Wednesday, July 31, 2013

New TV channel tells Israel's side of the story

TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) ? State-of-the-art TV studios above an ancient Mideast port signal Israel's arrival in a modern media landscape in which countries increasingly seek to broadcast their own perspective to the world.

Israel advocates have long alleged that their country is portrayed in an unfair and one-dimensional way by the international media, largely as an occupier of the Palestinians.

Now the answer has arrived in the form of i24news ? the first international channel dedicated to reporting the news from an Israeli point of view. Its goal is to tell the rest of the Israel story in English, Arabic and French.

The new station's founders insist they are not an Israeli version of the Qatar-funded Al-Jazeera pan-Arab channel. They receive no government funding, hold no political affiliation and pledge to cover the news dispassionately and objectively.

The initiative, which follows dozens of other attempts to tell Israel's side of the story, highlights a deep-seated sense that Israel is losing the battle over international public opinion and that its voice has been missing from a smorgasbord of news outlets.

"When you are talking about Israel in the international media today, it is only through the perspective of the Arab-Israeli conflict. We have to show that there are a lot of things about Israel that people don't know about," said Frank Melloul, the channel's chief executive. "What I want to do with this channel is to connect Israel to the world and connect the world to the Israeli reality."

To do so, i24news broadcasts around the clock, devoting 30 percent of its content to local coverage, including culture, technology and sports.

Its spacious studios in Jaffa, an ancient port city merged with Tel Aviv, include three glass-encased sets for simultaneous broadcasts in three languages, along with an integrated news desk for its 150 journalists.

The station went on the air less than two weeks ago, and most of the office space is still under construction. Though it is not yet clear how many people are watching, i24news says it can potentially reach 350 million households via cable and satellite operators in Europe, Asia and Africa. An expansion to the North American market is expected in early 2014.

Melloul, a former French diplomat, helped launch France24, a satellite channel aimed at improving France's international image. Other governments have engaged in similar outreach efforts, resulting in Russia Today, China's CCTV and Qatar's Al-Jazeera.

The Israeli effort is funded by private money. Much of it comes from Patrick Drahi, a French-Israeli telecom tycoon who owns HOT, an Israeli cable network of TV channels and telephone service providers.

Calling i24news a "startup channel," Melloul said its private ownership frees the station from government intervention.

"We are not talking about propaganda," he said, "(But) it is time to listen to another voice from the Middle East besides Al-Jazeera."

Walid Omary, Middle East bureau chief of the pace-setting and influential Al-Jazeera, said he was not familiar with the new station, but he welcomed the competition and considered it a compliment that others were trying to emulate his network.

"Apparently Al-Jazeera has a quality that everyone wants to challenge," he said. "Even those who criticize us recognize we have an impact."

Israel accuses Al-Jazeera and others of endorsing the Palestinian and Arab narrative, providing slanted coverage of the Mideast conflict and contributing to anti-Israel sentiment. Such allegations become more heated during bouts of Israeli-Arab fighting.

Al-Jazeera denies it is biased against Israel.

Israel's critics argue that it needs to change its policies toward the Palestinians rather than look for more sophisticated tools in a propaganda war.

Others believe that the premise that news media are overwhelmingly anti-Israel is overstated. Israelis and their backers abroad are highly sensitive to criticism and tend to label any coverage that is less than totally supportive as anti-Israel ? though Israel's own local media are frequently harder on their country and government than foreign outlets are.

i24news, particularly its Arabic broadcast, looks to show a different face of Israel by highlighting its diversity. The channel's main English-language anchor, for instance, is an Arab woman.

The content also tries to spotlight the tough choices the country faces.

A report about an Israeli Cabinet vote this week to release Palestinian prisoners ahead of renewed peace talks was followed by an in-studio debate between two parents over whether the killers of their children should be freed in return for the prospect of peace.

"It is part of the diversity of the Israeli society, and it is part of also showing the world that nothing is easy," Melloul said. "You can discover another face of Israel you don't see anywhere else in the world."

Even without direct influence, Israeli officials are predictably pleased.

Nitzan Chen, the head of the government press office, said such an outlet has been "definitely missing" and wished the new station success.

Marcus Sheff of The Israel Project, a pro-Israel advocacy group, said that a broadcaster that "does not instinctually bash Israel is probably a good thing."

Tal Azran, a professor of communications at Interdisciplinary Center Herzliya, a college north of Tel Aviv, said the backing of private sponsors with ideological motivations represents a new breed in global news.

"i24news is part of a larger trend in international media where more and more countries, rulers and governments have begun to understand that international news reporting can be highly influential on what we call global public opinion," said Azran, who has written extensively about the effect of Al-Jazeera. "It has almost become something that every country 'must have.'"

Given Israel's prominence in current affairs, he said i24news would likely become part of the new media marketplace, where consumers shop for several different perspectives before forming their own opinions.

"During operations in Gaza, for instance, those seeking the Israeli voice may tune into i24news," he said. "What's the Israeli angle? No one has ever heard it before on television."

____

Online: http://www.i24news.tv/en/tv/live

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/tv-channel-tells-israels-side-story-061708406.html

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Vancouver's Gay Pride Parade gets civic status

Rainbow flag hoisted at City Hall as Pride Week begins in Vancouver.

The Vancouver Pride Parade has gained Civic Parade status for the first time: This will come as a surprise to some: you'd be forgiven for thinking Vancouver Pride was already a civic event, considering it's one of the largest Pride parades in the world.

Mayor Gregor Robertson declared this week to be LGBTTQ Pride Week as the rainbow flag was hoisted in front of City Hall. (LGBTTQ, BTW, stands for "Lesbian/Gay/Bisexual/Transgender/Two-Spirited/Questioning".)?

After reading the proclamation aloud, Robertson handed it to Vancouver Pride Society President Tim Richards and Vice-President Chrissy Taylor.

Also joining Robertson were openly-gay City Councillor Tim Stevenson and Zdravko Cimbaljevic, founder of the modern Montenegrin Pride movement and Grand Marshall of the 2013 Vancouver Pride Parade.

Montenegro saw its first-ever Pride event only a few days ago, which was marred by violence. Hooligans attacked the marchers, throwing bottles and rocks while chanting, "Kill the gays". Cimbaljevic gave a shoutout to Montenegrin police as well as supporters of his LGBTQ community, expressing hope for social equality in the future.

Maybe that future will look a lot like Vancouver, which is gearing up for its 35th Pride Parade on August 4.

Before the proclamation and flag-raising, the City had earlier unveiled ?permanent rainbow-coloured crosswalks on Davie Street at Bute.

Today's City Hall flag-raising event was emceed by Joan-E, with a blessing from Stewart Gonzales of the Squamish and Musqueam Nations.

Joan-E, Gregor Robertson, Zdravko Cimbaljevic, Tim Stevenson, Chrissy Talor, Tim Richards at Vancouver Pride flag-raising?

Lindsey, a Pride Week volunteer, told me that this year's event has "a really good energy. It's maturing, becoming more multi-faceted. It's not just Pride Week, it's Pride Season. This is a great city to be in, considering the international climate."

Lindsey was referring to Russia, whose anti-gay laws have raised ire around the world. In his speech, Robertson once again slammed Russia for its anti-gay violence and discrimination.

Also present was Danny Papadatos, Mr. Gay Canada 2013. He swung by City Hall before jetting off to Belgium for the Mr. Gay World event.

As Lindsey said, "35 never looked better."

Source: http://www.vancouverobserver.com/life/lgbt/pride-week-declared-city-hall-civic-parade-status-last

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Android tops U.S. smartphone sales, but iOS catching up

Apple's iOS continues to play catch up with Android in the U.S. smartphone game.

For the three months ending June, Android scored 51.5 percent of all U.S. smartphone sales, research firm Kantar said on Monday. That number was a slight drop from the 52.6 percent seen for the same period in 2012.

iOS trailed with 42.5 percent of all smartphone sales. But that figure showed a gain from the 39.2 percent share over the same period last year.

Microsoft's Windows Phone also captured a larger chunk of sales, winning a 4 percent share compared with 2.9 percent a year ago. BlackBerry didn't fare as well, watching its slice of sales drop to 1.1 percent from 4 percent last year.

Apple scored 40 percent of its smartphone sales from Verizon Wireless, 39 percent from AT&T, 10 percent from Sprint, and 8 percent from T-Mobile. Verizon also did well selling Android and Windows Phone handsets, according to Kantar. Android snared 35 percent of its sales from Verizon, 17 percent from Sprint, 16 percent from AT&T, and 13 percent from T-Mobile.

The data comes from Kantar's USA consumer panel, which conducts more than 240,000 interviews per year with moble phone users. The information specifically highlights smartphone sales rather than market share.

Source: http://news.cnet.com/8301-1035_3-57595898-94/android-tops-u.s-smartphone-sales-but-ios-catching-up/

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Ex-prime minister Keita holds wide lead in Mali vote

By David Lewis and Adama Diarra

BAMAKO (Reuters) - Malian former Prime Minister Ibrahim Boubacar Keita holds a comfortable lead and could win an outright first-round victory in the West African nation's high-stakes presidential election, the minister of territorial administration said on Tuesday.

The announcement of partial results will likely fuel tensions between Keita's supporters and his rivals, who say they will challenge the results if there is no second round.

Voters turned out in large numbers on Sunday, eager for a fresh start after a March 2012 coup allowed separatist and al Qaeda-linked rebels to seize the desert north last year. It took an offensive by thousands of French troops in January to scatter them into the desert and mountains.

Voting was peaceful and observers have largely praised the polls.

"There is one candidate, Ibrahim Boubacar Keita, who has a wide margin compared with the other candidates," Colonel Moussa Sinko Coulibaly told journalists in the capital Bamako.

"If maintained, (it means) there will not be a need for a second round," he said. The results represented a third of ballots cast from constituencies across the country, he said.

Coulibaly, whose ministry is in charge of organizing the elections, repeatedly refused journalists' requests for exact numbers. He said the results had been certified by the elections commission.

The spokesman for ex-finance minister Soumaila Cisse, who Coulibaly said was currently in second place, criticized the announcement.

"It is scandalous. A minister, when talking about election results, must give numbers and percentages of every candidate," Amadou Koita said.

Minutes after the results were announced, cars and motorcycles honked their horns and Keita's supporters on the streets chanted "IBK" "IBK" "IBK", the initials he is universally known by.

Cisse and two other of Keita's rivals - Modibo Sidibe, a former prime minister, and Dramane Dembele, the candidate of Mali's biggest party - came together on Monday to complain about the process.

Their FDR coalition, which was initially set up to counter last year's coup, complained that hundreds of thousands of people had been excluded from the vote due to technical shortcomings.

Members of the FDR coalition have claimed that world powers led by France, which pushed for the vote to be held despite concerns over Mali's readiness, favored Keita in the process.

Cisse said he will challenge the results if Keita is announced winner in one round.

"It is up to Mr. Cisse to prove what he claims and to use the legal existing channels for his claim. The imperfections will affect the winners as well as the losers," Louis Michel, the EU's chief observer to the Mali mission, said on Tuesday.

"In my opinion, as of today, the problems that we have been told about will not have an impact on the legitimacy of the process," he told Reuters.

Average turnout was tallied so far at 53.3 percent, well above Mali's record high of 40 percent, Coulibaly said. Final results could be ready on Wednesday.

(Writing by David Lewis and Joe Bavier; Editing by Sonya Hepinstall)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/ex-prime-minister-keita-holds-wide-lead-mali-170417197.html

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Tuesday, July 30, 2013

Youth Pastor, Pregnant Wife, Mother of 5 Killed in Church Bus Crash

July 29, 2013|8:04 am

Youth pastor Chad Phelps, his pregnant wife, Courtney Phelps, and 51-year-old chaperone Tonya Weindorf were killed on Saturday morning as the bus carrying 37 people, all from the Indianapolis church, crashed into a raised concrete median and overturned near Interstate 465, deacon Jeff Leffew told The Associated Press.

Dozens of people were injured, and six teenagers were still admitted to hospitals on Sunday. One of the injured was said to be in critical condition.

A 68-year-old congregation member, Dennis Maurer, was driving the church-owned bus and was about to reach the church after its 365-mile journey from Camp CoBeAc, near Prudenville, Mich., when the accident occurred. He told authorities the bus rammed into concrete after its brakes failed.

Courtney Phelps, a piano-teacher, was expecting a second child. Her first child, Chase, was also injured in the crash but was out of danger. "Chad's wife, Courtney, finished college with a degree in Piano Pedagogy. She loves to teach music! Courtney finds fulfillment in her relationship with Lord, mothering Chase, who was born in October of 2011, and in serving with Chad," the church website says.

Chad, her husband, was the son of the church's senior pastor. "Our youth pastor, Chad Phelps, joined the staff of Colonial Hills in 2012. Prior to coming to Colonial Hills, Chad completed his Bachelor of Arts in Humanities with a focus on Theology and Biblical Languages and attended Seminary, pursuing an MA in Pastoral Studies which will be completed in May of 2013," according to the church website.

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Weindorf, a chaperone and church member, had accompanied her special-needs child to the camp. "She wanted to go and make it a good week, and according to her husband, it was a great week, and that's who Tonya was," Leffew said.

Leffew said the church was grateful to rescue workers and others who went to help soon after the crash. Local churches and businesses have also offered their support. "We are so grateful for that outpouring of love and care," he said.

"Please be in prayer for our church family as we look to the Lord for grace during the teen bus accident today," the church said on its Facebook page on Saturday. "Details will be released at a later time, but prayers are our greatest need right now."

The Indiana Fire Department told NBC News that 28 passengers were taken to area hospitals, Riley Hospital for Children, Wishard Memorial Hospital, Indiana University Methodist Hospital, St. Vincent Pharma Center and Community North Hospital.

"Thank you all for your tremendous outpouring of love and strength stated here and in numerous other ways. Through your prayers and the power of the Holy Spirit, the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ will be magnified as His people find Him to be sufficient even now," the church said in a statement posted on Facebook on Sunday.

Source: http://www.christianpost.com/news/youth-pastor-pregnant-wife-mother-of-5-killed-in-church-bus-crash-101036/

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Lawsuit Filed In San Francisco Alleges Apple Store Employee Abuse

SAN FRANCISCO (CBS/AP) ? Apple is facing accusations of shortchanging thousands of employees who haven?t been getting paid while being forced to wait in line to show they aren?t trying to steal an iPhone, iPad or other merchandise from the company?s bustling stores.

The complaint filed July 25 in a San Francisco federal court threatens to increase public scrutiny of how Apple Inc.?s treats the lower-paid contractors and employees who make and sell the products that have enriched the Cupertino-based company.

Much of the attention has focused on whether Apple has done enough to protect the rights of workers assembling its devices in China and in other overseas factories.

But some of the former workers in Apple?s often-packed stores have also complained about being underpaid and overworked.

Those grievances could gather more momentum if the lawsuit filed by two former Apple store employees, Amanda Frlekin and Dean Pelle, is certified as a class-action.

Apple spokeswoman Amy Bessette declined to discuss the case Wednesday, citing the company?s legal policies.

The complaint seeks to represent Apple employees who have worked in the company?s U.S. stores within the past three years. Lawyers handling the lawsuit also are looking to expand the complaint to represent Apple employees in the company?s California and New York stores for even longer periods because of differences in those two states? laws.

The case hinges on accusations that Apple requires store workers who are paid by the hour to submit to searches of their bags and other personal belongings as an anti-theft measure before they are allowed to leave the premises. The lawsuit alleges the store employees routinely must wait their turn to be searched even though they aren?t being paid for the additional time.

The lawsuit estimates the unpaid detention periods routinely spanned a total of 15 minutes to a half hour per shift, based on the experiences of Frlekin and Pelle. If the employees had been properly paid while waiting to be searched, they would have earned an additional $1,400 to $1,500 annually, the lawsuit estimates. The calculations are based on the assumption that Apple store employees are paid anywhere from the minimum wage to $18.75 per hour.

Apple earned $6.9 billion in its latest quarter ending June 29, or nearly $3.2 million per hour.

More than 42,000 of Apple?s employees work in the company?s retail division, the lawsuit said. It?s unlikely all of those workers would be covered by the allegations contained in the complaint.

Apple?s stores rank among the most profitable retail destinations in the world, thanks largely to the appeal of the company?s gadgetry.

(Copyright 2013 by CBS San Francisco. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)

Source: http://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2013/07/30/lawsuit-filed-in-san-francisco-alleges-apple-store-employee-abuse/

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Oil spill reaches Thailand resort island

Oil has washed up on a resort island in Thailand as a result of an oil spill.

BANGKOK, July 29 (UPI) -- Oil from a leaking pipeline has washed up on a resort island in Thailand, a Thai lawmaker says.

The spill occurred early Saturday when the pipeline operated by PTT Global Chemistry, a subsidiary of Thai state-owned oil and gas PTT Public Co. Ltd., sprung a leak about 12 miles off the coast of mainland Rayong province, The Nation newspaper reports.

About 13,000 gallons of oil leaked into the sea, the company said. By Sunday night, the oil slick had reached the western side of Samet Island, covering about 2,000 feet of beachfront, China's state-run Xinhua News Agency reports.

But Satit Pituthecha, a Democrat member of Parliament for Rayong, said Monday the amount of spilled oil was greater than the 13,000 gallons PTTGC had reported and accused the company of "hiding the truth," Xinhua reports.

Pituthecha said the spill had caused severe damage to Rayong's environment and that it would take at least six months for its tourism sector to recover.

Thailand's National News Bureau reported Monday at least 70 percent of the oil spilled off Rayong coast has been cleaned.

PTTGC admitted it had underestimated the scope of the spill.

"As the highest ranking executive at PTTGC, I admit to being guilty in causing damage to the environment and will pay for the damage," the Bangkok Post reported the company's chief executive, Anon Sirisaengtaksin, said at a press conference Monday.

"We underestimated the problem, and we thought we could control the oil spill, but it sneaked out of the contained area," Anon said.

He said the company expects the area to be cleaned up and restored by Thursday.

Greenpeace called on the Thai government Monday to review its energy policy and to put an end to oil exploration and drilling in the Gulf of Thailand.

Thailand imports more than 60 percent of its total petroleum needs and nearly 85 percent of its crude oil consumption, the U.S. Energy Information Administration says.

The government plans to construct an oil pipeline and storage facilities between the Andaman Sea and the Gulf of Thailand to facilitate transportation of crude oil imports from the Middle East to Southeast Asia.

In 2009, PTTEP Australasia, a PTT subsidiary, was involved in an oil spill considered one of Australia's worst oil disasters, in the Montara oil field in the Timor Sea off the northern coast of Western Australia.

PTTEP Australasia Chief Executive Ken Fitzpatrick, in announcing last month that oil production had begun from the Montara field, said that since the spill, the company "has transformed safety processes and environmental systems" which were validated by five independent reviews commissioned by the Australian government.

Source: http://www.upi.com/Business_News/Energy-Resources/2013/07/29/Oil-spill-reaches-Thailand-resort-island/UPI-70171375130201/

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Athens Mayor submits proposals on how to make theaters safe, legal

Athens Mayor submits proposals on how to make theaters safe, legal


Athens Mayor Giorgos Kaminis set out proposals on Tuesday aimed at improving oversight and safety at the dozens of theaters located in the Greek capital after it emerged that most of them were operating without licenses.

Kaminis submitted to the Interior and Culture ministries his municipality?s suggestions for an outdated 1937 law to be changed and replaced by one that governs how theaters obtain permits and what safety standards they have to meet.

A team of experts, including members of the fire service and representatives of the theater world, was recently appointed by the municipal council to examine the matter. The legislation that has been drafted proposes a process by which two licenses are issued: one to approve the use of a building as a theater and one to allow the theater to begin operating. One of the prerequisites for licenses to be issued will be that theaters meet with fire safety standards. Under the proposals put forward by Kaminis, theaters will have to undergo fire safety tests every three years.

The would-be legislation also proposes that municipalities, working in conjunction with the fire service and town-planning departments, have the authority to issue permits for theaters.

Kaminis urged the ministries to respond to the proposals quickly so Athens?s theaters could operate legally once the new theater season begins in the fall.

Source: http://www.ekathimerini.com/4dcgi/_w_articles_wsite1_1_30/07/2013_511924

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Texas Pastor Charged In Nephew?s Shooting Death

BON WIER (July 29, 2013)?The Rev. Luther Jones of Bon Wier in East Texas was free on bond Monday after he charged with murder in the shooting death of his nephew who was killed outside the minister's church.

A judge Monday in Newton set bond at $100,000 for Jones.

Jones posted the bond and was later released.

Curtis P. Jones, 34, was shot Sunday morning in an SUV parked outside of his uncle's church, Belgrade Baptist Church in Bon Wier.

Autopsy results were pending Monday.

Investigators did not immediately disclose a possible motive for the shooting, but relatives told KFDM-TV in Beaumont that the two men had argued in the past.

The victim's sister, Juanita Jones, said the two men had a long-running family feud, but declined to elaborate.

Source: http://www.kwtx.com/home/headlines/Texas-Pastor-Charged-In-Nephews-Shooting-Death-217414701.html

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GOP Senators Stand With Enzi in Face of Cheney Challenge

Republican senators are standing shoulder-to-shoulder to support Sen. Mike Enzi's re-election, refusing to be enticed by a politically star-studded name like Liz Cheney.

According to Politico, even though the three-term Wyoming senator is facing a challenge from the daughter of the former vice president, Washington colleagues from across the conservative spectrum are unwavering in their support for a man they say is a strong, effective and committed legislator.

Cheney, who on July 16 announced she would challenge Enzi in the 2014 GOP primary, said the support Enzi earns from Capitol Hill is little worry to her and will carry little weight in the state.

"Wyoming voters know very well that the Washington establishment is the problem," Cheney told Politico.

Enzi has said he appreciates the Washington support, but has downplayed its importance in what could be a bruising race.

"My favorite people supporting me are the people of Wyoming, and they're the only ones that get to vote," Enzi told Politico. "There have been a couple of polls that have come out recently, and I'm grateful to the people of Wyoming that recognize the work that I've put in."

It doesn't appear that Cheney can count on the connection from her father's network either. Many of his old supporters say their contact with the former vice president has been scant in recent years.

"I don't know why in the world she's doing this," said Sen. Orrin Hatch, who calls Dick Cheney one of his best friends.

According to Politico, the Utah Republican spun out a list of reason Enzi deserves re-election,, describing him as an "honest and decent, hard-working" lawmaker who happens to hold some "very important positions in the Senate."

"These," Hatch said, "are all things that would cause anybody to say, 'Why would anybody run against him?'"

? 2013 Newsmax. All rights reserved.

Source: http://www.newsmax.com/Politics/Enzi-Cheney-challenge-support/2013/07/29/id/517522

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Monday, July 29, 2013

Multi-V and Fish Oil question.

  1. Alright so I take Orange Triad for my multi and I take Muscle Pharm Fish Oil... They both require it to be taken with a meal.... How essential is it when not taking it with a meal? I take them in the morning after I eat, but I'm planning to start doing cardio every morning so that means I don't eat until I'm done with my cardio session. I never used to take multis or fish oil. I'd just wake up, drink water, wash face/brush teeth, wait till I poop, then go run.

    Should I just go about and take them with out a meal?

    Inb4 just take them with a meal.

    Reply With Quote
  2. Just take them with a meal, you are bodybuilding after all, just fukken eat and down your pills.
    == S&P CREW ==

    *Can't stop staring at my cats butthole crew*
    *Don't know what to do with my arms when I'm walking crew*
    *Weight fluctuations from 158-165 lbs*

    Reply With Quote
  3. Just take them with a meal, you are bodybuilding after all, just fukken eat and down your pills. No I'm cutting lol
    Reply With Quote
  4. Lol.... I advise you to re-read my post, carefully this time.

    pls.

    == S&P CREW ==

    *Can't stop staring at my cats butthole crew*
    *Don't know what to do with my arms when I'm walking crew*
    *Weight fluctuations from 158-165 lbs*

    Reply With Quote
  5. Alright so I take Orange Triad for my multi and I take Muscle Pharm Fish Oil... They both require it to be taken with a meal.... How essential is it when not taking it with a meal? I take them in the morning after I eat, but I'm planning to start doing cardio every morning so that means I don't eat until I'm done with my cardio session. I never used to take multis or fish oil. I'd just wake up, drink water, wash face/brush teeth, wait till I poop, then go run.

    Should I just go about and take them with out a meal?

    Inb4 just take them with a meal.

    Taking some multis without food can make you feel nauseated. Although, I sometimes take OT on an empty stomach and it doesn't bother me. Anyways, you would be better off taking them with at least a shake or something. It doesn't have to be a 3 course meal.
    Team MuscleTech Rep
    **Gold List Member**

    ? VOTE PHASE8 ? Nominated for Supplement of the Year, Breakout Supplement of the Year, and Best Overall Protein Powder ?

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Outgrowing the Traditional Grass Lawn

My garden (Credit: Ferris Jabr)

A few weeks ago, I moved into a new apartment in Brooklyn. What I like best about my new home is its garden. For the first time in 10 years I have a private outdoor space in which to read and relax; the option to grill in my own backyard; and the freedom to sculpt a plot of land?to decide which plants grow where.

As I see it, my garden has three main features: a small stone patio; a few strips of hydrangea, lilies and shrubs; and, in the middle of these floral borders, a rectangle of untamed clover, creeping charlie and various weeds. My first instinct was to uproot all the weeds in the neglected lawn, prepare the soil and seed it with turfgrass. ?Are you sure?? one of my landlords asked me as we stood in the backyard shortly before moving day. ?I mean, you would have to water it and we don?t have any sprinklers. You?d have to get a lawnmower, too, and store it somewhere.?

I nodded in reluctant consent. Even though I?d always loved gardening?growing vegetables in particular?the prospect of watering and trimming a sizeable carpet of grass week after week did not excite me. Mowing had been an occasional chore in my childhood, not a regular responsibility. Besides, what was so bad, really, about a weedy lawn? You could still walk and sit on it. And it was kind of more interesting?certainly more varied?than a conventional grass lawn.

I looked closer. There was more than just plant life here. A cabbage white butterfly bobbed among the weeds in its paradoxically fumbling yet dainty way. A honeybee circled and hugged a clover blossom. In the past few months, for a series of related writing and editing assignments, I?d been researching honeybees?which arrived in America with the colonists?as well as the many bee species native to our country: metallic blue sweat bees that lap up human perspiration; solitary bees that nest in wood or soil; mason bees that fashion leaves into nurseries.

A closeup of my neglected hodgepodge lawn with various weeds (Credit: Ferris Jabr)

Across the country, native pollinators have been dying for many years, primarily because we have replaced so much of their once diverse natural habitat with vast swaths of monoculture: acres and acres of a single crop, many of which?corn and wheat, for instance?are poor sources of the pollen and nectar insects eat. Likewise, I had recently learned, weed-free flowerless grass lawns are monoculture in microcosm; they, too, are wastelands for pollinators, offering no nourishment of any kind. We associate a lush green lawn with vitality, but in many ways a grass lawn is the most sterile part of a garden.

Ironically, the dwindling number of native bees is as much an agricultural loss as an ecological one. Although some major crops like corn and wheat are largely wind-pollinated, one third of our food supply?including apples, almonds, cherries, blueberries, lettuces, avocados and broccoli?depends on pollinating bees. Domesticated honeybees simply cannot visit all those plants on their own and in many cases native bees are more efficient pollinators of plants with which they co-evolved. Bumblebees, for example, vigorously rattle blueberry flowers, coating themselves in so much pollen that they deliver around 15 to 20 pollen grains each time they visit a new blueberry flower compared to a honeybee?s typical cargo of three to four grains. Never has the well-being of wild bees been so crucial as now, when honeybees are dying en masse for a multitude of reasons?pesticides, poor nourishment, tenacious pathogens?and native bees find fewer places to live and so much less to eat.

So how could I steal even one more yard?s worth of what little viable habitat our wild pollinators have left? Surveying my garden, my impulse to rip up a flowering cluster of so-called weeds and replace it with a monochromatic mat now struck me as somewhat selfish and completely uninspired. Given a plot of land beside one?s house to use as one wishes, why turn so much of it into a lawn? Why must a lawn consist solely of uber-green, short-cropped, nearly identical blades of grass? What is a lawn anyways?

The history of the lawn begins at least 900 years ago in Great Britain and Northern France, both of which have maritime climates with relatively mild winters and warm humid summers that are ideal for many different grasses. In its inception, the word ?lawn? may have referred to communal grazing pastures?clearings in the woods where sheep and other livestock continually munched wild grass into submission. Even today, some place names retain the memory of these early lawns: Balmer Lawn in England, for example, encompasses 500 acres of grass pasture. Soon enough, people found other uses for grasses: aesthetics, sport and leisure. King Henry II (1113 to 1189) had gardens at Clarendon Palace that boasted ?a wealth of lawns? and Henry III (1216 ? 1272) ordered laborers to slice up tracts of naturally occurring turf and transplant them to his palace. The world?s oldest bowling green, in Southampton, England, has been maintained since at least 1299.

Ponies grazing on Balmer Lawn in England (Credit: Jim Champion via Wikimedia Commons)

In ancient times, lawns were not always expanses of unbroken green, however. Some medieval paintings of gardens depict carpets of turfgrass stippled with various flowers, such as lily of the valley, poppies, cowslips, primroses, wild strawberries, violets, daisies, and daffodils. People walked, danced and relaxed on these flowery meads, which were meant to imitate natural meadows. In the 15th and 16th centuries, Europeans used white clover, chamomile, thyme, yarrow, self-heal (Prunella vulgaris) and other low-growing meadow and groundcover plants?sometimes mixed with grasses?to create lawns and pathways on which to walk and mingle. In the early 1900s, a weed known as cotula (Leptinella dioica) began invading bowling lawns in New Zealand. When the groundsman of the Caledonian Bowling Club tried to get rid of the weed by scarifying the lawn, he only quickened its spread. Rugby players noticed, however, that they ran faster and played better on the tightly knit, smooth carpet formed by the weed than on grass. By 1930, Caledonian Bowling Club replaced all its grass with cotula; other clubs did the same.

For most of history, however, mixed plant lawns and non-grass lawns have been the exception, in part because a smooth, well-kept, lush grass lawn became as much a symbol as a functional part of one?s property. In the early 19th century, vast grass lawns surrounding manors were not only aesthetically pleasing?providing unobstructed views of an estate?they were also further proof of wealth. To keep their lawns neat and trim, British aristocrats and landed gentry had to look after grazing animals?most commonly a flock of sheep?or hire laborers to slice through overgrown grass with scythes.

Eventually, the idea of a grass lawn migrated to America, where it has evolved in its own way. At first, early colonists planted gardens of edible and medicinal plants, not having the time or money to maintain a lawn. Grasses native to America were generally too unruly to make neat lawns anyhow. Some wealthier citizens wanted to imitate the lawns that surrounded abbeys and mansions in Britain, however, and suitable turfgrasses were imported from Europe and Asia. English engineer Edwin Beard Budding changed lawncare forever when he invented the lawn mower in 1830?although it was a bulky wrought iron contraption that often dug up the soil. Others improved this first mower, making it lighter and sleeker. People on either side of the Atlantic could now mow modest-sized lawns themselves instead of requiring dozens or hundreds of workers or a flock of sheep.

A reel mower depicted in an 1888 advertisement in 'Garden and Forest'

Michael Pollan has pinpointed the 1860s as a pivotal moment in the history of American lawn: in that decade, landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted designed the suburban community of Riverside, Illinois. Olmsted forbade fences and walls and ran a seamless ribbon of green lawns in front of each row of houses. Around the same time, influential landscape designers such as Andrew Jackson Downing and Frank J. Scott published popular books advocating the lawn as a necessity for any respectable homeowner. ?A smooth, closely shaven surface of grass is by far the most essential element of beauty on the grounds of a suburban house,? Scott wrote. ?Let your lawn be your home?s velvet robe, and your flowers its not too promiscuous decoration.?

The lawn sprinkler appeared in 1871 and garden hoses became cheaper and more durable. Between 1947 and 1951 Levitt & Sons, Inc. built the first mass-produced suburban community: every one of the 17,000 houses had a lawn. Levittown became a model for suburbs everywhere and each new generation of homebuyers inherited houses with grass lawns. Despite America?s devotion to private property, any one homeowner?s lawn became every neighbor?s business. A well-manicured lawn?or, conversely, an untended jungle?was a reflection not just of its owners, but also of the entire surrounding community. Even today, surveys show that?in contrast to citizens of the U.K.?Americans care a great deal about the state of their neighbors? lawns. In a particularly memorable scene from F. Scott Fitzgerald?s The Great Gatsby, Jay Gatsby?who lives in one of the grandest homes in the posh West Egg?gives his neighbor Nick Carraway?s modest house a makeover, including a well needed shave for his ?ragged lawn.?

Today, the continental U.S. has more than 40 million acres of residential and commercial grass lawns, a number properly calculated for the first time in the early 2000s by Cristina Milesi of NASA and her colleagues using satellite data and aerial photos. In terms of acreage, turfgrass is on par with wheat, the country?s fourth largest crop. All those lawns provide some clear benefits to people and the environment: they suck up carbon dioxide?a greenhouse gas that traps heat in the atmosphere?potentially mitigating global warming (as long as establishing, mowing and fertilizing a lawn does not produce too much carbon dioxide and nitric oxide to negate the benefit); they prevent soil erosion and dissipate heat, counteracting the urban heat island effect (in which cities and towns full of metal and concrete retain much more heat than surrounding rural areas); grass lawns are ideal for pick-up games of soccer, rugby and touch football; they give young children a safe and soft outdoor space in which to play; and?as more and more ecopsychology studies demonstrate?green spaces reduce stress, restore attention, elevate mood and make people feel better about life in general.

Ultimately, however, the consequences of our obsession with pristine grass lawns may undercut any benefits. In addition to depriving both native pollinators and honeybees of wild habitat and food?and thereby threatening our agricultural system?lawncare guzzles water, spews smog and soaks the earth in potentially harmful chemicals. Milesi?s computer simulations revealed that all the nation?s lawns demand about 200 gallons of potable water per person per day. Some research suggests that gardens and parks more or less left alone capture much more carbon than highly cultivated grass lawns. The Environmental Protection Agency estimates that gas-powered lawnmowers?which emit 11 times more air pollution than a new car for every hour of operation?contribute as much as five percent of the smog in some areas of the U.S. Every summer, Americans spill 17,000,000 gallons of gasoline when refueling mowers and other garden equipment. And of the approximately 90 million American households with a yard or garden, 45 million use chemical fertilizers, 46 million use insecticides and 47 million use chemical weed-killers. Such chemicals?many of which, especially older varieties, have known health risks?contaminate natural habitat and seep into our homes and drinking water.

A conventional lawn is also a complete perversion of grass?s typical life cycle. Lawn grasses fall into two general categories: cool-season species, such as fescue and bluegrass, and warm-season species, such as Bermuda and zoysia. During the summer, wild cool-season grasses stop photosynthesizing, turn brown and grow far more slowly if at all in order to conserve energy; in the fall, they rebound. Conversely, wild warm-season grasses become dormant in cooler months and flourish in the summer. To keep our grass lawns green year-round, we continuously douse them with water and fertilizer, forcing the plants to grow nonstop. But we don?t want them to grow too tall, of course. By mowing down grass before it has the chance to produce flowers and seeds, we effectively trap the plants in perpetual sexual immaturity?although many are still able to reproduce asexually, cloning themselves and spreading laterally with creeping roots. Mowing also requires grass to devote a lot of energy and resources to healing itself by sealing off all wounds. The smell of freshly cut grass?so often comforting and nostalgic?is a chemical alarm call: a bouquet of fragrant volatile organic compounds that plants release when under attack. Ah, the cycle of lawn. Saturate, decapitate, repeat.

At this point grass lawns are so firmly rooted in American culture that most people never question them. Suburbanites grow up playing on their lawns. All their friends have lawns. It would be weird not to have a lawn. Yet most of us did not decide to cover so much of our front and back yards with grass?it was already there. And many people who build a home from scratch incorporate turfgrass by default. The grass lawn is not so much a choice as an imposition?a legacy borne of vanity and avarice that evolved into conformity in the name of community.

Since at least the 1960s?when Rachel Carson stressed the dangers of pesticides used on lawns in her book Silent Spring?brazen individuals and small groups of counterculture horticulturists in America and Europe have resisted or outright rejected the conventional grass lawn. In The New Yorker, Elizabeth Kolbert describes some of their proposed alternatives:

?In ?Noah?s Garden? (1993), Sara Stein?advocates ?ungardening??essentially allowing the grass to revert to thicket. Sally and Andy Wasowski, in their ?Requiem for a Lawnmower? (2004), recommend filling the yard with native trees and wildflowers. For those who don?t want to give up the look or the playing space provided by a lawn, the Wasowskis suggest using Buffalo grass, one of the very few turf species native to North America?William Niering, who for many years was a professor of botany at Connecticut College?planted trees around his property, then left most of the rest of his yard unmowed, to become a meadow?For the past few decades, David Benner, a horticulturist from Bucks County, Pennsylvania, has been touting moss as an alternative to grass?In ?Food Not Lawns? (2006), Heather C. Flores argues that the average yard could yield several hundred pounds of fruits and vegetables per year??Edible Estates? (2008) is the chronicle of a project by Fritz Haeg, an architect and artist, who rips up conventional front yards in order to replace them with visually striking ?edible plantings.? Haeg calls his approach ??full-frontal gardening.??

More recently, in the birthplace of the grass lawn, a determined graduate student has created an entirely new kind of lawn?if we can still call it that. In the 1970s, when Lionel Smith was about 11 years old, a drought shriveled the garden in front of his home in Bedfordshire, England. Though the shrubs and grass browned, resilient weeds and wildflowers bloomed. He thought it was beautiful, but his father asked him to mow all the flowers down. Not wanting to forsake his pocket money, Smith capitulated. More than 20 years later, while earning an MA in horticulture at the University of Reading, Smith decided to try and make a viable lawn without a single blade of grass?a dense mesh of flowering, low-growing, broadleaf plants that would abide some mowing and walking.

One of Smith's flowering, non-grass swards (Credit: Lionel Smith)

What began as a few experimental gardens with just four species?red clover, self-heal, daisies and yarrow?grew into many tightly woven swards with more than 65 native and non-native species each, and none of them grass. To choose these species, Smith perused data collected by researchers at Sheffield university about the types of plants that grow in British lawns, looking for soft-stemmed, laterally spreading plants in particular. He settled on violets, English daisies, small-leaved clovers, chamomile, thyme, yarrow, self-heal, lawn lobelias and cotula, among many others. Not only did these flowering plants provide complete ground coverage, they required one third less mowing than traditional lawns (three to nine times a year), in part because some of the plants adapted to regular mowing by curbing their upward growth. In the sward?s early stages, mowing is essential to prevent taller species from dominating; once established, however, Smith finds that the swards need less and less mowing each year. And he doesn?t water them; England?s climate takes care of that.

Even plants that have proved notoriously difficult to grow in British weather, such as the blue-pea, have thrived in Smith?s swards. He thinks that the diversity and proximity of the plants mimics some kind of synergy present in wild habitat but lacking in conventional lawns. A more varied and dense root system means a larger and more diverse underground community of microbes and fungi with which plants form symbiotic relationships. In exchange for nutrients, bacteria living in the roots of white clover and other plants absorb nitrogen from the air in soil and convert it into ammonia and nitrate, which plants use to build DNA and many other cell parts. When a white clover plant and its bacteria die and decompose, nitrogen returns to the soil. Smith?s swards have increased biodiversity in the skies as well: 25 percent more pollinating insects visit the polyfloral lawns compared to typical lawns and far more types of insects come in general.

A closeup of the many different species in Smith's grass-free lawn (Credit: Lionel Smith)

This past May, Avondale Park in London installed one of Smith?s flowering swards. At the time, the ecology manager of the borough of Kensington and Chelsea was having trouble with a field of fragile wildflowers in the park: any child or fox scampering through the meadow easily damaged the plants. Smith?s grass-free lawn seemed like the ideal solution: a living, flowering quilt capable of withstanding some light foot traffic. Although one of Smith?s swards cannot survive the kind of daily wear and tear that turfgrasses in parks usually endure, a little walking benefits the sward, helping to compact soil and roots. So far, visitors love it. Smith says a prestigious gardener?whom he cannot yet name?will soon have a sward in her personal garden and other public parks are interested in adopting his style of lawn as well.

Experimenting with alternatives to grass lawns does not require banishing turfgrass altogether, however. As Smith?s research underscores, turfgrass has a useful property not easily matched by other plants: its impressive material resilience. Grass tolerates a lot of trampling without dying and will spring back when compressed by cleats and lounging people?s backsides. Some scientists are currently focusing on how to make regions of private lawns and public green spaces more attractive to native pollinators, without uprooting a lawn altogether. Emily Dobbs of the University of Kentucky and her colleagues visit golf courses in the state and persuade the managers to transform some out of the way spots into wild habitat by planting a mix of perennial, native, low-maintenance wildflowers that bloom from April to October?coneflowers, columbines, black-eyed susans, clover, hyssop, and goldenrod, for example. The owners of five golf courses, including one belonging to Marriott Hotels and Resorts, have agreed so far?and the results are astounding.

?I can go out to any flower sites and see huge densities of bees, hundreds and hundreds of bees per small area,? Dobbs says. ?Usually on golf courses you see one or two species of bumblebees, some honeybees and some metallic sweat bees. On my plots we have seen two dozen species of solitary bees, sweat bees, miner bees and six different species of bumblebee. We?ve also seen quite a few butterflies.? In general, native bees are far less aggressive than honeybees and only sting if antagonized, so they do not pose a threat to golfers. And, as beautiful as the expansive, undulating, immaculate grass lawns on a golf course can be, people don?t mind some flowers here and there; in fact, they like them. The Marriott is so pleased that they plan to establish pollinator habitats in half of their golf courses in the Eastern U.S.

People can do something similar in their own backyards, explains retired biologist Beatriz Moisset of Pennsylvania, who has come up with a charming term for weeds and flowering plants woven into grass lawns. ?A lawn can supply food for pollinators and even for birds,? she writes. ?A perfectly manicured lawn that looks like an indoor green carpet need not be the only ideal of lawn beauty. Instead, a lawn with some variety of plants which includes a few broad-leaved ?weeds? has its own kind of natural beauty; let us call them ?grass companions.?? Grass expert Mary Meyer of the University of Minnesota has another name for pollinator habitats: ?bee lawns,? which she defines as ?a combination of traditional cool season lawn grasses and other low growing plants that support bees and native pollinators.? Meyer recommends mingling fine fescues with plants from the mint family, bird?s foot trefoil (Lotus corniculatus), thyme and the bulb plants squill and crocus. She is currently collaborating with her colleague, renowned entomologist Marla Spivak, on a project that echoes Lionel Smith?s research: their goal is to identify low-growing flowering plants that will survive in people?s lawns, endure some mowing and foot traffic and provide plenty of nectar and pollen for bees.

A native carpenter bee on a flower in my garden. Note the conspicuous black dot on its back, which distinguishes it from a bumblebee (Credit: Ferris Jabr)

For anyone interested in learning how to go about creating pollinator habitat in a private garden, two of the most useful online resources are the websites of The Xerces Society, a non-profit organization devoted to the conservation of invertebrates, and the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center, a research unit of the University of Austin Texas dedicated to native plants. Xerces sells a variety of pollinator conservation seed mixes?bags of wildflower and grass seed suited to different regions of the country. I have ordered a bag of seed mix designed for the Northeast. In the late summer and fall, a good time for seeding, I?m going to start converting a section of my lawn into something closer to a wildflower meadow. Elsewhere in the rectangle of lawn, I will let the weeds grow as they will, perhaps using my landlords? weed-whacker now and then if some plants get unnervingly tall. My good friend and roommate Olivia and I also plan to claim a section of the lawn for vegetables that we will grow in a wooden container.

This past weekend I spent some time working in the garden, pruning aggressive shrubs, planting flowers and watering recently potted mint and basil. Dragonflies alternately chased one another and perched with the utmost precision on the tips of branches. I discovered that a cluster of weeds with pert leaves had unfurled tiny stars of amethyst. And while clearing a brick pathway of debris from past construction projects I noticed a plump black bee lying on its side. It was a carpenter bee, one of several native species I?d recently learned to recognize. It was dead, but I was certain that it had flown here in the first place because this garden?with its hodgepodge of flowering weeds in place of a neat grass lawn?was so very alive.

Source: http://rss.sciam.com/~r/sciam/basic-science/~3/gyx1uSd9mCU/post.cfm

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Dr. Bernice A. King Delivers Commencement Address at Kaplan University?s 2013 Summer Graduation

More than 6,000 degrees conferred to online students

CHICAGO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Kaplan University?s 2013 Summer Commencement was held today in Chicago at the historic Chicago Theatre. The ceremony celebrated the hard work, perseverance and achievements of more than 6,000 graduates who earned Associate, Bachelor and Master Degrees from Kaplan University?s Schools of Arts and Sciences, Business, Education, Health Sciences, Information Technology, Legal Studies, Nursing and Public Service.

?As you continue on your life?s journey, take each step with the same motivation and enthusiasm to make a positive difference.?

Dr. Bernice A. King, daughter of human rights leaders Dr. Martin L. King, Jr. and Coretta Scott King, delivered the keynote address at each of the two ceremonies held today, addressing more than 700 graduates in attendance and thousands more watching and celebrating via a live webcast. She called on the graduates to continue to pursue their dreams, strive for excellence, and use their education and skills to make a positive impact in the lives of others.

?Fifty years ago, my father delivered his ?I Have a Dream? speech. As you continue to fulfill your dreams, hold on to the tenacity and commitment that brought you to this defining moment. My father understood that intelligence plus character is the true goal of education. He was an educated leader with character and integrity. He was an ordinary person, who had an extraordinary impact on the world. Our world is in great need of more leaders like him and you have what the world is waiting for. I implore you to take your degrees and answer the call!? said Dr. King.

An ordained minister and attorney, Dr. King is the chief executive officer of The King Center in Atlanta, Georgia. She is also the author of the book, ?Hard Questions, Heart Answers.?

Kaplan University President Dr. Wade Dyke congratulated the graduates.

?While your individual journeys to this day and stage began on different days and stages in your lives, you have much in common, including a unifying desire to change your lives and others through the path that is education,? said Dr. Dyke. ?As you continue on your life?s journey, take each step with the same motivation and enthusiasm to make a positive difference.?

Earlier this year, some 7,000 degrees were conferred to online students at Kaplan University?s Winter Commencement in Miami, Fla.

About Kaplan University

Kaplan University offers a different school of thought for higher education. It strives to help adult students unlock their talent by providing a practical, student-centered education that prepares them for careers in some of the fastest-growing industries. The University, which has its main campus in Davenport, Iowa, and its headquarters in Chicago, is accredited by The Higher Learning Commission (www.ncahlc.org) and is a member of the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools. Kaplan University serves approximately 49,000 online and campus-based students. The University has 11 campuses in Iowa, Nebraska, Maryland and Maine, and Kaplan University Learning Centers in?Maryland,?Wisconsin,?Indiana,?Missouri?and?Florida.

Kaplan University?is?part of Kaplan Higher Education Group and Kaplan, Inc., a leading international provider of educational and career services for individuals, schools and businesses.?Kaplan, Inc. serves approximately 67,000 students online and through approximately 70 campus-based schools across the United States. Kaplan?s higher education schools offer a spectrum of academic opportunities, from certificates and diplomas to graduate and professional degrees, including a juris doctor degree.?Kaplan serves students of all ages through a wide array of offerings including higher education, test preparation, professional training and programs for kids in grades K-12. Kaplan, Inc., is a subsidiary of The Washington Post Company and its largest division. For more information, visit?www.kaplanuniversity.edu.

Source: http://feeds.businesswire.com/click.phdo?i=2e2b452d0f65c75a53298ee4f1877b2f

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Robin Thicke's 'Blurred Lines': Paula Patton Reviews Hubby's Album!

'I love 'Blurred Lines'; I listen to it when I run on the treadmill,' the '2 Guns' actress gushes of one of her fave tracks.
By Rebecca Thomas, with reporting by Josh Horowitz

Source: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1711455/paula-patton-reviews-robin-thicke-album.jhtml

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Analysis: JPMorgan faces 'hard sell' in crowded market for commodity traders

By Jonathan Leff and Josephine Mason

NEW YORK (Reuters) - For third time in five years, one of the world's biggest commodity trading desks is for sale.

JPMorgan Chase & Co. said on Friday it would seek "strategic alternatives" for its physical oil, gas, power and metals trading division, the core of which is a group that's already been through two ownership changes since 2008.

It was a surprise about-face for a bank that spent billions of dollars over the past five years assembling the largest physical trading platform on Wall Street.

On paper, it seems the perfect one-stop shop for a financial rival looking to buy into the world of pipelines and pallets: a global oil trading division includes a contract supplying the biggest refinery on the East Coast; Henry Bath & Sons Ltd's 72 metal warehouses from Baltimore to Busan; a U.S. natural gas book three times larger than that of any other bank; and enough electricity contracts to light up Indiana.

Yet while other banks have often competed with JPMorgan as it acquired parts of Bear Stearns, UBS and RBS Sempra, this time around -- with a few exceptions -- they are more likely selling.

Other U.S. and European banks face the same rising capital requirements, regulatory pressures and narrowing margins that are driving JPMorgan to quit the business, hearkening the end of an era in which banks raced to get into the physical trade.

Since March, Goldman Sachs has floated selling its warehousing business Metro International Trade Services LLC, a rival to JPMorgan's Henry Bath. For more than a year, Morgan Stanley has tried, in vain, to sell its vast oil pipeline and terminals business TransMontaigne. It faces a September deadline from the Federal Reserve for a make-or-break decision over whether it will be able to keep the operation.

"Ultimately this is going to be a hard sale," one industry banker said of J.P. Morgan's offer to sell. "Look at what happened with Morgan Stanley's commodity business."

Bankers and industry sources said potential buyers could come from one of several areas: foreign banks like Brazil's BTG Pactual or Macquarie that are not subject to Fed regulations; merchant traders like Vitol or Mercuria that are expanding into metals markets; or wealthy, risk-hungry investors such as private equity and sovereign wealth funds, both of which have delved into commodity trading in recent years.

The operation is so vast and diverse that it may be hard to find a single buyer, forcing JPMorgan to split the units.

"I don't know that anyone will buy it lock stock and barrel. Perhaps the energy desk will go to a hedge fund but it has to be somebody with credit and trading lines for a physical company," said Ed Meir, an analyst at brokerage INTL FCStone.

JPMorgan has said it may seek a joint venture, spin-out or sale, but has not said whether it will seek to keep the division whole or sell it in parts. But it has the luxury of some time.

Now that it has openly announced selling the group, it should have until July of 2015 to meet a Federal Reserve five-year grace period for divesting the Henry Bath unit.

ONE THING AFTER ANOTHER

JPMorgan bought Bear Stearns in 2008, inheriting a huge electricity desk and power plants as the financial crisis loomed. A year later it bought the global agricultural and Canadian energy businesses of UBS, which was quitting the market several years after buying remnants of failed merchant Enron.

The crowning achievement for Commodities chief Blythe Masters came in 2010, when JPMorgan paid $1.7 billion for the metals and oil divisions of RBS Sempra Commodities. Eurpoean regulators forced the Royal Bank of Scotland to sell its stake to gain approval from Brussels for a state bailout. RBS had paid $1.35 billion for a 51 percent stake just two years earlier.

Now it is JPMorgan who is under pressure on multiple fronts. The bank is said to be in talks over a $400 million deal to settle allegations that it manipulated power markets; the metals warehousing industry is under public and political scrutiny over allegations that long queues are driving up prices.

And as of last week, the Federal Reserve is reconsidering a landmark 2003 decision that first allowed banks to trade physical commodities, in addition to traditional derivatives.

None of those factors may deter certain new players, particularly those who choose not to establish commercial banking operations in the United States, allowing them to remain outside of the Fed's limits on commodity trade.

Brazil's BTG Pactual has made little secret in recent months of its desire to build a big presence in the market, hiring former Noble Group chief executive Ricardo Leiman to jump-start a major new expansion by recruiting traders on both sides of the Atlantic, according to industry sources.

The bank has declined to comment on its plans.

Australia's Macquarie Group has also built up a major presence in U.S. gas, power and oil markets over the past five years, with a 160-strong trading desk in Houston, and dipped a toe into the metals warehousing business by joining hedge fund Red Kite in buying a stake in Scale Distribution, a small firm that runs an LME warehouse in Liverpool.

Macquarie had expressed interest in Henry Bath and the former Sempra physical metals team when it was up for sale in 2010, sources said at the time. So had Deutsche Bank, which has since scaled back sharply in physical U.S. and European trade.

The Australian bank may also make a natural buyer for some of JPMorgan's energy assets.

A bank spokesperson declined to comment.

Another contender may be Noble Group , the ambitious Hong Kong-based merchant that has tried for several years to expand globally, particularly in energy and metals markets. This month it hired JPMorgan's long-time head of global oil trading Jeff Frase, a veteran Goldman trader, and poached Morgan Stanley's top European crude traders.

In 2010, it bought a small U.S. company, Worldwide Warehouse Solutions, which has expanded to 13 LME warehouses, including in Singapore and the Netherlands. It also hired several big traders over the past year to broaden its metals desk.

A spokesperson could not immediately be reached for comment.

WAREHOUSE GEM?

At one time, the crown jewel of the business would have been Henry Bath & Sons, a metals and soft commodity warehousing firm based in Liverpool, Britain that is nearly 220 years old.

Three years ago, JPM told regulators Henry Bath stored between 20 and 30 percent of metal stored in the LME's warehousing network in 2009. That was as much as 1.7 million tonnes of base metals, according to Reuters calculations, equivalent to 9 percent of global annual copper use.

It booked profits of $113 million that year, almost four times 2008, as a glut of metal piled up during the world economic crisis. In 2010, just as JPMorgan was buying Sempra, Goldman Sachs paid more than $500 million for smaller rival Metro and Glencore bought Pacorini Metals.

But profits have ebbed as metals stocks have thinned, and competition from Goldman and Glencore Xstrata increased. In 2011, Henry Bath posted net profit of $27 million. The company has slipped from No. 2 to No. 4 in the LME system.

Bankers noted that two of the world's biggest oil traders, both based in Switzerland, had expanded into base metals in the past year. Vitol hired veteran trader Roger Pillai; Mercuria hired Mike Harrison from Standard Bank.

But their appetite to enter the warehousing business is uncertain at a time when the LME has proposed sweeping reform of its warehousing policy that are meant to reduce wait times and placate irate industrial users who complain about lengthy queues for delivery, but probably will also hit profit.

The LME board will vote on its proposal in October and the change would be implemented next April.

A senior Vitol executive said the company was not likely to be interested in JPMorgan's physical businesses.

"I'm not sure who it fits," the executive said.

Last year, JPMorgan sold its metals concentrates trading team to private equity-backed start-up Freepoint Commodities in order to comply with Fed regulations. As an LME ring-dealing, the world's largest metals market, JPMorgan is also one of the largest metals brokers.

ENERGY OPTIONS

In the physical energy markets, JPMorgan had leapfrogged its rivals by this year. It became the first bank in more than a decade to surpass Morgan Stanley as the biggest U.S. oil importer due to last year's deal to supply crude to a 330,000 barrel per day (bpd) Philadelphia refinery and a smaller contract to supply Northern Tier's Minnesota plant.

JPMorgan traded nearly 3,000 trillion British thermal units (Tbtu) of physical natural gas last year, making it the eighth-largest players in the market, according to data reported to the U.S. Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. That was down 17 percent from 2011 but still triple its nearest rival Goldman.

The energy market has been the largest and most attractive for investors, but enthusiasm may wane due to a FERC crackdown on U.S. electricity trading, lower volatility in oil and natural gas and signs of growing European oversight of physical markets.

And here too the market is crowded.

If you are looking for a purely proprietary physical energy trading shop with global reach, what about Hess Energy Trading Co. (Hetco), the joint-venture being sold off by Hess? For a domestic U.S. operation in good position to trade the booming business of shale and ethanol, how about Gavilon's oil division, spun out from Marubeni's takeover this summer?

Ultimately, potential buyers must try to value the intellectual capital of an energy group that owns few assets, with few guarantees the talent will stick around after a sale.

"My feeling is large traders will not buy banks' businesses, at best they can hire some of the better individuals there, but I don't see it any further than that," said one senior executive with a major merchant trader.

Despite the obstacles, JPMorgan hopes this sale will turn out better than the last time it tried to sell an energy unit.

In mid-1998, after a five-year effort to get into physical energy trading, the bank said it would sell the 35-person division, which included a large European crude desk. Six months later it folded the group, having failed to find a buyer.

(Additional reporting by Jessica Toonkel, Mike Erman, Cezary Podkul in New York; Richard Mably and Ron Bousso in London; Editing by David Gregorio)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/analysis-jpmorgan-faces-hard-sell-crowded-market-commodity-040808524.html

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Sunday, July 28, 2013

Android SDK Installation problem

Hello, I'm new in titanium. I installed the IDE. But while installing Android SDK the IDE gets hang & I had to close the application. Then I restart the IDE & then tried to install SDK again from the Dashboard. In the dashboard android SDK install panel following text shows "One or more pieces are missing from the Android SDK. It may be that the Android SDK is already installed and Titanium Studio cannot locate the directory, or it may be that some additional components need to be installed." If I try to install SDK again the installation box appears for a moment & then suddenly disappears without installing the SDK. I'm kinda stuck here. Plz help me.

Source: http://developer.appcelerator.com/question/155371/android-sdk-installation-problem

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Pope shames Brazil church for letting faithful go

RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) -- Pope Francis issued blistering, soul-searching criticism Saturday of the Brazilian church?s failure to keep its flock from straying to evangelical churches, challenging the region?s bishops to be closer to their people to understand their problems and offer them credible solutions.

In the longest and most important speech of his four-month pontificate, Francis drove home a message he has emphasized throughout his first international trip at World Youth Day: the need for priests and young Catholics to shake up the status quo, get out of their stuffy sacristies and reach the faithful on the margins of society or risk losing them to rival churches.

Francis took a direct swipe at the ?intellectual? message of the church that so characterized the pontificate of his predecessor, Benedict XVI. He said ordinary Catholics simply don?t understand such lofty ideas and need a simpler message of love, forgiveness and mercy.

?At times we lose people because they don?t understand what we are saying, because we have forgotten the language of simplicity and import an intellectualism foreign to our people,? he said. ?Without the grammar of simplicity, the church loses the very conditions which make it possible to fish for God in the deep waters of his mystery.?

In the speech outlining the kind of church that this new pope wants, Francis asked bishops to reflect on why hundreds of thousands of Catholics have left for charismatic Pentecostal congregations that have grown exponentially in recent decades, particularly in Brazil?s slums or favelas, where their charismatic message and nuts-and-bolts advice have been welcomed by the poor.

According to Brazilian census data, the number of Catholics dipped from 125 million in 2000 to 123 million in 2010, with the church?s share of the total population dropping from 74 percent to 65 percent. During the same time period, the number of evangelical Protestants and Pentecostals has risen from 26 million to 42 million, an increase of 15 percent to 22 percent of the population in 2010.

Francis offered a breathtakingly blunt list of explanations for the demographic shift.

?Perhaps the church appeared too weak, perhaps too distant from their needs, perhaps too poor to respond to their concerns, perhaps too cold, perhaps too caught up with itself, perhaps a prisoner of its own rigid formulas,? he said. ?Perhaps the world seems to have made the church a relic of the past, unfit for new questions. Perhaps the church could speak to people in their infancy but not to those come of age.?

Francis asked if the Catholic Church of today still was able to ?warm the hearts? of its faithful, if its priests took the time to listen to their problems and remain close to them, and act like a ?mother? who not only gives birth to her children but cares for them.

?We need a church capable of rediscovering the maternal womb of mercy,? he said. ?Without mercy, we have little chance nowadays of becoming part of a world of ?wounded? persons in need of understanding, forgiveness and love.?

The Vatican said Francis read the five-page speech in its entirety to the 300 or so bishops gathered for lunch in the auditorium of the Rio archbishop?s residence, and noted that the talk was both the longest and most important to date of Francis? pontificate. He will issue a similarly lengthy and important speech on Sunday to the bishops of Latin America, said the Rev. Federico Lombardi, the Vatican spokesman.

The Argentine pope began his day with a Mass in Rio?s beehive-like modern cathedral where he exhorted 1,000 bishops from around the world to go out and find the faithful, a more diplomatic expression of the direct, off-the-cuff exhortation he delivered to young Argentine pilgrims on Thursday. In those remarks, he urged the youngsters to make a ?mess? in their dioceses and shake things up, even at the expense of confrontation with their bishops and priests.

?We cannot keep ourselves shut up in parishes, in our communities when so many people are waiting for the Gospel!? Francis said in his homily. ?It?s not enough simply to open the door in welcome, but we must go out through that door to seek and meet the people.?

Francis himself is imposing a shake-up in the Vatican?s staid and dysfunctional bureaucracy, setting in motion a reform plan and investigations into misdeeds at the scandal-plagued Vatican bank and other administrative offices.

Francis? target audience is the poor and the marginalized?the people that history?s first pope from Latin America has highlighted on this first trip of his pontificate. He has visited one of Rio?s most violent slum areas, met with juvenile offenders and drug addicts and welcomed in a place of honor 35 trash recyclers from his native Argentina.

?Let us courageously look to pastoral needs, beginning with the outskirts, with those who are farthest away, with those who do not usually go to church,? he said Saturday. ?They too are invited to the table of the Lord.?

He carried that message to a meeting with Brazil?s political, economic and intellectual elite, urging them to look out for the poorest and use their leadership positions to work for the common good. He also called for greater dialogue between generations, religions and peoples.

?Between selfish indifference and violent protest there is always another possible option: that of dialogue,? he said in a reference to the protests that have wracked Brazil in recent weeks. ?A country grows when constructive dialogue occurs between its many rich cultural components: popular culture, university culture, youth culture, artistic and technological culture, economic culture, family culture and media culture.? He added that religion plays a critical and unifying role.

He delivered those remarks at Rio?s grand municipal theater, where he was welcomed with a standing ovation and shouts of ?Francisco? and ?Viva o Papa!? (Long live the pope).

On a few occasions, he looked up at the gilded theater boxes almost in awe from the stage and seemed charmed when a few dozen young students of the theater?s ballet school, all with their hair in buns, sat down around him. At the end of the event, the little ballerinas all swarmed around Francis for a hug and a kiss.

Also receiving papal embraces were a handful of Brazilian Indians, dressed in their traditional, bare-bellied garb who lined up to kiss his ring. One man gave Francis a feathered headdress, which he gamely wore for a few moments.

Claudina Rosa, a 32-year-old secretary from Minas Gerais state who waited outside the theater in a downpour to catch a glimpse of the pope, applauded his call for dialogue.

?We don?t have any way of accessing our leaders. They don?t listen to us at all, so it?s excellent that the pope call for dialogue in this way,? she said.

Later Saturday, Francis was presiding over an evening vigil service on Copacabana beach that is expected to draw more than 1 million young people.

He returns to Rome on Sunday after the final Mass.

Source: http://www.khou.com/news/Pope-shames-Brazil-church-for-letting-faithful-go--217241961.html

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