Federal Energy Tax Credit

Although they sound similar, there is a significant difference between a credit and a deduction. When a deduction is used, the amount is subtracted from income before computing tax liability. A credit, however, is subtracted directly from the total tax owed. Therefore, a credit winds up extending a three (or more) times greater effect. Do some research before signing contracts for products, and check the online Database of State Incentives for Renewables and Efficiency for information on state, local, federal and even utility company incentives.

Congress has routinely extended deadlines for federal energy tax credit. An individual can take both a credit (up to a specified cap) for about a third of the cost of installing photovoltaic (solar electric panel) systems and another one (up to an additional cap) for about a third of the cost of a solar water heating system. (Unfortunately for owners of pools and hot tubs, the solar tax credit does not apply to these items.) Another credit is available for fuel cells. Equipment must be certified by the Solar Rating Certification Corporation (SRCC) or another entity which a state government chooses.

A pitfall to avoid is the fact that many dealers who advertise themselves as 'solar dealers' are not only without connection to the Solar Rating Certification Corporation, but also may not even be licensed contractors! The systems they sell may not be SRCC approved. If a person takes an exemption from installing a non-approved system, he or she will be liable for any tax penalties incurred. Be sure that the installer is a licensed solar contractor, installing a properly approved system. There are websites which can recommend a list of solar contractors and products in areas throughout the United States.

The solar tax credit is figured out based on an individual's expenses for equipment (including labor). However, this does not include any expenses which have been subsidized by other programs. Fill out IRS Form 5695 to apply for this program. Various forms of federal energy tax credit programs have run their course and some have been extended. Groups are urging an eight year extension to current programs, in order to give the industry some sense of stability as members consider future investments. However, there is no guarantee that an extension will happen, so one is left wondering whether it is best to rush to complete renewable energy projects before the deadline, or wait and hope that a lengthy extension is granted, the industry continues to grow, and costs for renewable systems continue to decrease.

Current programs or exemptions have had significant results. Wind and solar-powered industries received much-needed assistance during periods when several consecutive years of federal energy tax credit had been extended. One year, nearly one third of all United States power capacity was added in the wind sector. Another year, this sector increased by nearly half. Solar tax credit also helped enable the solar sector to grow significantly. Plans for more large solar power projects are in development. These will either be shored up or stunted by future plans for extension or removal of credits. Advocates for extension of federal credits point to the additional jobs created by these facilities as further evidence that they are an appropriate economic bonus as well. The decisions which need to be made by government officials are complicated and may have long-term, widespread effects. This may especially be true in areas of fuels and energy use, which have an impact upon food supplies, natural resources and relationships between nations. No wonder Paul urges Timothy and other believers that "...supplications, prayers, intercessions and giving of thanks, be made for all men; For kings, and for all that are in authority; that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty..." (I Timothy 2:1-2). Christians can pray that leaders will be guided to make decisions which are beneficial to all members of an increasingly inter-related world.

In the meantime, green buildings credits and efficient appliances credits remain the most commonly employed forms of assistance. No doubt there are many people who would be quite interested in investing in renewable energy systems for their personal or business use, but the up-front costs make it impossible to do so at this time. For this reason, further federal energy tax credit or solar tax credit may be the answer for this problem. It would also be helpful to advertise the existence of incentives and programs which offer assistance in procuring these renewable systems. Actually, most people are probably unfamiliar with the various products which are available for purchase by the public. Although there are doubtless many websites devoted to such items, perhaps a more widespread campaign utilizing television programs or commercials would be helpful in order to bring this information into public awareness. Such projects add long-term value to a home or business, while lowering costs and providing additional clean energy. Those are three incentives which will remain constant regardless of government policies.

Source: http://www.christianet.com/accounting/federalenergytaxcredit.htm

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Digg Reader web, iOS apps are open for the public

As we stand on the precipice of the shutdown of Google Reader the search for replacement RSS clients is more frantic than ever, and now Digg has opened access to its app for any users interested. Currently available on the web and as an iOS app (Android coming soon), importing ones Google account is just a few mouse clicks away. The experience as it exists now is pretty barebones, and Digg says it plans to add a "View unread items only" option, "Mark as unread" button and the always crucial "accurate" unread counts for feeds and folders in the near future. Hit the source link below to give it a shot, and then let us know if it's a contender for the throne.

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Source: Digg Blog

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/06/28/digg-reader-launch/?utm_medium=feed&utm_source=Feed_Classic&utm_campaign=Engadget

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How 'parrot dinosaur' switched from four feet to two as it grew

June 28, 2013 ? Tracking the growth of dinosaurs and how they changed as they grew is difficult. Using a combination of biomechanical analysis and bone histology, palaeontologists from Beijing, Bristol, and Bonn have shown how one of the best-known dinosaurs switched from four feet to two as it grew.

Psittacosaurus, the 'parrot dinosaur' is known from more than 1000 specimens from the Cretaceous, 100 million years ago, of China and other parts of east Asia. As part of his PhD thesis at the University of Bristol, Qi Zhao, now on the staff of the Institute for Vertebrate Paleontology in Beijing, carried out the intricate study on bones of babies, juveniles and adults.

Dr Zhao said: "Some of the bones from baby Psittacosaurus were only a few millimetres across, so I had to handle them extremely carefully to be able to make useful bone sections. I also had to be sure to cause as little damage to these valuable specimens as possible."

With special permission from the Beijing Institute, Zhao sectioned two arm and two leg bones from 16 individual dinosaurs, ranging in age from less than one year to 10 years old, or fully-grown. He did the intricate sectioning work in a special palaeohistology laboratory in Bonn, Germany,

The one-year-olds had long arms and short legs, and scuttled about on all fours soon after hatching. The bone sections showed that the arm bones were growing fastest when the animals were ages one to three years. Then, from four to six years, arm growth slowed down, and the leg bones showed a massive growth spurt, meaning they ended up twice as long as the arms, necessary for an animal that stood up on its hind legs as an adult.

Professor Xing Xu of the Beijing Institute, one of Dr Zhao's thesis supervisors, said: "This remarkable study, the first of its kind, shows how much information is locked in the bones of dinosaurs. We are delighted the study worked so well, and see many ways to use the new methods to understand even more about the astonishing lives of the dinosaurs."

Professor Mike Benton of the University of Bristol, Dr Zhao's other PhD supervisor, said: "These kinds of studies can also throw light on the evolution of a dinosaur like Psittacosaurus. Having four-legged babies and juveniles suggests that at some time in their ancestry, both juveniles and adults were also four-legged, and Psittacosaurus and dinosaurs in general became secondarily bipedal."

The paper is published in Nature Communications.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/strange_science/~3/INNYKIOaV7U/130628092147.htm

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Medicaid vote complicated by Mich. Capitol work

LANSING, Mich. (AP) -- Gov. Rick Snyder is traveling Michigan to pressure Republican senators to get back to the Capitol ? stat ? and vote to provide health insurance to nearly half the state's uninsured residents.

One hitch: The Senate and House chambers are likely out of commission for at least two months as new carpet is installed and technology is upgraded.

When lawmakers adjourned a week ago, crews immediately removed desks and ripped out Victorian-era replica carpet that was at least 20 years old and held together in places with duct tape. Now, backup plans are in the works in case Senate Majority Leader Randy Richardville, R-Monroe, decides to hold a vote on Medicaid expansion before Aug. 27, the next day that attendance is to be taken and votes recorded.

Options include meeting in the Capitol's Senate Appropriations room ? less ideal because it's small for all 38 senators, their staff, press and the public ? or the historic Boji Tower across the street, which has a large committee hearing room on the first floor.

It's also possible the senators could still gather in the chamber depending on what work is going on at the time, said Senate Secretary Carol Viventi.

"If we need to hold session, we will find a place to do it," said Ari Adler, spokesman for House Speaker Jase Bolger, R-Marshall.

Workers also are updating technology under the House and Senate floors ? cables for the electronic voting systems, computer wiring and electrical adapters. Hearing loops are being installed in the viewing galleries so it's easier for people with hearing aids and cochlear implants to listen.

Without the electronic voting boards, votes could be tallied by voice or hand like in the old days. When the Capitol was renovated from 1989 to 1992, senators met at times in a Capitol committee room while representatives gathered in an office building that has since been turned into a parking garage.

The Capitol upgrades are another twist in Snyder's months-long push for Medicaid expansion, an option for states under the federal health care law. The Republican governor cut short a trade trip in Israel last week ? scheduled months ago for a week when the Legislature was supposed to be gone ? to try to save a House plan approved two weeks ago that he sees as a pragmatic way to make the Affordable Care Act a positive for Michigan and to save money.

But Richardville wants at least half of the Senate's 26 Republicans to back Medicaid expansion or at least support proceeding with a vote. Expansion advocates believe if a vote had been called, eight to 11 Republicans would have joined all 12 Democrats to send a measure to Snyder's desk.

Richardville spokeswoman Amber McCann said the majority leader didn't hold a vote June 20 because the bill would have been defeated.

"He truly believes it would have ended the discussion on Medicaid," she said. "The expansion of an entitlement program is not typically a Republican value."

To pressure reluctant GOP senators in their districts and drum up public support, Snyder has visited four hospitals this week to call for a vote while meeting with sympathetic medical and business officials who support adding 470,000 low-income adults to Medicaid.

Richardville on Wednesday named a group of six Republican senators to meet over the summer to consider the issue. The group has no timeline to make a recommendation, though Snyder says time is running out if Michigan is to get federal approval in time to cover new enrollees starting Jan. 1.

The next technical legislative session day is Wednesday ? when Senate Democrats plan to show up ? though no one expects action. Non-voting session days also have been scheduled for July 18, Aug. 2 and Aug. 16, and Snyder is going to keep demanding a vote on those days.

Snyder spokeswoman Sara Wurfel said his visits around the state are getting senators' attention.

"If you step back and take the politics away from it, from a policy standpoint it's the right thing to do," she said.

___

Email David Eggert at deggert@ap.org and follow him at http://twitter.com/DavidEggert00

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/medicaid-vote-complicated-mich-capitol-144735316.html

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Marc Edwards' app design workflow

Don't know how I missed this. Marc Edwards, my co-host on Iterate is not only one of the best designers on the planet, but one of the most generous, and on top of all the articles and scripts he's already shared, he's now gone and posted his entire app design workflow on Bjango.com:

Here it is ? my complete iOS, Android and Mac app design workflow, starting from the first time you open Photoshop, to the app release and beyond. Now seemed like a good time to document how I?ve been working, because my workflow is about to drastically change again, with the release of Skala.

Perhaps with iOS 7 as well? I'm really looking forward to seeing how Marc updates the Bjango apps, and if -- and how -- his workflow evolves. In the meantime, if you're interested in app design, check out how one of the best in the business goes about practicing his craft.

More: Bjango.com:

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheIphoneBlog/~3/-9X57JtSsCo/story01.htm

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Obama yet to have African legacy like predecessors

DAKAR, Senegal (AP) ? President Barack Obama is receiving the embrace you might expect for a long-lost son on his return to his father's home continent, even as he has yet to leave a lasting policy legacy for Africa on the scale of his two predecessors.

Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush passed innovative Africa initiatives while in the White House and passionately continue their development work in the region in their presidential afterlife. Obama's efforts here have not been so ambitious, despite his personal ties to the continent.

His first major tour of Africa as president is coming just now, in his fifth year, while Bush and Clinton are frequent fliers to Africa. Bush even will be in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, next week at the same time as Obama, although they have no plans to meet. Instead, their wives plan to appear together at a summit on empowering African women organized by the George W. Bush Institute, with the former president in attendance.

For Obama, one potentially memorable aspect of this trip -- a meeting with former South African president and anti-apartheid leader Nelson Mandela -- remained in doubt. Obama was en route from Dakar Senegal to Johannesburg, South Africa, Friday where Mandela was hospitalized in critical condition.

Obama, speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One, said it was uncertain whether he would get an opportunity to see the 94-year-old Mandela, a personal hero to the president.

"I don't need a photo-op, and the last thing I want to do is to be in any way obtrusive at a time when the family is concerned about Nelson Mandela's condition," he said.

In French-speaking Senegal, Africa's westernmost country, spirited crowds greeted Obama on his visit, with revelers frequently breaking into song and dance at the sight of the first African-American president. However thrilled they were to see him, many said they wish his visits weren't so rare.

"Two visits in five years, it's not enough," said Faye Mbissine, a 30-year-old nanny who took an early morning bus to come see Obama on Thursday outside the presidential palace. "We hope that he can come more."

Manougou Nbodj, a 21-year-old student, said he hopes Obama will bring American resources like jobs and health care. "If Obama can work with Macky Sall the way that George Bush worked with Africa before him, then we will be happy," he said, referring to the Senegalese president.

One of Bush's chief foreign policy successes was his aid to Africa, including AIDS relief credited with saving millions of lives and grants to reward developing countries for good governance. Bush followed on momentum on African policy that began under Clinton, who allowed several dozen sub-Saharan countries to export to the U.S. duty-free.

Obama has continued the Bush and Clinton programs during tough economic times. But his signature Africa policy thus far has been food security, through less prominent programs designed to address hunger with policy reforms and private investment in agriculture.

On Friday, Obama toured displays in small thatched booths at his hotel grounds on a bluff overlooking the ocean, meeting with farmers and entrepreneurs who are using new methods and technologies to advance the cause of food security.

"This is a moral imperative," he said. "I believe that Africa is rising and it wants to partner with us not to be dependent but to be self-sufficient.

Witney Schneidman, former deputy assistant secretary of state for African affairs, said Obama's efforts are not like Bush's AIDS initiative "where you put people on a medicine to save their lives ? very, extremely important. This is more of a structural change, and I think that's going to take time."

Under Clinton and Bush "you had this major funding, major attention, major initiatives going to Africa, and then President Obama came in, and there was a sense of stall, in a way," said Jennifer Cooke, director of the Africa program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. She said that's understandable as he grappled with wars and an economic crisis, and she gave Obama credit for working diplomatically with African governments in his first term.

But, she said, "they weren't big, splashy initiatives that got peoples' attention either in Africa or here at home, and no big money and no big ideas that really helped define what Obama was about in Africa."

That's a disappointed those who were expecting more from the first African-American president, especially after his speech during a brief stopover in Ghana his first summer in office, in which he spoke personally of his father's life in Kenya and declared "a new moment of great promise" in Africa. "I have the blood of Africa within me," Obama said.

Schneidman argued that Obama's personal connection may also have been an impediment to deeper engagement in his first term. "The whole birther movement here in the U.S. that was sort of questioning his place of birth to begin with ... I think it was a real constraint on dealing with Africa," Schneidman said.

Mwangi Kimenyi, a Kenyan who directs the Brookings Institutions' Africa Growth Initiative, said Obama may be a victim of misplaced sky-high expectations on the continent when he was first elected.

"Africans still consider Clinton their president," Kimenyi said. "If you go to Africa and mention Clinton ? I mean, he is a hero, even today. I don't think President Obama is going to approach the level of President Clinton at all, in terms of respect, in terms of what they feel, and it's partly because, as one whose family is from Africa, the expectations were rather high."

"There is not that feeling that, you know, we have our son there," Kimenyi said. "There's probably more reference of a prodigal son than a, you know, son."

Clinton first drew extensive attention to Africa in 1998 when he made the longest trip ever by a U.S. president, with stops in six countries that had never before been visited by any occupant of the Oval Office.

Bush's trip this week is his third in 19 months to promote his Pink Ribbon Red Ribbon partnership to combat breast and cervical cancer in sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America. On this visit, he and his wife, Laura, plan to help renovate a cervical cancer screening and treatment clinic in Zambia before heading to Tanzania for the African First Ladies Summit advocating investment in programs for women and girls.

"Frankly, Africa is a place that we had not yet been able to devote significant presidential time and attention to," Obama foreign policy adviser Ben Rhodes said. "And there's nothing that can make an impact more in terms of our foreign policy and our economic and security interests than the president of the United States coming and demonstrating the importance of our commitment to this region."

___

Associated Press writer Robbie Corey-Boulet contributed to this report.

___

Follow Nedra Pickler on Twitter at https://twitter.com/nedrapickler

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/obama-yet-african-legacy-predecessors-071731058.html

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Violence flares in Egypt before weekend protests

CAIRO (AP) ? Tens of thousands of supporters and opponents of President Mohammed Morsi rallied Friday in Cairo, and both sides fought each other in the second-largest city of Alexandria, where two people were killed ? including an American ? and 85 were injured while at least five offices of Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood were torched, officials said.

The competing camps were trying to show their strength before even bigger nationwide protests planned by the opposition Sunday ? the first anniversary of Morsi's inauguration ? aimed at forcing his removal.

The opposition says it will bring millions into the streets across Egypt, and more violence is feared. Already, six people have been killed in clashes this week, including Friday's deaths.

The Cairo International Airport was flooded with departing passengers, an exodus that officials said was unprecedented. All flights departing Friday to Europe, the U.S. and the Gulf were fully booked, they said.

Many of those leaving were families of Egyptian officials and businessmen and those of foreign and Arab League diplomats ? as well as many Egyptian Christians, the officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the press.

The U.S. State Department warned Americans against all but essential travel to Egypt, citing the uncertain security situation. It also said it would allow some nonessential staff and the families of personnel at the U.S. Embassy in Cairo to leave until conditions improve.

Opposition protesters in Alexandria broke into the local headquarters of Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood and set fires, throwing papers and furniture out the windows.

For several days, Brotherhood members and opponents of Morsi have battled in cities in the Nile Delta. With Friday's deaths, at least six have been killed this week.

"We must be alert lest we slide into a civil war that does not differentiate between supporters and opponents," warned Sheik Hassan al-Shafie, a senior cleric at Al-Azhar, the country's most eminent Muslim religious institution.

Morsi opponents massed in Cairo's Tahrir Square, the epicenter of the protests in 2011 that ousted longtime leader Hosni Mubarak. The crowd shouted, "Leave, leave" ? this time addressing Morsi. Tents were put up on the grass in the middle of the historic square.

Dozens of protesters also gathered at the gates of the presidential palace in the Heliopolis neighborhood of Cairo, urging him to resign, Egypt's state news agency reported.

At the same time, tens of thousands of Morsi supporters, mainly Islamists, filled a public square outside the Rabia el-Adawiya Mosque, not far from the palace. Islamist parties have decided to hold a sit-in.

"They say the revolution is in Tahrir," said young activist Abdel Rahman Ezz, a Morsi supporter who addressed the crowd. "It is true the revolution started in Tahrir. But shamefully, today the remnants of the old regime are in Tahrir. The revolutionary youth are here."

The palace is one of the sites where the opposition plans to gather Sunday and has been surrounded by concrete walls.

In Alexandria, on the Mediterranean coast, fighting began when thousands of anti-Morsi demonstrators marched toward the Brotherhood's headquarters, where up to 1,000 supporters of the president were deployed, protecting the building.

When an unidentified person on Islamist side opened fire with birdshot on the marchers, and the melee erupted, according to an Associated Press cameraman. Security forces fired tear gas at the Brotherhood supporters, but when the two sides continued battling, they withdrew. Protesters later broke into the building and began to trash it. Online video posted by witnesses showed a protester carrying a gun who appeared to be shooting at the Brotherhood building.

Alexandria security chief Gen. Amin Ezz Eddin told Al-Jazeera TV that an American was killed in Sidi Gabr Square while photographing the battle. The U.S. State Department later confirmed the death, in a statement from Patrick Ventrell, a press office director.

"We are providing appropriate consular assistance from our Embassy in Cairo and our Bureau of Consular Affairs at the State Department," he said.

A medical official said the American died of gunshot wounds at a hospital. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the press.

The Alexandria health department reported an Egyptian also died from a gunshot wound to the head. It was not immediately known if that victim was a Morsi opponent or supporter.

The country witnessed a wave of attacks against Muslim Brotherhood offices across the country. The Brotherhood's media spokesman, Gehad el-Haddad, said on his Twitter account that eight of his group's headquarters were attacked and looted, and two were burned down.

He accused thugs, remnants of the old regime, including members of Mubarak's disbanded National Democratic Party of being behind the attacks.

Much of the violence was in the provinces of the Nile Delta, north of Cairo.

Protesters stormed an office of the Brotherhood, attacked members inside, injuring 10, and set the office on fire in the city of Shubrakheit, the state news agency said. Others stormed a Brotherhood office in the coastal city of Baltim, destroying electronic equipment, and another of the group's branches was torched in the city of Aga.

Hundreds of protesters in the city of Bassioun threw stones at Freedom and Justice Party offices, tearing down the party sign.

The Brotherhood says at least five of those killed this week were its members. Some people "think they can topple a democratically elected President by killing his support groups," el-Haddad said earlier on his Twitter account.

There were reports of violence from the Islamist side in the Delta as well.

At least six people were injured when an anti-Morsi march was attacked by the president's supporters in the city of Samanod, according to a security official. Attackers fired gunshots and threw acid at the protesters as they passed the house of a local Brotherhood leader, the official said.

In the city of Tanta, four men believed to be Morsi supporters tried to attack a mosque preacher during his sermon, in which he called on worshippers to stand with Al-Azhar's calls to avoid bloodshed.

In Qalioubia, north of Cairo, "popular committees" charged with managing traffic stopped a caravan of more than 90 Islamists heading to Cairo, according to a security official. The group, traveling in a bus and three minibuses, carried Molotov cocktails, clubs and gas cans, the official said.

One small bus escaped, but the others were turned over to police, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not allowed to talk with the press.

In the Suez Canal city of Port Said, an explosion left one dead and several others wounded at an opposition rally, a security official said. But the official and a witness said the blast was caused by a butane canister hit by fireworks.

In the southern city of Minya, a stronghold of hardline Islamic groups, a security official said that men affiliated to the Gamaa Islamiya group, a Brotherhood ally, fired in the air while an opposition rally was marching in the street, causing panic.

Each side has insisted it is peaceful and will remain so Sunday, blaming the other for violence.

Tamarod, the activist group whose anti-Morsi petition campaign evolved into Sunday's protest, said in a statement it opposed "to any attack against anybody, whatever the disagreement with this person was," and accused the Brotherhood of sparking violence to scare people from participating Sunday.

Tamarod says it has collected nearly 20 million signatures in the country of 90 million demanding Morsi step down.

"We are against Morsi because he does not govern in the name of the Egyptian people, but in the name of the Brotherhood group," said Ayed Shawqi, a teacher at an anti-Morsi rally in Alexandria.

Outside the Rabia el-Adawiya Mosque, the pro-Morsi crowd waved Egyptian flags while speakers addressed them from a stage. A banner proclaimed, "Support legitimacy," the slogan Morsi's supporters have adopted, arguing that protests must not be allowed to overturn an elected president.

They also waved the Brotherhood's flag ? a green banner with two swords ? and carried Morsi posters and portraits.

"This is a revolution, and there is no other one!" they chanted. Speakers onstage praised the military and the crowd responded with, "The army and the people are one hand," seeking to keep the military on the side of the president.

"Those who burn and those who kill are the traitors of this nation," Brotherhood preacher Safwat Hegazi told the crowd. "Mr. President, use a heavier hand, your kind heart won't be any use. ... We want to complete our revolution and purify our country."

Assem Abdel-Maged, leader of the formerly militant Gamaa Islamiya group, threatened to "sever heads" of opposition supporters if they attacked the military. Rafai Taha, one of the leading figures of Gamaa Islamiya, was also onstage, next to Brotherhood leaders.

In his Friday sermon, the cleric of Rabia el-Adawiya warned that if Morsi is ousted, "there will be no president for the country," and Egypt will descend into "opposition hell."

Pro-Morsi marchers ? many wearing green headbands with the slogans of the Muslim Brotherhood ? chanted religious slogans. "It is for God, not for position or power!" they shouted. "Raise your voice high, Egyptian: Islamic Shariah!"

The anti-Morsi demonstrators in Tahrir Square also waved Egyptian flags. They cheered, clapped, whistled and chanted, "Egypt, Egypt, Egypt. Long live Egypt!" and "The people want the fall of the regime," a phrase heard repeatedly in 2011.

One banner depicted President Barack Obama and said, "Obama supports terrorism."

___

Associated Press writer Steve Negus and Mohammed Khalil of Associated Press Television News contributed to this report from Alexandria.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/violence-flares-egypt-weekend-protests-223018375.html

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'No one wants this fight:' Ecuadoreans divided over Snowden asylum

Dolores Ochoa / AP

A vendor who sells roasted corn pushes her cart past a flower shop in Quito, Ecuador, on Wednesday. Unlike with China, Russia or Cuba, the Obama administration could swiftly hit Ecuador in the pocketbook by denying reduced tariffs on cut flowers, artichokes and broccoli if it grants Snowden's request for asylum.

By Mary Murray and Miguel Almaguer, NBC News

QUITO, Ecuador -- Ecuador, the South American country known for the Middle of the World -- a park honoring the Equator that boasts a yellow line painted on the ground said to be precisely at Earth?s midpoint -- is now becoming the center of an international chase for National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden.

Public opinion in Ecuador runs hot and cold on whether the country should extend political asylum to Snowden. While some admire their president for trying to stick it to the United States, others fear economic fallout if Snowden settles in Ecuador.

One Ecuadorean newspaper this week called the leaker a ?hot potato,? while another labeled him ?a spy.?

Luis Ortega, who makes his living working in tourism, believes political fighting of any kind is bad for business. His big question: ?Will Americans stop coming here??

The 25-year-old, who had just finished showing a tour group from Chicago around Quito?s World Heritage landmarks, said he was worried about his livelihood.

?I just got married and I can?t afford for my business to suffer,? he said.

Ecuador?s tourism industry generates more than $1 billion a year and is growing.

Jose Jacome / EPA file

Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa smiles at the crowd during a military act at the presidential palace in Quito, Ecuador, on Wednesday. Correa announced that his government will decide with 'absolute sovereignty' on political asylum for Edward Snowden.

?Americans come here because we?re friends,? Ortega said. ?No one wants this fight.?

Rodrigo Espinosa shared that same point of view. He?s employed by a private security firm that caters to American business executives.

?Snowden is not our problem, so why are we sticking our nose into this business?? he said.

The concerns are not unfounded. On Wednesday, U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez, D-NJ, who heads the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, vowed to eliminate the preferential trade agreements in place under the Andean Trade Preference Act should Snowden, 29, gain asylum in Ecuador.

"Our government will not reward countries for bad behavior," Menendez said in a written statement. At the end of July, Congress must vote to renew the trade accord.

That message angered Ecuador's President Rafael Correa, an economist educated in the United States. In a tweet, Correa denounced the U.S. view as ?unjust? and ?immoral."

Heightening tensions further, Correa's representative on Thursday renounced the trade benefits and called the lower tariffs ?blackmail,? sarcastically suggesting that Washington instead use Ecuador?s share of $23 million for human rights training inside the United States.

"Ecuador does not accept pressure or threats from anyone, nor does it trade with its principles," said Fernando Alvarado, the communications secretary.

U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman told reporters in Washington that despite Alvarado's comments, Ecuador was still eligible for benefits under two different programs, Reuters reported.

Although China invests heavily in the region, the U.S. remains Ecuador's main trading partner, accounting for some 40 percent or about $9 billion of all exports.

Ecuador benefits heavily from its Andean trade program with the United States. An oil-rich country, Ecuador exported an estimated $5.4 billion worth of oil, as well as $166 million from its flower industry, $122 million of fruits and vegetables and $80 million of tuna to the United States in 2012.

In a country that battles a high poverty rate, the flower industry alone employs more than 100,000 workers, many of them women.?

Ecuadoreans like Dr. Catalina Nuncios applaud Alvarado's view and stand ready to welcome Snowden with open arms.

?We are Christians and cannot turn our back on this young man who needs our help,? said Nuncios, a pediatrician who voted for Correa twice. She said she felt offended by Menendez's statement.

President Obama remarks on the situation with admitted NSA leaker Edward Snowden, saying he has no plans to disrupt relations with Russia and China, nor to scramble jets to capture the "29-year-old hacker."

?No one can threaten us to toe their line," Nuncios said.

Engineering student Jesus Lombardi, who was born in Ecuador but raised in southern California, said he feels torn.

?The American part of me understands national security, but my Ecuadorean side is proud that Correa is putting my country on the map.?

As tensions escalate, Snowden remains in legal limbo somewhere in the Moscow airport.

Ecuadorean law is, in fact, hindering his case. Under the constitution, Snowden must make his asylum request in person either in the country or at an Ecuadorean embassy or consulate. And, according to local press reports, Snowden still does not possess a legal travel document that would allow him to board a flight to Quito.

NBC's Carlos Rigau and?Reuters contributed to this report.?

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America's deadliest soldier? Dillard Johnson says he never made that claim.

Retired Army Sgt. Dillard Johnson's new Iraq war memoir has angered other veterans. He says the criticism is mostly unfair.

By Dan Murphy,?Staff writer / June 27, 2013

Yesterday I wrote about Dillard Johnson's new book "Carnivore," published by the News Corporation's HarperCollins and heavily promoted by News Corporation outlets like the New York Post and Fox News.

Skip to next paragraph Dan Murphy

Staff writer

Dan Murphy is a staff writer for the Monitor's international desk, focused on the Middle East.?Murphy, who has reported from Iraq, Afghanistan, Egypt, and more than a dozen other countries, writes and edits Backchannels. The focus? War and international relations, leaning toward things Middle East.

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The promotional effort around the book has carried a hard-to-believe, almost impossible claim: that Johnson had 2,746 "confirmed" enemy kills over the course of two tours in Iraq. His first tour came during the 2003 invasion and the second for roughly 12 months starting in February 2005. The claimed kills, which first surfaced in NewsCorp's New York Post on Monday ("With 2,746 confirmed kills, Sgt. 1st Class Dillard Johnson is the deadliest American soldier on record ??and maybe the most humble"), was then repeated on a number of Fox News programs this week and mirrored around the Internet.

Similar claims are made in HarperCollins' publicity for the book ("He is recognized by the Pentagon to have accounted for more than 2,000 enemy killed in action," says the book jacket; "Credited with more than 2,600 enemy KIA, he is perhaps the most lethal ground soldier in U.S. history," says both the book jacket and a blurb the publisher supplied to Amazon; the book cover calls him "One of the deadliest American soldiers of all time.")

Mr. Johnson says there's one problem: It isn't true.

He says the book doesn't contain that claim, that he never claimed to have killed 2,746 enemy fighters in Iraq, and that he didn't kill that many people in Iraq. He says a combination of innocent mistakes by others and a desire by HarperCollins and his co-author to promote the book have led to the impression he's making claims that he hasn't made. He says a personal and informal total of likely enemy fighters killed during engagements in the Iraq invasion has been attributed to him, when in fact the total includes shooting from the Bradley he commanded as well as shots fired from Bradleys around him and commanded by others ??his wingmen.

"Am I one of the deadliest American soldiers of all time? Probably not," says Johnson. "Do I think I did a lot of damage with my vehicle and stuff, with me being decisive? Yeah, absolutely."

These and other claims have drawn angry denunciations from a large number of soldiers who served with him in Iraq, who say he played an important role in their effort but did not come close to what's been written about him in the press.

Johnson says he agrees, and says the attribution of so many dead to him personally traces back to a 2004 Pentagon history of the invasion, On Point: The United States Army in Operation Iraqi Freedom. He was interviewed for the book and says it's been wildly misinterpreted, especially since the chapter he features in was excerpted by Soldier of Fortune magazine, with editorial changes made by someone there that exaggerated his personal role in the fighting.

His assertion of 121 "confirmed" sniper kills made in his book has also drawn howls of derision. Johnson is not trained as a sniper and was not equipped with a sniper rifle. He says his personal tally of 121 enemy killed during his second tour is correct, but that "I didn?t use a sniper rifle, I am not a sniper. Nowhere in the book does it say that I?m a sniper. It?s in the jacket, again, but I didn?t write that." He told me that all these kills were with M4 and M14 rifles.

He told Fox New's Laura Ingraham on the O'Reilly Factor ? the evening after an appearance on Fox & Friends that morning that infuriated many veterans, and prompted angry emails from some former comrades ? that the 121 kills involved "the M14 and my M4 personal rifle and some 203 ones." A 203 is a single shot grenade launcher and attributing specific deaths to a grenade launched over distance is both difficult and definitely not a form of "sniping."

Johnson explains that the choice of "sniper" in the book was for ease of understanding for the general civilian public. "When you look inside the cover and see the talk about the 121 confirmed sniper kills [that's because] most civilians don?t know what a designated marksman is," he says. He said his platoon didn't have many trained marskmen and that since he was a naturally good shot, he took on those kinds of duties to protect himself and his men.

Some of Johnson's stories have shifted over time.

He told Ms. Ingraham this week that the long shot, which he says in that interview was 821 yards, "was sort of a sniper battle from a rooftop and I got this guy. It took me 15 shots. He was a better shot than me. I just had better equipment and he was missing all around me and I basically just got lucky." But here's what Stars and Stripes reported him as saying about the incident on Dec. 20, 2005:

?I used my laser rangefinder to give me the distance to the enemy location, it was 852 meters exactly, a long shot,? Johnson said then, according to a 2nd Brigade Combat Team press release carried by the newspaper. He reported there were two insurgents there and that they were firing towards his rooftop position. ?I engaged one enemy shooter with my own rifle. My first round fell short but it must have scared him because he stood up to run away. The next round I fired, hit him and he went down,? Johnson said.

On his O'Reilly appearance, Johnson corrected his host when she attributed 2,746 kills in Iraq to him personally. He says he wished he'd done that in the earlier Fox & Friends interview but that he was only on for about three minutes, and as it was his first television appearance, he was a little flustered.

"I was trying to get that in on Fox & Friends, but didn?t have time. Did on O?Reilly with Laura Ingraham," he tells me. He told Ingraham:?

"As far as the kills go ... I?m not really proud of those numbers being out there, it was part of the battle damage assessment that we did. My gunner actually did, you know, most of those or over half of those in the vehicle there and I was just present on the vehicle ... which I was the commander of."

Soldiers in general don't like to keep body counts, and while they may be proud of killing enemies in engagements, keeping their buddies safe, and accomplishing their missions, bragging about kill numbers is generally seen as uncouth, if not a downright creepy. Johnson agrees with that, and says there's no intent to brag about killing. Rather, he says, he kept track of enemy dead by counting rifles on the battlefield after engagements (on the reasoning that "one rifle equals one man") as a way to keep senior officers as informed as possible about the course of the war.

Johnson was kind enough to speak to me for about two hours last night. I'm currently sifting through my long notes of my conversation with him, and will revisit the story after I read his book myself this evening.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/JrpzKwO8tNg/America-s-deadliest-soldier-Dillard-Johnson-says-he-never-made-that-claim

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ICAP executive seen linked to LIBOR scandal: Wall Street Journal

NEW YORK (Reuters) - A senior executive at British brokerage firm ICAP PLC knew that some of the firm's brokers worked with traders at UBS AG to manipulate benchmark interest rates, according to the Wall Street Journal, which cited sources familiar with the matter.

The executive, David Casterton, was included in some emails sent in 2007 documenting the discussions, in which UBS agreed to make quarterly payments to ICAP for help in rigging the London Interbank Offered Rate, or LIBOR, the paper said on its website on Wednesday.

A call and email to ICAP spokeswoman Brigitte Trafford were not immediately returned after business hours.

The rate-fixing scandal has infected many of the world's biggest banks, put in motion new attempts to set global interest rates and indirectly led to the departure of several top executives at Barclays PLC and UBS.

Casterton, who the paper said is a longtime deputy to ICAP Chief Executive Michael Spencer and currently head of global broking at the London-based firm, would nevertheless be one of the most senior executives affected by the Libor scandal, the Journal said.

An ICAP spokeswoman told the paper that no one at the company was "aware of any corrupt payment from any source at any time" and said it would be false and defamatory to suggest otherwise.

(Reporting by Jed Horowitz; Editing by Lisa Shumaker)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/icap-executive-seen-linked-libor-scandal-wall-street-001050670.html

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Gandolfini: A big man and everyman is eulogized

HBO CEO Richard Plepler, center, and David Chase, center right, producer of "The Sopranos", walk out of Cathedral Church of Saint John the Divine after funeral services for actor James Gandolfini, Thursday, June 27, 2013, in New York. Gandolfini, who played Tony Soprano in the hit HBO show, died while vacationing in Italy last week. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)

HBO CEO Richard Plepler, center, and David Chase, center right, producer of "The Sopranos", walk out of Cathedral Church of Saint John the Divine after funeral services for actor James Gandolfini, Thursday, June 27, 2013, in New York. Gandolfini, who played Tony Soprano in the hit HBO show, died while vacationing in Italy last week. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)

Joe Pantoliano, a cast member of "The Sopranos" arrives at Cathedral Church of Saint John the Divine during funeral services actor James Gandolfini, Thursday, June 27, 2013, in New York. Gandolfini, who played Tony Soprano in the HBO show "The Sopranos", died while vacationing in Italy last week. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)

Mourners follow the casket of actor James Gandolfini out of Cathedral Church of Saint John the Divine after funeral services, Thursday, June 27, 2013, in New York. Gandolfini, who played Tony Soprano in the HBO show "The Sopranos", died while vacationing in Italy last week. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)

People walk into Cathedral Church of Saint John the Divine during for funeral services actor James Gandolfini, Thursday, June 27, 2013, in New York. Gandolfini, who played Tony Soprano in the HBO show "The Sopranos", died while vacationing in Italy last week. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)

Actress Jamie Lynn Sigler, center, leaves the Cathedral Church of Saint John the Divine after the funeral service for James Gandolfini, Thursday, June 27, 2013 in New York. Gandolfini, who played Tony Soprano in the HBO show "The Sopranos", died while vacationing in Italy last week. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer)

NEW YORK (AP) ? The funeral of James Gandolfini took place in one of the largest churches in the world and didn't stint on ceremony.

Still, the estimated 1,500 mourners who gathered Thursday in New York's Cathedral Church of Saint John the Divine seemed part of an intimate affair. They came to pay their respects to a plain but complex man whose sudden death eight days before had left all of them feeling a loss.

During the service, Gandolfini was remembered by the creator of "The Sopranos" as an actor who had brought a key element to mob boss Tony Soprano: Tony's inner child-like quality.

For a man who, in so many ways, was an unrepentant brute, that underlying purity was what gave viewers permission to love him.

"You brought ALL of that to it," said David Chase in remarks he delivered as if an open letter to his fallen friend and "Sopranos" star.

Even though Gandolfini was indisputably a formidable man both on and off the screen, Chase also saw him as a boy ? "sad, amazed, confused and loving," he summed up, addressing his subject: "You could see it in your eyes. And that's why you are a great actor."

Susan Aston, who for decades was Gandolfini's dialogue coach and collaborator, spoke of how he wrestled to find truth in his performances.

"He worked hard," she said. "He was disciplined. He studied his roles and did his homework." But then, when the cameras rolled, his performance took over and, "through an act of faith, he allowed himself to go to an uncharted place. ... He remained vulnerable, and kept his heart open in his life and in his work."

The 51-year-old actor died of a heart attack last week while vacationing with his 13-year-old son in Italy. It was cruel end to a holiday meant to be part of a summer that Gandolfini was devoting to his family ? including his son and his 9-month-old daughter ? by even turning down a movie role, according to Aston, citing what she said was her final conversation with him.

Aston said he told her "I don't want to lose any of the time I have with Michael and Lily this summer."

The actor's widow, Deborah Lin Gandolfini, also spoke at the ceremony, as did longtime friend Thomas Richardson, who affectionately described Gandolfini as a man "who hugged too tight and held too long." But now facing a world without hugs from Gandolfini, Richardson invited the congregation to stand and share hugs with their neighbors.

"It is in hugging that we are hugged," he declared.

A private family wake was held for the actor Wednesday in New Jersey.

Broadway theaters paid tribute by dimming their lights briefly Wednesday night. Gandolfini was nominated for a Tony Award in 2009 as an actor in "God of Carnage."

For Thursday's service, celebrities and fellow actors helped make up the capacity audience.

Those from "The Sopranos" included Edie Falco, Joe Pantoliano, Dominic Chianese, Steve Schirripa, Aida Turturro, Vincent Curatola, Tony Sirico, Lorraine Bracco, Steve Buscemi and Michael Imperioli.

Others from the entertainment community included Julianna Margulies, Alec Baldwin, Chris Noth, Marcia Gay Harden, Dick Cavett and Steve Carell.

NBC News' Brian Williams was in attendance. So was New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie.

So was Saul Stein, 60, a resident of Harlem.

"I came to pay my respects today because he's a character I identify with, a family man," Stein said as he waited in line outside the church.

New Jersey accents were easy to hear among those hoping for a chance to get in. A few people spoke in Italian.

Of course, both New Jersey and Italian-Americans played a big part of "The Sopranos," which originally ran on HBO from 1999 to 2007.

Chase recalled a hot Jersey day early in the show's production that bonded him with Gandolfini ? with whom he shared Italian-American working-class roots ? for all times.

Waiting to shoot the next scene, Gandolfini was seated in an aluminum lawn chair with his slacks rolled up, black socks and black shoes exposed, and a damp cloth on his head in an effort to find some relief from the heat.

"I hadn't seen that done since my father used to do it, and my Italian uncle, and my grandfather," said Chase. "They were laborers in the hot sun of New Jersey."

"I was filled with love," Chase said, struggling to keep his composure, as he described the sight of Gandolfini in the broiling sun.

"I always felt we are brothers," he said, "based on that day."

___

Associated Press correspondent Bethan McKernan and Television Writer David Bauder contributed to this report.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/4e67281c3f754d0696fbfdee0f3f1469/Article_2013-06-27-Gandolfini%20Funeral/id-e5f9512f8fa84671837a3a900996551b

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Italy watchdog presses Google for privacy data, weighs sanctions

It's being reported that rapper Kanye West and his reality star girlfriend Kim Kardashian have named their brand-new baby, born this weekend, Kaidence Donda West. Donda was Kanye's late mother's name, so that makes sense, but, um, Kaidence? What's going on with Kaidence?

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/italy-watchdog-presses-google-privacy-data-weighs-sanctions-092650283.html

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Immaculata's Jacobs headed for University of Toronto

Kelowna's Eric Jacobs has always been interested in seeing the world beyond the boundaries of her hometown.

That's why moving more than 3,000 kilometres east to further her education and hone her volleyball skills felt like a pretty logical step for the 17-year-old athlete from Immaculata.

Jacobs has accepted a scholarship offer to join the University of Toronto Blues women's volleyball program this fall.

"I've wanted to go away all my life, to get out on my own, meet new people and have new experiences," said Jacobs. "Really, if I went to Vancouver, that would be four hours by car. Toronto is just four hours by plane, so it's not that much different. I'm just excited to be able to keep playing volleyball."

For three seasons with Immaculata's senior girls' program, the 6-foot-2 Jacobs dominated at the setter position, helping the Mustangs to a silver and two bronze medal efforts at the provincial championships.

Among her several post-secondary options was staying right at home to play with Steve Manuel's UBC Okanagan Heat. But with Emily Oxland and Chandler Proch already ahead of her on the depth chart, it would likely have meant a season as a red shirt before Jacobs would see any playing time.

At the U of T, Blues head coach Kristine Drakich plans to get the CIS rookie some quality floor time.

"It just seemed like the right fit," said Jacobs, whose brother, Brandon, also attends the U of T. "I liked the team, I liked the coach and it's a really good program. I'm happy to have the chance to play my first year out of high school and improve my skills."

Jacobs' game developed under the watchful eye of Mustangs' coach Brian Drosdovech since her Grade 8 year.

Because she skipped a grade at Immaculata, Jacobs is technically coming off her Grade 11 season, making her younger than than most of her peers at the university level.

As solid a player as Jacobs is already, Drosdovech said she is a long way from reaching her full potential.

"Erin has really good size and she has great hands," said Drosdovech. "She's still a year or two away from filling out, so physically she's just going to get stronger. On top of her setting skills, she has a very big block and, with her size, that's huge at the CIS level. I think in a year or two we're going to see what kind of player she can really be."

As for her prospects on a national scale, Drosdovech believes Jacobs has the tools to one day line up for the Canadian senior women's program.

Jacobs admits it's among her future goals.

"It's definitely been a dream of mine, to play on the national team," she said. "It it ever worked out, it would be amazing."

But first things first, Jacobs will play this summer for Team B.C., before joining the Varsity Blues at the end of August.

A 4.0 GPA student at Immaculata, Jacobs will study life sciences at the University of Toronto.

?

Source: http://www.kelownacapnews.com/sports/211995441.html

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Lenovo refreshes its IdeaPad laptops with Haswell and touch, designs unchanged

No, there's no new Yoga. You'll have to keep waiting on that. For now, Lenovo is undertaking a much more modest project: refreshing its existing notebooks with Haswell. First off, the current IdeaPad U310 Touch and U410 Touch are now the U330 and U430 Touch. Other than the difference in screen size (13 inches vs. 14), both will be configurable with up to Core i7 fourth-generation Core processors, along with optional SSDs and a max of 8GB of RAM. While the U330 will be offered with either 1,366 x 768 or 1,920 x 1,080 resolution, the U430 comes with a 1,600 x 900 screen (you can upgrade to 1080p there, too). Oh, and the 14-incher can be had with a 2GB NVIDIA GeForce 730M GPU. Both will be available in the third quarter, with the U330 priced at $799 and up and the U430 going for $899. Moving on, the Y410p is the new, 14-inch companion to the Y510, with up to a Core i7 processor, 16GB of RAM, 1TB of storage and dual 2GB NVIDIA GeForce 750M GPUs arranged in an SLI configuration. Screen resolution is limited to either 1,366 x 768 or 1,600 x 900, however. That's available now on Lenovo.com starting at $799.

Finishing up with the entry-level S series, we've got the 11.6-inch S210 Touch, the 14-inch S400 Touch and the 15.6-inch S500 Touch. One thing to keep in mind is that both of these have Ivy Bridge processors instead of Haswell, as it was an easy way for Lenovo to keep the cost down. Other than that, you're looking at Core i3 or i5 processors, up to 8GB of RAM, touchscreens with 1,366 x 768 resolution and hopefully some decent battery life (the batteries are so big here they create a hump around the hinge area). Additionally, the S400 and S500 will have optional discrete graphics, with AMD in the S400 and NVIDIA in the S500. Look for those in Q3, with pricing as follows: $429 for the S220, $449 for the S400 and $579 for the S500. Anyhow, since the designs here haven't changed, we didn't give these laptops the full hands-on treatment, but we did include some spec summaries in the gallery below, if you're partial to bulleted lists.

Comments

Source: Lenovo (IdeaPad Y410p product page)

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/06/20/lenovo-u330-touch-u440-touch-y410p-s200-touch-s400-touch/?utm_medium=feed&utm_source=Feed_Classic&utm_campaign=Engadget

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Jay Lloyd?s Getaway: Relaxing Lakeside in Southern Canada

(Kayaking on Sand Lake, in Ontario, Canada. Credit: Jay Lloyd)

By Jay Lloyd

POWELLS BAY, Ont. (CBS) ?? If you own a recreational vehicle or plan to rent one this summer, here?s an idyllic place to park it in a land of lakes and Canadian sunsets.?? And it?s not that far from upstate New York!

By day, there?s incredible bass fishing and unlimited kayaking on pristine lakes that stretch from Ottawa to Lake Ontario on the Rideau Canal.

We tucked into a cottage (below) at the Sand Lake Campground, where host Kevin Riley points out a path to nature:

?We have the bird sanctuary right around the corner,? he told us.? ?People like to kayak into there.?

(A rental cottage at Sand Lake Campground in Elgin, Ontario, Canada. Credit: Jay Lloyd)

??

By night, there are small lakeside villages with remarkably good restaurants and spectacular lakeside vistas.

At the campground, where generously spaced RVs are summer homes, marshmallows are roasting on firepits and the sound of the loons is all John Rumpff needs.

?Relax. That?s the big thing.? It?s far enough away that you don?t have to think about anything,? he says.

.

.

(An evening campfire alongside an RV at Sand Lake Campground. Credit: Jay Lloyd)

??

Look it up at?sandlakecampground.on.ca.? You can rent a campsite, a cottage, and a boat.

Relaxing it is!

Jay Lloyd?s Getaway? Main Page

Source: http://philadelphia.cbslocal.com/2013/06/20/jay-lloyds-getaway-relaxing-lakeside-in-southern-canada/

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Venus Williams pulls out of Wimbledon, citing back

After 16 consecutive years of always showing up at Wimbledon, winning five titles along the way, Venus Williams pulled out of the grass-court Grand Slam tournament Tuesday, citing a lower back injury.

Williams, who turned 33 on Monday, never had missed Wimbledon since making her debut there in 1997, although she lost in the first round a year ago. She won the singles trophy ? it happens to be called the Venus Rosewater Dish ? in 2000-01, 2005 and 2007-08, to go with two more major championships at the U.S. Open in 2000-01.

But Williams has been dealing with a bad back for a while, playing only three matches in the last two-plus months. She was clearly hampered by the injury during a three-set, three-hour loss to 40th-ranked Urszula Radwanska of Poland in the first round of the French Open last month, then cited her back when she and younger sister Serena withdrew from the doubles competition in Paris.

The older Williams said after the singles loss at Roland Garros ? her first opening-round exit there in a dozen years ? that the inflammation in her back made it painful to serve hard, limiting one of the best parts of her game.

Once ranked No. 1, Williams is currently No. 34. Still learning to live as a professional athlete with an energy-sapping autoimmune disease, Sjogren's syndrome, she has two first-round losses in the past four Grand Slam tournaments. That includes her defeat at Wimbledon last year, the first time she'd left a major championship that early since she lost in the first round of the Australian Open in 2006.

"With what I've gone through, it's not easy. But I'm strong and I'm a fighter. You know, I don't think I'm just playing for me now. I think I'm playing for a lot of people who haven't felt well," Williams said after her loss to Radwanska. "I think for me today, it's a positive to be able to play three hours. I'm constantly finding ways to get better and to feel better."

Play begins at Wimbledon next Monday.

Serena Williams, who is ranked No. 1, will be a big favorite to win what would be her sixth Wimbledon title and 17th major championship overall. She's won 31 matches in a row, the longest single-season streak on the women's tour since Venus put together a 35-match run in 2000.

___

Follow Howard Fendrich on Twitter at http://twitter.com/HowardFendrich

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/venus-williams-pulls-wimbledon-citing-back-194542289.html

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Brain can plan actions toward things the eye doesn't see

June 19, 2013 ? People can plan strategic movements to several different targets at the same time, even when they see far fewer targets than are actually present, according to a new study published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science.

A team of researchers at the Brain and Mind Institute at the University of Western Ontario took advantage of a pictorial illusion -- known as the "connectedness illusion" -- that causes people to underestimate the number of targets they see.

When people act on these targets, however, they can rapidly plan accurate and strategic reaches that reflect the actual number of targets.

Using sophisticated statistical techniques to analyze participants' responses to multiple potential targets, the researchers found that participants' reaches to the targets were unaffected by the presence of the connecting lines.

Thus, the "connectedness illusion" seemed to influence the number of targets they perceived but did not impact their ability to plan actions related to the targets.

These findings indicate that the processes in the brain that plan visually guided actions are distinct from those that allow us to perceive the world.

"The design of the experiments allowed us to separate these two processes, even though they normally unfold at the same time," explained lead researcher Jennifer Milne, a PhD student at the University of Western Ontario.

"It's as though we have a semi-autonomous robot in our brain that plans and executes actions on our behalf with only the broadest of instructions from us!"

According to Mel Goodale, professor at the University of Western Ontario and senior author on the paper, these findings "not only reveal just how sophisticated the visuomotor systems in the brain are, but could also have important implications for the design and implementation of robotic systems and efficient human-machine interfaces."

This work was supported by operating grants from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada to J. C. Culham (Grant No. 249877 RGPIN) and M. A. Goodale (Grant No. 6313 2007 RGPIN).

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/top_health/~3/PZY3fKBTolM/130619164712.htm

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Give Us Now Our Daily Croissant

Kanye West performs on stage at Big Day Out 2012 at the Sydney Showground on January 26, 2012 in Sydney, Australia.?

Photo by Mark Metcalfe/Getty Images

Where is your Kanye limit, the temperature level at which fascination boils over into exasperation? That?s an issue with any Kanye West album, but perhaps especially with the new Yeezus, which was officially released Tuesday but leaked on Friday, flooding the Internet with comments from all sides. For people who can?t stand his public image (and, of course, for Taylor Swift fans), the limit is zero. Others stop with the singles?hooky, less ranty, they yield the most pleasure with the least strain on patience. But that safe option mutes the very Kanyeness of Kanye; for the whole light show, you have to brave the albums.

I bumped into my limit on the sixth of Yeezus? 10 tracks, ?Blood on the Leaves.? The music successfully stacks up samples from jazz and rap classics, a pretty piano line, a motif from an electronic dance track by co-producers TNGHT, and West?s auto-tuned crooning. But the content makes me wish he really were, as he puts it a track earlier, ?speaking Swaghili,? or maybe Klingon?anything, as long as I couldn?t decipher it.

The song?s bitter tale of groupies, money, lawyers, and alimony hits a nadir when West describes his ex-?second-string bitch? showing up ?sittin? courtside? when he?s got ?wifey on the other side?: ?Gotta keep ?em separated/ I call that apartheid.? Does West think Nelson Mandela, if he weren?t in intensive care, would go willingly back to prison over that injustice?

But that?s nada compared to the trivialization West inflicts by building the track on a sample of Nina Simone singing ?Strange Fruit,? the monumental 1939 ballad about the lynching of Southern blacks, ?strange fruit hanging from the poplar trees.? Best known in Billie Holiday?s rendition, it?s one of the most disturbing tunes ever to become a standard and a sacred text of the civil rights tradition. I can only wonder what West?s late mother, the scholar Dr. Donda West, would make of her son equating groupie woes with getting lynched.

Then again, it seems to be his mother?s 2007 death that in some sense freed West to make freakier music, starting with the great 808s and Heartbreak and continuing through My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy and now Yeezus. I?m not hostile to that. In fact, the other bits of black-history blasphemy he perpetrates here?cheering ?free at last, thank God almighty they?re free at last? when a lover?s bra comes off in ?I?m In It,? and following up with ?put my fist in her like a civil rights sign??strike me as witty enough to get away with.

Then of course there?s the straight-up religious blasphemy embodied by the title and by the song, ?I Am a God,? coming from an artist whose first big single questioned why he couldn?t rap about Jesus on the radio. The point really isn?t that West is a god but that he catches himself acting like one with all his celebrity entitlement?barking, in the album?s most retweeted moment, ?in a French-ass restaurant, ?Hurry up with my damn croissants!? ? (He also envisions being struck by lightning for his apostasy, continuing the thought from past songs like ?Power? that his rise must lead to a fall.) But a lot of people seem compelled to take him literally, as if he really were that deluded.

Something about West provokes this kind of moral judgment, even though we should know that acting the trickster is a deep part of his game. I should just say that whatever he intended by ?Blood on the Leaves? flops; instead I?m genuinely outraged. This is a testimony to the magnetism of his talent. He continually smashes thoughtful self-awareness and skill up against batshit ridiculousness, and it?s that maddening unpredictability that keeps us all listening.

Yeezus has a particular intensity because it moves forward like a drill, unlike the meandering My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy. Instead of pausing to interrogate himself as he once did, West throws out phrases and gestures and leaves the listener to sort out which are sincere and which ironic. That?s especially true of the relentless, captivating foursome of tunes at the start. In ?On Sight,? he?s all over ?your spouse? who ?got more niggas off than Cochran?? initiating a trope of interracial revenge sex that runs through the record, while throwing shade on the O.J. trial verdict (which of course involved not only an interracial marriage but West's own white partner?s father). ?Black Skinhead? is an enigma right from the title with a driving ?Rock and Roll? beat and an attitude that can be summed up in one line: ?Fuck every question you askin?.? Next comes ?I Am a God? and then ?New Slaves,? the album?s most complex track, which indicts the luxury consumerism in which West himself so conspicuously participates (?all you blacks want all the same things?) as a new form of racial bondage, brought to you by the same class that profits from privatized prisons.

Source: http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/music_box/2013/06/kanye_west_s_yeezus_reviewed.html

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aboard the Amadeus Princess - what to expect on your river cruise ...

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Never having been on a cruise of any kind before, I was not quite sure what to expect as we joined the Amadeus Mozart ship at Basel for our Rhine River Cruise with L?ftner Cruises. I?d heard that the European river cruise ships have the intimate atmosphere of a small hotel, but that everything is on the compact side as the boats are restricted in height and width so that they can fit through the locks and under the bridges as they pass down the rivers of Europe.

Amadeus Princess is moored at Cochem

The ship proved to be an extremely comfortable base for our cruise and had all the conveniences we required in our cabin and in the public areas of the ship. So if you?re considering taking a European river cruise, here?s what you might expect based on our our experience with L?ftner?Cruises;

I hope you enjoy the video tour below of the Amadeus Princess river cruise ship

If you can?t see the video above about the Amadeus Princess ship, view it on my blog here or on YouTube here

Who will my fellow passengers be?

The Amadeus Princess is one of a fleet of 11 ships owned by L?ftner?Cruises and with 80 cabins the guest list will typically be 150-160 people, making it easy to make friends on board while mingling in the bar lounge and on the excursions. The languages used on board were English and German and on our cruise there were a couple of large tour groups from the USA and Israel as well as couples and groups of friends from the USA, Canada and Germany. We learned that large tour groups often use river cruise ships for bookings, so the nationalities of the passengers may vary between cruises, but there?s typically an international mixture. With a few exceptions, most of the passengers on the cruise were in their 50s, 60s and 70s and typically seemed to be the active retired who were keen to get out and explore the history and landscape of the Rhine. As one American guest put it ?This cruise is history come alive for me?

What will my cabin be like?

Our cabin was on the Mozart deck, the highest of the 3 levels of cabins and one below the open sun deck, with floor to ceiling French windows that we could open to give a balcony effect. The cabins on this deck were in the highest price band, but I would have been equally happy to have a cabin on the Strauss deck below, which were slightly cheaper, although the few cabins on the lowest Hayden deck had smaller windows. The room was compact by hotel standards but had everything that we needed for a pleasant stay; a large double bed with bedside lights; a narrow dressing table with a mirror above and cupboards below, 2 power points and just room to perch my laptop. We had room to stow our cases under the bed and for clothes storage there was a double wardrobe and a total of 6 drawers. In a cupboard there was a small safe which was suitable to store smaller valuables although not large enough for my laptop.

Our cabin on the Amadeus Mozart with Lueftner Cruises

Like the bedroom, the bathroom, with shower, sink and toilet was compact but had everything that we needed, some nice mini toiletries, a cupboard under the sink and a well-lit mirror. I wondered whether there might be a problem if everyone on the boat decided to take a shower at once, but this was never a problem as the ship has huge water tanks and we had a good hot shower whenever we wanted.

Where can I relax on board?

Our first evening started with a welcome cocktail in the Panorama Bar when the crew were all introduced and we felt that the cruise was well and truly underway. This lounge bar occupied the front end of the ship on the top level with access to a small deck area where you could sit and get a view as the ship progressed down the river. The Panorama Bar was a little crowded if all the cruise guests were in there at once, but normally this was not an issue as guests filtered in an out for a pre or post-dinner drink, for afternoon tea or for evening talks about the next day?s events and excursions. It was a pleasant place to socialise and to make friends with other guests.

For those who wanted a quieter place to read or play games, there was the Amadeus Club at the back of the ship with comfortable leather seats, a TV area and a couple of computer stations where you could connect to the Internet for an additional charge. The upper sun deck stretched the whole length of the ship with plenty of chairs to sit outside, and space to play games such as chess. Because we were travelling in May when the weather was changeable and because we spent a lot of time on excursions, we didn?t spend much time on the sun deck, but in summer I think this would be a lovely place to sit in the sun and take in the scenery as it drifts by.

Left: The Panorama Bar Right: The Amadeus Club on the Amadeus Princess

What is the food like on board?

Immediately below the Panorama Bar at the front of the ship, was the Panorama restaurant, where we took all our meals, with breakfast, lunch and dinner being included in the cruise. On our L?ftner?Cruise the table seating plan had been pre-arranged but there was an opportunity to go and talk to the restaurant manager about your table when you boarded. I?ve heard that some other cruises have a free seating arrangement, enabling you to sit at different tables each day, however on our cruise there was a fixed restaurant table for the duration of the cruise. ?Our table worked well for us as we had a location by the window and pleasant table companions, but I spoke to some guests who were disappointed that they didn?t have a table with a river view.

We were very impressed with the quality of the food on board as we had a three course lunch and a four course dinner every day as well as a breakfast buffet with hot dishes, pastries, fruits, cereals and yogurts, cheese and cold meats. There was a wide variety and even though some elements of the meal, such as the cheeses and cold meats at breakfast or the salads at lunch were standard, I noticed that each day the selection was slightly different. Our typical lunch menu would be an entr?e of salad and soups from a buffet, followed by a choice of three hot dishes including a fish and vegetarian option from the menu and a desert buffet of fruits and gateaux. For dinner a typical menu was a salad or meat entr?e?and soup course followed by a meat dish such as medallions of pork or roast beef in a mustard crust or alternatively a fish or vegetarian option. ?All the food was beautifully presented and the service was excellent with the same waiters and bar staff serving us throughout the cruise. Table wine was served with the evening meal but you could also purchase bottles from the wine menu with all meals.

What will I need to pack?

The dress code on board the ship was relaxed, with no requirement to dress formally. As much of the day was spent on walking tours and excursions, comfortable flat shoes, layers of clothes to cope with the changeable weather and waterproofs in case of showers were the order of the day. For dinner most passengers dressed up, but even so it was more smart-casual than dressy and only a few gentlemen wore a jacket at dinner ? certainly no need to pack your evening gown or dinner jacket!

In terms of other things that you might need, there were a couple of sockets in the cabin which would be sufficient for most people but as I had a fair amount of electronic equipment to charge, I took an extension lead with 4 extra sockets as well as my normal European plug adaptor. Although I would normally pack a guide book, I found that if you were planning to take excursions this was unnecessary, as every tour we took had an excellent local guide and a lot of information was also provided on board about the places we would be visiting. There was no money exchange or banking facility on board, but we found that there was an ATM at almost every place we visited and that this was the best way to get local currency.

Borrowing bikes from the Amadeus Princess

What will my typical cruise day look like?

We quickly we got into the rhythm of the cruise which for us involved tours of the interesting towns and villages where we stopped, so we didn?t spend too much time on board the ship during the day. After breakfast each morning we would join our tour group on the quayside with a local guide, who would either take us on a walking tour directly from the boat, or we would be driven by coach, mini-bus or even tourist train to our starting point. Having always been an independent traveller I?ve never much gone for guided tours, but found that the quality of the tour guides was really excellent and that they filled the tour with plenty of interesting information, anecdotes and local knowledge that you could never have gleaned from a guidebook.

If you opted not to take every tour, you might spend more time on board and enjoy the afternoon tea served in the Panorama Bar, or do your own sightseeing directly from the boat, as most times we were were moored within walking distance of the towns we were visiting. Bicycles were also available for guests to borrow, with locks and helmets, which was another good way to get out on your own and explore or take a ride along the river, as we did from Cochem on our last day.

I was surprised that the ship did most of the sailing by night, and it was only when we passed through the famous Middle Rhine section with the castles and Loreley rock that we were all on deck to admire the scenery. However, the first part of the Rhine Cruise was not particularly scenic with a flat landscape dotted with industrial complexes and quite a few locks.

The key time that we learned to listen out for was ?All on board time?, normally 15 minutes before the ship was due to sail, as if you were late the boat couldn?t wait. Having said that, the ship had an efficient system for checking guests in and out of the ship with a shore pass that gave a phone number to contact the ship and details of mooring locations, and they also took our mobile phone numbers as part of the booking process.

The Amadeus Princess Reception area

What about the excursions?

Different cruise lines have different approaches to excursions, some including free walking tours in the cruise price, while others like L?ftner Cruises?offer a range of excursions as a bookable extra. We had pre-booked our excursions as a package and there were typically 2 tours per day, one in the morning and one in the afternoon with lunch on board the ship. So that we could easily hear the guide, we were all issued with personal headsets, and were given radio sets each time we left the ship, which was great when I got distracted taking photos and got a bit behind the main party, but could still listen to the commentary.

The advantage of taking all the tours on offer was that we really saw a lot and learned about the fascinating history along the Rhine, but the downside was that we didn?t have a lot of time to just relax on the ship or to just sit in a caf? and let the world go by. This was our choice of course, but those who want a more relaxing cruise might want to just do one excursion per day and spend the other half day exploring on their own or relaxing on the ship (and take advantage of the afternoon tea).

The other benefit of the tours was that we had immediate entry to things that we might not have had time to see on our own, with no queues or transport worries. For instance we had a private viewing of the Jewish Baths at Speyer, were first into the castle at the top of the hill at Cochem and enjoyed the private tasting of Alsace wine at Domaine Hering. The excursions varied in price between ?15 per person for a walking tour up to ?46 per person for a wine tasting tour, but there was a pre-booked excursion package of ?225 per person which saved around 25% on the individual prices and I?d recommend this option if you are the sort of person that wants to see as much as possible on your cruise.

An excursion to the castle at Heidelberg

How green is my cruise?

The L?ftner?Cruise company is very proud of its eco-credentials and has a ?Green Globe? accreditation which is a certification issued by the UN World Tourism organisation. Michael Heller, the Hotel Manager explained to me that this extends not only to things like reducing waste water, recycling of garbage and the energy efficient lighting system, but also to the training of the staff in eco-friendly practices. At certain ports, the ship switches to shore supply of electricity which means the ships does not constantly have to run its engines, as it is quieter and better for the environment, even though it costs the company more. The company also collaborates with the Atmosfair climate protection organisation to enable ?passengers to make a donation to offset their CO2 emissions while on board.

Leaving the Amadeus Princess at Cologne

What extras do I need to budget for?

The main extras that we needed to budget for over an above the price of the cruise were excursions and tips. Tips are not an obligation but are customary on cruises for good service and the suggested amount was ?5-7 per person per day, which was given in an envelope at the end of the cruise to be shared among the staff. Most guests, especially the Americans, also gave a tip of a few Euros to the local tour guides who were really excellent. As wine and coffee was served with dinner each evening and afternoon tea was served every day, we didn?t spend much extra on board, although we did indulge ourselves?with a bottle or two of the local wines. You might also need to cover the odd coffee or snack while out sightseeing, but since lunch was served on board and the tours left little time for independent wandering we didn?t spend a lot on these either. If you need to use the Wifi, the costs can be expensive and the charge on board the Amadeus Princess was ?3 an hour. Overall, we found that a lot was included in our cruise price, especially if you had pre-booked the excursions, so we didn?t spend much extra on our cruise.

We really enjoyed our first ever cruise with?L?ftner?Cruises, and although we are normally independent travellers, we found that it was a fantastic way to see a lot of interesting things in a short space of time, while always having a comfortable, friendly base to return to.

?More tales from our Rhine River Cruise

Read my?Cruising the Rhine daily diary?at The Online Travel Journal
Photo Diary of my Rhine River Cruise
From Riesling to Gew?rztraminer ? our wine tasting on the Alsace Wine Route

About?L?ftner Cruises

My thanks to L?ftner Cruises who hosted our Rhine River Cruise ? L?ftner Cruises specialise in European river cruises on the Rhine, Danube, Rh?ne and other destinations in Europe, with personal service and Austrian hospitality. You can also follow them on their Facebook Page. We travelled on the Amadeus Princess on a 7 day Classical Rhine Cruise which travelled from Basel to Amsterdam, although we disembarked at Cologne.

This article by Heather Cowper is originally published at Heatheronhertravels.com ? Read the original article here.

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Source: http://www.heatheronhertravels.com/amadeus-princess-lueftner-cruises/

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