10.31
0 Comments | Scotland on Sunday (Edinburgh, Scotland), Jan 18, 2009
Byline: Kenny Farquharson
In 48 hours, America will hail its 44th president. Here, Kenny Farquharson identifies the four qualities which, he believes, make Barack Obama the perfect man for these troubled times
Grace
GRACE is an elusive quality, difficult to define but instantly recognised. It’s an old-fashioned word for something that will never go out of fashion. Usually it is noticeable by its absence, but in Barack Obama its presence and power is undeniable. Obama is blessed with grace. An abundance of it. It was the magic that turned this self-described “skinny kid with a funny name” into a man who is now the world’s most-loved public figure. Come Tuesday we’ll find out if it can make him a great president.
Obama’s grace manifests itself in many forms. Partly it’s physical. The languid stroll, never hurried, that is his signature gait. The Washington Post’s award-winning black journalist Kevin Merida insists there is an African-American thing going on, “in his walk, his dap, his juke to the hoop”. Yet there is also something Rat manifesting abundance Pack about it; elegance seasoned with a pinch of insouciance. There’s even grace in his stillness; his poise. It’s in the shapes he makes; relaxing with his feet on a desk; leaning against a wall.
Partly, too, it’s the way he wears his clothes. Whether it’s the simple two-button suits made by 121-year-old Chicago outfitters Hart Schaffner Marx, 97 per cent worsted wool and 3 per cent cashmere, selling at dollars 1,500 apiece; or a dark-blue open-neck shirt with the sleeves neatly rolled up to just below the elbows, worn with flat-fronted brown chinos. It all looks so effortless.
Grace has its political form as well, commonly known as “grace under fire”. Obama demonstrated this during the presidential campaign when, confronted with a crumbling Wall Street, he paused for thoughtful reflection while his opponent settled for the appearance of action.
Mostly, however, Obama’s grace is manifested in his dealings with other people. The smile that makes his face a convention of laughter lines. The generosity of attention. The unmannered politeness. The tactile ease with his daughters. The way he rests his arm around his wife’s waist. They are grace notes to a tune the whole world is listening to.
Restraint
Liberals in America hailed Obama like a castaway sailor hails a passing three-masted yacht. When he first emerged as a presidential hopeful, they invested in him expectations which, at the time, seemed implausibly high. Many bought his book, The Audacity Of Hope, looking for evidence that here was the 21st century successor to Jack and Bobby Kennedy and Martin Luther King, all wrapped up in one skinny frame. And many put the book down with a feeling of disappointment. It fell some way short of being a resounding personal manifesto with a bell-like clarity of purpose
10.31
Journal of Business, Sep 17, 2009 by Gustafson, Jeanne
In this economy, employers are getting creative, adding sometimes nontraditional benefits to help employees save money in their personal budgets by taking advantage of group rates their managers negotiated.
While many familiar benefits remain, other options, such as legal insurance, group-rate auto and home insurance, reduced-price fitness memberships or day care, and even adoption assistance are among those being offered by employers here.
Such benefits, often known illinois auto insurance quotes as optional or elective benefits, are in addition to standard benefits such as health care and dental coverage and vacation time.
Some opt-in benefits don’t cost employers a lot of extra money, but help employees save money on things they might otherwise buy on their own, so they’re gaining in popularity, employers here say.
Rockwood Retirement Communities, for instance, offers its employees group rates for gym memberships, while Spokane-based Avista Corp. offers a range of elective benefits including tuition reimbursement and even financial assistance with the costs of adopting a child.
Among its elective benefits, Providence Sacred Heart Medical Center & Children’s Hospital offers its employees a suite of optional insurance including auto, legal, and home insurance, discounted gym memberships, and discounted child care for the kids of part-time employees at St. Anne’s Children and Family Center, says Kathy Sewell, the hospital’s director of human resources.
A range of insurance options
As a privately held company, Goodale & Barbieri Co., of Spokane, has sought to maintain the high level of benefits it offered its employees before it was spun off from the publicly-held Red Lion Hotels Corp. in 2006, says Chris Baird, the Spokane-based real estate development and property management company’s controller. It has nearly identical benefits now, Baird says, with the exception of an on-site day care that it had offered its employees here, which remained under the ownership of Red Lion Hotels, he says. The company offers its more than 90 employees some elective insurance benefits that it subsidizes 100 percent, and others that are paid for by employees, but for which the company secures group rates.
In addition to offering a 50 percent match of 401(k) contributions up to 3 percent of the employee’s salary, Goodale & Barbieri pays 100 percent of the premiums for its employees’ long-term disability insurance. As nonsubsidized benefits, it offers to its employees life insurance and accidental death and dismemberment insurance, as well as the full line of Aflac products, which consist of cash-benefit insurance policies, Baird says.
In addition, Goodale & Barbieri is seeking ways to help employees reduce costs on regular benefits. This year, for example, the company has begun offering its employees two health-care options to help them reduce health insurance costs. The change has been well-received, with about 60 percent of the company’s employees choosing the scaled-down plan, reducing their individual health insurance costs by 5 percent this year, Baird says.
Mary Prince, Avista’s manager of corporate benefits, says the energy company conducts employee surveys regularly, and seeks to provide benefits that are of most use to employees.
“Our employees are not shy about let-ting us know things they like or dislike,” and that’s a good thing, she says
10.31
Market Wire, October, 2009
Exercise Gold, the third and final Olympic security exercise, will take place from November 2-6, 2009. As part of the 2010 Olympic Integrated Exercise Program, Exercise Gold serves to confirm that federal, provincial, regional, and municipal organizations are prepared to respond in a coordinated manner to any emergency that may occur during the 2010 Winter Games.
“As hosts of the 2010 Winter Games, we are committed to providing a safe and secure environment for athletes, visitors and Canadians,” said the Honourable mobility vehicles Peter Van Loan, Minister of Public Safety. “That is why Canada has taken a comprehensive approach to security planning. We are on track to deliver a safe and secure Games, so that what people remember is the celebration and excitement of the competition – not any questions of security.”
“In a few short months we will welcome the world to British Columbia as we play host to the 2010 Winter Games,” said the Honourable Kash Heed, BC Minister of Public Safety and Solicitor General
10.31
HealthDay, October, 2009 by Diana Kohnle
New mothers may be so consumed with their newborns that they herbalife diet forget the ordeal of childbirth. How quickly their bodies actually recover is another story.
The Nemours Foundation offers these suggestions of what new mothers may experience:
Tender, full breasts.
Constipation for a few days.
Soreness and stitching if you tore or had an episiotomy.
Hemorrhoids
10.31
Market Wire, October, 2009
Brightec, Inc., (OTCBB: BRTE) creator of
the world’s first photographic quality glow-in-the-dark media, today
announced that it has retained Market Place Gifts, Inc., of Chicago, IL to
represent their PlayGlo(TM) line of glow-in-the-dark puzzles and stickers
in the states of Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Wisconsin, North
Dakota and South Dakota.
The engagement of Market Place Gifts expands PlayGlo’s representation to
four of the country’s major markets in time for the holiday season. “It was
important for us to enter at least one more large region of the US before
holiday buying goes into full swing,” said Patrick Planche, Founder and
President of Brightec. “Market Place Gifts has the reputation as a
powerhouse in the Midwest and has an impressive portfolio of independent
stores as well as regional chains,” added Mr. Planche.
“We love the opportunity to help grow a new product,” said Carole
Rosenbaum, Principal of Market Place Gifts. “This line has wonderful
potential. Between having a glow-in-the-dark effect unavailable in any
other product in the marketplace and being made here in the US — it’s a
winning combination and we’re excited to be involved as this product line
takes off!”
Brightec’s initial PlayGlo puzzle collection features six 11″ x 15″, 100
piece, animal-themed puzzles for children ages 6 and up, at a suggested
retail price of $9.99. Also available under the PlayGlo brand, are
glow-in-the-dark stickers using Brightec’s unique media. Each of the four
different sticker collections, with images that complement the puzzle line,
comes with repositionable backing, garmin nuvi 1490t meaning the stickers can be applied to
almost any surface and then removed and relocated. The stickers have a
suggested retail price of $2.99.
PlayGlo puzzles and stickers are available to qualified retailers. All
PlayGlo products are manufactured in the USA.
About Market Place Gifts, Inc.
Market Place Gifts, Inc., is a manufacturer’s representative firm founded
in July 1982 by Mary Doolen and Carole Rosenbaum to service the Midwest in
the gift, stationery and children’s market. Their guiding principle is to
offer their customers more coverage by calling on a wide variety of stores
in smaller territories. This allows their twenty-one reps to be face to
face with a larger number of stores on a more frequent basis making it
easier to update, service and sell more effectively for the companies they
represent.
About Brightec
Brightec, Inc. (OTCBB: BRTE) is the creator of the world’s first patented
photo-quality glow-in-the-dark media. Brightec’s paper charges
automatically with just a few minutes of exposure to light and will glow
for hours — dramatically outshining conventional glow-in-the-dark
products. With Brightec inkjet or offset paper, users can print razor sharp
color pictures that appear normal by day and are luminescent at night in
full photographic detail. Innovative and versatile, Brightec paper is ideal
for applications in numerous commercial markets including advertising,
promotions, premiums and consumer or industrial products. Brightec
glow-in-the-dark media is available in inkjet, offset and flexo versions,
and is available directly from the Company. For more information on
Brightec and its products please visit www.brightec.com .
PlayGlo is Brightec’s brand name for its glow-in-the-dark toy line.
The information in this Press Release includes certain “forward-looking”
statements within the meaning of the Safe Harbor provisions of Federal
Securities Laws
10.31
National Review, Nov 2, 2009 by William Y. Yeatman, Iain Murray
IT’S the seemingly intractable problem of modern civilization: Americans need more electricity, they want lower greenhouse-gas emissions, and they want to get rid of ugly transmission towers.
Many consider these to be mutually exclusive goals. More electricity means more emissions and more transmission towers. In the pre-An Inconvenient Truth world, meeting electricity demand was paramount; now, new emissions are verboten. Power plants that once would have been approved quickly now are being turned down by governors and judges.
There is a simple way to accommodate all these disparate preferences: true deregulation of the electric industry. The $330 billion industry has been a redoubt of state control for almost 100 years. Early in the 20th century, pro-intervention Progressives concluded that electric companies would consolidate into “natural” monopolies that would exploit consumers. This was a curious conclusion to reach at a time when electric companies were competing vigorously in many cities, but for those who put faith in the regulatory state, theory trumps observation at every turn.
The Progressives’ remedy for this theoretical drift toward natural monopoly, offered without any apparent appreciation of irony, was to establish government-mandated monopolies. States created commissions with the regulatory power to outlaw competition among utilities and set electricity rates for consumers. By the end of the Great Depression, almost all Americans bought their electricity from government-backed monopolies, and they continue to do so to this day, whatever regulation advocates might say about electricity deregulation in the 1990s.
This regulation may have shielded consumers from paying energy prices set by supply and demand, but they pay a high price in other ways. Without competition, there is no spur for innovation. For that reason, the systems of electricity transmission and distribution–the wires, towers, and poles that transmit electricity from the power plant to your home–have undergone very little upgrading since the regulators stepped in.
Suppose that an entrepreneur invents a wind-power technology that could provide affordable, reliable electricity to 50 houses, and that a developer wants to use this technology to power a small housing project he plans to build. The entrepreneur sells his product; the developer gets affordable, reliable energy; and environmentalists get their clean energy. It is win-win-win. It is also illegal, because it would violate the local utility’s government-granted monopoly. Only one company is allowed to string a wire.
Under the Progressive-era regulatory model, government sets the price of power. It was this sort of price control–not deregulation–that led to the California blackouts in 2000 and 2001. In a summer when hydroelectric power was down, owing to decreased water availability after a mild winter, California utilities had to buy electricity at high rates from the deregulated sector but sell it at capped rates. As a result, the utilities’ creditworthiness declined, which pushed them near bankruptcy. Then, instead of removing the cap on retail rates, California imposed a cap on wholesale rates. An Econ 101 student could have foreseen the result. The generators simply made less power available to California utilities while selling the rest in other states where they could actually get a fair market rate. Blackouts followed.
Rate regulation simply defies logic. If electricity were priced in accordance with market forces rather than government mandates, demand would decrease during peak hours, when electricity was more new zealand vacation expensive. Decreased peak demand, in turn, would diminish the need for new transmission towers and distribution poles. If energy entrepreneurs were allowed to compete in a free electricity market, the possibilities would be endless for distributed, renewable generation technologies, such as small-scale wind and solar power.
In a truly competitive market, independent power producers could team up with telecom firms and property developers to share the cost of building underground networks to carry both energy and information. Recognition of utilities’ property rights–in the form of underground and overhead rights-of-way currently occupied by transmission lines and cables–would make such enterprises even more attractive, and the resulting competition would lower prices for consumers.
The existing regulatory regime provides no incentive for energy entrepreneurs to emulate the sort of private partnerships that have been instrumental to the growth of the next-generation fiberoptic-telecommunications infrastructure. The chance of small, innovative neighborhood generators’ emerging to challenge the behemoths that date from the Progressive era is much diminished by this regulatory stranglehold.
Predictably, government continues to miss the mark. In Washington, the administration and congressional Democrats want to overhaul the system by spending a king’s ransom on technologies designed to give utilities the ability to moderate consumer demand–by, say, remotely turning down millions of thermostats during periods of peak use. Proponents call this a “smart grid,” but it’s a dumb policy, given that the U.S. could modernize the system without spending a taxpayer penny
10.31
0 Comments | Scotsman (Edinburgh, Scotland), The, Sept 19, 2009
Byline: NO BYLINE
Barney Harwood, Television presenter
Who would attend your fantasy dinner party? I’d invite Billy Connolly, Eddie Izzard, Rufus Wainwright, Eddie the Eagle Edwards and Megan Fox.
Who did you last text?
I texted my Dad and told him that I was gonna kick his butt on Mario Kart.
It’s not cool but… I once smashed a window when I was playing golf and blamed it on an old guy.
What’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever been given? Don’t play golf.
What’s the worst job you ever had? I worked in a kennels for quarantined dogs. My job was to whitewash the walls every three days, because the dogs were so gross.
Who is your favourite fictional character? Doctor Who.
What are you afraid of? Leaping off a cliff onto a spike.
Did you have a nickname growing up? Sorry, it’s far too rude for you to print.
What situations make you lose your temper? I never lose my temper any more.
What profession would you like to try? Photography, because I love to be creative.
What food or drink is always in your fridge? I always have Irn-Bru in my fridge, it’s the elixir of life.
If you could change something about yourself, what would it be? My face, because I look like a cross between a chipmunk and a baked potato.
If you could travel back in time, where would you go? I would like to have seen Elvis perform.
Saturday night or Sunday morning? Sunday morning. I love my bed and it loves me.
Who or what is the love of your life? Music is the love of my life, because it keeps me party wall surveyor insane.
CBBC presenter Barney Harwood supports development charity, World Vision www.worldvision.org.uk
10.30
0 Comments | Daily Mail (London, England), The, Oct 19, 2009
A MUTUAL giant worth [pounds sterling]10bn and with more than 5m customers could be born should ongoing merger discussions between Liverpool Victoria and Royal Liver prove successful.
Any agreed deal would effectively be a takeover of Royal Liver by rebranded LV with no windfall payable to members of either business. LV boss Mike oregon auto insurance quotes Rogers would probably become chief executive of the group.
The two friendly societies have experienced mixed fortunes.
LV, the UK’s largest, has assets of [pounds sterling]7bn and is a major player in the car insurance and retirement markets.
Royal Liver, which rejected a merger with Royal London two years ago, has incurred hefty losses at two financial adviser subsidiaries – Park Row and Citadel – which forced a strategic review.
LV, which has around 3.2m members and customers, saw operating profits jump128pc to [pounds sterling]62.8m in 2008. It has expanded through acquisitions, climbing into the UK’s top-five biggest car insurers.
10.30
PR Newswire, Oct 27, 2009
WILMINGTON, Del., Oct. 27 /PRNewswire/ — Following published reports that two generic companies had recalled or suspended shipments of metoprolol succinate, a beta-blocker medication taken by over half a million Americans for the treatment of high blood pressure, TOPROL-XL and its authorized generic, metoprolol succinate extended-release tablets are available.
“If patients were switched to a twice-daily metoprolol because of a supply shortage, it is important for them to know that TOPROL-XL, the extended-release metoprolol taken only once daily, is available,” said Kathy Monday, Vice President at AstraZeneca. “TOPROL-XL and metoprolol succinate are available for patients in all regions across the country,” she continued.
AstraZeneca has been manufacturing TOPROL-XL for the US market since 1992 and manufactures a generic product, metoprolol succinate, that is distributed and marketed by Par Pharmaceutical Companies, Inc.
People taking TOPROL-XL or metoprolol succinate for their high blood pressure should always consult with their health care professional if they have concerns about their medication. Patients should never disrupt or stop their TOPROL-XL or metoprolol succinate dosing without consulting their health care professional first because of the possibility of serious side effects such as chest pain or heart attack.
What You Should Know about Beta-Blocker Medications
-- Beta-blockers reduce the heart rate and the heart's output of blood
-- Do not stop taking your beta-blocker medicine unless your doctor
advises you to. Stopping your medicine without checking with your
doctor may allow blood pressure to increase and may lead to other
dangers such as chest pain or heart attack
-- People taking beta-blocker medicines should not switch medicines
without their doctor's advice
-- When taking beta-blockers, as with most medications, it is important
to continue to follow your doctor's recommendations, which may include
lifestyle changes such as a healthy diet and regular physical activity
Please see accompanying full Prescribing Information including a boxed WARNING regarding abrupt cessation of therapy at http://www.toprolxl.com/.
>
Indication and important risk information you should know about TOPROL-XLA’ (metoprolol succinate) extended-release tablets.
TOPROL-XL omron hem 712c is indicated for the treatment of high blood pressure. It may be used alone or in combination with other medications to treat high blood pressure. It’s good for you to know more about your medical condition and the medicine you are taking for it
10.30
Market Wire, October, 2009
Silvercorp Metals Inc. (TSX: SVM)(NYSE Amex: SVM) (”Silvercorp”) plans to release its unaudited second quarter results for the period ended September 31, 2009, on Monday, November 9, 2009, after the close of the market.
Silvercorp’s management will hold a conference call on Tuesday, November 10, 2009, at 8:00 a.m. PT/11:00 a.m. ET to discuss the second quarter results with analysts. Shareholders, media and interested investors are invited to listen to the live conference call over the internet by going to www.silvercorp.ca and clicking on the conference call link on the home page or over the phone by dialing (612) 288-0329 just prior to the starting time. Analysts who wish to receive the toll-free dial-in number for this conference call are invited to contact Silvercorp at (604) 669-9397 or via email to ir@silvercorp.ca no later than 2:00 p.m. PST on Monday, November 9, funny halloween costumes 2009. All participants will be asked to register with the conference call operator.
About Silvercorp Metals Inc.
Silvercorp Metals Inc