself that you just need to let some things pass because you're there to do something else, but much harder if you don't have that imposed limitation.
The 5DSR is a fair weather friend and capable of delivering some amazing results under ideal circumstances, but stray outside that optimal operating window (low light, high contrast, reliance on any of the auto metering modes, etc. for starters) and you quickly land up with files that have very little latitude and wonky metering that means you may well be both a stop or two out and not have room to recover it. And if you miss, you've got less perceptual acuity and resolution than the D810 or even one of the 24MP cameras.
The D810 is pretty close to being multipurpose, but it too suffers in lower light (though not as much, and has both better metering and more latitude) and there's a very noticeable difference in both color and printability. The 5DSR is clearly a notch better on both counts. I've also got a full M4/3 system, which delivers the same sort of file over a far wider envelope than either the Nikon or the Canon, but that sort of file has even less latitude and is even less printable. That said, by the time you hit ISO 3200 on the two high-resolution cameras, ISO 400 or so on the Olympus isn't resolving much less detail thanks to the IBIS. And there are some situations which are so physically tight you're not going to get that much gear down there anyway (some of my underground documentary assignments, for instance). Added to this, I've also got almost full lens coverage from 24mm or thereabouts to 200mm+ on all systems, with fast primes in addition.
It's time to take a step back to consider what I shoot most of the time:
Corporate reportage and documentary. It's mostly unscripted, impromptu run and gun in available light situations. Printability matters, which means there has to be a tradeoff between ability to grab the shot and ability to go large. The D810 is probably the best tool here, with the Leica Q riding shotgun. In practical situations – i.e. handheld and above base ISO – the 5DSR's image quality starts to fall of very quickly. At 3200 and up I'd rather have a D750.
Architecture and interiors. The 5DSR and various TS lenses fills the bill, unless light is particularly hard – in which case the D810 substitutes with its extra dynamic range.
Product. The 5DSR is actually not the ideal choice here because there is a necessity to balance depth of field and diffraction limits – not to mention the flash system. So the D810 and PCEs are again the weapon of choice. This is one of the downsides with the Canon: to extract all of the potential resolution, one has to very, very carefully manage depth of field and diffraction otherwise you'll either have strong resolving power only in one small part of the frame, or a frustrating lack of acuity everywhere. This limits your lenses, your working distances, your working apertures, and means that you'll have to choose between odd creative restrictions to maximise potential, or defeat the point of buying the thing and leave image quality on the table.
The 'others': landscape, abstracts, still lifes, family stuff, workshops. Here it gets confusing: in the same order, 5DSR, Olympus (due to extended depth of field) or 5DSR (printability), 5DSR or D810, Olympus, and doesn't really matter. What do I pick when I'm going to shoot for myself? I stand staring at the cupboard for several minutes.
Note that none of this covers the intangible stuff: what's it like to shoot? What's it like in the hand? Professional support? System completeness? Power management? If you're holding the thing for twelve or more hours a day, days on end, then the little things start to matter very quickly. Though it seems that re-entering around the D810 is the logical choice, I cannot ignore that I now much prefer the feel and ergonomics of the Canon. The D810 is now somewhat uncomfortable by comparison when I use it, and the shutter has noticeably more vibration. But you do gain a battery that lasts three times as long, metering that's far more accurate, and highlights that never seem to clip. The E-M5 II remains only for handheld video and stuff that doesn't benefit from more resolution – family stuff, mainly. There is no real choice between spare diapers or a larger camera, either. Even then you land up with frankenmonsters like this:
Packing for a job where I'm likely to encounter more than one different type of work has become a nightmare of paralysis, because I want to pack far too much in order to be ready for anything – which means in reality ready for nothing except overweight baggage charges as you're playing musical lenses and bodies. Eight or nine lenses and three bodies is not unusual for me of late. I've found myself frustrated with compromises in the field more than once recently, because an unexpected situation you want to take advantage of lies just outside the equipment envelope of capability. It really seems that the more technology advances, and the more choice we're given, the less of a solution we really have. It's not even wishing for the impossible – the technology exists, just not in one place. And sometimes because of reasons that are incomprehensible (if only those Otuses had AF, for starters).
Though I approach this whole thing with as much rationality as possible – I am running a business, after all – it's really not easy to do because one's personal feelings towards the gear do affect how you shoot and your creative frame of mind. As much as I'd like to follow my own whimsy, it does me no good professionally if I'm not able to operate the gear with the familiarity of an involuntary reflex. By the same token, whilst some tools get the job done, they're not enjoyable to use for one reason or another – and that makes them unsuited to casual pleasure and experimentation, and as a result they don't advance your creative development, either. I don't think I've hit a creative wall by any means; I'm just frustrated because I know what my hardware can do under very narrow ideal conditions, and that optimum peak is both very small and very steep.
I am not a gearhead for the sake of it or because I'm obsessed with the gear: it's because I know what I want/need, and you often don't know which compromises are workable and which are not until you get the stuff in the field. I'd like to carry less and be more focused, but I don't want to compromise on image quality or printability. I cannot help but think that like our current government, it's time for yet another major cabinet reshuffle at MT HQ…I don't know which direction it's going to take yet, but there's more than a niggling feeling there will be both a lot of casualties and some unexpected rationalisations at the end of it. MT
Coda: There will be one more change. After the number of incredibly rude emails, messages and comments following the recent post, I have decided I am going to stop pulling punches. If you want to troll, go join the rest of your breathen under the bridge at DPR. If you are immature enough that your camera is your religion and you cannot distinguish between objectivity and personal attack, or had parents who never taught the basics of civil interaction, you will be dispatched and banned. If you want to criticise, remember that your own work is also out there for evisceration – or if it isn't, then you have zero credibility. It seems to be far too easy to forget that the internet does not absolve you of manners and you are a guest here. I do this for free, and I reserve the right to a) stop when this is no longer enjoyable, and b) kick out those who seem to delight in making life a pain for everybody else. That is all.
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Thursday, Feb. 20
The Tulane Black Arts Festival is in progress, and the rest of the weekend includes a documentary screening, arts showcases and more. Info here.
The usual All-Star Comedy Revue on Thursdays at the House of Blues is taken over by "Choke, Bomb or Kill It," a stand-up comedy game show where audience members can win prizes. Info here.
The Creative Alliance of New Orleans hosts "Bal des Artistes," a 1920s-themed carnival ball celebrating art in various mediums. The event includes food, drinks, performances, a silent auction and beignets courtesy of the event host, Morning Call. Info here.
And the Ball and All, Ricky Graham's comedy following the fictitious Mystic Krewe of Terpsichore and its yatty krewe organizers (Becky Allen and Amanda Hebert), opens tonight at Rivertown. Info here.
The legendary indie rock band Neutral Milk Hotel, which has some roots in Ruston, performs tonight and tomorrow at the Civic. The shows are mostly sold out, but there might be some tickets floating around. Info here.
The unfortunate thing about Carnival is how much is wasted through throws, many of which are made overseas. "Throw Me Something Local!" is a "green" Mardi Gras ball that supports groups trying to make Carnival more eco-friendly and centered on locally made throws. Info here.
Friday, Feb. 21
Carnival parades start rolling tonight, with krewes processing on both the Uptown and Metairie routes. Check out our parade guide for some picks for the upcoming season.
Also, Family Gras in Metairie gets started tonight with music by Amanda Shaw and Cowboy Mouth. Info here.
Saturday, Feb. 22
Tonight's a great night to check out some alternative Carnival processions. 'tit Rex, a parade of meticulously crafted miniature floats, rolls in the Marigny. That's followed by the Intergalactic Krewe of Chewbacchus, a celebration of all things nerdy.
Sunday, Feb. 23
Classic rockets the Eagles perform at the recently renamed Smoothie King Center tonight. Info here.


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NEW ORLEANS — BP said Thursday that it will pay $4.5 billion in a settlement with the U.S. government over the disastrous 2010 oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico and plead guilty to criminal charges related to the deaths of 11 workers and lying to Congress.
The day of reckoning comes more than two years after the nation's worst offshore oil spill. The figure includes nearly $1.3 billion in criminal fines — the biggest criminal penalty in U.S. history — along with payments to certain government entities.
A person familiar with the settlement said two BP employees will also face manslaughter charges over the 11 deaths in the oil-rig explosion that triggered the spill. The person was not authorized to discuss the matter on the record and spoke on condition of anonymity.
Up to now, the only person charged in the disaster was a former BP engineer who was arrested in April on obstruction of justice charges. He was accused of deleting text messages about the company's response to the spill.
"We believe this resolution is in the best interest of BP and its shareholders," said Carl-Henric Svanberg, BP chairman. "It removes two significant legal risks and allows us to vigorously defend the company against the remaining civil claims."
The settlement, which is subject to approval by a federal judge, includes payments of nearly $2.4 billion to the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, $350 million to the National Academy of Sciences and about $500 million to the Securities and Exchange Commission. The SEC accused BP of misleading investors by lowballing the amount of crude spewing from the ruptured well.
London-based BP said in a statement that the settlement would not cover any civil penalties the U.S. government might seek under the Clean Water Act and other laws. Nor does it cover billions of dollars in claims brought by states, businesses and individuals, including fishermen, restaurants and property owners.
A federal judge in New Orleans is weighing a separate, proposed $7.8 billion settlement between BP and more than 100,000 businesses and individuals who say they were harmed by the spill.
BP will plead guilty to 11 felony counts of misconduct or neglect of a ship's officers, one felony count of obstruction of Congress and one misdemeanor count each under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act and the Clean Water Act. The workers' deaths were prosecuted under a provision of the Seaman's Manslaughter Act. The obstruction charge is for lying to Congress about how much oil was spilling.
Attorney General Eric Holder was scheduled to discuss the settlement at an afternoon news conference in New Orleans.
The penalty will be paid over five years. BP made a profit of $5.5 billion in the most recent quarter. The largest previous corporate criminal penalty assessed by the U.S. Justice Department was a $1.2 billion fine imposed on drug maker Pfizer in 2009.
Greenpeace blasted the settlement as a slap on the wrist.
"This fine amounts to a rounding error for a corporation the size of BP," the environmental group said.
Nick McGregor, oil analyst at Redmayne-Bentley Stockbrokers, said the settlement would be seen as "an expensive positive."
"This scale of bill is unpleasant, but I think it will be seen over time as being positive. The worst-case scenario for BP would be an Exxon Valdez-style decade of litigation," he said. "I think that is the outcome they are trying to avoid."
The Deepwater Horizon rig, 50 miles off the Louisiana coast, sank after an April 20, 2010, explosion that was later blamed by investigators on time-saving, cost-cutting decisions by BP and its drilling partners in cementing the well shaft.
The well on the sea floor spewed an estimated 172 million gallons of crude in the Gulf, fouling marshes and beaches, killing wildlife and shutting vast areas to commercial fishing.
After several failed attempts that introduced the American public to such industry terms as "top kill" and "junk shot," BP finally capped the well on July 15, 2010, halting the flow of oil after more than 85 days and putting an end to one of the most closely watched spectacles on TV and the Internet: the live spill-camera image of the gushing crude.
Nelda Winslette's grandson Adam Weise of Yorktown, Texas, was killed in the blast. She said somebody needs to be held accountable.
"It just bothers me so bad when I see the commercials on TV and they brag about how the Gulf is back, but they never say anything about the 11 lives that were lost. They want us to forget about it, but they don't know what they've done to the families that lost someone," she said.
The spill exposed lax government oversight and led to a temporary ban on deep-water drilling while officials and the oil industry studied the risks, worked to make it safer and developed better disaster plans. BP's environmentally friendly image was tarnished, and CEO Tony Hayward stepped down after the company's repeated gaffes, including his statement at the height of the crisis: "I'd like my life back."
The cost of BP's spill far surpassed that of the Exxon Valdez disaster in 1989. Exxon ultimately settled with the U.S. government for $1 billion, which would be about $1.8 billion today.
The government and plaintiffs' attorneys also sued Transocean Ltd., the rig's owner, and cement contractor Halliburton, but a string of pretrial rulings by a federal judge undermined BP's legal strategy of pinning blame on them.
U.S. District Carl Barbier in New Orleans will have the final say over the settlement.
He is also the judge deciding whether to give final approval to the $7.8 billion deal involving shrimpers, commercial fishermen, charter captains, property owners, environmental groups, restaurants, hotels and others who claimed they suffered financial losses.
Relatives of workers killed in the blast have also sued. And there are still other claims against BP from financial institutions, casinos and racetracks, insurance companies and local governments.
Associated Press writer Pete Yost in Washington contributed to this story.


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Anna Kournikova Scores Gig on 'Biggest Loser'
It's official, tennis hottie Anna Kournikova has signed a deal to join "The Biggest Loser" next season -- while THREE current stars of the show will be on their way out.
Producers confirm the 29-year-old will join the show as a celebrity trainer ... but trainers Jillian Michaels, Brett Hoebel and Cara Castronuova will not return for Season 12.
Exec. producer Todd Lubin tells New York Magazine the decision to hire Anna was all part of an effort to reboot the show for it's 12th season.
We're "getting slightly away from just the tape measure, and getting into overall well being and health. That's where Loser needs to go" explains Lubin.
He continues ... "She grew up with very little in Moscow, pounding tennis balls every day when she was 5. That's the drive she's bringing to the show."


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Yogini Ekadashi occurs during the waning phase of the moon in the Hindu month of Ashadha (June – July) as per traditional Hindu calendar followed in North India. In 2015, the date of Yogini Ekadashi is June 12. The importance of this Ekadasi was explained to Yudhisthira by Lord Krishna. Fasting on this Ekadashi helps in overcoming the remorse caused by sins committed and also helps in achieving 'moksha.'
The significance of Yogini Ekadasi is mentioned in Brahma Vaivarta Purana. The Purana narrates the tale of a gardener named Hemamali who overcame a curse, which made him a leper, by observing a fast on Yogini Ekadasi. The gardener was instructed by sage Markandeya about the Ekadashi.
A fast on this day is believed to help in washing away the sins committed and in leading a pious life.
All the usual rules associated with Ekadasi fasting are observed on the day. The fast begins with the sunrise on Ekadasi day and ends with sunrise on the next day.
source – http://www.hindu-blog.com/2008/06/yogini-ekadasi.html