ViewSonic PJD6235

If you need a portable projector with XGA (1024 by 768) resolution, the ViewSonic PJD6235 is an obvious candidate. Light enough to carry easily, at 4 pounds 10 ounces, and bright enough to stand up to fairly high levels of ambient light, with a 3,000-lumen brightness rating, it also delivers high-quality data images and a long lamp life. Add in the LAN connector that lets you control it over a network, and it's even worth considering for permanent installation. Either way?portable or permanent?it's a potentially good choice.

The PJD6235 clearly outdoes its competition in some ways. In comparison to the Editors' Choice Epson PowerLite 93+ in particular it's both lighter, by more than two pounds, and it offers a higher brightness rating. There's no arguing with the weight difference. However, the brightness comparison isn't as straightforward as it could be, given that the Epson projector is LCD based and the PJD6235 is DLP based.

Three-chip LCD projectors offer the same color brightness as white brightness. DLP projectors like the PJD6235, on the other hand, usually have? lower color brightness than white brightness, which can affect both the brightness of color images and color quality.

That's important to keep in mind, because it complicates brightness comparisons between the two technologies. It even complicates comparisons between DLP projectors. Just because the Dell S320wi has the same brightness rating as the PJD6235, for example, doesn't mean it's color brightness is the same. (For more on color brightness, see Color Brightness: What It Is, and Why You Should Care.)

The Basics
The PJD6235 offers a suitably small size to go along with the light weight, at 3.3 by 10.5 by 8.7 inches (HWD). However, ViewSonic doesn't include a carrying case with it, so if you need one be sure to consider the added cost when you compare the price to other models that include a case. (ViewSonic's optional case is $20 street.)

Setup is standard. Plug in the power cord and appropriate cables, and adjust the manual zoom and focus. The zoom is only 1.1x, which doesn't give you much flexibility for how far you can put the projector from the screen for a given size image, but any zoom is better than none.

Connectors for image sources include the usual HDMI port for a computer or video source, VGA ports for computers or component video, plus S-Video and Composite video ports. Missing from the list is a USB A port for reading files from a memory key. And note that the LAN port I mentioned earlier is strictly for controlling the projector over a network.

Image Quality and Audio
Data image quality is one of the PJD6235's strong points, with the projector doing a good job on our standard suite of DisplayMate tests. Color balance was excellent in all modes, with suitably neutral grays at all levels from black to white, and colors in most modes were suitably eye catching, despite a slightly mustard color for yellow.

More important for data images is the fact that I saw little to no pixel jitter with an analog connection even on screens designed to bring out jitter. The projector also did a good job with fine detail, with both black text on white and white text on black crisp and highly readable at sizes as small as 6.8 points.

Video image quality is obviously limited by the native resolution, with the projector needing to scale HD video to fit in the available pixels on the chip. On the plus side, I didn't see any posterization (colors changing suddenly where they should change gradually) and the projector also did a good job with shadow detail (details based on shading in dark areas) even with test clips that tend to cause these problems.

One potentially key issue for video is rainbow artifacts?with light areas breaking up into little red-green-blue rainbows. These are always a potential problem for single-chip DLP projectors because of the way the projectors create colors. I didn't see the artifacts often enough in data images to consider them a problem, but they showed up often enough in video images that anyone who sees them easily is likely to find them annoying. If you're sensitive to them, or are concerned that someone in your audience might be, this limits the PJD6235 to showing short video clips at most.

A less critical shortcoming is the underpowered audio. The two-watt speaker delivers acceptable quality for presentations, but the volume isn't enough to fill a small conference room. If you need audio, plan on using an external sound system.

Other Issues
Very much on the plus side for the PJD6235 is a longer than usual lamp life at 4,500 hours in Normal mode and 6,000 hours in Eco mode. The replacement cost for the lamp is a fairly typical, and hefty, $240 street, but the long lamp life will still help keep the total cost of ownership down.

One other feature that demands mention is support for 3D, with the HDMI 1.4a port letting you connect directly to a Blu-ray player or other video source for 3D. However, 3D video has the same issue with rainbow artifacts as 2D video, and, in my tests, I needed to use 144Hz DLP-Link glasses to work with Blu-ray 3D at 24 frames per second. For games, both my old 120Hz glasses and the 144Hz glasses worked without problems.

The PJD6235 delivers a potentially attractive balance of portability, brightness, data-image quality, and price. If you need to show much video and are concerned about rainbow artifacts, you'll be better off with an LCD projector like the Epson PowerLite 93+. But if video isn't an issue, the PJD6235 delivers good data image quality in a lighter, more portable, format. That can make it a more than reasonable choice, particularly if you don't need to use it for video or aren't concerned about rainbow artifacts.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ziffdavis/pcmag/~3/HZ0BOzOoteE/0,2817,2419579,00.asp

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Paleo, vegan, intermittent fasting ? what's the best diet? - Precision ...

The question I?m asked more than any other is which ?nutrition camp? I fall into.?Am I a paleo guy? What about vegan? Low carb? Intermittent fasting?

In this article I?ll explain why those are actually the wrong questions to ask, offer a new question, and reveal what kind of ?nutrition guy? I really am.

+++

A few weeks back I did a short media blitz in Toronto, appearing on 3 different television networks and speaking with 13 print journalists in a single day.

For a natural introvert like me, it was exhausting. However, I love talking about fitness and nutrition, and I?m always excited to help people get on the right track.

While the journalist?s questions ranged from health and weight loss to sports nutrition, one particular theme kept emerging. They wanted to know which ?nutrition camp? I belong to.

From one award-winning journalist:

?I?ve visited your website and I?m still not sure: do you guys believe in ?paleo?? Or do you believe in the standard ?RD stuff???

From a TV broadcaster (on air no less):

?Your coaching program sounds great. But, if I were to sign up for it, would I have to cut out all my carbs??

From a production assistant on a TV program:

?I have a friend who?s vegan and she?s super healthy. I?m thinking of trying it?what do you think??

In that one day I received at least a dozen questions like this, all of which essentially ask the same thing:

?Which of the currently popular nutrition philosophies do you believe in??

Phrased another way ?

What?s the ?best diet? for people to follow?

Of course, I travel around the world lecturing, teaching, and giving interviews. So I?m well-practiced in answering similar questions over and over again.

However, after a dozen times in a single day, I started to get annoyed. Not at the journalists, mind you. But at?myself.?Because even after years of the same question, I haven?t yet come up with a pithy, one-liner response.

I simply don?t fall into a single ?diet camp?. And that confuses the hell out of people, since the human brain likes easy categorization.

?But ? but ? I?need?to fit you into one of these nice little nutrition boxes.?

If I could help people stick me and Precision Nutrition into the right nutrition box, I would. Believe me, it?d make things a lot easier.

But I just can?t do it.

Here?s why:?I don?t believe there?s a single, absolutely, positively, without-a-doubt best diet for every person to follow, always, and forever.

Spend enough time actually working with clients ? like we do every day ? and you?ll probably start to feel the same way too.

Think about this: In the last 5 years, my team and I have coached over 20,000 clients in 100 different countries through our fat loss and muscle-building coaching programs.

You can imagine the diversity.

• Body type:?Some clients come to us tall and thin. Others come short and stocky.
• Dietary preferences & exclusions:?Some clients come to us eating lots of meat every day. Others come eating no meat at all.
• Budget:?Some clients come to us with an incredibly low budget. Others come with an unlimited budget.
• Organic / conventional: Some clients come to us eating only boxed and packaged foods. Others come eating only natural, organic, whole foods.
• Nutrition knowledge: Some clients come to us as devout followers of a certain dietary practice.?Others come with very little nutrition knowledge whatsoever.
• Time: Some clients come to us with lots of free time for a health and fitness project.?Others come with very little time to devote to health and fitness.

You get the picture.

There?s simply no way we?d be able to help all those folks make incremental improvements in their eating if we were militant about a single nutrition paradigm.

Can you imagine:

?I know you have a super-low budget for food. But if you sell your vehicle, or maybe one of your children, you?ll be able to afford the organic and free-range whole foods we recommend in our program. That?s the only way to get healthy and fit.?

?Carbs? You?re not alone. We all like ?em. But this program is all about cutting way back. Low carb is what works, period. Insulin is the enemy. So say goodbye to pasta. Potatoes too. And rice. And sugar ??

?Sure, I understand the moral and ethical obligation you feel. But eating animal foods ? that?s how we do it. You need the protein and the fat. And it?s how our ancestors ate. So suck it up, throw a steak on the grill, and let?s get this party started.?

While these responses are a little extreme, they?re not that far from what I hear every day in the gym or read on Facebook. And it?s a shame because ?

The best coaches don?t actually have a single nutrition philosophy.

Sure, if a particular nutrition idea ? like Paleo or vegetarianism ? worked for you personally, that?s awesome. You should be happy you found something that helped you reach your goals.

But to suggest that because it worked for you, at one point in your life, under a particular set of circumstances, now everyone else should follow the same program isn?t just narcissistic.?It?s the antithesis of good coaching.

Physiologically, the human body can do well under a host of different nutritional conditions.

This is clearly demonstrated by examining the traditional diets of various tribes and ethnic groups throughout the world.

• For example, the Arctic Inuit and African Masai eat traditional diets that are very high in fat and animal products with very few vegetables.

• Conversely, the Kitavans in the South Pacific eat traditional diets that are low in fat but very high in vegetables and starchy carbs.

• And the Tokelau near New Zealand eat traditional diets that are very high in saturated fats.

Crazy differences here?yet all traditional diet eaters are relatively healthy people with minimal incidences of cardiovascular disease, stroke, diabetes, inflammatory obesity, etc.?And this is only possible because the human body is amazingly adaptable to a host of different dietary conditions.

It?is?possible to be healthy and fit whether you eat mostly meat or mostly veggies, mostly fat or mostly carbs, many times a day or just a few times, and so on.

Which means that, as a nutrition coach, I shouldn?t really belong to any specific nutrition camp at all.

When you work with actual human beings, you must be a nutritional agnostic.

Open to evaluating anything and everything that could work. Willing to test new methods, even if they fly in the face of current beliefs or practices. And the humility to sometimes be wrong, even if you really like being right. (Which I do.)

If I believe too strongly in any particular ?nutritional religion?, I fixate on the food itself. Or my own personal way of looking at food. And I lose focus on what?s most important as a coach: my clients and their individual physiological and psychological needs.

Here?s another example: our Precision Nutrition staff. With more than 50 full time team members, PN is like a nutritional United Nations convention.

• Some eat plant-based diets.?Others eat meat-based diets.
• Some eat high carb diets.?Others eat low carb diets.
• Some eat dairy-free, gluten-free, and all other potential allergen-free diets.?Others ?eat whatever I want as long as I get enough proteins and fats and stay healthy? diets.

The common theme is that we all practice what we preach, we all take health and fitness seriously, and we all monitor the results of our dietary choices closely, adjusting where necessary.

We respect each other?s choices and get along just fine. We?re more interested in exploring what?works?than we are in being right.

But wait ? how can all these different diets actually work?

You?re probably wondering: How can such wildly different nutrition programs all lead to positive results?

My response: They?re not as different as you might think.

Most effective nutrition programs are more similar than different. (Yes, even Paleo and plant-based eating.)

When done properly, Paleo diets, plant-based diets, high carb diets, low carb diets, eating small meals frequently, eating larger meals infrequently, etc. all accomplish the following:

1. They raise nutrition awareness and attention.

I know, everyone wants to talk about the food itself ? the proteins, carbs, and fats. What to eat more of and what to avoid.

But research is now showing that?simply paying better attention to what you eat is a key factor in whether you?ll lose fat, get lean, and improve your health.

Whether your attention is trained on avoiding carbs, eating more vegetables, seeking out organic / free-range food, avoiding animal foods, or avoiding ?non Paleo? food, it?s all good.

Because?what you focus on may not matter as much as simply caring more about what you?re eating in the first place.

2. They focus on food?quality.

Paleo and low carb advocates want you to eat more natural, free-range animal-based foods that are higher in protein, higher in fat, and are minimally processed.

Vegan and high carb advocates want you to eat more natural, plant-based foods that are higher in fiber, antioxidants, and are minimally processed.

Recognize what?s common here?

Indeed, very few nutrition camps recommend you eat?more?processed, chemical-laden ?junk? food. (Thank goodness.)

Instead, pretty much every camp recommends eating whole, minimally processed, nutrient-rich foods. And that may be one of the most important nutrition interventions of all, regardless of the protein, carb, and fat breakdowns.

3. They help eliminate nutrient deficiencies.

In keeping with the last point, the best nutritional advocates help us shift?away from?highly processed foods, which are often low in nutrients because they?ve been stripped out during processing, and?toward?more whole, minimally processed foods, which often have their nutrients intact.

Thus, a properly designed diet of any kind eliminates some of the most common nutrient deficiencies?(water, certain vitamins and minerals, proteins, and essential fatty acids).

This is huge. We often look, feel, and perform terribly when we?re deficient in important nutrients. But within a few weeks of correcting these deficiencies, we feel totally rejuvenated. (And because the transformation is so dramatic, that?s often when we become diet zealots.)

4. They help control appetite and food intake.

When we?re more aware of what we?re eating, choose more satisfying, higher quality foods, and eliminate nutrient deficiencies, we almost always end up eating less total food. We feel more satisfied. We lose fat, gain lean muscle, and perform better.

Notice that you don?t need calorie counting here. Focusing on food awareness and food quality is usually enough for people to tune into their own hunger and appetite. And that means calorie control without the annoying calorie math.

It also means more sustainability since counting calories has a shelf-life. No one does it forever.

5. They promote regular exercise.

When people start paying attention to their eating, they usually start thinking about physical activity too. In fact, many of the diet camps recommend regular exercise. (Which is a good idea, since focusing on diet alone may actually interfere with establishing a consistent exercise routine.)

When a person exercises regularly, with a mix of high and low intensity activity, they dramatically improve their ability to turn the food they eat ? whatever food that is ? into functional tissue (instead of extra fat).

You can now understand how different well-designed dietary philosophies ? even when they seem oppositional and antagonistic on the surface ? can all promote good health, body composition, and longevity.

Which is why ?

Choosing a single diet camp makes no sense.

1. There?s no such thing as one, universal ?best? diet.

There?s no one absolutely, positively, without-a-doubt best diet for everyone. Humans have evolved to do well under all sorts of dietary conditions.

That?s why I?m happy to help people find the best one for them, no matter their dietary preferences.

Of course, this is a big win for my clients: They get in shape doing more of the things they actually like. And a win for me: I get to help more people.

2. Most popular diets actually have a lot in common.

Most popular diets ? when done with care, attention, and a little coaching ? help control appetite, improve food quality, promote exercise, and raise nutritional awareness.

3. Coaches should never lock into a single philosophy.

In the last 5 years alone,?our team has helped 20,000 clients lose over 300,000 pounds of body fat and develop a new relationship with food.

And we?ve done that without forcing a specific diet philosophy on them. Vegans can stay vegan. Paleos can stay Paleo. And they?ve?all?had success.

Coaches: Don?t waste energy bullying people into a particular way of eating.

4. Habit-based coaching is better than diet-based coaching anyway.

Long-term nutrition?habits?trump diet plans and ?rules?. Always.

We prefer a?nutritional progression model?(which builds habits intelligently and sustainably over time) versus asking people to ?follow a diet? (which means doing a full lifestyle overhaul on Day One).

For more on this particular approach, which I call ?habit-based coaching?, check out this short article.

So, the best diet to follow actually is ?

? the one that?s best for you.

If you want to follow a Paleo diet, I can help with that.

I can also help out if you?re vegan, prefer to eat more carbs (or less), are on a tight budget, or only eat organic / free range artisan foods.

But, really, what I?d like you to follow is what I call ?precision nutrition?.

Let me listen to your needs. What you want to accomplish. How you live. What?s really important to you. Then let me help you create the right dietary approach for you; one that?s specific to your goals and your lifestyle.

Because that?s what coaching really is.

Diet gurus are in this game to get attention, make a scene, and get on TV. That?s why they try to force people into following strict and largely unnecessary nutrition rules ? demonizing some foods, deifying others.

Sure, it sells books. It gives good TV. But we all know how things turn out when real people try to follow these rules in real life.

The best coaches, on the other hand, are actually responsible for (and accountable to) their clients.?They?re paid to get results.?This totally changes the game.

That?s why I don?t really have a diet philosophy. Instead, I have a personal coaching?process.

One that helps clients find the best diet for them. One that takes into account their small (but still important) physical and biochemical differences. And one that takes into account their lifestyle differences, including:

• family
• life demands
• stress level
• work situation
• income level
• climate
• environmental pollutants
• food availability
• cooking experience and knowledge
• time availability for fitness
• physical activity
• and so on ?

No, it?s not as clean and clear as ?avoid meat? or ?eat like a caveman?.

But I believe it?s the only sane and rational approach.

It also happens to be the only approach that actually works in the long run.

+++

Want help finding the right diet for you?

If you?d like some help and support in finding the right diet for your goals and your lifestyle, we?d be happy to help. In fact, we?ll soon be taking a group of new clients looking for the same thing, all as part of our Lean Eating Coaching Program.

You see, we accept a very small number of new clients every 6 months, and the spots in the program typically sell out in hours. However, those motivated enough to put themselves on the presale list get to register 24 hours before everyone else. Plus, you?ll receive a big discount at registration.

So put your name on the list below ? because, as always, spots are first come, first served, and when they?re gone, they?re gone.

Don't miss out! Get on the Lean Eating Coaching presale list today!

On Wednesday, July 17th, 2013, we?re taking a small group of new clients and getting them in the best shape of their lives. Spots are first-come, first-served and typically sell out in minutes.

Get on the presale list to register at a discount 24 hours before spots open to the general public.

Source: http://www.precisionnutrition.com/best-diet

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Quad Core Android 4.2 Smart TV Dongle - Android 4.2 Mini PC With 4 Core CPU

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The new tech palaces: Visionary HQs or cursed trophies?

Internet

Bill Rigby and Alistair Barr Reuters

34 minutes ago

Reuters

The proposed Amazon corporate headquarters in Seattle, Washington, is pictured in this artist's rendering courtesy of NBBJ.

While much of corporate America is retrenching on the real estate front, the four most influential technology companies in America are each planning headquarters that could win a Pritzker Architecture Prize for hubris.

Amazon.com this week revealed plans for three verdant bubbles in downtown Seattle, joining Apple's circular "spaceship," Facebook's Frank Gehry-designed open-office complex and a new Googleplex on the list of planned trophy offices.

"It signals a desire, a statement, to say that we're special, we're different. We have changed the world and we are going to continue to change it," said Margaret O'Mara, associate professor of history at the University of Washington, who has written about the building of Silicon Valley.

"It's also a reflection of robust bank accounts. They have a lot of cash."

Historically, however, when a company becomes preoccupied with the grandeur of its premises, it often signals a high point in its fortunes. These fantastical buildings may end up as little more than costly monuments to vanity and a loss of focus on the core business that made for success in the first place.

"I've been thinking the Apple spaceship is going to get nicknamed the 'Death Star' because the project is so big and the timing is so bad," said hedge fund manager Jeff Matthews of Ram Partners. The building is coming to fruition just as Apple's product cycles may be maturing, he explained. "It is such a classic contrary indicator that you just get the shakes." He no longer holds Apple stock.

Walter Price, who runs technology investment funds at RCM Capital Management, shares the outlook: "When companies build big headquarters it's usually when they're doing really well and have strong outlooks, and that often coincides with a peak in their stock." Apple, Amazon, Google and Facebook are battling to recruit tech talent, and attractive campuses help with that, he added, but Apple's plan has not gone down well with investors. RCM's tech funds no longer hold shares.

Project Runway
Amazon's design, presented to Seattle city planners this week, includes three steel and glass spheres almost 100 feet high, which will serve as the centerpiece for three new skyscrapers that will house a rapidly growing workforce in downtown Seattle.

The plans call for "a series of intersecting spheres with ample space for a wide range of planting material, as well as individuals working alone or in groups." Amazon declined further comment.

Google, the world's largest Internet search company, has outgrown its original headquarters in Silicon Valley's Mountain View and is planning to build a 1.1 million square foot Googleplex nearby.

Called Bay View, it will have nine rectangular buildings, horizontally bent, with living roofs surrounded by courtyards and connected by bridges. No employee will be more than a two-and-a-half-minute walk away from any colleague, a design aimed at encouraging collaboration. A Google spokeswoman declined further comment.

Facebook is taking the collaborative idea a step further, with plans for Facebook West, an addition to its main campus in Menlo Park, California, that will be the size of seven-and-a-half football fields.

Reuters

The proposed Amazon corporate headquarters in Seattle, Washington, is pictured in this artist's rendering courtesy of NBBJ.

Facebook hired Gehry to bring his trademark style of unexpected angles and understated drama to what is essentially one enormous open-plan office, where a worker can wander from one end to the other without ever going through a door. The rooftop serves as a park.

An earlier version of the building plan featured flares on the ends of the structure like butterfly wings, but Facebook decided not to go ahead with them, said Rachel Grossman, associate planner for the city of Menlo Park.

Facebook spokesman Tucker Bounds said the expansion will be "extremely cost-effective" and is needed to help the company develop new products for its users. He declined to comment further.

Apple has the most ambitious idea, a 2.8 million square foot glass ring on 176 acres. It would be in part a monument to former Chief Executive Steve Jobs, who described it as like a spaceship and was closely involved in the plans before he died in 2011.

The project, which could cost up to $5 billion according to reports, would house about 12,000 Apple employees. An Apple spokeswoman declined to comment.

Tempting fate
The technology sector has amassed large cash piles in recent years, leaving many companies over-capitalized, said Bill Smead, head of Smead Capital Management, which oversees $465 million in assets and does not own shares of Apple, Amazon, Facebook or Google. "Over-capitalized companies often don't perform well, and leaders of over-capitalized companies sometimes squander the money," he said.

Apple, Amazon and Facebook are not getting tax breaks or other similar financial incentives for their plans, according to local officials. It is not clear if Google is receiving any incentives.

While these plans radiate optimism, they risk bringing down a curse that has befallen big companies just as they construct pyramid-scale palaces.

AOL-Time Warner started building the Time Warner Center, a 2.8 million square foot structure on the edge of New York's Central Park featuring two towering glass skyscrapers, right as the tech stock bubble popped in 2000, destroying more than three-quarters of the Internet and media company's value.

The New York Times, Wall Street bank Bear Stearns and chemical company Union Carbide also built ambitious headquarters just before their businesses hit tough times.

The "campus curse" has claimed several tech victims as well.

In the early 1990s, Borland Software ? once the second-largest independent software company ? spent more than $100 million on offices just south of Silicon Valley that featured ponds, tennis courts and a swimming pool. By 2008 the company had been hammered in the market by Microsoft and was worth less than the cost of the complex.

Since then, Yahoo, MySpace, Inktomi, Sun Microsystems and Silicon Graphics have either hatched plans for or moved into swaggering headquarters, only to hit the skids. Google moved into Silicon Graphics' campus and Facebook took over Sun's headquarters.

Salesforce.com the shakes in time. In late 2011 the stock had fallen from a July high, and analysts were criticizing the company for excessive spending on sales and marketing. Earlier approved plans to build a $2 billion high-tech campus in San Francisco were canceled by the following February.

Productivity premium?
Despite these cautionary tales, some say the new breed of tech companies are smart to construct their own buildings, which match the collaborative way they work and can yield long-term productivity and energy-efficiency benefits.

"As they see energy prices going up they recognize that these buildings have to last longer, and they need to be more in control of the operation costs of these buildings. A property developer does not focus on such long-term things," said John Barton, director of the architectural design program at Stanford University.

"Employees are more productive in the right kinds of environments. That may be more expensive, but if it pays back in a 5 percent productivity increase, that may be really smart," he added.

O'Mara at University of Washington suggests the new tech giants are emulating the workplace innovations of the famous Bell Labs, the historic research arm of AT&T that gave birth to the transistor, the laser and technology behind mobile phones over many decades.

Bell's legendary facility, designed by modernist architect Eero Saarinen in the late 1950s, might not be the right role monument.

Now owned by global telecom giant Alcatel Lucent, the quarter-mile-long mirrored box lies empty, and is likely to end up being turned into a medical center ? or razed.

(Additional reporting by Poornima Gupta. Editing by Jonathan Weber, Mary Milliken and Prudence Crowther)

Copyright 2013 Thomson Reuters.

Source: http://feeds.nbcnews.com/c/35002/f/653377/s/2c7551ab/l/0L0Snbcnews0N0Ctechnology0Cnew0Etech0Epalaces0Evisionary0Ehqs0Eor0Ecursed0Etrophies0E6C10A0A86882/story01.htm

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Paul Coffey Back in Hot Water | Stuff.co.nz

KEVIN STENT/Fairfax NZ

PRICEY RIDE: Coffey?s 2008 Aston Martin V8 Vantage, for sale for more than $120,000, is listed as collateral for a debt.

A Wellington businessman at the centre of a scandal over leaked confidential government documents two years ago is embroiled in a new row - this time over the sale of the assets of his security businesses before their collapse.

Paul Coffey received government documents from corrupt former ACC national property manager Malcolm Mason. Mason was sentenced in March 2011 to 11 months home detention after pleading guilty to bribery and corruption charges.

Mason took $160,000 from Wellington property developer Greg Hutt, a $9000 trip to the Singapore Grand Prix from Bayleys real estate agent Rohan Hill and provided a confidential document listing all government departmental security officers to Coffey.

Neither Coffey nor Hill were charged by the Serious Fraud Office in relation to the incident but Hutt was sentenced to home detention on bribery charges.

Now Coffey's sale of the assets of his security businesses is the subject of legal action taken by the liquidator of his failed companies against the new owners - his former staff - for underpaying for the businesses. They provide security installation and monitoring services to businesses in Auckland and Wellington.

Deloitte's Barry Jordan, one of the liquidators of the companies formerly known as Alligator Security and Independent Monitoring Services, said he was taking legal action against the new owners, IMS Security, for a "transaction at undervalue". No date has been set for the court hearing.

Jordan said the legal proceedings related only to the sale of Independent Monitoring Systems but the two companies were sold to the same purchaser and were directly related. The second company, Alligator, was not included as a claimant as Jordan has not been able to appropriately value the business.

The liquidator's reports say Coffey sold the businesses on July 17, 2011, to IMS Security, the day before the Inland Revenue Department (IRD) successfully liquidated them for non-payment of more than $750,000 in tax including unpaid GST and PAYE.

After the sale and purchase agreement was signed for the business assets, Coffey appointed receivers to the two companies on July 18, and changed their names to CW2 and WC1.

IMS Security is owned by former Alligator Security management Liza Anderson (who was also a shareholder and director), and Paul Hodson. The duo also majority-own Eye Spy Security with Nigel Hughes, who owned 70 per cent of the failed security companies with Coffey. IMS Security's Hodson denied any wrong-doing in relation to the purchase and said the only thing they were guilty of was "working their arses off".

Hodson said he was a genuine buyer of the business and had mortgaged his family home to purchase it.

Coffey had nothing to do with IMS Security, he said.

?Definitely not. [Coffey] continues to drive his Aston Martin around and flit in and out of the country. To say that irks me is an understatement," Hodson said.

Receiver reports show the situation got complicated following the sale of the two companies' assets.

Debts from the two companies were cross-guaranteed and overall there is still a deficit of $1.5 million owed to creditors.

Receiver Shepherd Dunphy said first-ranking creditor Westpac Bank was paid the $147,000 or so it was owed in full from the sale of the assets of WC1, and also nearly $98,000 from the sale of the assets of CW2. No funds have gone to Coffey although the cash received from settlement of the business is recorded as $92,765 in cash by the receiver.

The IRD has been paid $36,000 and is still owed over $700,000.

The receiver said he had "extreme difficulty" reconciling information provided by the company. Coffey is accused by the liquidator of excessive expenditure, including buying a luxury Aston Martin vehicle, that added to the companies' financial woes.

In a six-monthly report last July, Jordan said the special edition Aston Martin "would not ordinarily be required in order to successfully operate a security installation business, at a time when the company was unable to pay its due debts".

Car ownership documents show Coffey owns a 2008 Aston Martin V8 Vantage, with the personalised plate V8N4oo, which is currently for sale for more than $120,000.

Its TradeMe listing says the car is the only one of its type in the country and is number 16 of only 240 ever built. It has a 4.3 litre V8 engine, sports pack with "diamond turning", black leather seats and a "unique numbered plaque".

However Marac has two securities registered over the car as collateral for an outstanding debt Coffey is said to owe.

- ? Fairfax NZ News

Source: http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/industries/8719269/Coffey-back-in-hot-water-over-sold-off-assets

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Blackstone To Pull Money From SAC - Business Insider

REUTERS/Steve Marcus

Steven Cohen

May 25 (Reuters) - Billionaire hedge fund manager Steven A. Cohen is losing the financial support of Blackstone Group Inc , the largest outside investor in his embattled SAC Capital Advisors, which is yanking much of its client money, according to a letter reviewed by Reuters.

A pension consultant, in a May 21 letter to clients, said Blackstone has notified Cohen that it intends to "fully redeem" a significant portion of the roughly $550 million the investment firm has invested with the $15 billion hedge fund. The letter from pension consulting firm Russell Investments said Blackstone submitted its redemption notice to SAC Capital sometime before May 15 because of ongoing concerns about the insider trading investigation that continues to engulf Cohen's fund.

Blackstone's investment with SAC Capital is through several investment funds known as hedge fund of funds and also through separately managed accounts it maintains for clients. The decision to redeem from SAC Capital impacts only client money invested in its hedge fund of funds, according to the letter. It's not clear how much of the $550 million is in those hedge fund of funds and it is not clear what Blackstone is advising clients who have money in separately managed accounts that is invested with SAC Capital.

Russell did say in the address to its pension clients that Blackstone "expects to receive 100 percent of investors' capital by year-end." Russell, which manages $173 billion in assets and oversees a number of index funds, also provides advice to pensions and institutional investors on where to invest their dollars in hedge funds.

The timing of Blackstone's request to withdraw money from SAC Capital is critical because it came before the hedge fund told investors on May 17 that its cooperation with federal authorities was no longer unconditional. Soon after, news broke that federal prosecutors had issued grand jury subpoenas earlier this month to Cohen and several of his top executives, seeking their testimony about insider trading at the hedge fund.

The decision by Blackstone, which has invested with SAC Capital for at least a decade, is a big blow to the 56-year-old fund manager, who is widely regarded as one of the most successful traders of his generation. Blackstone - which manages about $46 billion in hedge fund investments for public pensions, foundations, corporations and wealthy individuals - is seen as something of a bellwether for other investors in the $2.2 trillion hedge fund industry because of its stature.

Representatives for Blackstone did not immediately respond when asked for comment on Saturday. An SAC Capital spokesman declined to comment.

The letter from Russell Investments, which was reviewed by Reuters, made no mention of the subpoenas on Cohen and his executives and was sent after a Russell representative talked to a Blackstone executive about the redemption decision. The letter said Blackstone decided to submit a redemption notice to SAC Capital after reviewing the terms of a $616 million deal SAC Capital reached in March with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to settle allegations that the hedge fund's employees had engaged in insider trading in four stocks.

Blackstone, according to the letter, said the settlement with the SEC "did not give additional comfort that the issues at-hand were resolved."

A representative for Russell Investments did not respond to a request for comment about the letter from its Russell Research division.

Outside investors in SAC Capital like Blackstone, who account for roughly $6.75 billion of the $15 billion managed by Cohen, have until June 3 to decide whether to submit redemption notices for the second quarter. In the first quarter, outside investors notified Cohen they intend to withdraw about $1.7 billion of that $6.75 billion by year's end.

People close to SAC Capital said Cohen, who has roughly $8 billion of his money invested in SAC Capital, is bracing for another large round of redemption requests. The speculation is growing in the hedge fund world that if Cohen gets another large round of redemption requests, he may opt to return all the outside money and convert SAC Capital into a family office - an unregistered firm that manages money just for himself and his friends and family.

SAC Capital is one of the world's larger hedge funds with 1,000 employees.

Blackstone's hedge fund of funds invests client money with more than four dozen hedge funds, including SAC Capital, Pershing Square Capital Management, Elliott Management and DE Shaw & Co, according to people familiar with the private equity firm's asset management business.

The decision by Blackstone to redeem comes after the private equity and investment firm has stuck with Cohen throughout the course of the long-running investigation that has so far resulted in nine one-time employees of the firm being charged or implicated in insider trading schemes.

Cohen himself has not been charged with wrongdoing, but the investigation is seen as increasingly focusing on him and his firm.

In late April, lawyers for Cohen and his firm met with federal prosecutors in Manhattan to make their best case argument about why the hedge fund billionaire and his SAC Capital Advisors should not be charged with criminal wrongdoing. But people familiar with that meeting said the lengthy presentation did not impress federal prosecutors, who are now considering whether to use a racketeering law aimed at prosecuting the Mafia and drug gangs to pursue a criminal case against Cohen's hedge fund.

Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/blackstone-to-pull-money-from-sac-2013-5

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Ore. teen accused of planning to attack school

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) ? An Oregon teenager intended to blow up his school in a plot "forged and inspired by the model of the Columbine shootings" and he will be charged with attempted aggravated murder, a prosecutor said late Saturday.

Grant Acord, 17, will be charged as an adult and also faces six counts of manufacturing and possessing a destructive device after investigators found six bombs in a secret compartment in his bedroom, said Benton County District Attorney John Haroldson.

Acord was taken to a juvenile jail Thursday night after police received a tip that the youth was making a bomb to blow up West Albany High School, located about 75 miles south of Portland.

He said Acord had written plans, a checklist and a specific timeline for the attack. The bombs investigators found included pipe bombs, Molotov cocktails, a Drano bomb and a napalm bomb, Haroldson said.

Police found no bombs during a search of the high school.

Haroldson declined to provide the specific date Acord allegedly planned to attack the school, but said it would be included in court paperwork to be filed after the Memorial Day weekend.

"That said there were also some indications that it could happen at any time, too," Haroldson said. "So you have - A -the methodical planning and then - B - I suppose he could get really excited about it and go early."

Acord is a junior. Haroldson said he's not aware that the youth had any major problems, such as a suspension, at school.

"In any case that you have a young person that in essence plans to take a video game approach to killing people at school, you have to take a close look at the mental health issues," he said. "And the process will certainly provide for that once he's represented by counsel."

Phone listings did not appear to be available for either of the boy's parents to reach them for comment Saturday.

The Associated Press was not able to determine who would represent the boy in court.

The district attorney said it did not appear the teen was targeting a specific person or group of people. He said Acord will likely be arraigned Tuesday in Benton County Circuit Court in Corvallis.

"I can't say enough about how lucky we are that there was an intervention," the district attorney said. "When I look at the evidence in the case, I shudder to think of what could have happened here."

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2013-05-25-US-Oregon-School-Threat/id-fee2897d2b4144fe8997824c317f13ee

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Promising strategy to help vaccines outsmart HIV

May 24, 2013 ? A new discovery at Oregon Health & Science University highlights an ingenious method to ensure the body effectively reacts when infected with the highly evasive HIV virus that causes AIDS. The same team of researchers has been utilizing this unique approach to develop its own HIV vaccine candidate, which has so far shown promising results in animal studies.

This latest research finding will be published in the May 24, 2013, edition of the journal Science.

"A major challenge in developing an effective HIV vaccine is figuring out how to target this evasive virus," said Dr. Louis Picker, M.D., associate director of the OHSU Vaccine and Gene Therapy Institute, where the work was conducted.

CD8+ "cytotoxic" T cells are an important component of the immune system and are particularly important for pathogens, like HIV, that easily evade antibodies. They serve as sentries within the body that detect and destroy virus-infected cells, accomplishing this function by recognizing short viral peptides on the surface of infected cells. T-cells are designed to be quite frugal in the number of different viral peptides they recognize, typically responding to just a handful of such peptides. This is a problem for control of HIV, which is able to able change its peptides and thus escape T cells responses that do not target the relatively few functionally critical peptides that can't change without debilitating the virus. In the vast majority of HIV infections, the few viral peptides recognized by T cells are not the vulnerable ones, and the virus escapes.

Therefore, the strategy that Dr. Picker and his colleagues adopted was to try to develop a vaccine to increase the number of viral peptides that T cells would recognize, reasoning that increasing this "recognition breadth" would allow T cells to more effectively respond to HIV.

The researchers found that cytomegalovirus or CMV, a common virus already carried by a large percentage of the population, may hold the key. Their studies in the non-human primate model of HIV, called SIV, found that a modified version of CMV engineered to express SIV proteins generates SIV-specific T cells that recognize three-fold as many SIV peptides as T cell generated by conventional vaccines and SIV itself. Moreover, these responses were entirely different from conventional responses, such that even viruses that had previously escaped natural responses would still be vulnerable. In effect, the hunters of the body were provided with a much better targeting system to help them find and destroy an elusive enemy.

Picker and his colleagues believe an HIV vaccine equipped with a modified CMV vector might be able to both prevent infection (prophylactic vaccine) and effectively battle the virus even if applied post-infection in individuals with infections suppressed by anti-retroviral therapy. Moving forward, the research team hopes to utilize this new information to create customized CMV vectors with a broad ability to identify several components of HIV and then incorporate this component into an effective vaccine.

"We hope we can begin clinical trials in human patients within a few years," explained Dr. Picker. "This new information gives us a much clearer roadmap for effectively targeting the disease which to this point has found ways to evade the human immune system."

National Institutes of Health (P01 AI094417, RO1 AI060392, RO1 AI059457, P51 OD 011092 and contract #HHSN261200800001E), the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative funded this research.

OHSU and paper authors Drs. Picker, Hansen, Fr?h and Nelson have a significant financial interest in TomegaVax, Inc., a company that may have a commercial interest in the results of this research and technology. The potential individual and institutional conflicts of interest have been reviewed and managed by OHSU.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/most_popular/~3/TOz-titMw_Q/130524122012.htm

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Google to add Galapagos Islands to Street View

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) ? Few have explored the remote volcanic islands of the Galapagos archipelago, an otherworldly landscape inhabited by the world's largest tortoises and other fantastical creatures that inspired Charles Darwin's theory of evolution.

Soon it will take only the click of a mouse or finger swipe on a tablet to explore some of the Galapagos Islands' most remote areas, surrounding waters and unique creatures.

Mountain View, Calif.,-based Google sent hikers to the Galapagos with Street View gear called "trekkers," 42-pound computer backpacks with large, soccer ball-like cameras mounted on a tower.

Each orb has 15 cameras inside it that have captured panoramic views of some of the most inaccessible places on the Galapagos. Crews from The Catlin Seaview Survey worked with Google to capture 360-degree views of selected underwater areas too.

"We spent 10 days there hiking over trails ... and even down the crater of an active volcano," Raleigh Seamster, the project's leader for Google Maps said. "And these are islands, so half of the life there is under the water surface. So (we brought) Street View underwater to swim with sea lions, sharks and other marine animals."

Google is processing the footage and is trying to stitch it together. It hopes to post it to Street View later this year.

The cameras captured the nesting sites of blue-footed boobies, the red-throated "magnificent frigatebirds," swimming hammerhead sharks and, of course, the island's giant tortoises.

Scientists working with Google are exploring the footage for other species and hope to update the pictures regularly throughout the years as they study the effects of invasive species, tourism and climate change on the island's ecosystems.

"We hope that children in classrooms around the world will be trying to discover what they can see in the images, even tiny creatures like insects," said Daniel Orellana, a scientist with the Charles Darwin Foundation.

"We can use this as an education experience for children, and there is a huge opportunity for rare discoveries."

Orellana and others supervised the Google trekkers and helped guide them to remote areas either off-limits to tourists or rarely visited because they are hard to reach.

They also captured images of the areas frequented by tourists so they can keep track of how this access is affecting the environment.

Since launching Street View in 2007, Google has expanded from urban neighborhoods accessed easily by its mapping cars to more hard-to-access sites like the ocean floor, the Amazon rain forest and the Arctic.

"This whole project was part of Google's ongoing effort to build the most comprehensive and accurate map of the world," Seamster said.

___

Follow Jason Dearen on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/JHDearen .

Source: http://www.seattlepi.com/business/technology/article/Google-to-add-Galapagos-Islands-to-Street-View-4542822.php

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ROCKFORD PERSONAL INJURY ATTONEY - The American Law ...

So you finally get to leave the hospital after being admitted for a few days. You hope to never return. But lets face it, in many occasion patients end up having to make that horrible trip back to the hospital due to complications. According to the Robert Wood Johnson foundation, one in eight elderly patients is readmitted to the hospital within 30 days of being discharged after surgery.?

?In some cases, complications may come from medical malpractice. However, more often than not, complications arise because patients do not know what to do to promote their recovery. Below are some tips that will help you during the recovery time.

?Be clear about medications:

?It can be a difficult task to keep track of medications. Drug doses are changed, discontinued, or replaced, making this one of the most probable reasons for readmission after surgery. Make sure you communicate with your doctor and listen to their instructions carefully. And make sure all changes are documented.

?Plan for follow-up:

?One of the most important factors to remember is to follow your doctor?s orders. While some of the orders may be uncomfortable, tasteless, or even painful, it is important to follow their instructions. That being said, make sure you follow up with your doctor. Especially if you believe their instructions are causing too much discomfort. And above all, do not be afraid to ask for clarification on something you don?t understand or have forgotten.?

?Remember the basics:

?If you underwent a significant procedure, make sure you have access to nutritious meals. There are usually several organizations within your community that can help facilitate this for you in case you are homebound. Additionally, invest some time on researching your insurance coverage for in-home health. A temporary in-home caregiver can be a wonderful way to improve your chances of getting better.

?Unexpected Complications:

?As mentioned above, there are some cases where the reason for complications is genuinely due to medical malpractice. If you believe you or a loved one has experienced any complications due to medical malpractice you should contact The American Law Firm. You may be entitled to financial compensation for your damages.

If you have any legal matters, contact The American Law Firm?to speak with one of our qualified attorneys. Please call The American Law Firm?at 815-394-1776 to schedule a free consultation.

Source: http://www.theamericanlawfirm.com/?p=1138

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FEMA Chief: Feds won't go 'when the cameras leave'

W. Craig Fugate with the Federal Emergency Management Agency speaks during a noon news conference on the devastating tornado at City Hall in Moore, Okla, Tuesday, May 21, 2013. A huge tornado roared through the Oklahoma City suburb Monday, flattening entire neighborhoods and destroying an elementary school with a direct blow as children and teachers huddled against winds.(AP Photo/Tulsa World, Michael Wyke) ONLINE OUT; TV OUT; TULSA OUT

W. Craig Fugate with the Federal Emergency Management Agency speaks during a noon news conference on the devastating tornado at City Hall in Moore, Okla, Tuesday, May 21, 2013. A huge tornado roared through the Oklahoma City suburb Monday, flattening entire neighborhoods and destroying an elementary school with a direct blow as children and teachers huddled against winds.(AP Photo/Tulsa World, Michael Wyke) ONLINE OUT; TV OUT; TULSA OUT

WASHINGTON (AP) ? The head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency says U.S. officials are "going neighborhood to neighborhood" to make sure Oklahoma gets the help it needs.

FEMA's Craig Fugate promises in an interview that officials won't desert Oklahoma, saying "We don't leave here when the cameras leave. We stay here and get the job done." Fugate tells CNN that the agency has enough money to assist the people of Moore, Okla., who were caught in the path of destruction as the nearly 1.3-mile-wide twister struck Monday afternoon. He says officials will work aggressively to help people find temporary housing and says FEMA is working with other officials to get services restored.

The emergency management director arrived in the state Tuesday, and Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano is due there Wednesday.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/89ae8247abe8493fae24405546e9a1aa/Article_2013-05-22-US-Oklahoma-Tornado-Federal/id-121d5679a04f42bd8baa7fd7b965fb87

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Massive Tornado In Oklahoma Leaves At Least 91 Dead (VIDEO)

Massive Tornado In Oklahoma Leaves At Least 91 Dead (VIDEO)

A deadly tornado that was reportedly 2 miles wide hit Oklahoma at around 3 p.m. today, leaving a trail of devastation behind. There were initial reports that 51 people were confirmed dead, 20 of which are children. But the Oklahoma medical examiner, Amy Elliott, revealed at least 91 people are dead. People scrambled to help ...

Massive Tornado In Oklahoma Leaves At Least 91 Dead (VIDEO) Stupid Celebrities Gossip Stupid Celebrities Gossip News

Source: http://stupidcelebrities.net/2013/05/enormous-tornado-in-oklahoma-kills-at-least-51-injures-hundreds-video/

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Google Checkout for web merchants to be retired on November 20th

Although Google Checkout was rolled into Google Wallet at the end of 2011, it's still been an option for folks who peddle their wares online to collect payments. Come November 20th, however, the service will officially shut down. While Page and Co. recommend US-based merchants switch to the revamped Wallet, they're partnering with Braintree, Shopify and Freshbooks to offer discounted migration options as well. As for developers using Checkout for transactions through the Chrome Web Store, Google Play and Offers Marketplace, they'll be automatically transitioned to the Google Wallet Merchant Center in the coming weeks.

[Image credit: StockMonkeys.com]

Filed under: Google

Comments

Source: Google Commerce, Android Developers Blog

Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/NxRATO6bXBs/

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Streetlight Manifesto: Ungrateful

Streetlight Manifesto's new record, The Hands That Thieve, is an instant classic in the ever-shrinking world of really stellar ska music simply by virtue of being a Streetlight Manifesto album. But what "Ungrateful" brings to the table is something a little subtler; it's a great Catch 22 song.

"Ungrateful" harkens back to the spring of 1998 with a sort of alarming intensity. Its earnestly self-defeated lyrics contrasted against an utterly triumphant melody?mandatory shout-chorus included?check off all the most important of boxes on the ska-checklist. It's a delightfully pared-down ditty on an album otherwise filled with more characteristically (and characteristically awesome) Streetlight songs.

But basically what I am trying to say here is that this is a good song; listen to it. And if you're a fan, the rest of the album is fantastically catchy too. Check it out and you'll be glad you did. [Spotify, Amazon, RISC]

Source: http://gizmodo.com/streetlight-manifesto-ungrateful-508392749

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See where Pat Healy, Paul Kelly and Nate Diaz fell on Cagewriter?s Hot or Not list

It's been a crazy, crazy week in MMA. Let's get right to finding out what's hot and what's not.

Not -- Pat Healy: After a memorable, double-bonus winning fight at UFC 159, Healy tested positive for marijuana. He lost his bonuses, worth $130,000. It was a very costly lesson.

Hot -- Bryan Caraway: He was the only other fighter at UFC 159 by submission, so he picked up Healy's vacated bonus.

Not -- Nate Diaz: In a Twitter conversation today, someone from GLAAD spelled out exactly why Diaz's tweet that got him suspended was so hurtful.

"When you use an anti-gay slur, even not to describe a gay person, what you tell all gay people is, 'My subconscious wanted to find the worst insult it could, and what it came up with ... was you.'"

In using the f-word to describe Caraway, Diaz not only used the language of hate, but also put his own standing with the UFC in jeopardy.

Hot -- Tarec Saffiedine's son: If you missed it, watch Tarec Saffiedine's son throw some combinations on a laundry hamper. If you watched it, watch it again. It's still adorable.

Not -- Paul Kelly: Since losing to Donald Cerrone at UFC 126 and getting cut by the UFC, British fighter Paul Kelly's life has taken a surprising turn. He was convicted for trafficking heroin in the United Kingdom. He is reportedly facing a long prison term.

Still taking temperature -- Luke Rockhold and Vitor Belfort: The two will face off on Saturday night in Brazil on FX. Considering the bad blood between the fighters, this should be a fun one.

Thank you for reading Cagewriter. Follow us on Facebook and Twitter.

Source: http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/mma-cagewriter/see-where-pat-healy-paul-kelly-nate-diaz-211855888.html

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China president takes charge of sweeping economic reform plans: sources

By Kevin Yao

BEIJING (Reuters) - Chinese President Xi Jinping has taken charge of drawing up ambitious reform plans to revitalize the economy, sources close to the government said, shunning policy stimulus for fear it could worsen local government debt and inflate property prices.

A consensus had been reached among top leaders that reforms would be the only way to put the world's second-largest economy on a more sustainable footing, said the sources, who are familiar with the plans and Xi's involvement.

China's economic growth is at its weakest in 13 years, although still the envy of any major economy.

Xi will present the reforms at a key meeting of the ruling Communist Party later this year that will set the agenda for the next decade, signaling his seriousness to see breakthroughs, the sources told Reuters.

Some of the sources cautioned that the reforms could face resistance from vested interests, especially state firms.

Broadly, the measures would liberalize interest rates and overhaul the fiscal system for local governments to ensure they had a steady stream of tax revenues rather than relying on volatile land sales to raise funds.

The reforms would also free up China's rigid residence registration, or hukou, system that precludes people from access to basic welfare services outside their official residence area, the sources said.

"A top-level team has been set up to draft reform plans for the party meeting, with Xi taking personal charge," said a senior economist at a top government think-tank in Beijing.

"Xi is keen to see some real changes," said the economist, who requested anonymity due to the sensitivity of the issue.

Big injections of policy stimulus appear to be off the table after Premier Li Keqiang was quoted by state media as saying on Wednesday there was limited room to use government spending to boost the economy.

"China's economic model has reached a point where it must be overhauled, although reforms are probably easier said than done," said Shi Xiaomin, vice head of the China Society of Economic Reform, a government think-tank in Beijing.

"The sense of crisis of Xi and Li is significantly higher than their predecessors."

Xi and Li assumed their government posts in March during a once-in-a-decade leadership transition.

Some critics said the previous administration of President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao had delayed economic reforms and failed to deal with the fallout from China's 4 trillion yuan ($650 billion) stimulus package in 2008. The package insulated China from the global financial crisis but left a mountain of local government debt and record house prices.

Xi and Li, by contrast, have been leaning toward reforms rather than short-term policy stimulus to bolster the economy.

"They are more eager to tackle long-term issues through reform measures. China's economic slowdown is mainly caused by structural factors," said Wang Jun, senior economist at the China Centre for International Economic Exchanges (CCIEE), a well-connected government think-tank in Beijing.

FOCUS ON URBANISATION DRIVE

Such structural drags have become more obvious this year as annual economic growth slowed to 7.7 percent in the first quarter from 7.9 percent in the fourth quarter of 2012. Full-year GDP growth of 7.8 percent in 2012 was the slowest since 1999. Weakness has persisted in April despite a credit boom.

Freer interest rates would help curb China's sprawling shadow banking sector - lending by businesses other than banks - because state controlled bank deposit rates are fanning a boom in risky alternative investments. At the same time, state firms with preferential access to credit are profiting at the expense of cash-starved private companies.

The most pressing reform is to overhaul the fiscal system for local governments since Beijing is counting on a new urbanization program to drive economic growth by unleashing the spending power of rural workers.

China plans to spend 40 trillion yuan to bring 400 million people into its cities over the next decade. But local governments don't have steady tax revenues to back the issuance of bonds that would finance spending on roads, apartments and other infrastructure. The central bank has turned down the option of using bank loans.

Under China's current tax structure that has been in place since 1994, the central government gets the lion's share of receipts while local governments do most of the spending, forcing them to rely on land sales for survival.

Linked to the urbanization drive is reforming the hukou system, which economists say would turn millions of migrant workers into consumers if they had access to welfare services outside their home region.

Ratings agency Fitch has estimated local government debt was 12.85 trillion yuan at the end of 2012, or about 25 percent of GDP. The latest official data put the figure at 10.7 trillion yuan by the end of 2010.

NOT ALL SMOOTH SAILING

The reforms will be presented at the third plenum of the 18th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, expected in October.

Many economists see this as a critical period for China if it wants to avoid the so-called middle income trap, where wealth creation stagnates as market share is lost to lower-cost competitors and the attainment of high-income country status stays out of reach.

Third plenums have been the springboard for key changes in China in the past. Former leader Deng Xiaoping launched historic reforms at the third plenum of the 11th party committee in 1978 to rescue the economy from the verge of collapse after Mao Zedong's disastrous Cultural Revolution.

The third plenum of the 14th committee in 1993 endorsed the "socialist" market economy, paving the way for sweeping reforms spearheaded by former Premier Zhu Rongji.

China's new leaders have installed several Zhu lieutenants in top government posts, including Vice Premier Ma Kai and Finance Minister Lou Jiwei, while central bank governor Zhou Xiaochuan was kept on after the leadership transition.

Still, pushing reforms looks harder than in the 1990s as the economy has become more sophisticated and questions remain over whether economic reforms could run into political roadblocks.

Xi recently launched a frugality campaign to target official extravagance, but there has been little apparent progress to get officials to publicly disclose their assets.

"It won't be smooth sailing," said Lian Ping, chief economist at Bank of Communications, the country's fifth biggest lender, in Shanghai.

(Editing by Dean Yates)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/china-president-takes-charge-sweeping-economic-reform-plans-210718833.html

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The 5 best Tag Team Title reigns Team Hell No has surpassed

WWE Tag Team Champions Team Hell No have enjoyed one of the best ? and not to mention, most interesting ? title reigns in WWE history. In the course of their eight-month run as champions, Kane & Daniel Bryan have gone from being two opposing forces destined to clash at every turn, to two opposing forces (somehow) destined to work as a cohesive and efficient tag team unit.

To the shock of ? well, pretty much everyone, we?d venture ? Kane & Bryan found a way to harness all the negative feelings that plagued their early days as a team and developed into one of the most impressive and longest-reigning title-holding pairs of all time by unleashing their fury?on the competition. But that reign becomes even more impressive when measured against those of other great tag duos. In the case of Bryan & Kane, the list of teams they?ve surpassed in terms of title reign length is staggeringly impressive.

This weekend, as they head into Extreme Rules to face off against The Shield?s Roman Reigns & Seth Rollins, Team Hell No will overtake Money Inc., while The British Bulldog & Owen Hart are next on the list.

In honor of that achievement, WWE.com takes a look at five other popular tag teams surpassed by Team Hell No on that illustrious list.

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Source: http://www.wwe.com/shows/smackdown/the-5-best-tag-team-title-reigns-team-hell-no-has-surpassed

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IRS review of Tea Party scrutiny in 2012 found bias: U.S. Republicans

By Kim Dixon

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Internal Revenue Service in 2012 reviewed allegations that conservative Tea Party groups had come under extra scrutiny by the tax service's agents and found bias against conservatives, Republican members of Congress said on Tuesday.

"At no point did you or anyone else at IRS inform Congress of the results of these findings," Republican Darrell Issa, chairman of the House of Representatives Oversight and Government Reform Committee, wrote in a letter to Lois Lerner, the head of the IRS' tax exempt organizations unit.

Lerner publicly apologized about the extra scrutiny on Friday at a conference, setting off a storm of controversy.

Republicans probing the IRS scrutiny said the tax agency's officials informed them of the 2012 review in a meeting on Monday.

IRS officials also told Republicans that 471 groups had been placed under additional scrutiny as part of the agency's process, Issa said, citing the meeting.

"It is unclear whether conservative and Tea Party groups are continuing to be targeted even today," Issa said in the letter.

Issa, whose committee has subpoena power, requested a list of documents from the IRS related to his panel's probe.

The U.S. Treasury's Inspector General for Tax Administration is expected soon to issue a report on the allegations of bias against conservatives.

(Reporting by Kim Dixon and Richard Cowan; Editing by Kevin Drawbaugh and Christopher Wilson)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/irs-review-tea-party-scrutiny-2012-found-bias-203533983.html

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