Aussie court ends Qantas strike, fleet grounding

Idle Qantas planes are reflected in a window at Sydney Airport in Sydney, Sunday, Oct. 30, 2011. Qantas Airways grounded all of its aircraft around the world indefinitely Saturday due to ongoing strikes by its workers. (AP Photo/Rick Rycroft)

Idle Qantas planes are reflected in a window at Sydney Airport in Sydney, Sunday, Oct. 30, 2011. Qantas Airways grounded all of its aircraft around the world indefinitely Saturday due to ongoing strikes by its workers. (AP Photo/Rick Rycroft)

Douglas and Diane Phillips of Dover, Del. say they are trying to book a flight on another airline after their Qantas flight to Melbourne the night before was canceled at Los Angeles International Airport in Los Angeles, Saturday, Oct. 29, 2011. Qantas Airways grounded its global fleet Saturday, suddenly locking out striking workers after weeks of flight disruptions. (AP Photo/Jason Redmond)

Australia Prime Minister Julia Gillard speaks to the media after Qantas Airways grounded its global fleet amid a bitter dispute with striking workers, stranding passengers around the world, during the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in Perth, Australia, Sunday, Oct. 30, 2011. (AP Photo/ Theron Kirkman)

A Qantas Airbus A-330 plane sits on the tarmac at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport Sunday Oct. 30, 2011 at suburban Pasay city, south of Manila, Philippines. Tens of thousands of stranded Qantas Airways passengers worldwide scrambled to get to their destinations Sunday after the airline abruptly grounded its global fleet over a dispute with striking workers. Australia's government sought a court order to force the flagship carrier's planes back in the air. (AP Photo/Bullit Marquez)

Qantas Airways customer service workers help passengers at Los Angeles International Airport as the airline grounded its global fleet locking out striking workers after weeks of flight disruptions Saturday, Oct. 29, 2011 in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Jason Redmond)

CANBERRA, Australia (AP) ? An Australian court early Monday ended the strikes and employee lockout that had abruptly grounded Qantas Airways and stranded tens of thousands of passengers worldwide. The airline planned to speak soon on when flights will resume.

The arbitration court heard more than 14 hours of testimony from the airline, the Australian government and unions after the government called the emergency hearing Saturday. Workers have held rolling strikes and refused overtime work for weeks out of worry that some of Qantas' 35,000 jobs would be moved overseas in a restructing plan.

The unions wanted a temporary suspension of the employee lockout, but the airline said the strikes had been too devastating and it needed certainty to continue operating.

Tribunal President Geoffrey Giudice said the panel decided a temporary suspension would still risk Qantas' grounding its fleet in the future and would not protect the tourism and aviation industry from damage.

Qantas is the largest of Australia's four national domestic airlines, and the grounding affected 108 planes in 22 countries.

About 70,000 passengers fly Qantas daily, and would-be fliers this weekend were stuck at home, hotels, airports or even had to suddenly deplane when Qantas suspended operations. More than 60 flights were in the air at the time but flew to their destinations, and Qantas was paying for passengers to book other flights.

Qantas CEO Alan Joyce said before the panel ruled that the airline could be flying again within hours of a decision. He had estimated the grounding would cost the carrier $20 million a day.

German tourist Michael Messmann was trying to find a way home from Singapore on Sunday. He and his wife spent five weeks traveling around Australia but found their connecting flight home to Frankfurt suddenly canceled.

"I don't know the details of the dispute, but it seems like a severe reaction by the airline to shut down all their flights. That seems a bit extreme," said Messmann, 68. "After five weeks of traveling, we just want to go home."

Australian business traveler Graeme Yeatman sided with the airline, even though he was also trying to find a new flight home to Sydney on Sunday after his flight was canceled.

"I think the unions have too much power over Qantas. Even though this is an inconvenience for me, I'm glad the airline is drawing a line in the sand," said Yeatman, 41.

The airline infuriated unions in August when it said it would improve its loss-making overseas business by creating an Asia-based airline with its own name and brand. The five-year restructure plan will cost 1,000 jobs.

Qantas said in August it had more than doubled annual profit to AU$250 million but warned that the business environment was too challenging to forecast earnings for the current fiscal year.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2011-10-30-AS-Australia-Qantas/id-d5f61190bf5440e3bfd1fc65af8d3c47

carolina panthers arizona cardinals minnesota vikings chargers cake boss san diego chargers san diego chargers

Cundiff FG gives Ravens 30-27 win over Cardinals (AP)

BALTIMORE ? Down by three touchdowns in the second quarter, the Baltimore Ravens were being jeered by the home crowd and in danger of losing another game to a sub-.500 opponent.

What followed was the greatest comeback in the history of the franchise.

Billy Cundiff kicked a 25-yard field goal as time expired, Ray Rice scored a career-high three touchdowns, and the Ravens rallied to beat the Arizona Cardinals 30-27 Sunday.

Using a fumble recovery and an 82-yard punt return by Patrick Peterson, Arizona scored three touchdowns during a five-minute span of the second quarter to take a 24-3 lead.

Baltimore (5-2) answered with a 24-point run and moved in front 27-24 when Rice scored his third touchdown on the opening play of the fourth quarter.

Arizona (1-6) pulled even with a 45-yard field goal by Jay Feely with 8:55 left, but the Ravens won it with a 37-yard, beat-the-clock drive in the final minute.

After the Cardinals were forced to punt from deep in their own territory, Baltimore took over at the Arizona 44 with 52 seconds left. A 36-yard completion from Joe Flacco to rookie Torrey Smith moved the ball to the 5, setting the stage for Cundiff's game-winner.

The Ravens' previous biggest comeback was a 19-point hole against Tennessee in 2006.

Flacco went 31 for 51 for 336 yards, and Rice ran for 63 yards on 18 carries. In a 12-7 loss to Jacksonville on Monday night, the 5-foot-8 running back was limited to 28 yards on eight carries.

Anquan Boldin, who played with the Cardinals from 2003-09, caught seven passes for 145 yards and was a key contributor in the rally.

Arizona has lost six straight. Four of those defeats have been by four points or fewer.

Kevin Kolb threw for 153 yards and a touchdown, and Peterson became the eighth player in Cardinals history to have at least two punt returns for touchdowns in a single season. The last one to do it was Vai Sikahema in 1986.

The Ravens began the second half with an 80-yard drive in which Flacco went 5 for 5, including a 37-yarder to Boldin that set up a 1-yard touchdown run by Rice to make it 24-13.

Late in the third quarter, Boldin caught passes 21, 23, 27 and 9 yards during an 88-yard drive that ended with another 1-yard TD run by Rice.

The momentum turned even further in Baltimore's direction immediately after the ensuing kickoff. On first down, Kolb was hit by Terrell Suggs while throwing a pass that was intercepted by Jameel McClain and taken 8 yards to the Arizona 22. Three plays later, Rice ran in from the 3.

Two holding penalties against the Ravens extended the Cardinals' bounce-back drive that ended with a field goal.

Mistakes by Baltimore also played a big part in Arizona's big second quarter.

With the game tied at 3, the Ravens' five-minute misadventure began when Flacco fumbled upon being sacked by O'Brien Schofield. Darnell Dockett recovered at the Baltimore 2, setting up a 1-yard scoring run by Beanie Wells ? the second rushing touchdown against the Ravens this season.

The boos from the sellout crowd of 71,022 increased when Peterson broke six tackles on his punt return. That was followed by stunned silence 13 seconds later when Richard Marshall picked off a pass that bounced off Smith's chest. That led to a 10-yard touchdown pass from Kolb to Early Doucet for a 24-3 lead with 3:46 remaining in the second quarter.

A field goal by Cundiff cut the gap to 18 points at halftime.

Flacco was sacked twice and committed two turnovers in a lamentable first half.

Kolb was sacked twice on Arizona's opening possession, but on the next series connected with Larry Fitzgerald for 66 yards ? the longest play against the Ravens' defense this year. That led to a field goal for a 3-0 lead.

Ravens linebacker Ray Lewis missed the latter part of the drive nursing a right shoulder stinger. He received treatment on the sideline and returned after Baltimore mounted a 6 1/2-minute march that produced a field goal.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/sports/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111030/ap_on_sp_fo_ga_su/fbn_cardinals_ravens

brandon lloyd brandon lloyd publishers clearing house scare tactics gunsmoke stacy keibler stacy keibler

Sunday morning coming down (Powerlineblog)

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

Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/155347776?client_source=feed&format=rss

montreal canadiens montreal canadiens jason aldean new york time amish sonic the hedgehog imagine

?Fragile Front-Runner? No More? (ABC News)

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

Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/154277194?client_source=feed&format=rss

naacp cheryl cole x factor forgetting sarah marshall freetown freetown nicole scherzinger modern family

High-quality white light produced by four-color laser source; Diode lasers could challenge LEDs for home and industrial lighting supremacy

ScienceDaily (Oct. 26, 2011) ? The human eye is as comfortable with white light generated by diode lasers as with that produced by increasingly popular light-emitting diodes (LEDs), according to tests conceived at Sandia National Laboratories.

Both technologies pass electrical current through material to generate light, but the simpler LED emits lights only through spontaneous emission. Diode lasers bounce light back and forth internally before releasing it.

The finding is important because LEDs -- widely accepted as more efficient and hardier replacements for century-old tungsten incandescent bulb technology -- lose efficiency at electrical currents above 0.5 amps. However, the efficiency of a sister technology -- the diode laser -- improves at higher currents, providing even more light than LEDs at higher amperages.

"What we showed is that diode lasers are a worthy path to pursue for lighting," said Sandia researcher Jeff Tsao, who proposed the comparative experiment. "Before these tests, our research in this direction was stopped before it could get started. The typical response was, 'Are you kidding? The color rendering quality of white light produced by diode lasers would be terrible.' So finally it seemed like, in order to go further, one really had to answer this very basic question first."

Little research had been done on diode lasers for lighting because of a widespread assumption that human eyes would find laser-based white light unpleasant. It would comprise four extremely narrow-band wavelengths -- blue, red, green, and yellow -- and would be very different from sunlight, for example, which blends a wide spectrum of wavelengths with no gaps in between. Diode laser light is also ten times narrower than that emitted by LEDs.

The tests -- a kind of high-tech market research -- took place at the University of New Mexico's Center for High Technology Materials. Forty volunteers were seated, one by one, before two near-identical scenes of fruit in bowls, housed in adjacent chambers. Each bowl was randomly illuminated by warm, cool, or neutral white LEDs, by a tungsten-filament incandescent light bulb, or by a combination of four lasers (blue, red, green, yellow) tuned so their combination produced a white light.

The experiment proceeded like an optometrist's exam: the subjects were asked: Do you prefer the left picture, or the right? All right, how about now?

The viewers were not told which source provided the illumination. They were instructed merely to choose the lit scene with which they felt most comfortable. The pairs were presented in random order to ensure that neither sequence nor tester preconceptions played roles in subject choices, but only the lighting itself. The computer program was written, and the set created, by Alexander Neumann, a UNM doctoral student of CHTM director Steve Brueck.

Each participant, selected from a variety of age groups, was asked to choose 80 times between the two changing alternatives, a procedure that took ten to twenty minutes, said Sandia scientist Jonathan Wierer, who helped plan, calibrate and execute the experiments. Five results were excluded when the participants proved to be color-blind. The result was that there was a statistically significant preference for the diode-laser-based white light over the warm and cool LED-based white light, Wierer said, but no statistically significant preference between the diode-laser-based and either the neutral LED-based or incandescent white light.

The results probably won't start a California gold rush of lighting fabricators into diode lasers, said Tsao, but they may open a formerly ignored line of research. Diode lasers are slightly more expensive to fabricate than LEDs because their substrates must have fewer defects than those used for LEDs. Still, he said, such substrates are likely to become more available in the future because they improve LED performance as well.

Also, while blue diode lasers have good enough performance that the automaker BMW is planning their use in its vehicles' next-generation white headlights, performance of red diode lasers is not as good, and yellow and green have a ways to go before they are efficient enough for commercial lighting opportunities.

Still, says Tsao, a competition wouldn't have to be all or nothing. Instead, he said, a cooperative approach might use blue and red diode lasers with yellow and green LEDs. Or blue diode lasers could be used to illuminate phosphors -- the technique currently used by fluorescent lights and the current generation of LED-based white light -- to create desirable shades of light.

The result makes possible still further efficiencies for the multibillion dollar lighting industry. The so-called ''smart beams'' can be adjusted on site for personalized color renderings for health reasons and, because they are directional, also can provide illumination precisely where it's wanted.

Colorimetric and experimental guidance was provided by the National Institute of Standards and Technology.

The research was published in the July 1 issue of Optics Express.

This work was conducted as part of the Solid-State Lighting Science Energy Frontier Research Center, funded by the U.S. DOE Office of Science.

Recommend this story on Facebook, Twitter,
and Google +1:

Other bookmarking and sharing tools:

---

Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by DOE/Sandia National Laboratories.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.

---

Journal Reference:

1. A. Neumann, J. J. Wierer, W. Davis, Y. Ohno, S. R. J. Brueck, J.Y. Tsao. Four-color laser white illuminant demonstrating high color-rendering quality. Optics Express, 2011; 19 (S4): A982 DOI: 10.1364/OE.19.00A982

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/10/111026143731.htm

the falling man the falling man mermaid roger federer drake corset lionel richie

Hopes rise as talks for new NBA labor deal continue (Reuters)

(Reuters) ? Marathon negotiations between National Basketball Association (NBA) owners and players failed to deliver a new labor agreement Thursday but both sides left negotiations vowing to continue talks to end the lockout.

"There are no guarantees that we're going to get it done," NBA commissioner David Stern told reporters at the end of a negotiating session at a Manhattan hotel. "But we're going to give it one heck of a shot tomorrow."

After meeting for 15 hours Wednesday, owners and players returned to the negotiating table Thursday and met for nearly eight hours but were unable to end the four-month old dispute although there was increasing optimism that an agreement was within reach.

More talks are planned for Friday.

"I think we're within striking distance of getting a deal," said players union boss Billy Hunter.

Negotiations on a new collective bargaining agreement picked up steam after reports earlier this week suggested the league was ready to axe two more weeks from the schedule after already cancelling the opening two weeks of the regular season.

If an agreement can be reached by the weekend there are hopes a full 82-game season, which was originally scheduled to begin on November 1, might still be played.

Details from the latest round of talks were not released but it is believed the main stumbling blocks remain how the two sides will divide basketball-related income and the structure of the salary cap system.

NBA owners contend the league lost $300 million last season with 22 of 30 teams in the red and initially demanded players cut their share of revenue -- which was 57 percent under the previous agreement -- to 47 percent along with a firm salary cap and shorter contracts.

The players have lowered their proposal to 52.5 percent.

(Reporting by Steve Keating in Toronto; Editing by Frank Pingue/Greg Stutchbury)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/sports/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111028/sp_nm/us_nba_dispute

mayweather vs ortiz ncaa football 12 ncaa football 12 direct tv lion king photon plane crash

Probable WWII submarine found off Papua New Guinea

CANBERRA, Australia?? A wreck found under water in a Papua New Guinea harbor likely was a Japanese midget submarine from World War II, a historian said Friday.

Australian and New Zealand warships found it while working in the area to clear WWII-era explosives Thursday. Simpson Harbor is in the town of Rabaul, which was a major Japanese military base on the northeast coast of the South Pacific nation.

New Zealand Navy Lt. Commander Matthew Ray told Australian Broadcasting Corp. radio the find was initially identified as "a 20-meter (66-feet) long solid, manmade object." Closer inspection confirmed it was a submarine, although its nationality was not yet known, he said.

The only submarines involved in fighting around Rabaul were U.S. and Japanese, and both sides have accounted for most, if not all, of their subs in the area, said Gary Oakley, a Australian War Memorial curator and a former submariner.

As Rabaul was Japan's major base in the Southwest Pacific for most of the war, most of the submarines in the harbor had been Japanese. Previously known submarine wrecks in the harbor were also Japanese, he said.

"My best guess would be it's a Japanese midget submarine. It doesn't look big enough to be an ocean-going ... submarine," Oakley said after examining indistinct images of the wreck released by the Australian Defense Department.

One- and two-man Japanese midget submarines were transported by ship or larger submarines and used covertly to infiltrate enemy targets including Pearl Harbor in Hawaii and Sydney Harbor.

Such a submarine could have been destroyed by an American air raid or naval bombardment or even scuttled by the Japanese toward the end of the war, Oakley said.

Ray said underwater remote-controlled vehicles with cameras will be used to try to identify the wreck.

Oakley said it could be the first Australian submarine lost in World War I, although that submarine, AE1, was thought to have sunk in another harbor 12 miles (20 kilometers) away.

AE1 became the first Australian naval loss of the war when it sank on Sept. 15, 1914, with the loss of 35 lives. Rabaul was then the capital of the German New Guineau colony, which was quickly lost to the British.

Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/45070252/ns/world_news/

packers bears boeing 787 mike wallace mike wallace johnny appleseed hank baskett scrimshaw

The Simpsons Called It: Three Eyed Fish Caught Outside a Nuclear Power Plant [Nuclear Power]

Fishermen in C?rdoba, Argentina caught a three-eyed wolf fish in a reservoir fed by a local nuclear power plant, which will surely hinder the plant's owner's attempt to run for local office. More »

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/j78uzTGnegQ/the-simpsons-called-it-three-eyed-fish-caught-outside-a-nuclear-power-plant

the raven the raven lawrence o donnell kelly ripa conrad murray conrad murray fresno state

Turkey quake toll exceeds 260 dead, hundreds missing (Reuters)

ERCIS, Turkey (Reuters) ? Rescuers clawed through rubble on Monday to free people trapped by a powerful earthquake that killed at least 264 people and wounded more than 1,000 in mainly Kurdish southeast Turkey.

Hundreds more were feared dead, as Turkey's most powerful quake in a decade toppled remote villages of mud brick houses.

As some desperate survivors cried for help from beneath mounds of smashed concrete and twisted metal, earthmoving machines and soldiers joined the search after Sunday's 7.2 magnitude quake struck the city of Van and the town of Ercis, some 100 km (60 miles) to the north.

"Be patient, be patient," rescuers told a whimpering boy, pinned under a concrete slab with the lifeless hand of an adult, with a wedding ring, visible just in front of his face.

A Reuters photographer saw a woman and her daughter being freed from beneath a concrete slab in the wreckage of a building that had once been six stories tall.

"I'm here, I'm here," the woman, named Fidan, called out in a hoarse voice. Talking to her regularly while working for more than two hours to find a way through, rescuers cut through the slab, first sighting the daughter's foot, before freeing them.

Standing by a wrecked four-storey building one woman told a rescue worker she had spoken to her friend, Hatice Hasimoglu,on her mobile phone six hours after the quake trapped her inside.

"She's my friend and she called me to say that she's alive and she's stuck in the rubble near the stairs of the building," said her friend, a fellow teacher. "She told me she was wearing red pajamas," she said, standing with distraught relatives begging the rescue workers to hurry.

In Van, an ancient city of one million on a lake ringed by snow-capped mountains, cranes shifted rubble from a collapsed six-storey apartment block where 70 people were feared trapped.

Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan flew swiftly to Van to assess the scale of the disaster in a quake-prone area that is a hotbed of activity for Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militants.

Erdogan said he feared for the fate of villages which rescue teams had yet to reach. "Because the buildings are made of mud brick, they are more vulnerable to quakes. I must say that almost all buildings in such villages are destroyed," he told an overnight news conference in Van.

NTV broadcaster quoted Interior Minister Idris Naim Sahin as saying the death toll had reached 264. Deputy Prime Minister Besir Atalay, speaking in Van, said more than 1,300 were injured. The interior minister said hundreds more were unaccounted for, many believed buried under rubble.

Newspapers said trauma had been piled on trauma in the southeast, where a PKK attack killed 24 Turkish soldiers in Hakkari, south of Van, last week. "Homeland of Pain. Yesterday terrorism, today earthquake," said Radikal newspaper.

Erdogan earlier flew by helicopter to Ercis, a town of 100,000 that was harder hit than Van, with 55 buildings flattened, including a student dormitory. "We don't know how many people are in the ruins of collapsed buildings," he said.

At one crumpled four-storey building in Ercis, firemen from the major southeastern city of Diyarbakir tried to reach four missing children. Aid workers carried two black body bags, one apparently containing a child, to an ambulance. An old woman wrapped in a headscarf walked alongside sobbing.

A distressed man paced back and forth before running toward the rescue workers on top of the rubble. "That's my nephew's house," he sobbed as workers tried to hold him back.

A group of women, some with faces covered by headscarves, wept as they looked on under a chilly blue sky.

COLD NIGHT IN OPEN

Nearby, aid teams handed out parcels of bread and food, while people wrapped in blankets huddled around open fires after spending a cold night on the streets.

Rescue efforts were hampered by power outages after the quake toppled electricity cables to towns and villages across much of the barren Anatolian steppe near the Iranian border. It also damaged the main Van-Ercis road, CNN Turk reported.

More than 200 aftershocks have jolted the region since the quake struck for around 25 seconds at 1041 GMT (6:41 a.m. EDT) on Sunday.

"I just felt the whole earth moving and I was petrified. It went on for ages. And the noise, you could hear this loud, loud noise," said Hakan Demirtas, 32, a builder who was working on construction site in Van at the time.

"My house is ruined," he said, sitting on a low wall after spending the night in the open. "I am still afraid, I'm in shock. I have no future, there is nothing I can do."

The Red Crescent said about 100 experts had reached the earthquake zone to coordinate rescue and relief operations. Some 5,000 tents and 11,000 blankets, stoves and food were being distributed and mobile kitchens were set up to feed those made homeless. Sniffer dogs had joined the quest for survivors.

At Van airport, a Turkish Airlines cargo plane unloaded aid materials onto waiting military vehicles for distribution.

Workers set up a tent city in the Ercis sports stadium, as ambulances, sirens wailing, ferried the injured to hospital.

Dogan news agency reported that 24 people were pulled from the rubble alive in the two hours after midnight.

Erdogan later returned to Ankara for a cabinet meeting to discuss the response to the disaster. He said Turkey could cope by itself, but thanked nations offering help, including Armenia and Israel, which both have strained relations with Ankara.

U.N Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said he was deeply saddened by the loss of life and devastation. "He expresses his heartfelt sympathies to the government and people of Turkey at this time of loss and suffering," a U.N. statement said.

Major geological fault lines cross Turkey, where small tremors occur almost daily. Two large quakes in 1999 killed more than 20,000 people in the northwest.

The quake had no impact on Turkish financial markets as they opened on Monday. Finance Minister Mehmet Simsek said Van benefit from tax exemptions.

In Van, construction worker Sulhattin Secen, 27, said he had first mistaken the quake's rumble for a car crash.

"Then the ground beneath me started moving up and down as if I was standing in water. May God help us. It's like life has stopped. What are people going to do?"

(Additional reporting by Ece Toksabay in Istanbul; Writing by Simon Cameron-Moore, Ibon Villelabeitia and Daren Butler; Editing by Alistair Lyon)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/asia/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111024/wl_nm/us_turkey_quake

charlie daniels band the thing carrie steve wozniak steve wozniak legarrette blount pharrell

Penalized in China, Wal-Mart reopens Chongqing stores (Reuters)

CHONGQING, China (Reuters) ? Wal-Mart stores in the Chinese city of Chongqing reopened to surging crowds on Tuesday, two weeks after being shut down by local authorities for violating food and product standards.

About 100 shoppers were waiting outside a Wal-Mart in the Nan'an district of Chongqing and rushed inside when the doors opened about 10 minutes early. Other Wal-Mart stores were jammed with shoppers in the food aisles, lured by special discounts on a range of goods.

Wal-Mart reopened its 13 stores here after being forced to shut them when Chongqing authorities discovered branches of the world's largest retailer selling regular pork labeled and priced as organic pork.

That did not appear to deter many customers.

"So they sold some fake things," said a 62-year-old retiree named Yang outside the store in the sprawling central Chinese city's Jiulongpo district. "But you see fake things everywhere."

Authorities also arrested two Wal-Mart employees as a result of the investigation. A Chongqing government spokesman said last week that another 25 remain under investigation.

Analysts played down the long-term impact on Wal-Mart's Chinese operations.

"I expect this will have only a short-term impact (on Wal-Mart's reputation). Customers will continue to shop at Wal-Mart due to the prime location of its stores," said Jason Yuen, a retail analyst at UOB Kay Hian Research in Hong Kong.

FOOD SAFETY CONCERNS

The pork mislabeling was the latest in a string of 21 violations dating back to 2006 and authorities, who said they were dissatisfied with Wal-Mart's previous responses, ordered a two-week closure of all the chain's stores in the city.

"Wal-Mart opened its first store in Chongqing in September 2005 and the violations started in 2006," Zhao Jia, a spokesman for the Administration of Industry and Commerce's Chongqing Bureau, told Reuters. "Many times we sent our opinions and sent them notices. They never explained anything to us clearly."

Many of the earlier infractions were vague, such as lemon candy, women's jackets or washing machines that "did not meet standards," according to the bureau.

But others, including selling dairy products and juice after expiration dates, evoked food safety worries, a keen concern in a country that has seen repeated scandals involving food tainted with toxic ingredients.

The sanction was not surprising, considering the history of violations, said Zheng Yusheng, a professor at the Cheung Kong Graduate School of Business. "And in China, food safety has become a national issue."

The transgressions, however, "did not come from headquarters. It's from local workers and managers, so you have to tighten local controls."

That's what Wal-Mart, which has 353 stores in China and recently celebrated its 15th anniversary in the country, says it did, using the two-week shutdown to strengthen its monitoring processes and training.

In a statement issued on Tuesday, Wal-Mart China also said it has created a "fast food inspection lab" in its stores.

"Wal-Mart is committed to Chinese customers, and is dedicated to compliance with all the standards and requirements," said company spokesman Anthony Rose in the statement.

The Administration for Industry and Commerce said on Monday it would start a three-month food safety inspection program, sending inspectors to Wal-Mart and other hypermarket chains to promote a safe food environment.

Chongqing has been a fertile market for Wal-Mart.

The government is promoting migration from rural areas to the hilly Chongqing city area, and thousands of high-rise apartment buildings are sprinkled throughout densely and sparsely populated areas, creating ideal marketplaces for hypermarkets such as Wal-Mart.

Wal-Mart China has faced intense competition on the mainland in recent years. It competes with China's Sun Art and China Resources Enterprise (0291.HK), with local brands such as Yonghui, Shinshiji and, in this city, Chongqing Baihuo Supermarket.

It also competes against French hypermarket chain Carrefour (CARR.PA), Britain's Tesco (TSCO.L), Germany's Metro AG (MEOG.DE). All of these are gradually expanding to inland China as interior cities become more affluent.

After entering China in 1996, Wal-Mart expanded in 2007 when it bought 35 percent of Taiwanese hypermarket chain Trust-Mart.

As a result Wal-Mart's market share in the hypermarket space jumped to 11.2 percent in 2010, from 4.8 percent in 2005. But spending involved in the expansion has been weighing on its profitability, which Wal-Mart has acknowledged.

Wal-Mart China has also faced management turmoil inside its ranks this year. CEO Ed Chan and its head of human relations resigned last week, but the company did not link that to the store problems and said that both left for personal reasons.

LONG LINES, NO ORGANIC PORK

Wal-Mart staff at three of the reopened stores in Chongqing said the crowds on Tuesday were considerably larger than usual.

At all three, shoppers snapped up large containers of soy sauce, cooking oil and rice, which were on sale. They examined eggs, with the farm's name stamped on each one, selected shelled peanuts one by one from a giant pile, and gutted fresh rabbits themselves at a large table.

Wang Dinghao, 66, and his wife Wang Xinfang, 61 and both retired, waded through the throng clutching toilet paper, beef jerky and rice crackers at the Wal-Mart in Chongqing's Dadukou district. They said they also shop at Chinese competitors Yonghui and Shinshiji, but like Wal-Mart best.

"It's the prices, the selection, the convenience of finding it all here," said Wang Xinfang, echoing the chain's appeal to Chinese shoppers, who often shuttle between numerous stores and confront sometimes wide price differences. "I'll still come to Wal-Mart, but I want them to be honest."

Two hours after the Jiulongpo store opened, 29 of the food section's 48 checkout lines were jammed with long lines.

One lengthy queue of some 80 people snaked around displays with people lined up to buy grapefruit-like pomelos.

"They're so cheap," said Lu Zhongxiu, a 53-year-old retired purchasing agent who picked up half a dozen. "In my neighborhood, they're 3 yuan per 500 grams. These are only 3.50 yuan each, and they're at least a kilogram."

Lu's cart was loaded down with more than she could carry, but she said she would take the Wal-Mart store's free shuttle bus home.

Conspicuously absent from displays at Jiulongpo was organic pork, which triggered the latest Wal-Mart crisis.

"It's very hard to obtain," said a Wal-Mart worker with the name tag Taiyong. "You have to produce it up in the mountains. There isn't a lot available."

(Additional reporting by Donny Kwok in HONG KONG; Editing by Don Durfee and Matt Driskill)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/asia/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111025/wl_nm/us_walmart_china

izon heart attack grill gaddafi dead steve wynn lytro camera lytro camera st. louis cardinals

Panetta calls NKorea 'reckless,' criticizes China

U.S. Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta meets with service members at the U.S. Yokota Air Base in Fussa, west of Tokyo, Monday, Oct. 24, 2011. Panetta arrived in Japan Monday on the second leg of a weeklong Asia tour. (AP Photo/Koji Sasahara)

U.S. Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta meets with service members at the U.S. Yokota Air Base in Fussa, west of Tokyo, Monday, Oct. 24, 2011. Panetta arrived in Japan Monday on the second leg of a weeklong Asia tour. (AP Photo/Koji Sasahara)

U.S. Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta speaks to service members at the U.S. Yokota Air Base in Fussa, west of Tokyo, Monday, Oct. 24, 2011. Panetta arrived in Japan Monday on the second leg of a weeklong Asia tour. (AP Photo/Koji Sasahara)

U.S. Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta speaks to service members at the U.S. Yokota Air Base in Fussa, west of Tokyo, Monday, Oct. 24, 2011. Panetta arrived in Japan Monday on the second leg of a weeklong Asia tour. (AP Photo/Koji Sasahara)

U.S. Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta speaks to service members at the U.S. Yokota Air Base in Fussa, west of Tokyo, Monday, Oct. 24, 2011. Panetta arrived in Japan Monday on the second leg of a weeklong Asia tour. (AP Photo/Koji Sasahara)

YOKOTA AIR BASE, Japan (AP) ? U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta lashed out at North Korea on Monday for "reckless and provocative" acts and criticized China for a secretive expansion of its military power.

Panetta, who visited the U.S. Yokota Air Base on the second leg of a weeklong Asia tour, spoke out about North Korea and China in an opinion piece published Monday by Japan's Yomiuri newspaper before his arrival.

He wrote that Washington and Tokyo share common challenges in the Asia-Pacific. "These include North Korea, which continues to engage in reckless and provocative behavior and is developing nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles, which pose a threat not just to Japan but to the entire region," he wrote.

If any changes are made to U.S. forces in the Pacific, he said, it would be to strengthen their presence.

"We are not anticipating any cutbacks in this region," he told several dozen U.S. and Japanese troops standing in front of huge side-by-side American and Japanese flags. "If anything, we're going to strengthen our presence in the Pacific ? and we will."

He offered no examples of such moves. The U.S. now has about 47,000 troops in Japan and about 28,000 in South Korea ? remnants of World War II and the Korean War. Panetta's strong language comes as U.S. and North Korean officials gather in Geneva for talks that Washington says are aimed at determining whether the North is serious about returning to nuclear disarmament talks.

Japan also worries about North Korea and is one of five countries that have jointly tried to persuade it to cap and reverse its nuclear arms program. The other four are the U.S., China, Russia and South Korea.

Panetta also criticized China.

"China is rapidly modernizing its military," he wrote in Monday's opinion piece, "but with a troubling lack of transparency, coupled with increasingly assertive activity in the East and South China Seas."

He wrote that Japan and the U.S. would work together to "encourage China to play a responsible role in the international community."

A day earlier, in Bali, Indonesia, Panetta offered more positive remarks about China. He told reporters that Beijing deserved praise for a relatively mild response to a $5.8 billion U.S. arms sale to Taiwan announced in September.

Panetta is not visiting China on this trip, his first to Asia since becoming Pentagon chief in July.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/89ae8247abe8493fae24405546e9a1aa/Article_2011-10-24-Panetta-Asia/id-4d53946ebc3145f2b9bc831fed64cca5

austin weather sacramento kings lisa vanderpump pef pef the perfect storm draya michele

Dayton, Ohio, welcomes immigrants as policy point (AP)

DAYTON, Ohio ? On the same afternoon thousands of Hispanics in Alabama took the day off to protest the state's strict new immigration law, Mexican-born Francisco Mejia was ringing up diners' bills and handing containers piled with carnitas to drive-thru customers on the east side of Dayton.

His family's Taqueria Mixteca is thriving on a street pockmarked with rundown buildings and vacant storefronts. It gets packed with a diverse lunchtime clientele of Hispanic laborers, white men in suits and other customers, white and black. "Business is very good," Mejia said, smiling broadly between orders.

It's the kind of success story that leaders in Dayton think offers hope for an entire city. It has adopted a plan not only to encourage immigrants to come and feel welcome here, but also to use them to help pull out of an economic tailspin.

Dayton officials, who adopted the "Welcome Dayton" plan unanimously Oct. 5, say they aren't condoning illegal immigration; those who come here illicitly will continue to be subject to U.S. laws.

While states including Alabama, Georgia and Arizona, as well as some cities, have passed laws in recent years cracking down on illegal immigrants, Dayton officials say they will leave that to federal authorities and focus instead on how to attract and assimilate those who come legally.

Other cities, including nearby Columbus and Indianapolis, have programs to help immigrants get government and community help, but Dayton's effort has a broader, and more urgent, feel.

Mayor Gary Leitzell told the city commission before the vote that immigrants bring "new ideas, new perspectives and new talent to our workforce. ... To reverse the decades-long trend of economic decline in this city, we need to think globally."

Hard-hit for years by the struggles of U.S. manufacturing, particularly in the auto industry, the recession pounded Dayton, which as the Wright Brother's hometown calls itself "the birthplace of aviation."

Thousands of jobs were lost with the crippling 2009 exodus to Georgia of NCR (formerly National Cash Register), one of Dayton's signature corporations, after 125 years, and by the 2008 shutdown of a General Motors plant in suburban Moraine.

Dayton's unemployment is nearly 11 percent, 2 percent higher than the national average, while population has fallen below 142,000, down 15 percent from 2000. Meanwhile, the city's official foreign-born population rose 57 percent, to 5,102, from 2000 to 2010, according to census figures.

City leaders aiming to turn Dayton around started examining the immigrant population: Indian doctors in hospitals; foreign-born professors and graduate students at the region's universities; and owners of new small businesses such as a Turkish family's New York Pizzeria on the city's east side and Hispanic-run car lots, repair shops and small markets. They say immigrants have revitalized some rundown housing, moving into and fixing up what had been vacant homes.

"This area has been in a terrible recession, but it would be even worse without them," said Theo Majka, a University of Dayton sociology professor who, with his sociologist wife Linda Majka, has studied and advocated for Dayton's immigrants. "Here we have this underutilized resource."

Dayton officials say their plan still needs funding and volunteers to help put it in place; they hope by the end of the year. Its key tenets include increasing information and access to government, social services and housing issues; language education and help with identification cards, and grants and marketing help for immigrant entrepreneurs to help build the East Third Street section.

"We will be more diverse, we will grow, we will have more restaurants, more small businesses," said Tom Wahlrab, the city's human relations council director, who helped lead the plan's development.

Besides thousands of Hispanics, there are communities in Dayton of Iraqi refugees, Vietnamese and other Asians, Africans from several countries, and Russians and Turks who, officials say, are already living here quietly and industriously.

"Immigrants are hard workers with a propensity to create jobs, and this will invigorate the economy," said Festus Nyiwo, an attorney in his home country of Nigeria who has been a small-business entrepreneur since coming to Dayton about eight years ago.

Around the country, the bad economy has helped inspire new laws targeting illegal immigrants, seen as taking scarce jobs and overburdening schools, police and services.

In Alabama, a new law allows police to detain indefinitely those suspected of being in the country illegally and requires schools to check new students' status; some farms and businesses say they're losing workers because of it. Georgia and Arizona also added tough restrictions.

The immigration debate continues in Hazleton, Pa., where officials five years ago passed a law aimed at driving out illegal immigrants they blamed for drugs, violent crime and overwhelming schools and hospitals. The measure has since been tied up in court challenges.

Dorothy Balser, manager of refugee resettlement services for Catholic Social Services, said that finding jobs can be a struggle, but that refugees have generally been able to fit into the Dayton community. She thinks the Welcome Dayton plan will have a "natural positive effect" on those already here without causing a significant rise in numbers immediately.

Dayton's schools say they're helping 525 students learn English, up from 420 less than two years ago. About half are native Spanish-speakers; the rest are a mix of Turkish, Arabic, Swahili and more. They're ready to accept more.

"We already are currently experiencing many students from many nationalities living in Dayton. That is a reality," said Jill Moberly, a spokeswoman for Dayton Public Schools.

Opponents fear it will encourage illegal immigration and give preferences to immigrants.

"If Dayton wants to help build its economy by letting people know that illegal immigrants are welcome, that's their prerogative," said Steve Salvi, founder of Ohio Jobs & Justice PAC, an advocacy group that focuses on illegal immigration. "But when they accept a plan that clearly has the purpose of including those people, that's a problem for everyone."

Roy Barber, who owns Roy's Lock Shop on East Third Street, says he's been in business for 30 years and doesn't like the city's plan.

"Nobody ever talked to me," he said. "Why not help us?"

Barber said most of the neighborhood's Hispanic immigrants work hard and cause no problems. But he predicts Welcome Dayton will bring more illegal immigrants.

"You see people out on the street and you know they're illegal," he said.

Rich Lober, 50, a lifelong Dayton resident, said Mexican and other immigrants have helped East Third.

"I like the idea of rejuvenating this neighborhood," Lober said. But he said Dayton should look to draw back former residents.

"I'd like to see a `Welcome Back.' They should include American citizens, too," Lober said.

Black resident David Dewberry told city officials it's important not to neglect predominantly black neighborhoods, where residents might wonder where their welcome plan is.

"Rightfully so, there are some lifelong residents who are disenchanted," he said.

At Taqueria Mixteca, Mejia's mother and restaurant manager, Marta Guzman, believes Welcome Dayton will help relieve stereotypes.

"I know there are some (immigrants) who are causing crime and problems," said Guzman, who has lived in the United States for three decades, legalized through the 1986 amnesty program.

"I have struggled a lot in this country, working two jobs, raising three children" as a single mother, she said. "Most of us are here to work hard and to live the American dream."

Will the new policy bring more immigrants? Mejia smiled again.

"We're already hearing that there are some Mexicans who are planning to come here from Alabama," he said.

___

Contributing to this report were Associated Press reporters Lisa Cornwell in Cincinnati, Michael Rubinkam in Allentown, Pa.; Jacques Billeaud in Phoenix and Jay Reeves in Birmingham, Ala.

___

Contact this reporter at http://www.twitter.com/dansewell.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/mexico/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111024/ap_on_re_us/us_welcome_immigrants

daphne guinness daphne guinness mortgage rates mortgage rates kirstie alley r.e.m. kindle library lending

Philip Goldberg: Maureen Dowd's Take on Yoga

The subject line on the e-mail read "Killer Yoga?" It turned out that someone sent me an essay by New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd. The title was "How Garbo Learned to Stand on Her Head," and some headline writer probably added that "killer" phrase to attract eyeballs. I usually like Dowd's work. Her edgy wit and reliable insight give her columns an appealing mix of entertainment and information. Now she was taking on something about which I know more than she does, so I couldn't wait to dig in.

Well, entertaining it was. Informative? Kind of, but not in a reliable way. Dowd, who practices yoga for stress-reduction, was reporting on a forthcoming book by New York Times science writer William Broad called, "The Science of Yoga: The Myths and the Rewards." I haven't seen the book, which won't be out until February, so I can only hope that Dowd did not do it justice. I'm afraid she perpetuates the superficial coverage of yoga so common in the mainstream press.

First, that "killer" business. It seems that one of the "dirty little secrets" Broad exposes is that "yoga has produced waves of injuries." What injuries? Pulled muscles? Joint pain? Sure, it happens. Students get careless and some teachers are lax in their oversight. But what percentage of yoga students actually gets injured? Dowd doesn't say, and I don't know if Broad does. I'm guessing the number is very very low.

On a more serious note, Dowd quotes Broad as saying, "Doctors have found that certain poses can result in brain damage that turns practitioners into cripples with drooping eyelids and flailing limbs." Question: How many people have suffered brain injury from yoga? My guess is it's infinitesimal in light of the tens of millions who take yoga classes. I'm also guessing that any such injuries are associated with headstands. Not everyone should do them. In fact, many yoga teachers recommend that no one do them, or at least not beginners, and not without very careful supervision.

Dowd then cites a passage in Broad's book that really upset her: "Darker still, some authorities warn of madness. As Carl Jung put it, advanced yoga can 'let loose a flood of sufferings of which no sane person ever dreamed.'" I'm a huge fan of Carl Jung, but he died in 1961, long before the postural yoga boom, and he probably knew fewer practitioners than live on my street in Los Angeles. Jung was actually an admirer of yoga -- the philosophical and spiritual tradition, not the stretches and bends now associated with the term -- but he mistakenly concluded that it wasn't compatible with life in the West. I don't know what other evidence Broad cites for this chilling assertion, or which "authorities" he has in mind, but by singling out that passage Dowd does a disservice to both yoga and Jung.

Dowd also discusses Broad's assertion that yoga might not aid in weight loss, as some proponents claim, but can have the opposite effect since the practices lower metabolism. Again, we don't know whether this is a theoretical statement of if Broad cites data showing that yogis are prone to weight gain. My response is a resounding au contraire, as a glance at random yoga students would affirm. I suggest there is at least one mitigating factor: people who do yoga regularly are likely to be more in tune with their bodies and therefore eat healthier diets.

Dowd does a rapid U-turn midway through her column, relieved that Broad's book goes on to present scientific evidence of yoga's benefits. I too, was relieved, but I ended up more annoyed than I was before. By emphasizing yoga's sexual rewards, and by dropping in celebrity names like Sting and Garbo (okay, she also gets classy with Leopold Stokowski and Yehudi Menuhin), Dowd reinforces the trivialization that threatens to turn a profound spiritual tradition into just another form of physical fitness.

Nowhere in her column is there any indication that there is more to yoga than the asanas (postures) and pranayama (breathing) that dominate most classes. Meditation, the centerpiece of classical yoga, is not mentioned, and one can only hope that Broad's book does not ignore the hundreds of studies on meditation in peer-reviewed publications. Given her own interests and the limitations of column length, Dowd can be excused for not explaining that yoga, as a philosophical and spiritual tradition, far outdates the development of hatha yoga (the physically oriented system), or for not mentioning that yoga means union -- and not the union of head to knee, or even of mind and body, but union with the divine, or, in secular terms, of the individual and the universal. One cannot expect Dowd to note that the Bhagavad Gita describes three yogic pathways, jnana (knowledge), bhakti (devotion) and karma (action), or that the Yoga Sutras -- the text most modern yogis consider authoritative -- is almost entirely about consciousness, with barely a mention of asana (and that in the context of sitting posture). But one certainly hopes that Broad's book does not commit such egregious oversights.

For that, we will have to wait. In the meantime, I hope that Maureen Dowd and her legion of fans discover that there is more to yoga than flexible limbs and "relief from the ravages of stress." Anyone who thinks that yoga is merely "a kinder version of alcohol" might want to do a reverse pose and get some more blood flowing to her brain. With proper supervision, of course.

?

?

?

Follow Philip Goldberg on Twitter: www.twitter.com/phil_amveda

Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/philip-goldberg/maureen-dowd-yoga-_b_1012650.html

napoleon dynamite bristol palin bethenny frankel morgan freeman orlando brown orlando brown benjamin netanyahu

Aussie authorities hunt shark that killed American (AP)

CANBERRA, Australia ? Shark hunters have set baited hooks off the southwest Australian coast hoping to catch a great white that killed an American recreational diver.

Department of Fisheries manager Tony Cappelluti says officers set six lines with hooks off the tourist haven of Rottnest Island where witnesses saw a 10-foot (3-meter) great white shark take the 32-year-old man Saturday.

Police will release the man's name later Sunday.

Scientists have warned against an overreaction to the third fatal shark attack off Australia's southwest coast in less than two months. Australia averages fewer than two fatal shark attacks a year.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/topstories/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111023/ap_on_re_as/as_australia_shark_attack

main atlanta insanity leonard cohen napoleon napoleon wish you were here lyrics

EPA to regulate disposal of fracking wastewater (AP)

ALLENTOWN, Pa. ? Federal environmental regulators signaled Thursday they want to increase oversight of the natural gas extraction industry, announcing they will develop national standards for the disposal of polluted wastewaters generated by a drilling technique known as hydraulic fracturing, or fracking.

Energy companies have dramatically expanded the use of fracking in recent years, injecting millions of gallons of water, sand and chemical additives to unlock gas in deep shale formations in Pennsylvania, Texas and other states. Its prevalence has raised concerns about the potential impact on water quality and quantity.

The Environmental Protection Agency announced that it will draft standards for fracking wastewater ? the briny, chemical-laced water that comes back out of the well ? that drillers would have to meet before sending it to treatment plants. The industry in recent months has been recycling much of the wastewater or injecting it deep underground, but some of it is sent to plants that are ill-equipped to remove the contaminants.

The new standards would also apply to wastewater produced by coalbed methane drilling, the agency said.

"We can protect the health of American families and communities at the same time we ensure access to all of the important resources that make up our energy economy. The American people expect and deserve nothing less," said EPA Administrator Lisa P. Jackson.

The EPA has largely left it to the states to regulate fracking operations, and environmental groups cheered Thursday's announcement as a long-overdue first step. The agency is also in the midst of a national study of whether fracking has polluted groundwater and drinking water and its potential future impacts.

"The nation is in the midst of a fracking-fueled gas rush which is generating toxic wastewater faster than treatment plants can handle it," Earthjustice attorney Deborah Goldberg said. "The EPA's proposal is a common sense solution for this growing public health problem and will help keep poisons out of our rivers, streams, and drinking water."

Industry groups and Republican lawmakers said wastewater disposal is already regulated by the states, and criticized the EPA for overreach.

"The EPA's announcement is a solution in search of a problem," said Rep. Tim Murphy, R-Pa., co-chairman of the House Natural Gas Caucus.

In Pennsylvania, the administration of Gov. Tom Corbett asked drillers this year to stop sending millions of barrels of salty, polluted wastewater to treatment plants that only partially remove the contaminants before discharging the water into rivers. The practice has stopped, the state's environmental secretary, Michael Krancer, wrote in a July 26 letter to Jackson.

But Krancer also asked EPA to update its standards for wastewater treatment facilities under federal jurisdiction to include guidelines for dissolved solids and bromides, both of which are present in flowback water from gas wells and can damage streams and rivers.

Drilling companies began flocking to the state several years ago to exploit the Marcellus Shale formation, the nation's largest-known reservoir of natural gas.

"Pennsylvania's natural gas developers, as well as its regulators and service companies, are far ahead of EPA's review of wastewater treatment standards for shale gas," said Lou D'Amico of the Pennsylvania Independent Oil & Gas Association.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/science/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111021/ap_on_re_us/us_gas_drilling_epa_wastewater

atm funny facebook status texas a m football oec oec jamiroquai jamiroquai

Stocks rise sharply on solid corporate earnings

In this Oct. 10, 2011 photo, trader Douglas Glander, center, works on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange. U.S. stock index futures are rising after a round of solid corporate earnings reports. Industrial giant General Electric Co. said Friday, Oct. 21, 2011, that its third-quarter net income rose 18 percent. Software maker Microsoft Corp. said its profit rose 6 percent. Traders are monitoring European leaders' efforts to solve the Greek debt crisis. Worries about a default by Greece have caused much of the market's volatility in recent months. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)

In this Oct. 10, 2011 photo, trader Douglas Glander, center, works on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange. U.S. stock index futures are rising after a round of solid corporate earnings reports. Industrial giant General Electric Co. said Friday, Oct. 21, 2011, that its third-quarter net income rose 18 percent. Software maker Microsoft Corp. said its profit rose 6 percent. Traders are monitoring European leaders' efforts to solve the Greek debt crisis. Worries about a default by Greece have caused much of the market's volatility in recent months. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)

Stocks are rallying after McDonald's and other large corporations reported solid third-quarter earnings.

The S&P 500 index closed higher Friday for the third straight week, as hope builds that a weekend meeting will bring European leaders closer to easing the region's debt troubles.

Fast-food giant McDonald's Corp. rose 3 percent after reporting a 9 percent increase in income. The government also said unemployment fell last month in half of all U.S. states

The Dow Jones industrial average jumped 267 points, or 2.3 percent, to 11,809.

The S&P 500 added 23, or 1.9 percent, to 1,238. The Nasdaq composite index gained 39, or 1.5 percent, to 2,638.

More than six stocks rose for every one that fell on the New York Stock Exchange. Trading volume was average at 4.3 billion.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/f70471f764144b2fab526d39972d37b3/Article_2011-10-21-Wall%20Street/id-0913bcdc3fbb4150a9dccafe7477f97b

debit card fees how to be a gentleman how to be a gentleman iphone 5 case pawpaw pawpaw sister wives

Google Maps updated to support NFC-powered Beam feature

During the Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich demo we got to see another use for NFC. Beam, demonstrated sharing of information across devices and it looks like Google has now updated Google Maps to support the feature. You won't find it listed in the change logs though. In fact, the change log only states the update has reduced file sizes for app storage on different devices but the permissions tell the truth. New permissions requested are for NFC and when you put the pieces together, its safe to assume Beam support has been added to Google Maps.

read more

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/androidcentral/~3/hK1t3eO6ho0/google-maps-updated-support-android-40-nfc-powered-beam-feature

tay sachs watch the walking dead giuliana and bill giuliana and bill 2012 camry endometriosis 9 9 9 plan

Reader: How could LiLo not find morgue door?

Our readers continue to contribute some funny, smart and incisive comments to our Today Entertainment Facebook page. Every Friday, we'll highlight those that really stood out. If you see a great comment throughout the week, click the ?Like? button underneath it to draw it to our attention.

1. On "Lohan late, turned away on first day at morgue"
Celeste Svenson Brodeur: " 'Her spokesman Steve Honig says the actress' tardiness was partially because she didn't know which entrance to the facility to use.' This is too funny. So she wandered around outside for 40 minutes until she figured what door to open?"

And the runners-up...

2. On "'Sister Wives' describe harm of bigamy probe"
Cathy A. Albertorio: "Who in the hell in their right mind wants to be married to more than one person? I say have at it, you are crazy. I couldn't stand one, let alone two, three or more."

Story: Everyday heroes, not stars, should be on stamps

3. On "Expert: Jackson didn't give himself propofol"
Jacob Dean:? "I am sure Jackson always got what he wanted, when he wanted. Look at the way he lived. So yes, I am sure if it was not this doctor then it would have been some other doctor, or some other way."

Story: Comment of week: Brad Pitt needs to shut up about Aniston

4. On "Is 'Chipwrecked' the worst movie of the year?"
Sandra Jackson: "I'm sure I killed a few of my parent's brain cells with my Alvin records as a child. Why should today's parents escape the pain? Keep 'em coming!"

Story: Salma should tell Somalians how rich she is

5. On "Stewart: Edward thinks Bella's baby is 'Satan's spawn'"
Anthony Richmond: "If his body is dead how can he get her prego? Lame."

Join the discussion, and help us find next week's Comment of the Week, on our Facebook page.

? 2011 MSNBC Interactive.? Reprints

Source: http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/44989743/ns/today-entertainment/

chaz bono david arquette hawaii five o don t ask don t tell repeal michelle le steve o greg giraldo

Veokami Plays Entire Concert Videos, Shows You Moments from Multiple Angles [Videos]

Watching fellow music fans' videos of live concerts on YouTube is great, but rather than sifting through all the footage, wouldn't it be great to have all the clips arranged for you into one entire show? That's what Veokami does.

It pieces together videos from YouTube of a specific event and syncs up the audio tracks so you can watch a continuous stream of the concert that switches to the next video when one clip ends. You can also switch to a different angle or flip through videos in a timeline view.

Veokami's multiple perspectives and easy access to each show's entire set list make for a more complete experience watching concert footage.

Veokami | via GigaOM

---

You can follow or contact Melanie Pinola, the author of this post, on Twitter or Google+.

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/lifehacker/full/~3/dOR-0Dr_JgA/veokami-plays-entire-concert-videos-shows-you-moments-from-multiple-angles

ovarian cancer symptoms angola manny ramirez harvest moon alyssa campanella alyssa campanella chad ochocinco

Sarkozy Skipped His Daughter's Birth to Fix Europe's Debt Crisis (The Atlantic Wire)

Want a sign of just how serious Europe's debt crisis is? French President Nicolas Sarkozy flew to Frankfurt to unstall bailout talks while his wife Carla Bruni gave birth to their first child. France's first lady and Italian-born songstress gave birth to a baby girl in Paris at around 7 p.m. on Wednesday, reports the AFP. Bruni said in an interview that will air on Thursday, Bruni said that the couple did not know the sex of the child. "We've arranged for it to be a big surprise. Obviously, a nice surprise." It was one that Sarkozy did not share, as?Reuters reported?he had gone to Germany "to talk with German Chancellor Angela Merkel in an attempt to break the deadlock ahead of a make-or-break European leaders' summit on Sunday." Sarkozy did make it to?the La Muette maternity clinic around 11 p.m. and he had paid a visit earlier in the day. The Bruni-Sakozy daughter is the first for the couple who wed in 2008. It's also the first for a French incumbent head of state since Empress Eugenie had Louis-Napoleon Bonaparte in Paris 155 years ago,?reports Bloomberg. For now, AFP's source (the news is not yet official) says the couple have not revealed their daughter's name.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/europe/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/atlantic/20111019/wl_atlantic/sarkozyskippedhisdaughtersbirthfixeuropesdebtcrisis43894

will power will power indy 500 martin luther king memorial walking dead season 2 walking dead season 2 saving private ryan

Intel's 3Q sings but computer market out of tune (AP)

SAN FRANCISCO ? Intel Corp.'s third-quarter results offered some comfort for investors jittery about the weak state of the global computer market.

Net income rose 17 percent and revenue rose 29 percent, topping Wall Street targets.

Intel CEO Paul Otellini credited stronger sales of processors for laptop PCs and servers. Its stock rose 4 percent.

The company also boosted its stock buyback program by $10 billion and offered strong revenue guidance for the all-important holiday fourth quarter.

Nonetheless, even as the numbers are encouraging for Intel, they're unlikely to reflect a meaningful change in the underlying dynamics that threaten to keep computer demand sluggish into the foreseeable future.

Debt worries, stubborn unemployment and the popularity of smartphones and tablet computers have depressed the market.

Consumers are hanging on to their existing PCs longer. Many corporations are doing the same. The U.S. and Europe are particularly weak and have in fact contracted ? a rare and troubling development for markets that had been mostly steadily expanding for decades.

Numbers released last week by market researchers IDC and Gartner Inc. showed that PC shipments worldwide grew in the third quarter but at a pace that was slower than expected.

Hard drive makers Seagate Technology PLC and Western Digital Corp. have also warned that the flooding in Thailand is hurting their ability to meet demand for the critical PC components they make.

The market for computer servers has generally been stronger. Companies have shown a greater willingness to upgrade their technology than resume extensive hiring. But there are some signs of weakness there as well. On Monday, IBM Corp. reported weaker-than-expected growth in its hardware division, which sells servers and mainframes to corporations.

In an interview, Intel's chief financial officer Stacy Smith described European markets as "pretty subdued" and said demand in the U.S. during the quarter was merely "okay."

Emerging markets were strong, however, as was corporate spending on Intel chips, he said. Smith cautioned there was uncertainty heading into the fourth quarter, but emphasized that spending in emerging markets and by corporations remains strong.

Intel, which is based in Santa Clara, Calif., said its net income was $3.47 billion, or 65 cents per share, compared with $2.96 billion, or 52 cents per share, a year ago.

Excluding special items, earnings were 69 cents per share. Analysts polled by FactSet expected an adjusted 62 cents per share.

Revenue was $14.2 billion, compared with $11.1 billion a year ago. Analysts expected $13.9 billion.

For the fourth quarter, Intel predicts it will take in $14.2 billion to $15.2 billion in revenue. Analysts expected $14.2 billion.

Intel shares rose 93 cents to $24.21 in extended trading after the results came out. Earlier, the stock gained 12 cents, or 0.5 percent, to close at $23.40.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/earnings/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111018/ap_on_hi_te/us_earns_intel

weather san antonio dream act weather houston weather houston roger williams roger williams tyler bray