Hussey's retirement has changed some ground rules claims Mickey ...

Hussey?s retirement has changed some ground rules claims Mickey Arthur ? Cricket News Update

Australian coach, Mickey Arthur, said that the looming retirement of Michael Hussey has forced a rethink over their selection priorities, opening the door for even some of the old hands to help the team fill the experience gap, left by Hussey and Ricky Ponting, on tough upcoming tours to India and England.

"When you have Ponting, Hussey and Clarke, it was all about injecting some youth into our side," Arthur told the Sydney Morning Herald. "The ground rules have changed now because we've lost a massive amount of experience. That's why we need to sit down and chat. Is it another experienced player, or are we happy to go with a young gun? There's a lot of guys who come under consideration now."

Arthur?s words somewhat confirmed the dire state of Australian cricket, where they will have to look for possible candidates who have proven their mettle at domestic level over the past years, but have not been able to make it to the national side due to Cricket Australia?s reluctance to have a preferred balance between youth and experience in the side.

However, with skipper Michael Clarke the only certain thing in their cricket for now, due to his imperious form and leadership capabilities, the Kangaroos remain eager to not only place onus on a couple of the younger players, but also on wiser heads.

That puts the likes David Hussey, Brad Haddin and Rob Quiney in contention to get back in the national team reckoning. Hussey?s name has made the rounds over the past week, with even his younger brother picking him as his replacement.

Although David has proved himself as a reliable campaigner, due to his remarkable domestic first-class record where he has scored over 10000 runs, his recent form has been extremely patchy, where he has not made a Sheffield Shield fifty this season.

Haddin?s inclusion is another option, despite Matthew Wade firmly establishing himself as the first-choice wicket-keeper in all formats. Quiney is also in line to get a second chance, despite his treacherous debut appearance against South Africa, which included a pair in Adelaide.

However, with India and England set to host the Aussies, Arthur remained open to the idea of having experienced players on the team?s roster.

"With Test matches in India and England, we've got to sit down [and ask], 'Do we want to have a look at a guy who is a proven run-scorer, who has the right stats both in Australia and outside of Australia and can get hundreds'?"

?

Source: http://blogs.bettor.com/Husseys-retirement-has-changed-some-ground-rules-claims-Mickey-Arthur-Cricket-News-Update-a212147

Saanvi Venna vikings Colin Powell Tyrann Mathieu noaa Jessica Ridgeway jessica biel

'Saint of Death' gathers followers in Mexican town

Lined up inside a dark-black painted building in Ciudad?Ju?rez, Mexico, worshippers of La Santa Muerte wait their turn to place their rolled-up paper prayers at the feet of a 5-foot tall statue of an idolized female skeletal figure. She is draped in a white, laced cloak and holds a small globe in one hand, and a tall wooden scythe in the other.

Many of the Santa Muerte statues started popping up in this city around 2009, when drug-related violence began to ravage this border town. More than 10,000 people have been killed in Ciudad?Ju?rez?alone since 2007, when Mexico?s outgoing President Felipe Calder?n?first declared war on the country?s drug cartels. The murder rate earned Ciudad?Ju?rez?the title of murder capital of the world for a while.

Santa Muerte statue looks over prayer room during vigil. (Photo by Alex Pe?a)

Followers recognize La Santa Muerte as an iconic figure of prayer for those looking for protection. The Catholic Church in Mexico denounces the worship as a cult.

The origins of Santa Muerte worship is debated, but many believe it came from the ancient Aztecs and their worship of death. The modern image of Santa Muerte is believed to have surfaced in the mid-20^th?century in poor areas of Central Mexico. Now, Santa Muerte can be found throughout all of Mexico, the border, and even some parts of the United States.

Yolanda Salazar inside her prayer room. (Photo Alex Pe?a)

?You can ask the Santa Muerte for many things,? said Yolanda Salazar, self-proclaimed priestess of the Santa Muerte cult in Ciudad Juarez.

?Here in?Ju?rez, people pray for protection, but also health, and for love. What?s important is it comes from the heart. If your intentions are true, it will help you,? she said.

Salazar lives in and runs this particular sanctuary, which is located in the heart of the city, just a drive of a few minutes from the border with the United States. It?s believed there are many makeshift sanctuaries and Santa Muerte altars in?Ju?rez, but Salazar?s is public, and the most popular.

She said she had just a handful of followers in 2010, when she first opened her Santa Muerte sanctuary, which consists of perhaps 100 or more small and large statues of Santa Muerte. This year, her weekly prayer vigils to the Santa Muerte draw in a crowd similar to the size of a Catholic Mass.

Sign telling Santa Muerte believers where to place their money for good luck economically. (Photo by Alex Pe?a)

On this particular night, her vigil resembled more of a Mexican fiesta than an underground worship of death. Mariachi music flooded out into the street, and the 25 or more worshipers ate and danced while the others went inside to make their offerings.

?This has always existed here, but people were timid about professing their belief. They were afraid to be judged by society,? Salazar said. ?But now, a lot of us don?t really care what society thinks.?

According to Salazar, the violence in the city has drawn many followers to her sanctuary, searching for protection that neither the church nor their government can give them.

?Now that it?s come to light, I would say that 40 percent of the people in Juarez believe in Santa Muerte,? she said. ?Still, not all are professing it.?

In Mexico, a traditionally Catholic society, the worship of a deity that isn?t recognized by the Catholic Church usually?means?an association to criminal organizations. Members of drug cartels, commonly referred to as narcos, have long been followers of the Santa Muerte.

Little girl looks into glass window lined with life size statues of La Santa Muerte. (Photo by Alex Pe?a)

Narcos make offerings to the icon in return for protection in their illicit activities. In some rare and very brutal cases, the offerings have consisted of human body parts.

Eight people were arrested in northern Sonora state in March of this year after they were accused of killing two ten-year-old boys and a woman in ritual Santa Muerte sacrifices.

Salazar said that this type of worship is not the ?true cult? of La Santa Muerte.

?This is not exclusively for the narcos,? she said. ?Even police go to her for protection. Even they realize how powerful she is.?

The Catholic Church in Mexico has consistently denounced the worship of such a deity, but it cannot deny the rise in adoration for such figures in Mexico?s violent border towns.

Rev. Felipe de Jes?s Ju?rez,?head priest at Our Lady of the Sacred Heart Catholic Church in CD.?Ju?rez, says the belief of Santa Muerte arrived in Ciudad?Ju?rez?around 2009 and 2010, at the height of the violence. Though the murder rate has dropped dramatically, the culture of death has not.

Mix of flowers, ginger, and other ingredients being offered as a sacrifice to La Santa Muerte inside of Sanctuary. (Photo by Alex Pe?a)

?We are all exposed to this new cultural situation. Here in the border we see a lot of different types of beliefs,??Ju?rez?said. ?This started with people who don?t have a good moral base. They are grabbing death, putting a cloak on it, and making it a saint. But it?s not a saint; it?s death.?

In the case of Santa Muerte, once followers pray to her, they believe she will grant them favors, but they must repay her.

?If they don?t, they believe they will be punished,??Ju?rez?said. ?So many live in fear.?

He said he opposes such a practice because he believes the grace of God is free.

Nonetheless,?Ju?rez?recognizes the power of Yolanda Salazar and her followers of this growing cult in his city.

?This woman, a self-proclaimed high priest who started out of her house, now has a full building with a sanctuary,? he said. ??The devotion in Mexico is very strong.?

Candles lit for prayer vigil inside Santa Muerte Sanctuary. (Photo by Alex Pe?a)

And nowhere is the diversity of Santa Muerte worship more prevalent than inside the gates of a Salazar prayer vigil. Little boys and girls hold flowers and candles as offerings; their parents write the prayers on small sheets of paper.

All while a group of teenagers stand and chat near the door, waiting their turn to enter and place their own prayers.

?I feel a lot of security,? said Alexia Varaza, 20, a follower of Santa Muerte. ?I?ve had a lot of luck with La Santa Muerte. She gives me strength.?

Varaza?s mother and father are believers in the cult, but the rest of her family is skeptical.

?That stuff?s for sicarios ? for killers!? said Varaza,?explaining what her family thinks of the cult vigils she attends every weekend.

?That?s not what it is for me. I just tell them I?m a student, and I need the good luck!?

Whether for sicarios or students, Salazar?s doors are open 24/7 to people searching for protection in a city saturated with violence.

?The real cult, our cult, is to go out and profess the goodness of La Santa Muerte,? Salazar said. ?That?s why I opened the sanctuary.?

Salazar has plans to open another Santa Muerte sanctuary next year, with the expectation that her following will continue to grow as massively as during the past year. ?She certainly will be praying to her beloved Santa Muerte for that to happen.

Alex Pe?a is a freelance foreign correspondent currently covering Ciudad Juarez, Mexico. Previously, Pena was based in Nairobi, Kenya covering East Africa for Voice of America TV, and has also filed stories from the Middle East, including the border of Jordan and Syria. He graduated from the journalism program at Florida Gulf Coast University in December 2011.

Source: http://nbclatino.com/2012/12/31/la-santa-muerte-cult-sees-major-growth-in-mexican-border-town/

flying car masters golf tournament the replacements how to hard boil eggs new nfl uniforms easter derbyshire

New Year?s Eve Stories

New Year’s Eve Stories

Brad Pitt Buys Angelina Jolie Sex Tape? [The Frisky] Justin Bieber Adds Two New Tracks to Album [HollyWire] Bai Ling Tries the Bumble Bee Look [Right Celebrity] Janet Jackson Stuns in Holiday Card [The Celebrity Cafe] Rita Ora Flaunts Abs [The Blemish] Kanye West Not Attending Grammys? [The Huffington Post] Kate Middleton The Next Queen? ...

New Year’s Eve Stories Stupid Celebrities Gossip Stupid Celebrities Gossip News

Source: http://stupidcelebrities.net/2012/12/new-years-eve-stories/

fox news obama cnbc dexter dexter patriots ny times

9 killed in tour bus crash along Oregon highway

Emergency personnel respond to the scene of a multiple-fatality accident where a tour bus careened through a guardrail along an icy highway and several hundred feet down a steep embankment, authorities said, Sunday, Dec. 30, 2012 about 15 miles east of Pendleton, Ore. The charter bus carrying about 40 people lost control around 10:30 a.m. on the snow- and ice-covered lanes of Interstate 84, according to the Oregon State Police. (AP Photo/East Oregonian, Tim Trainor)

Emergency personnel respond to the scene of a multiple-fatality accident where a tour bus careened through a guardrail along an icy highway and several hundred feet down a steep embankment, authorities said, Sunday, Dec. 30, 2012 about 15 miles east of Pendleton, Ore. The charter bus carrying about 40 people lost control around 10:30 a.m. on the snow- and ice-covered lanes of Interstate 84, according to the Oregon State Police. (AP Photo/East Oregonian, Tim Trainor)

Emergency personnel respond to the scene of a multiple fatality accident where a tour bus careened through a guardrail along an icy Oregon highway and several hundred feet down a steep embankment, authorities said, Sunday, Dec. 30, 2012 about 15 miles east of Pendleton, Ore. The charter bus carrying about 40 people lost control around 10:30 a.m. on the snow- and ice-covered lanes of Interstate 84, according to the Oregon State Police. (AP Photo/East Oregonian, Tim Trainor)

Emergency personnel respond to the scene of a multiple fatality accident where a tour bus careened through a guardrail along an icy Oregon highway and several hundred feet down a steep embankment, authorities said, Sunday, Dec. 30, 2012 about 15 miles east of Pendleton, Ore. The charter bus carrying about 40 people lost control around 10:30 a.m. on the snow- and ice-covered lanes of Interstate 84, according to the Oregon State Police. (AP Photo/East Oregonian, Tim Trainor)

PENDLETON, Ore. (AP) ? A tour bus careened through a guardrail along an icy Oregon highway and 100 feet down a steep embankment Sunday, killing nine people and injuring more than 20 others, authorities said.

The charter bus carrying about 40 people lost control around 10:30 a.m. on snow- and ice-covered lanes of Interstate 84 in a rural area of eastern Oregon, according to the Oregon State Police. The bus crashed near the start of a 7-mile section of road that winds down a hill.

The bus came to rest at the bottom of a snowy slope and landed upright, with little or no debris visible around the crash site.

More than a dozen rescue workers descended the hill and used ropes to help retrieve people from the wreckage in freezing weather. The bus driver was among the survivors, but had not yet spoken to police because of the severity of the injuries the driver had suffered.

Lt. Greg Hastings said the bus crashed along the west end of the Blue Mountains, and west of an area called Deadman Pass. The area is so dangerous the state transportation department published specific warnings for truck drivers, advising it had "some of the most changeable and severe weather conditions in the Northwest" and can lead to slick conditions and poor visibility.

St. Anthony Hospital in Pendleton treated 26 people from the accident, said hospital spokesman Larry Blanc. Five of those treated at St. Anthony were transported to other facilities.

The East Oregonian said it spoke with two South Korean passengers, ages 16 and 17. Both said through a translator that they were seated near the rear of the bus when it swerved a few times, hit the guardrail and flipped. They described breaking glass and seeing passengers pinned by their seats as the bus slid down the hill. Both said that they feared for their lives.

The paper said that the teens, one of whom injured a knee and the other suffered a broken collarbone, were staying at a hotel arranged by the Red Cross.

I-84 is a major east-west highway through Oregon that follows the Columbia River Gorge.

Umatilla County Emergency Manager Jack Remillard said the bus was owned by Mi Joo travel in Vancouver, B.C., and state police said the bus was en route from Las Vegas to Vancouver.

A woman who answered the phone at a listing for the company confirmed with The Associated Press that it owned the bus and said it was on a tour of the Western U.S. She declined to give her name.

A bus safety website run by the U.S. Department of Transportation said Mi Joo Tour & Travel has six buses, none of which have been involved in any accidents in at least the past two years.

The bus crash was the second fatal accident on the same highway in Oregon on Sunday. A 69-year-old man died in a rollover accident about 30 miles west of the area where the bus crashed.

A spokesman for the American Bus Association said buses carry more than 700 million passengers a year in the United States.

"The industry as a whole is a very safe industry," said Dan Ronan of the Washington, D.C.,-based group. "There are only a handful of accidents every year. Comparatively speaking, we're the safest form of surface transportation."

The bus crash comes more than two months after another chartered tour bus in October veered off a highway in northern Arizona, killing the driver and injuring dozens of passengers who were mostly tourists from Asia and Europe. Authorities say the driver likely had a medical episode.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2012-12-31-Tour%20Bus%20Crash/id-4d50bef896604c5e81dc9991593c6035

elizabeth banks battle royale key largo arnold palmer invitational ryan madson louisiana primary syracuse basketball

Pilates 101! Is the Celebrities' Favorite Fitness Workout for You ...

Pilates is an excellent method of improving overall health and fitness. It is a system of exercise encompassing both mind and body which uses the 6 principles?

P

ilates is an excellent method of improving overall health and fitness.

What is pilates?

It is a system of exercise encompassing both mind and body which uses the 6 principles of Pilates: centering, control, flow, breath, precision and concentration.

Pilates does not depend on multiple repetitions of each exercise, valuing instead quality over quantity. This means that to achieve desired results with Pilates each exercise should be performed precisely in a controlled fashion.

This system ensures that core stability is enhanced by strengthening abdominal muscles and pelvic stability. One of the side-effects of regular Pilates is a much improved posture and beautifully taut tummy, which creates an illusion of greater height and enhances the appearance of slimness.

Who is pilates good for?

Pilates is suitable for all fitness levels and ages; a proliferation of beginner classes has led to an unfair assumption that Pilates is ?easy?. Because the exercises are performed slowly it can seem, to the untrained observer, that there is not too much effort involved, but once skill and fitness levels have grown the intermediate and advanced Pilates classes will prove a taxing workout for even the fittest athlete.

The system is flexible and can adapt to specialized needs if required, but the end aim is to achieve harmony between mind and body and allow a full range of motion in the body.

This coupled with the focus on core strength makes Pilates an excellent exercise for people who suffer from back problems; often in the process of the class poor posture is corrected and tension in back and shoulder muscles relieved, which can dramatically decrease back pain.

Is pilates for weight loss?

The system can be used to help in weight loss, but it must be emphasised that the very easy classes will not burn many calories and will need to be modified to increase resistance levels, possibly by including small weights in the process.

Is pilates just for women? What is its history?

Despite pilates? reputation as being an exercise geared towards women it did initially start out to help men.

Joseph Pilates created the system in 1920, while working with injured soldiers to rehabilitate them after battlefield injuries. So successful was his system that many soldiers were soon back on their feet and recovering well.

Mr. Pilates and his wife moved to the United States and quickly gained a reputation for helping injured dancers back to work. Only in the last decade or so have the 6 principles of Pilates been recognized as having a sound scientific basis and the system has dramatically growth in popularity.

What celebrities have had success with pilates?

Many people all over the world now take advantage of Pilates classes to get fit, help them to lose weight and to improve their body alignment to treat pain and discomfort.

Andy Murray, the Olympic gold medal-winning tennis player went to a Pilates class to help recover from a painful back injury and discovered that the classes improved his mind-set to the point that his coach and manager, not to mention the press, all mentioned how much happier and more cheerful he was.

Hilary Duff regained her svelte figure after having her baby boy by attending regular Pilates sessions. She has been widely praised for losing her baby-weight sensibly and in a controlled manner, rather than by trying to rush back into her pre-pregnancy clothes.

?The Body? Australian super-model Elle Macpherson likes to stay fit with Pilates, even popping into a class when she was in London on a recent visit. Actor Mila Kunis received mixed reviews when she shed a dramatic 20 pounds for her role in the movie ?Black Swan? but has returned to her more laid-back routine of snowboarding (in season), Pilates and ?a bit of weights?. This regime has served her well as the many glimpses of her toned nude form in her latest movie ?Friends with Benefits? can attest.

Even the famous derriere of Pippa Middleton, much admired during her sister?s wedding to Prince William, is due in part to her enjoyment of Pilates. Other celebs who sing the praises of Pilates include Jennifer Aniston, Victoria Beckham and Hugh Grant who boasted ?I now have muscles of steel and could easily deal with giving birth!?

?-

This post was supplied on behalf of Simply Sweat online fitness and sports bra store.

Source: http://www.abiolatv.com/pilates-fitness-body-love-celebrities/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=pilates-fitness-body-love-celebrities

lamar odom perfect game jon jones vs rashad evans results rashad evans jon jones chuck colson death meteor showers 2012

Netflix CEO pay: Hastings' gets 100 percent raise

Netflix CEO pay will double after he took a 43 percent pay cut this past year for management missteps. Netflix CEO Reed Hastings will be paid $4 million in salary and stock options for the coming year.

By Associated Press / December 30, 2012

Chief Executive of Netflix Reed Hastings attends a media conference in Sun Valley, Idaho, in July. His pay as Netflix CEO will double in 2013 as the stock has rebounded somewhat from lows in the past 12 months.

Jim Urquhart/Reuters/File

Enlarge

Netflix?CEO Reed Hastings' pay will double to $4 million next year, after he took a pay cut due to management missteps this year.

Skip to next paragraph

' + google_ads[0].line2 + '
' + google_ads[0].line3 + '

'; } else if (google_ads.length > 1) { ad_unit += ''; } } document.getElementById("ad_unit").innerHTML += ad_unit; google_adnum += google_ads.length; return; } var google_adnum = 0; google_ad_client = "pub-6743622525202572"; google_ad_output = 'js'; google_max_num_ads = '1'; google_feedback = "on"; google_ad_type = "text"; google_adtest = "on"; google_image_size = '230x105'; google_skip = '0'; // -->

Subscribe Today to the Monitor

Click Here for your FREE 30 DAYS of
The Christian Science Monitor
Weekly Digital Edition

Hastings' annual salary will rise to $2 million in 2013 and he will get $2 million in stock options, according to a securities filing Friday.

That's up from a salary of $500,000 and $1.5 million in stock options for 2012.

Hastings' total pay for 2012 was down 43 percent from $3.5 million in 2011, when some controversial decisions, including a steep price hike on subscriptions, sent the stock spiraling. It fell from a high above $300 to a low below $70 per share.

This year, shares are up 29 percent, closing Friday at $89.33. Recovering from the missteps, the company expects to add around 5 million U.S. subscribers, to between 26.4 million and 27.1 million by the end of the year.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/3iHz0u0PaXs/Netflix-CEO-pay-Hastings-gets-100-percent-raise

wikipedia sopa and pipa bills censoring the internet blackout blackout congress censored

WIPO Advances Toward Treaty to Facilitate Access to Published ...

The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) General Assembly has taken a landmark decision to convene a diplomatic conference in 2013 to complete negotiations on a pact to improve access to copyrighted works for the many visually impaired and people with print disabilities around the world. The General Assembly also expressed gratitude to Morocco for its offer to host the diplomatic conference.

WIPO Director General Francis Gurry welcomed the constructive spirit of engagement among member states and the decision to convene a diplomatic conference in 2013 to agree on the provisions of an international treaty. ?Member states took an important decision today in our collective efforts to facilitate access to copyrighted works by the visually impaired and persons with print disabilities? Mr. Gurry said.

He added ?The future treaty will improve access to published works for millions around the world.? The Director General thanked Morocco?s Permanent Representative to the UN in Geneva, Ambassador Omar Hilale, for his country?s generous offer to host the diplomatic conference.

While some countries have domestic legislation that grants limitations and exceptions for use of copyrighted works by visually impaired and people with print disabilities, there is a legal vacuum at the international level. Since 2004, WIPO?s Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights (SCCR) has been considering whether certain limitations and exceptions should be harmonized internationally. WIPO?s General Assembly today decided that discussions relating to a future treaty to benefit visually impaired and people with print disabilities are sufficiently advanced and mature to convene a diplomatic conference. The convening of a diplomatic conference signals entry into the final phase of treaty negotiations.

Some 300 million blind or visually impaired people around the world stand to benefit from a more flexible copyright regime adapted to current technological realities. Individuals with reading impairment often need to convert information into Braille, large print, audio, electronic and other formats using assistive technologies. Only a very small percentage of published books around the world are available in formats accessible to the visually impaired.

The General Assembly also decided to convene a special session of the SCCR in February 2013 to advance work on the text of the draft treaty prior to the diplomatic conference, which will be held in June 2013. At the end of the February SCCR, member states will decide ?whether additional work is required with the objective of holding a successful Conference in June 2013.?

The current draft text of the treaty reflects significant agreement among member states, though some differences remain. Among the issues on which member states need to reach agreement are questions relating to commercial availability - in other words, what happens in places where a title is commercially available in an accessible format; and how cross-border transfer of accessible works will take place between countries. Also, member states must agree on how to treat the traditional formulation of the provision for national law limitations and exceptions in the draft treaty text (the so-called three-step test).

At the conclusion of the General Assembly, member states convened the Preparatory Committee of the Diplomatic Conference to conclude a Treaty to facilitate Access to Published Works by Visually Impaired Persons and Persons with Print Disabilities to consider the venue and modalities for the diplomatic conference.
Complete General Assembly decision below.
________________________
Extraordinary GA Decision Text

This Assembly:

1. decides to convene a Diplomatic Conference on limitations and exceptions for visually impaired persons/persons with print disabilities to be held in June 2013. The mandate of this Conference is to negotiate and adopt a treaty on limitations and exceptions for visually impaired persons/persons with print disabilities (pursuant to the draft text in SCCR/25/2).

2. convenes a Preparatory Committee on December 18, 2012, to establish the necessary modalities of the Diplomatic Conference. The Preparatory Committee will consider at this time the draft Rules of Procedure to be presented for adoption to the Diplomatic Conference, the list of invitees to participate in the Conference, and the text of the draft letters of invitation, as well as any other document or organizational question relating to the Diplomatic Conference. The Preparatory Committee will also approve the Basic Proposal for the administrative and final provisions of the Treaty.

3. welcomes with gratitude the offer of the Kingdom of Morocco to host the Diplomatic Conference in June 2013.

4. directs the SCCR to meet in special session for five days in February 2013 to expedite further text-based work on document SCCR/25/2, in order to reach a sufficient level of agreement on the text, and directs the Preparatory Committee to meet at the end of the February SCCR meeting to decide, if needed, whether additional work is required with the objective of holding a successful Conference in June 2013. It is understood that the Preparatory Committee will invite Observer Delegations and Observers.

5. agrees that document SCCR/25/2, the Draft Text of an International Agreement/Treaty on Limitations and Exceptions for Visually Impaired Persons/Persons with Print Disabilities, will constitute the substantive articles of the Basic Proposal for the Diplomatic Conference. The Preparatory Committee shall incorporate in the Basic Proposal such further agreements of the SCCR as are reached pursuant to paragraph (4) above, with the understanding that any Member State and the special delegation of the European Union may make proposals at the Diplomatic Conference.

Source: http://www.lawupdates.com/summary/wipo_advances_toward_treaty_to_facilitate_access_to_published_works_by_pers/

troy polamalu james harrison james harrison falcons giants game norman borlaug santorum

days we celebrate: scrapbook titles - crafts hobbies home

?

Cheap Price Days We Celebrate: Scrapbook Titles (The Scrapbook Titles Library)

?

Minute Offer(Limit Time Offer)

Are You Interested in Days We Celebrate: Scrapbook Titles (The Scrapbook Titles Library) Feature Detail .

Great Pages Start With Great Titles

?

Create more scrapbook layouts while saving more time

Are you a busy scrapbooker who wants to get more pages done and still be creative? Days We Celebrate: Scrapbook Titles will help you:

Spend more time creating and less time searching for the perfect title

You waste precious time if you spend hours browsing the internet looking for scrapbook titles. You can spend that time scrapping instead! As a busy mom and freelance writer, I have a schedule that often leaves me with little time for my hobbies. So I use this book to stop wasting time searching, and spend more time actually creating. Here, I share more than 2000 scrapbooking ideas for making ?Days We Celebrate? layouts.

Come up with creative titles in a snap

Owning this book means you never have to scramble for titles ever again. A quick download will take the hard work out of hunting for just the right words. Then you?ll have these creative prompts ready to use for those days when you?re uninspired to scrapbook, when you don?t know what titles will work, or when you have to think up titles on the fly. Your journaling and layouts will read better, look better, and become even more meaningful.

Never run out of titles for your pages

You know, of course, that this hobby runs on creativity. The problem is that, sometimes, you encounter scrapper?s block. You run out of ideas, and your pages lack variety. That?s why I included so many titles in this collection, and organized them in categories that work for the way many of us scrapbook.

Whether you?re making a collection of holiday photos or a wedding scrapbook, you can look in the related category and choose a title, or ignite your creativity so you can craft your own.

?Days We Celebrate? categories:
? Holidays (including Christmas, Easter, Fourth of July, New Year?s, Hanukkah, and more)
? Milestones (including birthdays, baby shower, wedding, graduation, and more)

How to use this book
Each category contains a list of scrapbook titles, arranged alphabetically and organized according to specific holidays or family celebrations (milestones), such as birthdays, graduations, and reunions. Go to the section for the day you?re celebrating and you?ll find great ideas for your page titles.

More Benefits! Use this book to:
? get journaling ideas based on one of these titles
? take handmade greeting cards up a notch with scrapbooking quotes
? share titles at a crop (and maybe swap for supplies!)
? create layouts that go beyond who/what/where/when, and celebrate relationships and connections
? make your own ?Days We Celebrate? album, such as for a wedding or a birthday. Scrapbook the people involved, family relationships, traditions, and more
? save time and effort as you create more pages without sacrificing creativity

About The Author
Over 10 years, I watched my scrapbooking time shrink as life became busier and busier, with family, work and daily activities. My creative approach eventually combined Stacy Julian?s Library of Memories and Becky Higgins? Project Life system. Then I put together this collection of scrapbook titles and quotes, and now save even more time and effort. This approach works for me, it works for many scrapbookers, and it will work for you.

Create great pages with great titles. Get the book today. Get More Special..

The Days We Celebrate: Scrapbook Titles (The Scrapbook Titles Library) Product of PaperGoodness.com

?

Tag : Best Offer Days We Celebrate: Scrapbook Titles (The Scrapbook Titles Library), Days We Celebrate: Scrapbook Titles (The Scrapbook Titles Library) Best Price, Days We Celebrate: Scrapbook Titles (The Scrapbook Titles Library) Best Offer, Only on this site the scret price for Days We Celebrate: Scrapbook Titles (The Scrapbook Titles Library) Today.
?

?

?

days we celebrate: scrapbook titles (the scrapbook titles library)

Source: http://craftshobbieshome.bestseller4u.x10.mx/days-we-celebrate-scrapbook-titles-the-scrapbook-titles-library

bcs championship bcs national championship 2012 university of alabama national championship game bcs game lsu vs alabama college football

Corporation or LLC, which is right

By The Modern Accountant in Accounting Rules & Regulations / no comments

?

Many people wonder whether they should have a limited liability company or a corporation for their business. In order to find out which one is right for your business you will need to take a look at the various advantages and disadvantages of each type of business structure and then make your choice.

Here are the main advantages you will get if you decide to incorporate your business:

1. Limited Liability ? this is a probably the best advantage that you will get if you incorporate your business. In most business structures the owner assumes all of the liability of the company, but when a business becomes incorporated the amount of your liability is limited to the amount of money that you have actually invested in the company. For example if you are a sole business owner then your car or house can actually be seized to pay any debts that your business might owe. But in a corporation the only way that you can be held responsible is if you have given a personal guarantee.
2. Corporations Carry On - basically a corporation has an unlimited life span where as other business structures will cease to exist in certain scenarios. What this boils down to is that a corporation will continue to exist if the ownership of the business changes, if the shareholders die or leave the business, it doesn?t ever go away.
3. Raising Money Is Easier - it is a known fact that corporations actually have an easier time raising money and because of this you will have an easier time growing and developing your business. The reason that they have an easier time is that corporations can actually not only borrow and incur debt but they can also sell shares and raise equity capital. This is a huge advantage because equity capital for the most part does not have to be repaid and it incurs no interest. But when you are issuing shares you are also reducing your percentage of ownership in the business.
4. Income Control ? if you are a corporation you can be the one to determine when you personally receive income, which is a huge tax advantage. Basically what this does is that instead of getting your income when it is received it allows you to take your income at a time when you?ll pay less tax.
5. Potential Tax Deferral ? this is not a guaranteed thing, but more like an opportunity when it arises. But this works because you can defer paying some tax until a later time so this may make you be able to realize a tax savings because it might put you into a lower tax bracket or you might be able to put it off until tax rates have fallen. This depends on what happens when taxes actually come due.
6. Income Splitting ? this works because corporations pay dividends to their shareholders from the company?s earnings. So this allows you to split the income how you see fit. This can work because a shareholder does not have to be actively involved in the business to receive dividends. So you can spilt the income with people in your family so that not all of it is getting taxed at the higher tax rate, basically you will be redistributing income from a higher tax bracket to a lower tax bracket
7. The Small Business Tax Deduction ? if you have a small business and you decide to make it a corporation you might qualify for the small business deduction. This is an annual tax credit that is calculated at the rate of 16% on the first $200,000 of taxable income. This can actually be a much lower tax bracket than that applied to your personal income.
8. Increased Business ? this isn?t always a guarantee but for the most part people tend to perceive corporations as being more stable than other business, it just has something to do with the name. Not to mention that in some cases, such as contractors, some companies will only do business with you if you are a corporation because of liability issues.

Here are the disadvantages of having your business as a corporation:

1. Registering a corporation is expensive ? they are very costly to set up. The reason for that is because they are a more complex legal structure than other business structures so creating one is going to be more complicated which requires more costs. These fees can range in the hundreds for small businesses, for the set up alone. And these set up fees can be higher for large businesses.
2. Liability May Not Be As Limited As You Think ? most people think that they are protected from everything if they have a corporation, but this can be undercut by personal guarantees or even credit agreements. This becomes an issue if others won?t give the corporation credit. This usually happens because the corporation is new so they have limited assets which mean they don?t have enough to secure a loan so the banks and other lenders require guarantees from the owners. What this means is that if you default in repayment obligation on those you can be held liable, meaning lose your car or house.
3. Less Tax Flexibility ? this area affects business losses. If you own the business on yoru own or with somebody else and your business suffers a loss you can use those losses to actually lower other types of personal income in the year that the losses occurred. But in a corporation if you have a loss they can only be carried forward or back to reduce the corporation?s income from other years.
4. No Personal Tax Credits ? this can actually be a tax disadvantage for your business because the corporation isn?t eligible for personal tax credits. So in other words every dollar that the corporation earns is taxed. Sole owners and partnerships can claim tax credits that corporations cannot.
5. Increased paperwork ? with a corporation there is a lot more paperwork involved just to maintain the corporation. An example of this is that corporations are required to maintain a minute book, and in this book you have to have the corporate bylaws and minutes from all corporate meetings. But you also have to keep all of the corporate documents up to date at all times, which means you are going to be facing a ton of paperwork.
6. Another Tax Return - if you decide to have a corporation you are going to have to file two tax retruns each year, one for your individual income and one for the corporation. This means that you are going to end up paying more for your accounting fees. But you are also going to be paying double taxes, because you have to pay personal income tax on the profits that you received plus all of the money made by the corporation is taxed before you receive your share.

Here are the main advantages of having a limited liability company:

1. Limited Liability ? this is similar to a corporation because you have the same protections as the corporation when it comes to being responsible for the business debts. Basically a LLC exists as a separate entity so the members can?t be held responsible unless they have signed a personal guarantee.
2. Flexible Profit Distribution ? this allows you to select varying forms of distribution of profits. A partnership requires you to split the profits fifty-fifty, but with the LLC you can do that or choose from another method, however you see fit.
3. No Minutes ? corporations are required to keep formal minutes, have meetings, and record resolutions. But the LLC business structure does not require you to do any of these things, which in the long run actually makes it easier to operate.
4. Flow Through Taxation ? all of your business losses, profits, and expenses are going to flow through the company to the individual members. So in this type of business you are going to avoid the double taxation of paying corporate tax and individual tax. In most cases this is considered to be a tax advantage but in some cases a business can benefit from having a corporate tax structure.

Here are the disadvantages to having a limited liability company:

1. Limited Life ? unlike a corporation a limited liability company will not last forever. In fact these will be dissolved when one member, just one, dies or declares bankruptcy, regardless of how the other members are doing financially or if they want to stay in business. If they want to continue they must redefine their business as a limited liability.
2. Going Public ? if you have any thoughts about taking yoru business public or issuing shares to your employees in the future you are better off going corporate from the beginning because of the complications of switching later on in the business? life.
3. Added Complexity ? if you are running a sole proprietorship or even a partnership you are going to have an easier time because they are easy to run and do not require much paperwork. But when it comes to a LLC things get quite a bit more complicated. The reason for this is that a LLC can be federally classified as sole proprietorship, partnership or a corporation for tax purposes, which makes things all that more complicated because you have to learn the appropriate tax rules that apply.

?

?

?

?

?

?

Source: http://themodernaccountant.com/2012/12/29/corporation-or-llc-which-is-right/

ny times paul mccartney Sandy Hook Victims new york times columbine breaking news Google News

Simplify your Business Life with Simple Productivity Tools ? Lauren ...

Time yourself for efficiency

Many people tend not to refer to themselves as minimalists. We simply buy, use, and collect too many things to think otherwise. Yet with all our gadgets, trinkets, and supplies, we usually find the most value in minimalist tools and methods that help increase our productivity.

Despite the appeal of multi-featured products and multitasking, I?ve found that having fewer tasks and options to focus on at a time makes getting things done a whole lot faster and easier. Here we?ll talk about three incredible tools you can use to simplify your business life, home life, and possible even your social life.

They are simple tools that focus your attention on very little at a time, and yet make sure that you excel at the little you set out to do. You?ll be able to accomplish what you need to do first, finally making time to do what you enjoy as well.

Evernote

Evernote has grown significantly since it was launched back in 2008. Reaching more than 11 million users last year, it has easily become one of the most popular productivity tools of our time.
Evernote is an organization tool for iPhones, iPads, and other mobile devices. The application can also run on Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X, and various Internet browsers. On your computer Evernote can copy selected windows on the screen, including web pages if your browser supports it. You can then mark these copies with titles and organize them into notebook, archiving them in a number of ways.

On mobile devices, items you?ve copied can be synced directly to the Evernote cloud service, so you?ll never lose any of the information that you?re organizing. You can also take pictures from your smartphone or tablet and save them directly onto your Evernote account. You can also add GPS tagging and audio comments to each of the pictures you save.

There are hundreds of ways you can use this tool to your advantage. Many companies have switched to Evernote as their central filing system, abandoning physical paperwork altogether. Students use it as a great way to take written notes and keep track of their school work. Families use it as a cheap way to store their photos through a cloud service, versus an unsecure hard drive.
As you begin to use it, you?ll notice other little ways you can be more productive with this tool. For example, let?s say you?re going to a major mall, airport or other commercial area. Before you leave the parking lot, take a picture of your car, GPS tag it, and then you can use the GPS on your mobile device to walk right back to it later.

Evernote can be a valuable productivity tool if used correctly and consistently. Give it a try for a week and see how it works. There?s no downside and its basic service is completely free.

Pomodoro Technique

Developed back in the late 1980s, the Pomodoro technique is an incredible time management system that involves working in short focused waves. The basic idea is to use a timer and work on a single task for 25 minutes without any interruption, and then take a short break for 5 minutes. This takes a lot of pressure off a particular task while discouraging unnecessary multitasking.
The Pomodoro technique allows you to make calculated progress on all of your tasks by encouraging deep concentration without distractions instead of tackling it all at once and feeling overwhelmed. It?s simple, but very effective, and keeps you focused on what?s most important.

Steps:

• Select a take you need to accomplish today.
• Set a timer for 25 minutes and begin working on that task.
• When time is up, take a short 5 minute break.
• Repeat.

Every 4 cycles, take a 25 minute break.

You?ll notice after trying it that the Pomodoro technique is very easy to remember and follow. It doesn?t require any special software, lists, or other medium. You can practice it with anything.

Zendone

Zendone is complementary software to Evernote. It further explores the organization and productivity features that Evernote offers by creating a task management system for you.
When you connect Zendone to Evernote, you?ll choose one of your Evernote folders as your main task inbox. In the future, anything that you upload to that Evernote folder will also pop up in your Zendone inbox as a task. So with Evernote you have a fantastic way to collect and organize vast amounts of content on one digital interface using text, pictures, and audio recordings.

With Zendone, you can now designate what you want to do with this information and prioritize it in the form of daily tasks. If it?s just information for the file then you can archive it for reference, but if it something you need to get done at a later date, like paying a bill or taxes, then you can title it and organize it as a task in your Zendone inbox.

Try utilizing each of these three productivity tools to your advantage. Collect and store information on Evernote while using Zendone to organize it into tasks. Then use the Pomodoro technique to accomplish those tasks. Rinse and repeat. It?s a simple way to maximize your productivity while lowering your stress. Give it a try and let us know how it worked for you in the comments below.

---

http://en.gravatar.com/vhclarke?Vincent H. Clarke is a Marketing Analyst for USB Memory Direct, a wholesaler of promotional USB drives. While he mostly writes about marketing and branding, he also enjoys writing about personal improvement, productivity, and start-up culture.

Source: http://www.laurenmacewen.com/2012/12/28/simplify-your-business-life-with-simple-productivity-tools/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=simplify-your-business-life-with-simple-productivity-tools

Thanksgiving Day cooking a turkey toysrus how to carve a turkey ipad 2 wal mart happy thanksgiving

More Lessons from Grandma on Green Building and House Design ...

Aymar Embury II/Public Domain

Some commenters were not impressed with the post Lessons Green Builders Can Learn From Michael Pollan, where I modified Michael Pollan's Food Rules to green building. In particular, the rule Don't eat build with anything that your great-grandmother wouldn't recognize as food a building material started a big debate about whether Grandma knew best.

Martin Holladay of Green Building Advisor was particularly critical, noting that his grandma's house was very green but not very nice:

Old houses are charming and have many virtues. My grandmother grew up in a sod house in South Dakota; it was very, very green. Every winter, her job was to bank the walls with fresh manure, in hopes that the feeble heat of the composting manure would reduce some of the chill that the occupants faced when the prairie winds entered through the window cracks.

I can see his point, but much depends on the Grandmother. I can't show my grandmother's house, as it was knocked down to build this gorgeous Stephen Teeple number, but it was rather nice. Etta R. Speyer was one of the first woman real estate agents in Canada and knew how to pick them, and my mom, an interior decorator, did a very contemporary renovation and addition, turning it into a duplex. I grew up there, and learned a lot about both traditional and mid-century modern design from it. Martin's comments made me wonder what else we could learn about house design from Grandma and her contemporaries, beside from using manure as insulation.

I have my mom's copy of Architect Aymar Embury II's "The Livable House: Its Plan and Design" from 1917. (He later became Robert Moses's architect of choice and supervised over six hundred public projects in New York City) In it, he describes what he called houses "built by people of moderate incomes, who cannot afford to build houses of great size, or of extravagant materials." Nonetheless they were houses for professional people who could afford architects, unlike most houses at the time that were built by carpenters or contractors. Embury wrote:

A competent architect can get a little more room out of the same space than the carpenter or untrained house builder. He can so arrange the rooms that housekeeping is a little easier, and he can see that the materials employed are durable and sound.

So how did they arrange the rooms? I looked into Embury's book to see what he considered to be good houses of the day, and what they included. These are not working class houses; they are for the 1% of the time, who could afford to buy empty lots and hire architects. Yet they are very different from the houses of today.

Aymar Embury II/Public Domain

Perhaps most surprising is how tight and efficient they are. Heating was very expensive, so one didn't waste a lot of space. According to Embury, the most modern heating at the time was ducted air, but it wasn't forced air like it is today, they had huge ducts and relied on convection for circulation. Larger houses would have hot water or steam radiators, which was much more expensive. There were living rooms and dining rooms but few dens and no family rooms; you lived in the living and ate in the dining. Period. There was not a lot of space devoted to expansive two storey halls and breakfast rooms and all those things that fill up so much space in a modern house.

Main floor toilets were rare, but everyone in this class had servants, and servant stairs were almost universal, as were kitchen pantries. Even in my own Toronto house, built on a 30' lot in a streetcar suburb of Toronto 90 years ago, there was a servant's stair that ran from near the kitchen to mid-landing so that the help wouldn't be seen in the front hall, horror of horrors. The previous owners ripped it out and put in a powder room.

On the second floor, many of the homes had two bathrooms, but closets are tiny. Today, I believe the rule is that that closet should be as big as the bedroom. Yet somehow they managed; perhaps the help took it all away for storage somewhere else. Every bedroom had at least two windows to provide natural cross-ventilation, the bathrooms had opening windows, never over the tub where you couldn't reach it. The hall had natural light as well; electricity was expensive and unreliable.

Aymar Embury II/Public Domain

As the houses got bigger and jazzier, they got some of the things that we expect today, like ground floor powder rooms and even ground floor dens, but look at the sizes; the dining room is 14' by 14' and the den is 8' x 11', barely the size of a closet by today's standards. There's only one bathroom on the second floor, but it is generous. There is also a sleeping porch for hot summer nights. But generally, it is smaller, tighter and more efficient than anything anyone would build today.

Aymar Embury II/Public Domain

The exteriors are as interesting as the plans. Note the projecting second floor and the trellises shading the windows, the deciduous trees planted to shade the house, the big casement windows to allow the breezes in.

Aymar Embury II/Public Domain

Or note the amazing pergola running round the Calvert House here, creating lovely outdoor space and shading the house in summer.

Wikipedia/CC BY 2.0

In the end, what have we done with all that wonderful insulation and air conditioning and green tech developed since Grandma's day? We've eaten up much of the energy savings by having house size get out of control. We've complicated our designs as if we wanted to maximize jogs and surface areas. We've introduced double height spaces and media rooms and family rooms and breakfast rooms and ensuite bathrooms for every bedroom. We have forgotten about orientation and cross-ventilation because we can just turn on the air conditioning. We get rid of asbestos and lead in paint and don't question brominated flame retardants and phthalates.

I'm sorry, but we still have a lot to learn from Grandma and her architect.

Source: http://www.treehugger.com/green-architecture/more-lessons-grandma-green-building-and-house-design.html

ron white ron white buckyballs buckyballs awake mario batali lone ranger

Verizon cuts HTC Windows Phone 8X to $99.99

For a moment there, we almost believed it: Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz's radical solution for the ongoing fiscal cliff nightmare, and maybe politics entirely, was going to work. Scrawling a vaguely political message on paper cups containing overpriced coffee would deliver us from partisan politics, from disagreement itself. We were going to Come Together? while consuming a Trenta vanilla soy half-caf latte?with extra chocolate drizzle.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/verizon-cuts-htc-windows-phone-8x-99-99-130037921.html

nfl nfl best buy sears Aeropostale Jcpenny abercrombie

Prime Minister Singh Warns 'Business as Usual' Will Not Work ...

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh addressed a meeting of the National Development Council in New Delhi on Thursday. The meeting was called to finalize a draft of India?s 12th five-year plan (2012-17) that aims for faster, more inclusive and sustainable growth. Mr. Singh emphasized the need to improve gender inequality and said that ?business as usual,? will not help achieve high economic growth.

Read excerpts of his speech:

Overall Growth Target:

The Deputy Chairman has indicated that in view of the latest assessment of the state of the global economy, the overall growth target for the Twelfth Plan is being set at 8 percent. This is a reasonable modification but I must emphasize that achieving an average of 8 percent growth, following less than 6 percent in the first year, is still an ambitious target. As the Plan document makes clear, the high growth scenario will definitely not materialize if we follow a ?business as usual? policy.

Gender Inequality:

Women and girls represent half the population and our society has not been fair to this half. Their socio-economic status is improving, but gaps persist. The emergence of women in public spaces, which is an absolutely essential part of social emancipation, is accompanied by growing threats to their safety and security. I have in mind the brutal attack on a young woman only a few days ago in the capital and other such reprehensible incidents elsewhere. We must reflect on this problem, which occurs in all states and regions of our country, and which requires greater attention both by the Center and the States.

Direct Cash Transfer:

A common complaint against government programs is that they suffer from leakages, corruption, delays and poor targeting. The Central Government is taking a major step to deal with this problem by shifting several beneficiary oriented schemes to a direct transfer mode, using the Aadhaar platform. This will begin to roll out for selected schemes in selected districts in the course of January 2013. In due course, a wide range of benefits like scholarships for students, pensions for elderly, health benefits, MNREGA wages and many other benefits will migrate to direct transfer into bank accounts using Aadhaar as a bridge.

Energy Pricing:

Energy is a critical input for any growth process and our domestic energy resources are not sufficient to meet our country?s growing needs. We import oil, natural gas and in recent years even coal. If we wish to keep our energy import requirement within reasonable limits, we must emphasize energy efficiency to moderate demand and we must increase domestic production of energy. Energy pricing is critical for both objectives. If domestic energy prices are too low, there will be no incentive to increase energy efficiency or to expand even supply.

Management of Water Resources:

We are rapidly approaching the position where the total demand for water in the country simply cannot be met by available supply. As with energy, we have to respond by increasing water use efficiency and also by expanding supply in a sustainable manner. The Plan document outlines a comprehensive strategy for dealing with this problem, starting with a serious effort to map available ground water supplies aquifer by aquifer. Available water also needs to be allocated to different uses through a Water Regulatory Authority. This is an area where action lies largely in the domain of State Governments.

Source: http://india.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/12/27/what-prime-minister-singh-said-about-indias-economic-forecast/

fbi most wanted list stuttering james van der beek dyngus day indonesia quake stephen strasburg shabazz

Christchurch PR Jobs Provide Challenges for Professionals... | Stuff ...

The merger of Christchurch schools and the launch of an earthquake recovery plan were among the toughest public relations jobs in 2012.

BlacklandPR has named the bungled announcement of the schools shake-up in September the hardest job of the year, and the release of the Christchurch Central Development Unit's (CCDU) central-city blueprint the third toughest.

Company director Mark Blackham said factors in the?education announcement would "challenge the world's best PR exponents".

"Christchurch schools have to be reorganised, thousands of people will be affected and all of them fear change that affects their children's educational futures," he said.

The schools merger announcement led to a backlash in Christchurch, with public protests and Government promises of further consultation.

Blackham said the CCDU plan was released after a "long period of dispute and frustration", but the public had "reserved judgment" on it.

Christchurch PR experts said consultation and empathy were the key to successful communication.

Erin Jamieson, of Convergence PR, said genuine consultation was important in post-earthquake Christchurch.

"It has been a challenging year but it has also been a very interesting year. Communications people have worked on projects that they never dreamed they would be taking on," she said.

"The whole challenge is ensuring organisations really are consulting. There are a lot of organisations that really need to consult properly and not just inform.

"Given what everyone has been through, there is an expectation that the community do have a right to have a say. Organisations really need to respect that rather than just pay lip service."

PR consultant Ali Jones said Christchurch issues needed to be handled with "humanity and empathy".

"You need to be based here to understand the issues. You are living it then," she said.

"You are hearing the news every day on the radio and reading the paper and talking to mums on the school run. Unless you are living here, you can't understand what is happening and what people require.

"The whole thing about good communication is the humanity and empathy, and if that is not there you run the risk of getting things wrong, as we have seen."

OTHER TOUGH PR JOBS:

- The release of the Pike River mining disaster report.

- The plan for an increase in school class sizes.

- The Kim Dotcom spying debacle,

- Marmite production problems.

- ? Fairfax NZ News

Comments

Source: http://www.stuff.co.nz/the-press/business/8123918/Schools-shake-up-PR-job-from-hell

breaking dawn part 2 breaking dawn part 2 Jennifer Lacy Honey Baked Ham hostess israel AMA

Putin signs anti-US adoptions bill

MOSCOW (AP) ? President Vladimir Putin on Friday signed a law banning Americans from adopting Russian children, abruptly terminating the prospects for more than 50 youngsters preparing to join new families and sparking critics to liken him to King Herod.

The move is part of a harsh response to a U.S. law targeting Russians deemed to be human rights violators. Although some top Russian officials including the foreign minister openly opposed the bill, Putin signed it less than 24 hours after receiving it from Parliament, where it passed both houses overwhelmingly.

The law also calls for the closure of non-governmental organizations receiving American funding if their activities are classified as political ? a broad definition many fear could be used to close any NGO that offends the Kremlin.

The law takes effect Jan. 1, the Kremlin said. Children's rights ombudsman Pavel Astakhov said 52 children who were in the pipeline for U.S. adoption would remain in Russia.

The ban is in response to a measure signed into law by President Barack Obama this month that calls for sanctions against Russians assessed to be human rights violators.

That stems from the case of Sergei Magnitsky, a Russian lawyer who was arrested after accusing officials of a $230 million tax fraud. He was repeatedly denied medical treatment and died in jail in 2009. Russian rights groups claimed he was severely beaten.

A prison doctor who was the only official charged in the case was acquitted by a Moscow court on Friday. Although there was no demonstrable connection to Putin's signing the law a few hours later, the timing underlines what critics say is Russia's refusal to responsibly pursue the case.

The adoption ban has angered both Americans and Russians who argue it victimizes children to make a political point, cutting off a route out of frequently dismal orphanages for thousands.

"The king is Herod," popular writer Oleg Shargunov said on his Twitter account, referring to the Roman-appointed king of Judea at the time of Jesus Christ's birth, who the Bible says ordered the massacre of Jewish children to avoid being supplanted by a prophesied newborn king of the Jews.

A painting depicting the massacre and captioned "an appropriate response to the Magnitsky act" spread widely on the Internet. The phrase echoed Putin's characterization of the ban while it was under consideration.

U.S. State Department spokesman Patrick Ventrell expressed regret over Putin's signing the law and urged Russia to "allow those children who have already met and bonded with their future parents to finish the necessary legal procedures so that they can join their families."

Vladimir Lukin, head of the Russian Human Rights Commission and a former ambassador to Washington, said he would challenge the law in the Constitutional Court.

The U.S. law galvanized Russian resentment of the United States, which Putin has claimed funded and encouraged the wave of massive anti-government protests that arose last winter.

The Parliament initially considered a relatively similar retaliatory measure, but amendments have expanded it far beyond a tit-for-tat response.

UNICEF estimates that there are about 740,000 children not in parental custody in Russia while about 18,000 Russians are on the waiting list to adopt a child. The U.S. is the biggest destination for adopted Russian children ? more than 60,000 of them have been taken in by Americans over the past two decades.

Russians historically have been less enthusiastic about adopting children than most Western cultures. Putin, along with signing the adoption ban, on Friday issued an order for the government to develop a program to provide more support for adopted children.

Lev Ponomarev, one of Russia's most prominent human rights activists, hinted at that reluctance when he said Parliament members who voted for the bill should take custody of the children who were about to be adopted.

"The moral responsibility lies on them," he told Interfax. "But I don't think that even one child will be taken to be brought up by deputies of the Duma."

Many Russians have been distressed for years by reports of Russian children dying or suffering abuse at the hands of their American adoptive parents. The new Russian law was dubbed the "Dima Yakovlev Bill" after a toddler who died in 2008 when his American adoptive father left him in a car in broiling heat for hours.

In that case, the father was found not guilty of involuntary manslaughter and Russia has complained of acquittals or light sentences in other such cases.

The Investigative Committee, Russia's top investigative body, on Friday complained that its attempts to have the acquittals overturned or reconsidered had been ignored by the United States. Under U.S. law, acquittals are final except in rare cases.

Russians also bristled at how the widespread adoptions appeared to show them as hardhearted or too poor to take care of orphans. Astakhov, the children's ombudsman, charged that well-heeled Americans often got priority over Russians who wanted to adopt.

A few lawmakers even claimed that some Russian children were adopted by Americans only to be used for organ transplants or become sex toys or cannon fodder for the U.S. Army. A spokesman for Russia's dominant Orthodox Church said that children adopted by foreigners and raised outside the church will not enter God's kingdom.

___

Mansur Mirovalev and Nataliya Vasilyeva in Moscow contributed to this story.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/putin-signs-anti-us-adoptions-bill-100228125.html

jeb bush sherry arnold snooty fox el debarge portland weather clintonville battlestar galactica blood and chrome

Toyota settlement will top $1 billion

6 hrs.

From wire services , NBC News

Toyota Motor Corp. has agreed to pay as much as $1.4 billion to settle U.S. litigation claims that its vehicles suddenly and unintentionally accelerated, according to court filings made public Wednesday.

The company said the deal will resolve hundreds of lawsuits from Toyota owners who said the value of their cars and trucks plummeted after a series of recalls stemming from claims that Toyota vehicles accelerated unintentionally.

Steve Berman, a lawyer representing Toyota owners, said the settlement is the largest in U.S. history involving automobile defects.

"We kept fighting and fighting and we secured what we think was a good settlement given the risks of this litigation," Berman told The Associated Press.

The proposed deal was filed Wednesday and must receive the approval of U.S. District Judge James Selna, who was expected to review the settlement Friday.

Toyota said it will take a one-time, $1.1 billion pre-tax charge against earnings to cover the estimated costs of the settlement. Berman said the total value of the deal is between $1.2 billion and $1.4 billion.

Hundreds of lawsuits have been filed against Toyota since 2009, when the Japanese automaker started receiving numerous complaints that its cars accelerated on their own, causing crashes, injuries and even deaths.

The cases were consolidated in U.S. District Court in Santa Ana and divided into two categories: economic loss and wrongful death. Claims by people who seek compensation for injury and death due to sudden acceleration are not part of the settlement; the first trial involving those suits is scheduled for February.

The deal includes direct payments to customers as well as the installation of a brake override system in about 3.25 million vehicles, plaintiff attorneys said.?The terms also?include a $250 million fund for former Toyota owners who sold vehicles at reduced prices because of bad publicity, and a separate $250 million fund for owners not eligible for the brake override system.

The settlement would also establish additional driver education programs and fund new research into advanced safety technologies.

"In keeping with our core principles, we have structured this agreement in ways that work to put our customers first and demonstrate that they can count on Toyota to stand behind our vehicles," said Christopher? Reynolds, Toyota vice president and general counsel.

Current and former Toyota owners are expected to receive more information about the settlement in the coming months. Some information is also available at http://www.ToyotaELsettlement.com, a website created for Toyota owners affected by the settlement.

"We are extraordinarily proud of how we were able to represent the interests of Toyota owners, and believe this settlement is both comprehensive in its scope and fair in compensation," Berman said.

Toyota has recalled more than 14 million vehicles worldwide due to acceleration problems in several models and brake defects with the Prius hybrid. Toyota has blamed driver error, faulty floor mats and sticky accelerator pedals for the unintended acceleration.

Plaintiffs' attorneys have spent the past two years deposing Toyota employees, poring over thousands of documents and reviewing software code, but the company maintains those lawyers have been unable to prove that a design defect ? namely Toyota's electronic throttle control system ? was responsible for vehicles surging unexpectedly.

Both the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and NASA were unable to find any defects in Toyota's source code that could cause problems.

The company has been dogged by fines for not reporting problems in a timely manner.

Earlier this month, NHTSA doled out a record $17.4 million fine to Toyota for failing to quickly report floor mat problems with some of its Lexus models. Toyota paid a total of $48.8 million in fines for three violations in 2010.

Toyota President Akio Toyoda appeared before Congress last year and pledged to strengthen quality control. Recent sales figures show the company appears to have rebounded following its safety issues.

Information from the Associated Press and Reuters was included in this report.

Source: http://www.nbcnews.com/business/toyota-settlement-over-acceleration-problems-top-1-billion-1C7659318

Jerry Nelson Foo Canoodle Isaac path