Jobless claims rose in latest week

35 min.

Reuters

The number of Americans filing new claims for unemployment benefits bounced off five-year lows last week, pulling them back to levels consistent with modest job growth.?

Initial claims for state unemployment benefits increased 38,000 to a seasonally adjusted 368,000, the Labor Department said on Thursday. The prior week's claims figure was unrevised.?

Economists polled by Reuters had expected claims to increase to 350,000.?

Claims have been very volatile this month, dropping sharply in the week ended January 12 and maintaining the trend in the following week. That was largely because the model used by the department to smooth out the seasonal variations has been unusually generous during the first three weeks of January.?

The volatility in the so-called seasonal factors has to do with the timing of holidays and when the weekends. The January calendar this year is aligned to 2008 and claims have generally followed a similar pattern.?

The four-week moving average for new claims, a better measure of labor market trends, gained 250 to 352,000, suggesting a steady improvement in labor market conditions.?

A Labor Department analyst said the seasonal factor had anticipated claims would drop 24.8 percent last week. Unadjusted claims, however, only declined 16.1 percent. As a result, the seasonally adjusted claims increased last week.?

He said no states were estimated and there was nothing unusual in the state-level data.?

The claims data has no bearing on January's employment report, which is scheduled for release on Friday, as it falls outside the survey period.?

Employers are expected to have added 160,000 jobs to their payrolls after an increase of 155,000 in December. The unemployment rate is seen holding steady at 7.8 percent.?

The employment report could confirm that the economic recovery remains intact after output unexpectedly contracted in the fourth quarter. The drag largely came from temporary factors, which were expected to lift this quarter.?

The claims report showed the number of people still receiving benefits under regular state programs after an initial week of aid increased 22,000 to 3.20 million in the week ended January 19.?

The four-week moving average of so-called continuing claims was the lowest since July 2008.?

Copyright 2013 Thomson Reuters.

Source: http://www.nbcnews.com/business/economywatch/jobless-claims-rose-latest-week-still-point-modest-job-growth-1B8192610

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Implications of Cell-Phone in Contemporary Society | Power of Words

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Source: http://bonnie-power-of-words.blogspot.com/2013/01/implications-of-cell-phone-in.html

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PDJ Portable Disc Jockey is a complete DJ system that fits in your pocket, we go hands-on (video)

We'll forgive the extremely nice folk behind the PDJ when they claim to have the first fully self-contained portable DJ set-up. But that's not to say that there is nothing new here -- in fact there's plenty. The PDJ is a rectangular slab of refreshing creative optimism. On each end is a touchscreen display that shows a virtual turntable, and in the middle is a small mixing and FX section. So, already the PDJ will be familiar in set-up to any DJ who picks it up (something the Pacemaker couldn't claim with its proprietary interface). The mixer section has rotaries for volume, FX and additional functions (more on this later). The most important thing, however, is the onboard audio interface which crucially means you can monitor in headphones before unleashing your mix onto the world. This sets it apart from pretty much every other mobile app out there that, at best, requires you to use an audio splitter (to the detriment of your sound). Of course, you're going to need some music to play, and there's 2GB of internal storage to let you do just that. If that's not enough, or you want to load up your latest jams right away, there's an SD card slot to let you do just that (up to 32GB). Beyond headphones, there's a line out for connecting it to a sound system, and a line in and microphone jack for adding external sound to the set. The brochure claims it offers 12 hours of battery life too -- rechargeable by mini USB. On the software side, the two virtual turntables respond to touch, and button controls (for cue / play / pause). In addition to the virtual turntable, there are also sample player and one-shot screens. We got out paws on the PDJ here at NAMM, so fade past the break for our impressions.

Gallery: PDJ Portable DJ system hands-on

At about 286 grams, the PDJ is light to hold, but sits in the hand comfortably. Your thumbs naturally find their place hovering above the virtual decks, but the unit it plenty light enough that you can hold it with one hand, while using the other for more dexterous performance manoeuvres. The rotaries and crossfader in the middle section are plastic, but feel solid enough. This is, after all, a lightweight portable device. The LCD touchscreens let you get hands on with your music, as DJs are wont to do, and it's responsive and intuitive enough. Thankfully, most of the key functions (cue, volume, fade, loops etc) have hardware controls too. To reach the extra functionality (more in depth EQ, sample player and so on) you swipe the screen to the left or right accordingly to bring up the relevant screen. It's in these cases when the dual-mode (rotate and click) Function A/B rotaries come in handy, and the interface for controlling these extra tricks is surprisingly natural / responsive.

The PDJ makes the usual claims about being able to scratch and so on. And you can. But as with all these smaller, touch-digital devices, it's more of a party trick than anything else. No biggie though, as the meatier features are the beat sequence and music-pad sections. These let you bring your own audio into your set, trigger samples and build beats and jams on the fly -- much more suitable to a digital device such as this. While we only spent a short time with the PDJ, it's easily one of the most fun devices that we've seen here at NAMM. Purists might malign the constant attempts to shrink and gameify DJing, but we say you're thinking about it too much. Throw one of these in your bag, and the next time you're on the train and want to mix in headphones, or find yourself at a party, the PDJ will suddenly make a lot more sense. How much and when you say? Well expect to pay about $600 for the privilege sometime around late spring or summer.

Billy Steele contributed to this report.

Filed under: Misc, Peripherals

Comments

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/01/26/pdj-portable-disc-jockey-is-a-complete-dj-system-that-fits-in-yo/

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Holy HAL! A robot stole my job

1 day

PAUL WISEMAN , The Associated Press

Five years after the start of the Great Recession, the toll is terrifyingly clear: Millions of middle-class jobs have been lost in developed countries the world over.?

And the situation is even worse than it appears.?

Most of the jobs will never return, and millions more are likely to vanish as well, say experts who study the labor market. What's more, these jobs aren't just being lost to China and other developing countries, and they aren't just factory work. Increasingly, jobs are disappearing in the service sector, home to two-thirds of all workers.?

They're being obliterated by technology.?

Year after year, the software that runs computers and an array of other machines and devices becomes more sophisticated and powerful and capable of doing more efficiently tasks that humans have always done. For decades, science fiction warned of a future when we would be architects of our own obsolescence, replaced by our machines; an Associated Press analysis finds that the future has arrived.?

"The jobs that are going away aren't coming back," says Andrew McAfee, principal research scientist at the Center for Digital Business at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and co-author of "Race Against the Machine." "I have never seen a period where computers demonstrated as many skills and abilities as they have over the past seven years."?

The global economy is being reshaped by machines that generate and analyze vast amounts of data; by devices such as smartphones and tablet computers that let people work just about anywhere, even when they're on the move; by smarter, nimbler robots; and by services that let businesses rent computing power when they need it, instead of installing expensive equipment and hiring IT staffs to run it. Whole employment categories, from secretaries to travel agents, are starting to disappear.?

"There's no sector of the economy that's going to get a pass," says Martin Ford, who runs a software company and wrote "The Lights in the Tunnel," a book predicting widespread job losses. "It's everywhere."?

The numbers startle even labor economists. In the United States, half the 7.5 million jobs lost during the Great Recession were in industries that pay middle-class wages, ranging from $38,000 to $68,000. But only 2 percent of the 3.5 million jobs gained since the recession ended in June 2009 are in midpay industries. Nearly 70 percent are in low-pay industries, 29 percent in industries that pay well.?

In the 17 European countries that use the euro as their currency, the numbers are even worse. Almost 4.3 million low-pay jobs have been gained since mid-2009, but the loss of midpay jobs has never stopped. A total of 7.6 million disappeared from January 2008 through last June.?

Experts warn that this "hollowing out" of the middle-class workforce is far from over. They predict the loss of millions more jobs as technology becomes even more sophisticated and reaches deeper into our lives. Maarten Goos, an economist at the University of Leuven in Belgium, says Europe could double its middle-class job losses.?

Some occupations are beneficiaries of the march of technology, such as software engineers and app designers for smartphones and tablet computers. Overall, though, technology is eliminating far more jobs than it is creating.?

To understand the impact technology is having on middle-class jobs in developed countries, the AP analyzed employment data from 20 countries; tracked changes in hiring by industry, pay and task; compared job losses and gains during recessions and expansions over the past four decades; and interviewed economists, technology experts, robot manufacturers, software developers, entrepreneurs and people in the labor force who ranged from CEOs to the unemployed.?

The AP's key findings:?

• For more than three decades, technology has reduced the number of jobs in manufacturing. Robots and other machines controlled by computer programs work faster and make fewer mistakes than humans. Now, that same efficiency is being unleashed in the service economy, which employs more than two-thirds of the workforce in developed countries. Technology is eliminating jobs in office buildings, retail establishments and other businesses consumers deal with every day.?
  
• Technology is being adopted by every kind of organization that employs people. It's replacing workers in large corporations and small businesses, established companies and start-ups. It's being used by schools, colleges and universities; hospitals and other medical facilities; nonprofit organizations and the military.?
  
• The most vulnerable workers are doing repetitive tasks that programmers can write software for ? an accountant checking a list of numbers, an office manager filing forms, a paralegal reviewing documents for key words to help in a case. As software becomes even more sophisticated, victims are expected to include those who juggle tasks, such as supervisors and managers ? workers who thought they were protected by a college degree.?
  
• Thanks to technology, companies in the Standard & Poor's 500 stock index reported one-third more profit the past year than they earned the year before the Great Recession. They've also expanded their businesses, but total employment, at 21.1 million, has declined by a half-million.?
  
• Start-ups account for much of the job growth in developed economies, but software is allowing entrepreneurs to launch businesses with a third fewer employees than in the 1990s. There is less need for administrative support and back-office jobs that handle accounting, payroll and benefits.?
  
• It's becoming a self-serve world. Instead of relying on someone else in the workplace or our personal lives, we use technology to do tasks ourselves. Some find this frustrating; others like the feeling of control. Either way, this trend will only grow as software permeates our lives.?
  
• Technology is replacing workers in developed countries regardless of their politics, policies and laws. Union rules and labor laws may slow the dismissal of employees, but no country is attempting to prohibit organizations from using technology that allows them to operate more efficiently ? and with fewer employees.?
  

Some analysts reject the idea that technology has been a big job killer. They note that the collapse of the housing market in the U.S., Ireland, Spain and other countries and the ensuing global recession wiped out millions of middle-class construction and factory jobs. In their view, governments could bring many of the jobs back if they would put aside worries about their heavy debts and spend more. Others note that jobs continue to be lost to China, India and other countries in the developing world.?

But to the extent technology has played a role, it raises the specter of high unemployment even after economic growth accelerates. Some economists say millions of middle-class workers must be retrained to do other jobs if they hope to get work again. Others are more hopeful. They note that technological change over the centuries eventually has created more jobs than it destroyed, though the wait can be long and painful.?

A common refrain: The developed world may face years of high middle-class unemployment, social discord, divisive politics, falling living standards and dashed hopes.?

'Jobless recovery' a misnomer
In the U.S., the economic recovery that started in June 2009 has been called the third straight "jobless recovery."?

But that's a misnomer. The jobs came back after the first two.?

Most recessions since World War II were followed by a surge in new jobs as consumers started spending again and companies hired to meet the new demand. In the months after recessions ended in 1991 and 2001, there was no familiar snap-back, but all the jobs had returned in less than three years.?

But 42 months after the Great Recession ended, the U.S. has gained only 3.5 million, or 47 percent, of the 7.5 million jobs that were lost. The 17 countries that use the euro had 3.5 million fewer jobs last June than in December 2007.?

This has truly been a jobless recovery, and the lack of midpay jobs is almost entirely to blame.?

Fifty percent of the U.S. jobs lost were in midpay industries, but Moody's Analytics, a research firm, says just 2 percent of the 3.5 million jobs gained are in that category. After the four previous recessions, at least 30 percent of jobs created ? and as many as 46 percent ? were in midpay industries.?

Other studies that group jobs differently show a similar drop in middle-class work.?

Some of the most startling studies have focused on midskill, midpay jobs that require tasks that follow well-defined procedures and are repeated throughout the day. Think travel agents, salespeople in stores, office assistants and back-office workers like benefits managers and payroll clerks, as well as machine operators and other factory jobs. An August 2012 paper by economists Henry Siu of the University of British Columbia and Nir Jaimovich of Duke University found these kinds of jobs comprise fewer than half of all jobs, yet accounted for nine of 10 of all losses in the Great Recession. And they have kept disappearing in the economic recovery.?

Webb Wheel Products makes parts for truck brakes, which involves plenty of repetitive work. Its newest employee is the Doosan V550M, and it's a marvel. It can spin a 130-pound brake drum like a child's top, smooth its metal surface, then drill holes ? all without missing a beat. And it doesn't take vacations or "complain about anything," says Dwayne Ricketts, president of the Cullman, Ala., company.?

Thanks to computerized machines, Webb Wheel hasn't added a factory worker in three years, though it's making 300,000 more drums annually, a 25 percent increase.?

"Everyone is waiting for the unemployment rate to drop, but I don't know if it will much," Ricketts says. "Companies in the recession learned to be more efficient, and they're not going to go back."?

In Europe, companies couldn't go back even if they wanted to. The 17 countries that use the euro slipped into another recession 14 months ago, in November 2011. The current unemployment rate is a record 11.8 percent.?

European companies had been using technology to replace midpay workers for years, and now that has accelerated.?

"The recessions have amplified the trend," says Goos, the Belgian economist. "New jobs are being created, but not the middle-pay ones."?

In Canada, a 2011 study by economists at the University of British Columbia and York University in Toronto found a similar pattern of middle-class losses, though they were working with older data. In the 15 years through 2006, the share of total jobs held by many midpay, midskill occupations shrank. The share held by foremen fell 37 percent, workers in administrative and senior clerical roles fell 18 percent and those in sales and service fell 12 percent.?

In Japan, a 2009 report from Hitotsubashi University in Tokyo documented a "substantial" drop in midpay, midskill jobs in the five years through 2005, and linked it to technology.?

Developing economies have been spared the technological onslaught ? for now. Countries like Brazil and China are still growing middle-class jobs because they're shifting from export-driven to consumer-based economies. But even they are beginning to use more machines in manufacturing. The cheap labor they relied on to make goods from apparel to electronics is no longer so cheap as their living standards rise.?

One example is Sunbird Engineering, a Hong Kong firm that makes mirror frames for heavy trucks at a factory in southern China. Salaries at its plant in Dongguan have nearly tripled from $80 a month in 2005 to $225 today. "Automation is the obvious next step," CEO Bill Pike says.?

Sunbird is installing robotic arms that drill screws into a mirror assembly, work now done by hand. The machinery will allow the company to eliminate two positions on a 13-person assembly line. Pike hopes that additional automation will allow the company to reduce another five or six jobs from the line.?

"By automating, we can outlive the labor cost increases inevitable in China," Pike says. "Those who automate in China will win the battle of increased costs."?

Foxconn Technology Group, which assembles iPhones at factories in China, unveiled plans in 2011 to install one million robots over three years.?

A recent headline in the China Daily newspaper: "Chinese robot wars set to erupt."?

Where did the jobs go?
Candidates for U.S. president last year never tired of telling Americans how jobs were being shipped overseas. China, with its vast army of cheaper labor and low-value currency, was easy to blame.?

But most jobs cut in the U.S. and Europe weren't moved. No one got them. They vanished. And the villain in this story ? a clever software engineer working in Silicon Valley or the high-tech hub around Heidelberg, Germany ? isn't so easy to hate.?

"It doesn't have political appeal to say the reason we have a problem is we're so successful in technology," says Joseph Stiglitz, a Nobel Prize-winning economist at Columbia University. "There's no enemy there."?

Unless you count family and friends and the person staring at you in the mirror. The uncomfortable truth is technology is killing jobs with the help of ordinary consumers by enabling them to quickly do tasks that workers used to do full time, for salaries.?

Use a self-checkout lane at the supermarket or drugstore? A worker behind a cash register used to do that.?

Buy clothes without visiting a store? You've taken work from a salesman.?

Click "accept" in an email invitation to attend a meeting? You've pushed an office assistant closer to unemployment.?

Book your vacation using an online program? You've helped lay off a travel agent. Perhaps at American Express Co., which announced this month that it plans to cut 5,400 jobs, mainly in its travel business, as more of its customers shift to online portals to plan trips.?

Software is picking out worrisome blots in medical scans, running trains without conductors, driving cars without drivers, spotting profits in stocks trades in milliseconds, analyzing Twitter traffic to tell where to sell certain snacks, sifting through documents for evidence in court cases, recording power usage beamed from digital utility meters at millions of homes, and sorting returned library books.?

Technology gives rise to "cheaper products and cool services," says David Autor, an economist at MIT, one of the first to document tech's role in cutting jobs. "But if you lose your job, that is slim compensation."?

Even the most commonplace technologies ? take, say, email ? are making it tough for workers to get jobs, including ones with MBAs, like Roshanne Redmond, a former project manager at a commercial real estate developer.?

"I used to get on the phone, talk to a secretary and coordinate calendars," Redmond says. "Now, things are done by computer."?

Technology is used by companies to run leaner and smarter in good times and bad, but never more than in bad. In a recession, sales fall and companies cut jobs to save money. Then they turn to technology to do tasks people used to do. And that's when it hits them: They realize they don't have to re-hire the humans when business improves, or at least not as many.?

The Hackett Group, a consultant on back-office jobs, estimates 2 million of them in finance, human resources, information technology and procurement have disappeared in the U.S. and Europe since the Great Recession. It pins the blame for more than half of the losses on technology. These are jobs that used to fill cubicles at almost every company ? clerks paying bills and ordering supplies, benefits managers filing health-care forms and IT experts helping with computer crashes.?

"The effect of (technology) on white-collar jobs is huge, but it's not obvious," says MIT's McAfee. Companies "don't put out a press release saying we're not hiring again because of machines."?

What hope is there for the future??
Historically, new companies and new industries have been the incubator of new jobs. Start-up companies no more than five years old are big sources of new jobs in developed economies. In the U.S., they accounted for 99 percent of new private sector jobs in 2005, according to a study by the University of Maryland's John Haltiwanger and two other economists.?

But even these companies are hiring fewer people. The average new business employed 4.7 workers when it opened its doors in 2011, down from 7.6 in the 1990s, according to a Labor Department study released last March.?

Technology is probably to blame, wrote the report's authors, Eleanor Choi and James Spletzer. Entrepreneurs no longer need people to do clerical and administrative tasks to help them get their businesses off the ground.?

In the old days ? say, 10 years ago ? "you'd need an assistant pretty early to coordinate everything ? or you'd pay a huge opportunity cost for the entrepreneur or the president to set up a meeting," says Jeff Connally, CEO of CMIT Solutions, a technology consultancy to small businesses.?

Now technology means "you can look at your calendar and everybody else's calendar and ? bing! ? you've set up a meeting." So no assistant gets hired.?

Entrepreneur Andrew Schrage started the financial advice website Money Crashers in 2009 with a partner and one freelance writer. The bare-bones start-up was only possible, Schrage says, because of technology that allowed the company to get online help with accounting and payroll and other support functions without hiring staff.?

"Had I not had access to cloud computing and outsourcing, I estimate that I would have needed 5-10 employees to begin this venture," Schrage says. "I doubt I would have been able to launch my business."?

Technological innovations have been throwing people out of jobs for centuries. But they eventually created more work, and greater wealth, than they destroyed. Ford, the author and software engineer, thinks there is reason to believe that this time will be different. He sees virtually no end to the inroads of computers into the workplace. Eventually, he says, software will threaten the livelihoods of doctors, lawyers and other highly skilled professionals.?

Many economists are encouraged by history and think the gains eventually will outweigh the losses. But even they have doubts.?

"What's different this time is that digital technologies show up in every corner of the economy," says McAfee, a self-described "digital optimist." "Your tablet (computer) is just two or three years old, and it's already taken over our lives."?

Peter Lindert, an economist at the University of California, Davis, says the computer is more destructive than innovations in the Industrial Revolution because the pace at which it is upending industries makes it hard for people to adapt.?

Occupations that provided middle-class lifestyles for generations can disappear in a few years. Utility meter readers are just one example. As power companies began installing so-called smart readers outside homes, the number of meter readers in the U.S. plunged from 56,000 in 2001 to 36,000 in 2010, according to the Labor Department.?

In 10 years? That number is expected to be zero.?

? 2013 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Source: http://www.nbcnews.com/business/holy-hal-robot-stole-my-job-1B8057232

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Art & Astrology: Chart and talent of Placido Domingo

Placido Domingo is a Spanish tenor and director with a very typical voice. Performers in the arts need artistic talents just as the creators of art do. In this case, there is a different astrological pattern than usual. Usually Moon, Venus and Neptune are connected with Midheaven and each other, supported by the signs that they rule (Cancer, Libra, Taurus and Pisces). In the chart of Placido Domingo we see:

a. a prominent Neptune (Neptune is 'calling', no mayor aspect in orb 5 degrees or in sign; and square Sun/Moon.?It means that he was motivated for the arts, very much, at any kind of level, somehow, anyhow)

b. the moon stands right in the middle of Venus and Neptune. In other words: Venus/Neptune is conjunct the Moon.

c. There are minor aspects between Moon and Venus and Neptune. They are connected by septiles (1/7th of the circle). Moon/Venus is in aspect with Ascendant and Midheaven.
The septile is considered to mirror the energy that inspires us and others.

His chart doesn't immediately show the singer, unless you use this:

Mercury (communications, voice and pen) ruler of the Midheaven is in the 5th house of plays, games and shows, exactly square ruler 5 (plays) = Saturn (business).

Then you see the business of singing for entertainment.

But what must I do with that Mars on the IC? It may be an AA rated chart but I wonder ... Well, the story of his HOB is on Astrodienst:?http://www.astro.com/astro-databank/Domingo,_Pl?cido

Source: http://art-astrology.blogspot.com/2013/01/chart-and-talent-of-placido-domingo.html

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Thailand's l?se majest? sentencing: intent on trial | Asia News ...

Thailand?s draconian l?se majest? law continues to curb freedom of expression and has arguably reached a new level of arbitrariness with the most recent sentencing:

A Thai court has sentenced a leader of the Red Shirt political movement to two years in prison for a speech judged to have insulted the country?s monarchy.

The court ruled Thursday that 54-year-old Yoswarit Chuklom made a speech insulting the monarchy at a political rally in 2010. The Red Shirts took to the streets in 2010 in political protests that ended with deadly clashes with the military.

?Thai Red Shirt gets jail term for anti-king speech?, Associated Press, January 17, 2013

A Thai court today sentenced a government adviser, who helped lead protests in 2010 against former Prime Minister?Abhisit Vejjajiva, to two years in prison for insulting the royal family.

Yossawaris Chuklom, a comedian who goes by the name Jeng Dokjik, received the sentence for comments made in a speech to protesters that implied King Bhumibol Adulyadej influenced Abhisit?s decision not to dissolve the parliament, according to a court statement. The court said it freed him on bail while he appeals the sentence because he showed no intention to flee.

?Thai Comedian Gets Two-Year Prison Sentence for King Insult?, Bloomberg, January 17, 2013

While Yossawaris can not be considered as one of the highest-ranking red shirt leaders ? of which there were many during the 2010 protests ? his sentencing still needs special attention.

In sentencing a former protest leader to two years in prison, a court ruled that the defendant was liable not only for what he said, but also for what he left unsaid.

The criminal court?s ruling said the defendant, Yossawarit Chuklom, had not specifically mentioned the king when he gave a speech in 2010 to a large group of people protesting the military-backed government then in power.?But by making a gesture of being muzzled ? placing his hands over his mouth ? Mr. Yossawarit had insinuated that he was talking about the king, the court ruled.??Even though the defendant did not identify His Majesty the king directly,? the court ruled, Mr. Yossawarit?s speech ?cannot be interpreted any other way.?

The court ruled that it was obvious whom Mr. Yossawarit was talking about. During the trial, Thais with no apparent connection to the case were called to the stand and asked to whom they thought he was referring. All of the witnesses said, ?The king.?

?In Thailand, a Broader Definition of Insulting Royalty?, by Thomas Fuller, New York Times, January 17, 2013

This is indeed a new dimension of how arbitrarily l?se majest? is being applied here, on top of an already ambiguously written law (?insulting, defaming or threatening?): As many other l?se majest? (e.g. Ampon?s) or similar cases (e.g. Chiranuch?s) have shown, the principle is actually ?in dubio contra reo? (?when in doubt, decide against the accused?) for many different reasons.?Since the presumption of innocence doesn?t apply here, the prosecution is mostly not interested in the actual evidence (or the lack of in some cases), but rather in the ?intent? of the alleged crime.

David Streckfuss, a Khon Kaen-based academic and expert on the l?se majest? law, wrote in an academic article in 1995 ? long before the recent surge of cases ? about the rationale of these cases, since ?the truth or accuracy of the defendant?s words is irrelevant to the case. The defendant?s intent is determined by its hypothetical effect? (p. 452). Taking the case of then-Democrat Party secretary general (and later Thai Rak Thai executive and even later red shirt leader) Veera Musikapong?from the 1980s, Streckfuss has deduced ?five ?principles? that highlight the absurd mechanics of this draconian law ? here?s an excerpt:

The First Principle: Truth and Intent are Subordinated to Presumed Effect

Truth or guilt is determined purely by its effect. In a regular slander case, the central issue is substantiating the truth ? that is, a statement of truth that sullies someone?s reputation is not slander. If the defense can prove what the defendant said was true, the plaintiff?s case is lost, even if that truth has stained his or her character. In lese-majeste cases, however, it is not necessary to substantiate the truth, for the truth of what was said is not at issue. Ascertaining guilt remains at the level of its hypothetical impact, determined by the projected effect the words, if believed to be true, would have on listeners. [...]

The Second Principle: Actual Proof of Lese-Majeste?Requires Further Violation of Royal Dignity

?[G]uilt is determined by what the court estimates a safely abstract (and unascertainable) ?people? would feel were they to hear the words and believe them to be true. As a result, the prosecutors have the contradictory task of trying to argue how inflammatory the slanderous remarks are ? that they indeed constitute a threat to the security of the state and would cause people to look down on the king or the monarchy ? while at the same time maintaining that the words have no such effect on them personally. [...] If a witness for the prosecution, say, admitted that the intended effect of the words ? to cause the king to be looked upon negatively ? had succeeded in his or her own personal case, this would indeed be a confession, under oath, of l?se-majest?.?

?Kings in the Age of Nations ? The Paradox of L?se-Majest? as Political Crime in Thailand?, by David Streckfuss, in: Comparative Studies in Society and History, 1995, vol. 37 (3), pp 445-475 at p 453, 458

As of now, Yossawaris has appealed his sentencing. Meanwhile on Wednesday, the criminal court is expected to read their verdict against veteran labor activist Somyot Prueksakasemsuk, who is charged for editing articles in a news magazine that were deemed insulting to the monarchy.?L?se majest? continues to make headlines in 2013 and ?those defending it still find it hard to realize that with each case?

?The end result is that the dynamic?of this law do more damage to the monarchy than its critics could ever hope.?

?Kings in the Age of Nations ? The Paradox of L?se-Majest? as Political Crime in Thailand?, by David Streckfuss, in: Comparative Studies in Society and History, 1995, vol. 37 (3), pp 445-475 at p 473

____________________

About the author:
Saksith Saiyasombut is a Thai blogger and freelance foreign correspondent based in Bangkok, Thailand. He writes about Thai politics and current affairs since 2010 and is also reports for international news media such as Channel NewsAsia. You can follow him on Twitter @Saksith.

Source: http://asiancorrespondent.com/95661/thailands-latest-lese-majeste-sentencing-in-dubio-contra-reo/

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Aviation technology advances, FAA tries to keep up

1 hr.

David Koenig , The Associated Press

After two separate and serious battery problems aboard Boeing 787s, it wasn't U.S. authorities who acted first to ground the plane. It was Japanese airlines.

The unfolding saga of Boeing's highest-profile plane has raised new questions about federal oversight of aircraft makers and airlines.

Some aviation experts question the ability of the Federal Aviation Administration to keep up with changes in the way planes are being made today ? both the technological advances and the use of multiple suppliers from around the globe. Others question whether regulators are too cozy with aircraft manufacturers.

Even as they announced a broad review of the 787 earlier this month, top U.S. transportation regulators stood side-by-side with a Boeing executive and declared the plane safe ? saying that they would gladly fly in one. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood repeated his endorsement Wednesday.

A few hours later, the FAA issued an emergency order grounding the planes.

Despite their concerns, many safety experts still believe that the current regulatory process works ? the 787s were grounded before any accidents occurred.

The Dreamliner is the first airliner whose structure is made mostly from composite materials rather than aluminum. The plane relies more than previous airliners on electrical systems rather than hydraulic or mechanical ones, and it's the first airliner to make extensive use of lithium-ion batteries to power cabin-pressurization and other key functions.

Such technological advances may force the FAA to re-examine the way it does its job.

"We've gone from aviation to aerospace products that are much more complex," said Richard Aboulafia, an aviation analyst with the Teal Group. "The FAA is equipped for aviation. Aerospace is another matter."

Former National Transportation Safety Board member Kitty Higgins said the FAA must consider whether changes in its certification process would have turned up the problems in the Dreamliner battery systems.

"They need to make sure the certification process stays current with the industry and the new technology," she said.

An FAA spokeswoman declined to comment for this article, referring instead to statements made during a news conference last week. Officials said then that the review of the 787 wouldn't be limited to the Dreamliner's batteries. FAA Administrator Michael Huerta said that the agency would "make sure that the approved quality control procedures are in place and that all of the necessary oversight is done."

The FAA has said that its technical experts logged 200,000 hours testing and reviewing the plane's design before certifying the plane in August 2011. Boeing defended the process and the plane.

"We are confident in the regulatory process that has been applied to the 787 since its design inception," said Boeing Co. spokesman Marc Birtel. "With this airplane, the FAA conducted its most robust certification process ever."

A week ago, FAA's Huerta and Transportation Secretary LaHood endorsed the Dreamliner's safety even as they ordered a new review of its design and construction following a fire in a lithium-ion battery on a 787 that had landed in Boston. Then, this past Wednesday, after a battery malfunction on a second plane resulted in an emergency landing, they grounded Dreamliner flights in the U.S.

In certifying new planes, the FAA relies heavily on information from the manufacturers. That system has worked ? the U.S. commercial airline fleet is safer than ever ? but it is coming under renewed scrutiny after the 787 incidents.

Experts say that FAA officials have no choice but to rely on information from aircraft manufacturers as key systems of the plane are designed and built.

"As a practical matter, they can't do the testing," said longtime aviation consultant Daniel Kasper of Compass Lexecon. "They don't have the expertise in aircraft design, and they don't have the budget ? it would be too costly. They would have to be involved in every step."

Thomas Anthony, director of the aviation-safety program at the University of Southern California, said many new planes have flaws that are only discovered once they go into service, and that the regulatory process worked the way it was supposed to with the Dreamliner.

"The FAA used to be accused of 'blood priority'" ? acting only after a disaster, Anthony said. "In this case, it's not true. The regulators are taking their job seriously. There were no accidents, there were no injuries, there were no fatalities."

That has not always been the case. In 1979, authorities grounded the McDonnell Douglas DC-10 for five weeks after an engine tore loose from the wing of an American Airlines plane, causing a crash that killed 273 in Chicago. And there were other incidents that occurred after the DC-10 was introduced in 1971, including cargo-door problems that forced one emergency landing and caused a Turkish Airlines crash that killed 346 in 1974.

Boeing, based in Chicago, is racing to find a fix to the Dreamliner's battery systems and get the planes back in the air. It is still producing 787s but has stopped delivering them to customers.

Bloomberg News reported that Boeing has tried to persuade FAA to end the groundings by proposing a variety of inspections and having pilots monitor electronic signals from the batteries to prevent fires. The FAA has been reluctant to approve those steps without a clear idea of what caused the defects and how they can be prevented.

The National Transportation Safety Board said in a statement issued Sunday that its own investigation continues into the Jan. 7 fire aboard the Japan Airlines Boeing 787 at Boston's Logan International Airport. An NTSB statement said the lithium-ion battery that powered the auxiliary power unit had been disassembled and examined at an agency laboratory. It added that the battery was X-rayed and CT scans were generated and certain components would undergo further scrutiny.

It also said investigators have examined several other components taken from the plane, including wire bundles and battery management circuit boards, adding test plans were being developed for those and other components removed from the aircraft. According to the statement, several other components were sent for further examination at Boeing's facility in Seattle and the manufacture's facilities in Japan.

AP Airlines Writer Joshua Freed contributed to this story from Minneapolis.

? 2013 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Source: http://www.nbcnews.com/technology/technolog/aviation-technology-advances-faa-tries-keep-1B8038212

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Canada's AHL teams well-represented on All-Star squads

SPRINGFIELD -- Abbotsford Heat forward Quintin?Laing will serve as captain for the Western Conference team at this month's AHL All-Star Classic. He will be joined by Ryan?Hamilton and defenceman Mike?Kostka of the Toronto Marlies and Hamilton Bulldogs forward Brendan?Gallagher.

Laing's teammate, goaltender Barry?Brust, was also named to the West roster Thursday.

Defenceman Zach?Redmond of the St. John's IceCaps was named to the East team, which will be captained by Providence Bruins forward Trent?Whitfield.

The AHL all-star skills competition will be held at the Dunkin' Donuts Center in Providence, R.I., on Jan. 27. The all-star game will be played Jan. 28.

Each team will have 24 players: 13 forwards, eight defencemen and three goaltenders. Rosters were determined by committees of AHL coaches.

Luke?Richardson of the Binghamton Senators and Jon Cooper of the Syracuse Crunch will coach the Eastern team. Toronto's Dallas?Eakins and Jeff?Daniels of the Charlotte Checkers will guide the Western side.

Source: http://www.tsn.ca/nhl/story/?id=413810

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Jobs, health care costs will remain top pressures | Forecast 2013

By MARY NADER
North Kitsap Fishline

In these unpredictable times, anticipating what?s ahead can be a daunting task.

Fishline?s priorities are inextricably tied to local economic conditions, and where they will go is anyone?s guess. But it will be encouraging to note that Fishline?s increase in demand in 2012 was around 10 percent, compared to the 20 percent growth it?s seen each of the previous five years. Should this be an indicator of an improving local economy, perhaps 2013 will hold more promise for the many struggling neighbors who have weathered this prolonged recession?

For the hundreds still coming to us for help, difficulties stubbornly hang on. Jobs remain scarce, especially ones that offer a living wage and needed benefits. Many families are patching together several part-time jobs that don?t offer consistent paychecks, creating a roller coaster-like personal economy. And since this type of work doesn?t usually offer health care benefits, for those not covered, every day is a gamble. Will injury or illness occur today, meaning loss of work hours and huge medical bills? Lack of jobs (especially for middle-aged candidates) and health care costs are the top two economic pressures facing Fishline clients today and will likely remain so in 2013.

Homeless residents have few alternatives. There is not enough low-cost and emergency housing, and homelessness will persist if this doesn?t change. The homeless family, lucky if they can find shelter space available, will have to travel to Bremerton, and their family will probably need to split up. At the most, they can stay in a shelter for 90 days, but they?ll be on a waiting list for low-cost housing for at least six months. If the homeless resident is a single male with even a minor criminal background, shelters are not available and low-cost housing options will be limited.

Food is getting more expensive. Predictions for 2013 are for a 3-5 percent increase in food costs, added to a 3 percent increase in 2012. Prices for staples like meat, dairy and produce are expected to rise the most. This means more clients will come to Fishline to extend their food budget, and donations could decrease because of food expense. We expect our food budget to increase by 20 percent this year, but that might be conservative.

We are also noticing encouraging trends, the kind often borne from adversity:Getting back to basics, more people are helping each other through bartering, sharing living spaces and seeking other ways to live more simply.There?s the web of helping agencies, more cooperative and integrated every year, soundly investing donor dollars with less duplication and more direct impact.

And there are the concerned citizens who, at cocktail parties and on blogs, are bringing up these lingering issues in the hope of unearthing solutions.

Alan Kay, a computer scientist, famously said, ?The best way to predict the future is to invent it.? With determination and ingenuity, we can invent an environment where neighbors in trouble are stabilized in ways that endure, creating a community that is safer and promising for all futures.

? Mary Nader is executive director of North Kitsap Fishline. Contact her at director@nkfishline.org

Source: http://feeds.soundpublishing.com/~r/nkhall/~3/oZJC6ul5yFo/186384171.html

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Sony Mobile Mungkin Meninggalkan Pengeluaran Peranti Berspesifikasi Rendah

Sony Mobile pada hari ini, mengeluarkan pelbagai jenis telefon pintar dengan pelbagai bentuk spesifikasi. Namun, mungkin ia akan berubah dalam beberapa tahun lagi.

Daripada apa yang dikongsikan salah seorang pengurus pemasaran produk Xperia, mereka ingin mengekalkan pelbagai faktor menarik ?Sony? pada produk keluaran mereka, yang mana agak sukar diimplementasi didalam produk berspesifikasi rendah.

Untuk membawakan pelbagai ciri-ciri menarik dari segi rekabentuk, fungsi tambahan dan sebagainya, mereka mengatakan mungkin akan hanya memfokuskan kepada pengeluaran peranti berspesifikasi sederhana ke tinggi sahaja.

Peranti terbaru yang dikeluarkan oleh Sony adalah Xperia Z yang mana membawakan rekabentuk yang diminati ramai, disamping menerima reaksi positif ramai pengguna seluruh dunia.

Source: http://amanz.my/2013/01/sony-mobile-mungkin-meninggalkan-pengeluaran-peranti-berspesfikasi-rendah/

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Sony announces touch-enabled VAIO T15 Ultrabook with touch, new touch-enabled VAIO T14

We've already hinted that the name of the game for laptops at CES will likely be incremental updates, and the latest company to prove our point is Sony. The PC division just announced an optional touchscreen for its VAIO T Series 14 Ultrabook, which originally debuted back in October. The touch T14 will be available for $800 in the spring.

In addition to updating the T Series 14, Sony is releasing the T Series 15, which boasts a full HD touch display and will go for $950 when it hits the market this spring. Why no specs, you ask? Well, the company isn't sharing any yet -- and we suspect that has something to do with Intel's releasing a new chipset in the near future. Finally, talk about incremental -- Sony's last PC announcement is a new color for the VAIO Duo 11 slider: it's now available in silver in addition to the original black.

Continue reading Sony announces touch-enabled VAIO T15 Ultrabook with touch, new touch-enabled VAIO T14

Filed under: Laptops, Sony

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Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/01/07/sony-vaio-t15-touch-ultrabook/

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Benefits of Crisis in Leadership and Life

A key principle of effective leadership can be derived from an understanding of coal and diamond, which are products of the same material, Carbon. However, two crucial factors are responsible for the differences between coal and diamond:

Time and Pressure? !

Unlike coal, a diamond is the result of very intense pressure applied over a considerable amount of time, which causes the carbon components to develop qualities that make it shine, sparkle and become extremely durable and valuable.

In the same way, diamond-class leadership in business and in life is developed and refined in the crucible of economic crises and social / societal pressure and over a long time.

Therefore the current environment of intense economic, social, religious and political pressure all around the world is a magnificent period for the development and release of the diamond-class leadership within you.

The world is in dire need of effective leaders at all levels? in families, businesses, churches, local communities and nations. Crisis is the test of effective personal and corporate leadership.

First of all, a simple definition of a crisis is 'an un-managed change event'; therefore your assessment of any situation as a crisis is a direct expression of your perceived capacity or otherwise, to manage that change event effectively.

There are significant benefits to you if you will choose to harness the power of crisis and use it as a platform for exploring and expanding your leadership capabilities. Some of the benefits of a crisis include:

1. Crisis tests your vision

According to business statistics, almost 95 percent of businesses in the United Kingdom, America and other developed economies end in failure. In the U.K, most of these businesses fail in the first five years. These are the ones who gave up on their vision when the going got tough. When a crisis arose, they threw in the towel.

A crisis is an opportunity to evaluate your commitment as a leader to the vision of your business or any other important area of your life. Or it may be the clarion call to develop and refine a long-term vision.

A robust long-term vision enables you to put crises into proper perspective. A diamond-class class leader sees crises as a temporary anomaly that will yield to his or her 'never-give-up' attitude.

In regard to relationships, crises also reveal the strength of your friendships, business associations or other connections. True friends are those who emerge with you from the swirling dust of temporary failure, problems or crises, still committed to you and cheering you on to victory.

2. Crisis exposes your weaknesses

Good, fortuitous times tend to mask the weaknesses in our businesses, communities or nations. For example, surges in petroleum oil prices once again dramatically exposed the strategic weaknesses in the economies of many western nations through their dependence on foreign oil.

Rather than bemoan this dependence as many have done in the past, President Barack Obama has turned it into a motivator for American energy independence within ten years.

In African nations that are getting excited about oil finds, the recurrent spike in petroleum prices appears to be a bonus, which unfortunately is blinding them to a powerful trend, the simple truth that the rest of the world is actively pursuing the goal of rendering this product obsolete through innovative technologies and other sources of power generation.

As a diamond-class leader and business owner, the prevailing global economic crisis provides you with an excellent opportunity to objectively appraise your business weaknesses, evaluate the emerging trends, understand your personal resilience and your strategic options?. Then do something about what you find out.

3. Crisis opens doors for the deployment of your unique capabilities

You have unique gifts, talents or abilities which you may have ignored or which may have been ignored by those around you. You might have creative marketing skills or product development strengths that could generate significant business growth but which have been lying dormant. However when a crisis erupts, it often creates the opportunity to shine a bright spotlight on your distinctive capabilities which had previously been ignored.

Be sensitive to these opportunities and allow your diamond qualities to come to the fore.

When these opportunities arise, ask yourself key questions such as:

a) What creative approach can I deploy in solving this issue?

b) What solution resides inside of me as the answer to this business, community, national or global question?

Then explore avenues to contribute your creativity and innovation to the resolution of the challenges.

4. Crisis forces you to confront and refine your paradigms

A wise man once said, "As a man thinks in his heart (i.e. his subconscious mind), so is he." This emphasises that you live according to your assumptions and convictions about life and living effectively? what we call your 'world view.'

Crisis, however, forces you to confront the deficiencies of your thinking. Therefore as an effective, diamond-class leader, such a confrontation should result in a refinement of your assumptions, leading to a healthy paradigm shift.

For example, the coalition leaders involved in the military intervention in Afghanistan assumed that toppling the Taliban would bring immediate positive results and create a democratic nation quickly. The euphoria of the first few months soon wore off as the insurgency began.

The resulting crisis for American and British forces have therefore forced the leaders to reappraise their assumptions. Consequently, the strategy for dealing with the Afghan question has had to be revised and now peace talks with the erstwhile enemy are being proposed.

Similarly, what assumptions are you making concerning your business, job, relationships or other arena of life? Do the results so far support your assumptions?

If not, a diamond-class leader does not live in self-denial. Revise your paradigm, make a new set of choices and then move forward.

Conclusion

As a diamond-class leader, it is crucial to understand that crisis is not your enemy. Pain is evidence that new thinking or a new approach is required.

Every crisis re-introduces you to yourself, your core values and requests a reassessment of your vision and your capabilities. Your mandate is to use these crises and the application of the above principles as part of your development.

This will in turn equip you with a greater sense of confidence, a more refined and durable skill-set and a dynamism that makes you more valuable to your business, community, national or global context.

Crisis therefore allows you to sparkle as a diamond-class leader.

Will you rise to the challenge?

Yemi Akinsiwaju is the CEO of DaySpring Consulting, Business Growth & Leadership Consultancy helping SME businesses improve their results.

He is a speaker and author of the acclaimed book, Scorecard: Achieving Success and Balance in a Turbulent World.

For a FREE business session, visit http://www.DaySpringConsult.com/Accelerator

Source: http://articles.submityourarticle.com/benefits-of-crisis-in-leadership-and-life-311056

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Review: 'Water By the Spoonful' is vivid, human

NEW YORK (AP) ? Any conquest, however small, can't be fully assessed without considering the cost of achieving it, the failures that preceded it and the environment in which it occurred.

In Quiara Alegria Hudes' beautifully resounding drama "Water By the Spoonful," the playwright examines an array of emotional toils by splashing together droplets of life's bleak realities, harsh revelations, fragile successes and modest triumphs, all of which conspire like tiny specks of contrasting colors on a canvas.

Each drop of color by itself seems mundane. Together they gradually come into focus as a rich, brilliant montage of American urban life that is as dazzling to watch as it is difficult to look away from.

This inspired and abundantly human play, which was the surprise winner of the 2012 Pulitzer Prize for drama, opened Tuesday at off-Broadway's Second Stage Theatre, making its New York premier after an initial run at Hartford Stage in 2011.

It is the latest shining example of Hudes' uniquely understated yet powerful voice, which came to prominence in her book of the Tony Award-winning musical "In The Heights."

In "Water By The Spoonful," she spins a loosely interwoven, dual narrative about a young Iraq war veteran's tumultuous family and an online support group of recovering drug addicts.

Early in the opening act, grieving cousins Yazmin (Zabryna Guevara) and Elliot (Armando Riesco) leaf through brochures for funeral flowers while reminiscing about the strange and wonderful days of their poverty-stricken childhood in their large, closely knit Puerto Rican family.

Astonished by the prices in the catalog, they worry openly about making ends meet, though stopping to recall the splendor of a garden once cultivated by their recently departed aunt ? an adored matriarch in their extended family.

"It's odd to order flowers when someone dies," Yazmin laments. "The flowers are just going to die, too."

Despite that grim realization and their strapped budget, the cousins decide on the most expensive and exotic floral arrangement for their aunt, knowing they can't afford it but resolving to find a way, even if it leads to more hardship and worry.

It's one of many small but glorious acts of defiance that proliferate throughout this piece.

Despair is never far from Hudes' embattled characters, who all struggle in some way with addiction, regret, poverty or loss.

They're a weary and cynical bunch, but stubbornly spirited, somehow summoning the resilience to endure, and at times flourish, no matter the brutal truth of their circumstances or emotional cost. And that cost is often steep.

Under the direction of Davis McCallum, the talented cast, which also includes Liza Colon-Zayas, Frankie R. Faison and Sue Jean Kim, creates starkly real portraits of flawed but deeply conscientious people, all searching for an elusive path to some spiritual high ground.

This hazardous but relentless growth in a world of full of restrictions is reflected abstractly in Neil Patel's unusual but effective set ? a drab, gray grid streaked with broad swaths of lush plant life that appear as if they sprouted through cracks in a cement sidewalk.

"Water By the Spoonful" is the second in a trilogy of plays. Its precursor ? "Elliot, A Soldier's Fugue" ? was a Pulitzer finalist in 2007. The third play in the trilogy, "The Happiest Song Plays Last," is scheduled to make its world premiere in April 2013 in Chicago, leaving us left to wonder what's next for this uncommonly gifted playwright.

___

Online: http://www.2st.com

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/review-water-spoonful-vivid-human-011637497.html

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Starbucks enters entrenched Vietnam coffee market

In this photo taken Jan. 5, 2013, customers drink coffee on Trieu Viet Vuong Street in Hanoi, Vietnam. Starbucks announced Thursday Jan. 3, it would enter Vietnam in early February with a cafe in Ho Chi Minh City. But the Seattle-based company faces a unique market in Vietnam, where French-inspired coffee culture reigns supreme; two homegrown chains have established presences; and family-run sidewalk cafes are as ubiquitous as noodle shops. (AP Photo /Mike Ives)

In this photo taken Jan. 5, 2013, customers drink coffee on Trieu Viet Vuong Street in Hanoi, Vietnam. Starbucks announced Thursday Jan. 3, it would enter Vietnam in early February with a cafe in Ho Chi Minh City. But the Seattle-based company faces a unique market in Vietnam, where French-inspired coffee culture reigns supreme; two homegrown chains have established presences; and family-run sidewalk cafes are as ubiquitous as noodle shops. (AP Photo /Mike Ives)

A customer drinks coffee at Cafe Tho in downtown Hanoi, Vietnam, Saturday, Jan. 5, 2013. Starbucks announced Thursday, Jan. 3, it would enter Vietnam in early February with a cafe in Ho Chi Minh City. But the Seattle-based company faces a unique market in Vietnam, where French-inspired coffee culture reigns supreme; two homegrown chains have established presences; and family-run sidewalk cafes are as ubiquitous as noodle shops. (AP photo /Mike Ives)

In this photo taken Jan. 5, 2013, customers drink coffee on Trieu Viet Vuong Street in Hanoi, Vietnam. Starbucks announced Thursday, Jan. 3, it would enter Vietnam in early February with a cafe in Ho Chi Minh City. But the Seattle-based company faces a unique market in Vietnam, where French-inspired coffee culture reigns supreme; two homegrown chains have established presences; and family-run sidewalk cafes are as ubiquitous as noodle shops. (AP Photo/Mike Ives)

In this photo taken Jan. 4, 2013, coffee is served at Cafe Tit Chip in downtown Hanoi, Vietnam. Starbucks announced Thursday, Jan. 3, 2013, it would enter Vietnam in early February with a cafe in Ho Chi Minh City. But the Seattle-based company faces a unique market in Vietnam, where French-inspired coffee culture reigns supreme; two homegrown chains have established presences; and family-run sidewalk cafes are as ubiquitous as noodle shops. (AP Photo/Mike Ives)

In this photo taken Jan. 5, 2013, customers drink coffee at Cafe Tho in downtown Hanoi, Vietnam. Starbucks announced Thursday, Jan. 3, 2013, it would enter Vietnam in early February with a cafe in Ho Chi Minh City. But the Seattle-based company faces a unique market in Vietnam, where French-inspired coffee culture reigns supreme; two homegrown chains have established presences; and family-run sidewalk cafes are as ubiquitous as noodle shops. (AP Photo/Mike Ives)

HANOI, Vietnam (AP) ? Nghiem Ngoc Thuy has been slinging coffees to thirsty Vietnamese for 20 years in her colonial-style villa with peeling shutters, and she and her customers aren't too worried that the imminent arrival of U.S. giant Starbucks will alter their time-tested coffee traditions.

Starbucks announced Thursday that it will open its first cafe in Vietnam early next month in Ho Chi Minh City as part of its strategy to expand across Asia, and plans to add more shops throughout the country.

But compared with other Asian markets Starbucks has recently entered, the Seattle-based company faces a unique scenario in Vietnam, where French-inspired coffee culture reigns supreme, two homegrown chains have established presences and family-run sidewalk cafes are as ubiquitous as noodle shops.

"Our prices are affordable for average Vietnamese," Thuy said, pausing for just a moment during an afternoon rush at her family-run cafe in Hanoi, the capital. "Expensive coffee is just for the children of government officials, or people who have lots of money."

Vietnamese coffee, made from ballsy robusta beans, packs a stronger caffeine wallop than European-style espresso, which is made from effete arabica. It has a slightly bitter taste that usually is offset by sweetened, condensed milk known to rattle tourists' eyeballs.

Dang Le Nguyen Vu, whose Trung Nguyen Group owns 55 cafes in Vietnam, said he welcomes Starbucks and doesn't view the American newcomer as a threat.

"I could imagine Starbucks opening up to a hundred cafes at most in Vietnam in the next 10 years," Vu said. "But will people in a country with such a low GDP per capita, and a different taste in coffee, really accept Starbucks?"

Unlike China, where tea is the caffeinated drink of choice, Vietnam inherited a coffee culture from French colonizers in the 19th century. Vietnam also is the world's second-largest exporter of coffee behind Brazil. According to the government, it produced 1.73 million tons of coffee last year, for an export value of $3.7 billion.

Starbucks already operates more than 3,300 stores across 11 countries in the Asia-Pacific region, and its entry into Vietnam marks the latest salvo in a campaign to woo Asia's emerging middle classes despite a stagnating U.S. economy.

Jinlong Wang, president of Starbucks Asia-Pacific, said the company plans to expand across Vietnam in a way that celebrates the country's "coffee culture and heritage."

"We look forward to growing with Vietnam's already vibrant coffee industry, and making a positive impact in the communities where we operate," he said in comments emailed to The Associated Press.

Vietnam's economy has slowed recently in part because of a problematic banking sector, but Starbucks' upmarket brand will appeal to the growing Vietnamese middle class, said Anthony Emms, managing partner at Stanton Emms Strategy Consultants in Singapore, which advises international food and beverage companies on Asian markets.

"I don't believe there is a massive barrier to Starbucks in Vietnam," he said by telephone. "Starbucks is not really a coffee; it's a food-service concept."

More than 60 percent of Vietnam's population was born after the Vietnam War ended in 1975, and there is a strong demand among youth in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City for branded clothing and accessories, no matter that the labels often are fakes, and average annual income is only about $1,500.

Other international food chains have opened stores in Vietnam in recent years, including the Australian coffee chain Gloria Jean's Coffees International, the California-based Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf, and the American fast-food chains KFC and Burger King. And Nestle instant coffee ? engineered to suit the Vietnamese palette ? is sold widely in Vietnamese supermarkets.

But Starbucks would risk alienating some of its potential clients if it didn't include Vietnamese drip coffee on its menus here, Emms said. "Say you get a grandfather coming in with a younger relative ? he might not want to drink a cafe macchiato or latte," he said.

Starbucks' announcement that it is moving into Vietnam has been received without much fanfare in local blogs and state-controlled media, although some speculate about how the company will compete with Trung Nguyen Coffee and Highlands Coffee, a homegrown brand that credits Starbucks as an inspiration.

Nghiem Ngoc Thuy, meanwhile, is still swooping across the worn tiled floors of her cafe, setting down steaming coffees just as fresh customers arrive to order more.

15,000 dong (75 cents) per cup, she said on a recent weekday afternoon, as cigarette smoke curled toward the ceiling. 1,000 extra for condensed milk.

Thuy's family has been in business since the late 1980s, and watched as this leafy neighborhood ? called "cafe street" by some locals ? has welcomed luxury cars, sushi restaurants and upscale clothing boutiques.

A regular customer, electronics salesman Do Thanh Tung, said he is eager to see if Starbucks coffee really is different from the Vietnamese blends he has been drinking since he was 10 years old.

"Vietnamese young people will welcome Starbucks, once they get used to it," Tung, now 30, said as he hunched over a silver laptop.

But he added that he doesn't expect to become a regular Starbucks patron because he drinks five or six cups of coffee a day, and a latte habit would get expensive.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/f70471f764144b2fab526d39972d37b3/Article_2013-01-05-Vietnam-First%20Starbucks/id-71c32da2616142e782918641187a3a42

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Obama wants action on government's borrowing limit

HONOLULU (AP) ? President Barack Obama is hailing a last-minute deal that pulled the country back from the "fiscal cliff," but says it's just one step in a broader effort to boost the economy and shrink federal deficits.

Obama said in his radio and Internet address Saturday that the new law, approved by Congress on New Year's Day and signed Thursday, raises taxes on the wealthiest Americans while preventing a middle-class tax increase that could have thrown the economy back into recession.

With one crisis for the short term, Obama faces new battles in Congress over raising the country's $16.4 trillion borrowing limit, as well as more than $100 billion in automatic spending cuts for the military and domestic programs which were delayed by two months under the compromise.

Lawmakers promise to replace those across-the-board cuts with more targeted steps that could take longer to implement.

Obama, speaking from Hawaii, where he is on vacation with his family, said he is willing to consider more spending cuts and tax increases to reduce the deficit.

But he said he "will not compromise" over his insistence that Congress lift the federal debt ceiling. The nation's credit rating was downgraded the last time lawmakers threatened inaction on the debt ceiling, in 2011.

"Our families and our businesses cannot afford that dangerous game again," Obama said.

If elected officials from both parties "focus on the interests of our country above the interests of party, I'm convinced we can cut spending and raise revenue in a manner that reduces our deficit and protects the middle class," Obama said.

In the Republican address, Rep. Dave Camp of Michigan said that as attention again turns to the debt limit, "we must identify responsible ways to tackle Washington's wasteful spending."

Americans know that "when you have no more money in your account and your credit cards are maxed out, then the spending must stop," Camp said.

___

Online:

Obama address: www.whitehouse.gov

GOP address: www.youtube.com/HouseConference

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/obama-wants-action-governments-borrowing-limit-172326740--finance.html

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Acne Cure Information For Oily Facial skin | Health and Fitness Tips ...

Treating oily skin could be a nightmare. All that?s necessary may be the perfectly obvious skin that a lot of people ignore, but for whatever reason the skin is definitely oily. You may also have attempted items that others used coupled with disappointing results. The skin might have special needs, and you?ll have to focus on these needs to obtain the results you would like.

What Can Cause Oily Skin?

Many people are simply born with oily skin. Others experience a rise in the oiliness of the skin once they achieve adolescence. This era of existence is renowned for its predisposition to acne, however, many have it worse than the others. Some people might have had oily skin before adolescence made their skin ailment worse but, in either case, you?ve most likely determined right now that for those who have oily skin then you definitely may have problems associated with acne.

The ?oil? onto the skin is created through the skin oil glands, which oil is known to as sebum. You should note, as a number of you?ll know, that you don?t simply have these glands inside your face. They?re also contained in your neck, chest, back, legs, arms, along with other bodily regions, however the glands in certain regions of skin tend to be more active than the others.

Among the areas of the body that?s most impacted by this oil production may be the nose. The pores which exist around the nose are bigger plus they assistance to disperse the sebum towards the nose and also the relaxation from the face. The nose is where where an excessive amount of oil may be easily created, after which that oil can take shape up. An accumulation of oil can certainly create problems with acne, additionally up to the more common ?blackheads?.

Adolescence

Throughout adolescence this issue could possibly get worse. Adolescence may be the period when the amount of androgens, or sex the body?s hormones, increase in your body. This increase then triggers the skin oil glands to improve oil production, which, consequently, results in the well-known prevalence of acne along with other inflammations.

Taking Care Of Oily Skin

In reality, grime and oil don?t directly cause acne. They are able to, however, block pores and permit the develop of bacteria, which could negatively modify the skin. Ideally, you need to clean the skin two times daily to obvious away excess oil. An easy cream clean can perform this for you personally, but you have to locate one that won?t dry up the skin an excessive amount of, and when you will find a good scrub or exfoliator you?ll be able to clean scalp away simultaneously.

You should also avoid oil based cosmetic items. They can produce a bad situation worse. Similarly, you have to be cautious with any creams or skin lotions. Everybody may increase the problems connected with oily skin.

Acne remedy for shiny skin isn?t a straightforward matter. You have to find the correct approach to remove an adequate amount of the oil inside your skin without over drying out the region. An excessive amount of oil can block pores and worsen acne, although not enough can make problems of their own. Choosing the best balance will help you enjoy obvious skin, even when it?s somewhat oily.

• Skin care tips for Oily Skins
  Oily skin is much more vulnerable to acne outbreaks and enormous, clogged pores. Once the skin oil glands, which offer lube for that skin, become over-stimulated because of genetics, diet or any other...

Tags: acne cure, acne treatment, oily skin care tips
This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 2nd, 2013 and is filed under Health Tips, Skin Care. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

Source: http://www.hhtip.com/acne-cure-information-for-oily-facial-skin/

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Proficient Web Hosting Firms On Your InternetSite ? Welcome to ...

The entire process of developing a web site and obtaining it over the internet may be a tricky 1, primarily for that non-technical local community. And this unquestionably is not helped by well-known false impression that domain registration and web site internet hosting is just one and therefore the same exact issue.

So let us clear items up. Domain registration and online web hosting are two separate processes, equally of which ought to be done in order to produce a web site and allow it to be are living on-line.

Set purely the procedure is as follows: a website should always be registered by a site registration business enterprise and then that domain title needs to be hosted via the web via a web internet hosting provider.

And here?s where the confusion is available in. So many organizations will present both domain registration and website internet hosting, while people will only supply you with both world-wide-web web hosting or domain registration. Therefore you can easily decide upon to sign-up your domain and host your internet site aided by the similar specialist or sign-up your domain with 1 business and host your web site with an alternative.

It incredibly so simple as that, but is a thing that triggers a great deal of confusion and avoidable emotional stress to a great deal of customers seeking to set up an internet site.

Domain Registration
To try the net to speak with many others or to start looking up critical information, you will have to style an tackle into your personal machine. These addresses are really a name or perhaps quantity and therefore are additional normally recognised as domains. Each domain name must be altogether distinct so that the world wide web has learned the correct web-site to carry up for that user.

Those that choose to set up your own websites, you want to devise a reputation you wish your web site for being recognised as. This identify then must have to generally be registered by using a domain registration business enterprise to make certain that it really is distinctive which you become the legal operator of that domain name.

You furthermore mght need to pick a site extension to attribute to the domain name. By this we indicate.com,.co.british isles,.org,.web and many others. You need to definitely give very careful thing to consider on the domain extension you select to make sure that your complete domain title recommended signifies that of one?s internet marketing business or challenge. To illustrate in the event you are an United kingdom opportunity and are generally only selling towards the Uk, it may be most effective to decide on a.co.british isles domain extension ? particularly for achieving reputable United kingdom online search engine rankings.

It happens to be very important that previous to registering a website name by using a domain registrar you examine that they are a reputable domain registration organisation. A person way of working on this really is to check which the domain registrar?s webpage is showcased relating to the ICANN (The world wide web Company for Assigned Names and Quantities) Accredited Registrars record

World wide web internet hosting
When you have registered your special domain identify with an accredited domain registrar, you have to get your internet site reside via the internet. To accomplish this, it is advisable to fork over money for an internet internet hosting bundle from the web hosting firm.

The entire process of putting your web site via the web is completed because of the website hosting business enterprise you sign up with and can include placing your website over a web server that is then linked towards the web-based. The sort of word wide web server your web site is hosted on will count within the necessities of your respective internet site. Quite possibly the most commonplace web site web hosting policies are Shared Web site Hosting and Committed Server World wide web Hosting.

Shared Website Web hosting
In case you use an easy to understand web site which requires a routine number of world-wide-web room and bandwidth, then it is really most likely that your web hosting corporation strongly recommend you select a shared website hosting scheme.

Using this type of arrange your website are placed on one of the several internet hosting company?s shared world-wide-web servers. Below your website will reside alongside quite a few other equivalent sized online resources where exactly it is going to discuss most of the server?s resources and options.

Just about every internet hosting company varies on the web hosting features they supply with their shared web hosting plans. With various establishments you?re going to receive as ordinary:

oA specified amount of web site area contingent upon your picked bundle
oEasy to use web site internet site control panel
oOnline account control facility
oFull 24/7 ftp entry to upload your web documents
oFree domain transfer
oUnlimited domain aliases
oWebmail
oSend and acquire email messages applying Microsoft Outlook and other e-mail systems

Dedicated Server Website Hosting
In case your website is continuing to grow to the size which can?t be accommodated on the shared server or when you have to have the flexibleness to include applications or other characteristics to the blog, then your website hosting supplier might possibly encourage which you invest in a focused server.

Accompanied by a focused server, you very own the rights for the entire server; hence giving you finished control around what?s fitted and run in your server. Area and bandwidth usage can even no longer be described as a predicament as there will only be your site (or web pages) working with the servers sources.

That has a committed server you furthermore mght have comfort that your internet page(s) won?t be with the mercy of other websites as well as their likely corrupt code ? which could result in downtime and other issues on your web-site.

When choosing a dedicated server you can easily choose to acquire your server managed or unmanaged by word wide web web hosting business. Having a managed server, you will acquire services including website administration, distinct software installation, routine maintenance and upgrades. The major plus of getting your devoted server maintained is usually that you have got a specialist available really should your server experience any failure ? guaranteeing your web site a substantial uptime percentage. While noticeably much less expensive, unmanaged server internet hosting is barely definitely suggested for people that has a significant diploma of specialized awareness in server administration and control.

Essential Concept Of Web Hosting Services can provide you with highest facts for Select Tremendous Green For Environmentally Friendly Internet Hosting.Remember to drop by the article for additional information!

Source: http://www.welcometocoastcity.org/proficient-web-hosting-firms-on-your-internetsite.php

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