uptrend

Make Momey with Your Website

2010-08-26T12:57:00.001-04:00

Just Released: A New "Magic Code" that when added to any site you have causes your site (or even any site) to magically start making money.

No joke. This discovery was made by a New York doctor who for the last 10 years used it secretly to do everything from offset his advertising costs, to just adding it to 1,000's of webpages and amass a personal wealth now of nearly $100 million cash!

And now he's decided to allow you and everyone else to share in it (and since he stands nothing more to gain by keeping "you" in the dark about it).

As it turns out, a number of the largest online firms such as Alexa, and even a good number of the top 100 sites ranked on the entire Web are already using this amazing, but very simple secret.

Alexa, for instance, adds this code to a number of their webpages and it allows them to automatically generate an "extra" $90,000 a month in profits – and that for just a single webpage!

If you had 10 such pages that each did likewise, you'd "magically" get $900,000 every 30 days just poured into your pocket!

And most important: You should instantly recognize the fact that since a firm like Alexa (as well as about 34% of the Web's top 100 sites) is using this, then you too should be using it.

But here's what may SHOCK you the absolute very most ...

* It takes you just 45 seconds to add this code to any webpage

* Once added you do NOTHING further – but money just starts pouring in!

And remember ...

Just in case you think this isn't for real, firms like Alexa and others in the top 100 wouldn't be using it (but they are; so what does that tell you?)

If you are wise and want to make your webpages pay you money automatically simply by adding just a simple string of 1-line code to any webpage, then you had best go here immediately:

~~~> http://tinyurl.com/25vb8mn

Why the need to RUSH? ... Simple:

The guy giving this out is letting just about another 500 to maybe 600 people at best find out about this, and then he's deliberately going to "pull the rug out from underneath" anyone else trying to get it!

I know, I know ... That sounds very cruel and unfair.

But that's his doing; so rather than argue with him it would probably just be a better idea to just go there and grab it so that at least "you" don't get left out in the rain, right?

But fair warning, in case you stumble upon this too late, just don't be shocked to see it's no longer available.

Natural healing system of the body

2010-08-05T13:18:00.002-04:00

Are the functions of Adult Stem Cells really the most dramatic scientific breakthrough of our times?

Since 2006, and at a geometrically increasing pace, Christian Drapeau's position has gained not just momentum but widespread interest in scientific circles as study after study reveals that Adult Stem Cell science holds phenomenal promise in all areas of human healing.

Christian's theory that Adult Stem Cells are nothing less than the human body's natural healing system has profound implications for every area of modern medicine. The idea that heart disease, diabetes, liver degeneration, and other conditions could be things of the past is no longer science fiction; because of recent Adult Stem Cell research breakthroughs, these are real possibilities in the short term.

Read more:

The Big Takeover

2009-07-17T18:12:00.002-04:00

The global economic crisis isn't about money - it's about power. How Wall Street insiders are using the bailout to stage a revolution

It's over — we're officially, royally f***ed. No empire can survive being rendered a permanent laughingstock, which is what happened as of a few weeks ago, when the buffoons who have been running things in this country finally went one step too far. It happened when Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner was forced to admit that he was once again going to have to stuff billions of taxpayer dollars into a dying insurance giant called AIG, itself a profound symbol of our national decline — a corporation that got rich insuring the concrete and steel of American industry in the country's heyday, only to destroy itself chasing phantom fortunes at the Wall Street card tables, like a dissolute nobleman gambling away the family estate in the waning days of the British Empire.

The Dirty Dozen: Meet the bankers and brokers responsible for the financial crisis - and the officials who let them get away with it.

The latest bailout came as AIG admitted to having just posted the largest quarterly loss in American corporate history — some $61.7 billion. In the final three months of last year, the company lost more than $27 million every hour. That's $465,000 a minute, a yearly income for a median American household every six seconds, roughly $7,750 a second. And all this happened at the end of eight straight years that America devoted to frantically chasing the shadow of a terrorist threat to no avail, eight years spent stopping every citizen at every airport to search every purse, bag, crotch and briefcase for juice boxes and explosive tubes of toothpaste. Yet in the end, our government had no mechanism for searching the balance sheets of companies that held life-or-death power over our society and was unable to spot holes in the national economy the size of Libya (whose entire GDP last year was smaller than AIG's 2008 losses).

So it's time to admit it: We're fools, protagonists in a kind of gruesome comedy about the marriage of greed and stupidity. And the worst part about it is that we're still in denial — we still think this is some kind of unfortunate accident, not something that was created by the group of psychopaths on Wall Street whom we allowed to gang-rape the American Dream. When Geithner announced the new $30 billion bailout, the party line was that poor AIG was just a victim of a lot of shitty luck — bad year for business, you know, what with the financial crisis and all. Edward Liddy, the company's CEO, actually compared it to catching a cold: "The marketplace is a pretty crummy place to be right now," he said. "When the world catches pneumonia, we get it too." In a pathetic attempt at name-dropping, he even whined that AIG was being "consumed by the same issues that are driving house prices down and 401K statements down and Warren Buffet's investment portfolio down."

Liddy made AIG sound like an orphan begging in a soup line, hungry and sick from being left out in someone else's financial weather. He conveniently forgot to mention that AIG had spent more than a decade systematically scheming to evade U.S. and international regulators, or that one of the causes of its "pneumonia" was making colossal, world-sinking $500 billion bets with money it didn't have, in a toxic and completely unregulated derivatives market.

Nor did anyone mention that when AIG finally got up from its seat at the Wall Street casino, broke and busted in the afterdawn light, it owed money all over town — and that a huge chunk of your taxpayer dollars in this particular bailout scam will be going to pay off the other high rollers at its table. Or that this was a casino unique among all casinos, one where middle-class taxpayers cover the bets of billionaires.

People are pissed off about this financial crisis, and about this bailout, but they're not pissed off enough. The reality is that the worldwide economic meltdown and the bailout that followed were together a kind of revolution, a coup d'état. They cemented and formalized a political trend that has been snowballing for decades: the gradual takeover of the government by a small class of connected insiders, who used money to control elections, buy influence and systematically weaken financial regulations.

The crisis was the coup de grâce: Given virtually free rein over the economy, these same insiders first wrecked the financial world, then cunningly granted themselves nearly unlimited emergency powers to clean up their own mess. And so the gambling-addict leaders of companies like AIG end up not penniless and in jail, but with an Alien-style death grip on the Treasury and the Federal Reserve — "our partners in the government," as Liddy put it with a shockingly casual matter-of-factness after the most recent bailout.

The mistake most people make in looking at the financial crisis is thinking of it in terms of money, a habit that might lead you to look at the unfolding mess as a huge bonus-killing downer for the Wall Street class. But if you look at it in purely Machiavellian terms, what you see is a colossal power grab that threatens to turn the federal government into a kind of giant Enron — a huge, impenetrable black box filled with self-dealing insiders whose scheme is the securing of individual profits at the expense of an ocean of unwitting involuntary shareholders, previously known as taxpayers.

For Matt Taibbi's complete report, including the people behind the crash and a look at those who stand to profit from it, check out Issue 1075 of Rolling Stone.

Estelle Getty of 'Golden Girls' dies at 84

2008-07-22T14:39:00.001-04:00

Estelle Getty, the diminutive actress who spent 40 years struggling for success before landing a role of a lifetime in 1985 as the sarcastic octogenarian Sophia on TV's "The Golden Girls," has died. She was 84.

Getty, who suffered from advanced dementia, died at about 5:30 a.m. Tuesday at her Hollywood Boulevard home, said her son, Carl Gettleman of Santa Monica.

"She was loved throughout the world in six continents, and if they loved sitcoms in Antarctica she would have been loved on seven continents," her son said. "She was one of the most talented comedic actresses who ever lived."

"The Golden Girls," featuring four female retirees sharing a house in Miami, grew out of NBC programming chief Brandon Tartikoff's belief that television was ignoring its older viewers.

Three of its stars had already appeared in previous series: Bea Arthur in "Maude," Betty White in "The Mary Tyler Moore Show" and Rue McClanahan in "Mama's Family." The last character to be cast was Sophia Petrillo, the feisty 80-something mother of Arthur's character.

When she auditioned, Getty was appearing on stage in Hollywood as the carping Jewish mother in Harvey Fierstein's play "Torch Song Trilogy." In her early 60s, she flunked her "Golden Girls" test twice because it was believed she didn't look old enough to play 80.

"I could understand that," she told an interviewer a year after the show debuted. "I walk fast, I move fast, I talk fast."

She came prepared for the third audition, however, wearing dowdy clothes and telling an NBC makeup artist, "To you this is just a job. To me it's my entire career down the toilet unless you make me look 80." The artist did, Getty got the job and won two Emmys.

It culminated a long struggle for success during which Getty worked low-paying office jobs to help support her family while she tried to make it as a stage actress.

"I knew I could be seduced by success in another field, so I'd say, 'Don't promote me, please,'" she recalled.

She also appeared in small parts in a handful of films and TV movies during that time, including "Tootsie," "Deadly Force" and "Victims for Victims: The Theresa Saldana Story."

After her success in "The Golden Girls," other roles came her way. She played Cher's mother in "Mask," Sylvester Stallone's in "Stop or My Mom Will Shoot" and Barry Manilow's in the TV film "Copacabana." Other credits included "Mannequin" and "Stuart Little" (as the voice of Grandma Estelle).

"The Golden Girls," which ran from 1985 to 1992, was an immediate hit, and Sophia, who began as a minor character, soon evolved into a major one.

Audiences particularly loved the verbal zingers Getty would hurl at the other three. When McClanahan's libidinous character Blanche once complained that her life was an open book, Sophia shot back, "Your life's an open blouse."

Getty had gained a knack for one-liners in her late teens when she did standup comedy at a Catskills hotel. Female comedians were rare in those days, however, and she bombed.

Undeterred, she continued to pursue a career in entertainment, and while her parents were encouraging, her father also insisted that she learn office skills so she would have something to fall back on.

Born Estelle Scher to Polish immigrants in New York, Getty fell in love with theater when she saw a vaudeville show at age 4.

She married New York businessman Arthur Gettleman (the source of her stage name) in 1947, and they had two sons, Carl and Barry. The marriage prevailed despite her long absences on the road and in "The Golden Girls."

Getty was evasive about her height, acknowledging only that she was "under 5 feet and under 100 pounds."

In addition to her son Carl, Getty is survived by son Barry Gettleman, of Miami; a brother, David Scher of London; and a sister, Rosilyn Howard of Las Vegas.

http://tv.yahoo.com/show/30728/news/urn:newsml:tv.ap.org:20080722:obit_getty

Only one Starbucks closure brewing for Arizona

2008-07-18T14:12:00.001-04:00

The Valley has dodged the Starbucks bullet, at least so far.

According to a list, released Friday, detailing the locations of 600 stores the coffee purveyor is set to close, just one Arizona store will close; the Eloy location at 4985 N. Sunland Gin Road.

In comparison, 88 California stores are set to close and 19 in Washington state .

Exact dates for store closings haven't been set, but closures will begin this month and continue through next year, according to the company.

And although it released a detailed list Friday, the Seattle-based company said that list could change depending on market factors or other events.

Starbucks (NASDAQ: SBUX) said it be closing the stores as a way to improve performance across its retail network.

http://www.bizjournals.com/phoenix/stories/2008/07/14/daily67.html

Hall of a parade: New and old, all-stars ride high in New York

2008-07-15T22:22:00.000-04:00

Bob Gibson wore a smile, rather than a scowl.

Known for throwing hard, high and tight, the no-nonsense pitcher presented a much different face Tuesday. He waved to thousands of fans and beamed for their snapshots as a parade of Hall of Famers rolled through midtown Manhattan in a prelude to the all-star game.

Hey Gibby, going soft on us at 72? Not even one glare for the crowd?

"I really am getting tired of it," the St. Louis Cardinals great said. He was joking, sort of.

"I didn't do half the things they said I did," he said. "They said I was always knocking guys down and hitting guys. But I won a game or two in there."

Gibson and Gary Carter rode together for the 1 1/2-mile route up the Avenue of the Americas - and down baseball's memory lane.

Yogi Berra, George Brett and 40-some Hall of Famers took part, too, sitting in the back of shiny pickup trucks. The two-hour procession included the present stars playing in Tuesday night's showcase at Yankee Stadium.

Bob Feller recalled the first all-star game held at the big ballyard in the Bronx - it was 1939, and the 20-year-old fireballer threw 3 2-3 scoreless innings to preserve an AL win.

On that day, the men who would become monuments were on the field. Joe DiMaggio homered and an ill Lou Gehrig was an honorary captain.

"I was not much in awe," said Feller, the oldest living Hall player at 89. "I had good stuff that day. I threw that overhand high fastball out of the bleachers. We figured the National League hitters hadn't seen it."

Outside of Cooperstown, baseball hadn't seen such a galaxy of stars for quite a while.

Fans who were at Fenway Park for the 1999 all-star game still rave about the scene that night for a rousing salute to Ted Williams. Canadian tough guy Larry Walker teared up, Mark McGwire leaned in for a listen and Tony Gwynn steadied Williams for the ceremonial first pitch.

Then again, all-star games often are about moments more than results. Reggie Jackson hitting the light tower, Cal Ripken homering in his final game, Pete Rose running over Ray Fosse.

Baseball hoped this blend of old and new would create a lasting image at a ballpark in its last season.

Gibson spent very little time at Yankee Stadium.

"Only pitched there once," he said, matter of factly.

The part he left out: That one time was Game 5 of the 1964 World Series, when he struck out 13 while going the distance in a 10-inning win.

Hank Aaron gladly shared his favourite memory at the park - Milwaukee winning Game 7 of the 1957 World Series for his only championship. That was about enough time in New York for him.

"This is not the easiest city to play in," Aaron said. "You can't shuck 'n jive the people in this city."

On this sunny afternoon, everyone got an easy ride.

Berra and Whitey Ford sat together, and it was fitting. They were the starting battery for the 1960 all-star game at Yankee Stadium.

Robin Yount and Paul Molitor rode with each other, recalling their days with the Brewers. Jim Palmer and Earl Weaver shared the same pickup. Naturally, the need-to-be-perfect pitcher and his often-ornery manager sat with their backs to each other.

New Hall electees Goose Gossage and Dick Williams drew cheers.

"I'm done writing my speech, it's about 10 minutes long. I hope I make it through," Williams said. "Tony Gwynn told me don't look at anyone in your family or you might not make it."

Plenty of fans were on hand for the parade, standing four and five deep as the players rode past Radio City Music Hall. A Cardinals rooter called out to Ozzie Smith for one more all-star performance.

"Too old, man," the Wizard said, rubbing his back.

http://canadianpress.google.com/article/ALeqM5gqiVIWhbA_QE9rgMbyjgMS0xCNHA

Willie Randolph attending All-Star Game as George Steinbrenner's guest

2008-07-15T22:17:00.000-04:00

Willie Randolph will be a part of Tuesday night's celebration after all.

Removed from the NL coaching staff after he was fired as Mets manager following their June 16 game in Los Angeles, Randolph will attend the All-Star Game as a personal guest of Yankees owner George Steinbrenner.

Accompanied by his wife Gretchen, Randolph arrived just before 6 p.m., but steamed past a cluster of reporters waiting outside the Press Gate without commenting. He gave no response to questions from the Daily News asking if he was glad to be back at the Stadium.

The Boss also arrived about 20 minutes later, but he was surrounded by about a dozen NYPD officers. He put his weight on one of them as he also entered the Stadium without commenting to the media. Steinbrenner, who was slated to be honored by MLB and the Yankees before Tuesday night's game, smiled when someone in the crowd yelled out "We love you George."

Randolph played 13 seasons for the Yanks, making five All-Star teams and helping win back-to-back championships in 1977 and 1978, before earning four more rings as a third-base coach under Joe Torre.

"(Steinbrenner) has deep affection for him," Yanks spokesman Howard Rubenstein said. "They're still very good friends. George was delighted that he agreed to come and help celebrate the great moments in the history of Yankee Stadium."

Randolph will not be seated in Steinbrenner's personal box, but he is expected to be situated in a luxury suite on the Club level.

“That’s good. He should be here,” Mets closer Billy Wagner said. “Everyone knows he’s always going to be a Yankee. It’s good. He should be represented and honored for what he’s done. He’s a great Yankee.”

Fellow All-Star David Wright said he hasn’t spoken to Randolph since he was fired, but has exchanged several phone messages, including a “Good luck” wish from his former skipper Tuesday afternoon.

"He actually just left me a message just today,” Wright said. “It’s good for Willie. He’s obviously earned the right to come and participate in the last All-Star Game at Yankee Stadium.

“I consider Willie a very close friend of mine. He’s done tremendous things for my career. I’ll be forever grateful. I’ll keep in touch with him for as long as he wants to keep in touch with me.”

http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/baseball/yankees/2008/07/15/2008-07-15_willie_randolph_attending_allstar_game_a.html

Fulfilling the need: Remote Area Medical treats hundreds at Heritage Middle

2008-07-13T21:45:00.001-04:00

At 1:40 a.m., while most people in Blount County were asleep comfortably in their beds, Brenda Moore and hundreds of others were lined up in front of Heritage Middle School, just hoping their pre-dawn arrival had been early enough.

Remote Area Medical (RAM) -- an organization that provides free medical services for un- and under-insured individuals through volunteer doctors, nurses and other medical professionals from all over the country -- held a free clinic in Blount County Saturday and today. The group offered free medical, vision and dental services for people who could not afford them otherwise.

But the doors did not open until 6 a.m. -- hours after Moore arrived.

At about 3 p.m. -- more than 14 hours after she got to the school -- Moore was still waiting to see a dentist about her troublesome wisdom teeth. But the wait was worth it, she said, because otherwise there was no way she could afford the work she needed done.

"I think (the RAM clinic) is wonderful," she said. "So many of us just cannot afford to take off of work to go to a dentist."

Getting to Heritage Middle School as early as she did, Moore was still not the first person in line.

"Guess what my number was," she said. "134. At 1:40 in the morning."

People from as far away as Kentucky -- and some even farther than that -- made their way to the clinic Saturday. The sheer number of people in need of medical care was a shock for Moore, and it speaks to a larger problem, she said.

That problem: People need help.

"That should be the eye-opener right there," Moore said.

Within three hours of opening, the number of people seeking help overwhelmed the clinic, and staff had to stop accepting new patients. People turned away Saturday were told to come back today. Bill Hogan, president-elect of the Alcoa Kiwanis Club, said 499 people came through the doors Saturday. An additional 300 people, at least, are expected today.

"You obviously see what the need is," he said. "There's a fantastic need.

"And I think that's unrealized."

The clinic was organized by the three Blount County Kiwanis Clubs -- Alcoa, Maryville and Foothills.

Ed Kelly, a dentist from the Atlanta area, drove up Friday night and arrived at the school at about 5:30 a.m. He learned about Remote Area Medical from a TV report on "60 Minutes".

Organizers told Kelly and other volunteers to expect a lot of people. But hearing that, and seeing hundreds of people in desperate need of medical assistance who lined up before sunrise, well, those are completely different things.

"It still hits you," Kelly said. "It opens your eyes.

"It makes you see what real need is."

Kenyatta Manns, an emergency room RN from George Washington University Hospital in Washington D.C., came down to Blount County, on her own time, to volunteer in this weekend's RAM clinic.

Like Kelly, Manns said the number of people seeking help was staggering.

"I'm really overwhelmed," she said. "The need is just so great."

Zena Marashi, a senior nursing student at Knoxville's South College, was at the clinic volunteering Saturday. Since the doors opened at 6 a.m., "it's pretty much been non-stop," she said.

It's busy and it's exhausting, she said. But as long as people were still sitting in the bleachers waiting for their turn in the dentist's chair, being tired just didn't matter.

"It's like you're tired, but you feel bad for being tired," she said.

There were dentist's who had been on their feet all day long, but wouldn't take a break because that meant someone in the crowd had to wait even longer for care, Marashi said.

"It's astonishing how many people need (care)," she said. "It's really sad.

"Our country is so great in so many ways, but it doesn't seem to want to reach out to people (needing medical care)," she said. "We're still in the stone age in that regard, and it's sad."

Professionals who donated their time for the clinic -- who Marashi called "wonderful people" -- had not uttered a complaint the entire day, even though working on teeth at a middle school gymnasium was less than optimal, she said.

Moore -- who also called the medical professionals "wonderful people" -- said she was treated wonderfully by everyone at the clinic.

"All of them are so generous," she said. "They are so concerned about the patients.

"If my number comes up next, it was worth it to have gotten here at 1:40 this morning."

Hogan said organizers are planning on holding another clinic in 2010. But this weekend, this clinic, was a success, he said.

"Oh a great, great success."

http://www.thedailytimes.com/article/20080713/NEWS/630896589

Snow Brought a Measure of Dignity to White House

2008-07-12T16:52:00.001-04:00

Even as he struggled with cancer, former White House press secretary Tony Snow told reporters: "I'm a very lucky guy."

In fact, George Bush was lucky to have had Snow as his spokesman during the period when it became clear that, while Bush could not renew his failed presidency, he could be less of an embarrassment to himself and his country.

Snow was a true-believer Republican who, to a far greater extent than many of the people around the president, took seriously the work of communicating the ideas and ideals of the Bush-Cheney presidency to the American people.

Before he joined the administration, Snow had bluntly argued in a column that the president's "wavering conservatism has become an active concern among Republicans, who wish he would stop cowering under the bed and start fighting back against the likes of Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi and Joe Wilson."

"The newly passive George Bush has become something of an embarrassment," concluded Snow.

To his credit, Bush's reaction to the criticism was to invite Snow to help him do a better job of explaining his views.

To Snow's credit, he accepted the offer.

The dynamic put Snow in a position to be more than just a mouthpiece. In an administration that has suffered from a surplus of "yes men" and "yes women," the veteran Detroit News writer and Fox News commentator joined Bush's inner circle as someone with self-respect -- and the president's respect.

That made the brief period when Snow served as White House press secretary in 2006 and 2007 a time that saw the administration display a measure of dignity. It was also a time when Bush began to put more distance between himself at the noxious influence of Vice President Cheney -- a process that continues to this day.

Unlike his predecessor, Scott McClellan, who has acknowledged that he was duped by the sleazier elements (Scooter Libby, Karl Rove, Dick Cheney) in the White House, and his successor, Dana Perino, who might charitably be described as "ridiculous," Snow was a mature adult who was not going to be duped and who cared enough about his reputation to offer up a rare commodity from this administration: honesty.

Snow's death, at age 53, after a long struggle with cancer, robbed the party to which he was resolutely loyal and the movement to which he was sincerely committed of one of its most serious and effective communicators.

George Herbert Walker Bush, with whom Snow worked almost two decades ago, may have said it best when he recalled that, "(Tony Snow) won the respect of even those who violently disagree with the president's proposals and policies. For that I think he'll be remembered. He brought a certain civility to this very contentious job."

One does not need to have agreed with Tony Snow's political views to agree with the former president's assessment.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/thenation/20080712/cm_thenation/1336564

Rohm and Haas Reaches Accord to be Acquired by The Dow Chemical Company

2008-07-10T09:06:00.000-04:00

Rohm and Haas Company (NYSE:ROH) announced today it has entered into an agreement with The Dow Chemical Company (NYSE:DOW), under which Dow will acquire all of the outstanding shares of Rohm and Haas common stock for $78.00 per share in cash. The agreement provides that Rohm and Haas Company will retain its Philadelphia Headquarters location, and continue to do business under the Rohm and Haas name. Additionally, Dow will contribute a number of specialty chemicals business segments to the Rohm and Haas portfolio which have greater synergy with the Philadelphia Company’s established strengths.

Commenting on the announcement, Raj L. Gupta, Rohm and Haas Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, remarked: “I have relentlessly talked to our employees, customers and stockholders about the imperative to seek opportunities for transformative change. In its 100-year history, Rohm and Haas has constantly reinvented itself, and this agreement offers outstanding potential to do the same yet again.”

Gupta said: “When the transaction is completed, Rohm and Haas will:

* Have a broader and more global leadership position in a range of specialty chemicals and materials business segments;

* Have full integration opportunity through the chemical value chain which will allow for reliable and cost competitive raw materials;

* Be a critical component of the new Dow, the world’s preeminent chemical company, which has a stated vision to expand its Performance businesses;

* Retain the culture, practices, and stewardship of stakeholder interests that have long been a hallmark of the Company’s reputation, and

* Be allied with a vigorous and forward looking US-based enterprise, committed to investing in research for new technology solutions to many of the most pressing societal needs.”

Andrew N. Liveris, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Dow, said: “Rohm and Haas will bring to Dow its recognized world-class core strengths in Coatings and Electronic Materials, and a strong market-facing culture. This acquisition is the definitive step in our company’s strategy to shape The Dow of Tomorrow.” Dow will contribute complementary businesses to Rohm and Haas Company in areas such as coatings, biocides, and personal care products. As a result, annual revenue of Rohm and Haas will be approximately $13 billion.

The transaction has been unanimously approved by the Boards of Directors of both companies, and remains subject to approval by the Shareholders of Rohm and Haas, as well as customary conditions and approval of appropriate regulatory authorities. Haas family trusts, which collectively control approximately 33% of Rohm and Haas outstanding stock, have indicated their support of the Agreement. On behalf of the entire Haas family, Mr. John C. Haas, 90, expressed unwavering fidelity to Rohm and Haas and its leadership, employees and future. “I learned many years ago that there is no substitute for surrounding yourself with good and honest colleagues, and then trusting their wisdom and judgment. We support the agreement reached between Dow and Rohm and Haas; we are particularly proud the company name and Philadelphia location were deemed essential to the merits of this transaction. The value and opportunities this transaction will create are a tribute to its dedicated employees. I will always be available, if needed, to contribute to the success of this new enterprise.”

In connection with the proposed merger, Rohm and Haas will file a proxy statement with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”). Investors and security holders are advised to read the proxy statement when it becomes available because it will contain important information about the merger and the parties to the merger. Investors and security holders may obtain a free copy of the proxy statement (when available) and other documents filed by Rohm and Haas at the SEC website at http://www.sec.gov . The proxy statement and other documents also may be obtained for free from Rohm and Haas by directing such request to Rohm and Haas, Investor Relations, telephone (215) 592-3312.

Rohm and Haas and its directors, executive officers and other members of its management and employees may be deemed participants in the solicitation of proxies from its stockholders in connection with the proposed merger. Information concerning the interests of Rohm and Haas’ participants in the solicitation, which may, in some cases, be different than those of Rohm and Haas' stockholders generally, is set forth in Rohm and Haas proxy statements and Annual Reports on Form 10-K, previously filed with the SEC, and will be set forth in the proxy statement relating to the merger when it becomes available.

This release includes forward-looking statements. Actual results could vary materially, due to changes in current expectations. The forward-looking statements contained in this announcement concerning demand for products and services, sales and earnings forecasts, and actions that may be taken to improve financial performance, involve risks and uncertainties and are subject to change based on various factors, including the cost of raw materials, natural gas, and other energy sources, and the ability to achieve price increases to offset such cost increases, development of operational efficiencies, changes in foreign currencies, changes in interest rates, the continued timely development and acceptance of new products and services, the impact of competitive products and pricing, the impact of new accounting standards, assessments for asset impairments, and the impact of tax and other legislation and regulation in the jurisdictions in which the company operates. Further information about these risks can be found in the company's SEC 10-K filing of February 21, 2008.

http://www.businesswire.com/portal/site/google/?ndmViewId=news_view&newsId=20080710005490&newsLang=en

Slur against Obama 'too crude' for TV

2008-07-09T21:22:00.000-04:00

JESSE Jackson, a prominent US civil rights leader and failed Democratic presidential candidate, has apologised to Barack Obama for a "hurtful, crude" remark that was picked up by a TV microphone - but which one network has said is too off-colour to broadcast.

Reverend Jackson, a minister from Senator Obama's home town Chicago, said he made the comment in a private conversation with a fellow guest on a Fox News program after taping had finished, not realising microphone were still on and that his remark would be recorded.

Fox has said the comment was made to one of the network's reporters. An item on its website claimed Rev. Jackson's comment was: "I want to cut his nuts off", although another report puts it differently.

A Chicago newspaper columnist reported Rev. Jackson told him he had been talking about Senator Obama's speeches to black churches across the US about personal morality, then said: "The senator is cutting off his you-know-what with black people".

CNN later broadcast an interview with Rev. Jackson but said the remark itself was "too crude" to broadcast.

The comment is due to be broadcast on another Fox program. But Rev. Jackson sought to pre-empt that embarrassment to the Obama campaign with his apology.

"I was in a conversation with a fellow guest at Fox. He asked about Barack's speeches lately at the black churches. I said it can come off as speaking down to black people," Rev. Jackson said on CNN.

"And then I said something I felt regret for it was crude. It was very private, and very much a sound bite - and a live mike. I find no comfort in it, I find no joy in it.

"So I immediately called the senator's campaign to send my statement of apology to repair the harm or hurt that this may have caused his campaign, because I support it unequivocally."

He later told the Associated Press that he did not remember "exactly" what he said. He is due to hold a full press conference, at which the precise wording and intent of his remark might become clearer.

Obama campaign spokesman Bill Burton said the senator accepted Jackson's apology. "(Barack Obama) will continue to speak out about our responsibilities to ourselves and each other."

Rev. Jackson was an associate of civil rights icon Martin Luther King and ran for the Democratic nomination in 1984 and 1988. Last year he wrote a newspaper column questioning the commitment of the candidates - including Senator Obama - to the needs of black voters.

That even earnt him a rebuke from his son, who is now an Illinois state politician. Today, he earnt another family dressing down. "I thoroughly reject and repudiate his ugly rhetoric," Jesse Jackson jnr said.

http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,23997815-5005961,00.html

Ivan Lattimore: Reporter says boyfriend attacked her

2008-07-09T10:26:00.002-04:00

Tearfully details four violent episodes

Channel 7 sports reporter Julie Donaldson, who said she was injured in an assault last month, testified yesterday that her boyfriend threw her against a wall and punched her in the face.

Sobbing as she spoke, Donaldson said it was the latest in a series of violent episodes involving Ivan Lattimore, whom she has been dating since Thanksgiving. Lattimore has been held without bail since his arrest. Yesterday's testimony came during a hearing to determine whether Lattimore poses a threat to Donaldson. The hearing will continue today.

A sports reporter at WHDH-TV since March, Donaldson is a graduate of the University of Florida and former Miss Florida USA. Before coming to Boston, she worked at SportsNet New York.

Lattimore lives in California, but Donaldson said he visits her every few weeks, staying with her in her Back Bay apartment. Donaldson told the court that Lattimore plays professional Slamball, a variation of basketball using trampolines.

Questioned yesterday by Assistant Suffolk District Attorney Patrick Devlin, Donaldson at first identified herself as Julie Cochrane. She explained that she is married but that her divorce is nearly final.

Since she and Lattimore started dating, Donaldson said, there have been at least four violent episodes. The first, she said, occurred at the Super Bowl in Arizona and resulted in bruises on her arms. "I wore a long sleeve shirt and didn't tell anyone," she said.

The second attack was more serious, she said. After a Celtics game against the Miami Heat on March 30, Donaldson said that she lied to Lattimore about her whereabouts and that he was waiting for her when she returned to her apartment.

"He grabbed me by my hair and took my hands by my wrists and made me punch my face," she said, adding that she had to miss work the next day because of bruises on her face. A few months ago, she said, another fight ensued after a night of drinking at Sonsie on Newbury Street.

At 6-foot-4 and 215 pounds, Lattimore is an imposing presence. Dressed yesterday in a pink pinstripe shirt and baggy jeans, he sat shackled and largely expressionless while Donaldson detailed the alleged abuse.

Donaldson said the latest assault took place in Donaldson's Exeter Street apartment after a night of dancing and drinking at the Back Bay nightclub Saint. On June 27, Lattimore's 32d birthday, Donaldson said she, her boyfriend, and another man went to the club. They drank several shots of liquor, she said, and bought rounds of drinks for others at the bar. At closing time, she said, Lattimore paid the $386 bar tab, and the drunken crowd spilled out onto the street. Wanting to "keep the party going," Donaldson said, she invited a group of six young women back to her apartment around 2 a.m. on June 28.

One of the women, Sounsano Phouthavoq, testified yesterday that Lattimore groped one of her friends at the apartment. Alarmed, the women tried to leave, Phouthavoq said. She said Lattimore became angry and grabbed her by the hair. When Donaldson tried to calm him, Phouthavoq said he threw his girlfriend approximately 5 feet against a wall.

"He snapped and went into a rage," Donaldson told Judge Raymond Dougan Jr.

Donaldson said she ran to her bedroom and locked the door, but Lattimore kicked it in. He punched her in the face at least twice, she said, and also bit her on the left cheek. "I remember a slow motion punch coming from the right side of my face," she said, weeping.

Donaldson said she managed to escape to the street, where she was met by the six young women and the police.

"She was crawling around the corner, saying, 'He's coming after me; he's going to kill me," Rosalyn Pen, one of the women, said in court. "It was like a Lifetime movie. I'd never seen anything like it."

Donaldson, who's filed a restraining order against Lattimore, said her boyfriend called her 47 times on her cellphone immediately after his arrest. She said he doesn't understand why he's in jail, and encouraged her to tell police they were playing a game.

http://www.boston.com/sports/other_sports/articles/2008/07/09/reporter_says_boyfriend_attacked_her/?p1=Well_MostPop_Emailed2

U.S. should invest more in natgas, wind power: Pickens

2008-07-08T10:45:00.001-04:00

T. Boone Pickens on Tuesday called for greater investment in natural gas and wind power as part of "The Pickens Plan" launched by the oil tycoon aimed at reducing U.S. foreign oil dependence by a third.

"The plan calls for investing in power generation from domestic renewable resources, such as wind and using our abundant supplies of natural gas as a transportation fuel, replacing more than one-third of our imported oil, saving more than $230 billion a year," according to a press release from BP Capital, a hedge fund headed by Pickens.

http://www.reuters.com/article/rbssEnergyNews/idUSN0826319520080708

Iguazu: an Incredible Journey

2008-07-07T23:48:00.001-04:00

Visiting the falls of Iguazu was one of the adventures I have been planning in my mind for a long time. I have been to other large parks with falls, like Niagara, the Salto del Laja (Harbour Falls), the Petrohue Falls. Going to Iguazu from Chile is both simple and cheap. It was during our last visit to Chile that we decided to take several days to accomplish this journey. There are three flights weekly between the city of Iquique in Chile’s norte grande (main north) and Ciudad del Este (“city of the east”) in the easternmost part of Paraguay. Mercosur flies there in new airplanes and the trip to Asunción takes two hours, plus a further 50 minutes to reach Ciudad del Este. The views during the flight of the Andes and the Chaco are marvellous. We flew over the copper mine of Chuquicamata, and the passed close to volcanoes like Lancancabur and Lascar.

It is best to make travel arrangements through an agent who will take care of planning your itinerary, transfers, hotels, park visits, and so on. From Ciudad del Este it takes about an hour to drive to Foz de Iguazu on the Brazilian side of the falls. The Iguazu river, empties into the Parana River, which forms a natural boundary between Argentina, Paraguay and Brazil. The Foz de Iguazu National Park lies twenty-five Km. above this juncture. We checked into a very good hotel in Foz and the following morning our guide arrived early to begin our visit to the Brazilian side of the Falls.

For those of you who have not visited this park, let me assure you that the views are indescribable, and if you have been to Niagara, here is a comparison: Iguazu is a coming-together of between 150 and 500 falls between Argentina and Brazil. The number of these cataracts depends upon the water which flows down the Iguazu from the Brazilian Mato Grosso. This year has been very dry, so there were about 150 falls. Iguazu is 72 m high and drops 1,750 m3/sec., as compared to Niagara which falls 51 m. with a volume five times that of Iguazu, or 7,500 m3/sec. The big difference is in the surroundings. Iguazu Foz Park is virgin forest with more than 185,000 hectares, and limited access. Here there are all types of wild animals: tigers, jaguars, monkeys, coatis, alligators, crocodiles, serpents, and poisonous spiders.

“Iguazu” in the Guaraní language means “big water.” (“I” is water and “guazu” means “big.”) There is only one entrance to the park and private vehicles are not admitted. All passengers are brought in via comfortable open trailers towed by jeeps. No one is allowed to wander off the paths and roads of the park. Guides point out items of interest along the way. I have jotted down the following in my travel diary: orchids, lianas, araceas, junipers, perobios, alecrim. The Iguazu rises out of the Sierra Madre of Brazil and is 1,230 km long. The palmera or palmito-doce, from the heart of which is extracted the delicious palmito, grows very tall. The tree is said to take between 10 and 15 years to mature, and this variety of palm dies when the palmito which grows at the top of the tree is harvested. The bark from this and other plants produces pilocarpina (shampoo), medicine to treat glaucoma, thousands more medicinal plants like the Jaboranyí. The “ladders” from the lianas are used to treat diabetes. The orchids grow to immense proportions in the treetops. They blossom once a year and the Guaraní people coincide their “New Year” with this flowering. The Timbauva tree grows reaches a height of 25 m and matures at the age of 100 years. The indians used their trunks to make their dugout canoes. They burned the centre and continued to scrape it out; this process took almost two years. The bark of this tree absorbs oxygen from the water. The natives used it to fish, throwing huge numbers of tree trunks in the water and waiting for the fish to asphyxiate and float to the top. Other interesting names of trees: Angico Mermello, Uvaina, Lauro Blanco, Maria Preta, el Jeriba, and Costela de Adao.

We left the trailer and hiked through the forest on a narrow road to a small cataract, the Salto de Macuto, which drops 25 m and forms a pool of crystal-clear water. The humidity is heavy but since the flora is so thick, the temperature is a constant 25° the year round. On the walls of the rocks are semi-precious stones: quartz and agate. The path continues across the tropical forest until it arrives at a landing where zodiac inflatable launches, each with two 150-horse-power outboard motors, await the passengers. Twenty to 25 climb in each, all wearing orange life vests. The rafts cross the rapids of the river, going up one side and down the other. It is quite exciting, and I confess that not being a person who is overly fond of rapids, I felt a little frightened. The Brazilian side is the best side to enjoy the cataracts, since there are only four large falls in Brazil and the rest of the falls are on the Argentine side.

At the base of the huge chasm that forms the Devil’s Gorge (La garganta del Diablo) is found the most spectacular cataract. The water looks as though it were boiling, raising clouds of spray which in the light form giant rainbows that entirely transverse the falls. On the return, it is possible to make a little walking tour of the upper part of the falls. There are lookouts at various levels that extend over the falls and precipices from where one can survey the falls in all their glory. In this area, coatis roam among the tourists; they are the park mascots.

There is a bronze plaque engraved with this psalm that reflects the awe this natural wonder inspires:

Mightier than the thunders of many waters,

Mightier than the waves of the sea.

The Lord on High is mightier!!

Psalm 93:4

God is always greater than all our troubles.

That evening we had a guided tour of the hydroelectric complex, the largest in the world. It is located at Itaipu on the Paraguay River between Brazil and Paraguay. Some of the following facts attest to its status as one of the major man-made marvels of the 20th century.

It can produce 12,600 megawatts (akin to thirty-six 350-MW units burning coal. These coal fired plants take five years to construct and are the prime source of contamination in our planet today). Itaipu has 18 turbines, each with a 700 MW capacity, having a water drop of 196 m., the length of the dam is 2,600 m., and 200 m. wide. It forms an artificial lake of more than 170 km in length and seven in width; it holds 29 billion m3 of water, and is 20 to180 m. deep. The height of the dam is equivalent to a 65-storey building. It is the largest bi-national hydroelectric plant ever built. The project was begun in 1975 and took 32,000 men 16 years to complete it. Its spillway holds seven times the volume of the Iguazu River. Together with the Empire State building, the dykes of Holland, the channel beneath the English Channel, the Golden Gate Bridge, the Panama Canal, the CN Tower of Canada, it is one of the man-made marvels of the past century. The lake is today a huge tourist attraction.

The following day we had to rise early to visit the cataracts on the Argentine side. This one-hour journey took us over the international bridge crossing the Parana River. The park on the argentine side has a less spectacular view of the virgin rain forest; it is only 95 thousand hectares. An Italian-Paraguayan couple joined us during our return and she was telling us the Guaraní names for the trees. El Ambay (am-ba-í, stress on the last syllable) or “cercronia adenopu” is a large tree whose branches stretch upwards seeking the sun. Its trunk is hollow and inhabited by millions of ants. Its fruit serves as food for birds while its medicinal bark is used to cure coughs. The Romella is a beautiful small shrub with long green lives and a brilliant slender red flower growing from its core. La higuera de las Indias (fig tree) produces a large hollow fig. It is inedible but is used to produce glue.

The visit to the cataracts from this side is on foot on pathways that run along both the top and base of the falls. The stretch 2 km each and are simple to negotiate with many vistas for photo opportunities. The falls are named after dignitaries and Argentine personalities, such as Salto (fall) San Martín, Salto Ramirez, Salto Bossetti, Salto de Los Tres Mosquetereos (Three Musketeers), Salto Guardabosque (forest ranger) Bernabe Mendez (killed in a confrontation with poachers in the upper Iguazu, 1968), Salto Mbigua, Salto de las Dos Hermanas (two sisters) and Salto de Belgrano. The most spectacular are Bossetti and the Devil’s Gorge.

From here the coach takes us to the landing to travel to the vista over the Devil’s Gorge. The passage is midstream and one must walk another 800 metres to get to the point. The views are spectacular, and the noise of the crashing falls is an infernal roar. The spray covers our faces, our hair, and our eye glasses. This view from the largest falls of Iguazu leaves one completely humbled. The water continues along the base of the valley as it continues its way to the Paraguay River.

In the afternoon a visit to the Bird Park was not to be missed. This park has all kinds of exotic birds from both this forest and the rest of the world. There are macaws, parrots, guamacayos, and many other species in danger of extinction.

Soon we found ourselves on the bus from the terminal in Ciudad del Este to travel the 300 km to the south of Paraguay. There we visited one of the most colourful cities in this area. This is the cradle of the ruins of the 16th century Jesuit missions, “The Missions of the Trinity,” which will be the theme of an upcoming special edition of these chronicles.

http://gosouthamerica.about.com/od/topdestiguazu/a/FiskJourney.htm?nl=1

Hurricane Bertha is First of the 2008 Season

2008-07-07T11:55:00.001-04:00

U.S. weather forecasters say Tropical Storm Bertha has strengthened into the first hurricane of the 2008 Atlantic season.

Hurricane Bertha is moving across the waters of the central tropical Atlantic Ocean.

Forecasters said Monday it is too early to determine if Bertha poses a threat to any land areas.

As of this Monday morning, Bertha had maximum sustained winds of nearly 120 kilometers-per-hour. Forecasters say some additional strengthening is expected during the next few days.

The Atlantic hurricane season runs from June 1 through November 30.

http://www.voanews.com/english/2008-07-07-voa15.cfm

Marc Chagall Google Doodle

2008-07-07T11:48:00.000-04:00

Today's the birthday of artist Marc Chagall. Google has honored Chagall with a Google Doodle.

The Marc Chagall Wikipedia entry states, "After gaining a reputation as an artist, Chagall left St. Petersburg to settle in Paris to be near the burgeoning art community in the Montparnasse district, where he developed friendships with such avant-garde luminaries as Guillaume Apollinaire, Robert Delaunay, and Fernand Léger.

In 1914, he returned to Vitebsk and, a year later, married his fiancée, Bella. While in Russia, World War I erupted and, in 1916, the Chagalls had their first child, a daughter they named Ida.

Chagall became an active participant in the Russian Revolution.

http://blog.searchenginewatch.com/blog/080707-092828

Employers use federal law to deny benefits

2008-07-05T15:04:00.000-04:00

Dying of cancer, Thomas Amschwand did everything he was told to make sure his wife would collect on the life insurance policy he had through his employer.

"He was obsessed with dotting every `i' and crossing every `t'," Melissa Amschwand-Bellinger recalled about her husband, who died in 2001 at age 30.

But Spherion Corp., the temporary staffing company where Amschwand worked, told Amschwand-Bellinger she would not receive any of the $426,000 in benefits she believed she was due. When she went to court, Spherion succeeded in getting her lawsuit thrown out. The Supreme Court on June 27 refused to review the case.

Amschwand-Bellinger received a refund of the few thousand dollars in insurance premiums she and her husband dutifully had paid. The total, she said, would not cover the costs of his funeral.

The story has played out often under the federal Employee Retirement Income Security Act. Designed to protect employee benefits, the law has been used by employers as a shield against suits.

Federal appeals courts, interpreting Supreme Court decisions dating to 1993, consistently have said companies that offer health, life and retirement benefits under ERISA cannot be sued for large amounts of money, or damages. Instead, they can be sued only for typically smaller sums such as Amschwand's insurance premiums.

Several federal judges have bemoaned the unfairness even as they have felt constrained to rule in favor of employers.

"The facts ... scream out for a remedy beyond the simple return of premiums," Judge Fortunato Benavides of the New Orleans-based 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said in the Amschwand case. "Regrettably, under existing law it is not available."

The Bush administration has argued that the appeals courts are misreading the precedents and has asked the high court at least twice to clarify the earlier rulings. So far it has refused.

Congress, which could amend ERISA to make clear such suits are allowed, also has taken no action.

The result, in the view of ERISA experts, the administration and some lawmakers, is perverse.

"The beneficiary under the policy didn't get the promised benefit," said Colleen Medill, an expert on ERISA at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. "To say we're just going to return your premiums, that's a total farce. That's not what they paid the premiums for. They paid them for the benefits."

Sen. Patrick Leahy, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said at a recent hearing that before ERISA became law, employees clearly could sue for benefits in state courts.

The court rulings, said Leahy, D-Vt., have left people "more vulnerable than they were before the law was passed."

Spherion's decision to deny benefits to Amschwand-Bellinger turned on an odd set of facts. Spherion, which employs about 300,000 people, switched insurers after Thomas Amschwand was diagnosed with a rare form of heart cancer. The new policy did not take effect until an employee worked one full day. Spherion never informed Amschwand of the requirement.

Amschwand asked repeatedly whether there was anything else he needed to do and was told no. He asked that the new policy be sent to him. Spherion never did so.

He died without returning to work. His widow said he easily could have worked a day if that was what it took to activate the new policy. Spherion could have waived the one-day-of-work provision, as it did for other employees but not for Amschwand.

Spherion spokesman Kip Havel issued a brief statement when contacted by The Associated Press after the high court declined to review the case. "We are pleased the court has made its decision and the matter has finally been resolved," Havel said.

The court also recently turned down an appeal from Louis Gerard "Gerry" Goeres, who sued Charles M. Schwab & Co. over hundreds of thousands of dollars in retirement plan benefits.

For 16 months, Schwab mistakenly refused to acknowledge Goeres as the beneficiary in the retirement plan of his domestic partner, Stephen Ward, a Schwab employee who died in 1999. By the time Schwab acknowledged its error, the value of the account had declined by more than $500,000. Goeres sued for the rest. Federal courts dismissed the suit. "Unfortunately, legal relief is not available," U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer said in ruling against Goeres.

"You know the Schwab commercial, `Talk to Chuck?'" Goeres said. "I thought if Chuck knew this, he'd say, 'Oh my God, this is so wrong.' I live on naive dreams."

Schwab said in court papers that Goeres could have taken legal action soon after Ward's death, when he first was told he was not the beneficiary.

Amschwand-Bellinger said the cases show the need for either the court or Congress to provide "some sort of meaningful remedy for employees when employers have a breach of fiduciary duty."

A Texas native who lives in an unincorporated Houston suburb, she has since remarried and has an 18-month-old daughter. She is president and executive director of the Amschwand Sarcoma Cancer Foundation, which she founded with her first husband.

She recognizes that she is more fortunate than many others who have fought similarly futile battles for benefits under ERISA. "What if we had had children and I was a stay at home mom?" said Amschwand-Bellinger, who previously worked for a public hospital system. "What if I was 60 years old, with no skill sets, and I had to go back to work?"

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080705/ap_on_go_su_co/benefit_battles

Court order on YouTube user data fans privacy fears

2008-07-05T12:00:00.000-04:00

A U.S. judge's order to Google Inc (GOOG.O: Quote, Profile, Research) to turn over YouTube user data to Viacom Inc (VIAb.N: Quote, Profile, Research) sparked an outcry on Thursday from privacy advocates in the midst of a legal showdown over video piracy.

Viacom, owner of movie studio Paramount and MTV Networks, requested the information as part of its $1 billion copyright infringement lawsuit against the popular online video service and its deep-pocketed parent, Google.

Judge Louis Stanton of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York ordered Google on Tuesday to turn over as evidence a database with usernames of YouTube viewers, what videos they watched when, and users' computer addresses.

Privacy activists from the Electronic Frontier Foundation said in a blog post the order "threatens to expose deeply private information" and violated the Video Privacy Protection Act, a 1988 federal law passed after Supreme Court nominee Robert Bork's video rental habits were revealed.

Representatives of both companies said they were looking to work out how to comply with the court order to share video data while ensuring personally identifiable information is secure.

Viacom responded in a statement that it needs the data to demonstrate video piracy patterns that are the heart of its case against YouTube. But it sought to diffuse privacy fears, saying it had no interest in identifying individual users.

"Viacom has not asked for and will not be obtaining any personally identifiable information of any user," Viacom said.

"Any information that we or our outside advisors obtain ... will be used exclusively for the purpose of proving our case against YouTube and Google (and) will be handled subject to a court protective order and in a highly confidential manner."

Google senior litigation counsel Catherine Lacavera said her company was looking to resolve the issue quickly in a way that balanced Viacom and other plaintiffs' need for evidence in the case while "carving out some space for user privacy."

Lacavera said her company was pleased the court's decision had put limits on evidence discovery, including refusing to allow Viacom access to YouTube's search technology or to users' private videos on the site.

But the Google attorney called on Viacom to allow YouTube to anonymize user data -- in other words, redact rows of data containing usernames or unique computer Internet addresses.

In closed-door hearings ahead of the ruling, Google attorneys had argued against turning over such data without eliminating personally identifiable information.

"We are disappointed the court granted Viacom's overreaching demand for viewing history," she said. "We will ask Viacom to respect users' privacy and allow us to anonymize the logs before producing them under the court's order."

http://uk.reuters.com/article/technologyNews/idUKN0329430120080705?sp=true

Report: Former Charger Kiel dies in car crash

2008-07-05T11:51:00.000-04:00

Former Chargers safety Terrence Kiel reportedly died late Friday in a car crash. He was 27 years old.

The San Diego Union-Tribune reported the crash on Saturday. According to police, a witness saw Kiel driving the wrong way down a road before his 2004 Chevy sedan rolled near an intersection in Scripps Ranch, a part of San Diego.

According to the Union-Tribune, Kiel was ejected from his car, and was barely breathing when emergency personnel reached him. The Lufkin, Texas, native was pronounced dead at 11:28 p.m.

A second-round pick from Texas A&M in the 2003 NFL draft, Kiel has been out of the league since the Chargers released him after a guilty plea to a felony drug charge in February 2007, according to the Union-Tribune. Kiel compiled 278 tackles, four interceptions, and two forced fumbles in four seasons with the Chargers, from 2003-2006.

http://www.sportsnetwork.com/merge/tsnform.aspx?c=sportsnetwork&page=nfl/news/newstest.aspx?id=4162447

Bozo the Clown is dead

2008-07-03T20:52:00.000-04:00

Larry Harmon, who popularized Bozo the Clown through the new medium of television 50 years ago, died today of heart failure in his Los Angeles home. He was 83.

Harmon was not the original Bozo, who was created by Alan W. Livingston in 1946. Harmon exaggerated the original look, then donned the distinctive make-up, hair and suit for countless appearances as "Bozo, The World’s Most Famous Clown." More important, however, he licensed the character to TV stations — which hired their own Bozos — and created a cartoon series.

"You might say, in a way, I was cloning BTC (Bozo the Clown) before anybody else out there got around to cloning DNA," Harmon told the Associated Press in a 1996 interview. "Bozo is a combination of the wonderful wisdom of the adult and the childlike ways in all of us."

His wife of 29 years called him the perfect Bozo.

"He was the most optimistic man I ever met. He always saw a bright side; he always had something good to say about everybody. He was the love of my life," Susan Harmon said.

http://blogs.usatoday.com/ondeadline/2008/07/bozo-the-clown.html

Favre considers return to football

2008-07-02T18:29:00.001-04:00

Brett Favre is considering coming out retirement, according to an ESPN report. ESPN's Chris Mortensen said Wednesday a Green Bay Packers source told him the 38-year-old Favre told coach Mike McCarthy in the past two weeks that he has the itch to play.

The Packers' former quarterback retired March 6 after a 17-year career.

Cornerback Al Harris said on ESPN's NFL Live that Favre also made similar comments to him.

"I know he has the itch to come back and play," Harris said. "If he will or not, I don't know."

The Packers had planned to use Aaron Rodgers as their quarterback for the upcoming season.

"Aaron is our quarterback," Harris said. "Brett's retired. But if he wanted to come back, there would be some guys who wouldn't mind it. I would welcome him back with open arms."

Favre's commitment to retirement has been questioned since his announcement. That talk resumed in mid-June when Favre withdrew from the American Century Celebrity Golf Championship at Lake Tahoe, scheduled for July 11-13.

Tournament spokesman Steve Griffith said then that Favre had to miss the event because of a scheduling conflict.

Favre is the NFL's only three-time MVP and leads the league with 442 touchdown passes, 61,655 yards passing and 160 career victories. He started 253 consecutive regular-season games, more than any other quarterback in history. Including the playoffs, his streak stands at 275.

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5iJ4dh7TkvXFMpdKZU9rITbou7jtwD91LUEHO0

Betancourt freed by guerrillas

2008-07-02T18:25:00.000-04:00

Fifteen hostages, including former Colombian presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt and three US military contractors, have been freed.

Colombia's Defence Minister Juan Manuel Santos made the announcement at a news conference. He said military spies tricked rebels into giving them up without a single injury.

Mr Santos said the military intelligence agents infiltrated the guerrilla ranks and led the local commander in charge of the hostages to believe they were going to take them by helicopter to Alfonso Cano, the guerrillas' supreme leader.

Surrounded by military commandos, the guerrillas gave up without a fight as the helicopters took the hostages to a military base in Guaviare.

Mr Santos says the other 11 hostages freed were Colombian soldiers and police. Betancourt, the Americans Marc Gonsalves, Thomas Howes and Keith Stansell, and the other hostages were taken to a military base.

Ms Betancourt was abducted in February 2002 as she was running for president. Because she also holds French citizenship, France's government has campaigned for her release.

The Americans were captured a year later when their drug surveillance plane went down. They worked as Pentagon contractors. They were the longest-held American hostages in the world.

In France, Lorenzo Delloye-Betancourt, the son of Colombian-French Betancourt, said her release after six years of captivity was, "if true, the most beautiful news of my life".

Mr Delloye-Betancourt told France-Info radio he was "really surprised and happy" although he was waiting for more information about the release.

The rescue is the most serious blow ever dealt to the 44-year-old Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, who considered Betancourt and the three Americans their most valuable bargaining chips.

http://ukpress.google.com/article/ALeqM5gHPvUGs1-g2sYkIjUXHwokGpTrJw

'Mark Twain: An American Star' 'The Trouble Begins at 8: A Life of Mark Twain in the Wild, Wild West'

2008-06-30T21:29:00.000-04:00

It's a good thing that Samuel Clemens lived a long life -- 74 years -- because he had a lot of living to do.

He was a sickly babe, causing his mother to proclaim: "I could see no promise in him." How wrong she was. Sam grew up to become a Mississippi riverboat pilot, a newspaper journalist and prospector in the Old West, a foreign correspondent traveling abroad and -- under the name we remember him by, Mark Twain -- a celebrated author and humorist.

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These two new biographies will introduce you to this American treasure, whose creative mind gave birth to such classic literary characters as the adventurous Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn, and wonderful tales about jumping frogs and princes and paupers.

Sid Fleischman, a Newbery medalist for "The Whipping Boy," takes an in-depth look at Twain's early life, through the Wild West days.

Fleischman is a magician as well as a writer, and it shows in his magical way with words.

Elizabeth MacLeod has written more than two dozen children's books, including several biographies. This 32-page book has lots of photos (and cartoons), making it a better choice, perhaps, for younger readers looking for a brief overview of Twain's remarkable life.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/06/22/AR2008062201819.html

Famed pianist has low media profile at home in Norway

2008-06-30T14:59:00.000-04:00

Norwegian pianist Leif Ove Andsnes has been called "brilliant," a "genius," "eminent" and "fabulous" by media reviewers the world over. Back home in Norway, however, Andsnes attracts much less media interest and coverage than local sports stars.

Gifted Norwegian pianist Leif Ove Andsnes wins glowing headlines abroad, but doesn't get nearly as much media attention at home.

Just this past spring, for example, Andsnes won front-page accolades in newspapers like the San Francisco Chronicle for concerts held during a solo tour. The Washington Post also ran rave reports of Andsnes' concert appearance in the US capital, while respected French newspaper Le Monde wrote two years ago that reviewers should stop referring to Andsnes simply as "one of the best pianists of his generation." They should rather agree that Andsnes is "the most important pianist of our time."

All the media hype almost makes Andsnes himself blush. He's arguably much more famous overseas than he is at home, but he takes it in stride. In a revealing portrait of the artist as a still-young man, Norwegian newspaper Dagens Næringsliv wrote over the weekend that Andsnes doesn't mind the lack of media hype at all. He does find it puzzling, though.

Not least since Andsnes just wrapped up a stunning international tour this spring, during which he played 24 solo concerts with the best orchestras on the world's most important classic stages. He can command fees of up to USD 40,000 for an evening, wrote Dagens Næringsliv (DN) and he can pretty much play what he wants to play.

"But the entire solo tour proceeded without a single telephone call from Norwegian media," Andsnes reflected. "Not even after I'd played before 2,800 people at Carnegie Hall in New York.

"That's absolutely OK for me," he told DN. "I just think it's odd, compared with the massive coverage given to sports. Art is often only in the news if it's in connection with a competition. We've become so incredibly results oriented."

Born to play

Andsenes, who hails from the west coast island of Karmøy, is said to have hands that were designed for playing the piano. He's been playing since childhood, with some time out for a marching band. He's now 38, has been traveling more than 200 days a year for the past 20 years and maintains a schedule that can be booked for years in advance.

He spent the past week in the idyllic southern coastal town of Risør, where he is artistic director for the annual Risør Festival of Chamber Music. He won rave reviews there as well, but could wander down the town streets without attracting a lot of attention.

He seems to be trying to spend more time doing such things, living life beyond the countless hotel rooms where he sleeps when he's not at his homes in Bergen or Copenhagen. He admitted to being seriously involved for the first time in a romantic relationship, with a sweetheart from northern Norway, but he also remains committed to his work as a pianist.

"I can't imagine another life," he told DN. "To be able to go so deep into something, that's a privilege."

Andsnes studied at the Bergen Music Conservatory under Czech professor Jiri Hlinka. His web site says he's also received "invaluable advice" over the years from the Belgian piano teacher Jacques de Tiège, who, like Hlinka, has greatly influenced his style and philosophy of playing. Last year, Andsnes himself became a professor at the Norwegian Academy of Music in Oslo.

When time allows, Andsnes escapes to the Hardanger mountains where he reportedly enjoys walking, skiing and the peace of Norwegian nature.

Andsnes will be playing at another chamber music festival in Lofoten next week and in Oslo on July 20. Then it’s off to performances in Copenhagen, Germany, Switzerland, Salzburg and Milan, before he leaves for Brazil in September, Japan in October and other concerts around Asia in the autumn.

http://www.aftenposten.no/english/local/article2513594.ece

Add a Splash of Ad-Lib

2008-06-30T14:34:00.000-04:00

HERE’S how I learned to make cocktails. Some years ago, I discovered mojitos, which I liked a lot, at least when they were made well. But they varied wildly when I ordered them in bars and restaurants. So I began tinkering at home and found my way: dark rum, a little simple syrup (half water, half sugar, heated until the sugar melts), loads of lime, not much mint. No club soda (a weakening aberration, even if it’s “correct”). No muddling (too much work, too showy, and I don’t even like the sound of the word). No white rum (unconventional, but I like rum with flavor).

After a while, I would go to bars and ask for “a mojito made with Barbancourt (or whatever) rum, a little syrup, a lot of lime and a little mint.”

When I got sick of mint, I switched to margaritas. In general, you can’t find a good one in a bar, not in Mexico and not in New York. So I took the same approach. I figured out how I liked my margarita and ordered it that way: good tequila, a teaspoon or so of triple sec, and lots of lime. (Some bartenders acted like that was a novel drink. Others said I wanted a traditional margarita. I suppose.)

Then I did some thinking and reading about cocktails. It turns out that if you use vodka instead of tequila, the margarita becomes the kamikaze. Swap cognac for the vodka and lemon for the lime and you have a sidecar.

Look at the pattern — you might call it the basic recipe — of these drinks, many of which might be grouped as “sours”: they combine liquor with water (usually in the form of ice), a sour flavoring (usually citrus juice) and a sweetener (simple syrup, or something more expensive and flavorful, like Cointreau). You might add a splash of soda or, if you like, fruit juice, which gets you into beachcomber or cosmo territory.

Master this pattern and you can mix hundreds of cocktails at home without a book or recipe. For me, most cocktails look like this: A stiff pour of alcohol, say a quarter cup, over ice; very little sweetener, a teaspoon or at the most two; a tablespoon or more of lime juice (which I find more refreshing than lemon juice); and, if suitable, a garnish like mint (which I chop), or an orange slice. Not only can the proportions change to your taste, they should.

The parallels with cooking are clear. You can start with good ingredients, or not. You can start with someone else’s recipe (on which there are usually a score or more variations) or make the cocktail your own. The point — and this clearly comes from the perspective of cook, not bartender — is this: Why not make cocktails from scratch, ignoring the names and acknowledging your preferences? Why not treat the margarita like a dish of pasta with tomatoes, assuming a few given ingredients but varying them according to your taste?

You learn your preferences by mixing the drink at home, not according to someone else’s recipe, but according to your will. Then you can duplicate your drink anywhere, and precisely. It’s very empowering.

Here are some drinks that follow this pattern:

GIMLET Gin (traditionally) or vodka (more recently), with sugar and lime (or Rose’s Lime Juice).

TOM COLLINS Gin with lemon instead of lime, sugar and club soda. There are also bourbon, rum, or vodka collinses.

SLOE GIN FIZZ Tom Collins with sloe gin.

DAIQUIRI Gimlet with rum, more or less.

MARGARITA Gimlet with tequila, with triple sec instead of sugar.

KAMIKAZE Margarita with vodka.

COSMO Kamikaze with a splash of cranberry juice.

SIDECAR Margarita with cognac and lemon instead of lime.

By now you get it. This pattern does not cover all cocktails, of which there are thousands. Those made with bitters, egg white (a nice addition to anything you’re shaking or blending), combinations of different liquors, rose water or flaming orange zest mist get a bit more complicated.

But if you consider this an approach for creating classic, simple, personalized cocktails, using pure ingredients; if you put aside the recipe book and think about this as you would cooking — combining flavors you like with imagination guided by experience — you’re well on your way.

As for the silly names, make them up, or forget about them. If one of your guests asks for an old-fashioned (bourbon, bitters, sugar, maraschino cherry and orange), you can always look it up.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/25/dining/25mini.html?ref=dining

Textron Names GE Executive Donnelly As Operating Chief

2008-06-30T14:28:00.000-04:00

Textron Inc. (TXT) named General Electric Co. (GE) executive Scott C. Donnelly as chief operating officer to oversee its manufacturing units.

Meanwhile, GE named David Joyce to replace Donnelly as president and chief executive of GE Aviation, its jet engine and mechanical systems maker.

Donnelly, 46 years old, had held the top job at GE Aviation since July 2005 and was previously senior vice president and director of GE Global Research.

"Scott brings extensive experience and a track record of success in leading complex, diverse, global businesses," Textron Chief Executive Lewis B. Campbell said. "Further, his experience in lean manufacturing, global sourcing, innovation and technology management are aligned with Textron's growth strategies."

Textron - a multi-industry company with operations in the aircraft, industrial-product and finance sectors - said Donnelly will also oversee the company's information technology, engineering and global sourcing functions.

Joyce, 51, has been with GE's aviation business for 28 years and has served as vice president of commercial engines since 2003.

"David has broad experience across the business, from engineering and product design to customer service, giving him keen insight into how to continue Aviation's global growth," General Electric Chief Executive Jeff Immelt said.

Shares of GE traded recently up 1.3% at $26.61, while Textron rose 4 cents to $47.97.

http://money.cnn.com/news/newsfeeds/articles/djf500/200806301246DOWJONESDJONLINE000420_FORTUNE5.htm

Foreign property envy

2008-06-29T14:22:00.001-04:00

Rosie Millard is tempted by a holiday fling with some hot property

Every year when I go abroad on holiday, I fall victim to a strange malaise. I call it foreign property envy, or FPE, although John Keats, the Romantic poet and dreamer extraordinaire, had a posher phrase for it: negative capability. It’s the ability to think yourself into the spirit of (in my case) a French villa or (in Keats’s case) a nightingale. You start to believe you actually inhabit said villa, or, er, bird.

Avian fantasies aside, what about property? Falling in love with a French maison, a Spanish beachside home or the turreted castle in Umbria you have hired for two weeks in August can get serious. Quickly. If not nipped in the bud, it can lead to protracted visits to the local estate agent, lengthy chats with one’s bank manager and tortuous negotiations in an unfamiliar tongue with lawyers and vendors. After which, you might end up with the object of your lust - and have to learn to live with the consequences.

Last week, I suffered a bad dose of FPE, my first of the season, while on a cruise down the Norwegian fjords. In June, the fjords are lovely, all green water, lush mountains, cascading waterfalls and sunshine. The waterside dwellings are equally charming: isolated, painted wooden houses with steep roofs. We slid slowly past, with Grieg playing hauntingly from our cabin. It was spectacular. Cheesy, but spectacular. “Wouldn’t it be great to own one of these,” said Mr Millard lovingly. I know, I know - the love life of two property anoraks: it’s pathetic.

Wherever we are in the world, our obsession catches up with us. It’s like travelling with an incurable condition - athlete’s foot, or some such. Given a lull of more than four minutes, Mr Millard will wander over to look at estate agents’ windows or neighbouring houses or, worse still, start our favourite game: guess the value. He (and I) can now do this with such accuracy, we are thinking of suggesting it as a quiz show on some cable channel.

But back to the boat. Together, we painted a glowing picture of how we would enjoy our new Norwegian getaway, maybe near Bergen (Grieg’s home town, coincidentally), or in the tiny village of Flam, on a tributary of the country’s longest fjord. When the cruise ships arrive, Flam’s population of 400 increases by 1,000%. But come winter, the visitors all leave - and there’s the rub. Let’s forget about June and factor in the Norwegian winter, when it gets light at 10.30am and dark again at 2pm.

“What do you do in the winter?” I asked, on a guided tour to Grieg’s house. “We tend to sleep a lot,” replied the guide. That’s when they aren’t drying out – there is a reason Norway looks so green, and that’s because it rains most of the time. Bergen is the wettest city in Europe. Suddenly, our Nordic idyll looked a bit less idyllic. Invited for tea in a small two-up, two-down townhouse with a garden in the fjordside town of Stavanger, Mr Millard and I started to play our game. “Half a million quid,” he suggested, and was duly gratified when the hostess congratulated him on his accuracy.

“I had an obsession with buying a house in Norway, too,” says my friend, the television reporter Donal MacIntyre. He also fell in love with one in an Inuit settlement in Greenland, 700 miles within the Arctic Circle, where it never gets light at all in winter. Instead, he made what appeared a dream purchase in southwest France: a semi-derelict manor house for £210,000 that came with a dovecote, gîte, barn, orchard, river bank and the biggest private pool in the country. “I bought it entirely by accident,” he says. When the sun was shining.

What MacIntyre ended up with was not a holiday paradise, but a list of calamities. No kitchen, no bathroom, no air-con. Then there were the deer, the termites, thieves and the necessity for an on-site security manager. MacIntyre has spent loads on making it liveable, but never really used it himself. “I’m selling it as we speak,” he says. He’s finally got it off his hands for about £350,000. His tip? “If you fall in love with a holiday home, buy one off a couple who spent all their money doing it up, and are now bankrupt and have to sell.” Helena Frith Powell, French expert of these pages, who lives in the Languedoc, has some simple advice. “Try to remember that, however gorgeous a house looks after four bottles of rosé on a sunny afternoon, the winters in France can be horrible,” she says. “Unless you’re a millionaire, you will need to earn money. Some people end up commuting back to the UK, others end up broke and with no way of getting back into the UK housing market.”

So we have committed to keeping our eyes firmly down during the entirety of the summer. No visits to foreign estate agencies, no fjordside bolt hole, no pipe dreams of life in a Tuscan castle. The children will be overjoyed. Whether we can keep up this spartan experiment remains to be seen.

http://property.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/property/investment/article4219935.ece

Gold futures end with strong gains

2008-06-29T13:59:00.000-04:00

Gold futures closed with strong gains Friday as a new record high in crude oil, persistent weakness in the U.S. dollar and a decline in the U.S. stock market encouraged investment demand for the precious metal. Gold for August delivery rallied $16.20 to end at $931.30 an ounce on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The precious metal posted a weekly gain of $27.60 from last Friday's closing level of $903.70.

http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/gold-futures-end-strong-gains/story.aspx?guid=%7B24E83C5E-04C1-4430-B8D1-4591D9BB4794%7D&dist=msr_1

Brazilian Secret 93 Million Don't Want to Talk About Is Racism

2008-06-29T13:36:00.001-04:00

Walking to and from work was humiliating, Jose Mario da Silva Ferreira says.

For 26 years as a Sao Paulo executive, he worked in the financial heart of South America's biggest city. And every day on Avenida Paulista, women tightened the grip on their handbags as he passed.

It wasn't his behavior, it wasn't his gray hair and it certainly wasn't his pinstriped suits. It was the color of his skin. Ferreira, 43, is black. The women reacted as though he were a purse snatcher, he says.

``You were born in Brazil; your origins are in Brazil,'' says Ferreira, who stepped down in December as economic planning manager at Cia. Brasileira de Distribuicao Grupo Pao de Acucar, Brazil's largest food retailer. He's now helping develop fundraising techniques as a volunteer for a Sao Paulo-based nonprofit group that supports health services.

``It's something you can never get used to,'' he says.

Ferreira's experiences -- and those of other black Brazilians -- come as the continent's biggest economy is in a celebratory mood.

A commodities-led boom is fueling growth; the real beat the Swiss franc as the best-performing major currency during the 12 months through yesterday, gaining 22 percent against the dollar to the franc's 20 percent; Brazil's stock market was No. 1 among the 10 largest over the same period, surging 18.75 percent; and Standard & Poor's and Fitch Ratings have raised the country's debt rating to investment grade for the first time.

Inflation, Crime, Deforestation

Behind the gloss, there's another side of Brazil. Increased consumer demand and higher food prices are boosting inflation, crime is rampant, deforestation is accelerating and something many people don't like to talk about -- racism -- is pervasive.

Brazilians pride themselves on their multicultural society, home to the largest black population outside of Africa. Their food, music and dance -- their feijoada, the national dish of black beans stewed with pork and beef, and their rhythmic samba and bossa nova -- are a mishmash, the legacy of more than 200 indigenous peoples, Portuguese colonists and about 4.5 million Africans who were brought to the country during more than 350 years of slavery. Interracial marriages are common.

``Brazil has this characteristic of being a country that embraces all the people, all the races,'' Paulo Skaf, president of the Federation of Industries of the State of Sao Paulo, says. ``In Brazil, what's important is the person.''

`Anything But Race'

So pervasive is the perception that Brazil is a paragon of racial harmony and equality that it makes the discussion of discrimination all but impossible, says Carlos Santana, a Workers' Party legislator who represents Rio de Janeiro and heads the National Congress's Parliamentary Group to Promote Racial Equality.

``In Brazil, we can talk about anything but race,'' Santana says. ``The myth of racial democracy created a taboo.''

Some people outside of government use harsher terms.

``We have the strongest apartheid ever because people deny racism exists,'' says Humberto Adami, head of the nonprofit Institute for Racial and Environmental Laws in Rio de Janeiro. ``It's very hard to combat what is taken as nonexistent.''

Statistics paint a picture of a nation tainted by the legacy of unequal opportunities. One hundred twenty years after becoming the last country in the Americas to abolish slavery, Brazil remains divided by color. People of African descent are ``a large, impoverished and discriminated-against population,'' the Brazilian embassy in Washington said in a press release posted on its Web site in April.

'Preta' and 'Parda'

Blacks -- defined by the government and nongovernmental organizations as people who describe themselves as either ``preta'' (black) or mixed-race ``parda'' (brown) -- make up almost half of the population. Of the nation's more than 187 million people, 92.7 million are black and 93.1 million are white; Asians, Indians and those who haven't declared a race make up the rest. On average, they earn little more than half as much as whites, 578.2 reais ($361) a month compared with 1,087.1 reais, according to a report based on 2006 data by IPEA Institute for Applied Economic Research, a government group in Brasilia.

Black women are particularly disadvantaged. According to a study by IPEA and the United Nations Development Fund for Women using 2003 data, black women earned 70 percent less than white men, 35 percent less than black men and almost 18 percent less, on average, than white women.

Few blacks make it into management. They account for an estimated 3.5 percent of the executives, 17 percent of the managers and 17.4 percent of the supervisors at 500 major companies, according to the Ethos Institute, a Sao Paulo-based business group that seeks to promote social responsibility. In the U.S., blacks make up about 13.5 percent of the population and hold about 6.3 percent of the management jobs, according to U.S. government data.

6 Percent at Petrobras

Petroleo Brasileiro SA, Brazil's state-controlled oil company known as Petrobras, estimates that last year about 6 percent of its workers -- 3,004 out of 50,207 -- were black, the company said in an e-mailed response to questions. Just over 5 percent of 30-year-old blacks graduated from college compared with 18 percent of whites, according to IPEA.

It's a similar story in government. Of the 513 senators and deputies in Brazil's National Congress, 43 men and 3 women are of African descent, according to Marcelo Paixao, a professor at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro. President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva's 23-member cabinet includes two blacks.

Executives routinely reject any suggestion that such disparities result from racism.

'Linked to Education'

``No,'' says Roberto Setubal, chief executive officer of Sao Paulo-based Banco Itau Holding Financeira SA, Brazil's second- largest nongovernment bank. ``I think this situation is closely linked to education,'' he says. ``It's a problem that can only be solved in the long term as the level of education in Brazil improves.''

The country is moving in that direction, Lula said in an interview yesterday with Bloomberg News.

``It's a cultural problem,'' Lula said. ``Instead of complaining that business people don't hire blacks, we need to improve education, the background of everyone, so that people can take all the possible positions. We are advancing in this direction.''

A Petrobras official says the company hires only through an exam that's open to everyone.

``There's no discrimination by race, age or religion,'' the official says in an e-mailed response to questions. Respect for people of different races ``is explicit in the company's ethics code,'' says the official, who refused to be identified by name.

Beyond the human toll, racism is sapping the Brazilian economy of a significant source of strength.

`Spending Power'

``If you consider the spending power of the black community in the U.S., you can have an idea of the consumers we are leaving behind because they are at the margin of social inclusion,'' says Luana Moraes, 35, director at Differential, a Sao Paulo-based consulting firm specializing in corporate diversity. ``It's an economic issue as well as a social one.''

Jose Vicente, rector of Universidade da Cidadania Zumbi dos Palmares, known as Unipalmares, estimates that gross domestic product growth might be 2 percentage points greater if blacks were fully integrated into the economy.

``We are simply giving our back to half of the population,'' he says.

Vicente, who is black and has degrees in sociology and law, says he faces discrimination daily. Visiting Brasilia, the country's capital and political hub, in March 2007 to attend his friend Miguel Jorge's swearing in as trade minister, Vicente, 48, says he was asked to fetch a chair for another invitee.

`Spirit of the Senzala'

``If there's a black in such a ceremony, he can't be a guest,'' Vicente says. ``The spirit of the senzala is still reproduced in the daily life,'' he says, referring to the slave quarters on Brazilian plantations generations ago.

Some students of Brazilian society say the pervasive denial that racial bias is behind the gap between blacks and whites is itself proof that discrimination exists.

``Racial prejudice in Brazil lies in the insistence that there is no racial prejudice,'' Joseph A. Page, a law professor at Georgetown University in Washington, wrote in ``The Brazilians,'' a 1995 book based on research conducted during 16 visits to Brazil over three decades.

Thirteen years later, the problem remains.

``There is repeated racial prejudice in Brazil,'' Page, 74, says in an interview. Take the predominance of whites in senior positions.

`Perpetuates Itself'

``People tend to hire other people who are like themselves,'' he says. ``It perpetuates itself.''

For blacks who do achieve corporate success, the experience can be disorienting.

``You look around and can only think there's something wrong about it,'' says Freddy Lacerda, 55, a black general manager at Banco Itau.

Professional success doesn't insulate blacks from racial affronts. Edison Dias is commercial director at London-based HSBC Holdings Plc's Brazilian unit and a graduate of Pontificia Universidade Catolica de Sao Paulo, one of the country's top- rated universities.

The son of a washerwoman and a stonemason, he says his finance career has meant recognition, security and the opportunity to rise above his origins. So he says it was a special shock the day a management discussion at a previous employer grew heated and a fellow director, the same position he held at that company, screamed at him using a racial epithet.

``This episode still weighs a lot on my memory,'' he says.

The Only Blacks

Dias, who lives with his wife and two sons in a 170-square- meter (1,830-square-foot) high-rise apartment in Sao Paulo, says the four of them are the only blacks among 1,000 individuals in the condominium complex. Another resident once confronted his son at the condo's swimming pool and admonished him that the facility was for residents only, not for the children of workers, Dias says.

``How can I possibly get used to this?'' Dias asks during an interview in a third-floor conference room at HSBC's Sao Paulo headquarters.

Nelson Santos, an economics professor at Universidade Federal de Pelotas and Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, says that ``things that should be trivial become an embarrassment.'' He recalls once in his 20s being trailed by security staff at Iguatemi, a high-end mall in Sao Paulo.

Mother's Advice

``They were like my personal bodyguards,'' he says. While he laughs about the incident, others have been hard to take, he says. As a student seeking a trainee position, he was rejected by at least 150 companies, he says. At one foreign bank, a vice president who would have become his boss asked Santos how, as a black man, he expected to enter the company and move up the ranks, he says.

``My mother always told me I needed to be better in order to be equal,'' Santos, 37, says. ``That day, I realized that not even being better would make me equal.''

Expatriate executives working in Brazil are also victims of racism. Douglas Taylor, a 46-year-old black U.S. citizen, says that when he first came to Brazil in 1990 to work for Citigroup Inc. in Rio de Janeiro, he was expecting a country where people were treated the same regardless of their skin color, he says.

``If it's a racial democracy, why can't blacks feel more comfortable anywhere they go?'' asks Taylor, who is now an analyst for Daniel Advogados, a Rio de Janeiro-based intellectual property law firm. ``I don't call it a racial democracy.''

`Dollar Denominated'

During his early days in Brazil, Taylor says, he had a white colleague with blond hair and blue eyes.

``People would think that he was the executive and I was his driver,'' he says. Even today, store clerks sometimes ignore him until he starts speaking in English. ``Everything becomes different because then I'm a foreigner,'' he says. ``I become dollar denominated.''

Brazil's blacks might hold better jobs if they had better access to quality education.

``One hundred years after the abolition of slavery, the former slaves haven't yet received the appropriate attention from the central government,'' says Fernando Haddad, Lula's education minister since 2005. ``The education issue is one of the elements that explain this phenomenon,'' Haddad, 45, says. ``But I have no doubt that there is racial discrimination as well.''

`Stop This Silliness'

President Lula, 62, a founder of the Workers' Party, has expanded educational opportunities for blacks since taking office in January 2003, building on work started by his predecessor, Fernando Henrique Cardoso. Lula initiated a scholarship program to help the poor attend private universities and supported affirmative action to ensure the entry of blacks into federal universities.

``It's necessary that we stop this silliness of being scared to confront racism,'' Lula said in a speech in November 2006, a month after his re-election for a second four-year term. ``We have to confront it with claws out and teeth bared,'' he said.

Blacks repeatedly stress the importance of schooling.

``Education is the only way to exit poverty,'' Walkiria Moreira Marinho says. Marinho, 59, who retired as a general manager at Telefonica SA in Sao Paulo in 2001, says she was one of five blacks at the college she attended and one of two women among 70 students in her class. ``But the truth is that you can never get rid of racism.''

When her son was 6 years old, he was rejected by a school in one of Sao Paulo's most-exclusive neighborhoods, Marinho says. As she looked in vain for his name on a posting of those accepted, she remembers being interrupted by another mother who asked, ``Do you see any other black child here?'' Marinho says she ultimately succeeded in registering her son at another school, and today, at age 27, he is a diplomat.

`Gave My Best'

Joao Batista Ribeiro, administrative and financial director at Palo Alto, California-based Hewlett-Packard Co.'s Brazilian unit, says education has been the key for blacks such as himself.

``If I have succeeded professionally, it's been because I always was dedicated and gave my best,'' Ribeiro, 43, says.

The universities from which companies recruit trainees don't reflect the composition of the population, says Gustavo Marin, president of Banco Citibank SA, the Brazilian unit of New York- based Citigroup. At the Universidade de Sao Paulo, for example, 13.4 percent of the students registered in 2007 were black, up from 12.5 percent in 2006.

``Every company should take affirmative action, concrete action, to create room so that these black people will have the same opportunities,'' he says.

Citibank is among eight companies offering trainee programs for students at Unipalmares, which says it's the first in Latin America to dedicate at least 50 percent of its seats to blacks. Currently, 87 percent of its students are black.

No Shield

Still, education goes only so far. Luiz Claudio Polycarpo, 47, has degrees in engineering, marketing and education. He also has an important job: supervisor of customer training and electronic tools distribution at Guarulhos-based Cummins Brasil Ltda., the Brazilian subsidiary of U.S. engine maker Cummins Inc. Neither his education nor his job shield him from racist affronts.

A few years ago, when he and his white boss visited a client company, a security guard mistook Polycarpo for a chauffeur and refused to talk to him, he says. Instead, the guard went straight to Polycarpo's foreign boss, who was sitting in the passenger seat and didn't speak Portuguese. Discrimination like that isn't about education or social status, he says; it's about color.

Brazil's confusion and denial over race are manifest in the way the lines sometimes blur in defining who is black and who is white. Take the case of the Teixeira da Cunha brothers.

Black and White

Alan Teixeira da Cunha, 19, and his identical twin bother, Alex, registered last year to enter Universidade de Brasilia, the public university in the country's capital that sets aside 20 percent of its seats for blacks. Their father is black; their mother is white. The twins are what might be called light- skinned.

In selecting students who might benefit from the quota system, the university assessed applications with pictures attached. Alan was considered black; Alex, white.

``There's racism, and the quota system is also an example of racism,'' Alan says. The university has since changed its selection process, replacing the photos with face-to-face interviews, according to the university's Web site.

Legal efforts to ensure civil rights for blacks have been slow in coming.

Limited Prosecutions

While the constitution of 1988, adopted three years after the end of 21 years of military rule, made racism a crime, prosecutions have been limited, says Sinvaldo Firmo, a lawyer at the Father Batista Institute for Blacks, a nonprofit advocacy group based in Sao Paulo. When there are convictions, penalties are usually fines or orders to perform community service, he says.

``We have made great progress, but there's still a lot of resistance from the judiciary in enforcing the law and punishing the aggressors,'' Firmo, 45, says.

A so-called Racial Equality Statute, which was approved by the Senate in 2005, hasn't been voted on in the lower house. The measure would, among other things, give tax incentives to companies hiring black workers and impose a quota system in universities.

``Our priority is to have the statute approved this year,'' says Edson Santos, 51, the minister in charge of the Special Secretariat for Policies to Promote Racial Equality. The ministerial agency, known by its Brazilian acronym Seppir, was created by Lula in January 2003.

`Light Years'

Edna Roland, who coordinates policies that affect blacks and women for the city of Guarulhos, in Sao Paulo's metropolitan area, gives Lula good marks.

``We are light years from the point we should reach,'' Roland, 57, says. ``But some progress is being made.''

There's wide agreement among those who acknowledge Brazil's racism that it's the product of centuries of prejudice.

``It's almost something hereditary, from generation to generation,'' Lula said in a Feb. 20 speech. ``People still have a lot of difficulty recognizing that we are all the same.''

Overcoming the biases and ensuring civil rights for all will require more Brazilians to open their eyes to the chasm between their country's happy, multiracial image and the reality lived by many of the nation's blacks.

"Racism is clearly an issue in Brazil," Ferreira says. "As a black person, you notice it all the time."

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601109&sid=aIezjRWRd5Tk&refer=news

Zambia-Norway forge project links

2008-06-28T20:48:00.000-04:00

NORWAY has added a new dimension to its development cooperation with Zambia by helping the southern African country in developing the potential of petroleum. Landlocked Zambia is exploring for oil and gas in Eastern, North Western and Western provinces of the country. Zambia’s minister of mines, Kalombo Mwansa, says the results of the microbial analysis of samples collected from the three provinces have been encouraging.

In view of the expected boom of the oil and gas industry, the Norwegian government is helping Zambia with preparatory work, which includes the repeal and replacement of the Petroleum (Exploration and Product) Act of 1985 to provide for two separate licences for prospecting and for production of oil and gas. Norwegian ambassador to Zambia, Tore Gjos has said the repeal and replacement of the Act would also provide for stronger legal provisions on environmental protection.

Mr. Gjos described the on-going consultancy his country is offering Zambia as “oil for development” saying it is a programme whose purpose is to make oil resources a blessing and not a curse. He berated the failure of developing countries to utilise petroleum to the maximum, citing Nigeria, one of the leading producers of oil, which has remained poor. He said preparatory work for Zambia involved strengthening the country’s institutional framework for regulating the oil and gas industry.

Under this cooperation, Norway is helping Zambia in the areas of financial management, environmental sustainability and technology and technical issues. Recently, the Norwegian and British government helped Zambia reform its mining tax to help the benefit more from its lucrative minerals. “We have been working with the government on the tax reform of the mining sector in order for Zambia to retain more of her mineral wealth for the benefit of the whole population,” Mr Gjos said.

Norway encouraged the Zambian government to engage mining companies with whom it had development agreements, as part of the process of introducing the new tax regime which came into force on April 1, this year. Norway helped Zambia with finances to get independent technical and legal advice on negotiating mining development agreements.

The new fiscal regime for the mining sector includes a 30 percent corporate tax, a new mineral royalty tax on base metals at three percent of the monthly average London Metal Exchange (LME) cash price per metric tonne multiplied by the quantity of the metal or recoverable metal sold from 0.6 per cent.

Company tax has gone up from 25 to 30 per cent while Government has also introduced a 15 per cent variable profit tax on taxable income, which is above eight per cent of the gross income and a windfall tax to be triggered at different price levels for different base metals.

For copper, the windfall tax has been pegged at 25 percent at the copper price of US$2.50 per pound but below US$3.00 per pound, 50 percent at price for the next 50 cents increase and a 75 per cent for the price above US$3.50 per pound.

Government expects to earn US$415 million additional tax revenue this year from the mining sector, which would create higher liquidity in the economy and help the local currency, the kwacha to appreciate further against major international currencies. Mr Gjos said the revenue would also provide more prospects for the development of infrastructure that would create extra opportunities for economic expansion.

Treasury data shows that Zambia in 2007 only got US$142 million from US$4.7 billion in copper and cobalt exports by foreign owners of its vast copper and cobalt mines. This is despite a 400 percent increase in global metals prices in the past seven years.

President Levy Mwanawasa announced on January 11 when he opened the second session of the 10th national assembly that government had decided to introduce windfall tax on copper and raised mineral royalty to ensure Zambia’s maximum benefit from mineral resources. The new tax regime has already started paying dividends with the Zambia Revenue Authority collecting K29.7 billion in mineral royalties following the introduction of the new fiscal regime for the mining sector this year. This is up from an average of K5.2 billion that the mining companies contributed per month in 2007.

Zambia and Norway’s development cooperation goes back more than 40 years. Zambia has been one of the largest partners of Norway for many years Norway now, however, channels most of the financial support through the Zambian budget as budget support and has selective support to democratic governance institutions covering areas like anti-corruption, the auditor-general’s and the judiciary.

Norway has supported Zambia in infrastructure development like hydropower, roads and water supply.

Norway has been a large supporter in the education, agriculture and wildlife sectors in the south Luangwa national park and the Kafue national park.

http://bistandsaktuelt.typepad.com/blade/2008/06/by-benedict-tembo----lusaka-norway-has-added-a-new-dimension-to-its-development-cooperation-with-zambia-by-helping-the-so.html

Summer sail in Norway

2008-06-28T18:38:00.000-04:00

Once, only trawlermen went to the Lofoten Islands, but as fish stocks diminish the brightly coloured shacks are being converted into accommodation for tourists attracted by the wild northern beauty. Gavin Bell reports.

Nobody knows why Olaf Tvennumbruni, a Viking chieftain, left his home in Norway around 900 AD and sailed to Iceland. One day he was surveying his fiefdom in the Lofoten Islands, and the next he was gone with his followers in a fleet of longships, never to return.

The land he left behind has hardly changed. Where his farm lay on Vestvågøy there is a green valley dotted with lakes, and guarded by jagged mountains that are streaked with snow even in summer. Under blue skies, it has an air of peace and plenty like a high alpine pasture.

The fertility of Olaf's land is a revelation to first-time visitors. From an approaching ferry, the Lofotens rise from the sea like a row of monstrous broken teeth, a fearsome wall of glacier-carved mountains at the end of the world. Then settlements appear, clinging precariously to the shores behind a maze of islets and skerries that echo to the cries of gulls.

For generations they have sustained fishermen drawn by shoals of spawning cod migrating every winter from the Barents Sea. A reminder of the price many have paid is a statue at the entrance to the harbour of Svolvaer, the main town, of a woman staring out to sea, awaiting her husband.

I see it first from the deck of a ferry on a six-hour crossing from Bodø on the mainland. This is the way to discover the Lofotens, with the sea air and blasts from the ship's horn whetting a sense of adventure.

An old fishing hamlet near Svolvaer An old fishing hamlet near Svolvaer Svolvaer is a working town with dry docks, and an appallingly misplaced 10-storey hotel under construction on the quayside. But the backdrop of snow-capped peaks is as dramatic as they come, and there is an agreeably slow pace of life in streets of wood-clad houses and stores painted in pastel colours. Fishing is still crucial to the economy, but as cod stocks dwindle the islanders are turning their attention to another lucrative catch - tourists.

In the old days, fishermen who came for the seasonal cod-rush were packed into rorbuer, wooden cabins by the sea in which crews slept two to a bunk and en suite facilities were a hole in the floor. With men now bunking on modern fishing boats, many cabins have been refurbished (with improved facilities) as guest accommodation.

Mine is at the end of a gravel path on an islet linked to the town by a bridge, perched on rocks with the sea lapping below. The noisiest intrusion is from bickering gulls.

Breakfast and dinner are served a few steps away in the Svinøya Rorbu hotel, which used to be a general store and now has a cosy restaurant by an inlet that feels like being inside an old wooden sailing ship.

"The fishing is not the same as when I was a child," says Ola Skjeseth, the hotel manager. "We used to run home from school to the fish factories and cut out cod tongues, which were a delicacy, and sell them privately. Now hardly any children do it. We have to change, like chameleons. If one day there is no fish, we still have fantastic nature for tourists."

Experienced climbers are drawn by the islands' granite peaks, in particular a twin-pronged stack above Svolvaer more than 120ft high where daredevils jump the 5ft gap between the two. "It's more of a long step than a jump," says Anders Alsvik, a member of the local mountain rescue team. "Even so, it is not really very nice if you miss it."

Since I am disinclined to climb anything higher than myself, he suggests a walk up Tjeldbergtind, a 1,200ft saddle-shaped hill overlooking the town. It is an easy ascent up a gravel path, then a steeper section to the ridge unveils a vista of lakes in hidden valleys enclosed by towering walls of rock. In the far distance, a row of mountains seems to be floating on the sea, and to the south are faint outlines of small isles where seas froth and roar in a giant maelstrom off a place called Hell.

I give this infamous tidal race a miss, and head for a lair of trolls and sea eagles. It takes less than half an hour to skim over the sea in a high-speed inflatable rubber boat from Svolvaer to Trollfjord, the kind of place where Nordic legends are born.

This is your classic drama of nature, a sea loch more than a mile long, barely 300ft wide at the mouth, enclosed by 1,500ft cliffs and ending abruptly at a jumble of even higher mountains. Our arrival is timed to coincide with the twice-daily routine of big ferries doing their party trick of sailing to the end of the fjord and turning around in their own length, the nautical equivalent of a three-point turn.

Other sightseeing boats scatter fish bait to attract eagles, but we zoom off to the island of Skrova (population 250), where people have lived for centuries on the whaling industry. A centre for processing whale meat, it is a quiet place in the eye of the storm over whaling.

In a quayside pub I meet Geir Notnes, who spent almost 30 years cutting whale meat in his family's business. "We in Norway have a 1,000-year-old tradition to eat whale meat," he says. "It is because minke whales came into our small bays."

He insists that whaling in Norwegian waters is subject to strict quotas, monitored by foreign vets, and that none of the meat is exported. His own family eats around 15kg a year. It is highly nutritious, he says, and suggests I try some. It comes raw, dark red and wafer thin, served with an oriental sauce and I have to admit it is delicious.

You can't get away from fish in the Lofotens. They are everywhere, and not just in the sea. Mainly they are hanging in their tens of thousands on giant A-frame racks, being dried and processed by the weather, for harvesting in early summer.

There are striking visions of men who risked and often lost their lives in catching them in an art gallery in the village of Kabelvåg. The work of an artist who was almost blind, the lithographs and mixed media portray the turmoil of big seas in strong, dark images that evoke the roar of the wind and crash of waves on wooden hulls.

Happily when I emerge the sun is shining, and having rented a bicycle for the day I pootle down to the harbour and find an empty patio in the back of a pub to enjoy a beer and views over the calm waters of an inlet.

Next day Ola arranges a hire car, so I can visit a museum at the site of Olaf Tvennumbruni's farm. "It won't be a flash new car, but you can't go far

here anyway," he says. To my delight it is a comfortable old Mercedes that purrs sedately around mountains and over bridges to a reconstruction of the house Olaf left behind.

A stately 270ft long, it contains Viking artefacts, a workshop where artisans demonstrate iron age crafts, and a banqueting hall where guests can feast on mutton broth, wild boar, and dried whale meat. A group of young Norwegian men are gathered in the great hall for "Odin's victory meal". When they raise glasses of mead and launch into a rousing drinking song, they look the part of their ancestors - a few more glasses and they'll be ready to pillage Northumberland.

My trusty Merc finds its way to the hamlet of Eggum, where a coastal footpath provides a bracing walk on the wild side of valleys reminiscent of Glencoe to a sculpture of a head that turns upside down as you walk around it. Then we negotiate a spectacular roller-coaster ride between land, sea and sky to the hamlet of Henningsvaer which lays fair claim to being among the most scenic five miles of asphalt in the world.

Our last stop is a private collection of second world war memorabilia in Svolvaer, assembled with passion bordering on obsession by a retired plumbing salesman. William Hakvaag has no idea how many guns, mines, medals, badges, flags, photographs and bits of Spitfires he has accumulated, but at the last count he had 140 complete uniforms.

"My grandfather had a radio transmitter during the war," he explains. "The Germans surrounded his house, but they never found it. I grew up with these stories."

Now his exhibits tell stories of hardship and heroism, of the "Shetland bus" - fishing boats that braved storms and German warships to ferry refugees and resistance fighters - and of a Norwegian commando who parachuted into his homeland to rescue his sweetheart from an SS labour camp.

Hakvaag also tells ghost stories, of knocking and shuffling in the museum, and of the time when lights dimmed in the "Gestapo room" and a journalist's hair stood on end. This is a spooky room and I kept the door ajar, just in case.

Sailing to and from the Lofotens is easy. Every day a ferries plying the coast of Norway from Bergen to the Russian border call in on their way north and south. Tough big vessels built to sail in all weathers, they have all the comforts of cruise ships without the comedians and dancing girls.

Instead they carry people, cargo and mail between communities that are often cut off in winter, and tourists are welcome to come along for the ride. Stops tend to be brief, but there are excursions that allow passengers to leave at one port and get on again at the next.

From Svolvaer it takes three days of cruising past misty mountains, fjords and wave-lashed skerries to reach Bergen. I am longing to stretch my legs, and the old trading city by the sea provides the perfect opportunity with miles of woodland paths in the surrounding hills.

It was here that Edvard Grieg penned some of his finest works in a shed below his summer house on the outskirts of the city. The house overlooking a lake is open to the public, and a small concert hall has been built into a slope above the shed, so the stage is framed by a picture window filled with views that inspired Grieg's music.

To listen to his sublime Evening in the Mountains being played in such a setting is to understand the love Norwegians have for their country, and to wonder why Olaf Tvennumbruni ever left it.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/travel/2008/jun/28/norway.fishing?page=all

Fed aided Wall Street to avert "contagion"

2008-06-27T13:15:00.000-04:00

The Federal Reserve was scrambling to prevent a "contagion" from infecting the nation's financial system when it took unprecedented actions to back a Bear Stearns rescue package and provide emergency loans to big Wall Street firms.

The Federal Reserve released documents Friday providing insights into its private deliberations in March that led to those controversial decisions. The Fed's actions came at a time when credit and financial problems were intensifying, threatening to paralyze the entire financial system and plunge the economy into a recession.

Given the fragile conditions of the financial markets at that time, the Fed said it felt compelled to intervene because an "immediate failure" of Bear Stearns would bring about an "expected contagion."

Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke and his colleagues initially moved on March 14 to provide temporary emergency financing to investment bank Bear Stearns Cos. through an arrangement with JP Morgan Chase & Co. Two days later as the investment bank teetered on the brink of bankruptcy, the Fed agreed to provide backing for up to $30 billion of a deal where JP Morgan would take over the troubled company.

That same day — March 16_ the Fed said it would allow big Wall Street firms to go directly to the Fed for emergency loans, a privilege only commercial banks had enjoyed. It was the broadest use of the Fed's lending powers since the 1930s.

The Fed's decision to take this action was "based on recent, rapidly changing developments," the documents said. "These developments demonstrated that there had been impairment of a broad range of financial markets" that Wall Street firms rely on for financing.

There was fear that other Wall Street firms could become in jeopardy, sending problems cascading through the financial system.

Democrats in Congress and other critics contend the Fed's actions are akin to a government bailout and are putting billions of taxpayer dollars at risk.

However, Bernanke has defended the actions and in appearances on Capitol Hill has said he doesn't believe taxpayers will suffer any losses.

The Fed's financial lifeline in JP Morgan's takeover of Bear Stearns was subsequently changed to $29 billion and — most recently — to $28.82 billion.

The documents said that the Fed, in discussions on March 16, believed that the takeover — and its involvement in helping to bring it about — was "necessary to avoid serious disruptions to financial markets." The Fed said that "many potential investors" had been invited to back Bear Stearns but the investment firm determined that JP Morgan was "the most suitable bidder."

Bear Stearns began to unravel last year when two hedge funds it managed collapsed because of heavy bets on subprime mortgage securities, which soured when the housing market fell into a deep slump. Along with other big investment banks, it was forced to take multibillion-dollar write-downs on the bad investments. Then rumors in mid-March about the company's cash position triggered a run on the investment bank that left it close to bankruptcy.

Earlier this month, JPMorgan closed its acquisition of Bear Stearns, bringing to an end an 85-year old institution.

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5jC0Js_XMSCt-GDAijc3qIbjuVZIAD91IHF7G0

The Think City: In Norway, they're building your first electric car

2008-06-25T12:59:00.000-04:00

And it's solid and safe, with charisma to boot.

OSLO, NORWAY -- Ingvil Ladehaug is battery challenged.

Her laptop is running out of juice. Her cellphone is down to its last electrons. But the director of communications for Norway's Think -- beginning production in September of perhaps the best electric car in the world -- feels good about our chances of getting home.

"We're going to make it!" she squeals as we cross back into Oslo proper. "Fantastic."

It's been a long day for our adorable yellow test car. This morning we headed for Think's factory in Aurskog, some 40 miles into the bluegrass Scandinavian countryside, with about an 85% charge in the car's advanced sodium-cell battery. But Ladehaug -- who is directionally challenged too -- got us turned around. Now, after several course corrections that added perhaps 20 miles to the trip, we're both eyeing the battery gauge, while warning lights flash ominously. Still the Think City -- a 2,449-pound runabout with plastic body panels and an official range of 112 miles on full charge -- hums along.

About the size of a Mercedes-built Smart car, the two-seat Think (backseat optional) scoots away from stop lights, thanks to its torque-rich electric motor, and doesn't feel at all strained at highway speeds of 100 kilometers per hour (62 mph). First impressions: dead solid, quiet, comfortable, fully realized. A real car. It's got a great look, with big moony eyes as headlamps that make you want to take it home. The brakes are kind of touchy, the pedals are kind of small, the steering a bit leaden. But for the most part, it feels like any other sub-compact economy car, except there's not an exhaust note. Nor exhaust pipe. When we have to make a quick change in direction -- "Here, this turn!" Ladehaug shouts -- the little car darts in the direction it's pointed.

Think's journey to the world market has been similarly full of detours. The company (previously called Pivco) began in 1991 and by 1998 had built more than 1,000 small and charismatic electric runabouts, sold mostly in Norway (where you still see a few on the road). Then, in 1999, the company was bought by the Yankee giant Ford Motor Co., which was scrambling at the time to comply with California's Zero Emission Vehicle mandate, essentially requiring automakers to build fleets of electric vehicles. Ford renamed the company Think Nordic and began a complete redesign of the car. When, in 2003, the American automakers succeeded in modifying California's mandate, Detroit's flirtation with electronic vehicles ended. General Motors Corp. famously killed the EV1 program, and Ford sold Think to a Swiss electronics firm.

"The lawyers stopped us," says Ole Fretheim, the factory's manager. Think went bankrupt in 2006.

The irony is that Ford had already poured $150 million into the Think City project, engineering among other things the car's rigid steel space frame, the crash structure. If and when it comes to the U.S. market -- the company opened an office in Menlo Park, Calif., earlier this year with plans to sell cars stateside in 2009 -- the Think City will be a rarity: A full-speed electric car meeting U.S. and European crash standards.

"The car was 95% complete when Ford stopped development in 2002," says Fretheim. In the long run, he says, the down time might have been a good thing. "When we started work again we had better options for batteries."

In 2006, a group of investors led by Jan-Olaf Willums, a Norwegian venture capitalist specializing in energy technology, purchased Think for $15 million. Now Think's chief executive, Willums has spent much of the last two years raising more money -- about $93 million, much of it from Silicon Valley -- to help get Think off the ground.

"These guys are Vikings. They're fearless," says Wilber James, a general partner of RockPort Capital Partners, which invested in Think North America along with Ray Lane of Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers. "And they're absolute leaders in clean technology."

At the factory, we're met by the plant director, Arne Degermosse, a 41-year car-building veteran from Saab, brought in to ramp up production. Also this year, Porsche Consulting came in to advise on plant efficiency. With just under 18,000 square feet under the roof, space is at a premium; with two shifts, says Degermosse, the facility can produce just 44 cars a day, or about 10,000 cars a year. Not a number that will have GM shaking in its boots.

And yet, because of the unique modular assembly process -- the car is put together from a mere 580 parts -- it would be possible to set up other assembly plants closer to the markets it serves, namely Southern California. "It's called distributed manufacture," says James. "If we were going to build them anywhere in the U.S., Southern California would have priority because that's where we'd sell them. It's a precursor of what the OEMs [the big automakers] should be doing."

In any electric car program, the crucial component is the battery. Think has settled on three suppliers: MES-DEA, which produces a molten sodium battery, and A123Systems and EnerDel, which produce varieties of lithium-ion batteries. The MES-DEA battery yields 28 kilowatt-hours, while the EnerDel and the A123Systems batteries produce 26 and 19 kWh, respectively. Any of the three are expensive. At current market prices, Think's City could cost up to $35,000, more than half of that tied up in the battery.

For that reason, Willums proposes to sell the cars for $20,000-$25,000 and lease the batteries to owners, for a $150 to $200 monthly "mobility fee." All battery maintenance and replacement costs would be covered, and there could be ways to compensate owners for the costs of the electricity to charge the cars.

"The real interesting part is what is going to happen next," says James. "The market has evolved faster than we ever thought."

Think currently doesn't know how it will sell the car: Will there be online showrooms or real showrooms? Or will customers go to their local Think assembly plants and watch as their cars are built? What tax breaks will be available, and from whom? Will consumers balk at a rental fee on top of a purchase price?

All these questions remain unanswered. But as for the question so often asked: Is a safe, practical electric car possible? The answer seems to be yes.

http://www.latimes.com/features/la-hy-neil25-2008jun25,0,4298752.story

Sports bra saves US hiker in German Alps

2008-06-23T18:19:00.001-04:00

An American hiker stranded in the Bavarian Alps for nearly three days was rescued after using her sports bra as a signal, police in southern Germany said Monday.

Berchtesgaden police officer Lorenz Rasp said that he helped lift 24-year-old Jessica Bruinsma of Colorado state to safety by helicopter on Thursday after she attracted the attention of lumberjacks by attaching her sports bra to a cable used to move timber down the mountain.

"She's a very smart girl, and she acted very resourcefully," said Rasp. "She kept her shirt and jacket for warmth, but thought the sports bra could work as a signal."

An Alpine rescue team, including five helicopters and 80 emergency workers, had been searching for Bruinsma since she went missing June 16 after losing her way in bad weather while hiking with a friend near the Austrian border.

She fell 16.4 feet (five meters) to a rocky overhang, where she spent the next 70 hours on the narrow ledge, sustained by water that she found by breaking into a supply box on the ledge.

She badly bruised a leg and dislocated a shoulder in the fall, and the cliff was too isolated for her to climb free, Rasp said.

Rasp said the cable was only within reach because the timber transport system was out of service. When a repairman restored the line on Thursday, the cable car started moving up the mountain and Bruinsma's bra reached the worker at the base. He knew of the missing hiker and immediately called police.

Rasp said his team followed the cable line up the cliffside in a helicopter and found Bruinsma standing on the ledge, waving with her good arm. After circling once, they lowered a winch to Bruinsma and lifted her aboard.

"She did so well because she is in very good shape," Rasp said. "She has been training for a marathon — her goal is to finish in 3 hours and 10 minutes."

Bruinsma told Rasp that she has scrapped plans to stay in Berchtesgaden to learn German and plans to return home to Colorado Springs with her parents. He said she still plans to run the marathon, if she recovers in time to keep training.

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5iSIFCCBZD9zZJaX_STwz-XaDAOZgD91FVRT00

Dody Goodman, stage and TV comedian, dies at 93

2008-06-23T18:09:00.001-04:00

Dody Goodman, the delightfully daffy comedian known for her television appearances on Jack Paar's late-night talk show and as the mother on the soap-opera parody "Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman," has died at 93.

Goodman died Sunday at Englewood (N.J.) Hospital and Medical Center, said Joan Adams, a close family friend. The actress had been ill for some time and had lived in the Actors Fund Home in Englewood since October, Adams said.

Goodman, with her pixyish appearance and Southern-tinged, quavery voice, had an eclectic show-business career. She moved easily from stage to television to movies, where she appeared in such popular films as "Grease" and "Grease 2," playing Blanche, the principal's assistant, and in "Splash."

It was on "The Tonight Show" when Paar was the late night TV program's second host in the late 1950s that Goodman first received national attention. Her quirky, off-kilter remarks inevitably got laughs and endeared audiences.

"I was just thrown into the talking," Goodman said in a 1994 interview with The Associated Press. "I had no idea how to do that. In fact, they just called me up and asked me if I wanted to be on 'The Jack Paar Show.' I didn't know who Jack Paar was. They said, 'We just want you to sit and talk."'

After a falling out with Paar, other chat shows took up the slack, including "The Merv Griffin Show" and "Girl Talk." And there were roles on TV series, too, most notably her appearances as Martha Shumway (Louise Lasser's mother) on "Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman," starting in 1976, and guest shots on such shows as "Diff'rent Strokes," "St. Elsewhere" and "Murder, She Wrote."

In later years, Goodman was a regular in "Nunsense" and its various sequels, appearing off-Broadway and on tour in Dan Goggin's comic musical celebration of the Little Sisters of Hoboken. She started out playing Sister Mary Amnesia, later graduating to the role of Mother Superior.

"Dody had the most impeccable comic timing," Goggin said. "When we had her in the show, she was the only person on Earth who could walk on stage, say, 'Are you ready to start?' and bring the house down. Within seconds, the audience was eating out of her hand."

The actress was born Dolores Goodman on Oct. 28, 1914, in Columbus, Ohio, where her father ran a small cigar factory. She arrived in New York in the late 1930s to study dance at the School of American Ballet and the Metropolitan Opera Ballet School, and later graduated to Broadway musicals.

The actress performed regularly on stage in the 1940s and early '50s as a chorus member in such musicals as "Something for the Boys," "One Touch of Venus," "Laffing Room Only," "Miss Liberty," "Call Me Madam," "My Darlin' Aida" and "Wonderful Town," in which she originated the role of Violet, the streetwalker.

"I had to make so many transitions into other things," Goodman said in the AP interview. "When I first came out of dancing, I did revues."

It was the early to mid-'50s, when small, topical nightclub revues flourished. Goodman, a natural comedian, thrived in them. She performed in shows by Ben Bagley and Julius Monk, and in Jerry Herman's first effort, a revue called "Parade."

In more recent times, she appeared on David Letterman's late-night talk show.

"He understands my sense of humor. I will do a dumb thing for fun. That's how I got the reputation for being dopey and dumb. I don't like dumb jokes but I will do dumb things for a laugh," she said in the AP interview.

Goodman, who never married, is survived by seven nieces and nephews, 11 great nieces and nephews and 15 great-great nieces and nephews, Adams said.

A memorial service is planned.

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5hBGyQSleVmEd38jYVkff64uR82IwD91FU6680

Boudia locks up first Olympic trip with a collection of 10s

2008-06-22T18:29:00.001-04:00

Boudia locks up first Olympic trip with a collection of 10s

David Boudia is heading to Beijing with the look of a potential star, beating close friend Thomas Finchum in a battle of 10s on the 10-meter platform at the U.S. Olympic diving trials Sunday.

The once-dominant American team is eager to make up for its medal shutout at Athens four years ago, and the 19-year-old Boudia could be just the one to take down the powerful Chinese.

"We've seen them get beat before," Boudia said. "We know they can be beaten, which is good to know."

He finished third in the Beijing pool during a World Cup meet in February. The U.S. men have not won an Olympic gold off the big tower since Greg Louganis won his second straight at the 1988 Seoul Games.

The teenager from suburban Indianapolis received perfect marks from six of the seven judges for his fourth attempt, a reverse 3 1/2 somersault tuck. He got five more 10s in the next-to-last round with an even tougher dive, the back 3 1/2 somersault from the pike position. Both times, he barely rippled the surface as his body sliced through the water.

Boudia finished with a total of 1642.20 points, while Finchum had to settle for runner-up with 1583.50 despite receiving 10s on three of his six dives.

"If I dive like I did this afternoon and keep training up to Beijing," Boudia said, "I know it's definitely possible to dethrone the Chinese and win gold."

While only the winner is guaranteed an Olympic spot, the 18-year-old Finchum will almost certainly be joining the rival he calls "a brother" in Beijing. The rest of the team will be announced July 7 after a training camp in Knoxville, Tenn.

Finchum should get the other platform spot, and he and Boudia also are expected to be picked as the 10-meter synchro team.

"I'm proud of Thomas," Boudia said. "I know he's going to be right there beside me in Beijing."

Finchum actually had the highest score at the trials, which was comprised of three rounds with six dives each. But Boudia came into the meet with a 65-point bonus for his third-place showing at the World Cup.

"If I couldn't be the one on the team, I wanted it to be David," Finchum said. "I know I can go out there and do all my dives for perfect 10s. You have to expect perfection."

Finchum closed within 10.3 points of Boudia with his opening dive, earning three perfect 10s for an inward 3 1/2 somersault tuck.

But Boudia clinched it in the fourth round, when both went with the same dive, 307-C.

Finchum over-rotated ever so slightly on his entry, causing the dreaded splash and leaving him with scores ranging from 6.5 to 7.5 for a total of 74.80. Boudia heard the marks in the waiting area, then stepped out to perform a nearly flawless dive. Six 10s flashed across the scoreboard — a single 9.5 the only thing between him and perfection.

"I wanted to show the crowd what I can do," said Boudia, who totaled 102 points for that dive and 108 on the next one. "That's exactly what I did."

The final event of the trials was the women's 10-meter platform. Laura Wilkinson, the gold medalist in Sydney, was attempting to lock up her third trip to the Olympics and hold off 15-year-old phenom Haley Ishimatsu.

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5hecAlS2wg0Nxgp2Ank3YRC8EjrqwD91FBVFO0

Boudia locks up first Olympic trip with a collection of 10s

2008-06-22T18:17:00.000-04:00