Second Life creator's new venture
The creator of virtual world 'Second Life', Philip Rosedale, is now focused on developing his new company Coffee and Power.
The original app allowed people to network in the job market using their smartphones; the new version includes a heightened presence of social tools.
It even includes a 'Second Life' styled mapping of who is in your local vicinity, and connects you to their online social space.
Entrepreneur Amber Wolf has been trying out the app: ' You have some insight into all of the people who've been in this space. Who's here now,' she said.
'Their areas of expertise are sort of highlighted because it's automatically connected to their LinkedIn profile. It's a nice insight into who's in the space and what they're up to.'
Coffee Power's investors include Amazon's founder Jeff Bezos, LinkedIn's co-founder Reid Hoffman, and Kevin Rose who started Digg and now works at Google.
'I think today, we think of work and projects being companies. We get together. We form companies. We raise funding and we pursue goals of one kind or another. I think in the future that's going to change. I think we're going to start to think more about projects than companies. We're going to think more about relationships,' Rosedale told Reuters.
'I'm so struck by how rapidly things are changing now.I think that technology is creating new opportunity for us much faster than we as individual entrepreneurs can exploit it. And I think that's a really novel moment in human history.'
Friday, August 31, 2012
Thursday, August 30, 2012
Severe Diet Doesn’t Prolong Life, at Least in Monkeys
Severe Diet Doesn’t Prolong Life, at Least in Monkeys
For 25 years, the rhesus monkeys were kept semi-starved, lean and hungry. The males’ weights were so low they were the equivalent of a 6-foot-tall man who tipped the scales at just 120 to 133 pounds. The hope was that if the monkeys lived longer, healthier lives by eating a lot less, then maybe people, their evolutionary cousins, would, too. Some scientists, anticipating such benefits, began severely restricting their own diets.
The results of this major, long-awaited study, which began in 1987, are finally in. But it did not bring the vindication calorie restriction enthusiasts had anticipated. It turns out the skinny monkeys did not live any longer than those kept at more normal weights. Some lab test results improved, but only in monkeys put on the diet when they were old. The causes of death — cancer, heart disease — were the same in both the underfed and the normally fed monkeys.
Lab test results showed lower levels of cholesterol and blood sugar in the male monkeys that started eating 30 percent fewer calories in old age, but not in the females. Males and females that were put on the diet when they were old had lower levels of triglycerides, which are linked to heart disease risk. Monkeys put on the diet when they were young or middle-aged did not get the same benefits, though they had less cancer. But the bottom line was that the monkeys that ate less did not live any longer than those that ate normally.
Rafael de Cabo, lead author of the diet study, published online on Wednesday in the journal Nature, said he was surprised and disappointed that the underfed monkeys did not live longer. Like many other researchers on aging, he had expected an outcome similar to that of a 2009 study from the University of Wisconsin that concluded that caloric restriction did extend monkeys’ life spans.
But even that study had a question mark hanging over it. Its authors had disregarded about half of the deaths among the monkeys they studied, saying they were not related to aging. If they had included all of the deaths, there was no extension of life span in the Wisconsin study, either.
“This shows the importance of replication in science,” Steven Austad, interim director of the Barshop Institute for Longevity and Aging Studies at the University of Texas Health Science Center in San Antonio. Dr. Austad, who was not involved with either study, said that the University of Wisconsin study “was not nearly as conclusive as it was made out to be” and that the new study casts further doubt on the belief that caloric restriction extends life.
But other researchers still think that it does, and one of the authors of the new study, Julie A. Mattison, said it was still possible that some benefit would be revealed. The study is continuing until the youngest monkeys are 22 years old. While the data pretty much rule out any notion that the low-calorie diet will increase average life spans, there still is a chance that the study might find that the diet increases the animals’ maximum life span, she said.
Meanwhile, some others said that the Wisconsin study made them reluctant to dismiss the idea that low-calorie diets result in longer life.
“I wouldn’t discard the whole thing on the basis of one study, when another study in the same species showed an increase in life span,” said Eric Ravussin, director of the nutritional obesity research center at the Pennington Biomedical Research Center in Louisiana. “I would still bet on an extension of life.”
The idea that a low-calorie diet would extend life originated in the 1930s with a study of laboratory rats. But it was not until the 1980s that the theory took off. Scientists reported that in species as diverse as yeast, flies, worms and mice, eating less meant living longer. And, in mice at least, a low-calorie diet also meant less cancer. It was not known whether the same thing would hold true in humans, and no one expected such a study would ever be done. It would take decades to get an answer, to say nothing of the expense and difficulty of getting people to be randomly assigned to starve themselves or not.
Researchers concluded the best way to test the hypothesis would be through the monkey studies at the University of Wisconsin and the National Institute on Aging, although the animals would have to be followed for decades.
It was a major endeavor. The National Institute on Aging study involved 121 monkeys, 49 of which are still alive, housed at a facility in Poolesville, Md. Those that got the low-calorie diet did not act famished, Dr. de Cabo said. They did not gobble their food, for example, but ate at the same speed as the control animals, even though their calories had been cut by 30 percent.
As the studies were under way, some human enthusiasts decided to start eating a lot less, too.
In those same years, though, studies in mice began indicating there might not be a predictable response to a low-calorie diet. Mice that came from the wild, instead of being born and raised in the lab, did not live longer on low-calorie diets. And in 2009, a study of 41 inbred strains of laboratory mice found that about a third had no response to the diets. Of those that responded, more strains had shorter life spans than had longer ones when they were given less food.
The response to that study was “absolute disbelief,” Dr. Austad said. “Even though the authors are well-respected calorie restrictors, people said the result was not interesting, that there was something weird about the mice.”
Now, with the new study, researchers are asking why the University of Wisconsin study found an effect on life span and the National Institute on Aging study did not.
There were several differences between the studies that some have pointed to as possible explanations.
The composition of the food given to the monkeys in the Wisconsin study was different from that in the aging institute’s study.
The University of Wisconsin’s control monkeys were allowed to eat as much as they wanted and were fatter than those in the aging institute’s study, which were fed in amounts that were considered enough to maintain a healthy weight but were not unlimited.
The animals in the Wisconsin study were from India. Those in the aging institute’s study were from India and China, and so were more genetically diverse.
Dr. de Cabo, who says he is overweight, advised people that if they want to try a reduced-calorie diet, they should consult a doctor first. If they can handle such a diet, he said, he believes they would be healthier, but, he said, he does not know if they would live longer.
Some scientists still have faith in the low-calorie diets. Richard Weindruch, a director of the Wisconsin study, said he was “a hopeless caloric-restriction romantic,” but added that he was not very good at restricting his own calories. He said he might start trying harder, though: “I’m only 62. It isn’t too late.”
Then there is Mark Mattson, chief of the laboratory of neurosciences at the National Institute on Aging, who was not part of the monkey study. He believes there is merit to caloric restriction. It can help the brain, he said, as well as make people healthier and probably make them live longer.
Dr. Mattson, who is 5-foot-9 and weighs 130 pounds, skips breakfast and lunch on weekdays and skips breakfast on weekends.
“I get a little hungry,” he acknowledged. “But we think being hungry is actually good.”
For 25 years, the rhesus monkeys were kept semi-starved, lean and hungry. The males’ weights were so low they were the equivalent of a 6-foot-tall man who tipped the scales at just 120 to 133 pounds. The hope was that if the monkeys lived longer, healthier lives by eating a lot less, then maybe people, their evolutionary cousins, would, too. Some scientists, anticipating such benefits, began severely restricting their own diets.
The results of this major, long-awaited study, which began in 1987, are finally in. But it did not bring the vindication calorie restriction enthusiasts had anticipated. It turns out the skinny monkeys did not live any longer than those kept at more normal weights. Some lab test results improved, but only in monkeys put on the diet when they were old. The causes of death — cancer, heart disease — were the same in both the underfed and the normally fed monkeys.
Lab test results showed lower levels of cholesterol and blood sugar in the male monkeys that started eating 30 percent fewer calories in old age, but not in the females. Males and females that were put on the diet when they were old had lower levels of triglycerides, which are linked to heart disease risk. Monkeys put on the diet when they were young or middle-aged did not get the same benefits, though they had less cancer. But the bottom line was that the monkeys that ate less did not live any longer than those that ate normally.
Rafael de Cabo, lead author of the diet study, published online on Wednesday in the journal Nature, said he was surprised and disappointed that the underfed monkeys did not live longer. Like many other researchers on aging, he had expected an outcome similar to that of a 2009 study from the University of Wisconsin that concluded that caloric restriction did extend monkeys’ life spans.
But even that study had a question mark hanging over it. Its authors had disregarded about half of the deaths among the monkeys they studied, saying they were not related to aging. If they had included all of the deaths, there was no extension of life span in the Wisconsin study, either.
“This shows the importance of replication in science,” Steven Austad, interim director of the Barshop Institute for Longevity and Aging Studies at the University of Texas Health Science Center in San Antonio. Dr. Austad, who was not involved with either study, said that the University of Wisconsin study “was not nearly as conclusive as it was made out to be” and that the new study casts further doubt on the belief that caloric restriction extends life.
But other researchers still think that it does, and one of the authors of the new study, Julie A. Mattison, said it was still possible that some benefit would be revealed. The study is continuing until the youngest monkeys are 22 years old. While the data pretty much rule out any notion that the low-calorie diet will increase average life spans, there still is a chance that the study might find that the diet increases the animals’ maximum life span, she said.
Meanwhile, some others said that the Wisconsin study made them reluctant to dismiss the idea that low-calorie diets result in longer life.
“I wouldn’t discard the whole thing on the basis of one study, when another study in the same species showed an increase in life span,” said Eric Ravussin, director of the nutritional obesity research center at the Pennington Biomedical Research Center in Louisiana. “I would still bet on an extension of life.”
The idea that a low-calorie diet would extend life originated in the 1930s with a study of laboratory rats. But it was not until the 1980s that the theory took off. Scientists reported that in species as diverse as yeast, flies, worms and mice, eating less meant living longer. And, in mice at least, a low-calorie diet also meant less cancer. It was not known whether the same thing would hold true in humans, and no one expected such a study would ever be done. It would take decades to get an answer, to say nothing of the expense and difficulty of getting people to be randomly assigned to starve themselves or not.
Researchers concluded the best way to test the hypothesis would be through the monkey studies at the University of Wisconsin and the National Institute on Aging, although the animals would have to be followed for decades.
It was a major endeavor. The National Institute on Aging study involved 121 monkeys, 49 of which are still alive, housed at a facility in Poolesville, Md. Those that got the low-calorie diet did not act famished, Dr. de Cabo said. They did not gobble their food, for example, but ate at the same speed as the control animals, even though their calories had been cut by 30 percent.
As the studies were under way, some human enthusiasts decided to start eating a lot less, too.
In those same years, though, studies in mice began indicating there might not be a predictable response to a low-calorie diet. Mice that came from the wild, instead of being born and raised in the lab, did not live longer on low-calorie diets. And in 2009, a study of 41 inbred strains of laboratory mice found that about a third had no response to the diets. Of those that responded, more strains had shorter life spans than had longer ones when they were given less food.
The response to that study was “absolute disbelief,” Dr. Austad said. “Even though the authors are well-respected calorie restrictors, people said the result was not interesting, that there was something weird about the mice.”
Now, with the new study, researchers are asking why the University of Wisconsin study found an effect on life span and the National Institute on Aging study did not.
There were several differences between the studies that some have pointed to as possible explanations.
The composition of the food given to the monkeys in the Wisconsin study was different from that in the aging institute’s study.
The University of Wisconsin’s control monkeys were allowed to eat as much as they wanted and were fatter than those in the aging institute’s study, which were fed in amounts that were considered enough to maintain a healthy weight but were not unlimited.
The animals in the Wisconsin study were from India. Those in the aging institute’s study were from India and China, and so were more genetically diverse.
Dr. de Cabo, who says he is overweight, advised people that if they want to try a reduced-calorie diet, they should consult a doctor first. If they can handle such a diet, he said, he believes they would be healthier, but, he said, he does not know if they would live longer.
Some scientists still have faith in the low-calorie diets. Richard Weindruch, a director of the Wisconsin study, said he was “a hopeless caloric-restriction romantic,” but added that he was not very good at restricting his own calories. He said he might start trying harder, though: “I’m only 62. It isn’t too late.”
Then there is Mark Mattson, chief of the laboratory of neurosciences at the National Institute on Aging, who was not part of the monkey study. He believes there is merit to caloric restriction. It can help the brain, he said, as well as make people healthier and probably make them live longer.
Dr. Mattson, who is 5-foot-9 and weighs 130 pounds, skips breakfast and lunch on weekdays and skips breakfast on weekends.
“I get a little hungry,” he acknowledged. “But we think being hungry is actually good.”
Wednesday, August 29, 2012
A woman’s life is a human life: a theological error in the GOP platform?
A woman’s life is a human life: a theological error in the GOP platform?
God created human beings in God’s image…male and female God created them.” (Genesis: 1:27) According to the Bible, women are created fully equal in the divine image and thus fully, and equally, human.
You’d never know that from reading the Republican platform, especially in regard to the anti-abortion language that asserts the “sanctity and dignity of human life.” That section affirms that the “unborn child has a fundamental individual right to life which cannot be infringed” and calls for a “human life amendment to the Constitution.”
Astonishingly, there is no mention of an exception on abortion in the cases of rape or incest; no mention even of such an exception to save the life of the mother. No qualification at all when it comes to even the life of a woman being protected.
Aren’t women’s lives included in the category of “the sanctity and dignity of human life?”
The document also calls for “legislation to make clear that the Fourteenth Amendment’s protections apply to unborn children.” The Fourteenth Amendment contains the “equal protection clause,” except that when it comes to women’s lives, apparently, women are not equally protected. They are not even mentioned. The sole emphasis in the document as published is on what is called “the unborn.” That is, fetuses.
Why doesn’t the GOP consider women as equal, or even worth mentioning, when it comes to preserving their lives? Aren’t women’s lives “human lives”? The omission of women’s humanity and its protection from the GOP platform is a serious theological error.
Some in the party may indeed consider women human, but they are clearly not the people crafting policy.
Nothing illustrates this reality as well as last week’s drama around “legitimate rape.” Rep. Todd Akin, the conservative Republican candidate for Senate in Missouri, precipitated a firestorm of protest when he said to an interviewer, “First of all, from what I understand from doctors, [pregnancy from rape] is really rare. If it’s a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down.”
President Obama countered “rape is rape” and the “war on women” reignited fast and furiously.
Both Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney and his running mate Paul Ryan called on Akin to quit the Senate race. Akin refused. Who is leading whom?
As I read Republicans’ platform, the extremists appear to be the ones crafting policy for the party. On Sunday, Romney policy advisor Avik Roy tried to reassure MSNBC host Chris Hayes, and more likely, the remaining GOP moderates, that the party’s platform planks such as the “human life amendment” to the Constitution “should not be considered a reflection of Romney’s personal views.”
Romney, of course, is the national “weathervane” of reproductive politics. His most famous “flip-flop” is his going from being “pro-choice” to “pro-life.” Is Roy trying to reassure moderates that Romney will flip-flop back the other way after the election? Really? What happens then to the “human life amendment to the Constitution”?
Going forward, Republicans might want to keep in mind a few fundamental points about women’s rights that come from the basic theological presumption of their full humanity.
Women frequently die or are maimed from illegal abortions. The coat hanger image that appeared in coverage of Akin’s comments brought back the horrors of illegal abortions. Keep this in mind: many women died or were maimed when abortion was illegal in the U.S. Protecting women’s lives is part of respecting their full humanity.
Women’s humanity includes their bodily integrity. Rape is an assault on women’s bodies and is a crime, regardless of the conditions under which it was committed. GOP candidates like Akin are assaulting women’s dignity by even bringing up such misleading and shaming terms as “legitimate” or “forcible” rape. Stop using those terms and concepts.
As human beings created in the image of God, women are ethical agents. Women can make informed choices about whether to carry a pregnancy to term or not. A good moral precedent for “Ethics and Experience: Moral Theory from Just War to Abortion.” Women should be considered “competent moral authorities” per the Just War paradigm and thus capable of making difficult ethical choices. Trust women to know what’s best for them and their families. That’s why it’s called “choice.”
There really is a war on women, and the front lines are women’s bodies, minds and spirits. My right to use contraception is part of my religious freedom, and any attempt to restrict or eliminate my health care coverage for contraception, or that of other women, places an unwarranted limit on all women’s religious freedom and freedom of conscience. This is in direct contrast to the GOP platform’s misleading, in fact, inaccurate language on “forcible secularization” by the Obama administration in regard to reproductive issues.
There is a war on women’s humanity being conducted by extremists in the Republican Party. I urge responsible members of the GOP leadership to take back their own party for the sake of all women and the men who care about them.
Don’t adopt a GOP platform like this one, and then hint to us that you really don’t mean to take these extreme positions. Why should any woman, indeed, any adult, trust you if you don’t have the courage to publicly and consistently stand up for women’s full humanity?
God created human beings in God’s image…male and female God created them.” (Genesis: 1:27) According to the Bible, women are created fully equal in the divine image and thus fully, and equally, human.
You’d never know that from reading the Republican platform, especially in regard to the anti-abortion language that asserts the “sanctity and dignity of human life.” That section affirms that the “unborn child has a fundamental individual right to life which cannot be infringed” and calls for a “human life amendment to the Constitution.”
Astonishingly, there is no mention of an exception on abortion in the cases of rape or incest; no mention even of such an exception to save the life of the mother. No qualification at all when it comes to even the life of a woman being protected.
Aren’t women’s lives included in the category of “the sanctity and dignity of human life?”
The document also calls for “legislation to make clear that the Fourteenth Amendment’s protections apply to unborn children.” The Fourteenth Amendment contains the “equal protection clause,” except that when it comes to women’s lives, apparently, women are not equally protected. They are not even mentioned. The sole emphasis in the document as published is on what is called “the unborn.” That is, fetuses.
Why doesn’t the GOP consider women as equal, or even worth mentioning, when it comes to preserving their lives? Aren’t women’s lives “human lives”? The omission of women’s humanity and its protection from the GOP platform is a serious theological error.
Some in the party may indeed consider women human, but they are clearly not the people crafting policy.
Nothing illustrates this reality as well as last week’s drama around “legitimate rape.” Rep. Todd Akin, the conservative Republican candidate for Senate in Missouri, precipitated a firestorm of protest when he said to an interviewer, “First of all, from what I understand from doctors, [pregnancy from rape] is really rare. If it’s a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down.”
President Obama countered “rape is rape” and the “war on women” reignited fast and furiously.
Both Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney and his running mate Paul Ryan called on Akin to quit the Senate race. Akin refused. Who is leading whom?
As I read Republicans’ platform, the extremists appear to be the ones crafting policy for the party. On Sunday, Romney policy advisor Avik Roy tried to reassure MSNBC host Chris Hayes, and more likely, the remaining GOP moderates, that the party’s platform planks such as the “human life amendment” to the Constitution “should not be considered a reflection of Romney’s personal views.”
Romney, of course, is the national “weathervane” of reproductive politics. His most famous “flip-flop” is his going from being “pro-choice” to “pro-life.” Is Roy trying to reassure moderates that Romney will flip-flop back the other way after the election? Really? What happens then to the “human life amendment to the Constitution”?
Going forward, Republicans might want to keep in mind a few fundamental points about women’s rights that come from the basic theological presumption of their full humanity.
Women frequently die or are maimed from illegal abortions. The coat hanger image that appeared in coverage of Akin’s comments brought back the horrors of illegal abortions. Keep this in mind: many women died or were maimed when abortion was illegal in the U.S. Protecting women’s lives is part of respecting their full humanity.
Women’s humanity includes their bodily integrity. Rape is an assault on women’s bodies and is a crime, regardless of the conditions under which it was committed. GOP candidates like Akin are assaulting women’s dignity by even bringing up such misleading and shaming terms as “legitimate” or “forcible” rape. Stop using those terms and concepts.
As human beings created in the image of God, women are ethical agents. Women can make informed choices about whether to carry a pregnancy to term or not. A good moral precedent for “Ethics and Experience: Moral Theory from Just War to Abortion.” Women should be considered “competent moral authorities” per the Just War paradigm and thus capable of making difficult ethical choices. Trust women to know what’s best for them and their families. That’s why it’s called “choice.”
There really is a war on women, and the front lines are women’s bodies, minds and spirits. My right to use contraception is part of my religious freedom, and any attempt to restrict or eliminate my health care coverage for contraception, or that of other women, places an unwarranted limit on all women’s religious freedom and freedom of conscience. This is in direct contrast to the GOP platform’s misleading, in fact, inaccurate language on “forcible secularization” by the Obama administration in regard to reproductive issues.
There is a war on women’s humanity being conducted by extremists in the Republican Party. I urge responsible members of the GOP leadership to take back their own party for the sake of all women and the men who care about them.
Don’t adopt a GOP platform like this one, and then hint to us that you really don’t mean to take these extreme positions. Why should any woman, indeed, any adult, trust you if you don’t have the courage to publicly and consistently stand up for women’s full humanity?
Tuesday, August 28, 2012
Like his life, Neil Armstrong’s death was strangely muted
Like his life, Neil Armstrong’s death was strangely muted
By the yardstick of history, Neil Armstrong was among the most accomplished men ever to walk on the planet that he looked upon from afar one magical week in July 1969.
Television news didn’t seem to fully recognize the importance of the first human to walk on the moon on the weekend he died.
In the hours after Armstrong’s death was announced, news networks were airing canned programming — jailhouse documentaries, a rerun interview with Rielle Hunter, Mike Huckabee’s weekend show. Menacing satellite pictures of Tropical Storm Isaac had much more air time than Armstrong’s dusty hops on the lunar surface. Talk of the upcoming GOP national convention sucked up the air.
A trio of factors played in to the lack of attention.
First, Armstrong died in Cincinnati on a Saturday. Not just any Saturday, when news organizations have a skeletal staff, but a late August weekend. Half the country is at the beach. It’s not a stretch to think inexperience on duty might have played a role in NBC News’ embarrassing gaffe: a website headline that read: “Astronaut Neil Young, first man to walk on the moon, dies at age 82.” (NBC called it a staffer error and said the mistake was taken down after seven minutes.)
His death came as somewhat of a surprise, too. Everyone dies, of course, and most news organizations have prepared material on hand to mark the passing of famous people. In many cases, though, there is advance word that someone is very ill, giving the media a chance to prepare and plan.
Armstrong’s determined effort to live a quiet, private life after his astronaut days also left TV at a disadvantage. There was relatively little tape on hand to roll from interviews reminiscing about his experiences, reunions with old astronauts or public appearances. No Armstrong chats with David Letterman. No appearances in music videos. There was the moon walk, and not much else.
Notable deaths often give viewers the chance to reflect, to put into perspective lives of great accomplishment or great notoriety.
Not so with Neil Armstrong. His death was like his life: strangely muted given the magnitude of his achievements.
By the yardstick of history, Neil Armstrong was among the most accomplished men ever to walk on the planet that he looked upon from afar one magical week in July 1969.
Television news didn’t seem to fully recognize the importance of the first human to walk on the moon on the weekend he died.
In the hours after Armstrong’s death was announced, news networks were airing canned programming — jailhouse documentaries, a rerun interview with Rielle Hunter, Mike Huckabee’s weekend show. Menacing satellite pictures of Tropical Storm Isaac had much more air time than Armstrong’s dusty hops on the lunar surface. Talk of the upcoming GOP national convention sucked up the air.
A trio of factors played in to the lack of attention.
First, Armstrong died in Cincinnati on a Saturday. Not just any Saturday, when news organizations have a skeletal staff, but a late August weekend. Half the country is at the beach. It’s not a stretch to think inexperience on duty might have played a role in NBC News’ embarrassing gaffe: a website headline that read: “Astronaut Neil Young, first man to walk on the moon, dies at age 82.” (NBC called it a staffer error and said the mistake was taken down after seven minutes.)
His death came as somewhat of a surprise, too. Everyone dies, of course, and most news organizations have prepared material on hand to mark the passing of famous people. In many cases, though, there is advance word that someone is very ill, giving the media a chance to prepare and plan.
Armstrong’s determined effort to live a quiet, private life after his astronaut days also left TV at a disadvantage. There was relatively little tape on hand to roll from interviews reminiscing about his experiences, reunions with old astronauts or public appearances. No Armstrong chats with David Letterman. No appearances in music videos. There was the moon walk, and not much else.
Notable deaths often give viewers the chance to reflect, to put into perspective lives of great accomplishment or great notoriety.
Not so with Neil Armstrong. His death was like his life: strangely muted given the magnitude of his achievements.
Monday, August 27, 2012
Life after Van Persie continues to be painful
Life after Van Persie continues to be painful
LIFE AFTER Robin van Persie is turning out to be every bit as painful as many Arsenal supporters feared. A day after the Dutchman opened his Manchester United account with an exquisite strike against Fulham, Arsenal fans departed the Potteries with their unbeaten start to the season intact but still waiting to celebrate their first goal.
Picking up a point at a stadium where Arsenal suffered defeat in three of their previous five visits hardly qualifies as a bad day at the office but as long as Arsene Wenger’s side continue to lack a cutting edge, which was also the case in the 0-0 draw against Sunderland last weekend, it is difficult to look beyond the absence of the man who almost single-handedly dragged them to a top-three finish last season. “Robin van Persie, he would have scored that,” the Stoke City supporters sang time and again.
None of the chances that fell to Lukas Podolski, Olivier Giroud, Mikel Arteta or Abou Diaby were clear cut, although the reality is that they never needed to be when Van Persie was still around. Wenger had a point when he talked about the need to be patient and give the new signings time to develop an understanding, but he also bemoaned the lack of spontaneity, something that Van Persie has in abundance.
Giroud, in fairness, gave a decent account of himself on his full debut, and came close to scoring an outrageous winner in the closing minutes, when he spotted Asmir Begovic, the Stoke goalkeeper, off his line and clipped a left-footed shot from well outside the penalty area that skimmed the roof of the net.
Podolski, deployed in the wide-left berth he occupies for Germany rather than the central striking role he took up against Sunderland, showed some early promise but faded, and Gervinho was a disappointment.
Wenger, however, was entitled to be reasonably satisfied with the outcome. Stoke, as he pointed out, are formidable opponents at home – the top six all failed to win there last season – and this had the look of an awkward fixture beforehand.
It was easy to imagine Tony Pulis rubbing his hands when he was given a team sheet that included the name of a rookie Arsenal goalkeeper. Vito Mannone was making only his seventh start for Arsenal and in his last appearance, against Olympiakos in the Champions League eight months ago, he made a dreadful blunder in a 3-1 defeat.
The Britannia Stadium hardly felt like the ideal place for a comeback but Mannone enjoyed a comfortable ride. Deputising for Wojciech Szczesny, who was ruled out with a rib injury, the 24-year-old Italian handled Stoke’s aerial threat from set pieces with the minimum of fuss.
Stoke, as Pulis later conceded, were poor as an attacking force, although they could have pilfered three points late on, when Republic of Ireland striker Jonathan Walters ran on to Michael Kightly’s through ball only to snatch at the chance and shoot wide of the far upright.
Defeat would have been hard for Arsenal to accept. Although Begovic was not exactly overworked, Arsenal had plenty of possession and always looked the more likely team to score. Arteta should have done better when he curled wide in the second half, and Podolski had a sight of goal in the eighth minute only for his left-footed shot to be blocked by Andy Wilkinson.
It struck the full back on the forearm but there seemed to be little intent and Wenger did not even mention the incident afterwards.
LIFE AFTER Robin van Persie is turning out to be every bit as painful as many Arsenal supporters feared. A day after the Dutchman opened his Manchester United account with an exquisite strike against Fulham, Arsenal fans departed the Potteries with their unbeaten start to the season intact but still waiting to celebrate their first goal.
Picking up a point at a stadium where Arsenal suffered defeat in three of their previous five visits hardly qualifies as a bad day at the office but as long as Arsene Wenger’s side continue to lack a cutting edge, which was also the case in the 0-0 draw against Sunderland last weekend, it is difficult to look beyond the absence of the man who almost single-handedly dragged them to a top-three finish last season. “Robin van Persie, he would have scored that,” the Stoke City supporters sang time and again.
None of the chances that fell to Lukas Podolski, Olivier Giroud, Mikel Arteta or Abou Diaby were clear cut, although the reality is that they never needed to be when Van Persie was still around. Wenger had a point when he talked about the need to be patient and give the new signings time to develop an understanding, but he also bemoaned the lack of spontaneity, something that Van Persie has in abundance.
Giroud, in fairness, gave a decent account of himself on his full debut, and came close to scoring an outrageous winner in the closing minutes, when he spotted Asmir Begovic, the Stoke goalkeeper, off his line and clipped a left-footed shot from well outside the penalty area that skimmed the roof of the net.
Podolski, deployed in the wide-left berth he occupies for Germany rather than the central striking role he took up against Sunderland, showed some early promise but faded, and Gervinho was a disappointment.
Wenger, however, was entitled to be reasonably satisfied with the outcome. Stoke, as he pointed out, are formidable opponents at home – the top six all failed to win there last season – and this had the look of an awkward fixture beforehand.
It was easy to imagine Tony Pulis rubbing his hands when he was given a team sheet that included the name of a rookie Arsenal goalkeeper. Vito Mannone was making only his seventh start for Arsenal and in his last appearance, against Olympiakos in the Champions League eight months ago, he made a dreadful blunder in a 3-1 defeat.
The Britannia Stadium hardly felt like the ideal place for a comeback but Mannone enjoyed a comfortable ride. Deputising for Wojciech Szczesny, who was ruled out with a rib injury, the 24-year-old Italian handled Stoke’s aerial threat from set pieces with the minimum of fuss.
Stoke, as Pulis later conceded, were poor as an attacking force, although they could have pilfered three points late on, when Republic of Ireland striker Jonathan Walters ran on to Michael Kightly’s through ball only to snatch at the chance and shoot wide of the far upright.
Defeat would have been hard for Arsenal to accept. Although Begovic was not exactly overworked, Arsenal had plenty of possession and always looked the more likely team to score. Arteta should have done better when he curled wide in the second half, and Podolski had a sight of goal in the eighth minute only for his left-footed shot to be blocked by Andy Wilkinson.
It struck the full back on the forearm but there seemed to be little intent and Wenger did not even mention the incident afterwards.
Thursday, August 23, 2012
SAfrican gets life for killing white supremacist
SAfrican gets life for killing white supremacist
A black farmworker was sentenced to life in prison yesterday for the brutal murder of South African white supremacist leader Eugene Terreblanche in a case that has been a source of racial tension in the city of Ventersdorp.
About 100 protesters sang anti-white songs outside the courtroom in the city just west of Johannesburg to support 30-year-old Chris Mahlangu, who had pleaded guilty but argued that he acted in self-defense in what the judge found was a violent dispute over wages. They were opposed by 20 white protesters who carried the dummy of a black man with a rope around his neck and a sign that said: "Hang Mahlangu." As Mahlangu was leaving the court, the protesters tied the effigy to a pick-up truck and drove around the black crowd.
Mahlangu was found guilty for beating Terreblanche, 69, to death with an iron in April 2010. Mahlangu said he feels he did no wrong by ridding the world of a man some called a monster.
The judge had rejected a defense argument that Mahlangu had been sodomised by Terreblanche and acted in self-defense. Mahlangu also claimed that Terreblanche infected him with HIV.
Zola Majavu, Mahlangu's lawyer, said on Wednesday that they are planning to appeal both the court's findings and the sentence.
On Wednesday, Mahlangu said he has converted to Islam while in prison.
A second man, Patrick Ndlovu, who was a teenager at the time of the killing two years ago, was sentenced to a two-year prison sentence which means he goes free. Ndlovu was acquitted of murder but found guilty of breaking and entering with intent to steal. Initially, he was not named because of his age. He turned 18 during the trial.
After the sentencing, the Young Communist League of South Africa released a statement calling the judgment racially biased.
"Eugene Terreblanche was a white supremacist who made no qualms about his lack of love and respect for the black Africans and still believed in white supremacy and black oppression. How is it that the issue of self-defense is not taken serious?" said the statement.
Terreblanche co-founded the Afrikaner Resistance Movement, known by its Afrikaans initials as the AWB, to seek an all-white republic within South Africa.
In 1997, Terreblanche was sentenced to six years in prison for the attempted murder of a black security guard and assaulting a black gas station worker. Terreblache's influence in the white supremacist movement had waned by the time he died.
A black farmworker was sentenced to life in prison yesterday for the brutal murder of South African white supremacist leader Eugene Terreblanche in a case that has been a source of racial tension in the city of Ventersdorp.
About 100 protesters sang anti-white songs outside the courtroom in the city just west of Johannesburg to support 30-year-old Chris Mahlangu, who had pleaded guilty but argued that he acted in self-defense in what the judge found was a violent dispute over wages. They were opposed by 20 white protesters who carried the dummy of a black man with a rope around his neck and a sign that said: "Hang Mahlangu." As Mahlangu was leaving the court, the protesters tied the effigy to a pick-up truck and drove around the black crowd.
Mahlangu was found guilty for beating Terreblanche, 69, to death with an iron in April 2010. Mahlangu said he feels he did no wrong by ridding the world of a man some called a monster.
The judge had rejected a defense argument that Mahlangu had been sodomised by Terreblanche and acted in self-defense. Mahlangu also claimed that Terreblanche infected him with HIV.
Zola Majavu, Mahlangu's lawyer, said on Wednesday that they are planning to appeal both the court's findings and the sentence.
On Wednesday, Mahlangu said he has converted to Islam while in prison.
A second man, Patrick Ndlovu, who was a teenager at the time of the killing two years ago, was sentenced to a two-year prison sentence which means he goes free. Ndlovu was acquitted of murder but found guilty of breaking and entering with intent to steal. Initially, he was not named because of his age. He turned 18 during the trial.
After the sentencing, the Young Communist League of South Africa released a statement calling the judgment racially biased.
"Eugene Terreblanche was a white supremacist who made no qualms about his lack of love and respect for the black Africans and still believed in white supremacy and black oppression. How is it that the issue of self-defense is not taken serious?" said the statement.
Terreblanche co-founded the Afrikaner Resistance Movement, known by its Afrikaans initials as the AWB, to seek an all-white republic within South Africa.
In 1997, Terreblanche was sentenced to six years in prison for the attempted murder of a black security guard and assaulting a black gas station worker. Terreblache's influence in the white supremacist movement had waned by the time he died.
Wednesday, August 22, 2012
Real-life lovebirds take flight in ‘Hit & Run’
Real-life lovebirds take flight in ‘Hit & Run’
A quirky, modern romance wrapped around a motor-mouthed Tarantino-esque crime movie, “Hit & Run” is a lot more fun and than I expected. Written by male lead Dax Shepard of TV’s “Parenthood” and co-starring his fiancee, Kristen Bell of TV’s “Veronica Mars” and more recently “Safety Not Guaranteed,” the film is — awww — also a kind of prewedding gift from him to her.
Shepard is, ahem, Charlie Bronson, a youngish man in the California Witness Relocation Program who has a cherry blossom tree tattooed on his shoulder and is totally in love with a beautiful college teacher named Annie (Bell). Annie likes to engage in moral and philosophical debates and has a Ph.D. in, get this, conflict resolution. When Annie gets a chance to start her own program at a college in nearby Los Angeles, Charlie agrees to drive her to her interview, even though it means exposing himself to the people he gave up to the authorities. One hint at what Charlie used to do for a living might be that he drives a vintage black Lincoln Continental with “suicide doors” and a 700-hp engine.
Among Charlie’s previous associates are Alex Dimitri, a dreadlocked psychopathic criminal played by an at first unrecognizable Bradley Cooper. Alex’s gun-moll girlfriend (Joy Bryant) is Charlie’s former fiancee. The other characters in this funny, raunchy, violent comedy include Charlie’s apoplectic “baby sitter” U.S. Marshal Randy (Tom Arnold, chanelling Lou Costello), who keeps losing his gun and shooting up his minivan, and Annie’s boss Debbie (Kristen Cheno-weth), a big fan of Dilaudid with a Xanax chaser.
Among other things, “Hit & Run” answers the question: What happens when you get into a head-on collision with a bowling ball loose inside the vehicle?
Other standouts in the supporting cast are Michael Rosenbaum (“Smallville”) as Annie’s comically overprotective ex-boyfriend Gil, Jess Rowland (“Entourage”) as an openly gay police officer who uses an app called “Pounce” to locate fellow gay men, and Beau Bridges as Charlie’s tough-loving father Clint (ahem). Shepard, who has a panting, puppy-dog quality, and Bell have chemistry to burn and are very appealing as this film’s compulsively bantering Bonnie and Clyde. The film’s soundtrack (Dylan, Pete Townshend, Aerosmith, etc.) is a virtual classic rock playlist and nicely complements the comic chase scenes. “Hit & Run” may not be this generation’s “Something Wild” (1986), but it’s close.
Shepard, also the film’s executive producer, even gives Bell top billing. It’s true romance for sure.
A quirky, modern romance wrapped around a motor-mouthed Tarantino-esque crime movie, “Hit & Run” is a lot more fun and than I expected. Written by male lead Dax Shepard of TV’s “Parenthood” and co-starring his fiancee, Kristen Bell of TV’s “Veronica Mars” and more recently “Safety Not Guaranteed,” the film is — awww — also a kind of prewedding gift from him to her.
Shepard is, ahem, Charlie Bronson, a youngish man in the California Witness Relocation Program who has a cherry blossom tree tattooed on his shoulder and is totally in love with a beautiful college teacher named Annie (Bell). Annie likes to engage in moral and philosophical debates and has a Ph.D. in, get this, conflict resolution. When Annie gets a chance to start her own program at a college in nearby Los Angeles, Charlie agrees to drive her to her interview, even though it means exposing himself to the people he gave up to the authorities. One hint at what Charlie used to do for a living might be that he drives a vintage black Lincoln Continental with “suicide doors” and a 700-hp engine.
Among Charlie’s previous associates are Alex Dimitri, a dreadlocked psychopathic criminal played by an at first unrecognizable Bradley Cooper. Alex’s gun-moll girlfriend (Joy Bryant) is Charlie’s former fiancee. The other characters in this funny, raunchy, violent comedy include Charlie’s apoplectic “baby sitter” U.S. Marshal Randy (Tom Arnold, chanelling Lou Costello), who keeps losing his gun and shooting up his minivan, and Annie’s boss Debbie (Kristen Cheno-weth), a big fan of Dilaudid with a Xanax chaser.
Among other things, “Hit & Run” answers the question: What happens when you get into a head-on collision with a bowling ball loose inside the vehicle?
Other standouts in the supporting cast are Michael Rosenbaum (“Smallville”) as Annie’s comically overprotective ex-boyfriend Gil, Jess Rowland (“Entourage”) as an openly gay police officer who uses an app called “Pounce” to locate fellow gay men, and Beau Bridges as Charlie’s tough-loving father Clint (ahem). Shepard, who has a panting, puppy-dog quality, and Bell have chemistry to burn and are very appealing as this film’s compulsively bantering Bonnie and Clyde. The film’s soundtrack (Dylan, Pete Townshend, Aerosmith, etc.) is a virtual classic rock playlist and nicely complements the comic chase scenes. “Hit & Run” may not be this generation’s “Something Wild” (1986), but it’s close.
Shepard, also the film’s executive producer, even gives Bell top billing. It’s true romance for sure.
Tuesday, August 21, 2012
Assange's embassy life is cramped but connected
Assange's embassy life is cramped but connected
Living on takeaway meals in a small room with a treadmill to burn off frustrated energy and a vitamin D lamp to make up for a lack of sunlight, Julian Assange has the one material thing he values most: a computer with an Internet connection.
The WikiLeaks founder took refuge nine weeks ago at Ecuador's embassy in London to avoid being extradited to Sweden, where he is wanted for questioning over alleged rape. Having feared jail, he now finds himself living like a prisoner.
Yet British friend and supporter Vaughan Smith, who hosted Assange at his country mansion for a year during his failed legal battle against extradition, said the Australian was in good spirits and enjoying the virtual freedom of his computer.
"He seemed to be bearing up fine. The key to understanding Assange is that if he's got a computer he's normally happy," Smith told Reuters after he visited the embassy, housed on one floor of a red-brick apartment block in affluent Knightsbridge.
"The thing that concerns him most is the possibility he won't be able to work properly - and that's why he seems less keen on prison cells than on embassies."
On Sunday, the world had its first glimpse of Assange since June 19, when he slipped into the embassy. Last week, Ecuador, led by leftist president Rafael Correa, granted Assange asylum - but Britain still plans to arrest him if he tries to leave.
Appearing on a narrow balcony to berate the United States over what he called its "witch hunt" against his anti-secrecy website, the 41-year-old former computer hacker was in the full glare of the world's media for 10 minutes.
His distinctive white-blond hair now trimmed short, he wore a neatly pressed shirt and tie and appeared in good health, if rather tired. His speech delivered, he paused to survey cheering supporters, busy journalists and stern London police on the street below, before retreating to his private world within.
Smith said Assange was sleeping and working in a single small room that looked like someone's office hastily converted into living quarters. He had started out with an air mattress but that had now been replaced by a real bed.
"It's a small room. It has a window, but I wouldn't describe it as airy. I didn't see any kitchen facilities, though I understand he has access to a microwave. He has access to a shower. A supporter gave him a running machine," said Smith.
He declined to say what the window overlooked because he did not wish to identify the room to outsiders. Those embassy windows which are visible from the street have had curtains drawn all the time since Assange moved in.
"HE CAN DO WHAT HE NEEDS"
"It's pretty tight. He's divided the room up with a bookcase into a sleeping part and a non-sleeping part," said Smith.
"The key thing is he can work. He can hold meetings, he can invite some people in. He can do what he needs to do."
Ecuador granted him asylum on the grounds that Assange might be sent from Sweden to the United States to face WikiLeaks-related charges. Britain will not let him go to Ecuador from the embassy because its courts ruled he should be sent to Stockholm.
Assange's mother Christine, speaking by telephone from Australia, told Reuters she had received personal assurances from Ecuadorean Foreign Minister Ricardo Patino that her son would be made as comfortable as possible during his stay.
"As far as the embassy staff go they have been wonderful. The people are extremely nice. Ecuadorean people are genuinely warm. They're making sure he's got good food, he's warm and comfortable," she said.
Christine and Julian Assange speak on the phone when possible but she said their conversations were limited because, she believed, the lines were being monitored.
"There's very little we can say to each other which is personal," she said. "So it's really cut down the traction we can have. But we have a close relationship."
The embassy - which lists its official address as "Flat 3B, 3 Hans Crescent, London SW1" - is on the first floor of a six-storey mansion block, a style of brick apartment building popular around the turn of the last century in London. The block also hosts the Colombian embassy and private apartments.
The Ecuadorean embassy has no outside space beyond narrow balconies, rendering sunshine scarce for long-term inhabitants. WikiLeaks staff emerging from the building last week told supporters camped outside that Assange had a vitamin D lamp inside the room where he was living.
The block is across the street from the rear of Harrods, the luxury department store which draws thousands of shoppers and tourists daily. The store has a loading bay right next door to the embassy and movements of Harrods' trademark olive green trucks and vans have on occasion been blocked by throngs of Assange supporters and news crews filling the street.
Inside, unseen, Assange remains busy at his computer.
Living on takeaway meals in a small room with a treadmill to burn off frustrated energy and a vitamin D lamp to make up for a lack of sunlight, Julian Assange has the one material thing he values most: a computer with an Internet connection.
The WikiLeaks founder took refuge nine weeks ago at Ecuador's embassy in London to avoid being extradited to Sweden, where he is wanted for questioning over alleged rape. Having feared jail, he now finds himself living like a prisoner.
Yet British friend and supporter Vaughan Smith, who hosted Assange at his country mansion for a year during his failed legal battle against extradition, said the Australian was in good spirits and enjoying the virtual freedom of his computer.
"He seemed to be bearing up fine. The key to understanding Assange is that if he's got a computer he's normally happy," Smith told Reuters after he visited the embassy, housed on one floor of a red-brick apartment block in affluent Knightsbridge.
"The thing that concerns him most is the possibility he won't be able to work properly - and that's why he seems less keen on prison cells than on embassies."
On Sunday, the world had its first glimpse of Assange since June 19, when he slipped into the embassy. Last week, Ecuador, led by leftist president Rafael Correa, granted Assange asylum - but Britain still plans to arrest him if he tries to leave.
Appearing on a narrow balcony to berate the United States over what he called its "witch hunt" against his anti-secrecy website, the 41-year-old former computer hacker was in the full glare of the world's media for 10 minutes.
His distinctive white-blond hair now trimmed short, he wore a neatly pressed shirt and tie and appeared in good health, if rather tired. His speech delivered, he paused to survey cheering supporters, busy journalists and stern London police on the street below, before retreating to his private world within.
Smith said Assange was sleeping and working in a single small room that looked like someone's office hastily converted into living quarters. He had started out with an air mattress but that had now been replaced by a real bed.
"It's a small room. It has a window, but I wouldn't describe it as airy. I didn't see any kitchen facilities, though I understand he has access to a microwave. He has access to a shower. A supporter gave him a running machine," said Smith.
He declined to say what the window overlooked because he did not wish to identify the room to outsiders. Those embassy windows which are visible from the street have had curtains drawn all the time since Assange moved in.
"HE CAN DO WHAT HE NEEDS"
"It's pretty tight. He's divided the room up with a bookcase into a sleeping part and a non-sleeping part," said Smith.
"The key thing is he can work. He can hold meetings, he can invite some people in. He can do what he needs to do."
Ecuador granted him asylum on the grounds that Assange might be sent from Sweden to the United States to face WikiLeaks-related charges. Britain will not let him go to Ecuador from the embassy because its courts ruled he should be sent to Stockholm.
Assange's mother Christine, speaking by telephone from Australia, told Reuters she had received personal assurances from Ecuadorean Foreign Minister Ricardo Patino that her son would be made as comfortable as possible during his stay.
"As far as the embassy staff go they have been wonderful. The people are extremely nice. Ecuadorean people are genuinely warm. They're making sure he's got good food, he's warm and comfortable," she said.
Christine and Julian Assange speak on the phone when possible but she said their conversations were limited because, she believed, the lines were being monitored.
"There's very little we can say to each other which is personal," she said. "So it's really cut down the traction we can have. But we have a close relationship."
The embassy - which lists its official address as "Flat 3B, 3 Hans Crescent, London SW1" - is on the first floor of a six-storey mansion block, a style of brick apartment building popular around the turn of the last century in London. The block also hosts the Colombian embassy and private apartments.
The Ecuadorean embassy has no outside space beyond narrow balconies, rendering sunshine scarce for long-term inhabitants. WikiLeaks staff emerging from the building last week told supporters camped outside that Assange had a vitamin D lamp inside the room where he was living.
The block is across the street from the rear of Harrods, the luxury department store which draws thousands of shoppers and tourists daily. The store has a loading bay right next door to the embassy and movements of Harrods' trademark olive green trucks and vans have on occasion been blocked by throngs of Assange supporters and news crews filling the street.
Inside, unseen, Assange remains busy at his computer.
Monday, August 20, 2012
Tony Scott ends his life by jumping off a bridge
Tony Scott ends his life by jumping off a bridge
Los Angeles: British filmmaker Tony Scott, the man behind superhits like `Top Gun` and `Enemy of the State`, committed suicide after jumping off a bridge here.
Los Angeles police said they were investigating the death of 68-year-old Tony after a suicide note was found in his car and witnesses claimed to have seen him climb over a fence on the bridge and jump off.
His leap to death was reported around 12:30 pm. The bridge from where he jumped off spans San Pedro and Terminal Island in the LA county, the TMZ reported.
US Coast Guard Lt Jennifer Osburn said a suicide note was found in Scott`s Toyota Prius, which was parked on one of the eastbound lanes of the bridge.
Authorities used sonar equipment to find Scott`s body, which was recovered after four hours of search. His body has since been turned over to coroner officials.
Scott had given hits like "Beverly Hills Cop II," "Enemy of the State, "The Taking of Pelham 123", "The Last Boy Scout", "Crimson Tide", "Deja Vu" and "Unstoppable" in his career spanning over four decades.
He was best known for his work on the 1986 fighter jet adventure "Top Gun," which starred Tom Cruise as a hot-shot pilot.
Los Angeles: British filmmaker Tony Scott, the man behind superhits like `Top Gun` and `Enemy of the State`, committed suicide after jumping off a bridge here.
Los Angeles police said they were investigating the death of 68-year-old Tony after a suicide note was found in his car and witnesses claimed to have seen him climb over a fence on the bridge and jump off.
His leap to death was reported around 12:30 pm. The bridge from where he jumped off spans San Pedro and Terminal Island in the LA county, the TMZ reported.
US Coast Guard Lt Jennifer Osburn said a suicide note was found in Scott`s Toyota Prius, which was parked on one of the eastbound lanes of the bridge.
Authorities used sonar equipment to find Scott`s body, which was recovered after four hours of search. His body has since been turned over to coroner officials.
Scott had given hits like "Beverly Hills Cop II," "Enemy of the State, "The Taking of Pelham 123", "The Last Boy Scout", "Crimson Tide", "Deja Vu" and "Unstoppable" in his career spanning over four decades.
He was best known for his work on the 1986 fighter jet adventure "Top Gun," which starred Tom Cruise as a hot-shot pilot.
Friday, August 17, 2012
3 life sentences for man in Kensington stranglings
3 life sentences for man in Kensington stranglings
Antonio Rodriguez, the 23-year-old identified as the Kensington Strangler through DNA and his own chillingly clinical confessions of how he raped and killed three women, was convicted Thursday of murder and sentenced to three consecutive life terms in prison.
Philadelphia Common Pleas Court Judge Jeffrey P. Minehart, who heard the nonjury trial, found Rodriguez guilty of first-degree murder, involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, and abuse of corpse in the cases of Elaine Goldberg, 21; Nicole Piacentini, 35; and Casey Mahoney, 27.
Minehart called the three 2010 murders "horrific" and told Rodriguez: "You not only violated these women when they were alive, you violated them after they were dead. You didn't even give them peace."
Rodriguez did not testify and said nothing before he was sentenced to the mandatory life terms without parole. He stood, flanked by sheriff's deputies, rocking rhythmically side to side.
Rodriguez was sentenced right after the veteran homicide judge announced the verdict, but not before relatives described how the victims were loved and how the murders had wracked their lives.
"There is evil in this world and I have met it in this courtroom," said Robert Ruff, Goldberg's uncle.
Victim-impact statements are often filled with anger at the defendant, but Ruff's proved to be the exception in the courtroom Thursday.
In the last, dark days of their lives, according to trial testimony, the three women were addicted to drugs and had turned to prostitution to feed their habits.
On Wednesday, their families focused on happier times.
Joseph Goldberg called his oldest daughter "beautiful inside and out," and told how she helped care for her younger siblings. She was a popular student at Little Flower High School and an aspiring nurse at Gwynedd-Mercy College, he said.
"There are no words," Goldberg said. "There's just a huge part of me that died. I can see it in the faces of my children and her mother."
Leo M. Keller, Piacentini's stepfather, talked about the four children she left behind.
"When these things occur, it makes you question what is wrong with humanity that people do these things to each other," said the retired firefighter.
Keller then surprised many in court by looking at Rodriguez: "Believe it or not, go in peace, Mr. Rodriguez. May God be with you, because I know he's here with me."
Merri Kanzenberg, Mahoney's aunt and godmother, told Minehart she and Mahoney's mother, Shannon, lost not just a niece and daughter but her remains. Mahoney's body was cremated, she said, and the ashes released to a friend in East Stroudsburg, Pa., when police could not find Kanzenberg or her sister, who live on Long Island.
"We have suffered heartbreak that is a lifetime," she added. "There is no closure."
Rodriguez glanced periodically at his victims' relatives as they testified but showed no reaction.
Assistant District Attorneys Carlos Vega and Bridget Kirn decried Rodriguez's depravity in raping the women before and after they were dead and posing their half-naked bodies so they were "exposed to the world."
Vega pointed to the families and said the women's murders in November and December 2010 had forever poisoned the holidays for them.
"He has changed these people," Vega said. "Now, when it starts to get cold and there's a chill in the air, it's the chill of death."
Defense attorney William L. Bowe, who did not present any witnesses, said afterward that Rodriguez would appeal.
Bowe's defense effectively ended in January when, after an extensive psychological and background investigation of Rodriguez, he persuaded prosecutors to withdraw their plan to seek the death penalty if Rodriguez agreed to a nonjury trial.
The trial was anticlimactic. Identified through DNA, Rodriguez's last hope was that Minehart might suppress three brutally graphic statements he gave detectives after his Jan. 17, 2011, arrest. Rodriguez, a neighborhood drug seller, described strangling the women after bargaining for sex on the streets of Kensington.
When Minehart denied the suppression motion, the verdict was all but certain.
Antonio Rodriguez, the 23-year-old identified as the Kensington Strangler through DNA and his own chillingly clinical confessions of how he raped and killed three women, was convicted Thursday of murder and sentenced to three consecutive life terms in prison.
Philadelphia Common Pleas Court Judge Jeffrey P. Minehart, who heard the nonjury trial, found Rodriguez guilty of first-degree murder, involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, and abuse of corpse in the cases of Elaine Goldberg, 21; Nicole Piacentini, 35; and Casey Mahoney, 27.
Minehart called the three 2010 murders "horrific" and told Rodriguez: "You not only violated these women when they were alive, you violated them after they were dead. You didn't even give them peace."
Rodriguez did not testify and said nothing before he was sentenced to the mandatory life terms without parole. He stood, flanked by sheriff's deputies, rocking rhythmically side to side.
Rodriguez was sentenced right after the veteran homicide judge announced the verdict, but not before relatives described how the victims were loved and how the murders had wracked their lives.
"There is evil in this world and I have met it in this courtroom," said Robert Ruff, Goldberg's uncle.
Victim-impact statements are often filled with anger at the defendant, but Ruff's proved to be the exception in the courtroom Thursday.
In the last, dark days of their lives, according to trial testimony, the three women were addicted to drugs and had turned to prostitution to feed their habits.
On Wednesday, their families focused on happier times.
Joseph Goldberg called his oldest daughter "beautiful inside and out," and told how she helped care for her younger siblings. She was a popular student at Little Flower High School and an aspiring nurse at Gwynedd-Mercy College, he said.
"There are no words," Goldberg said. "There's just a huge part of me that died. I can see it in the faces of my children and her mother."
Leo M. Keller, Piacentini's stepfather, talked about the four children she left behind.
"When these things occur, it makes you question what is wrong with humanity that people do these things to each other," said the retired firefighter.
Keller then surprised many in court by looking at Rodriguez: "Believe it or not, go in peace, Mr. Rodriguez. May God be with you, because I know he's here with me."
Merri Kanzenberg, Mahoney's aunt and godmother, told Minehart she and Mahoney's mother, Shannon, lost not just a niece and daughter but her remains. Mahoney's body was cremated, she said, and the ashes released to a friend in East Stroudsburg, Pa., when police could not find Kanzenberg or her sister, who live on Long Island.
"We have suffered heartbreak that is a lifetime," she added. "There is no closure."
Rodriguez glanced periodically at his victims' relatives as they testified but showed no reaction.
Assistant District Attorneys Carlos Vega and Bridget Kirn decried Rodriguez's depravity in raping the women before and after they were dead and posing their half-naked bodies so they were "exposed to the world."
Vega pointed to the families and said the women's murders in November and December 2010 had forever poisoned the holidays for them.
"He has changed these people," Vega said. "Now, when it starts to get cold and there's a chill in the air, it's the chill of death."
Defense attorney William L. Bowe, who did not present any witnesses, said afterward that Rodriguez would appeal.
Bowe's defense effectively ended in January when, after an extensive psychological and background investigation of Rodriguez, he persuaded prosecutors to withdraw their plan to seek the death penalty if Rodriguez agreed to a nonjury trial.
The trial was anticlimactic. Identified through DNA, Rodriguez's last hope was that Minehart might suppress three brutally graphic statements he gave detectives after his Jan. 17, 2011, arrest. Rodriguez, a neighborhood drug seller, described strangling the women after bargaining for sex on the streets of Kensington.
When Minehart denied the suppression motion, the verdict was all but certain.
Thursday, August 16, 2012
Nellie Gray, founder of March for Life, dies
Nellie Gray, founder of March for Life, dies
Nellie Gray left a government career to start the March for Life, the annual anti-abortion demonstration that for nearly four decades has drawn tens of thousands of activists to Washington to speak out on one of the most polarizing of American social issues.
Miss Gray, 88, was found dead Monday, Aug. 13, in her Washington home by Gene Ruane, a colleague at the March for Life Education and Defense Fund, where Miss Gray was president, Ruane said. A medical examiner will determine the cause of death, he said.
The March for Life, held each January on the anniversary of the 1973 U.S. Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion nationwide, is reported to have drawn as many as 70,000 activists in any given year since its inception in 1974. The figures do not include the counterprotesters who often converge on Washington at the same time.
March for Life protesters traditionally wear red and carry red roses, a symbol of what is known within the movement as "the pre-born child," and sometimes refer to the event as "Nellie's March," in honor of its founder.
"This is the land of the free, the place to come for advancement. ... How is it that a country built on this would kill babies?" Miss Gray told The Washington Post in 1993. "I don't understand slavery. I don't understand the Holocaust. I don't understand abortion."
Miss Gray, a career woman and a Democrat, was working as a Labor Department lawyer when the Supreme Court handed down the landmark abortion ruling in Roe v. Wade.
Horrified by the decision, she left work at 48 and began a second career in the forefront of the abortion debate.
As she told the story, she and about 30 other activists gathered in her home on Capitol Hill in fall 1973 to plan a demonstration for the following January.
"We just thought we were going to march one time and Congress would certainly pay attention to 20,000 people coming in the middle of winter to tell them to overturn Roe v. Wade," she once told the Religion News Service.
When that did not happen, Miss Gray soldiered on. Her basement, cluttered with buttons and banners, became the headquarters for a movement, often distributing news releases printed in red ink.
Her prominence is explained by her longevity and doggedness. During President Ronald Reagan's first term, she once reportedly declined to meet with him with other protesters in the Oval Office because he had not attended her rally, sending his secretary for health and human services instead. (In 1985, just after he was sworn in for his second term, Reagan became the first U.S. president to address the annual rally.)
Miss Gray's philosophy was "no exceptions, no compromise," and she referred to some of her detractors as "feminist abortionists." She held the view that life begins at conception and opposed abortion in all circumstances, including in cases when the mother's life is endangered by the pregnancy or in instances of incest or rape.
The March for Life celebrated a significant victory with the passage in 1977 of the Hyde amendment, which banned federal funding for abortions. But Miss Gray regarded the victory as incomplete, arguing that it ultimately suggested that "killing babies is all right if you have the money to pay for it."
Nellie Jane Gray was born June 25, 1924, in Big Spring, Texas, the daughter of a mechanic and a homemaker. She was baptized into the Catholic Church and cited her faith as a "very strong influence" in her life.
After serving in the Women's Army Corps during World War II, she received a bachelor's degree in business from what is now Texas Woman's University. She attended Georgetown University at night and received a law degree in 1959.
In 1970, as the women's liberation movement gathered strength, Miss Gray attended a hearing on regulations for D.C. abortion clinics. She said she was "appalled that you actually had people telling a government body that you need regulations for killing babies."
Miss Gray worked primarily for the State Department, where she did economic research, and later in the Labor Department's legislative division. She had no immediate survivors.
Nellie Gray left a government career to start the March for Life, the annual anti-abortion demonstration that for nearly four decades has drawn tens of thousands of activists to Washington to speak out on one of the most polarizing of American social issues.
Miss Gray, 88, was found dead Monday, Aug. 13, in her Washington home by Gene Ruane, a colleague at the March for Life Education and Defense Fund, where Miss Gray was president, Ruane said. A medical examiner will determine the cause of death, he said.
The March for Life, held each January on the anniversary of the 1973 U.S. Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion nationwide, is reported to have drawn as many as 70,000 activists in any given year since its inception in 1974. The figures do not include the counterprotesters who often converge on Washington at the same time.
March for Life protesters traditionally wear red and carry red roses, a symbol of what is known within the movement as "the pre-born child," and sometimes refer to the event as "Nellie's March," in honor of its founder.
"This is the land of the free, the place to come for advancement. ... How is it that a country built on this would kill babies?" Miss Gray told The Washington Post in 1993. "I don't understand slavery. I don't understand the Holocaust. I don't understand abortion."
Miss Gray, a career woman and a Democrat, was working as a Labor Department lawyer when the Supreme Court handed down the landmark abortion ruling in Roe v. Wade.
Horrified by the decision, she left work at 48 and began a second career in the forefront of the abortion debate.
As she told the story, she and about 30 other activists gathered in her home on Capitol Hill in fall 1973 to plan a demonstration for the following January.
"We just thought we were going to march one time and Congress would certainly pay attention to 20,000 people coming in the middle of winter to tell them to overturn Roe v. Wade," she once told the Religion News Service.
When that did not happen, Miss Gray soldiered on. Her basement, cluttered with buttons and banners, became the headquarters for a movement, often distributing news releases printed in red ink.
Her prominence is explained by her longevity and doggedness. During President Ronald Reagan's first term, she once reportedly declined to meet with him with other protesters in the Oval Office because he had not attended her rally, sending his secretary for health and human services instead. (In 1985, just after he was sworn in for his second term, Reagan became the first U.S. president to address the annual rally.)
Miss Gray's philosophy was "no exceptions, no compromise," and she referred to some of her detractors as "feminist abortionists." She held the view that life begins at conception and opposed abortion in all circumstances, including in cases when the mother's life is endangered by the pregnancy or in instances of incest or rape.
The March for Life celebrated a significant victory with the passage in 1977 of the Hyde amendment, which banned federal funding for abortions. But Miss Gray regarded the victory as incomplete, arguing that it ultimately suggested that "killing babies is all right if you have the money to pay for it."
Nellie Jane Gray was born June 25, 1924, in Big Spring, Texas, the daughter of a mechanic and a homemaker. She was baptized into the Catholic Church and cited her faith as a "very strong influence" in her life.
After serving in the Women's Army Corps during World War II, she received a bachelor's degree in business from what is now Texas Woman's University. She attended Georgetown University at night and received a law degree in 1959.
In 1970, as the women's liberation movement gathered strength, Miss Gray attended a hearing on regulations for D.C. abortion clinics. She said she was "appalled that you actually had people telling a government body that you need regulations for killing babies."
Miss Gray worked primarily for the State Department, where she did economic research, and later in the Labor Department's legislative division. She had no immediate survivors.
Wednesday, August 15, 2012
Life of Pi to open New York Film Fest
Life of Pi to open New York Film Fest
ANG LEE’S LIFE of Pi has been selected as the opening-night attraction at the New York Film Festival, the Film Society of Lincoln Center announced on Monday.
The film will make its world premiere on September 28 to kick off the 50th NYFF. It is Lee’s second film to open the festival, after The Ice Storm in 1997. His Oscar-winning Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon was NYFF’s closing-night attraction in 2000.
With the selection, Lee becomes the fourth director to have more than one film open NYFF. Robert Altman, Pedro Almodovar and Francois Truffaut are the others.
The film will screen in 3D, making it the first NYFF opener in that format.
Life of Pi, based on the novel by Yann Martel, deals with a young man who survives a disaster at sea with the seeming help of some unusual companions.
“Life of Pi is a perfect combination of technological innovation and a strong artistic vision,” said Richard Peña, selection committee chairman and program director for the Film Society of Lincoln Center, in a press release announcing the selection.
“Ang Lee has managed to make a deeply moving, engrossing work that will delight audiences as much as it will astonish them. We’re enormously proud to have this film for our Opening Night for the 50th NYFF.”
Said Lee, “I have the deepest respect for Richard Peña and his team and to be selected by them as the Opening Night Film for the 50th Anniversary is extremely gratifying. I am also excited because this is my hometown, and to be unveiling this film that I am so proud of here is a real pleasure.”
Based on a novel that sold more than seven million copies, Life of Pi is considered one of the fall’s clear awards contenders, and its booking is a coup for NYFF. The festival will conclude on October 14 with a screening of Robert Zemeckis’ Flight.
ANG LEE’S LIFE of Pi has been selected as the opening-night attraction at the New York Film Festival, the Film Society of Lincoln Center announced on Monday.
The film will make its world premiere on September 28 to kick off the 50th NYFF. It is Lee’s second film to open the festival, after The Ice Storm in 1997. His Oscar-winning Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon was NYFF’s closing-night attraction in 2000.
With the selection, Lee becomes the fourth director to have more than one film open NYFF. Robert Altman, Pedro Almodovar and Francois Truffaut are the others.
The film will screen in 3D, making it the first NYFF opener in that format.
Life of Pi, based on the novel by Yann Martel, deals with a young man who survives a disaster at sea with the seeming help of some unusual companions.
“Life of Pi is a perfect combination of technological innovation and a strong artistic vision,” said Richard Peña, selection committee chairman and program director for the Film Society of Lincoln Center, in a press release announcing the selection.
“Ang Lee has managed to make a deeply moving, engrossing work that will delight audiences as much as it will astonish them. We’re enormously proud to have this film for our Opening Night for the 50th NYFF.”
Said Lee, “I have the deepest respect for Richard Peña and his team and to be selected by them as the Opening Night Film for the 50th Anniversary is extremely gratifying. I am also excited because this is my hometown, and to be unveiling this film that I am so proud of here is a real pleasure.”
Based on a novel that sold more than seven million copies, Life of Pi is considered one of the fall’s clear awards contenders, and its booking is a coup for NYFF. The festival will conclude on October 14 with a screening of Robert Zemeckis’ Flight.
Tuesday, August 14, 2012
UPDATE 1-Standard Life profit up on UK growth, cost cuts
UPDATE 1-Standard Life profit up on UK growth, cost cuts
LONDON, Aug 14 (Reuters) - British insurer Standard Life on Tuesday said its half-year profit rose by a forecast-beating 15 percent thanks to cost cuts and strong growth in Britain.
Edinburgh-based Standard Life, Britain's fifth-biggest insurer, made an operating profit of 302 million pounds ($474 million) in the first six months of 2012, surpassing the 254 million pounds expected by analysts in a company poll
The improvement was driven by Standard Life's British business, where profit jumped 62 percent as sales of self-invested personal pensions rose by a fifth and more customers signed up to the insurer's online investment platforms.
Standard Life also benefited from an 18 percent drop in set-up costs associated with writing new life insurance business.
That offset a 30 percent decline in profit at its Canadian unit, blamed on lower sales of corporate saving and retirement products.
Standard Life, which has been investing in new products and technology to prepare for regulatory changes which will ban insurers from paying commission to middlemen, said it was on course to keep growing despite a "challenging" environment.
The company is paying a dividend of 4.9 pence per share, an increase of 6.5 percent.
Standard Life shares closed at 256.7 pence on Monday, valuing the company at about 6.1 billion pounds. The stock has risen 24 percent since the start of the year, outperforming a 16 percent increase for the Stoxx 600 European insurance share index. ($1 = 0.6368 British pounds); Editing by Matt Scuffham
LONDON, Aug 14 (Reuters) - British insurer Standard Life on Tuesday said its half-year profit rose by a forecast-beating 15 percent thanks to cost cuts and strong growth in Britain.
Edinburgh-based Standard Life, Britain's fifth-biggest insurer, made an operating profit of 302 million pounds ($474 million) in the first six months of 2012, surpassing the 254 million pounds expected by analysts in a company poll
The improvement was driven by Standard Life's British business, where profit jumped 62 percent as sales of self-invested personal pensions rose by a fifth and more customers signed up to the insurer's online investment platforms.
Standard Life also benefited from an 18 percent drop in set-up costs associated with writing new life insurance business.
That offset a 30 percent decline in profit at its Canadian unit, blamed on lower sales of corporate saving and retirement products.
Standard Life, which has been investing in new products and technology to prepare for regulatory changes which will ban insurers from paying commission to middlemen, said it was on course to keep growing despite a "challenging" environment.
The company is paying a dividend of 4.9 pence per share, an increase of 6.5 percent.
Standard Life shares closed at 256.7 pence on Monday, valuing the company at about 6.1 billion pounds. The stock has risen 24 percent since the start of the year, outperforming a 16 percent increase for the Stoxx 600 European insurance share index. ($1 = 0.6368 British pounds); Editing by Matt Scuffham
Monday, August 13, 2012
KP pays price for life as an outsider
KP pays price for life as an outsider
Now that dangerously narcissistic element of Pietersen’s personality, which has landed him in hot water so many times in his troubled career, has come back to haunt him again in spectacular fashion.
Pietersen is by far England’s most naturally gifted strokemaker, but his international career lies in tatters after a dramatic week that started with allegations he sent text messages to South African players containing derogatory comments about English captain Andrew Strauss and coach Andy Flower.
The 32-year-old, who had just scored a superb century in the drawn second test against South Africa at Headingley, followed that bombshell by claiming he was ready to walk away from the sport due to what he perceived as problems in the England squad that he said “made it hard being me”.
And then, with speculation increasing that he would be dropped when the third test squad was named on Sunday, the saga took a bizarre twist when Pietersen posted a video on YouTube on Saturday in which he claimed he was now ready to play in all forms of international cricket having previously opted out of limited overs action.
That seems to have been a misguided attempt to curry favour with the public when his fate was already sealed because just 24 hours later the England selectors confirmed that Pietersen had been axed.
Pietersen’s refusal to follow the team-first ethos that Strauss and Flower have been so determined to implement eventually proved too much for the selectors and even some of his team-mates.
The texting allegations played a significant role as such blatant criticism was a clear challenge to the England hierarchy.
“It was agreed that a number of actions needed to be completed to re-engage Kevin within the England dressing room. A fundamental item was to confirm publicly that no derogatory texts had been sent by Kevin to the South African team. This has not been forthcoming,” Hugh Morris, Managing Director of England Cricket, said.
“The success of the England team has been built on a unity of purpose and trust. Whilst we have made every attempt to find a solution to enable Kevin to be selected we have sadly had to conclude that, in the best interest of the team, he will miss the Lord’s Test.”
Pietersen’s attempt to run roughshod over a tough customer like Flower, who once wore a black armband in a World Cup match to protest against the policies of Zimbabwe’s government, led by notorious dictator Robert Mugabe, has backfired in stunning fashion.
And for Pietersen to somehow salvage his England career now, the Surrey star — who responded to the decision by insisting he remains available for selection — will have to change the habit of a lifetime and bow down to the authorities.
After leaving South Africa in protest against the quota selection system that he feared would kill his international career, Pietersen pursued a career in England and trouble was never far away.
He left Nottinghamshire, his first English county, under a cloud after threatening to sue for unfair dismissal, even though they insisted he had not been sacked.
But Pietersen’s ability to produce remarkable performances at the moment of maximum pressure ensured he became a key member of England’s side.
He hit a century to help England regain the Ashes with a draw in the final test at The Oval in 2005 and by 2008 Pietersen had won enough admirers to earn the test and one-day captaincy.
But reports of a personality clash between Pietersen and coach Peter Moores quickly surfaced in 2009 and he resigned soon after.
After helping retain the Ashes in 2010, Pietersen was back in trouble when he was fined by the ECB for criticising former England batsman Nick Knight on Twitter.
If that was a storm in a teacup, this latest controversy could prove far more damaging to Pietersen’s legacy.
Now that dangerously narcissistic element of Pietersen’s personality, which has landed him in hot water so many times in his troubled career, has come back to haunt him again in spectacular fashion.
Pietersen is by far England’s most naturally gifted strokemaker, but his international career lies in tatters after a dramatic week that started with allegations he sent text messages to South African players containing derogatory comments about English captain Andrew Strauss and coach Andy Flower.
The 32-year-old, who had just scored a superb century in the drawn second test against South Africa at Headingley, followed that bombshell by claiming he was ready to walk away from the sport due to what he perceived as problems in the England squad that he said “made it hard being me”.
And then, with speculation increasing that he would be dropped when the third test squad was named on Sunday, the saga took a bizarre twist when Pietersen posted a video on YouTube on Saturday in which he claimed he was now ready to play in all forms of international cricket having previously opted out of limited overs action.
That seems to have been a misguided attempt to curry favour with the public when his fate was already sealed because just 24 hours later the England selectors confirmed that Pietersen had been axed.
Pietersen’s refusal to follow the team-first ethos that Strauss and Flower have been so determined to implement eventually proved too much for the selectors and even some of his team-mates.
The texting allegations played a significant role as such blatant criticism was a clear challenge to the England hierarchy.
“It was agreed that a number of actions needed to be completed to re-engage Kevin within the England dressing room. A fundamental item was to confirm publicly that no derogatory texts had been sent by Kevin to the South African team. This has not been forthcoming,” Hugh Morris, Managing Director of England Cricket, said.
“The success of the England team has been built on a unity of purpose and trust. Whilst we have made every attempt to find a solution to enable Kevin to be selected we have sadly had to conclude that, in the best interest of the team, he will miss the Lord’s Test.”
Pietersen’s attempt to run roughshod over a tough customer like Flower, who once wore a black armband in a World Cup match to protest against the policies of Zimbabwe’s government, led by notorious dictator Robert Mugabe, has backfired in stunning fashion.
And for Pietersen to somehow salvage his England career now, the Surrey star — who responded to the decision by insisting he remains available for selection — will have to change the habit of a lifetime and bow down to the authorities.
After leaving South Africa in protest against the quota selection system that he feared would kill his international career, Pietersen pursued a career in England and trouble was never far away.
He left Nottinghamshire, his first English county, under a cloud after threatening to sue for unfair dismissal, even though they insisted he had not been sacked.
But Pietersen’s ability to produce remarkable performances at the moment of maximum pressure ensured he became a key member of England’s side.
He hit a century to help England regain the Ashes with a draw in the final test at The Oval in 2005 and by 2008 Pietersen had won enough admirers to earn the test and one-day captaincy.
But reports of a personality clash between Pietersen and coach Peter Moores quickly surfaced in 2009 and he resigned soon after.
After helping retain the Ashes in 2010, Pietersen was back in trouble when he was fined by the ECB for criticising former England batsman Nick Knight on Twitter.
If that was a storm in a teacup, this latest controversy could prove far more damaging to Pietersen’s legacy.
Friday, August 10, 2012
Paul Domowitch: A glimpse of life without Vick
Paul Domowitch: A glimpse of life without Vick
OK, WHO had the second quarter of the first preseason game in the when-will-Michael-Vick-get-hurt pool? Twenty minutes. That's how long it took for the nervousness over the possibility of Life Without Mike to turn into genuine panic.
On a third-and-8 play from his own 22 with 9:57 left in the second quarter of Thursday night's 24-23 preseason win over the Steelers, Vick heaved an incompletion over the head of tight end Clay Harbor. During his follow-through, he slammed his throwing hand into the back of center Jason Kelce's helmet.
Vick came off the field holding the hand, clearly in pain. But Eagles Nation managed to exhale a little later when it was announced that a halftime X-ray of the quarterback's left thumb was negative.
"It was just a thumb contusion," coach Andy Reid said. "By the end of the game he was fine. He hit the top of the thumb in the nerve area and it was numb for a little while. But he was gripping the ball fine at the end of the game."
Vick said he expects to be able to practice Saturday when the Eagles return to Lehigh. "The finger wasn't as bad as I thought," he said.
Vick played just two series in the Eagles' first preseason game. He completed three of four passes on those two series, but for only 6 yards, and was sacked once. The Eagles went three-and-out on both series.
The feeling of most, including Reid, is that Vick needs to stay healthy this season if the Eagles hope to make a Super Bowl run. Reid has mentioned on more than one occasion that the quarterbacks for all four of last season's conference championship combatants - the Giants' Eli Manning, the 49ers' Alex Smith, the Ravens' Joe Flacco and the Patriots' Tom Brady - didn't miss a start in 2011. If you needed more reason to worry about Life Without Mike, you got it on the Eagles' very next offensive series when Vick was replaced by his projected season-opening backup, Mike Kafka.
On a second-and-21 at the Pittsburgh 39, Kafka faked a handoff and spun to his right, only to find Steelers linebacker Brandon Johnson breathing in his face. Kafka turned to his left and threw a hurried pass in the direction of rookie running back Bryce Brown. But it never reached Brown. Al Woods, a 307-pound defensive end, stepped in front of the pass and returned it 53 yards to the 4-yard line.
Kafka, like Vick, played just two series. He was 5-for-9 for just 31 yards.
If anyone offered some comfort over the possibility of Life Without Mike, it was rookie Nick Foles. The third-round pick out of Arizona entered the game in the third quarter and showed off his strong arm, throwing long touchdown passes to fellow rookie Damaris Johnson and Mardy Gilyard.
His 70-yard scoring pass to Johnson with 8:01 left in the third quarter was impressive. He stepped up to avoid a rush, started to run, then heaved the ball 46 yards in the air to a wide-open Johnson, who caught it at the Pittsburgh 28 and ran untouched into the end zone.
On the very first play of the next possession, Foles hit Gilyard with a deep ball for a 43-yard touchdown. Gilyard was closely guarded on the play by cornerback Curtis Brown, but Foles' throw was right on the money.
Foles, who played the entire third quarter, completed six of 10 passes for 144 yards, two touchdowns and no interceptions. He finished with a 143.8 passer rating.
Kafka and veteran Trent Edwards were supposed to battle for the backup job in training camp. But Edwards never was a factor. He struggled in the spring OTAs and minicamps and has gotten limited reps in camp. He has dropped to No. 4 on the depth chart. Edwards, who has 33 career starts, didn't enter Thursday's game until the fourth quarter, when both teams had their bottom-of-the-roster players in the game.
To his credit, Edwards played well, completing 12 of 20 passes for 106 yards and throwing a 16-yard touchdown pass to wide receiver Jamel Hamler, who, like Edwards, almost certainly won't be on the roster when the Eagles open the season against in Cleveland on Sept. 9.
It will be interesting to watch Foles' development after his impressive performance against the Steelers, and see if he starts to get more practice reps at Lehigh. He clearly has a stronger arm than Kafka. But for all his physical assets, including a sturdy 6-6, 243-pound body that looks impressive in the pocket, he's still a rookie whose college team won just four games last season. Unless Kafka plays really poorly during the rest of training camp and the preseason, he likely will hold on to the backup job, with Foles opening the season as the team's third quarterback.
"Everything's open," Reid said when asked if Kafka definitely will be the season-opening backup quarterback. "I keep it wide open at all positions."
But that could change with more performances like Thursday night. How that might affect your nervousness over the possibility of Life Without Mike remains to be seen.
"I thought Nick did a pretty good job," Reid said. "He was a little bit slow, a little bit hesitant on his first couple of throws. But he did a real nice job on that pass to Damaris. He got out of the pocket and kept his eyes downfield. That was good to see."
Said Foles: "I was just moving and saw the safety go with Mardy [Gilyard]. So I knew we had a downfield shot. I just wanted to throw him a ball he could adjust to. I underthrew it a little bit, but he made a nice play.''
Asked whether he has given any thought to the possibility of beating out Kafka for the backup job, Foles said, "It's one game. I'm just going to work every day and trying to get better. I'm learning from these guys and they're helping me along the way.
"I still have a lot of work to do. That's the coach's job [to decide the backup to Vick]. My job is to learn from these guys."
OK, WHO had the second quarter of the first preseason game in the when-will-Michael-Vick-get-hurt pool? Twenty minutes. That's how long it took for the nervousness over the possibility of Life Without Mike to turn into genuine panic.
On a third-and-8 play from his own 22 with 9:57 left in the second quarter of Thursday night's 24-23 preseason win over the Steelers, Vick heaved an incompletion over the head of tight end Clay Harbor. During his follow-through, he slammed his throwing hand into the back of center Jason Kelce's helmet.
Vick came off the field holding the hand, clearly in pain. But Eagles Nation managed to exhale a little later when it was announced that a halftime X-ray of the quarterback's left thumb was negative.
"It was just a thumb contusion," coach Andy Reid said. "By the end of the game he was fine. He hit the top of the thumb in the nerve area and it was numb for a little while. But he was gripping the ball fine at the end of the game."
Vick said he expects to be able to practice Saturday when the Eagles return to Lehigh. "The finger wasn't as bad as I thought," he said.
Vick played just two series in the Eagles' first preseason game. He completed three of four passes on those two series, but for only 6 yards, and was sacked once. The Eagles went three-and-out on both series.
The feeling of most, including Reid, is that Vick needs to stay healthy this season if the Eagles hope to make a Super Bowl run. Reid has mentioned on more than one occasion that the quarterbacks for all four of last season's conference championship combatants - the Giants' Eli Manning, the 49ers' Alex Smith, the Ravens' Joe Flacco and the Patriots' Tom Brady - didn't miss a start in 2011. If you needed more reason to worry about Life Without Mike, you got it on the Eagles' very next offensive series when Vick was replaced by his projected season-opening backup, Mike Kafka.
On a second-and-21 at the Pittsburgh 39, Kafka faked a handoff and spun to his right, only to find Steelers linebacker Brandon Johnson breathing in his face. Kafka turned to his left and threw a hurried pass in the direction of rookie running back Bryce Brown. But it never reached Brown. Al Woods, a 307-pound defensive end, stepped in front of the pass and returned it 53 yards to the 4-yard line.
Kafka, like Vick, played just two series. He was 5-for-9 for just 31 yards.
If anyone offered some comfort over the possibility of Life Without Mike, it was rookie Nick Foles. The third-round pick out of Arizona entered the game in the third quarter and showed off his strong arm, throwing long touchdown passes to fellow rookie Damaris Johnson and Mardy Gilyard.
His 70-yard scoring pass to Johnson with 8:01 left in the third quarter was impressive. He stepped up to avoid a rush, started to run, then heaved the ball 46 yards in the air to a wide-open Johnson, who caught it at the Pittsburgh 28 and ran untouched into the end zone.
On the very first play of the next possession, Foles hit Gilyard with a deep ball for a 43-yard touchdown. Gilyard was closely guarded on the play by cornerback Curtis Brown, but Foles' throw was right on the money.
Foles, who played the entire third quarter, completed six of 10 passes for 144 yards, two touchdowns and no interceptions. He finished with a 143.8 passer rating.
Kafka and veteran Trent Edwards were supposed to battle for the backup job in training camp. But Edwards never was a factor. He struggled in the spring OTAs and minicamps and has gotten limited reps in camp. He has dropped to No. 4 on the depth chart. Edwards, who has 33 career starts, didn't enter Thursday's game until the fourth quarter, when both teams had their bottom-of-the-roster players in the game.
To his credit, Edwards played well, completing 12 of 20 passes for 106 yards and throwing a 16-yard touchdown pass to wide receiver Jamel Hamler, who, like Edwards, almost certainly won't be on the roster when the Eagles open the season against in Cleveland on Sept. 9.
It will be interesting to watch Foles' development after his impressive performance against the Steelers, and see if he starts to get more practice reps at Lehigh. He clearly has a stronger arm than Kafka. But for all his physical assets, including a sturdy 6-6, 243-pound body that looks impressive in the pocket, he's still a rookie whose college team won just four games last season. Unless Kafka plays really poorly during the rest of training camp and the preseason, he likely will hold on to the backup job, with Foles opening the season as the team's third quarterback.
"Everything's open," Reid said when asked if Kafka definitely will be the season-opening backup quarterback. "I keep it wide open at all positions."
But that could change with more performances like Thursday night. How that might affect your nervousness over the possibility of Life Without Mike remains to be seen.
"I thought Nick did a pretty good job," Reid said. "He was a little bit slow, a little bit hesitant on his first couple of throws. But he did a real nice job on that pass to Damaris. He got out of the pocket and kept his eyes downfield. That was good to see."
Said Foles: "I was just moving and saw the safety go with Mardy [Gilyard]. So I knew we had a downfield shot. I just wanted to throw him a ball he could adjust to. I underthrew it a little bit, but he made a nice play.''
Asked whether he has given any thought to the possibility of beating out Kafka for the backup job, Foles said, "It's one game. I'm just going to work every day and trying to get better. I'm learning from these guys and they're helping me along the way.
"I still have a lot of work to do. That's the coach's job [to decide the backup to Vick]. My job is to learn from these guys."
Thursday, August 9, 2012
Life is not enough, says Michelles husband
Life is not enough, says Michelles husband
Surasak Suwannachot and Surin Tadtong were both charged with killing for personal gain, killing in association with one another, carrying weapons in public and conspiracy to commit robbery, after Ms Smith was stabbed during a botched handbag robbery on June 20.
They were initially sentenced to death (see earlier story here) but the two judges commuted the sentence for both men to life imprisonment because they had cooperated with the court and had admitted their guilt.
Mrs Smith’s husband Geoff said he would have preferred the death sentence.
“I thought they might have got the death sentence but life in jail over there is different to life in jail here, I guess,” he told the Watoday website.
Mr Smith said the sentence did little to help him deal with the devastation of losing his wife.
The rapid conclusion to the case – it took just six weeks from Mrs Smith’s death – would help with the healing process, the website reported.
“It doesn’t make it any easier but it’s a step towards closure,” Mr Smith was quoted as saying.
After yesterday’s judgement both men were taken straight from the court to begin their sentences in the Phuket Provincial Prison.
Mrs Smith was stabbed in the evening of June 20 during a botched bag-snatching as she and fellow travel agent Tammee Lynn walked back from dinner to their resort, the Katathani in Kata Noi.
Just about 100 metres from the resort, Surin and Surasak stopped next to them and Surasak tried to grab Mrs Smith’s handbag. She clung on to it, so Surasak got off the bike and, as Ms Lynn came to Mrs Smith’s aid, swung a large knife over his head, stabbing down at the two women.
He then gave up on the robbery, and he and Surin sped off.
Ms Lynn was slashed in the arm, but Mrs Smith was stabbed in the chest, the knife penetrating her heart. By the time the two reached the resort, Mrs Smith was already dying. She expired outside the staff entrance.
A major manhunt was launched, backed by a reward of B300,000 for information leading to the arrest of the duo. Thanks to careful police work, police were able to get their mobile phone numbers and, through these, the men’s whereabouts.
Both were arrested just five days later, Surin in Samut Sakorn, near Bangkok, and Surasak in Chumphon province.
Surasak Suwannachot and Surin Tadtong were both charged with killing for personal gain, killing in association with one another, carrying weapons in public and conspiracy to commit robbery, after Ms Smith was stabbed during a botched handbag robbery on June 20.
They were initially sentenced to death (see earlier story here) but the two judges commuted the sentence for both men to life imprisonment because they had cooperated with the court and had admitted their guilt.
Mrs Smith’s husband Geoff said he would have preferred the death sentence.
“I thought they might have got the death sentence but life in jail over there is different to life in jail here, I guess,” he told the Watoday website.
Mr Smith said the sentence did little to help him deal with the devastation of losing his wife.
The rapid conclusion to the case – it took just six weeks from Mrs Smith’s death – would help with the healing process, the website reported.
“It doesn’t make it any easier but it’s a step towards closure,” Mr Smith was quoted as saying.
After yesterday’s judgement both men were taken straight from the court to begin their sentences in the Phuket Provincial Prison.
Mrs Smith was stabbed in the evening of June 20 during a botched bag-snatching as she and fellow travel agent Tammee Lynn walked back from dinner to their resort, the Katathani in Kata Noi.
Just about 100 metres from the resort, Surin and Surasak stopped next to them and Surasak tried to grab Mrs Smith’s handbag. She clung on to it, so Surasak got off the bike and, as Ms Lynn came to Mrs Smith’s aid, swung a large knife over his head, stabbing down at the two women.
He then gave up on the robbery, and he and Surin sped off.
Ms Lynn was slashed in the arm, but Mrs Smith was stabbed in the chest, the knife penetrating her heart. By the time the two reached the resort, Mrs Smith was already dying. She expired outside the staff entrance.
A major manhunt was launched, backed by a reward of B300,000 for information leading to the arrest of the duo. Thanks to careful police work, police were able to get their mobile phone numbers and, through these, the men’s whereabouts.
Both were arrested just five days later, Surin in Samut Sakorn, near Bangkok, and Surasak in Chumphon province.
Wednesday, August 8, 2012
Attorneys for teenager given life want new hearing
Attorneys for teenager given life want new hearing
The federal public defender in Pittsburgh said that a Blair County man sentenced to life without parole when he was a teenager should be given a new sentencing hearing because of a recent ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court calling such mandatory sentences for juveniles cruel and unusual punishment.
Blair County District Attorney Richard A. Consiglio said Tuesday the U.S. Supreme Court in its landmark decision, Miller vs. Alabama, did not rule out life without parole for juveniles convicted of murder, but did state that making such a sentence mandatory is unconstitutional.
Under the U.S. Supreme Court ruling, Consiglio said, a sentencing judge must be given the opportunity to review mitigating circumstances, such as the youth's propensity for rehabilitation, to decide if parole might be a possibility.
The decision is likely to have its greatest impact in Pennsylvania, which has 400 or more lifers convicted of killings committed when they were juveniles.
Two of those lifers are from Blair County - James "Frankie" Rodgers, convicted of killing an elderly man in 1988 by stabbing him between 70 and 80 times during a home robbery, and Leonard Bocchicchio, who in 1980 killed a 75-year-old owner of a bowling alley along Pleasant Valley Boulevard. Both Rodgers and Bocchicchio were 17 at the time of the murders.
Bocchicchio, now 49, is serving his life term at the State Correctional Institution at Houtzdale, while Rodgers, 42, is behind bars at SCI Somerset.
Consiglio said he hasn't heard from Bocchicchio since the U.S. Supreme Court ruling but has heard from Lisa B. Freeland, the federal public defender in Pittsburgh representing Rodgers, stating he should be granted a new sentencing hearing.
"Because Mr. Rodgers is serving an unconstitutional mandatory life without the possibility of parole sentence, the conviction and sentence which he is challenging before this court [U.S. District Court in Johnstown], he is entitled to a new sentencing hearing in state court," Freeland stated in a petition filed with a federal magistrate
On Monday, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court stepped into the picture in an effort to provide more clarity to the U.S. Supreme Court decision. It is tackling the question of whether the U.S. Supreme Court decision is retroactive, meaning that it applies to juvenile killers already serving life without parole.
Andy Hoover of the American Civil Liberties Union said lawmakers should act to ban juvenile life sentences altogether.
"It's going to be difficult for the Legislature to set up a scheme that maintains life without parole for kids but makes it rare," he said.
Consiglio said on Tuesday the state's prosecutors also want clarification of the U.S. Supreme Court decision. At a state Senate hearing in July, the association representing Pennsylvania district attorneys opposed retroactive application of the Supreme Court ruling and argued for a sentencing scheme in which the juvenile lifers would not be eligible for release before age 60.
Consiglio is upset with the way the federal public defender and anti-death penalty groups are doing all they can to rid the state of the death penalty and life in behind bars.
He called them "pro-criminal" and "anti-victim."
He said these groups show little concern for the deceased, the public and the safety of the community.
Pennsylvania has 46 inmates who were sentenced before 1960 as juveniles to life without parole. One inmate was given the life without parole sentence in 1953 when he was 15 years old.
The Associated Press contributed to this story. Mirror Staff Writer Phil Ray is at 946-7468.
© Copyright 2012 The Altoona Mirror. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
The federal public defender in Pittsburgh said that a Blair County man sentenced to life without parole when he was a teenager should be given a new sentencing hearing because of a recent ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court calling such mandatory sentences for juveniles cruel and unusual punishment.
Blair County District Attorney Richard A. Consiglio said Tuesday the U.S. Supreme Court in its landmark decision, Miller vs. Alabama, did not rule out life without parole for juveniles convicted of murder, but did state that making such a sentence mandatory is unconstitutional.
Under the U.S. Supreme Court ruling, Consiglio said, a sentencing judge must be given the opportunity to review mitigating circumstances, such as the youth's propensity for rehabilitation, to decide if parole might be a possibility.
The decision is likely to have its greatest impact in Pennsylvania, which has 400 or more lifers convicted of killings committed when they were juveniles.
Two of those lifers are from Blair County - James "Frankie" Rodgers, convicted of killing an elderly man in 1988 by stabbing him between 70 and 80 times during a home robbery, and Leonard Bocchicchio, who in 1980 killed a 75-year-old owner of a bowling alley along Pleasant Valley Boulevard. Both Rodgers and Bocchicchio were 17 at the time of the murders.
Bocchicchio, now 49, is serving his life term at the State Correctional Institution at Houtzdale, while Rodgers, 42, is behind bars at SCI Somerset.
Consiglio said he hasn't heard from Bocchicchio since the U.S. Supreme Court ruling but has heard from Lisa B. Freeland, the federal public defender in Pittsburgh representing Rodgers, stating he should be granted a new sentencing hearing.
"Because Mr. Rodgers is serving an unconstitutional mandatory life without the possibility of parole sentence, the conviction and sentence which he is challenging before this court [U.S. District Court in Johnstown], he is entitled to a new sentencing hearing in state court," Freeland stated in a petition filed with a federal magistrate
On Monday, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court stepped into the picture in an effort to provide more clarity to the U.S. Supreme Court decision. It is tackling the question of whether the U.S. Supreme Court decision is retroactive, meaning that it applies to juvenile killers already serving life without parole.
Andy Hoover of the American Civil Liberties Union said lawmakers should act to ban juvenile life sentences altogether.
"It's going to be difficult for the Legislature to set up a scheme that maintains life without parole for kids but makes it rare," he said.
Consiglio said on Tuesday the state's prosecutors also want clarification of the U.S. Supreme Court decision. At a state Senate hearing in July, the association representing Pennsylvania district attorneys opposed retroactive application of the Supreme Court ruling and argued for a sentencing scheme in which the juvenile lifers would not be eligible for release before age 60.
Consiglio is upset with the way the federal public defender and anti-death penalty groups are doing all they can to rid the state of the death penalty and life in behind bars.
He called them "pro-criminal" and "anti-victim."
He said these groups show little concern for the deceased, the public and the safety of the community.
Pennsylvania has 46 inmates who were sentenced before 1960 as juveniles to life without parole. One inmate was given the life without parole sentence in 1953 when he was 15 years old.
The Associated Press contributed to this story. Mirror Staff Writer Phil Ray is at 946-7468.
© Copyright 2012 The Altoona Mirror. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Tuesday, August 7, 2012
Irda mulls raising investment ceiling for all life insurers
Irda mulls raising investment ceiling for all life insurers
In a move that can increase the flow of money into equities, the insurance regulator is planning to raise the investment ceiling for all life insurers.
Currently, an insurer cannot buy more than 10% stake in a listed firm. This limit may be increased for life insurers soon, said Sudhin Roy Chowdhury, member (life) at the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority, or Irda, on the sidelines of an insurance summit on Monday.
Enhancing the investment limit would mean more flow of money into the Indian stock market which is currently trading in a range, with profits of companies growing at a slow pace on rising input costs and interest burden.
Insurance regulations currently restrict insurers from buying more than 10% stake in any listed firm. In infrastructure firms, however, their holding in the form of both debt and equity can go up to 20%.
The state-owned Life Insurance Corp. of India, or LIC, the biggest life insurer with assets of at least Rs.13 trillion, has been arguing for a relaxation of this limit as it was too low for the insurer’s huge surplus available for investment.
“If the investment cap is increased, it will be for all insurers and not only LIC,” said Roy Chowdhury.
LIC currently has investments in excess of 10% in several listed companies.
The regulator is reluctant to relax the norms for one player. But when the investment limit is increased, LIC will be the biggest beneficiary as the equity holdings of other private life insurers are well below 10% in listed firms and they still have enough headroom to invest.
At the end of March, the life insurance industry’s equity assets were valued at around Rs.4.73 trillion.
If indeed the investment cap is raised beyond 10%, insurers will be able to invest more in equities of companies and this will boost the equity market.
Insurance firms play a critical role in the Indian equity markets. In 2008, the year of the collapse of US investment bank Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. and an unprecedented credit crunch, foreign institutional investors or FIIs pulled out at least Rs.53,797 crore from Indian stocks but domestic institutional investors, led by life insurers, pumped in Rs.72,967 crore.
Mint had reported on 28 March, that Irda was looking at a proposal to allow LIC to buy more than 10% stake in a single firm.
“We are looking at a number of changes in the existing regulations, including investment,” Irda chairman J. Hari Narayan had said then. “Six committees are working to suggest the changes. The revisions will be subject to approval of the proposed insurance Bill. If we allow LIC to invest more than 10% (in listed companies), we will also allow other life insurers (to do that).”
“LIC may genuinely need a higher investment cap. But if the norms are relaxed, it will be for all,” Roy Chowdhury said on Monday.
Addressing the 15th annual insurance summit organized by the Confederation of Indian Industry, or CII, the Irda chief criticized the 24-player strong life insurance industry for launching one product after another without focusing on performance. Irda felt the industry should have only the market-linked products that can perform.
Incidentally, former capital market regulator C.B. Bhave had in a similar fashion criticized the mutual fund industry for merely launching products without really caring about their performances.
Alleging that the fund industry was serving only distributors and not investors by launching products with sub-optimal returns, the capital markets regulator had tightened the process of regulatory clearance for mutual fund schemes.
In the Rs.16 trillion life insurance industry, investments made in unit-linked insurance plans, or Ulips, are mostly invested in equity to maximize returns and, hence, like mutual funds, their performances are linked to the market.
“Today, products available in the market are designed in such a way that they build a certain corpus in a certain period. But, in reality, they have not been able to do that. Why can’t companies pick up the designs of only those products that are the best in the stable rather than launching one product after another?” Hari Narayan asked. “While clearing products, we will carefully examine whether the product design matches expectations.”
The insurance regulator also raised concerns about the absence of pension and annuity plans in the life insurance industry.
“LIC is the only player to have pension and annuity plans today. The concern is that by 2019, when a huge amount of money will be released out of NPS (new pension system), there will be a burden on the industry unless more life insurers get engaged in managing pension and annuity money,” Hari Narayan said.
The insurance regulator is also working on ways to improve the performance of insurance agents. Following this, certain categories of agents could be classified as senior agents. A discussion paper on this will be released shortly, inviting public comments.
The insurance regulator is also working on plans to amend certain other financial norms.
Soon after Hari Narayan’s address at the seminar, Irda released three investment-related discussion papers to allow insurers to participate as lender of securities in the stock lending and borrowing scheme of stock exchanges, participate in credit default swaps on corporate bonds market as well as reverse repo and repo in government bonds and corporate papers.
Irda also plans to move the industry to a risk-based solvency regime. The new solvency norms could be in lines of the Reserve Bank of India’s norms on risk-based assessment of assets. The norms, when implemented, could bring down the solvency margin, currently pegged at 1.5.
Solvency margin, a measure of financial health, is the amount by which an insurance company’s capital exceeds its projected liabilities.
In a move that can increase the flow of money into equities, the insurance regulator is planning to raise the investment ceiling for all life insurers.
Currently, an insurer cannot buy more than 10% stake in a listed firm. This limit may be increased for life insurers soon, said Sudhin Roy Chowdhury, member (life) at the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority, or Irda, on the sidelines of an insurance summit on Monday.
Enhancing the investment limit would mean more flow of money into the Indian stock market which is currently trading in a range, with profits of companies growing at a slow pace on rising input costs and interest burden.
Insurance regulations currently restrict insurers from buying more than 10% stake in any listed firm. In infrastructure firms, however, their holding in the form of both debt and equity can go up to 20%.
The state-owned Life Insurance Corp. of India, or LIC, the biggest life insurer with assets of at least Rs.13 trillion, has been arguing for a relaxation of this limit as it was too low for the insurer’s huge surplus available for investment.
“If the investment cap is increased, it will be for all insurers and not only LIC,” said Roy Chowdhury.
LIC currently has investments in excess of 10% in several listed companies.
The regulator is reluctant to relax the norms for one player. But when the investment limit is increased, LIC will be the biggest beneficiary as the equity holdings of other private life insurers are well below 10% in listed firms and they still have enough headroom to invest.
At the end of March, the life insurance industry’s equity assets were valued at around Rs.4.73 trillion.
If indeed the investment cap is raised beyond 10%, insurers will be able to invest more in equities of companies and this will boost the equity market.
Insurance firms play a critical role in the Indian equity markets. In 2008, the year of the collapse of US investment bank Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. and an unprecedented credit crunch, foreign institutional investors or FIIs pulled out at least Rs.53,797 crore from Indian stocks but domestic institutional investors, led by life insurers, pumped in Rs.72,967 crore.
Mint had reported on 28 March, that Irda was looking at a proposal to allow LIC to buy more than 10% stake in a single firm.
“We are looking at a number of changes in the existing regulations, including investment,” Irda chairman J. Hari Narayan had said then. “Six committees are working to suggest the changes. The revisions will be subject to approval of the proposed insurance Bill. If we allow LIC to invest more than 10% (in listed companies), we will also allow other life insurers (to do that).”
“LIC may genuinely need a higher investment cap. But if the norms are relaxed, it will be for all,” Roy Chowdhury said on Monday.
Addressing the 15th annual insurance summit organized by the Confederation of Indian Industry, or CII, the Irda chief criticized the 24-player strong life insurance industry for launching one product after another without focusing on performance. Irda felt the industry should have only the market-linked products that can perform.
Incidentally, former capital market regulator C.B. Bhave had in a similar fashion criticized the mutual fund industry for merely launching products without really caring about their performances.
Alleging that the fund industry was serving only distributors and not investors by launching products with sub-optimal returns, the capital markets regulator had tightened the process of regulatory clearance for mutual fund schemes.
In the Rs.16 trillion life insurance industry, investments made in unit-linked insurance plans, or Ulips, are mostly invested in equity to maximize returns and, hence, like mutual funds, their performances are linked to the market.
“Today, products available in the market are designed in such a way that they build a certain corpus in a certain period. But, in reality, they have not been able to do that. Why can’t companies pick up the designs of only those products that are the best in the stable rather than launching one product after another?” Hari Narayan asked. “While clearing products, we will carefully examine whether the product design matches expectations.”
The insurance regulator also raised concerns about the absence of pension and annuity plans in the life insurance industry.
“LIC is the only player to have pension and annuity plans today. The concern is that by 2019, when a huge amount of money will be released out of NPS (new pension system), there will be a burden on the industry unless more life insurers get engaged in managing pension and annuity money,” Hari Narayan said.
The insurance regulator is also working on ways to improve the performance of insurance agents. Following this, certain categories of agents could be classified as senior agents. A discussion paper on this will be released shortly, inviting public comments.
The insurance regulator is also working on plans to amend certain other financial norms.
Soon after Hari Narayan’s address at the seminar, Irda released three investment-related discussion papers to allow insurers to participate as lender of securities in the stock lending and borrowing scheme of stock exchanges, participate in credit default swaps on corporate bonds market as well as reverse repo and repo in government bonds and corporate papers.
Irda also plans to move the industry to a risk-based solvency regime. The new solvency norms could be in lines of the Reserve Bank of India’s norms on risk-based assessment of assets. The norms, when implemented, could bring down the solvency margin, currently pegged at 1.5.
Solvency margin, a measure of financial health, is the amount by which an insurance company’s capital exceeds its projected liabilities.
Monday, August 6, 2012
Guidelines for non-life insurance cos' IPO in 1 week: IRDA
Guidelines for non-life insurance cos' IPO in 1 week: IRDA
Guidelines for non-life insurance companies' initial public offering (IPO) are expected in one week, says Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority's chairman Hari Narayan.
Earlier, in May 2012, market regulator SEBI had said that it is in "advance stage" of finalisation for issuing norms to non-life insurance companies planning to come out with an IPO.
Regarding ICICI Lombard case, he says, IRDA will be coming with whistleblower policy. "I wouldn't comment on a specific case like this. I assure that the matter is engaging the attention of IRDA. Various reports and inquires of that issue is under process," he adds.
Narayan sees two concerns for the insurance industry in coming time — protection of the customers and annuities. "Annuity is only provided by LIC in current times. When NPS comes into maturity, then rested money will come in annuity," he adds.
The regulator will also look at raising LIC's investment limit in stocks. "LIC says it needs a higher exposure, more than ten percent in individual companies. A committee has been set up and an appropriate regulation will come," he says.
He further says, a lot of concern regarding Bancassurance is there in the industry. "IRDA is in talks with the industry on the matter."
According to him, there is a possibility of separate health insurance sector becoming reality.
Guidelines for non-life insurance companies' initial public offering (IPO) are expected in one week, says Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority's chairman Hari Narayan.
Earlier, in May 2012, market regulator SEBI had said that it is in "advance stage" of finalisation for issuing norms to non-life insurance companies planning to come out with an IPO.
Regarding ICICI Lombard case, he says, IRDA will be coming with whistleblower policy. "I wouldn't comment on a specific case like this. I assure that the matter is engaging the attention of IRDA. Various reports and inquires of that issue is under process," he adds.
Narayan sees two concerns for the insurance industry in coming time — protection of the customers and annuities. "Annuity is only provided by LIC in current times. When NPS comes into maturity, then rested money will come in annuity," he adds.
The regulator will also look at raising LIC's investment limit in stocks. "LIC says it needs a higher exposure, more than ten percent in individual companies. A committee has been set up and an appropriate regulation will come," he says.
He further says, a lot of concern regarding Bancassurance is there in the industry. "IRDA is in talks with the industry on the matter."
According to him, there is a possibility of separate health insurance sector becoming reality.
Friday, August 3, 2012
Search for life: Mars rover's target crater a 'geologist's paradise'
Search for life: Mars rover's target crater a 'geologist's paradise'
The closer NASA's rover Curiosity gets to its final destination – Mars' Gale Crater – the more intriguing that spot looks to planetary scientists awaiting the rover's touchdown pre-dawn Monday, Eastern time.
If all goes well, the one-ton, Mini Cooper-sized Curiosity is slated to spend the next 23 months looking for evidence that the desiccated planet might have been a hospitable place for at least simple forms of life.
The answer is locked up in the wedding-cake layers of rocks and minerals in Gale Crater, and especially on the crater’s three-mile-high Mt. Sharp in its center.
Mt. Sharp is far higher than any nub of a "recoil" peak that would have formed when a 10-mile-wide space rock slammed into the surface earlier in the planet’s history. It appears to have been built up from layer after layer of sediment and rock.
IN PICTURES: Exploring Mars
This apparently undisturbed layering provides researchers with a unique opportunity to make the first detailed, on-the-ground measurements that systematically trace another planet's geological and
climatic evolution on extraordinary time scales.
The $2.5-billion project, formally known as the Mars Science Laboratory mission, represents "a whole new dimension of space exploration. This is the dimension of deep time," says John Grotzinger, a researcher at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, Calif., and the mission's project scientist.
On this mission, the time periods Curiosity will probe aren't measured in hours, days, years, or even decades, but in "hundreds of millions even to billions of years," he said during a briefing Thursday. Given the estimated age of Gale Crater, which researchers put at between 3 billion to 4 billion years old, the enormous spans of time Curiosity can cover are themselves billions of years old.
It has to do with water, a key ingredient for organic life. The crater's location on Mars and observations from orbiting satellites strongly suggest that the crater may have hosted a shallow lake at one time.
Gale Crater sports a large, sloping fan of sediment – known as an alluvial fan— that extends from the crater rim and spreads out across the crater floor. Such fans are common features on Earth, appearing at the bases of mountains where water flowing down the slopes has picked up soil and rock and carried them out onto flatter terrain.
Observations from orbiters also have found expanses of exposed rock that extend from the edge of the fan toward Mt. Sharp and remain warm well after nightfall. Lots of rock types exhibit an ability to retain heat, but one intriguing possibility is that water carried loose soil and rock onto the crater floor, where the material dried out and formed a kind of natural cement.
Once Curiosity is safely on the surface, "we can start to look for minerals that bound the particles together that tell us about the previous history of water there," Grotzinger says.
If water was there, that begins to build the case for at least one potentially habitable environment early in the planet's history, he says
Even though the ultimate destination is Mt. Sharp – a journey that will take many weeks after the initial touchdown – Curiosity's broad initial landing zone appears to present "an extraordinary opportunity for what might be a really great science discovery early on" in the mission, according to Grotzinger.
Over the past month, researchers have been building detailed maps of the crater floor in small sections, or quads. The goal is to pour over images of the floor at very fine scales to see what other interesting features the floor in the rover's landing zone might hold.
The mapping is still underway, but Grotzinger displayed one small patch of the crater floor -- one on which Curiosity might well land: "No matter where we land, what we now know from studying the details of these quads is that we're going to have something exciting to do," he says.
For instance, the map segment shows a small crater some 820 feet across, comparable to craters NASA’s rover Opportunity has explored elsewhere. The crater walls sport more layering, opening a window onto the rock formations below the current floor. In addition, a low scarp perhaps three feet high also appears on this patch, comparable to scarps Opportunity’s twin, Spirit, has examined.
"What you've got here is really kind of a geologist's paradise!" Grotzinger says.
The closer NASA's rover Curiosity gets to its final destination – Mars' Gale Crater – the more intriguing that spot looks to planetary scientists awaiting the rover's touchdown pre-dawn Monday, Eastern time.
If all goes well, the one-ton, Mini Cooper-sized Curiosity is slated to spend the next 23 months looking for evidence that the desiccated planet might have been a hospitable place for at least simple forms of life.
The answer is locked up in the wedding-cake layers of rocks and minerals in Gale Crater, and especially on the crater’s three-mile-high Mt. Sharp in its center.
Mt. Sharp is far higher than any nub of a "recoil" peak that would have formed when a 10-mile-wide space rock slammed into the surface earlier in the planet’s history. It appears to have been built up from layer after layer of sediment and rock.
IN PICTURES: Exploring Mars
This apparently undisturbed layering provides researchers with a unique opportunity to make the first detailed, on-the-ground measurements that systematically trace another planet's geological and
climatic evolution on extraordinary time scales.
The $2.5-billion project, formally known as the Mars Science Laboratory mission, represents "a whole new dimension of space exploration. This is the dimension of deep time," says John Grotzinger, a researcher at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, Calif., and the mission's project scientist.
On this mission, the time periods Curiosity will probe aren't measured in hours, days, years, or even decades, but in "hundreds of millions even to billions of years," he said during a briefing Thursday. Given the estimated age of Gale Crater, which researchers put at between 3 billion to 4 billion years old, the enormous spans of time Curiosity can cover are themselves billions of years old.
It has to do with water, a key ingredient for organic life. The crater's location on Mars and observations from orbiting satellites strongly suggest that the crater may have hosted a shallow lake at one time.
Gale Crater sports a large, sloping fan of sediment – known as an alluvial fan— that extends from the crater rim and spreads out across the crater floor. Such fans are common features on Earth, appearing at the bases of mountains where water flowing down the slopes has picked up soil and rock and carried them out onto flatter terrain.
Observations from orbiters also have found expanses of exposed rock that extend from the edge of the fan toward Mt. Sharp and remain warm well after nightfall. Lots of rock types exhibit an ability to retain heat, but one intriguing possibility is that water carried loose soil and rock onto the crater floor, where the material dried out and formed a kind of natural cement.
Once Curiosity is safely on the surface, "we can start to look for minerals that bound the particles together that tell us about the previous history of water there," Grotzinger says.
If water was there, that begins to build the case for at least one potentially habitable environment early in the planet's history, he says
Even though the ultimate destination is Mt. Sharp – a journey that will take many weeks after the initial touchdown – Curiosity's broad initial landing zone appears to present "an extraordinary opportunity for what might be a really great science discovery early on" in the mission, according to Grotzinger.
Over the past month, researchers have been building detailed maps of the crater floor in small sections, or quads. The goal is to pour over images of the floor at very fine scales to see what other interesting features the floor in the rover's landing zone might hold.
The mapping is still underway, but Grotzinger displayed one small patch of the crater floor -- one on which Curiosity might well land: "No matter where we land, what we now know from studying the details of these quads is that we're going to have something exciting to do," he says.
For instance, the map segment shows a small crater some 820 feet across, comparable to craters NASA’s rover Opportunity has explored elsewhere. The crater walls sport more layering, opening a window onto the rock formations below the current floor. In addition, a low scarp perhaps three feet high also appears on this patch, comparable to scarps Opportunity’s twin, Spirit, has examined.
"What you've got here is really kind of a geologist's paradise!" Grotzinger says.
Thursday, August 2, 2012
Life on Mars and the Garden of Eden
Life on Mars and the Garden of Eden
The latest Mars rover, Curiosity, will land on the Red Planet in a few days, if all goes well. Should Curiosity find evidence of past life on Mars, allow me to preempt what will certainly be a rewrite of history on the part of the world's major religions. All will come out and say such a discovery is completely consistent with religious teachings. Nonsense. Let us be clear that the Bible is unambiguous about creation; the Earth is the center of the universe, only humans were made in the image of God, and all life was created in six days. All life in all the heavens. In six days. So when we discover that life exists or existed elsewhere in our solar system or on a planet orbiting another star in the Milky Way, or in a planetary system in another galaxy, we will see a huge effort to square that circle with amazing twists of logic and contorted justifications. But do not buy the historical edits: Life on another planet is completely incompatible with religious tradition. Any other conclusion is nothing but ex post facto rationalization to preserve the myth. Let us see why more specifically.
Nothing in that mentions alien worlds, which the ancients knew nothing about, of course. Man was told to rule over the fish on the Earth, not on other planets. But God would have known of these alien worlds, so it is curious that he did not instruct the authors to include the language.
There is also a problem with Genesis 1:3: "And God said, 'Let there be light,' and there was light." Well, the Earth is only 4.5 billion years old, yet the universe, and all the light generating stars in ancient galaxies, are more than 14 billion years old. So when God said, "Let there be light," there already had been light shining bright for at least 10 billion years. He was flipping a switch that had been turned on eons before by the thermonuclear reactions in stars. And that light bathed other suns and other planets long before the Earth was a loose accumulation of rocks orbiting our sun. Given that this is the story of all creation, these tidbits seem an important omission that will undermine the entire story when we find life elsewhere. We were late to the game of "let there be light."
We are also told in unambiguous terms that all life was created in six days. All life in all the heavens. Genesis 2:1 says, "Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them." So here we learn that all life, in all the heavens, was complete, and all found on Earth. The complete totality of that creation in all the heavens, all of which was here on Earth, is made clear in the preceding sections of Genesis 1:1-31, with "every herb bearing seed" and "every beast" and "every fowl of the air." There is no modifier like "every fowl of the air -- that is, on Earth, but excluding life on the planet Xenflugan." We know all of this took place in six days, because Genesis 2:2 says, "And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made." Now, some say that these are not real days but allegorical "God days," which could be millions of years each. But no, when God said, "Let there be light," and created life in six days, he tied these events to seasons on Earth, which are governed by real days. So the Bible tells us that all life, in all the heavens, was all put on Earth in six days -- that is, six Earth days. That leaves no room for alien life in this creation story. The discovery of alien life would therefore undermine the entire saga.
We can also have no doubt that the Earth is the center of the universe, because this is where God placed man. In the trial of Galileo, Pope Urban VIII made perfectly clear the church's understanding of God's word that the Earth is unambiguously the center of the universe:
Yet it would be difficult to claim the unique position of universe center if other planets held life that was zipping around in anti-gravity cars travelling at the speed of light. Clearly, if the ancients knew there was alien life, any form of life at all, the idea that the Earth was the center of the universe would be more difficult to sustain. Again, though, there is no mention of alien worlds or life beyond this little blue dot.
None of the 66 books of the Bible makes any reference to life other than that created by God here on Earth in that six-day period. If we discover life elsewhere, one must admit that that is a an oversight, so much so, in fact, that such a discovery must, to all but the most closed minds, call into question the entire story of creation and anything that follows from that story. How could a convincing story of life's creation leave out life?
As I stated at the beginning, none of this will matter upon life's discovery elsewhere. Religious leaders will simply declare that such life is fully compatible with, in fact predicted by, the Bible. Just like they eventually swept under the rug their being wrong about Earth's position in the heavens. They will create contorted justifications to support this view, cite a few passages of the Bible that could mean anything, and declare victory. Don't say I did not warn you.
The latest Mars rover, Curiosity, will land on the Red Planet in a few days, if all goes well. Should Curiosity find evidence of past life on Mars, allow me to preempt what will certainly be a rewrite of history on the part of the world's major religions. All will come out and say such a discovery is completely consistent with religious teachings. Nonsense. Let us be clear that the Bible is unambiguous about creation; the Earth is the center of the universe, only humans were made in the image of God, and all life was created in six days. All life in all the heavens. In six days. So when we discover that life exists or existed elsewhere in our solar system or on a planet orbiting another star in the Milky Way, or in a planetary system in another galaxy, we will see a huge effort to square that circle with amazing twists of logic and contorted justifications. But do not buy the historical edits: Life on another planet is completely incompatible with religious tradition. Any other conclusion is nothing but ex post facto rationalization to preserve the myth. Let us see why more specifically.
Nothing in that mentions alien worlds, which the ancients knew nothing about, of course. Man was told to rule over the fish on the Earth, not on other planets. But God would have known of these alien worlds, so it is curious that he did not instruct the authors to include the language.
There is also a problem with Genesis 1:3: "And God said, 'Let there be light,' and there was light." Well, the Earth is only 4.5 billion years old, yet the universe, and all the light generating stars in ancient galaxies, are more than 14 billion years old. So when God said, "Let there be light," there already had been light shining bright for at least 10 billion years. He was flipping a switch that had been turned on eons before by the thermonuclear reactions in stars. And that light bathed other suns and other planets long before the Earth was a loose accumulation of rocks orbiting our sun. Given that this is the story of all creation, these tidbits seem an important omission that will undermine the entire story when we find life elsewhere. We were late to the game of "let there be light."
We are also told in unambiguous terms that all life was created in six days. All life in all the heavens. Genesis 2:1 says, "Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them." So here we learn that all life, in all the heavens, was complete, and all found on Earth. The complete totality of that creation in all the heavens, all of which was here on Earth, is made clear in the preceding sections of Genesis 1:1-31, with "every herb bearing seed" and "every beast" and "every fowl of the air." There is no modifier like "every fowl of the air -- that is, on Earth, but excluding life on the planet Xenflugan." We know all of this took place in six days, because Genesis 2:2 says, "And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made." Now, some say that these are not real days but allegorical "God days," which could be millions of years each. But no, when God said, "Let there be light," and created life in six days, he tied these events to seasons on Earth, which are governed by real days. So the Bible tells us that all life, in all the heavens, was all put on Earth in six days -- that is, six Earth days. That leaves no room for alien life in this creation story. The discovery of alien life would therefore undermine the entire saga.
We can also have no doubt that the Earth is the center of the universe, because this is where God placed man. In the trial of Galileo, Pope Urban VIII made perfectly clear the church's understanding of God's word that the Earth is unambiguously the center of the universe:
Yet it would be difficult to claim the unique position of universe center if other planets held life that was zipping around in anti-gravity cars travelling at the speed of light. Clearly, if the ancients knew there was alien life, any form of life at all, the idea that the Earth was the center of the universe would be more difficult to sustain. Again, though, there is no mention of alien worlds or life beyond this little blue dot.
None of the 66 books of the Bible makes any reference to life other than that created by God here on Earth in that six-day period. If we discover life elsewhere, one must admit that that is a an oversight, so much so, in fact, that such a discovery must, to all but the most closed minds, call into question the entire story of creation and anything that follows from that story. How could a convincing story of life's creation leave out life?
As I stated at the beginning, none of this will matter upon life's discovery elsewhere. Religious leaders will simply declare that such life is fully compatible with, in fact predicted by, the Bible. Just like they eventually swept under the rug their being wrong about Earth's position in the heavens. They will create contorted justifications to support this view, cite a few passages of the Bible that could mean anything, and declare victory. Don't say I did not warn you.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)