Friday, July 26, 2013

NASA's Van Allen Probes discover particle accelerator in the heart of Earth?s radiation belts

[unable to retrieve full-text content]Scientists have discovered a massive particle accelerator in the heart of one of the harshest regions of near-Earth space, a region of super-energetic, charged particles surrounding the globe called the Van Allen radiation belts. Scientists knew that something in space accelerated particles in the radiation belts to more than 99 percent the speed of light but they didn't know what that something was. New results from NASA's Van Allen Probes now show that the acceleration energy comes from within the belts themselves. Particles inside the belts are sped up by local kicks of energy, buffeting the particles to ever faster speeds, much like a perfectly timed push on a moving swing.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/space_time/nasa/~3/F7B1mOeF3rU/130725140725.htm

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Thursday, July 11, 2013

Biden says China cyber-theft must stop

Vice President Joe Biden gestures while speaking at the opening session of the 2013 Strategic and Economic Dialogue, Wednesday, July 10, 2013, at the State Department in Washington. A month after the presidents of the U.S. and China held an unconventional summit at a California resort, their top officials are convening in more staid surroundings in Washington to review security and economic issues that reflect growing ties but also deep-seated differences between the world powers. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

Vice President Joe Biden gestures while speaking at the opening session of the 2013 Strategic and Economic Dialogue, Wednesday, July 10, 2013, at the State Department in Washington. A month after the presidents of the U.S. and China held an unconventional summit at a California resort, their top officials are convening in more staid surroundings in Washington to review security and economic issues that reflect growing ties but also deep-seated differences between the world powers. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

Vice President Joe Biden speaks during the opening session of the 2013 Strategic and Economic Dialogue,Wednesday, July 10, 2013, at the State Department in Washington. A month after the presidents of the U.S. and China held an unconventional summit at a California resort, their top officials are convening in more staid surroundings in Washington to review security and economic issues that reflect growing ties but also deep-seated differences between the world powers. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

Chinese Vice Premier Wang Yang listens as Vice President Joe Biden speaks during the opening session of the 2013 Strategic and Economic Dialogue, Wednesday, July 10, 2013, at the State Department in Washington. A month after the presidents of the U.S. and China held an unconventional summit at a California resort, their top officials are convening in more staid surroundings in Washington to review security and economic issues that reflect growing ties but also deep-seated differences between the world powers. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

Chinese State Councilor Yang Jiechi, left, and Chinese Vice Premier Wang Yang, center, listen as Vice President Joe Biden speaks during the opening session of the 2013 Strategic and Economic Dialogue, Wednesday, July 10, 2013, at the State Department in Washington. A month after the presidents of the U.S. and China held an unconventional summit at a California resort, their top officials are convening in more staid surroundings in Washington to review security and economic issues that reflect growing ties but also deep-seated differences between the world powers. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

(AP) ? Vice President Joe Biden said Wednesday that China's rise is good for the U.S. and the world but its theft of U.S intellectual property must stop, as the two global powers began annual talks to build cooperation and hash out their deep-seated differences.

The Strategic and Economic Dialogue is taking place a month after the U.S. and Chinese presidents held an unconventional summit at a California resort that aimed to set a positive tone in relations but also made plain Washington's growing anxiety about Chinese cyber-theft.

"We both will benefit from an open, secure, reliable Internet. Outright cyber-enabling theft that U.S. companies are experiencing now must be viewed as out of bounds and needs to stop," Biden said in his opening remarks at the State Department.

Heavyweight delegations from the two sides are also expected to discuss barriers to U.S. trade and investment in China, the nuclear program of China's ally North Korea, and a host of other strategic issues, including Iran and Syria's civil war. The first rounds of talks Wednesday were focusing on climate change and energy security.

Secretary of State John Kerry returned for the start of the dialogue from his wife's bedside in Boston, and issued tearful thanks for the outpouring of good wishes for his wife who remains hospitalized. He will return to Boston later Wednesday and will be replaced in the talks by his deputy William Burns, said State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki.

The Chinese side in the talks is led by Vice Premier Wang Yang and State Councilor Yang Jiechi, who declared U.S.-China relations had "reached a new starting point" after the June summit of new Chinese President Xi Jinping and President Barack Obama.

"China will stay committed to reform and opening up," Yang Jiechi said, adding that his nation was also committed to being a responsible player in the international system.

But he made only passing reference to cybersecurity as one of the "global challenges" that the U.S. and China should work together on. On other thorny topics, he said China was ready to discuss human rights with the U.S. and develop military relations that Biden stressed were important for avoiding the risk of confrontation between them in the Pacific.

Beijing has often bristled at Washington's criticism of its suppression of ethnic minorities and political dissent, and has also been reluctant to deepen military ties.

The strategic rivalry between the U.S. and China belies deep economic interdependence between them. The upbeat tone of the Obama and Xi summit went some way to ease mutual suspicion, but it was short on concrete outcomes.

Xi did express common cause with Obama in his opposition to North Korea's nuclear weapons program but that has yet to translate into effective pressure on Pyongyang. Biden said Wednesday the U.S. intends intensify cooperation with China "to denuclearize North Korea."

Another longtime Washington concern in its relations with China ? the low value of China's currency and its impact on the skewed trade balance ? has eased as the yuan has appreciated in value against the dollar. But the U.S. is still prodding Beijing to let the market dictate its exchange rate and expedite economic reforms.

Biden said China needs to free its exchange rate, shift to a consumption-led economy instead of relying on exports, and enforce intellectual property rights. He said the U.S. welcomes China's growth, but it should be based on international rules.

Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew also urged China to "follow through decisively" on its economic reform commitments, saying it will be critical to China's success and consequential for the wider world.

U.S. businesses and lawmakers want easing of barriers to American trade and investment, a roll back of subsidies for Chinese state-owned enterprises and make progress on negotiations for a bilateral investment treaty. For its part, China is concerned about security screening of its companies as they increasingly look to invest in the U.S.

The Center for Strategic International Studies think tank said the Chinese side will have little room to maneuver as the dialogue comes ahead of a meeting in October of the ruling party's central committee, where Xi's economic reform plans will be rolled out. Still, Beijing will likely want to show some incremental progress on Washington's trade and investment concerns, including protection of intellectual property.

There was no mention at the dialogue's opening of National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden, whom the U.S. had wanted extradited from the semiautonomous Chinese territory of Hong Kong before he flew to Russia.

U.S. officials have said that China's failure to cooperate was damaging to its relationship with the U.S. but the case is not expected to overshadow the talks. Washington has been put on the defensive by Snowden's claims that the U.S. hacked targets in China, including the nation's cellphone companies and two universities.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/89ae8247abe8493fae24405546e9a1aa/Article_2013-07-10-US-China/id-76427a028fdf4a429e6b0e6b3582fd6a

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Wednesday, July 10, 2013

Tribune plans to split into 2 companies

FILE - In this April 12, 2006 file photo, flags wave near the Chicago Tribune Tower in downtown Chicago. Chicago-based Tribune Co. says it wants to split its broadcasting and publishing businesses into two companies. The company owns 23 TV stations and cable network WGN America, along with the Chicago Tribune, Los Angeles Times and other newspapers. The newspapers would be spun off into an independent company to be called Tribune Publishing Co. (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast, File)

FILE - In this April 12, 2006 file photo, flags wave near the Chicago Tribune Tower in downtown Chicago. Chicago-based Tribune Co. says it wants to split its broadcasting and publishing businesses into two companies. The company owns 23 TV stations and cable network WGN America, along with the Chicago Tribune, Los Angeles Times and other newspapers. The newspapers would be spun off into an independent company to be called Tribune Publishing Co. (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast, File)

(AP) ? Tribune Co. said Wednesday that it wants to split its broadcasting and publishing businesses into two companies.

Tribune said the move will let one company take advantage of growth in broadcasting and allow the other to focus on newspapers, an industry where revenue has been declining for years.

Chicago-based Tribune owns 23 TV stations and cable network WGN America. Earlier this month, it announced plans to buy Local TV Holdings and its 19 television stations for $2.73 billion. It also owns eight daily newspapers, including the Chicago Tribune, Los Angeles Times and The Baltimore Sun.

Fellow media company News Corp. completed a split into separate publishing and entertainment companies late last month.

Since the split became final on June 28, shares of News Corp., now a standalone publishing company, have edged up about 1 percent, closing Tuesday at $15.71. Shares of Twenty-First Century Fox Inc., the entertainment company, have risen about 4 percent to close Tuesday at $30.09.

Tribune, which emerged from bankruptcy protection at the end of 2012, said that over the past several months its board and management have been looking at ways to boost value for its stakeholders and long-term growth.

Tribune said in February that it hired a pair of investment banks to help it sell its newspapers. The move was largely at the behest of the group of lenders that took over the company as part of its reorganization.

Under the proposal announced Wednesday, the newspapers would be spun off into an independent company to be called Tribune Publishing Co.

The newspapers have been hurt by a shift that has driven more readers and advertisers to the Internet and mobile devices. The downturn in print advertising was one of the factors that caused Tribune to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in 2008.

The remaining company would include Tribune's local television stations; WGN radio?and cable networks; its television production, digital and media services ventures; and its interests in Classified Ventures, CareerBuilder, and The TV Food Network and real estate.

Tribune said its board will develop a detailed plan for the split over the next nine to 12 months. After the split is complete, both companies will have separate boards and management.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/f70471f764144b2fab526d39972d37b3/Article_2013-07-10-Tribune-Split/id-4ac58f81f6e7458d87c04616a9070410

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Twitter for iOS and Mac refreshed, gain support for synchronizing DM statuses

Twitter has updated both its iOS and Mac apps with the release of Twitter 5.8 for iPhone and iPad, and Twitter 2.3 for Mac. Both apps now correctly synchronize the read status of Direct Messages, which means when a DM is read on one platform, it will automatically be marked as read on others too, including TweetDeck 3.0.5 for Windows and Twitter 4.0.2 for Android.

Both updates also come with the promise of minor improvements and tweaks too, such as making it easier to join conversations via the iPhone app and richer search results that alert the user to new tweets matching their search terms.

The major improvements in Twitter 5.8 include making it easier for iPhone users to join existing conversations by way of a new reply composer that appears when in the Tweet details view. Users can now also find new accounts to follow more easily thanks to a New People button that appears in the navigation bar.

The promise of richer search results, which includes the aforementioned alert that flags up new tweets for previous queries, also gives users better account results, providing biographies and a social context for each result.

The iOS update is rounded off with the addition of a More button, allowing users to report unwanted tweets.

Twitter 2.3 for Mac comes with better notifications, alerting users to new followers, when their tweets have been favorited or retweeted, and notifying them when they?ve been added to a list in their @Connect timeline. Users can also now update their notification settings so interactions are displayed in real time.

Twitter 5.8 for iPhone and iPad and Twitter 2.3 for Mac, plus TweetDeck 3.0.5 for Windows and Twitter 4.0.2 for Android, are all available as free downloads.

Source: http://feeds.betanews.com/~r/bn/~3/N8EHsPFXESU/

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The Week in Food Events: Fleurir Chocolate Class, a Curbside ...

The Week in Food Events: Fleurir Chocolate Class, a Curbside Cookoff Benefit, and Free Ice Sculpting on the DNV Rooftop

Artist-inspired menu: Oamel?celebrates Mexican artist Frida Kahlo?s birthday through?Monday?with a special menu of dishes inspired by the artist and her work. You?ll find ?-la-carte dishes such as ancho-braised pork tamales, guajillo shrimp, and pork in an avocado leaf.

Happy birthday, Dino:?Fan favorite?Dino?commemorates its eighth birthday with a monthlong celebration. Currently underway: a Venetian-style birthday menu ($44 per person), which includes gratis tastes of a few special wines?full pairings are $19 extra. The Venice menu runs through July 1, when the theme switches over to Montalcino for the rest of the month.

Extended Bastille Day:?Mintwood Place?isn?t waiting until the official Bastille Day on Sunday to celebrate. Head over starting on?Tuesday?to find a special Proven?al menu from chef?Cedric Maupillier?s?native Toulon, which runs through the actual holiday. In addition to ?-la-carte dishes, a five-course tasting menu is available for $65; wine pairings are an additional $35.

Chesapeake dinner:?Author?John Shields?of?Chesapeake Bay Cooking?and owner of Getrude?s restaurant in Baltimore cohosts a crab-centric dinner on?Tuesday?at?Wildfire, beginning at 6:30. In addition to the three-course meal, Shields offers tips on cracking and cooking crabs. The meal and drink pairings are $80 per person.?

Cocoa fun:?Join the chocolatiers behind?Fleurir Chocolates?for the first in a series of chocolate-making classes on?Thursday?from 6:30 to 8:30 at the Alexandria location. The inaugural lesson focuses on chocolate bars and how to use chocolate molds and create top-notch soft caramels. Call 202-465-4368 for reservations, which are $65 per person or $120 per couple, and include a 10 percent discount on purchases made day-of in the store.

Tiki time:?Get in the island spirit at?Farmers Fishers Bakers?during Mai Tai July, a monthlong celebration of the tiki classics that starts?Thursday?with a kickoff party on the patio from 5 to 7. You?ll find a selection of ten renditions of the recipe, which will also be available the rest of the month.?

Sculpt ice (for free):?Channel your inner-mixologist at the newly opened DNV Rooftop on?Thursday?at 7 with a complimentary ice-carving class centered on the hotel bar?s summer special, the Tenzan Punch. The drink?served with a hand-carved ice sphere, which you?ll learn how to shape?is made with Japanese whiskey, yuzu, and cucumber juice.?

Wine finale:?Fiola?hosts its final wine class in the 2013 series on?Thursday?from 5:30 to 7, where sommelier?John Toigo?leads a course centered on Maria Trabocchi?s favorite wines ($85 per person). The restaurant co-owner is a native of Spain. Call 202-628-2888 for reservations.?

Food truck benefit:?The first in a series of?Curbside Cookoff?festivals heads to the Capitol Riverfront on?Saturday?from noon to 7, with partial proceeds going to Miriam?s Kitchen. You?ll find 20 trucks, a cash bar with $20 all-you-can-drink wristbands for the thirsty, kid-friendly activities, and more.?

Saturday supper:?Chef?Wes Morton?dishes up Southern comfort classics during?Art and Soul?s?Saturday?Suppers series. The menu this month focuses on barbecue and pies, and there?s a cocktail reception and live music. Tickets ($65) are available online.?

Source: http://www.washingtonian.com/blogs/bestbites/food-restaurant-news/the-week-in-food-events-fleurir-chocolate-class-a-curbside-cookoff-benefit-and-free-ice-sculpting-on.php

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Tuesday, July 9, 2013

Top Summer Hikes For Car-Free New Yorkers

Top Summer Hikes For Car-Free New Yorkers
Get New York Newsletters:

DNAinfo.com:

NEW YORK CITY ? Many New Yorkers are happy to live without cars in a city with extensive public transportation, but that lack of wheels can make it hard to hit the great outdoors.

Luckily, with a bit of planning, it's easy to get to some of the area's top hiking paths. Many trains and buses from Penn Station and Grand Central Terminal drop you just steps from the trailhead, and the New York-New Jersey Trail Conference has a fantastic set of maps.

Read the whole story at DNAinfo.com

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Filed by Inae Oh ?|?

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    2. New York
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    Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/07/08/top-summer-hikes-for-carf_n_3561882.html

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    Austin's Ale House Joins New City Dining Scene - Business - New ...

    Austin?s Ale House, New City?s newest restaurant, came together in record time, according to manager Laura Poli.

    ?

    ?I saw them do in 13 days what some restaurants do in six months,? Poli said.

    ?

    The 13 days Poli refers to is the time it took for the former CB Kitchen and Grill to transform into Austin?s.

    ?

    The bar and restaurant opened on June 7 after redoing everything from floors and furniture to bathrooms and the kitchen.

    ?

    Before opening, Austin?s made sure to retain CB?s entire staff?including Poli, who was bartending at the now?defunct restaurant.

    ?

    ?I can already see Austin?s doing better than CB,? Poli said.

    ?

    While Poli believes that Austin?s attracts a more mature crowd than competing restaurants, she said the eatery also caters strongly to families. The restaurant had a printing company make Austin?s coloring books for children, and Mondays are ?Kid?s Night??youngsters? meals cost only 99-cents with the purchase of an entre.

    ?

    Poli credits owner Mark Pavlicek with the bolstered business.

    ?

    ?Mark?s here a lot, he actually cares,? Poli said. ?He?s always making sure people are happy, and that really matters.?

    ?

    Austin?s is Pavlicek?s first restaurant, but he is ambitious, already planning more locations in Philadelphia and Connecticut.

    ?

    ?Austin?s is a casual but upscale place, and the owners want to make the community better,? Pavlicek said. ?We?re just trying to make the patron?s experience enjoyable by providing a comfortable atmosphere, good food and a clean environment.?

    ?

    Some of the most distinctive menu items include: chicken and waffles; the bacon, egg, and cheese burger; the lamb burger; the crab cake sandwich; and the pastrami Rueben.?

    ?

    Poli said top-selling dishes are the beef brisket chili, the fried chicken sandwich, and their homemade mac and cheese.

    ?

    ?Everything down to the pickles is homemade,? Poli added. ?The sauces, the dressings, the chili, everything.?

    ?

    In order to attract customers and keep the coming back, the restaurant is holding nightly promotions. On the heels of Kid?s Night is Tuesday?s Dollar Taco Night. Wednesday evenings feature 50-cent wings, and on Friday and Saturday nights, Austin?s has live music and dinner specials.

    ?

    ?We?re continuing to build, and its really looking positive,? Pavlicek said.

    ?

    ?

    Become a blogger today!
    Get started now

    Source: http://newcity.patch.com/groups/business-news/p/austins-ale-house-joins-new-city-dining-scene

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    In Europe, Greener Transit on Existing Infrastructure

    [unable to retrieve full-text content]As cities aim to cut emissions, Vienna has introduced a network of buses whose batteries can be charged quickly using the city?s tram equipment.
        

    Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/08/business/energy-environment/greener-transit-in-europe-built-on-top-of-older-infrastructure.html?partner=rss&emc=rss

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    Wise senator wants to save NMSU football

    By Milan Simonich

    Texas-New Mexico Newspapers


    SANTA FE >> They still play football at Cumberland University, a school that lost to Georgia Tech in 1916 by the record-breaking score of 222-0.

    Cumberland, with an enrollment of 1,400, has a schedule this fall that includes Faulkner University and Bluefield College. Playing mighty Georgia Tech is only a bad memory.

    None of Cumberland's games this fall will generate much publicity, but they will still consume the players and provide a diversion for the student body.

    Cumberland administrators learned long ago that their school in central Tennessee could not be a football powerhouse, so they scaled back the program.

    New Mexico State Sen. Howie Morales envisions a similar change on the border.

    Morales, D-Silver City, says the New Mexico State Aggies can compete at the highest level in basketball, but not in football. He says NMSU should maintain an intercollegiate football program, but scale it down to Division II or the Football Championship Subdivision.

    "The reality of it is that you've got to be competitive if you're going to keep playing football," said Morales, who received his Ph.D. from New Mexico State.

    His argument against NMSU remaining at the highest level in football will be clear to all by late summer.

    NMSU opens its season at the University of Texas, which is shameless enough to schedule a patsy or three every fall. Texas will edge NMSU 66-2.

    The Aggies then return home to face Minnesota of the Big Ten, where they will see how tenacious a Golden Gopher can be in a 41-18 nail-biter.

    NMSU will get a moral victory in week three when it loses 11-9 to UTEP, proving that nobody on the border is a football machine. After that the Aggies go to UCLA, where they will drop another squeaker, 49-9.

    October will not have hit the calendar, but already the NMSU alumni will be turning full attention to basketball.

    Other than being prideful, what reason exists for NMSU to try to stay at the highest level in football?

    "I don't believe that it's beneficial to what we are trying to produce," Morales said. "Dropping down a division makes more sense."

    At a legislative hearing in the spring, Morales tried to talk to NMSU's new president, Garrey Carruthers, about making football less important by moving it to Division II. Carruthers himself had broached a similar idea at a campus forum. The reaction was sufficiently negative for him to tell Morales that he was through talking about football.

    Like it or not, Carruthers and NMSU's regents will have to decide what level of football, if any, makes sense for the Aggies.

    Morales already has the right blueprint for the school's administration. NMSU has an excellent tradition in basketball and it has had recent success in reaching the NCAA tournament. Hoops, for men and women, can be the marquee sport for the Aggies.

    Keeping football, but scaling it down, would not be popular in the beginning, but people would get over it. Even members of the Aggie team that went 11-0 in that glorious season of 1960 realize the world of college football has changed.

    Pete Smolanovich was an end and kicker on that great club. He said the Aggies were in the thick of the college football world back then.

    Raised in Poland, Ohio, Smolanovich played at a junior college in San Diego. He said in an interview that Southern Cal and Washington offered him scholarships, but he chose the Aggies. It is impossible to imagine that a highly recruited player today would make the same decision.

    That 1960 NMSU team was loaded with talent and with characters.

    Nobody was more gifted than quarterback Charley Johnson, who played in the NFL and received a Ph.D. in chemical engineering. Running back Pervis Atkins is a member of the College Football Hall of Fame. Lineman Don Yannessa became a storied high school coach in Pennsylvania and had a part in the Tom Cruise football movie "All the Right Moves." Another lineman, Lou Zivkovich, played in the Canadian Football League, but became famous as a centerfold in Playgirl magazine.

    But the world has changed since 1960. That was the last year NMSU qualified for a bowl game.

    It is time to put the Morales plan in place. Like the Georgetown Hoyas, NMSU should play at a lower level in football but shoot for the stars in basketball.

    Milan Simonich, Santa Fe bureau chief of Texas-New Mexico Newspapers, can be reached at msimonich@tnmnp.com or (505) 820-6898. His blog is at nmcapitolreport.com.

    Source: http://www.alamogordonews.com/ci_23612737/wise-senator-wants-save-nmsu-football?source=rss_viewed

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    Monday, July 8, 2013

    Mystery radio bursts coming from space ? but probably not from E.T.

    The radio bursts are energetic enough to suggest that they are triggered by extremely powerful astrophysical events. Evaporating black holes or supernovae might be possible sources.

    By Pete Spotts,?Staff writer / July 5, 2013

    This illustration shows the Parkes radiotelescope with a 'radio burst' flashing in the sky. The red background is gas in our galaxy.

    Swinburne Astronomy Productions, vr.swin.edu.au

    Enlarge

    Astronomers have discovered four mysterious radio bursts from beyond the Milky Way, bursts unlike any in the catalog of emissions from well-known radio sources in space or on Earth.

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    E.T. is an unlikely source, since each burst seems to be a one-off event. Instead, what little evidence astronomers have in hand suggests that the bursts come from astrophysical sources billions of light-years away. The bursts are energetic enough to suggest that they are triggered by extremely powerful astrophysical events.

    These fast radio bursts last a few thousandths of a second and slide ever lower in frequency as they fade.

    Based on the number of events that the researchers detected in their hunt for the bursts, roughly 10,000 of these should appear across the sky each day ? or one every nine to 10 seconds, they say.

    "If we could view the sky with 'radio eyes' there would be flashes going off all over the sky every day," said Michael Kramer, director of the Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy in Bonn, Germany, and a member of the team reporting its results in Friday's issue of the journal Science.

    So far, no one has been able to associate any of these with a particular galaxy, presuming that they have galactic sources. Indeed, once one tries to go beyond the generalization of "exotic sources" for these radio bursts, speculation varies widely on their cosmic transmitters, according to James Cordes, a radio astronomer at Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y.

    Evaporating black holes, supernovae, merging neutron stars, or neutron stars with unusually strong magnetic fields compared with other neutron stars all could be possible sources, Dr. Cordes writes in a commentary in Science tied to the new discovery.

    But he also cautions patience, noting it took 20 years for astronomers to uncover the sources of gamma-ray bursts, first detected not by astronomers but by satellites designed to spot above-ground nuclear explosions. Only after astronomers began hunting for the gamma-ray bursts and performing near-instant follow-ups with telescopes operating at other wavelengths were they able to uncover the exotic events that triggered the bursts.

    The same is likely to hold true for fast radio bursts, he writes.

    This is actually the second reported detection of these unique cosmic signals.

    In 2007, a team led by Duncan Lorimer, astrophysicist at West Virginia University in Morgantown, reported the first such burst detected, based on a review of 6-year-old data captured by the 210-foot-diameter radio telescope at the Parkes Observatory in Australia. The team put the source's location in the vicinity of the Large Magellanic Cloud, one of the Milky Way's satellite galaxies.

    But the burst appeared far enough away from the satellite galaxy to suggest an origin beyond the Milky Way's neighborhood. Indeed, the team estimated, the source of the burst was some 3 billion light-years away.

    Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/science/~3/OigaFzPeXDM/Mystery-radio-bursts-coming-from-space-but-probably-not-from-E.T

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    It's a pleasure and a honor.

    Hi Lazy, or "LL" I should say. :) Welcome to RPG! Stop by the Roleplay tab and check out the new roleplays that have been created or if you like you can view some of the older ones as well. Best wishes!

    Out of the night that covers me black as the pit from pole to pole,
    I thank whatever gods may be for my unconquerable soul.

    Beyond this place of wrath and tears looms but the Horror of the shade,
    And yet the menace of the years Finds and shall find me unafraid.

    It matters not how strait the gate how charged with punishments the scroll,
    I am the master of my fate, I am the captain of my soul.

    Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/RolePlayGateway/~3/_mp0tfxFu-k/viewtopic.php

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    Budget Apple iPhone Hands-On Video And Images Leaked

    While the fact that Apple is working on a low-cost iPhone is hardly breaking news anymore, the past few weeks have been a complete treat for us all in the form of leaked back covers, phone design plans and even speculated pricing (starting $349 for the 16 GB model). The end of another such leak-filled week brings us something totally unexpected, the hands-on video and image gallery of what claims to be the actual budget Apple iPhone, and folks, it looks real!

    The above image pegs the budget iPhone against the iPhone 5, and it doesn't look all that shabby. Granted the phone looks a bit smaller and the plastic construction is plenty apparent, but hell, it's a low-cost iPhone after all.

    Time to check out the hands-on video:

    Source: http://www.nextpowerup.com/news/1571/budget-apple-iphone-hands-on-video-and-images-leaked.html

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    Sunday, July 7, 2013

    Costa Rica may get gay marriage after legislature's 'accidental' vote

    By Andrew Mach, Staff Writer, NBC News

    The Costa Rican legislature passed a bill this week that appears to legalize same-sex civil unions ? although it might have been an accident.?

    Some lawmakers didn't realize until a day after Monday's vote that the language in a bill regarding young people may have offered a path to legalized same-sex marriage by expanding social rights for gay people and extending benefits to same-sex unions, according to the Tico Times, an English news website in San Jose.?

    The bill had previously defined marriage as a union between a man and a woman, until a liberal lawmaker wrote into the bill new marriage language that extends ?the right to recognition without discrimination contrary to human dignity.?


    Jos? Mar?a Villalta, a member of the leftist Broad Front Party who wrote the controversial language into the bill, said lawmakers simply didn't pay attention to the most up-to-date version before approving it, Tico Times reported.?

    "During the discussion in the first debate, we explained that the Law of Young People should be interpreted with this sense of opening to gays and no one objected."?

    Costa Rican President Laura Chinchilla signed the bill into law Thursday, over the protests of conservatives who had called for her to veto it. Though an ardent supporter of traditional marriage in the past, Chinchilla told local reporters earlier this week she wouldn't oppose a court ruling legalizing same-sex marriage, the Tico Times reported.?

    "We understand that the debate is over how some interpret the law and this alone is not sufficient for the executive to veto the law," Chinchilla said.

    In Latin America, gay marriage is already legal in Argentina, Mexico City and some states of Brazil, and civil unions are allowed in Ecuador and Uruguay.

    Source: http://feeds.nbcnews.com/c/35002/f/663309/s/2e478fb8/l/0Lworldnews0Bnbcnews0N0C0Inews0C20A130C0A70C0A60C193128410Ecosta0Erica0Emay0Eget0Egay0Emarriage0Eafter0Elegislatures0Eaccidental0Evote0Dlite/story01.htm

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    Costa Rica may get gay marriage after legislature's 'accidental' vote

    By Andrew Mach, Staff Writer, NBC News

    The Costa Rican legislature passed a bill this week that appears to legalize same-sex civil unions ? although it might have been an accident.?

    Some lawmakers didn't realize until a day after Monday's vote that the language in a bill regarding young people may have offered a path to legalized same-sex marriage by expanding social rights for gay people and extending benefits to same-sex unions, according to the Tico Times, an English news website in San Jose.?

    The bill had previously defined marriage as a union between a man and a woman, until a liberal lawmaker wrote into the bill new marriage language that extends ?the right to recognition without discrimination contrary to human dignity.?


    Jos? Mar?a Villalta, a member of the leftist Broad Front Party who wrote the controversial language into the bill, said lawmakers simply didn't pay attention to the most up-to-date version before approving it, Tico Times reported.?

    "During the discussion in the first debate, we explained that the Law of Young People should be interpreted with this sense of opening to gays and no one objected."?

    Costa Rican President Laura Chinchilla signed the bill into law Thursday, over the protests of conservatives who had called for her to veto it. Though an ardent supporter of traditional marriage in the past, Chinchilla told local reporters earlier this week she wouldn't oppose a court ruling legalizing same-sex marriage, the Tico Times reported.?

    "We understand that the debate is over how some interpret the law and this alone is not sufficient for the executive to veto the law," Chinchilla said.

    In Latin America, gay marriage is already legal in Argentina, Mexico City and some states of Brazil, and civil unions are allowed in Ecuador and Uruguay.

    Source: http://feeds.nbcnews.com/c/35002/f/663309/s/2e478fb8/l/0Lworldnews0Bnbcnews0N0C0Inews0C20A130C0A70C0A60C193128410Ecosta0Erica0Emay0Eget0Egay0Emarriage0Eafter0Elegislatures0Eaccidental0Evote0Dlite/story01.htm

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    What Are Your Hottest Tips For Browsing the Web Like a Boss?

    What Are Your Hottest Tips For Browsing the Web Like a Boss?

    With Google Reader finally dead and gone, it seems like as good a time as any to rethink the way we all look at the web. There's a whole wealth of browsers and widgets and apps and extensions out there that will try to alter your browsing experience. Some of them will change your life, other's won't.

    What's your go-to tip for browsing the web in a way that doesn't make your brain turn into mush and your eyes pop out of your head when your trying to juggle all that the wonderful digital world has to offer?

    Source: http://gizmodo.com/what-are-your-hottest-tips-for-browsing-the-web-like-a-687427483

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    Mayor Bob Filner is taking on yet another rival -- San Diego-based fast food cha...

    Sorry, Readability was unable to parse this page for content.

    Source: http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=551567158219104&set=a.312760942099728.67384.100450643330760&type=1

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    Saturday, July 6, 2013

    DLC Has Become One Of The Most Exciting Things In Gaming

    It used to be that you couldn't even mention downloadable content's existence without someone getting upset, or without someone going off on how much of a money-grab scheme it all is. It's an understandable reaction, to some extent?sometimes, a game isn't out yet and already we're talking about the follow-ups? Geez, slow down.

    I used to think of DLC in that way?as something that I didn't really want but that I would learn to tolerate. And sure, there's still the occasional questionable DLC that seems to exist solely to squeeze more money out of people, or even flat-out horrible DLC. But after playing The Walking Dead: 400 Days last night, I realized that in the past year or so, DLC stopped being something I dread or, at best, tolerate. DLC transformed into something I look forward to, sometimes more than the next iteration in a game.

    Battlefield 4? Meh. The DLC for Battlefield 3? That stuff has dinosaurs and bikes in it, man! You could say it's not just DLC, but any side-content that's not a major iteration in a game?look at what Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon did. It's the sort of over-the-top outrageousness that could probably never be developed as a main entry in the franchise?and yet many might consider what Blood Dragon aims for as more enjoyable than what Far Cry 3 did, thanks to its flippant tone. It's almost like we're more likely to get what we actually want most out of a game in the follow-ups.


    Most of what is commendable about the add-on content, though, is a DLC's willingness to push boundaries and experiment?and when many major games feel rather safe, a DLC's push for innovation is welcome. With 400 Days, we have a bite-sized episode that weaves five different stories together. You can play them in any order. No story lasts more than 15 minutes, allowing you to get a wider understanding of the world and the different types of people in it?something which a single-protagonist game can't do nearly as well.

    Lee Everett, the protagonist of the first season of The Walking Dead, seems boring when put against characters like the the naive 'other woman', the stoner, the concerned big sister. While we're seeing more games experiment with multiple protagonists, good luck finding a major game that puts you in a role similar to any of the ones I've mentioned. The suits would probably say it wouldn't sell. But the best DLC will take advantage of creative flexibility and totally take the plunge, sometimes letting you play from the viewpoint of unlikely protagonists. That's the point, in a way. DLC is best when it's creative. When a developer finds the most exciting, provocative parts of their game?and then is willing to take the DLC to a place the main game couldn't go, for whatever reason.

    Mass Effect is a good example here. Both Mass Effect 2 and 3 have had a series of fantastic DLC content that let us explore interesting side stories and species around the galaxy (like the Protheans), test out new mechanics (vehicles, boss battles), and even gave us the ending we deserved. An ending with fan-service?which is also something DLC is great at providing. You can't know what players will take a liking to until after the game is out. Then, once you know, you can do stuff like release swimsuit DLC. Truly, DLC is a blessing for fan-service.

    I don't think I'm alone in how I see DLC now, either. Having a number of notable, amazing DLC in the past helps; I'd be remiss not to mention the critically-acclaimed Minerva's Den for BioShock 2. But just look at how most people talk about The Last of Us, too. Many recognize that it would be nice if there wasn't a follow-up, as it ends perfectly...but that can't stop anyone from musing on where the DLC might take you. We're hungry for it. What if you could play as Marlene and get a closer look at the Fireflies? What if you could play as Tess during the years we never get to see in the game? What if we could play as Tommy? Heck, what if we could play as Ellie? I wouldn't even care what the context is, that'd be awesome. I'd buy it...and honestly? A lot of these sound more interesting than what The Last of Us actually let us play. What were once idle musings on the things we could play can now be a reality thanks to DLC.

    There's less risk involved with DLC?it's cheaper and has shorter development time?and so gives developers some leniency to experiment. My only hope is that developers use what they learn in doing so and fold it back into the main games. It'll be grand if I didn't need to pay extra money to experience interesting, experimental stuff, or to play as a woman. For now, I'll take what I can get?bring on the DLC.

    RelatedRelatedRelatedRelatedRelated

    Source: http://kotaku.com/dlc-has-become-one-of-the-most-exciting-things-in-gamin-678916066

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    Mass. mom in Brazil: Custody dispute stranded me

    This March 2013 family photo provided by Lindsey DeFilipi shows Shauna Hadden, left, and her daughter Ava Machado, both of Agawam, Mass. Hadden, a Massachusetts mom says she and her 6-year-old daughter are stranded in Brazil after police seized their passports because of a custody battle with the child?s father. (AP Photo/Family Photo)

    This March 2013 family photo provided by Lindsey DeFilipi shows Shauna Hadden, left, and her daughter Ava Machado, both of Agawam, Mass. Hadden, a Massachusetts mom says she and her 6-year-old daughter are stranded in Brazil after police seized their passports because of a custody battle with the child?s father. (AP Photo/Family Photo)

    This 2013 family photo provided by Lindsey DeFilipi shows Ava Machado, left, with her mother Shauna Hadden, of Agawam, Mass. Hadden, a Massachusetts mom says she and her 6-year-old daughter are stranded in Brazil after police seized their passports because of a custody battle with the child?s father. (AP Photo/Family Photo)

    (AP) ? Police in Brazil have seized passports belonging to a woman and her 6-year-old daughter, stranding them in South America for about a month amid an international custody dispute with the child's father.

    Thirty-three-year-old Shauna Hadden and her daughter, Ava Machado, have been in Brazil since late May, when they began a trip Hadden said was intended to connect the girl with the father she hadn't seen in more than three years.

    Hadden's mother, Linda, said Friday the pair had already arrived in Rio de Janeiro on her way to visit Ava's father, 32-year-old Donizete Machado, when her daughter received a phone call from a mutual friend warning her that Machado planned to keep the girl.

    Instead of taking a flight to southern Brazil to meet Machado, Shauna Hadden and her daughter flew north to stay with friends in the northeastern city of Fortaleza, Linda Hadden said.

    Then federal police seized Shauna Hadden's passport along with her daughter's in early June.

    On Friday, a lawyer for Machado confirmed the passports were confiscated following a request by the girl's father but denied he wants custody of the girl, whom Hadden has had full custody of since the couple split in 2009.

    Attorney Isabel Feijo said Machado sought seizure of their passports because Hadden skipped his scheduled meeting with Ava.

    "He wants her to visit him and his family, and if the mother agrees to that, the request to seize the passport will immediately be withdrawn, we'll drop the case," Feijo said Friday.

    Feijo said Hadden ? using tickets purchased by her ex-husband ? arrived in Rio de Janeiro on May 21 and was supposed to meet Machado in the city of Florianopolis before traveling together to the town of Criciuma, about 125 miles (200 kilometers) to the southeast.

    When Hadden and her daughter failed to show, Feijo filed court papers on May 27 asking for their passports to be seized.

    In court filings, Feijo alleged Hadden never intended to allow her daughter to see Machado and instead used the tickets to meet an online boyfriend.

    Hadden's family called that claim ridiculous, but in an exchange of Facebook messages from April 16 ? five weeks before her trip ? Hadden voices an intention to visit the man named in the passport seizure request, a resident of the town where she's now staying.

    Hadden's mother said she believes her daughter intended to visit her ex-husband because they had purchased gifts for his nieces and nephews that Shauna Hadden took with her. Linda Hadden said it's possible her daughter is dating the other man but he wasn't the sole reason for her trip.

    Machado, who works as a house painter, had been expelled from the U.S. because he entered the country illegally through Mexico, his attorney confirmed.

    Rafaela Santos Martins da Rosa, the federal judge overseeing the case, said she couldn't provide details because the case involves a minor and falls under secrecy laws. Brazil's federal police declined to comment. The U.S. Embassy in Brasilia would confirm only that Hadden is in Fortaleza and is receiving consular services.

    U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren and Rep. Richard Neal, both of Massachusetts, say they've been trying to intervene in an effort to get mother and daughter back to the United States.

    It's common in Brazil for officials to confiscate the passports of parents if a judge feels there is a chance that a mother or father may try to take a child out of the country without the other parent's permission.

    This is not the first time that parents from Brazil and the United States have become embroiled in a custody dispute attracting international attention.

    In 2009, a five-year custody battle involving a boy with family in New Jersey and Brazil ended with the 9-year-old Sean Goldman's return to the United States with his father David Goldman.

    The case had pitted David Goldman against his son's Brazilian stepfather, who had cared for the boy after his mother died in childbirth. The boy's mother had brought him to her native Brazil for what was supposed to be a vacation, but she stayed before divorcing her son's father and remarrying. The boy's stepfather had temporary custody of him, before the conclusion of a case that strained relations between Brazil and the United States.

    When the boy's handover was blocked shortly before the custody dispute ended, the U.S. Senate put a hold on a trade deal worth about $2.75 billion a year to Brazil. The dispute prompted high-level discussions involving President Barack Obama and his then-counterpart, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.

    Shauna Hadden has a Facebook page called "Trapped in Brazil" that she is updating as she waits for the case to be resolved.

    In an email to The Associated Press on Friday, she said she and her daughter are stressed and want to come home.

    "Ava is tired and having a hard time," she said.

    ___

    Associated Press writers Mark Pratt in Boston, Stan Lehman in Sao Paulo and Marco Sibaja in Brasilia contributed to this report.

    Associated Press

    Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2013-07-05-Brazil-Custody%20Dispute/id-59d25d4a04604b789f864157ce08d290

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    This week on gdgt: HX50V, Minx Air 100, and Moto X customization

    Each week, our friends at gdgt go through the latest gadgets and score them to help you decide which ones to buy. Here are some of their most recent picks. Want more? Visit gdgt anytime to catch up on the latest, and subscribe to gdgt's newsletter to get a weekly roundup in your inbox.

    This week on gdgt

    Comments

    Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/07/05/this-week-on-gdgt-hx50v-minx-air-100-and-moto-x-customization/?utm_medium=feed&utm_source=Feed_Classic&utm_campaign=Engadget

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    Construction: Cheated cities gun for the builders | Business | Mail ...

    'It's a given that we [the municipalities] want our money back from the construction companies," South African Local Government Association (Salga) chief executive Lance Joel said this week.

    He was referring to the inflated costs estimated to have been paid by local governments for the 2010 Soccer World Cup stadiums and related infrastructure as a result of co-operation around pricing and tender allocation.

    Joel said the municipalities would do whatever was necessary to get back the money ? which came out of public funds.

    According to him, the association's rough estimate is that municipalities are owed at least R2.6-billion for the stadiums and related infrastructure.

    The figure is computed using an inflation figure of 20%, which, he says, is what courts in the United Kingdom have estimated is the amount by which cartels generally inflate costs.

    Documents in the Mail & Guardian's possession indicate that the estimate may not be far off.

    It is alleged that an agreement was reached at a meeting in 2006 to include a 17.5% profit margin on the stadiums: Mbombela, Peter Mokaba, Moses Mabhida, Soccer City, Nelson Mandela Bay and Green Point.

    Covering the costs
    At the meeting, allegedly attended by Grinaker LTA, WBHO, Murray & Roberts, Group Five, Concor and Basil Read, it was decided which stadiums would be assigned to which companies.

    In return, cover prices would be paid to the "losing" companies to cover the cost of their bids.

    This week the local government association was consulting members about a proposal to be put to the Competition Tribunal that provision be made for settlement talks between municipalities and the construction companies about damages.

    The R1.46-billion fine recommended by the Competition Commission will go into government coffers and will not benefit the municipalities directly.

    It appears that provincial governments may also be considering how to proceed. Economic Development Minister Ebrahim Patel has said that competition authorities had to balance taking action against the companies involved for transgressing the law with the assurance that the major players in the sector will still be able to implement much-needed infrastructure projects.

    "Salga can take the civil action route to claim for damages," said Joel, "but we would obviously like to avoid lengthy, drawn-out and expensive court battles". However, if it became necessary, it would "go that route ... because it's public money that we believe is owed to municipalities".

    Competition Tribunal
    The Competition Tribunal is scheduled to hold public hearings in Pretoria on July 17 and 18.

    Among the 140 projects listed are some related to private companies such as Sappi and Anglo Platinum. The South African National Roads Agency (Sanral) is the client in a number of projects, but it is not clear whether the agency will make a presentation to the tribunal.

    PPC, also a client in some of the projects for which companies have been fined, is calling for a construction conference similar to the Convention for a Democratic South Africa (Codesa), which established working groups to hammer out problems and find solutions.

    In a statement, PPC's chief executive, Ketso Gordhan, said: "By getting national government and the private sector together in one room ? many problems currently facing the industry would be solved."

    Gordhan believes that what is needed is a simple and transparent process for projects, with clear allocation of risk and a strong political will to take the projects forward. Officials with a knowledge of engineering were needed to head these projects.

    PPC, like many other suppliers in the construction supply chain, stands to lose if infrastructure projects are delayed as a result of capacity constraints or a loss of confidence by government because of the findings of the Competition Commission.

    Concerns
    Gauteng's MEC for infrastructure development, Qedani Mahlangu, and some MECs from other provinces have expressed concern about the evidence of cartel behaviour in the construction sector, "whose services we procure on an ongoing basis". Mahlangu said Gauteng was considering how to proceed.

    Consulting Engineers South Africa (Cesa), concerned about the skills shortage, has set up a School of Consulting Engineering to assist with procurement and project issues.

    Outgoing Cesa chief executive Graham Pirie believes corruption in the construction sector is "so endemic, it's systematic".

    For this reason, Cesa has set up a war chest ? to take legal action against members found guilty of corruption ? and a hotline, run by Moore Stephens South Africa Forensic Services was launched this week.

    The hotline will be run for a three-month trial period to see whether members of the construction and engineering sector make use of it.

    Construction cartel executives took home millions

    ?

    Affidavits submitted to the National Prosecuting Authority and in the?Mail & Guardian's possession identify at least two senior executives who attended meetings to co-ordinate the construction sector before 2000 and were still in their positions between 2006 and 2009.

    ?

    That was the period when several companies were under review by the Competition Commission for anticompetitive behaviour, for which 15 companies have been fined.

    Statements in affidavits and evidence placed before the commission say that the bulk of the collusion was over by 2000. But further evidence shows that two meetings ? one related to roads, the other to stadiums ? were held between 2006 and 2009.

    During that period chief executive officers of listed companies took home millions of rands in salaries and bonuses.

    The figures, which look at companies that paid the largest fines, do not include the value of shares issued or sold by executives.

    The fines apportioned to the companies took into consideration the number of projects that were found to have contravened the law and the percentage of their turnover in the final year.

    At WBHO, which settled 11 projects in the fast-track process, Mike Wylie, an executive, took home R24.85-million, John Abbott R11.89-million, Jacobus Botha, who joined in February 2009, R7.58-million, and Paul Theessen earned R708?000 in one year.

    Murray & Roberts settled 17 projects. Among its executives, Brian Bruce earned R36.2-million, Roger Rees R23.4-million, Sean Flanagan R20.1-million, Keith Smith, who retired in 2008, R17.85-million, and Norbert Jorek, who resigned in 2007, R6.9-million.

    Stefanutti Stocks, fined for 21 projects, listed on the JSE in 2007. In two years, Biagino Stefanutti earned R8.87-million, Willem Meyburgh R8.6-million, Dermot Quinn R5.26-million and Nomhle Canca, who joined in August 2008, R1.57-million.

    At Aveng, which was fined for 17 projects, David Robinson took home R32.5-million, Carl Grim R16.38-million, Dennis Gammie R14-million, Ben Fourie R13.68-million, Howard Jones, who retired in 2006, R4.17-million, Juba Mashaba R6.4-million and Angus Band R2.88-million.

    Marius Heyns, chief executive officer of Basil Read, took home R37.3-million and Manuel Gouveia, who joined in May 2009, earned R2.3-million. Basil Read was fined for seven projects.

    Mike Lomas of Group Five, which has yet to make a settlement, but is being held to account on four projects, earned R22.3-million during the period in question, Mike Upton R16.47-million, Paul O'Flaherty R12.6-million and Christina Teixeira, who joined in 2009, R3.3-million.

    Unaware

    Announcing the R1.46-billion penalty imposed on the 15 construction companies on June 24 ? the largest fine imposed by the commission on private companies, Competition Commission head Shan Ramburuth said the chief executive officers of the companies had told the commission that they were not aware of the anti-competitive behaviour of their senior managements.

    WBHO, Murray & Roberts, Group Five and Aveng, in particular, have come out strongly against corruption in statements to the media, saying they regretted the "historical transgressions" and had launched investigations, adopted a zero tolerance approach or implemented training to avoid contraventions in the future.

    Murray & Roberts told Independent Newspapers that the five executives/senior managers who were implicated had left the group, but their departure was not directly related to the investigation.

    WBHO said in a statement that it had to go back five years and 2?200 tenders before potential competition issues were identified.

    Of the executives whose names are known to the?M&G, however, at least two, who are in senior positions in listed companies, were employed during the period in question and took home millions of rands in bonuses and benefits during that period.

    The affidavits, not all of which are in the?M&G's possession, will be used as evidence in a criminal investigation that is expected to be undertaken by the National Prosecuting Authority and the Hawks once the Competition Tribunal confirms the settlement agreement with the companies.

    Investigation

    The commission investigation was a two-part process. In February 2009, the commission launched a probe into possible collusive tendering for the 2010 World Cup stadiums.

    Then, on September 1 of the same year, following immunity applications that indicated more widespread corruption, it initiated another investigation relating to price fixing, market allocation and collusive tendering.

    A total of 21 companies were investigated. The highest fines went to the listed companies: WBHO (R311.3-million), Murray & Roberts (R309-million), Stefanutti Stocks (R306.8-million) and Aveng (R306.7-million). Basil Read will pay R95-million and Raubex R58.8-million.

    The contracting value of anti-competitive projects related to the World Cup are believed to be in the region of R13-billion. Group Five, Power Construction and Construction ID have yet to reach settlements with the commission.

    Source: http://mg.co.za/article/2013-07-05-00-cheated-cities-gun-for-the-builders

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