Production Artist and Web Developer ? The Maximus Group

This is a syndicated post from CatholicJobs.com. [Read the original article...]

PRODUCTION ARTIST AND WEB DEVELOPER
Marketing/Advertising, FT Employee
The Maximus Group (Woodstock, GA)

We?re seeking a team-oriented, innovative graphic and web designer to raise our brand presence to the next level. This is an amazing opportunity to contribute to the brand, image, and market dominance of a fast-growing public relations and marketing agency.

Our primary goal is to find a skilled web designer who can consistently develop high-impact new branding parameters as well as design within predetermined formats and guidelines. Candidates must also bring a strong work ethic and efficiency to production art work and possess proficiency in industry standard graphic design software.

The candidate must also be willing to train where software deficiencies are identified. The individual will be required to possess enough technical skills to be comfortable overseeing and maintaining multiple corporate and client websites built on a variety of platforms.

Responsibilities:

? Demonstrate a strong ability to execute designs, prepare files for output, and see projects through to completion.
? Knowledge of best-practices for web as well as across a variety of print collateral
? Design and maintain corporate websites and other creative projects that effectively support the positioning of Agency and clients in the marketplace.
? Create print and web advertisements that demand users take action. Familiar with A/B and some multivariate testing, working with your marketing counterparts to constantly refine and optimize landing pages to move the needle in the right direction
? Formal design skills and knowledge of design-related software, particularly Adobe Creative Suite products
? Demonstrated knowledge of web technologies, particularly HTML, CSS and Content Management systems
? Solid understanding of critical UX concerns and how to effectively incorporate them into page designs
? Must be able to handle multiple projects simultaneously
? Act as ?webmaster? for Agency and clients; contribute to building a content-rich destination portal for prospects and customers alike to have optimum user-experiences.
? Create landing pages, demos and other online marketing assets
? Prior experience designing and evolving WordPress sites

Experience Required:

? An expert visual/graphic designer with hands-on experience building web sites-preferably familiar with B2B high-tech as well as experience translating technical concepts into visually appealing, user-friendly pages
? The Ideal candidate should have their own style but be willing to work within (and help define and evolve) an existing corporate identity ? striving for designs that are both simple and engaging
? The ideal candidate should be creative enough to bring big ideas to the table, but possess the ability to see projects through to completion
? Comfortable with a fast-moving, high-pressure startup environment
? Minimum 3 years related experience
? Bachelor?s degree (34)

Source: http://www.dfwcatholic.org/production-artist-and-web-developer-the-maximus-group-woodstock-ga-82308/.html

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Ultrabulk Ditches Chinese Yard for Japan-Built Eco-Ship

Danish dry bulk operator Ultrabulk said Wednesday that continuous delays have forced the company to cancel its order for two large Panamax bulkers from China?s Zhoushan Jinhaiwan Shipyard and instead order a new ECO-designed bulker from Japan.

In a statement, the company said that the charter contracts for the two Kamsarmax?s, i.e. large Panamax?s, have been cancelled after the yard failed to finish construction of the vessels within the agreed time frame. The contracts were originally entered into in 2010 for long term charter of both vessels for up to 12 years.

Ultrabulk also announced that it has entered into an agreement to secure a new ECO-designed Supramax bulker to be built in Japan. Upon delivery, the 61,000 DWT vessel will be placed on long term time charter for a?period of up to 12 years to Ultrabulk.?Delivery is set for 2015 and the deal includes the option to buy the vessel during the charter period.

The contract is the first ECO-designed Supramax newbuilding charter contract under the Ultrabulk umbrella, after the company concluded two contracts within the ECO-designed Handysize segment earlier this year.

?The market is still expected to create challenging conditions for the dry-bulk market within the foreseeable future, but with a solid cargo book already in place, it?s a natural move for us to conclude our first new ECO-designed Supramax bulker. By adding this latest ECO-design to our long term fleet, we show our continued support not only to our long term partners in Japan, but also to our long term global cargo partner, sending a strong signal that Ultrabulk is firmly committed to continued growth in the years to come,? says Henrik Sleimann Petersen, Head of Shipholding.

The new ECO-designed Supramax bulk carrier will be equipped with electronic main engines and systems expected to increase fuel efficiency by approximately 10 % and also reduce the CO2 emissions.

Ultrabulk says that the new contract entered into is a natural step in our on-going fleet renewal program and will ensure that the company continues to operate a modern fleet of vessels with the latest ECO-designs.

Ultrabulk operates a fleet of commercially controlled vessels, varying between 90 and 125 vessels, numbers depending on fluctuating and seasonal contractual commitments. Ultrabulk also has?23 newbuildings, 14 of which are expected to be delivered by the end of 2014.

---

Related Articles:

1. Chinese Yard Wins $200 Million Accommodation Rig Contract from New JV, Axis Offshore
2. First of Four Chinese Built PX105 PSV?s Delivered to Bourbon Norway
3. Japan Releases Chinese Fishing Boat Captain

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Gcaptain/~3/mpYpT4b_BIw/

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Archduke Joseph Diamond up for auction in Geneva

GENEVA (AP) ? Geneva's jewelry auctions, held in five-star hotels along its elegant lakefront, can seem a continent if not a world away from the grim austerity gripping much of Europe. Two out-of-this-world diamonds are being auctioned off this week, joining a long list of other fabulous jewels, watches and other luxury goods sold in Geneva. Here's a look at the city's most eye-popping diamonds:

PERFECTLY TRANSPARENT

On Tuesday, Christie's auctions off the Archduke Joseph Diamond, which is expected to fetch more than $15 million. The 76.02 carat diamond, with perfect color and internally flawless clarity, came from the ancient Golconda mines in India. Its value just keeps on rising: In 1993, Christie's sold the same diamond here for $6.5 million. Rahul Kadakia, head of jewelry for Christie's Americas and Switzerland, called it "one of the world's most famous and desirable diamonds to appear at auction."

FANCY DEEP BLUE

Sotheby's on Wednesday will auction what it calls an exceptionally rare fancy deep blue briolette?diamond of 10.48 carats expected to get up to $4.5 million. Also on the block ? a conch pearl, enamel and diamond Cartier bracelet that formerly belonged to Queen Victoria Eugenia of Spain that's expected to sell for up to $1.4 million.

ROYAL CONNECTIONS

In May 2012, Sotheby's sold the 34.98 carat Beau Sancy diamond to an anonymous bidder for $9.7 million. Marie de Medici had worn it at her coronation as Queen Consort of Henry IV in France in 1610. Then the diamond passed among the royal families in France, England, the Netherlands and Prussia. It was sold by the Royal House of Prussia.

Sotheby's also sold for $3.87 million the Murat Tiara, a pearl-and-diamond tiara created for the marriage of a prince whose ancestors included the husband of Caroline Bonaparte, Napoleon's sister. Christie's auctioned off a 32.08-carat Burmese ruby and diamond ring that sold for $6.7 million, a world record price for a ruby sold at auction.

PEAR-SHAPED

In November 2011, the Sun-Drop Diamond of South Africa, a giant pear-shaped yellow gem weighing 110.3 carats, sold for more than $10.9 million at auction, beating previous records for a jewel of its type. Including commission, the unidentified telephone bidder paid almost $12.4 million for the gem. Other lots at the $70 million sale included a white cushion-shaped diamond weighing 38.88 carats that sold for almost $7 million, including commission.

HEART-SHAPED

In May 2011, Christie's fetched $10.9 million for a 56-carat heart-shaped diamond that was internally flawless and $7.1 million for a 130-carat Burmese sapphire. Sotheby's got $12.7 million for a rare emerald-and-diamond tiara that a fabulously wealthy German prince, Guido Henckel von Donnersmarck, commissioned for his second, Russian-born wife around 1900. An intensely pink 11-carat diamond from the mines of India sold for $10.8 million.

INTENSELY PINK

In November 2010, a rare pink diamond smashed the world record for a jewel at auction, selling for more than $46 million to well-known London jeweler Laurence Graff. Four bidders competed for the pink diamond, which was last sold 60 years earlier by New York jeweler Harry Winston. The seller chose to remain anonymous. The 24.78-carat "fancy intense pink" diamond immediately became known as "The Graff Pink."

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/archduke-joseph-diamond-auction-geneva-102729366--finance.html

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Investigation launched into New York utilities after Sandy

NEW YORK (Reuters) - New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, frustrated with lengthy power outages since Superstorm Sandy, on Tuesday launched an investigation by a new commission into the state's utilities, saying that failings exposed by the storm demand a major overhaul of the industry.

Public outcry over power companies' response to the storm may provide momentum to make long-overdue changes, Cuomo said at a briefing to mark the partial reopening of a tunnel connecting Brooklyn and Manhattan that was flooded in the storm.

Fueled by widespread power outages, storm victims' ire has been rising since it struck on October 29. While hundreds of thousands of people have had power restored, more than 130,000 customers remain without electricity and heat, and residents have complained of getting confusing or little information from the power companies.

Almost all of state-owned Long Island Power Authority's (LIPA) 1.1 million customers lost power in Sandy, and the utility, among the slowest to recover, has come under fierce criticism.

"We can't go through something like this again. We shouldn't go through something like this again, and learning from it is very, very important," Cuomo said.

"I believe something like this is going to happen again," he said. "I think we need to be better prepared."

Cuomo said he signed an executive order creating a commission to investigate the response, preparation and management of the power companies and to recommend ways to reform the industry's oversight and management. Changes would have to be approved by the state legislature, he said.

"You're talking about a whole bureaucracy that has to be changed," he said. "I don't believe you can fix it, I believe it has to be overhauled and you need a new system."

The commission will investigate the New York Power Authority, LIPA, the New York State Energy and Research Development Authority and the Public Service Commission that regulates a number of utilities, including the publicly traded Con Edison Inc., which supplies power to New York City and its northern suburbs.

Also on Tuesday, a class-action lawsuit was filed against LIPA on behalf of Long Island residents, claiming it failed to replace an "outdated, obsolete" management system for dealing with large-scale power outages.

The lights flickered on at mid-afternoon on Tuesday at a public housing complex in the Brooklyn neighborhood of Coney Island, which has been without power since getting slammed by the storm.

"Let there be lights! Lord Jesus! Sixteen days without lights," said resident Blanca Martin, 41, as she let out whoops of joy and did a little dance.

Another resident, Jawhar Edwards, 28, called the past two weeks "unbearable."

"It feels like we have no help," he said.

LIPA said more than 84,000 homes and businesses will stay dark due to saltwater flooding that could have damaged wires, outlets and appliances, making it unsafe to restore electricity.

Utilities say those homes and businesses must be inspected, repaired and certified before service can resume.

Con Ed said it had about 16,300 such customers, and in New Jersey, Jersey Central Power and Light utility has said about 30,000 customers could not yet have power restored.

The devastation in New York City was set for an inspection on Thursday by President Barack Obama.

The president toured storm-ravaged areas of New Jersey ahead of last week's election with Republican Governor Chris Christie, whose strong praise for Obama's storm response was seen as helping boost his showing at the polls.

In Manhattan, workers were readying an 80-foot-tall tree brought in from New Jersey that will be set up on Wednesday in Rockefeller Center. The tree's 30,000 colorful Christmas lights may seem to shine brighter this year to the thousands in the region who will visit this popular attraction, and who were without power after the storm.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg said the city's gas-rationing system, under which cars with odd- and even-numbered license plates can fill up only on alternate days, would continue for at least another five days, at which time officials would assess the situation.

He said the program, put into place on Friday morning, has succeeded in shortening lines at gasoline stations. Since Sandy, the region has faced severe fuel shortages due to power outages and inventory stranded at refineries and terminals.

New Jersey's similar gas-rationing system, launched on November 3, came to an end on Tuesday morning.

Commuters' headaches were easing slightly, as PATH trains that connect New York and New Jersey resumed some limited service on Tuesday, and some trains on the Long Island Rail Road began to roll. But two of New Jersey Transit's major train lines remained suspended.

(Additional reporting by Jessica Dye, Editing by Paul Thomasch and Jackie Frank)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/n-y-utility-under-fire-since-superstorm-sandy-195212037--finance.html

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When It Pays To Refinance Your Mortgage ... - Real Estate Marbles

Nov

13

November 13, 2012 | Leave a Comment

To refinance a mortgage means to pay off your existing loan and replace it with a new one.

There are many reasons why homeowners opt to refinance, from obtaining a lower interest rate, to shortening the term of the loan, to switching mortgage loan types, to tapping into home equity.

Each has its considerations.

Lower Your Mortgage Rate
Among the best reasons to refinance is to get access to lower mortgage rates. There is no ?rule of thumb? that says how far rates should drop for a refinance to be sensible. Compare your closing costs to your monthly savings, and determine whether the math makes sense for your situation.

Shorten Your Loan Term
Refinancing your 30-year fixed rate mortgage to a 20-year fixed rate or a 15-year fixed rate is a sensible way to reduce your long-term mortgage costs, and to own your home sooner. As a bonus, with mortgage rates currently near all-time lows, an increase to your monthly payment from a shorter loan term may be negligible.

Convert ARM To Fixed Rate Mortgage
Homeowners with adjustable-rate mortgages may want the comfort of a fixed-rate payment. Mortgage rates for fixed-rate mortgages are often higher than for comparable ARMs so be prepared to pay more to your lender each month.

Access Equity For Projects, Debts, Or Other Reasons
Called a ?cash out? refinance, Santa Rosa homeowners can sometimes use home equity to retire debts, pay for renovations, or use for other purposes including education costs and retirement. Lenders place restrictions on loans of this type.

A refinanced home loan can help you reach specific financial goals or just put extra cash in your pocket each month ? just make sure that there?s a clear benefit to you. Paying large closing costs for small monthly savings or negligible long-term benefit should be avoided.

Many lenders offer low- or no-closing costs options for refinancing. Be sure to ask about it.

Source: http://realestatemarbles.com/emortgagesnews/2012/11/13/refinance-mortgage-four-reasons/

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'Guru' swindler of French aristocrats gets 8 years

PARIS (AP) ? He started with the woman who hired him at the secretarial school, befriending her and winning her confidence. She introduced him to her elderly mother, her children. Her grandchildren, nearing adulthood, were next. Soon, Thierry Tilly was almost a member of the family of aristocrats.

Then he dropped the bombshell: Someone wanted them dead.

Bit by bit, family members saw sinister motives in even ordinary encounters. They retreated to their chateau, where Tilly took away their clocks, their calendars, their sense of time. One by one, they relocated with him to Oxford, England, then returned to their Bordeaux home where, the family lawyer said, they were cut off from friends and relatives.

"There was no day and no night," said the lawyer, Daniel Picotin.

Protection didn't come cheap: They sold their ancestral home, apartments, jewels, wine collection, luxury watches ? more than 4.5 million euros in all ? handing over the proceeds to Tilly, a man they saw as their protector, even their "guru."

The family was in hiding for nearly a decade before two of the adult children realized Tilly wasn't what he appeared.

"We were a normal family that stumbled into an abnormal story," Christine de Vedrines, who first sounded the alarm when her employer declared she and her family were being brainwashed, said in a radio interview. "Thierry Tilly is not a guru; he's a predator."

Tilly, whose manipulation of the de Vedrines family has led to comparisons to the Russian mystic Rasputin's legendary influence over the tsar, was sentenced to eight years in prison on Tuesday, convicted of arbitrary detention, using violence against vulnerable people and abusing people weakened by "psychological subjection."

Tilly held the family in his sway from 2000, a year after he was hired by Ghislaine de Vedrines to work at her secretarial school, until 2009. During that time, he led 11 people ? ages 16 to 89 ? to believe there was a secret plot against their lives, according to court testimony.

Skeptics like Ghislaine's husband were shunned, according to Picotin.

The presiding judge, Marie-Elisabeth Bancal, described it as a "Machiavellian plot."

Picotin said the family's money was poured into a fake charity that Tilly, now 48, claimed was set up to pay the Vedrines' "protectors."

"He persuaded them they were surrounded by enemies," Picotin said.

With the trial over, Christine de Vedrines told the Sipa news agency the family would somehow rebuild.

"Eight years is a small price to pay for what he did to our family and children," said Christine de Vedrines, who Picotin said was locked up by the family for nearly two weeks and deprived of sleep and food before managing to get away.

Picotin said he hopes to help the family reacquire their ancestral home. As for the rest, he said, "it's all gone."

A Tilly accomplice, Jacques Gonzalez, was sentenced Tuesday to four years in prison.

Tilly's lawyer had argued that the family from the 13th-century village of Monflanquin in southwestern France had acted willingly.

"These 11 family members aren't ill, have their feet on the ground, a level of self-awareness. Eleven people manipulated by mysterious forces by a single man? The legal basis for the case is weak," lawyer Alexandre Novion told The Associated Press.

Novion denounced testimony about the family's mental state, saying a man's freedom should not depend on "an old Freud tome found in a psychoanalyst's attic." He also said Gonzalez ? and not Tilly ? was the ringleader and absconded with all the money.

According to court statements, in the years after Ghislaine de Vedrines met Tilly in 1999 and introduced him to the rest of the family, he played relatives against each other, creating group paranoia and preying on the family's weaknesses.

"He is a liar, a fantasist," Ghislaine de Vedrines said at the outset of the trial, according to Europe 1. "He kidnapped us, saying anything and everything, and set us against each other."

Tilly was arrested in Switzerland in 2009.

Although Tilly was deemed mentally stable during his trial, French media have reported that he has a history of lies and exaggerations. Tilly claimed before the Bordeaux court that he was a member of the Habsburg dynasty and that he once almost played soccer for Marseille.

Tilly remained defiant Tuesday despite the conviction, saying he is a British citizen and will take his case to the European Court of Justice.

"(The trial) has only just begun," Tilly declared.

His lawyer, meanwhile, said he was not aware that his client was a British citizen.

Picotin said he had hoped Tilly would get a longer sentence. "I'm sure that if he gets out he'll begin again," the lawyer said.

The case raised echoes of another controversial trial involving France's richest woman, 90-year-old L'Oreal heiress Liliane Bettencourt, who was swindled by a French tax lawyer into handing over to him a private Seychelles island.

_____

Thomas Adamson can be followed at http://Twitter.com/ThomasAdamsonAP

Lori Hinnant can be followed at http://twitter.com/lhinnant

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/guru-swindler-french-aristocrats-gets-8-years-203911191.html

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Stock futures point to gains on Chinese data

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stock index futures pointed to a higher open on Monday after last week's steep losses on upbeat economic data from China over the weekend, though concerns remained about the growth outlook in the United States and Europe.

Stocks also should receive a lift from merger news. Precision Castparts Corp offered to buy Titanium Metals Corp for $2.9 billion while Leucadia National Corp agreed to buy investment bank Jefferies Group for $3.6 billion.

Shares of Titanium surged 43 percent to $16.56 before the bell while Jefferies climbed 19 percent to $16.94.

Trading volume is expected to be light, with the U.S. bond market and government offices closed for the Veterans Day holiday.

The S&P 500 fell 2.4 percent last week, the worst week for the index since June, closing below its 200-day moving average for the first time in five months. That level is a measure of the market's long-term trend, and staying below it could portend further losses ahead.

Those losses were partly propelled by concerns over the fiscal cliff, a combination of government spending cuts and tax increases set to go into effect early next year unless Congress acts to change the law before then. Though most consider it unlikely that no deal will be reached, analysts fear going over the cliff could push the economy back into recession.

"If the cliff were to occur, it would be very devastating for the economy, which is why it is hard to think that last week was much of an over reaction," said Oliver Purshe, president at Gary Goldberg Financial Services in Suffern, New York, adding that the odds of going over were "very low."

Data showed over the weekend that China's export growth climbed to a five-month high above 11 percent, beating expectations and adding to recent data suggesting the country's seven straight quarters of slowing economic growth have ended.

"Any bit of positive news from China will swing things upward here," Pursche said. "There's a little bit of pent-up desire to bounce back today."

Also overseas, the Greek parliament on Sunday approved an austerity budget for next year, a necessary step to unblock a new tranche of credit from the European Union and International Monetary Fund before the government runs out of cash. Still, investors remain concerned about whether the EU and IMF will agree to send the next tranche.

S&P 500 futures rose 4.1 points and were above fair value, a formula that evaluates pricing by taking into account interest rates, dividends and time to expiration on the contract. Dow Jones industrial average futures added 36 points and Nasdaq 100 futures rose 13 points.

Apple Inc rose 0.8 percent to $551.20 in premarket trading after the company announced a global patent settlement with HTC Corp , as well as a 10-year licensing agreement. Apple shares have been under pressure recently.

Homebuilder D.R. Horton Inc reported fourth-quarter earnings that beat expectations, helped by a jump in orders. Shares gained 3.2 percent to $21.25 in premarket trading.

According to Thomson Reuters data through Friday, of the 449 companies in the S&P 500 that have reported earnings, 63.3 percent have topped expectations, but only 38.2 percent of companies have topped revenue expectations, well below the 62 percent average since 2002.

U.S. stocks rose on Friday, helped by strong consumer sentiment data, but hardly made a dent in the week's losses as investors turned their attention from the presidential election to the coming negotiations over the fiscal cliff.

(Editing by Kenneth Barry)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/stock-futures-rise-china-fiscal-cliff-concern-120353571--finance.html

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The safety role of the Construction Compliance Code Unit ...

Recently SafetyAtWorkBlog was able to spend some time with the Director of the Victorian Government?s Construction Compliance Code Unit (CCCU), Nigel Hadgkiss. The CCCU and Hadgkiss have been in the Victorian media recently in terms of the CCCU investigation of industrial relations matters in several Grocon construction projects and some discussions with LendLease but an often overlooked, yet significant, element of the Construction Compliance Code is the occupational health and safety obligations. The CCCU has been working on early drafts of a Health and Safety Management Plan (HSMP) with which all those operating under the Code will need to comply.

Many of the questions SafetyAtWorkBlog posed stemmed from a presentation Hadgkiss made at a breakfast seminar on which SafetyAtWorkBlog previously wrote. That article is recommended for background and context.

Nigel Hadgkiss advised that since 1 July 2012 71 companies and associated companies have ?signed up? to the Compliance Code with a full awareness that OHS is a key element of compliance.

OHS obligations of unsuccessful tenderers

The Code requires companies tendering for Victorian Government construction work to follow specific OHS obligations, whether they are the successful tenderers or not. In some ways this seem unfair.

Hadgkiss believes that the tenderers to government contracts are well aware of the safety obligations from the outset. From that point they are contractually bound whether they are successful or not.

He sees the Code as part of a reform process developed by the Victorian Government aimed at achieving better standards of safety.

CCCU and ABCC

Some have described the CCCU as a cut-down version of the controversial Australian Building & Construction Commission (ABCC), even though the ABCC had no workplace safety role.

As a former executive of the ABCC Nigel Hadgkiss explained the evolution of government oversight of the construction industry. Around the time the ABCC was established, the Federal Safety Commission also commenced so safety was never part of the ABCC?s brief.

The ABCC has been replaced by a less hardline approach and Hadgkiss acknowledges that there has been considerable interest in the CCCU, the Code and guidelines from interstate companies, safety regulators and industry associations.

CCCU and red tape

The Australian business community is super-sensitive on any government initiative that may increase the costs of compliance. The OHS obligations in the Code could be construed as another level of paperwork but the last thing that Hadgkiss wants is to create an additional layer of regulation. However, he believes that by applying a rational approach any additional burden will be balanced by increased safety standards.

Cut-and-paste safety

The construction industry often repackages safety management plans and safe work method statements from one project to the next, sometimes without even changing the project header. Hadgkiss insists that each project and contract will be assessed on a case-by-case basis and plans for, for instance, a desalination plant will not be appropriate for building a hospital. The proposed Health and Safety Management Plan obligation is not a tick and flick exercise and specific project questions will need addressing.

Hadgkiss also says that businesses have said that the HSMP is likely to be a demanding process and he is unapologetic. The plan will be part of the reassurance the client is seeking about the company?s high priority for safety.

Trust and sanctions

One of the aims of the Code is to establish a ?foundation of trust? between the government, as client, and the construction companies, as providers. Hadgkiss believes that the Code encourages this trust by providing the CCCU with the authority to apply sanctions. Sanctions can be a very effective way of gaining the attention of a company?s Board, particularly those of publicly-listed companies where reputational risk is an important consideration.

A major element in this process is that a company could be excluded from future tenders for government work. Any sanctions of this type will be after an escalation process that starts at warnings about breaches of the HSMP and any recurrences. This process can be a very effective tool as companies are in business to make money and any threat to that purpose gains the attention of corporate executives.

Benchmarking and safety promotion

Hadgkiss also sees an opportunity for the benchmarking of safety performances throughout the Victorian construction industry. He would be very surprised if, particularly ?Tier 1?, construction companies did not already have effective systems to identify and manage key performance indicators (KPIs) but the CCCU could provide benchmarking of these KPIs.

Hadgkiss sees a potential proactive role for the CCCU through the spread of positive injury prevention initiatives across the construction industry. The CCCU will be well-positioned to receive safety information, verify this information through the implementation of the HSMP and inform others about these improvement opportunities.

CCCU and WorkSafe

With the appearance of any new OHS-related body and process, there is a potential for confusion about how these new roles fit with established safety processes of WorkSafe and other safety regulators. Hadgkiss acknowledges that, initially, the safety roles of both WorkSafe and the CCCU may be a bit blurred to those working on a building site but WorkSafe is a reactive body, if there is an accident, WorkSafe responds and investigates. The CCCU establishes safety obligations at the very beginning of the contractual process and the safety standards will be assured through a system of audits and inspections based on the contractor?s commitments made in their HSMP. The CCCU?s safety role is to ensure the contractor is doing what they said they will do.

A lot of work has been given to the draft HSMP and Hadgkiss is in the process of sourcing additional and relevant expert resources to progress the plan to its release. A person to lead the development and application of this plan will need to have belief in, and ownership of, the safety process and understand the context of construction safety within government. He stressed that the HSMP is also not set in stone and will be moderated and revised, as needed.

As with the industrial relations role of the CCCU, Hadgkiss sees the need for a lot of community and industrial education on the HSMP and the CCCU must establish a higher profile in this area. Part of this profile will rely on choosing the right person to champion the HSMP process.

The operation of the CCCU through 2013 will be a fascinating process to watch in order to see if it achieves its aims in the construction sector through the tendering processes but also, perhaps more importantly, to see if the safety obligations spread downstream to the huge number of subcontractors on which any construction industry relies. It will also be fascinating to see how the extension of these safety obligations to unsuccessful tenderers is received.

Kevin Jones

-37.716384 145.006665

Source: http://safetyatworkblog.com/2012/11/12/the-safety-role-of-the-construction-compliance-code-unit/

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The Latest On The Fiscal Cliff - Business Insider

Wikimedia Commons

This week, Congressional leaders are due to meet with President Obama in The White House for talks about resolving the so-called Fiscal Cliff, the series of tax hikes and spending cuts that will go into force on January 1 if there's no change to current law.

However, even before this happens we're already learning a lot.

For example, John Boehner reportedly held a conference call with his house caucus telling them that although the GOP would resist any efforts by Obama to raise taxes, this was not the time for a brutal showdown, a la the debt ceiling fiasco from last year. Not only that, Boehner apparently didn't get much resistance. This seems like a good sign for a deal getting done.

And in fact "conciliatory" is the meme of the moment, as other folks in Congress expressed similar optimism about a deal getting done.

Senators Bob Corker (R) and Kent Conrad (D) both suggested that some kind of "framework" for a deal was possible.

Interestingly, one of the biggest early roadblocks may not come from the raucous GOP house, but rather Mitch McConnell, the leader of the Senate.

JPMorgan notes:

Republican Senator Minority Leader McConnell hasn't been as conciliatory as Boehner re the fiscal cliff; McConnell conducted a long interview w/the WSJ this weekend and while he said a fiscal deal is certainly possible Republicans weren't going to countenance higher tax rates.? McConnell said he doesn't trust the White House on fiscal matters after the break-down of 2011's "grand bargain" deal.? McConnell wants all the Bush rates extended for another year as a "bridge" w/negotiations taking place in 2013 on comprehensive reform.? WSJ??? http://goo.gl/aiTeB

One thing to know about McConnell is that he faces re-election in 2014, and therefore a possible Republican party primary challenge.

Finally over the weekend, we had writer Bill Kristol asking why the GOP was falling on its sword for millionaires, a quote that got quite a bit of play, as a conservative wondering why taxes can't go up a little bit on the rich is interesting.

Kit Juckes of SocGen has a good line on how he sees things: "You can't be sure there won't be an outbreak of narrow-minded thinking but I remain ludicrously optimistic that the US can avoid the Cliff Crisis, and surprise on the upside on terms of growth in the New Year."

For more on Bill Kristol's comments, see here >

Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/the-latest-on-the-fiscal-cliff-2012-11

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Coming home: Challenges don't end for military men and women ...

[unable to retrieve full-text content]As a veteran who served in the Army for seven years, Garcia said he recognized a problem when it comes to helping members of the military: Too many of the country's average citizens don't understand what servicemen and ...

Source: http://www.nashuatelegraph.com/news/983130-469/coming-home-challenges-dont-end-for-military.html

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Vatican digs in after gay marriage advances

Pope Benedict XVI waves upon his arrival for a meeting with the "Santa Cecilia" association, at the Vatican, Saturday, Nov. 10, 2012. Latin is being resurrected at the Vatican. Pope Benedict XVI issued a decree Saturday creating a new pontifical academy for Latin studies to try to boost interest in the official language of the Roman Catholic Church that is nevertheless out of widespread use elsewhere. Benedict acknowledged Latin's fall from grace, saying future priests nowadays often learn only a "superficial" appreciation of Latin in seminaries. The new academy, which is part of the Vatican's culture office, will promote Latin through conferences, publications and instruction in Catholic schools, universities and seminaries. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)

Pope Benedict XVI waves upon his arrival for a meeting with the "Santa Cecilia" association, at the Vatican, Saturday, Nov. 10, 2012. Latin is being resurrected at the Vatican. Pope Benedict XVI issued a decree Saturday creating a new pontifical academy for Latin studies to try to boost interest in the official language of the Roman Catholic Church that is nevertheless out of widespread use elsewhere. Benedict acknowledged Latin's fall from grace, saying future priests nowadays often learn only a "superficial" appreciation of Latin in seminaries. The new academy, which is part of the Vatican's culture office, will promote Latin through conferences, publications and instruction in Catholic schools, universities and seminaries. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)

VATICAN CITY (AP) ? The Vatican is digging in after gay marriage initiatives scored big wins this week in the U.S. and Europe, vowing to never stop insisting that marriage can only be between a man and a woman.

In a front-page article in Saturday's Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano, the Holy See sought to frame itself as the lone voice of courage in opposing initiatives to give same-sex couples legal recognition. In a separate Vatican Radio editorial, the pope's spokesman asked sarcastically why gay marriage proponents don't now push for legal recognition for polygamous couples as well.

Catholic teaching holds that homosexuals should be respected and treated with dignity but that homosexual acts are "intrinsically disordered." The Vatican also opposes same-sex marriage, insisting on the sanctity of marriage between a man and woman as the foundation for society.

The Vatican's anti-gay marriage media blitz came after three U.S. states approved same-sex marriage by popular vote in the election that returned Barack Obama to the U.S. presidency, Spain upheld its gay marriage law, and France pushed ahead with legislation that could see gay marriage legalized early next year.

"One might say the church, at least on this front, has been defeated," L'Osservatore Romano wrote. "But that's not the case."

The article insisted that Catholics were putting up a valiant fight to uphold church teaching in the face of "politically correct ideologies invading every culture of the world" that are backed by institutions like the United Nations, which last year passed a non-binding resolution condemning anti-gay discrimination.

"The church is called to present itself as the lone critic of modernity, the only check ... to the breakup of the anthropological structures on which human society was founded," it said.

Vatican spokesman the Rev. Federico Lombardi, for his part, said gays can have their rights protected by means other than through legal marital recognition. He stressed that children should have a right to say they have a father and a mother.

"If not, then why not contemplate freely chosen polygamy, and naturally so as to not discriminate, polyandry?" he asked sarcastically. Polyandry is when a woman has two or more husbands.

"As a result, don't expect the church to stop insisting that society recognizes a specific place for marriage between a man and woman," he said.

The U.S. election had been closely watched at the Vatican because of the strong divisions that erupted during the campaign between the Obama administration and U.S. bishops over gay marriage, which Obama endorsed in May. The administration and bishops clashed more vehemently over Obama's health care mandate requiring nearly all U.S. health insurance plans to cover contraception, which the church opposes.

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops said the contraception mandate ? which exempts houses of worship but applies to faith-affiliated employers ? is a violation of religious freedom.

The Vatican's reaction to Obama's re-election was tinged with such lingering criticism, with Pope Benedict XVI congratulating Obama and praying that the ideals of freedom and justice continue to be upheld.

Lombardi went further urging the administration to respect essential values in "promoting a culture of life and religious freedom" ? Vatican buzzwords referring to abortion, contraception and the insurance mandate.

It was a far cry from the Vatican's enthusiastic response to Obama's election in 2008. Then, the pope termed Obama's election an "historic occasion" in a personal note of congratulations sent right after he won, a break with traditional Vatican protocol that usually sees official telegrams of congratulations sent on inauguration day.

___

Follow Nicole Winfield at www.twitter.com/nwinfield

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2012-11-10-Vatican-Gay%20Marriage/id-2263851ef9dc40b79d84814c792fea16

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Cultivator of Brain Parts

Yoshiki Sasai Image: Nick Higgins

Yoshiki Sasai is not just an ordinary tissue engineer who tries to coax stem cells to grow into fully formed bodily structures. It is true that Sasai has made his mark by taking on big projects like using stem cells to whip up a retina, cortical tissue and the cerebellum, involved with balance and movement. But his research has gone deeper by delving into the way stem cells organize themselves into complex structures under the influence of genes and the prenatal environment. Read a profile of Sasai here to accompany ?Grow Your Own Eye,? Sasai?s own account of growing a retina in the November Scientific American.

From Nature magazine

In December 2010, Robin Ali became suddenly excited by the usually mundane task of reviewing a scientific paper. ?I was running around my room, waving the manuscript,? he recalls. The paper described how a clump of embryonic stem cells had grown into a rounded goblet of retinal tissue. The structure, called an optic cup, forms the back of the eye in a growing embryo. But this one was in a dish, and videos accompanying the paper showed the structure slowly sprouting and blossoming. For Ali, an ophthalmologist at University College London who has devoted two decades to repairing vision, the implications were immediate. ?It was clear to me it was a landmark paper,? he says. ?He has transformed the field.?

'He' is Yoshiki Sasai, a stem-cell biologist at the RIKEN Center for Developmental Biology in Kobe, Japan. Sasai has impressed many researchers with his green-fingered talent for coaxing neural stem cells to grow into elaborate structures. As well as the optic cup¹, he has cultivated the delicate tissue layers of the cerebral cortex² and a rudimentary, hormone-making pituitary gland³. He is now well on the way to growing a cerebellum⁴ ? the brain structure that coordinates movement and balance. ?These papers make for the most addictive series of stem-cell papers in recent years,? says Luc Leyns, a stem-cell scientist at the Free University of Brussels.

Sasai's work is more than tissue engineering: it tackles questions that have puzzled developmental biologists for decades. How do the proliferating stem cells of an embryo organize themselves seamlessly into the complex structures of the body and brain? And is tissue formation driven by a genetic program intrinsic to cells, or shaped by external cues from neighbouring tissues? By combining intuition with patient trial and error, Sasai has found that it takes a delicate balance of both: he concocts controlled environments that feed cells physical and chemical signals, but also gives them free rein to 'do their thing' and organize themselves into issues. He sometimes refers to himself as a Japanese matchmaker who knows that, having been brought together, two strangers need to be left alone. ?They know what to do,? he says. ?They interact in a delicate manner, and if the external cues are too strong, it will override the internal ones.?

Sasai's work could find medical applications. Recapitulating embryonic development in three dimensions, it turns out, generates clinically useful cells such as photoreceptors more abundantly and efficiently than two-dimensional culture can, and houses them in an architecture that mirrors that of the human body. Sasai and his collaborators are now racing to implant lab-grown retinas into mice, monkeys and humans. The way Sasai sees it, maturing stem cells in two-dimensional culture may lead to 'next generation' therapy ? but his methods will lead to 'next, next generation' therapy.

Self-determined
A bit stiff in movement and reserved in manner, Sasai nevertheless puts on a theatrical show with a cocktail shaker at parties held by his institute after international symposia. ?My second job is bartender,? he says, without a trace of a smile. It is, however, the cocktails he mixes in 96-well culture plates that have earned him scientific acclaim.

Source: http://rss.sciam.com/click.phdo?i=4a713d6bf430437a74a687813b5d41f6

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China's factory output rises in sign of recovery

BEIJING (AP) ? China's factory output and consumer spending improved in October in a new sign of possible economic recovery as the Communist Party prepared to install a new generation of leaders.

Growth in factory output accelerated to 9.6 percent over a year earlier from the previous month's 9.2 percent, the government reported Friday. Retail sales rose 14.5 percent, up from September's 14.2 percent.

The data are welcome news for the ruling party, which is meeting in Beijing for a once-a-decade handover of power to younger leaders. Coming off the past year's steady declines in economic activity, a rebound might allow the new leaders to benefit from improving public sentiment.

Investment growth strengthened, rising 25.2 percent over a year earlier, up from the previous month's 25.1 percent.

Also in October, inflation eased further, giving Beijing more room to cut interest rates or launch new stimulus measures to speed a recovery with less danger of igniting politically dangerous price rises.

The improvement comes as communist leaders are holding a party congress in the capital that is expected to install Vice President Xi Jinping as party leader and China's next president.

The new leadership faces challenges including slowing growth that the World Bank and Chinese analysts say will require a drastic change in the country's economic strategy. They say Beijing must reduce the dominance of state companies in industries from finance to energy to banking and nurture free-market competition to keep incomes rising.

Economic growth fell to a three and a half year low of 7.4 percent in the quarter ending in September but investment, retail sales and other indicators improved from the previous quarter. The government said last month it saw "steady economic growth," suggesting there was no need for further major stimulus.

The slowdown was due largely to government efforts to crush inflation and prevent economic overheating after the huge stimulus in response to the 2008 global crisis fueled sharp price rises. Beijing reversed course late last year after global demand for Chinese goods plunged, slamming exporters and raising the danger of job losses and unrest.

The abrupt slowdown added to complications for communist leaders as they tried to enforce calm ahead of the leadership change.

Forecasters expect growth to rebound this quarter or early in 2013. They say any recovery is likely to be gradual and too weak to drive global growth without improvement in the United States and Europe.

Beijing launched a mini-stimulus early this year, cutting interest rates twice in June and July and stepping up investment by state companies and spending on building airports and other public works. But authorities avoided bigger measures after their huge spending in response to the 2008 global crisis fueled inflation and a wasteful building boom.

In October, consumer prices rose 1.7 percent, down from the previous month's 1.9 percent. That was driven by a 1.8 percent gain in food prices, which are unusually sensitive in a society where the poorest families spend up to half their incomes to eat, down from September's 2.5 percent.

___

Online:

National Bureau of Statistics (in Chinese): www.stats.gov.cn

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/f70471f764144b2fab526d39972d37b3/Article_2012-11-09-AS-China-Economy/id-351e631424a6487eb4d0d357d37cfc73

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C1213-55 Junior High Teacher, Ecole Plamondon School

This is a Full-Time Temporary position commencing December 17, 2012 and for the remainder of the 2012-2013 school year. The assignment includes teaching Math, Science and Social Studies to Junior High students.

Ecole Plamondon School is located in the Village of Plamondon with approximately 400 students in grades ECS to 12.

?Learning Together in a Nurturing and Respectful Environment?

Applicants must:

- Have a Bachelor of Education
- Have a sincere desire to work with Junior High students
- Have the ability and understanding to work effectively with culturally diverse students and parent groups
- Have familiarity with strategies to address different learning styles and deliver appropriate IPP's
- Are energetic, dynamic and child centered
- Have strong interpersonal skills.

Training and skills that would be an asset include:

- Knowledge in the area of formative assessment
-Specialization in and/or the ability to teach the required subjects
- The ability to infuse ICT curriculum outcomes.

Source: http://jobsearch.educationcanada.com/index.phtml?a=v&j=118255

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What are the symptoms and signs of teen bipolar disorder? | Straight ...

Is it possible for me to know the difference?

It can be difficult, but it?s not impossible.

It?s all about degrees- typical teens and bipolar teens act in similar ways, but not with the same intensity. And bipolar disorder behavior is ALWAYS out of sync with events.

For example, a typical teen who is angry may yell at you and run to their room and slam the door. A? teen with bipolar disorder may yell, try to hit you and then run out of the house and not come back for hours.

Another very important distinction- typical teens tend to calm down and go back to ?normal? once they have let you know how they feel. Teens with bipolar disorder can stay in certain upsetting moods for much, much?longer.

A typical teen gets excited about life. A teen with bipolar disorder?who is manic goes over the top with emotions the point of impulsive and dangerous behaviors.

Remember: It?s not only the behavior. It?s the intensity of the behavior.

Why is it harder for teenagers to manage bipolar disorder?

Adults with bipolar disorder have the same dichotomy of course- but we have more ability to recognize and change the extremes. For teenagers it?s all so new!?Teens have?to deal with first time emotions such as falling in love or studying for an exam and they don?t know what to do when the bipolar disorder takes over. There is little reference as to what is ?normal.?? This makes it hard for?teens to see they are having trouble- so their blame?may go?towards the parents or internally with suicidal thoughts.

On the other side, parents are usually confused because teens are notorious for being moody. No wonder it?s hard to tell what?s what! All of the parents I work with have this problem. It?s universal for teens with bipolar disorder.

**

As a parent, you are amazing and you do your best.? My biggest tip is to look for behavior that is out of proportion to an event and then work on recognizing and stopping the behavior- this is the best place to start on your journey of helping your teenager manage their? bipolar disorder.

Julie

PS: My book section describes my Health Cards Treatment System for Bipolar Disorder. This is an exceptionally good tool for teens and parents. Regarding my books, I think that Bipolar Happens! is the best for teens while Take Charge of Bipolar Disorder really helps parents understand the illness. Bipolar Happens! is available on the Kindle for .99 and can be read on any device- including phones.? I know that?s where teens read these days!

Source: http://bipolarhappens.com/bhblog/how-do-i-know-the-difference-between-teenage-behavior-and-teenage-bipolar-disorder-behavior/

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11,000 Syrians flee in single day in refugee surge

This image taken from video obtained from Shaam News Network, which has been authenticated based on its contents and other AP reporting, shows a woman carrying a child running away from the scene of shelling in Qouriyeh, Syria, Friday, Nov. 9, 2012. (AP Photo/Shaam News Network via AP video)

This image taken from video obtained from Shaam News Network, which has been authenticated based on its contents and other AP reporting, shows a woman carrying a child running away from the scene of shelling in Qouriyeh, Syria, Friday, Nov. 9, 2012. (AP Photo/Shaam News Network via AP video)

This image taken from video obtained from Shaam News Network, which has been authenticated based on its contents and other AP reporting, shows a wounded youth being attended to shortly after shelling in Qouriyeh, Syria, Friday, Nov. 9, 2012. (AP Photo/Shaam News Network via AP video)

This image taken from video obtained from Shaam News Network, which has been authenticated based on its contents and other AP reporting, shows a wounded youth being attended to shortly after shelling in Qouriyeh, Syria, Friday, Nov. 9, 2012. (AP Photo/Shaam News Network via AP video)

This image taken from video obtained from Shaam News Network, which has been authenticated based on its contents and other AP reporting, shows a wounded man being attended to shortly after shelling in Qouriyeh, Syria, Friday, Nov. 9, 2012. (AP Photo/Shaam News Network via AP video)

This image taken from video obtained from Shaam News Network, which has been authenticated based on its contents and other AP reporting, shows a wounded youth being attended to shortly after shelling in Qouriyeh, Syria, Friday, Nov. 9, 2012. (AP Photo/Shaam News Network via AP video)

BEIRUT (AP) ? At least 11,000 Syrians poured into neighboring countries in a single day, U.N. officials said Friday, in a dramatic surge in the exodus of refugees fueled by heavy battles between regime forces and rebels for control of a border town.

Some of the refugees desperately clambered over razor-wire border fences to reach safety in Turkey, fleeing one of the heaviest battlegrounds ? the town of Ras al-Ayn, where rebels seized security compounds of the regime's most powerful intelligence agencies and regime forces pounded rebels with shelling.

The flood of people was "the highest that we have had in quite some time," said Panos Moumtzis, the U.N. refugee agency's regional coordinator for the region.

The escalation ? much more than the average 2,000 to 3,000 Syrians fleeing daily ? brings the number of Syrian refugees registered with the agency to more than 408,000, he said.

Even as the turmoil worsened, Syrian President Bashar Assad said he had no regrets over his regime's crackdown in the 19-month-old uprising against his rule. In an interview with Russian television, he said there was no civil war in Syria, insisting that he was protecting Syrians against "terrorism" supported from abroad.

Syria's conflict began largely as peaceful protests against Assad's rule, but it has since collapsed into civil war after rebels took up arms in response to the regime's bloody crackdown. Rebels have driven regime forces out of much of a pocket of northwestern Syria and battle troops in several large cities and in towns around the country, even as the fight takes on dangerous sectarian tones between a mainly Sunni opposition and a regime dominated by Assad's minority Allawite sect.

More than 36,000 people have been killed in the violence since March 2011, according to activists.

During the 24-hour flood of refugees that began Thursday, 9,000 Syrians fled in to Turkey ? including 70 who were wounded and two who then died, U.N. officials said. Jordan and Lebanon each absorbed another 1,000 refugees.

The largest flow into Turkey came from the fighting at Ras al-Ayn in the predominantly Kurdish northerneastern province of al-Hasaka. The town hugs the border, practically adjacent to the Turkish town of Ceylanpinar.

On Thursday, rebels captured a border crossing between the two towns, Ceylanpinar's mayor, Ismail Aslan, told The Associated Press by telephone.

The next day, rebels overran three security compounds in the town belonging to the Military Intelligence, Air Force Intelligence and General Intelligence Directorate agencies, according to the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an opposition activist group.

More than 20 soldiers were killed in the fighting, the Observatory said.

Regime forces shelled rebel positions on Friday morning, Ceylanpinar's mayor said. Regime tanks were also moving into the area to join the fight, according to another opposition activist group, the Local Coordination Committees.

Turkey's Anadolu Agency video footage showed Syrians jumping over and climbing through the razor-wiree fence that makes up part of the 911-kilometer (566-mile) border, to cross into Ceylanpinar.

Others fled into Turkey further west along the border, trying to escape fighting at the Syrian town of Harem in Idlib province, which has been the scene of intensified battles in recent days.

The new arrivals bring the number of refugees in Turkey to around 120,000.

Radhouane Nouicer, the U.N.'s regional humanitarian coordinator for Syria, said the Middle East nation is seeing unrelenting increases in violence, suffering, displacement and losses "and civilian Syrians continue to pay the price."

He said U.N. officials also worry that in recent weeks Kurds and Palestinians have become increasingly being drawn into the fighting.

Earlier, state-run Anadolu Agency said a group of Syrian soldiers, including two generals and 11 colonels, had fled to Turkey with their families and were taken to a camp that shelters military defectors, including dozens of other generals.

In fighting elsewhere Friday, at least 18 people, including children, were killed when government troops shelled the eastern village of Qouriyeh, the Observatory and the LCC said. An amateur video showed what appeared to be men, women and children, some of them with gapping wounds laying in street in what appeared to be a local market.

Activist videos could not be independently verified due to reporting restrictions in Syria, but they appeared genuine and corresponded to other AP reporting on the events depicted.

A car bomb near the mayor's office in the Damascus suburb of Maadamiyeh killed at least four people, the Observatory said.

Assad's defiant tone in the TV interview aired Friday mirrored the stance he has staunchly taken since his country's crisis began ? that his regime faces terrorists, not a popular uprising, and that he is will not step down. Speaking to English-language Russia Today TV, Assad hinted he will stay in his post until at least 2014 when presidential elections are scheduled to take place.

"I think for the president to stay or leave is a popular issue," he said.

Asked if he has any regrets, he said: "Not now," although he acknowledged that "when everything is clear" it would be normal to find some mistakes.

"We do not have a civil war," Assad said. "It is about terrorism and the support coming from abroad to terrorists to destabilize Syria. This is our war," he said, adding that it was a case of "terrorism through proxies, either Syrians living in Syria or foreign fighters coming from abroad," Assad said.

He said that when foreign countries stop sending arms to rebels, "I can tell (you) that in weeks we can finish everything."

Asked if he accepts that government forces have committed war crimes against their civilians, Assad said "we are fighting terrorism. We are implementing our constitution by protecting the Syrian people."

He referred to attacks by Chechen militants in Russia that killed scores and how Moscow retaliated. "The army in Russia protected the people, would you call it war crimes?! No, you would not," Assad said.

Assad, who came to power after his father and predecessor Hafez died in 2000, spoke in English in the interview that was broadcast in full on Friday. In an excerpt aired a day earlier, Assad said he will "live and die" in Syria and will not leave his country.

Sophie Shevarnadze, the journalist who conducted the 26-minute interview, said during the broadcast that she met Assad in a "newly renovated" presidential palace in Damascus.

She added that she spoke with Assad for about 15 minutes before the interview started and he told her that his three children still go to public schools in Damascus. She added that his British-born wife, Asma, is in Syria as well.

Assad is currently serving his second seven-year term as president, but a new constitution allows him to run again at least twice. The constitution, touted by the regime as a reform, was approved in a referendum earlier this year even as fighting raged. It opens the way for other candidates to run for presidency and imposes a two-term limit on the president, meaning Assad could remain legally in power through 2028.

Most Syrian opposition groups and rebels dismissed Assad's reforms as superficial and say they will not accept anything less than Assad's departure.

Also Friday, the main Syria's main opposition bloc in exile, the Syrian National Council, was debating whether to become part of a single leadership group that would set up a transitional government in rebel-held areas of Syria.

Several senior SNC members said the group is likely to accept the plan in principle, possibly by the end of Friday, but has significant reservations.

Proponents say the plan could give new momentum to the battle to oust Assad.

____

Associated Press writers Suzan Fraser in Ankara, Turkey, John Heilprin in Geneva and Karin Laub in Doha, Qatar contributed to this report.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2012-11-09-Syria/id-c764f43fdcd24b5d8de7250563c0f7b8

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Discovery Communications Recognized as One of America's Top 50 ...

Nov. 9, 2012 /3BL Media/ - Discovery Communications was recognized as one of America?s most community-minded companies in The Civic 50 ?survey ? the first comprehensive ranking of S&P 500 corporations that best use their time, talent, and resources to improve the quality of life in the communities where they do business. The survey was conducted by the National Conference on Citizenship (NCoC) and Points of Light, the nation?s definitive experts on civic engagement, in partnership with Bloomberg LP.

An article about The Civic 50 looking at the philanthropic efforts of some of the top companies appeared in the November 12-18, 2012 issue of Bloomberg Businessweek. The full Civic 50 ranking is posted on www.businessweek.com at www.businessweek.com/interactive_reports/civic_50_2012.html.

?NCoC is proud to be part of The Civic 50 launch," said Ilir Zherka, Executive Director of NCOC.? "The Civic 50 demonstrates that the best companies in America are deeply committed to strengthening their respective communities. Leaders of these companies are aligning the expertise of their companies and people with the needs of their communities, and then measuring the impact of their programs. NCoC hopes The Civic 50 will spur companies throughout our country to do the same.?

"As a company committed to community engagement and improvement, Bloomberg is proud to have partnered with the National Conference on Citizenship and Points of Light on this important ranking," said Norman Pearlstine, Chairman, Bloomberg Businessweek and Chief Content Officer, Bloomberg LP "The Civic 50 is a pioneering addition to the Bloomberg Rankings inventory. It features a comprehensive, transparent methodology to identify companies that have taken a leadership role in developing and implementing civic engagement programs. We believe it will raise awareness of the importance of a civic consciousness through the U.S. corporate world."

Companies were evaluated on seven specific metrics:? leadership, measurement and strategy, design, employee civic health, community partnerships, cause alignment and transparency. Winning companies employed increasingly sophisticated tools to measure the impact of community engagement and alignment of these programs with their business? core competencies.? More than two-thirds of the top 50 companies say they ?frequently? or ?always? use the professional skills of their workforce to address social issues and real community challenges.? Sixty-six percent of the top 50 say they have ?mission-level? alignment with the community partners, meaning they work with them on the highest strategic level, not just on individual programs or events.

?Today, in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy, we can see clearly how much corporate America pitches in ? with expertise, talent, time and money ? to help communities meet critical needs,? said Jackie Norris, executive director of the Points of Light Corporate Institute. ?In times of disaster and in relative calm, The Civic 50?s work is transformative, innovative and critically important.?

The full list of winners can be found online at www.businessweek.com/interactive_reports/civic_50_2012.html.

Word Length exceeds! Please make sure, a single word can not be more than 50 characters.

Source: http://www.justmeans.com/press-releases/Discovery-Communications-Recognized-as-One-of-Americas-Top-50-Community-Minded-Companies/10740.html

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AMD shutters key Linux support lab in Germany as part of company-wide layoffs

The pain from recently announced job cuts by AMD could ripple out to the Linux community, as the chipmaker has shut down a small but important Linux OS research facility in Dresden, Germany. The center housed 25 employees who helped port AMD technology like PowerNow over to new Linux distros, and according to The H, many engineers who submitted major processor and chipset revisions for the OS would be pink slipped. The closure won't affect GPU and APU development, according to the source, but it's not yet known exactly who will pick up the slack from the former Dresden team -- though the research center in Austin Texas is reported to be a likely bet.

Filed under: Software

AMD shutters key Linux support lab in Germany as part of company-wide layoffs originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 09 Nov 2012 07:39:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://www.engadget.com/2012/11/09/amd-shutters-linux-support-lab-as-part-of-company-wide-layoffs/

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With 'fiscal cliff' looming, Congress facing compromise or confrontation (CNN)

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

Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/261482784?client_source=feed&format=rss

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Ex-wrestling executive pinned in Conn. Senate race

Big-spending former wrestling executive Linda McMahon was smacked down again in her bid for a U.S. Senate seat Tuesday, losing on a night when sports and politics met in the same arena.

McMahon, a Republican who once ran World Wrestling Entertainment with blustery and better-known husband Vince McMahon, was beaten by Democrat Chris Murphy. She also lost in 2010 in a bid for the Senate. McMahon spent more than $42 million of her own wealth in the race for retiring independent Sen. Joe Lieberman's seat.

In another Senate race, the great-grandson of one of baseball's most august figures lost his Senate race in Florida. Connie Mack IV, a Republican, is a descendant of Hall of Fame manager Connie Mack. He was beaten by Democrat Bill Nelson, who won a third term.

This was hardly an All-Star night for sports. Long gone are the days when the likes of basketball's Bill Bradley served in the Senate. More recently, football's J.C. Watts and track's Jim Ryun were in Congress.

Two years ago, Hall of Fame pitcher and Kentucky Sen. Jim Bunning retired. This year, sports lost more of its sizzle in Congress: Wisconsin Sen. Herb Kohl, the owner of the Milwaukee Bucks, retired, and North Carolina Rep. Heath Shuler, a one-time NFL quarterback, chose not to run again because of unfavorable redistricting.

Murphy, a three-term congressman, made an issue of the 64-year-old McMahon's wrestling roots, dismissing the enterprise as a vulgar and violent spectacle that belittled women.

"I think that not every CEO is qualified to be a United States senator," he said.

WWE, as the wrestling extravaganza is now known, tried to clean up its image during the Senate campaign in an attempt to make itself more presentable as family fare. Still, Democrats found ways to remind the electorate of an online scene featuring a wrestler simulating sex with a corpse in a casket.

Mack has made much of his baseball lineage. On his web page, the "O'' in his first name is replaced with a baseball. The congressman's great-grandfather managed the Philadelphia Athletics for 50 years, starting in 1901, and with his suit and straw hat was always an impeccably dressed presence in the dugout. He retired when he was 88.

The younger Mack's reputation was hit hard in TV ads. Nelson depicted Mack as a bar brawling party-boy. In 1992, Mack was involved in a barroom brawl with then-Atlanta Braves outfielder Ron Gant. Mack claimed he was minding he was sober and minding his own business.

Mack, however, was not the only loser on the ballot with a strong baseball heritage. U.S. Rep. Ben Chandler of Kentucky, is the grandson of former baseball commissioner Happy Chandler. He was commissioner from 1945-51, a period when Jackie Robinson broke the game's racial barrier when he joined the Dodgers. Ben Chandler, a Blue Dog Democrat, lost to Republican Andy Barr, who linked his opponent to the president in a state where Barack Obama is decidedly weak.

Others with family ties on election night were two candidates with NFL connections: George Allen and Tom Rooney.

Allen had an early lead in his attempt to win a U.S. Senate seat in Virginia. He is the brother of Washington Redskins general manager Bruce Allen and the son of former Redskins coach George Allen. Rooney, a nephew of Pittsburgh Steelers owner Dan Rooney, easily won re-election to his U.S. House seat from Florida.

In Nevada, Danny Tarkanian was running for a House seat in Congress. He was the star point guard in the early '80s at UNLV, where he was coached by his celebrated towel-chomping father, Jerry Tarkanian.

Also on the ballot were four former NFL players: Seeking congressional seats were Jon Runyan (Eagles) in New Jersey and Jimmy Farris (Falcons, Redskins) in Idaho. Phil Hansen (Bills) is running for the Minnesota Legislature, and Clint Didier (Redskins) is trying to become public lands commissioner in the state of Washington.

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Associated Press writers Susan Haigh in Hartford, Conn., and Gary Fineout and Brendan Farrington in Florida contributed to this report.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/ex-wrestling-executive-pinned-conn-senate-race-020942766--spt.html

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