Source: http://www.thehollywoodgossip.com/2013/04/the-voice-recap-blind-auditions-take-five/
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Wednesday, April 10, 2013
European pension proposals could cost UK business 450 billion pounds
By Sarah Mortimer
LONDON (Reuters) - British businesses could face a 450 billion pound bill as a result of plans to force pension funds to protect themselves from risk with extra capital, data from Europe's insurance and pensions watchdog showed.
This could hamper companies' ability to invest and also force some pension schemes to close.
The estimate from the European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority (EIOPA) shows the impact of new capital requirements on final salary-linked pension schemes, where benefits are based on salary and duration of employment.
The 450 billion pound estimate is in line with a worst-case scenario contained in figures the UK Pensions Regulator produced for the British government last year.
"This confirms that any such new rules would harm businesses' ability to invest, grow and create jobs, and many more (pension) schemes could be forced to close," Minister of State for Pensions Steve Webb said in a statement on Tuesday.
The British pensions industry was also critical.
The National Association of Pension Funds said the high price tag would have a highly damaging effect for the retirement prospects of millions of UK workers.
"Businesses trying to run final salary pensions could be faced with bigger pensions bills to plug an astonishing 450 billion pound funding gap," Joanne Segars, chief executive at the NAPF, said.
The new capital rules, known as Solvency II, were originally aimed at the insurance industry but the European regulator is proposing to adapt them for the pensions sector to improve standards of governance, risk management, valuation and calculation of minimum capital requirements.
Britain had the highest funding requirement out of the countries covered in the European watchdog's assessment, which were Belgium, Germany, Denmark, Ireland, the Netherlands, Norway and Sweden.
Earlier on Tuesday, the European watchdog rejected calls for it to cut capital charges on insurance companies' infrastructure and private equity investments, which politicians are pushing as a way to boost long-term growth.
(EIOPA's preliminary impact assessment can be found at: https://eiopa.europa.eu/fileadmin/tx_dam/files/consultations/QIS/OPC/qis1/Outcome/EIOPA-BoS-13-021_QIS_on_IORPs_Preliminary_Results_for_EC_-_20130409.pdf)
(Reporting by Sarah Mortimer. Editing by Jane Merriman)
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/european-pension-proposals-could-cost-uk-business-450-175904640--sector.html
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Tuesday, April 9, 2013
Poop in paradise: The smell of (environmental) success?
A swanky beach enclave seeks relief from the stench of bird poop, but environmentalists say the guano shows local birds have been brought back from the brink of extinction.
Pelicans and cormorants gather on the cliffs above the cove in the affluent La Jolla section of San Diego, April 2. The birds have turned the cliffs white with their droppings and caused a stench in an area full of affluent tourists.
Lenny Ignelzi / AP
EnlargeLa Jolla's jagged coastline is strictly protected by environmental laws to ensure the San Diego community remains the kind of seaside jewel that has attracted swanky restaurants, top-flight hotels and some of the nation's rich and famous, including billionaire businessman Irwin Jacobs and former presidential candidate Mitt Romney.
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Tourists flock to the place. So do birds. Lots of birds. And with those birds comes lots of poop.
So rather than gasping in amazement at the beautiful views, some are holding their noses from the stench coming from the droppings that cake coastal rocks and outcroppings near its business district.
"We've had to relocate tables inside because when people go out to the patio, some are like 'Oh my God. I can't handle the smell,'" said Christina Collignon, a hostess at Eddie V's, a steak and seafood restaurant perched on a cliff straight up from the guano-coated rocks.
On a recent afternoon, tourists on spring break walked along the sea wall. Some scrunched up their faces in disgust.
"It smells like something dead," said Meghan Brummett as she looked at the birds with her husband and children. The family was visiting from Brawley, a farming town two hours east of San Diego.
Biologists say the odor is the smell of success: Environmental protections put in place over the past few decades have brought back endangered species.
Cormorants and brown pelicans nearly became extinct in the 1970s because of the pesticide DDT. The brown pelican was taken off the federal endangered species list in 2010, and its population, including the Caribbean and Latin America, is estimated at more than 650,000. The total U.S. cormorant population is about 2 million.
La Jolla is a state-designated area of "special biological significance." That means California strictly regulates its waters to protect its abundant marine life, which also attracts birds.
"We're kind of a victim of our own success," said Robert Pitman, a marine biologist at the National Marine Fisheries Service in La Jolla. "We've provided a lot of bird protections so now we're getting a lot of birds. I think we're going to be seeing more of these conflicts come about, and I think we'll have to deal with them on a case-by-case basis. I think there'll have to be compromises all around."
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China reports 2 more cases of new bird flu virus
In this photo taken Friday, April 5, 2013, a poultry vendor walks past his empty shop at a wholesale market in Shanghai. China announced a sixth death from a new bird flu strain Friday, while authorities in Shanghai halted the sale of live fowl and slaughtered all poultry at a market where the virus was detected in pigeons being sold for meat. (AP Photo) CHINA OUT
In this photo taken Friday, April 5, 2013, a poultry vendor walks past his empty shop at a wholesale market in Shanghai. China announced a sixth death from a new bird flu strain Friday, while authorities in Shanghai halted the sale of live fowl and slaughtered all poultry at a market where the virus was detected in pigeons being sold for meat. (AP Photo) CHINA OUT
In this photo taken Friday April 5, 2013, a poultry vendor sits in front of his empty shop at a wholesale market in Shanghai. China announced a sixth death from a new bird flu strain Friday, while authorities in Shanghai halted the sale of live fowl and slaughtered all poultry at a market where the virus was detected in pigeons being sold for meat. (AP Photo) CHINA OUT
BEIJING (AP) ? Shanghai has reported two more cases of human infection of a new strain of bird flu, raising the number of cases in eastern China to 18. Six of the people who contracted the virus have died.
Health officials believe people are contracting the H7N9 virus through direct contact with infected fowl and say there's no evidence the virus is spreading easily between people.
Shanghai's government said Saturday the latest victims are a 74-year-old peasant and a 66-year-old retiree. The city has been ordered by the agriculture ministry to halt its live poultry trade and slaughter all fowl in markets where the virus has been found.
The capital cities of the neighboring provinces of Zhejiang and Jiangsu also have suspended sales of live poultry. Both provinces have reported H7N9 cases.
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FDA OK's first drug for morning sickness in more than 50 years
By Toni Clarke
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. health regulators have approved a drug to treat morning sickness that was withdrawn from the market 30 years ago amid claims, since debunked, that it caused birth defects.
The drug, Diclegis, made by Duchesnay Inc, a private Canadian company, is a generic version of a product that was initially approved in the United States under the name Bendectin in 1956. It was withdrawn in 1983 following a slew of lawsuits from mothers claiming their children had been harmed by it.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration did not prompt Bendectin's manufacturer, Merrell Dow, to withdraw the product, and in fact the agency confirmed, in response to citizen petitions, that it had not been withdrawn because it was ineffective or posed a danger. It was withdrawn simply because the company could not afford to defend itself in court.
Like Bendectin, Diclegis consists of two main ingredients: doxylamine succinate, which is contained in several over-the-counter antihistamines; and pyroxidine hydrochloride, also known as vitamin B6. Diclectin comes in the form of a single pill and will be available only with a prescription.
Bringing the drug back to the market represents a bold move for the FDA, whose defining decision not to approve thalidomide, a sedative that was launched in Europe in 1957 and widely used to treat morning sickness before its link with birth defects was discovered, solidified the agency's legitimacy and reputation as a safety watchdog.
Morning sickness affects a large portion of pregnant women. In most cases it can be managed through dietary measures such as snacking throughout the day and drinking ginger ale. But in rare cases, it is so severe that the woman requires hospitalization and treatment with intraveneous fluids.
(Reporting By Toni Clarke in Washington; additional reporting by Bill Berkrot in New York; Editing by Bernard Orr)
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/fda-oks-first-drug-morning-sickness-more-50-000746720.html
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UConn, Louisville to meet for women's NCAA title
NEW ORLEANS (AP) ? Connecticut beat Louisville comfortably back in January and didn't even have star Breanna Stewart on the floor at the time.
That doesn't mean the Huskies are going to be brimming with confidence about their chances of winning an eighth NCAA national title on Tuesday night against the Cardinals.
After all, Louisville (29-8) has become the master of the upset.
The Cardinals beat Cal 64-57 in the semifinals in the latest game they weren't supposed to win, rallying from 10 down to do it. Louisville stunned defending national champion Baylor and knocked off perennial power Tennessee just to get to New Orleans.
Next up are the Huskies, who know how little one should read into previous meetings. UConn (34-4) lost to Notre Dame three times this season, only to beat the Irish handily, 83-65, in Sunday night's other semifinal.
"We've got a problem Tuesday night, I think, because I think Louisville really thinks they're the best team in the country right now," UConn coach Geno Auriemma said. "After the way they've played and what they've done in these last couple weeks, they probably think there's nobody that can beat them."
If the Louisville women pull off a fourth-straight upset and the men's team beats Michigan on Monday night in Atlanta, then Louisville would become the first school to win men's and women's NCAA titles in the same year since UConn did it in 2004.
"If it were easy, it would have been done a lot of times, but the fact it's only been done once shows you how difficult it is to do," Auriemma said. "At the same time, this has been a magical year for Louisville. ... It's just amazing what they've been able to do, so I think we're playing against Louisville and we're playing against a certain karma maybe."
Incidentally, that 2004 women's title for Connecticut came in New Orleans.
The last time Louisville made it to a title game was in 2009, losing to ? that's right ? Connecticut, 76-54.
Louisville coach Jeff Walz has a simple answer when asked what changed between the end of the regular season and the NCAA tournament to make his team so tough to beat.
"We're playing our best basketball at the end of the year and that's all that matters," Walz said. "We're figuring out a way to pull them out and win and play well at the right time."
Still, there are reasons to wonder how Louisville will manage to do it against UConn. They will need to deal with Stewart, who poured in 29 points against Notre Dame on Sunday night. She did not play when the Huskies beat Louisville by 14 points nearly three months ago.
UConn is a complete team, strong on defense (allowing about 50 points per game) with an array of scoring options.
Four of their starters average double-figures in points, including 6-foot forward Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis at about 17 per game (she had 16 against the Irish) and 6-5 center Stefanie Dolson, who's averaged nearly 14 points.
Advantage UConn?
The Cardinals aren't all that concerned with history, unless they're the ones making it. By beating Cal, the Cardinals, who were seeded fifth in the Oklahoma City Region, became the first team seeded worse than fourth to win a game in the women's Final Four.
Louisville has been carried mostly by its offense in the tournament, with Antonita Slaughter hitting a lot of 3s ? six against Cal ? and Shoni Schimmel hitting from all over the court. Schimmel's younger sister, Jude, has also been a clutch play-maker in a reserve role.
"Right now anything can happen," Walz said. "Why not us?"
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/uconn-louisville-meet-womens-ncaa-title-044843776--spt.html
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The Oak Leaf : Consoles Upgraded
Ken Kutska, A&E Editor
April 8, 2013
Technology is an ever- changing indicator of what our society has become. It is a necessity for the future as society evolves into a new, innovative world. The time has come for developing the next generation of gaming platforms.
It?s apparent in today?s tech world that the current gaming platforms, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, are becoming outdated and must improve to keep pace with the PC behemoths.
Console systems will never be big graphic computing and memory storage powerhouses like their PC big brothers, but some people prefer console gaming because they don?t want to go out and buy, build and modify their own PC.
Consoles also have uses beyond gaming. Online applications like Xbox Live and PlayStation Store are essential for modern console use.
These systems are more than gaming platforms. They also let you watch movies, connect with friends and search the web.
Microsoft and Sony scheduled their next-gen console release dates for later this winter and early 2014. Sony announced their new system PlayStation 4, codenamed Orbis, in early March and debuted some of the new tech.
Microsoft remains quiet about their Xbox 720, codenamed Durango, and might wait for the Electronic Entertainment Expo to debut their system.
Some of the specifications for these systems have been announced. Both systems will be powered by a new graphics and architecture systems created by AMD.? Storage space on the new systems will run differently, but details are still sketchy.
They are expected to have multiple storage units for personal storage, bandwidth and RAM.
Both systems are expected to have Blu-ray drives; nothing new for PlayStation, but needed for Xbox. Xbox never developed Blu-ray technology for their current console, having invested in the now-defunct HD DVD brand.
The new Blu-ray drive will help the new Xbox secure its place as the dominant gaming brand. It will allow Microsoft to be more competitive in the market and to stream high-definition material on Xbox Live and on applications like Netflix and Amazon Prime Instant Video.
I am looking forward to when both developers completely announce their systems. I also look forward to the day the next generation of gaming hits the ground running with new interesting games on the horizon.
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