Ethanol Debate Has Glimpse of Bipartisanship

The top Republican and Democrat on the House Energy and Commerce Committee are finally on the same page about a controversial energy policy after reading from two completely different playbooks the last four years.

Chairman Fred Upton, R-Mich., and ranking member Henry Waxman, D-Calif., are both undecided about what Congress should do about the renewable-fuels standard, a federal mandate established in 2005 that requires increasingly large amounts of biofuels each year to be blended with gasoline.

?I don?t have an immediate solution. I don?t have the answer,? Upton said in a recent interview in his office. ?But we?re going to have thoughtful hearings, first a couple of white papers. We?re going to see where people are. I have confidence that we?ll have a solution by going regular order.?

So will Waxman, who has vehemently disagreed with Upton on everything from the Keystone XL pipeline to greenhouse-gas regulations, be working with him on this? ?I?d like to think Henry would be on board,? said Upton, noting the two jointly released the first of a series of white papers on the mandate last week.

In a recent interview in Waxman?s corner office in the Rayburn Office Building, the usually opinionated California liberal was noncommittal. ?I?m not going to take a position on this issue,? he said. ?I?m looking forward to working with [Upton]. Let?s explore it. Let?s get the options. Let?s get input. And then let?s sit down together.?

The geographical and parochial interests shaping the debate over the biofuels mandate put Waxman and Upton on the same side of one of the most controversial issues Congress is poised to take up this year. The mandate is facing criticism from an informal?and unusual?coalition that includes the American Petroleum Institute, the Grocery Manufacturers Association, the National Chicken Council, and the Natural Resources Defense Council.

While they?re not willing to admit it, both lawmakers seem open to reforming the policy, which has come under intense scrutiny from Republicans and Democrats alike in the wake of last summer?s record-setting drought that sent corn prices souring. Refineries that are required to blend biofuels with gasoline often use corn-produced ethanol to meet the mandate. Apart from providing fuel in the form of ethanol, corn also serves as a key feedstock to the poultry, pork, and cattle industries. More advanced biofuels made from products other than corn are not coming to market as quickly as the 2005 law had envisioned. On top of these concerns, the original intent of the standard?to wean America off foreign oil?has been trumped by the boom in oil and natural-gas production around the country in the last five years.

Waxman?s chief concerns, according to sources knowledgeable about his position, center on the impact corn-based ethanol could have on efforts to tackle global warming. Some reports have found that gasoline blended with corn-based ethanol is no better at reducing greenhouse gas emissions than gasoline alone. He is also aware of the legal liability automakers could incur if engines are unable to run using blends with more ethanol.

Waxman has never been a big fan of corn ethanol. He voted against the energy bill in 2005 that initially created the mandate but supported a 2007 measure that strengthened the mandate?s goal of promoting advanced biofuels such as cellulosic ethanol, which don?t use corn and have lower carbon footprints.

Waxman may also be getting an earful from a powerful opponent of the standard: Chevron. Waxman?s newly redrawn district includes, for the first time since he came to Congress in 1975, a refinery. Chevron bills the facility, located along the coast near the Los Angeles International Airport, as the largest refinery on the West Coast. The facility spans 1,000 acres and employs 1,100 people, according to Chevron?s website. When National Journal Daily asked about the refinery in the interview, Waxman laughed, smiled broadly, and simply said: ?Yeah.? He said he hasn?t met (yet) to talk with Chevron about the biofuels mandatey.

?I?m not anti-oil,? Waxman said. ?I?m happy there is a refinery in my district that is producing a product that is very much needed. That doesn?t mean I?m going to agree with them on everything.? He quickly added: ?We?re going to need fossil fuels for the foreseeable future. I?d like us to start moving away as quickly as possible and make our portfolio of energy resources more than just fossil fuels.?

The background of Upton?s stance on the policy is equally nuanced. Along with 207 other Republicans, he supported the creation of the mandate as part of the 2005 bill and also the measure two years later that strengthened it. Republican President Bush signed both those bills into law.

Sources familiar with Upton?s thoughts on the policy now say the Republican is more inclined to oppose it, given the Republican Party?s growing hostility to federal mandates and the resurgence in oil and natural-gas production that?s helped get the U.S. closer than ever to the elusive goal of energy independence.

Upton has another concern to keep in mind: Ensuring that any movement on the standard doesn?t divide his conference, which is already splintered on a host of other issues. Rep. John Shimkus, R-Ill., who works closely with Upton as the chairman of the House Environment and Energy Subcommittee, is a big proponent of ethanol (Illinois produces the third-highest amount of ethanol in the country). ?Yes, I know there are real hard feelings on all sides of the issue: oil and gas side to the corn folks,? Upton said.

For the next couple of months, expect Upton and Waxman to be reading quietly from the same playbook as they roll out white papers on the standard. The real test of how long this bipartisanship will last will come when the hearings?and actual debate?begin in the committee.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/ethanol-debate-glimpse-bipartisanship-195915918--politics.html

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Gold Prices Will Explode Higher When These Investors Start Buying ...

Commodities / Gold and Silver 2013 Mar 27, 2013 - 04:58 PM GMT

By: Money_Morning

David Zeiler writes: Until recently, an entire class of investors that control a huge pool of money - more than $27 trillion worldwide - have almost entirely ignored gold.

But lately, this group has begun to show more interest in the yellow metal, a trend that ultimately will exert massive upward pressure on gold prices.

We're talking about pension funds, which typically have had little interest in gold.

But with more traditional investments like bonds at historic lows, many pension funds aren't getting the returns they need to fund future obligations.

And with central banks debasing most major currencies and risking higher inflation, pension fund managers almost have no choice but to consider adding gold.

It's already started in Japan, which has about $3.4 trillion in pension funds - second only to the U.S., which has about $20 trillion.

In response to Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's pledge to spur inflation by printing more yen, Japanese hedge fund managers plan to double their gold holdings from about $500 million to $1.1 billion over the next two years, primarily by investing in gold exchange-traded funds (ETFs).

Itsuo Toshima, who represented the Tokyo office of World Gold Council for 23 years through 2011 and now advises Japanese pension fund managers, sees gold becoming a standard asset as inflation becomes more of a threat - with major consequences for gold prices.

"Pension money invested in bullion is "peanuts' at the moment," Toshima told Bloomberg News. "If 1% of their total assets shift to the metal, the gold market would explode."
How Pension Funds Could Make Gold Prices Soar
Shayne McGuire, managing director and head of Global Research at the Texas Teacher Retirement System pension fund, estimates that gold only makes up about 0.15% of pension fund portfolios now.

In his 2010 book, "Hard Money: Taking Gold to a Higher Investment Level," McGuire argues that it makes sense for pension funds to invest in gold.

Like the pension fund managers in Japan, McGuire sees gold as a way to diversify a portfolio while increasing returns and gaining some protection against inflation.

And as more pension fund managers realize this, gold prices can only go up - and up.

Consider this: According to the World Gold Council, global gold sales reached a record $236 billion in 2012, with purchases by gold-backed ETFs rising 51%. The biggest is the SPDR Gold Trust (NYSE ARCA:GLD), with almost $70 billion worth of the yellow metal.

But using Toshima's formula, if pension funds around the world shifted just 1% of their assets to gold, it would create $270 billion of demand - more than the entire existing gold market. U.S. pension funds alone would account for $200 billion of demand.

"The effect of suddenly moving a substantial amount of investment money into the precious metals market was best described in a telephone conversation I had with an expert in the industry: It would be like shoving an elephant into a mailbox," McGuire wrote in his book.

He noted that only about $80 billion worth of new gold is mined every year, and half of that goes to jewelry and industry. A surge in pension fund buying would have to drive gold prices up, as demand would far outstrip supply.

"If gold rose from the minuscule part it represents in the world's largest portfolios today to just 1 or 2% of global assets under management, the effect would be substantial," McGuire wrote. "That it could rise to $10,000 an ounce is not out of the question."

Pension Funds Buying Gold Now
One Japanese bank, Mitsubishi UFJ Trust, told Bloomberg that some local pension funds in Japan already have made gold 2%-3% of their portfolios and the bank is talking to other fund managers.

In the U.S., McGuire's Texas Teacher Retirement fund - with over $100 billion in assets, the eighth-largest pension fund in the world - has tried to lead by example.

As of Dec. 31, 2012, the Texas Teachers fund held 2.4% of its portfolio in the SPDR Gold ETF, while adding new positions in gold miners Gold Fields Ltd. (NYSE ADR: GFI), 0.15% of the portfolio; and Harmony Gold Mining Co. Ltd. (NYSE ADR: HMY), 0.11% of portfolio.

Among its top 100 holdings, the fund also has 0.39% of its portfolio in Goldcorp Inc. (NYSE: GG) as well as 1% of its portfolio in the iShares Silver Trust ETF (NYSE: SLV), and 0.28% in Silver Wheaton Corp. (NYSE: SLW).

Separately, McGuire launched and created Texas Teachers pension fund, the $560 million GBI Gold Fund, entirely focused on precious metal investing in gold and silver.

Some other U.S. pension funds have shown interest.

The State of New Jersey Pension Fund E, which focuses on alternative investments, had 15.16% of its portfolio in gold, though the $577 million Fund E makes up just 2.5% of the total assets of New Jersey's four major state pension funds.

And the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Public School Retirement System holds 0.36% of its portfolio in the SPDR Gold ETF.

Given the uncertain economy, the frustrating bond market and rampant money printing across the globe, pension fund gold buying could turn from experiment to policy in a hurry, with rising gold prices perhaps even encouraging the trend.

"A significant move into the metal could happen by default, as even the most die-hard gold opponents might soon be forced to consider it," McGuire wrote.

Source :http://moneymorning.com/2013/03/26/gold-prices-will-explode-when-these-investors-start-buying/

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High court hears case on federal benefits for gays

Demonstrators chant outside the Supreme Court in Washington, Tuesday, March 26, 2013, as the court heard arguments on California's voter approved ban on same-sex marriage, Proposition 8. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

Demonstrators chant outside the Supreme Court in Washington, Tuesday, March 26, 2013, as the court heard arguments on California's voter approved ban on same-sex marriage, Proposition 8. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

A demonstrator holds a bible while marching outside the Supreme Court in Washington, Tuesday, March 26, 2013, as the court heard arguments on California's voter approved ban on same-sex marriage, Proposition 8. The Supreme Court waded into the fight over same-sex marriage Tuesday, at a time when public opinion is shifting rapidly in favor of permitting gay and lesbian couples to wed, but 40 states don't allow it. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

From left, plaintiffs Sandy Stier, with her partner Kris Perry, and their twin sons Spencer Perry and Elliott Perry, all from Berkeley, Calif., meet with reporters outside the Supreme Court in Washington, Tuesday, March 26, 2013, after the court heard arguments on California's voter approved ban on same-sex marriage, Proposition 8. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

This artist rendering shows attorney Charles J. Cooper, right, addressing the Supreme Court in Washington, Tuesday, March 26, 2013, as the court heard arguments on California's ban on same-sex marriage. Justices, from left are, Sonia Sotomayor, Stephen Breyer, Clarence Thomas, Antonin Scalia, Chief Justice John Roberts, and Justices Anthony Kennedy, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Samuel Alito and Elena Kagan. (AP Photo/Dana Verkouteren)

Plaintiffs Kris Perry, left, and her partner Sandy Stier, right, both from Berkeley, Cailf., meet with the media outside the Supreme Court in Washington, Tuesday, March 26, 2013, after the court heard arguments on California's voter approved ban on same-sex marriage, Proposition 8. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

WASHINGTON (AP) ? In the second of back-to-back gay marriage cases, the Supreme Court is turning to a constitutional challenge to the law that prevents legally married gay Americans from collecting federal benefits generally available to straight married couples.

A section of the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act says marriage may only be a relationship between a man and a woman for purposes of federal law, regardless of state laws that allow same-sex marriage.

Lower federal courts have struck down the measure, and now the justices, in nearly two hours of scheduled argument Wednesday, will consider whether to follow suit.

A somewhat smaller crowd gathered outside the court Wednesday, mainly gay marriage supporters who held American and rainbow flags. One man wore a rainbow flag as a cape. "Two, four, six, eight, we do not discriminate," a group chanted at one point.

The DOMA argument follows Tuesday's case over California's ban on same-sex marriage, a case in which the justices indicated they might avoid a major national ruling on whether America's gays and lesbians have a right to marry. Even without a significant ruling, the court appeared headed for a resolution that would mean the resumption of gay and lesbian weddings in California.

Marital status is relevant in more than 1,100 federal laws that include estate taxes, Social Security survivor benefits and health benefits for federal employees. Lawsuits around the country have led four federal district courts and two appeals courts to strike down the law's Section 3, which defines marriage. In 2011, the Obama administration abandoned its defense of the law but continues to enforce it. House Republicans are now defending DOMA in the courts.

Same-sex marriage is legal in nine states and the District of Columbia. The states are Connecticut, Iowa, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York, Vermont and Washington. It also was legal in California for less than five months in 2008.

The justices chose for their review the case of Edith Windsor, 83, of New York, who sued to challenge a $363,000 federal estate tax bill after her partner of 44 years died in 2009.

Windsor, who goes by Edie, married Thea Spyer in 2007 in Canada after doctors told them that Spyer would not live much longer. She suffered from multiple sclerosis for many years. Spyer left everything she had to Windsor.

There is no dispute that if Windsor had been married to a man, her estate tax bill would have been zero.

The U.S. 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals in New York agreed with a district judge that the provision of DOMA deprived Windsor of the constitutional guarantee of equal protection of the law.

Like the Proposition 8 case from California, Windsor's lawsuit could falter on a legal technicality without a definitive ruling from the high court.

The House Republicans, the Obama administration and a lawyer appointed by the court especially to argue the issue were to spend the first 50 minutes Wednesday discussing whether the House Republican leadership can defend the law in court because the administration decided not to, and whether the administration forfeited its right to participate in the case because it changed its position and now argues that the provision is unconstitutional.

If the Supreme Court finds that it does not have the authority to hear the case, Windsor probably would still get her refund because she won in the lower courts. But there would be no definitive decision about the law from the nation's highest court, and it would remain on the books.

On Tuesday, the justices weighed a fundamental issue: Does the Constitution require that people be allowed to marry whom they choose, regardless of either partner's gender? The fact that the question was in front of the Supreme Court at all was startling, given that no state recognized same-sex unions before 2003 and 40 states still don't allow them.

But it was clear from the start of the 80-minute argument in a packed courtroom that the justices, including some liberals who seemed open to gay marriage, had doubts about whether they should even be hearing the challenge to California's Proposition 8, the state's voter-approved gay marriage ban.

Justice Anthony Kennedy, the potentially decisive vote on a closely divided court, suggested the justices could dismiss the case with no ruling at all.

Such an outcome would almost certainly allow gay marriages to resume in California but would have no impact elsewhere.

There was no majority apparent for any particular outcome, and many doubts were expressed by justices about the arguments advanced by lawyers for the opponents of gay marriage in California, by the supporters and by the Obama administration, which is in favor of same-sex marriage rights. The administration's entry into the case followed President Barack Obama's declaration of support for gay marriage.

On the one hand, Kennedy acknowledged that same-sex unions had only become legal recently in some states, a point stressed repeatedly by Charles Cooper, the lawyer for the defenders of Proposition 8. Cooper said the court should uphold the ban as a valid expression of the people's will and let the vigorous political debate over gay marriage continue.

But Kennedy pressed him also to address the interests of the estimated 40,000 children in California who have same-sex parents.

"They want their parents to have full recognition and full status," Kennedy said. "The voice of those children is important in this case, don't you think?"

Yet when Theodore Olson, the lawyer for two same-sex couples, urged the court to support such marriage rights everywhere, Kennedy feared such a ruling would push the court into "uncharted waters." Olson said the court similarly ventured into the unknown in 1967 when it struck down bans on interracial marriage in 16 states.

Kennedy challenged the accuracy of that comment: He noted that other countries had had interracial marriages for hundreds of years.

The justice also made clear he did not like the rationale of the federal appeals court that struck down Proposition 8, even though it cited earlier opinions in favor of gay rights that Kennedy had written.

That appeals court ruling applied only to California, where same-sex couples briefly had the right to marry before the state's voters in November 2008 adopted Proposition 8, a constitutional amendment that defined marriage as the union of a man and a woman.

Reflecting the high interest in the cases, the court planned to release an audio recording of Wednesday's argument shortly after it concludes, just as it did Tuesday.

The Tuesday audio can be found at: http://tinyurl.com/dxefy2a .

___

Associated Press writer Jessica Gresko contributed to this report.

___

Follow Mark Sherman on Twitter at: www.twitter.com/shermancourt

Follow Jessica Gresko on Twitter at: www.twitter.com/jessicagresko

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2013-03-27-Supreme%20Court-Gay%20Marriage/id-c0f3ca82b922449eacd08983859b1b24

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Maui-Raised Cretton Wins SXSW Grand Jury Prize | Maui Now

By Vanessa Wolf

Destin Daniel Cretton. Courtesy image.

Born and raised on Maui, Destin Daniel Cretton just won the prestigious SXSW Film Festival Grand Jury Prize for Best Narrative Feature for his film ?Short Term 12.?

Cretton graduated from Maui High School and Maui Community College and spent three of his summers picking pineapples in the fields near his Haiku home.

He went on to receive a BA in communications from Point Loma Nazarene University and completed his master?s in film at San Diego State University.

?Short Term 12,? also won the US Jury Prize at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival, followed by top awards at Seattle International, Aspen Shorts Fest, Independent Film Festival Boston, CineVegas, and GenArtt. It was short-listed for the 2010 Academy Awards.

The film is told through the eyes of Grace (Brie Larson), a ?20-something supervisor at a foster-care facility for at-risk teenagers. Passionate and tough, Grace is a formidable caretaker of the kids in her charge ? and in love with her long-term?boyfriend and co-worker, Mason (John Gallagher Jr.).But Grace?s own difficult past ? and the surprising future that suddenly presents itself ? throw her into unforeseen confusion, made all the sharper with the arrival of a new intake at the facility: a gifted but troubled teenage girl with whom Grace has a charged connection.?

While the subject matter is complex, the film is said to find truth ? and humor ? in unexpected places.

We caught up with Destin Daniel Cretton to find out how his Maui background influences his film-making and his future.

Maui Now: You?re from Maui and making films in California now. Does Maui ever influence or trickle into your work?

Destin Daniel Cretton: Maui has a huge influence on everything I do. Storytelling is so ingrained into that culture, it was all around me as a kid. It didn?t matter if my parents were shopping at Ooka?s, or holding up traffic at a stop sign, there was always time to talk story. It?s such a beautiful part of the lifestyle on Maui, and something that?s hard to find anywhere else.

MN: Would you ever consider shooting a film or basing a story on Maui?

DDC: Yes! It?s kind of a lifelong dream to shoot a movie on Maui. I have a couple ideas brewing in my head, and can?t wait for the opportunity to make them.

MN: What inspired the subject matter of ?Short Term 12??

DDC: After graduating from college, I worked at a group home for at-risk teenagers for a couple years. It was one of the most difficult experiences I?ve ever had, but also one of the most rewarding. ?Short Term 12? was inspired by that experience.

MN: When you come home to see your family what are the top three things you ?have? to do or eat?

DDC: When I get off the plane, I usually go straight to 7-11 and get a pork hash and spam musubi. Then I drive over to Maui Mall and get a Guri Guri, three-scoop mix with two pineapple. Then I go to Zippy?s for a pork saimin with extra garnishes. ?After that, I?m the happiest man on earth.

___

Cretton is on a roll: the script for ?Short Term 12? (based on the short of the same title), was one of five to win a 2010 Nicholl Screenwriting Fellowship from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

Have an idea for a fun or thought-provoking story or topic??Get in touch: we want to hear from you. -Vanessa (@mauinow.com)

Related Stories:

Source: http://mauinow.com/2013/03/24/maui-raised-cretton-wins-sxsw-grand-jury-prize/

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With plan to save Cyprus, EU bureaucrats prescribe long-term pain

While European leaders spoke approvingly of the bailout plan, experts say that it will deal a 'brutal hit' to the country's banking sector that will require a long, slow recovery.

By Nick Squires,?Correspondent / March 25, 2013

Protesters hold a banner that reads 'Hands off Cyprus' during an anti-bailout rally in Nicosia, Cyprus, on Sunday night. Cypriot politicians and European financial leaders reached a deal on a bailout plan early Monday morning, but experts say that Cyprus's economy will suffer long-term damage from the plan.

Petros Karadjias/AP

Enlarge

Local and European leaders are expressing cautious optimism after having reached a last-minute deal on a bailout agreement for Cyprus. But independent analysts worry about the long-term economic consequences for the island.

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"A long period of uncertainty and insecurity surrounding the Cyprus economy has ended," said Michael Sarris, the Cypriot finance minister.

?We've put an end to the uncertainty that has affected Cyprus and the euro area over the past week,? proclaimed Jeroen Dijsselbloem, who chairs the meetings of the 17-nation eurozone's finance ministers.

But many independent experts don?t quite see it that way. Although Cyprus secured the 10 billion euro ($13 billion) bailout that it wanted, in return it signed up for drastic and far-reaching measures that many say will cripple its vital financial services industry for years to come.

The deal reached by Cyprus may have averted short-term bankruptcy and a forced exit from the euro but it is likely to entail a massive restructuring of the Mediterranean island?s economy ? leaving Cypriots worried about significant job losses, a deepening of the country?s recession, and a flight of foreign capital from their once lucrative banking sector.

A 'brutal hit'

Negotiations between the leaders of the indebted nation and international lenders in Brussels went right down to the wire ? the accord was struck early Monday morning, just hours ahead of the deadline by which the European Central Bank said it would shut off emergency liquidity assistance for Cypriot banks.

The agreement safeguarded the bank deposits of small investors, with a guarantee for all holdings of 100,000 euros ($130,000) or less.

The country's second-largest bank ? the Popular Bank of Cyprus, which is also known as Laiki ? will be effectively shut down, with companies and individuals holding more than 100,000 euros in their accounts facing significant losses.

The bank?s thousands of employees are likely to lose their jobs and there will be knock-on effects for the consultants, accountants, and lawyers who make their living from the financial sector, which has attracted billions of dollars of foreign capital in recent years, including an estimated 20 billion euros ($26 billion) from Russia alone.

The sector employs around 25 to 30 percent of the workforce in Cyprus, which has a population of just 800,000 ? significantly less than the state of Rhode Island.

?It has been hit very brutally,? says Stelios Platis, an economist at Cyprus International University of Management.

No confidence

Dr. Platis put the blame squarely on the Eurogroup, the gathering of the euro zone?s finance ministers, which granted Cyprus the bailout package. ?The Eurogroup killed the most important ingredient in any banking sector ? depositors? and investors? confidence."

?Now we don?t even know if Cyprus?s largest bank [the Bank of Cyprus] will survive," he says. "The financial services sector was the largest and most successful economic activity on the island and it?s been hit by an unprecedented blow. The real economy will inevitably be hit as well.?

Platis hesitated to estimate how badly the wider economy would be affected, but other analysts said there could be a contraction of up to 20 percent in the next two years and that unemployment could jump from 15 percent to 25 percent within 12 months.

Critics of Cyprus said it had become far too reliant on its financial services industry, which is worth around eight times the country?s gross domestic product of 18 billion euros.

Eurozone leaders were determined to enforce far-reaching reform of the sector, which has been accused of accepting money from sometimes shady investors with no questions asked.

The ?economic shock? of the restructuring meant the Cyprus?s near future would be ?very difficult,? said Olli Rehn, the European Union's commissioner for monetary affairs.

A slow, painful recovery?

Afxentis Afxentiou, a former governor of the Cyprus Central Bank, said the effects could last up to a decade. ?Cyprus has suffered a big hit and our standard of living will spiral downward. Although the economy may be able to recover in two to three years, our standard of living will take at least 10 years to return,? he told state radio.

Open Europe, an independent think tank based in Brussels and London, said the bailout package would have a devastating effect on the tiny island, with the risk that it could become ?a zombie economy,? overly dependent on euro zone funding while experiencing very low levels of growth.

?Cypriot GDP is likely to collapse in the wake of the deal, with possible capital controls hampering the functioning of the economy. The large loan from the eurozone will push debt up to unsustainable levels while the austerity accompanying it will increase unemployment and cause social tension,? the think tank said in a statement.

The uncertainty of the past weeks, and the paralysis of the banking system, has already had a big impact on small businesses.

?In the last week, all our suppliers have been demanding cash, they won?t take checks or credit,? says Nicholas Lartides, who runs a convenience shop in Nicosia. ?Businesses are going to start laying off employees. I think it?s going to take five or six years to recover from this.?

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/blqHu4wh2Jk/With-plan-to-save-Cyprus-EU-bureaucrats-prescribe-long-term-pain

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Fujifilm Business Endeavour Awards Winners Announced

The winners in the 2013 Fujifilm Business Endeavour Awards (FBEA), the competition for the company's national network of Fujifilm Digital Imaging Service (FDIS) photo retailers, have been announced.

The four FBEA winning stores were Brecon Photo Centre owned by Judith Bradshaw; Colliers Photographic in Swansea owned by Neil Collier, Knowle Photographic owned by Bhupinder Singh Padda, and Saxon Photographic owned by Carolyn Beida.

Each winner receives a Fujifilm Business Endeavour Award plaque, a ?500 marketing budget and 12-months free FDIS membership.

The overall FDIS Shop of The Year Award went to Colliers Photographic in Swansea. In addition to their FBEA prizes they also receive the FDIS 'Shop Of The Year' trophy and an additional ?500 marketing budget.

The FBEA was introduced to 'recognise FDIS members for their exceptional efforts in promoting and advancing the role of photo imaging on the high street.'? Participating members had to complete a six month audit of their business and develop and action a detailed marketing plan covering their customers' journey through their store. Each store also had to create initiatives to achieve their defined business goals.

The awards were presented during the recent FDIS National Conference which was held at the Crown Plaza, Birmingham.

Peter Wigington, Marketing Manager for Fujifilm Photo Imaging Group made this comment; "The Fujifilm Business Endeavour Awards are there to encourage our FDIS retailers to really 'up their game' in terms of business planning, marketing and customer service. In these challenging times for retailers it is more important than ever that they ensure their customer offering is as strong as it possibly can be."

He continued: "Brecon Photo Centre, Colliers Photographic, Knowle Photographic and Saxon Photographic are all worthy winners. Colliers were named FDIS 'Shop Of The Year' for their consistently high standards and commitment to providing excellent customer service - they really do go 'that extra mile'.?

Congratulations should go to all the FDIS stores who entered the 2013 FBEA, they all showed commitment to improving their businesses and I'm sure they will now reap the rewards of the plans they put into action. Fujifilm works closely with all FDIS members by providing marketing help and general business support and we hope the awards will inspire all our members to continue to improve their stores."

Source: http://www.ephotozine.com/article/fujifilm-business-endeavour-awards-winners-announced-21542

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Here's how you'll really use your tax refund

By Allison Linn, TODAY

If you?re like a lot of Americans, chances are you?re hoping you?ll get a tax refund this year.

What?s more, you may?be planning to take that money and do something frugal with it, like put it in a savings account or pay down debt.

Here?s the good news: Most people who say they plan to use most of their tax refund to bulk up savings or pay down debt?keep the vow.

But here?s the catch: They also tend to spend at least some of that money on something like a nice dinner out or a new pair of boots, whether they realize it or not.

?There?s still a significant spending (boost) among this group,? said Jonathan Parker, a professor of consumer finance at Northwestern University?s Kellogg?School of Management who has done research on how people spend government payouts such as tax refunds and stimulus checks.

It appears a lot of taxpayers?plan to use their refunds to improve their personal finances.

A TD Ameritrade survey released last month found that 47 percent of those expecting to get a refund plan to? bulk up their savings account with it, while 44 percent plan to use the money to pay?debt.

About 28 plan to spend at least some on necessities and 15 percent plan to splurge on something discretionary. Respondents were allowed to pick more than one answer.

Using bank data and other sources, Parker has found that when people get money back from Uncle Sam, on average they tend to immediately spend a little bit more than usual.

?You often find a spike in spending right when it arrives ? like, within a week of arrival ? that?s sort of small,? he said.

The sudden jump in their bank balance may prompt some people to?pay that bill that?s been nagging them, or it may make them feel like it?s OK to splurge on something small, like a date night.

After that, he said there?s sort of a delayed response. But over time, people who got money back do tend to spend slightly more?overall, he said.

The people who say they are going to save most of their tax refund or rebate - or mostly use it to pay down debt - do use some of the money toward those goals, he said. But they also tend to spend more of it than they might think they did.

As for the people who said they planned to spend their tax refund? Parker said they mostly do what they planned.

?They were kind of right. They spent the whole thing,? he said.

When people get a bigger tax refund, there is often a bump in spending in August, he noted, suggesting that people are using the money toward a nicer summer vacation.?Others who get a big chunk of money back from Uncle Sam, such as a check for over $1,000, may end up using it as a down payment on an even bigger purchase, like a car.

Even though people who think they are saving most of their refund or using it to pay down debt tend to spend some of it, Parker thinks the system of getting a refund can help some people budget.

?It?s a little bit like a helpful commitment to save,? he said.

Still, some taxpayers do complain about a tax system that can act like a forced savings plan ? or surprise people with an unexpected bill.

Mark Zandi, chief economist with Moody?s Analytics, said that?an ideal tax system would help people?better predict their taxes through the year, so they didn?t end up at with a big payment or refund come April 15.

But given all the other complications of the nation?s tax code, he said it?s far from his top concern.

?I?m not sure I?d worry about that at this point,? he said.

{"contentId":"17239509","totalVotes":"3748"}

If you get a tax refund this year, how do you plan to use it?

Source: http://lifeinc.today.com/_news/2013/03/11/17239509-save-or-spend-heres-how-youll-really-use-your-tax-refund?lite

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College Fails to Protect African-American Women From Divorce ...

By Janice Wood Associate News Editor
Reviewed by John M. Grohol, Psy.D. on March 10, 2013

Married couples who have attained higher levels of education are less likely to divorce than less-educated couples ? except in the African-American community, according to new research.

?African-American women don?t seem to enjoy the same degree of protection that education confers on marriage,? said Jeounghee Kim, Ph.D., an assistant professor at Rutgers School of Social Work.

?For white Americans, higher education is related to a lower chance of divorce, and this protective effect of education on marriage increased consistently among the recent generations. But for African-American women, higher education is not necessarily related to a lower chance of divorce.?

In her study, published in the journal Family Relations, Kim observed that while the divorce rate has remained steady for white women since 1980, the trend has been less stable for African-American women.

She studied white and African-American women in five-year marriage cohorts starting from 1975 to 1979 and ending in 1995 to 1999. The researcher also took into account demographic characteristics, such as age, geographic region, motherhood status and post-secondary education (associate degree at minimum) when married.

She then measured marital dissolution (within nine years of first marriage) rather than by legal divorce, which many African-American women eschew in favor of a permanent separation.

Kim?s analysis revealed that the percentage of white women with some post-secondary education continuously increased throughout the cohorts. This was not the case with African-American women, whose educational attainment peaked in the 1985-1994 cohorts before declining.

At the same time, she found the percentage of white women getting divorced declined throughout the study period, while African-American women experienced an increase in the 1980s before declining in the 1990 to 1994 cohort.

Kim said her findings were consistent with much existing literature that says that women with higher levels of education ? and greater earning potential ? make more attractive marriage partners. Also, their marriages tend to last longer than those of their counterparts ? particularly among white women ? with less education.

But the research also raises questions about why African-American women?s higher education does not have a strong protective effect on marriage.

?One possibility is that college education does not translate into the higher earnings that would help protect marriage for African-Americans,? she said. ?Another could be that educational attainment may be insufficient to address the high levels of economic inequality that even well-educated African-Americans experience. Many are the first in their families to have attained a post-secondary education and do not benefit from the cushion of intergenerational wealth possessed by some white families.?

A third possibility involves the gender gap in African-Americans? educational attainment ? there are nearly twice as many African-American women college graduates as men.

?We see the increasing power of education protecting marriage within the same socioeconomic class,? Kim said. ?Well-educated white women may still have power to select an equally well-educated mate. Then, there may be a synergy factor ? higher incomes, better and healthier lives, smarter kids ? that helps sustain their marriage.

?On the other hand, the return on higher education may not be the same for many African-American women, who have less chance to marry their educational equals,? she continues. ?Also, because they are less likely to marry outside their race, their choices are limited.?

Source: Rutgers

Couple disagreeing photo by shutterstock.

APA Reference
Wood, J. (2013). College Fails to Protect African-American Women From Divorce. Psych Central. Retrieved on March 11, 2013, from http://psychcentral.com/news/2013/03/10/college-fails-to-protect-african-american-women-from-divorce/52397.html

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Source: http://psychcentral.com/news/2013/03/10/college-fails-to-protect-african-american-women-from-divorce/52397.html

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Numero Uno Web Solutions, a Leading Toronto Internet Marketing ...

Numero Uno Web Solutions (NumeroUnoWeb.com), a fast-growing global Internet marketing firm that caters to small- and mid-size business-to-consumer companies, announces its top search engine optimization (SEO) benefits for responsive web design for e-commerce sites. Thanks to the rising emergence of mobile devices, responsive web design has emerged as an essential design principle.

Toronto, Ontario (PRWEB) March 10, 2013

Numero Uno Web Solutions (NumeroUnoWeb.com), a fast-growing global Internet marketing firm that caters to small- and mid-size business-to-consumer companies, announces its top search engine optimization (SEO) benefits for responsive web design for e-commerce sites. Thanks to the rising emergence of mobile devices, responsive web design has emerged as an essential design principle.

Responsive web design is the art of designing web sites that work well and look great across a wide range of devices, including smartphones and tablets. For small- and medium sized businesses to compete, they need to have web sites that connect with users in real time and help them make e-commerce decisions on the go.

In 2012, 32% of Canadians used mobile devices to access the Internet. At the same time, 78% of smartphone users turned to their phones to shop, and 60% of consumers searched for brand information on mobile devices before making a purchase. (Source: comScore.com report, ?2013 Mobile Future in Focus,? February 22, 2013.)

According to Numero Uno Web Solutions, mobile marketing has become the fastest way for businesses to connect with consumers on a personal level. Thanks to the growing emergence of handheld devices, mobile marketing has become an indispensable tool for every business with an online presence.

?How does a small- or medium-sized business know they need responsive web design,? asks Nadia Iaboni, Digital Solutions Manager at Numero Uno Web Solutions? ?If mobile traffic accounts for more than five percent of web traffic then the answer is ?yes?. Even if mobile traffic is under five percent right now, the growth of mobile Internet traffic means it may not be for long.?

The Numero Uno Web Solutions believes that a businessperson should ask themselves if their company?s web site looks good on the majority of mobile screen sizes. Wireless companies launch new handheld devices with different screen sizes all the time. Responsive web design can accommodate and adapt to any size of screen.

?Finally, is the mobile bounce rate higher than desktop personal computer bounce rate? These numbers should be similar. If it?s higher from mobile searches, it?s time to find an expert web team to optimize the site for mobile browsing,? Iaboni observes.

Adding, ?A failure to implement responsive web design strategies means brands could be losing out on mobile traffic and sales. If on-the-go traffic can?t navigate the content on a small mobile screen, they?ll find a site where they can.?

Numero Uno Web Solutions is one of the top Internet marketing firms due to constant innovation and overall customer satisfaction. For more information on Numero Uno Web Solutions, and to discover how the company can help maximize your company?s search engine optimization and online presence, visit http://numerounoweb.com/sitescore/. Or call Numero Uno Web Solutions toll free at 1-855-SEO-XPRT (1-855-736-9778).

For the original version on PRWeb visit: http://www.prweb.com/releases/prweb2013/3/prweb10512982.htm

Source: http://www.virtual-strategy.com/2013/03/10/numero-uno-web-solutions-leading-toronto-internet-marketing-company-announces-its-top-tip

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Greedy Lying Bastards (Powerlineblog)

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

Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/290139185?client_source=feed&format=rss

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FBI to investigate hate crime reports at Oberlin College

CLEVELAND (Reuters) - The FBI has opened an investigation into possible civil rights violations after reports of hate speech at Oberlin College in Ohio, one of the first U.S. schools to integrate black and white students, a school spokesman said on Friday.

The investigation by the FBI's Cleveland office follows Oberlin's decision to suspend classes and activities for the day on Monday and hold campus-wide discussions after a report that a person wearing a Ku Klux Klan costume was seen near its Afrikan Heritage House residence hall.

"Based on the college's ongoing conversations with them and the evolution of our investigation, the FBI is initiating an investigation of the bias incidents that have occurred on the campus," Oberlin spokesman Scott Wargo said in an email.

A school-wide Peace Week had just begun when Oberlin canceled classes for the day.

School officials said in a letter to parents on Monday that they were investigating incidents of hate speech on campus over the last several weeks, "including racist, anti-Semitic, and homophobic defacing of posters that were advertising events and programming."

The letter to parents also said offensive postings had appeared via untraceable accounts on popular social media sites.

Wargo said Oberlin was "cooperating closely with the FBI in its investigation."

FBI Special Agent Vicki Anderson said she could not confirm or deny any ongoing investigations because of the agency's policy.

Oberlin, a private college with about 3,000 students, provided co-education for men and women from its inception in 1833. It has been regularly admitting students of color since 1835.

(Editing by David Bailey; Editing by Lisa Von Ahn)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/fbi-investigate-hate-crime-reports-oberlin-college-174856761.html

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China's February exports surge but imports fall

HONG KONG (AP) ? China's exports surged more than expected in February in a possible sign of stronger global demand.

Exports leaped 21.8 percent, well ahead of analysts' expectations of single-digit growth as companies shut down for the Lunar New Year holiday, data showed Friday.

Imports fell 15.2 percent, a decline from January's 28 percent growth. That suggested domestic demand might be weakening, but the picture is clouded by the holiday, when companies shut down for up to two weeks.

"We are impressed by China's ability to expand its exports so strongly despite a muted external environment," said Credit Agricole CIB economist Dariusz Kowalczyk in a report.

China's trade growth has been rebounding in recent months in a sign of recovery in the world's second-biggest economy.

Economic growth rebounded in the final quarter of 2012 from a three-year low. The latest trade data might help to reassure analysts who say China's recovery is still shaky and will be too weak to drive a global rebound without a revival in the United States and Europe.

Trade data for January and February are complicated by the Lunar New Year, which falls at different times in those two months each year. Businesses shut down for up to two weeks. Last year, the holiday began in January, making that month's performance look better by comparison this year, while this year the holiday fell entirely in February.

For the combined January-February period, exports rose 23.6 percent compared with the same two months last year while imports grew 5 percent.

February's import decline was also probably caused by falling prices for shipments coming into China rather than stalling demand, Kowalczyk said.

Exports rose to $139.4 billion while imports declined to $124.12 billion, resulting in a global trade surplus of $15.2 billion, compared with a trade deficit of $32 billion in the same month last year.

China usually runs a global trade deficit for at least one month early in the year as factories restock following the holiday shutdown.

Premier Wen Jiabao, the country's top economic official, announced a 7.5 percent annual economic growth target this week. That is below double digit rates of the past decade but in line with Communist Party plans to shift from relying on trade and investment to domestic consumption to drive growth.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/f70471f764144b2fab526d39972d37b3/Article_2013-03-08-AS-China-Trade/id-37e08ebcf1d94bcc82e2e47ad03f0569

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Viewing Education as the Prime Lever for International Social ...

No I did not add that reference to community organizing as a provocative means of grabbing your attention. Yes I do know that it was the past profession of the current US President and it?s not an area I knew much about. Until about a week ago when a book from the political theorist I kept seeing cited in the footnotes of so many of the books and reports I was reading came. If his was the political vision that went with these education, social, and economic ?reforms,? I thought I?d better check out precisely what that vision was. His name is Harry Boyte and the 2004 book was called Everyday Politics: Reconnecting Citizens and Public Life. Boyte lays out his vision for the future direction of society in terms of a ?cooperative commonwealth? where citizen groups organize and work together with governments at all levels to identify and solve society?s problems.

I do not find Boyte?s vision to be especially workable but it is the vision of the future that is attached to the real Common Core once you tiptoe through those all important implementing footnotes. Boyte sees a reenvisioned education, K-12 and higher ed, as central to his goal of creating a partnership among citizens and government. He quotes Jane Addams in terms of how to best spread his vision of an Everyday Politics:

?We are gradually requiring of the educator that he free the powers of each man and connect him with the rest of life. We are impatient to use the dynamic power residing in the mass of humankind, and demand that the educator free that power.?

If that sounds like John Dewey, yes we do seem to refighting the issues of the 20th century again in the 21st century. Again, there?s a reason Addams sounds like Dewey. They were both colleagues and friends back in the 1890s Chicago. Old theories do not die in politics or education. They just get renamed for another try regardless of tragic histories.

Boyte wants to use education in the 21st to ?reinvent the role of productive citizen and the politics to express it.? Otherwise, ?public life is unlikely to improve.? And what precisely does he intend to do? Here?s his precise plan:

?If we are to renew democracy through everyday politics, five things are needed. This first is conceptual: we need an understanding of the commons as something created and sustained by human beings, not simply given. The other four are practical. We need to develop public policy frameworks for productive citizen-government partnerships in problem solving. We need sustained culture-changing organizing in mediating institutions [bolded to make sure everyone recognizes he is referring to preschools, K-12 and colleges and universities], including the addition of everyday politics to political parties, issue groups, and other structures now dominated by experts. We need to understand popular culture itself as a crucial site of democratic organizing [somehow I think Hollywood got this memo long before us and maybe some network execs and newspaper editors]. And we need to develop learning partnerships that spread everyday politics on a global scale.

Boyte mentions Peter Senge and his idea of the learning organization for both schools and businesses admiringly in his book. He also advocates a systems approach. Which is really fortuitous because on July 4, 2012, Senge,? Robert Kegan of Harvard, Michael Fullan (Canada?s premier Driver of Education as Social Change) and others delivered a report to the Hewlett Foundation?that well-funded driver of Deep Learning as the real purpose of the Common Core that we have discussed several times. The report was called ?Lessons of Systemic Change for Success in Implementing the New Common Core Standards? and it fits right perfectly with getting to Boyte?s vision of everyday politics with new guiding values and concepts for each student and adult.

The report envisions teachers and students developing and growing initially through classroom experiences that will take them through new stages of awareness and behaviors. Going from the initial Internalized Stage to the Socialized stage is to cause the students and faculty to develop deeper connections with each other. This transition is considered to be critical to ?effective education? under the Common Core, which has a definition the parents and taxpayers are not being told about??social interactions between adults and students and among adults.? Those of you compiling a glossary of unappreciated definitions will also want to add Community of Learners and Professional Learning Communities to the list of terms use to describe this interactive web of relationship learning.

Next stage (3) according to the report is called Self-Authoring or Empathetic but that?s not where they want students or adults to stop. As an Education for Sustainability report noted, empathy is not enough because it may not provoke action to change conditions and structures. It is thus important that education in the future ?provoke outrage? about real-world problems. Those same problems that are to be the focus of the assessments of student performance under the Common Core. How convenient.

The last Stage is called Self-Transcending. Schools now will be looking to students and adults to commit to ?personal transformation? and a willingness to confront and then ?cultivate one?s mind-body system and strive to move on to the higher stages.? No I suspect that the public descriptions of what is going on will not be that graphic which is why it is so important to read the underlying blueprints and theories behind the sought school changes. The Hewlett report itself has a chart that describes the ?self-transcending stage? as the level that sees school ?as a vehicle for societal transformation.? Which is once again left off of the monthly newsletters from the school and district. Also left off from public discussion of the planned vision are a classroom that wants students to ?maximize mutual learning and co-creating desired futures.? Based on feelings and wishes and maybe some fairy dust to boot but virtually no accurate knowledge of the past or how the world really works or how we came to be where we are in the 21st century. Apparently knowledge impedes imagination to co-create the future.

Our Self-Authoring striving towards Transcendence student is to seek ?deeper awareness.? Just what you want when you put them on the school bus in the morning or drop off a loved one??the capacity to interact and respond adequately with sensitivity and pertinence to the circumstances, situations or events that arise moment after moment.? And if this systemic/developmental vision of the Common Core does not sound creepy enough, non-progressing students and adults will have the reasons for the ?blockage? examined so a remedy plan can be implemented. Individualized learning indeed.

This is the sought and planned reality behind the ?student-centered? classroom mantra. The report goes on to inform all the adults, from teachers to principals to Supers, that it is the ?fundamental task of leadership at all levels??that means preschool and college too?to make sure all students ?see the larger system of which they are a part and seek higher leverage strategies that address forces in these systems.? Not based on knowledge which is to be little and far between but grounded in feelings and affective beliefs about how the world works.

This is where all the references to hands-on learning and experiences become important and all the references to service learning and civic engagement come in. The best way to move students and keep them at these described higher levels of consciousness is to move them into community activities outside the classroom where they can work to solve real problems. And get primed to both practice Boyte?s everyday politics and to demand as Zuboff and Scharmer envision a different kind of economy to meet everyone?s needs instead of personal choices.

I wish I could tell you I am stretching here to try to provoke you into action on opposing the Common Core but honestly, if anything, this post still underplays just how radically transformational the attached visions of the future really are. I did not go looking for a reason to oppose the Common Core. I went looking for a reason for all the discrepancies between the rhetoric about the Common Core and the reality laid out in regulations and reports and waivers and books by the theorists being cited for support.

I am going to close this reality based thunderbolt revealing the real aspirations for change with a quote Professor David Orr used to describe his reasons for pushing the ecological education and Slow Knowledge that are attached to the actual implementation coming to a school near you. If it is not there already. Damaging and unknown to the public funding it. The words come from EF Schumacher:

?Education which fails to clarify our central convictions is mere training or indulgence. For it is our central convictions that are in disorder, and as long as the present anti-metaphysical temper persists, the disorder will grow worse. Education, far from ranking as [our] greatest resource, will then be an agent of destruction??

The real Common Core is about new values and mental models and those central, motivating, convictions. And they will not be based on what the student brought from home or what has EVER created mass prosperity in the past. And even the relatively few who are aware, much less concerned about the Common Core, are unaware that the actual common core involves an internal redo of everything we hold dear.

Out of sight. Remaking those minds and Personalities.

Source: http://www.invisibleserfscollar.com/viewing-education-as-the-prime-lever-for-international-social-change-community-organizing-everywhere/

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93% Amour

February 25, 2013:

RT's Oscar Picks 2013 - Results
We at Rotten Tomatoes freely admit we're not the world's greatest Oscar prognosticators. Still, we...

February 24, 2013:

2013 Academy Awards Winners
The 85th Academy Awards are scheduled to take place on Sunday, February 24th in Los Angeles, and if...

Source: http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/771307454/

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"Star Trek Into Darkness" will debut in U.K. before the U.S.

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) - "Star Trek Into Darkness" will dock in the United Kingdom a week before it hits theaters in the United States.

It was Simon Pegg, who plays Scotty in J.J. Abram's "Star Trek" sequel, who broke the news. He tweeted on Thursday that the film will beam into theaters across the pond on May 9, instead of the previously planned U.K. release date of May 17.

"Looks like 'Star Trek Into Darkness' will land in the UK first. Release date May 9th," Pegg wrote. "That's about 8 weeks away. Not long considering."

That means there will be some spoilers on the internet for days before Americans can see the movie. It will be released domestically on May 15.

Cover your eyes and ears, Trekkies.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/star-trek-darkness-debut-u-k-u-000907886.html

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Thermodo unveils a mercury-free way to measure air temperature on your smartphone

If you're the type to eschew the weather report on your smartphone and just, you know, open the window instead, the Thermodo sensor and app that just launched on Kickstarter may be for you. The petite device inserts into (and draws power from) the audio jack of your iOS or Android handset / tab, measures the exterior or interior air temperature, then sends a corresponding audio signal to the mic input on your device. The companion app, along with developer Robocat's Haze and Thermo apps, interprets that signal and displays the temperature on your device -- or you can develop your own with the outfit's open source SDK. The project is now live on Kickstarter where a minimum $19 bid will get you one in black, with the company looking for $35k total for the tooling and materials needed to build them. You can scoot over to the video after the break for more, or check the source to grab one.

Filed under: Cellphones, Peripherals

Comments

Source: Thermodo (Kickstarter)

Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/0uOpGBt3h58/

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Teen Pregnancy Prevention Ads: Too Harsh?! - Family - Nairaland

Teen Pregnancy Prevention Ads: Too Harsh?! by Sisi_Kill: 11:19pm On Mar 07These New ADs for the prevention of Teen Pregnancy is causing quite a stir, some people think they are too harsh because they shame teenagers who are already parents.

Defenders say they aren't worried about the already TEEN PARENTS, they are worried about the WOULD BE TEEN PARENTS...their thinking is the end justifies the means. If it's gonna make teenagers think twice about sex, then bring it on.

ARGUMENT AGAINST AD - The latest ad campaign creates stigma, hostility and negative public opinions about teen pregnancy and parenthood rather than offering alternative aspirations for young people,?

ARGUMENT FOR AD - This campaign makes very clear to young people that there?s a lot at stake when it comes to deciding to raise a child,?

What do you guys think?

3 Likes

This post has been hiddenThis post has been hiddenRe: Teen Pregnancy Prevention Ads: Too Harsh?! by Afam4eva(m): 11:34pm On Mar 07lol

After seeing those ads, i'll have to think twice.

Re: Teen Pregnancy Prevention Ads: Too Harsh?! by baby_123: 11:34pm On Mar 07It is an epidemic. I see parents and people are beginning to get tired of the burden on society. . These kids have too much freedom. The more teenagers having kids, the more the trend will continue. Like these dumbos:

17 pregnancies at US school after girls make baby pact

? Half of expectant pupils had planned parenthood
? Revelation prompts review of sex education

A small fishing town in Massachusetts is coming to terms with the news that 17 teenage girls at the local high school are pregnant, almost half of them having entered a pact to have babies and raise the children collectively.

Officials in Gloucester have discovered that the extraordinarily high number of pregnancies among the school's 15- and 16-year-olds - four or five times the average annual number - is not a coincidence. The revelation of a pact among up to eight of the girls has prompted heated debate locally about the approach to sex education and contraception.

Teachers at the 1,200-student Gloucester high school first noticed something strange last October when several girls began visiting the school health clinic to request pregnancy tests.

By March the number of pregnant girls in the school had risen to 10 and officials were alarmed. By May, the health clinic reported that an unusual number of girls were still asking for pregnancy tests.

The head, Joseph Sullivan, told Time magazine that some of the girls seemed upset when they received negative results. Others reacted to positive test results with high fives, talking about how they would hold a celebration for the baby.

Christopher Farmer, the school superintendent, said inquiries were started when the number reached 10. "They are young white women. We understand that some of them were together talking about being pregnant and that being a positive thing for them," he told Associated Press.

The disclosure of the pact, and reports that one of the fathers is a 24-year-old homeless man, has sparked a spirited debate in Gloucester about teenage sex. In May the medical director and nurse at the school clinic resigned in protest at the refusal of the local hospital that controls their funds to allow them to distribute contraceptives to pupils without parental consent.

The hospital authorities made it clear they were anxious about the reaction to handing out contraception from the strongly Catholic local community. In the absence of provision by the clinic, students must travel 20 miles to the nearest women's health clinic .

The state of Massachusetts has also been cutting back on sex education in schools as part of its budgetary belt-tightening. A local provider of reproductive health education has slashed its outreach staff from eight to one full-time worker.

Experts in teenage intimate behaviour were baffled by the events in Gloucester, which are unprecedented. "The pact is quite shocking. This is the first time I've heard of anything like it," said David Landry of the Guttmacher Institute, which promotes reproductive health.

Gloucester's conundrum falls at an already anxious time for teenage pregnancies in America. Nationally, records showed a steady decline in teenage birth rates from 1991 to 2005, with most of the fall due to greater use of contraception.

But in 2006 birth rates for girls aged 15 to 17 rose by 3%. It is too early to know whether this is the start of a trend.

Landry said that underlying statistics showed that improvements in reproductive health - particularly the use of condoms - achieved through the 1990s had stagnated since around 2003. Though it is impossible to say why the tailing off has happened, he pointed to the Bush administration's $1bn programme to promote abstinence rather than contraception.

"The problem with the policy is that it says nothing to those teenagers who do Be Intimate," he said.

In Gloucester, a town of 30,000, speculation around the girls' motives has focused on the media. Commentators have pointed to films portraying pregnancy in a humorous and empathetic light such as Juno and Knocked Up.

? This article was amended on 16 November 2011. The original said "teenage pregnancy" is portrayed in films such as Knocked Up. This has been corrected.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/jun/21/usa

Re: Teen Pregnancy Prevention Ads: Too Harsh?! by Sisi_Kill: 11:44pm On Mar 07Re: Teen Pregnancy Prevention Ads: Too Harsh?! by baby_123: 12:08am

Sisi_Kill:

Oh my God! I heard about that nasty pact. . .what is wrong with these kids?

Do they think it's like having dolls?!!!

Babies are cute, and the state will pay for them. Why shouldn't they?

I bet a devilish child fantasized about it and made the followers get in on the pact.

You can imagine the confusion, and most parents will be too busy dealing with their own that to laugh at another kid.

The kid will say, afterall Jane is pregnant too

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Re: Teen Pregnancy Prevention Ads: Too Harsh?! by Yoruba_Omoge: 12:13amTill 21?

I thought 18 was the cut off age

These must be European ADs.

Re: Teen Pregnancy Prevention Ads: Too Harsh?! by Yoruba_Omoge: 12:16amRe: Teen Pregnancy Prevention Ads: Too Harsh?! by Sisi_Kill: 2:04am

baby_123:

Babies are cute, and the state will pay for them. Why shouldn't they?

I bet a devilish child fantasized about it and made the followers get in on the pact.

You can imagine the confusion, and most parents will be too busy dealing with their own that to laugh at another kid.

The kid will say, afterall Jane is pregnant too

Don't they give them those assignments. ...With the dolls they take home and care for...for like 7 days or so anymore? Gosh I remember years ago my friend's sister got one I swear to God, I was ready to go get my tubes tied because the prospect of having a baby was just bleh.

What made it really weird was I grew up around babies what with my siblings, cousins, aunts and uncles popping them out like there was no tomorrow, so babies weren't new to me but I guess because this girl was closer to my age and we kinda hung out together we had to deal with her "baby".....Jeeedus! It was a pain!! She wanted to do stuff with us but she couldn't leave her doll because it had some kinda sensor that registered something or the other at school.

This yeye doll would just start crying for no damn reason....if it were a real baby, you could at least do human stuff to calm it down, not this doll oh. It kept it going and going and going....suffice to say, it wasn't a pleasant experience and if I, who wasn't really in charge of the doll, could be that turned off....one can only impact it will have on the teenagers.

I hope they haven't stopped and if they have they should reinstate it abeg.

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Re: Teen Pregnancy Prevention Ads: Too Harsh?! by Sisi_Kill: 2:17amRotflmao! Just for the heck of it, I Google the school assignment thingy and the first thing I see is this on yahoo answers..

Resolved Question:
HELLPP! school baby project is driving me nuts!?

ok i got the little baby doll for school project 2 days ago. it cries like every 5 seconds. I didn't get any sleep yesterday. i can't go out in public with a baby doll unless i want people to think i'm crazy, i tried wrapping it in a blanket and they think it's a real baby and look at me weird.

it's the ugliest baby doll i've ever seen and i don't even get a male parter or something. i have school, a part time job and a rabbit to feed and help give her time to run. i still have a week until i give the doll back. i need help! one becus its driving me insane and another cus i'm going to fail for sure!!

Seriously they need to implement this in all high schools, it carries more weight than any AD.

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Re: Teen Pregnancy Prevention Ads: Too Harsh?! by miredia(m): 3:48am

The message is finely relayed. Those captions are Epic

Re: Teen Pregnancy Prevention Ads: Too Harsh?! by Ejin?(m): 11:41am

12rd to comment...

Re: Teen Pregnancy Prevention Ads: Too Harsh?! by Ejin?(m): 11:42amRe: Teen Pregnancy Prevention Ads: Too Harsh?! by kulyie: 1:32pm

When i was a teen i used to think of what was ahead of me and i was very much aware of how emotionally and financially expensive it is to raise a child plus i was so conscious of my curvy look and flat tummy that i didnt want to loose it so soon,more so i had fantasies of fairy tale weddings,bridal shower,baby shower and being a graduate so all those dreams made me loose interest for sex,i only hanged out with boys that were intrested in books and not sex then,thank God it payed off,at least i have achieved quarter of my dreams but it beats me the way teens of this generation think,they are so loose and place so much priority on sex and parties than their future infact i remember when i was a corper some 5 years back,i was in a tailors shop waiting for her to finish up with my clothes and i was shocked to my bones when some secondary school girls between 12-15 were openly discussing and arguing at the top of their voices about the Indecency movie they watches and this little girls were arguing about how their boyfriends can have s3x with them like the man in the Indecency movie,the other girl said her boyfriends d1ck is bigger than her friends boyfriends own and all those kind of stewpeed jist,that was when i knew that teen pregnancy will be increasing and its not even an embarassment,i doubt whether it can be curbed or reduced even with all the s3x education this kids have acess to

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Re: Teen Pregnancy Prevention Ads: Too Harsh?! by momodub: 2:24pmRe: Teen Pregnancy Prevention Ads: Too Harsh?! by Gabriel_sylar(m): 2:24pm

Mum nigeria will soon become 200million because ure so wet

Re: Teen Pregnancy Prevention Ads: Too Harsh?! by Akin-David(m): 2:26pm

This is the killer! Got to think thrice!

Re: Teen Pregnancy Prevention Ads: Too Harsh?! by jackbauersballs(m): 2:28pmIn England, the more children you have as a single teen mother, the better for you.

Free crib, free cash, free healthcare, free dental, free education, free cash, free cash, and of course free cash...

As a girl, your own na to dey jolly dey go, Iya Charlie go pay....

NB: if your passport is NOT red, please disregard this message, it is not for your type o!

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Re: Teen Pregnancy Prevention Ads: Too Harsh?! by mikeyhernadez(m): 2:31pm

.

Re: Teen Pregnancy Prevention Ads: Too Harsh?! by Bawss1(m): 2:38pmThe ads are not harsh. Some people need it to be drilled into their dense heads.

What is harsh is raising kids as a single parent.

Re: Teen Pregnancy Prevention Ads: Too Harsh?! by Fhemmmy: 2:43pm

Beautiful . . . But some Teenage parents could use this as a tool to make them wanna succeed as well, it is all about WILL POWER and determination

Re: Teen Pregnancy Prevention Ads: Too Harsh?! by Kx: 2:56pm

Even if the issue of teenage parenthood is a universal one, d ads in question are more american than Nigerian.
Since the forum is nairaland not dollarland, why don't u post naija ads on d subject for a more robust and constructive discourse?

Re: Teen Pregnancy Prevention Ads: Too Harsh?! by freecocoa(f): 3:05pm

The ADs are so on point if you ask me, nothing harsh about it at all.

Re: Teen Pregnancy Prevention Ads: Too Harsh?! by Sisi_Kill: 3:10pm

Kx: Even if the issue of teenage parenthood is a universal one, d ads in question are more american than Nigerian.
Since the forum is nairaland not dollarland, why don't u post naija ads on d subject for a more robust and constructive discourse?

Hehehehehehehe. . .as my little niece would say, you made a funny. .

On one hand you agree that the issue of teenage pregnancy is universal and then go on to say the ad aren't robust enough for constructive discourse. Except you can show us Teenage parents in Naija swim in bucket load of money, their partners in crime stick with them to the very end, their kids aren't somewhat affected by their parents teen status when they were born. ..in short show us evidence that the Nigerian Teenage parent experiences something opposite to what those ads depict then and only then can we conclude the ads are robust enough for constructive discourse.

Or is it the perfect English they are written in that turns you off? Would you rather they were written in pidgin and the kids used be. . . Nigerians? Would that make it better to deal with since by your admission the issue of teenager pregnancy IS universal therefore the message being passed is also universal.

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Re: Teen Pregnancy Prevention Ads: Too Harsh?! by kekakuz: 3:14pm

Dad are u saying. U had me because u could not be patient enough to get a condom so u used pure water leather?

Re: Teen Pregnancy Prevention Ads: Too Harsh?! by blazingtrain(f): 3:19pm

Still thinking about it...

Re: Teen Pregnancy Prevention Ads: Too Harsh?! by Okiki_Oluwa(m): 3:22pmThose American teens are kidding... Raising a child(ren) is not that easy

Ejin?: 12rd to comment...

hopeless fellow.Re: Teen Pregnancy Prevention Ads: Too Harsh?! by Ich_el: 3:22pm

Who made dis Ads? Xpecially dis one ''dad, you'll b payin to support me for d nxt 20yrs'' na who talks so?

Re: Teen Pregnancy Prevention Ads: Too Harsh?! by LoveAmaka88(f): 3:29pm

There needs to be more education and conversation about the issue. Ignoring it won't help. There are too many lives at stake.

Re: Teen Pregnancy Prevention Ads: Too Harsh?! by huni_naija(f): 3:44pmTeenagers in the west especially the UK and US which have the highest rate of teenage pregnancy in the world respectively, give their youths too much freedom to do what they want.

Its gotten so bad over here that the government has contemplated severally whether to start handing out condoms in primary schools? Can you imagine? That's how bad it is and its tax payers money they are using to fund all this useless sex education, which indirectly teaches kids indecency...

I remember vividly the last year of primary school all the students have to watch grown adults Being Intimate as part of their sex education, will this not make it worse, and make them want to explore it even more? The government over here are totally useless and its encouraged through the media all the time..

Infact the ad's are too lenient for my liking, over here its a "fashion" statement to have a child as young as 16. More needs to be done to enlighten the youth...

Re: Teen Pregnancy Prevention Ads: Too Harsh?! by Bawss1(m): 3:47pm

Fhemmmy: Beautiful . . . But some Teenage parents could use this as a tool to make them wanna succeed as well, it is all about WILL POWER and determination

That's just wishful thinking.

Chances are that people who acted foolishly in the first instance will hardly see these adverts as inspiration for success.

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