U.K. to ban wearing Google Glass while driving, report says

Subways and tubes, yes. U.K.'s roads, no.

(Credit: Noah Zerkin/Twitter with permission)

Where the Republicans of West Virginia tread lightly, the Brits may stomp heartily.

The U.K.'s Department for Transport has announced that it is not in favor of tolerating drivers who wear Google's new glasses.

A Department of Transport spokesman was quoted by the Telegraph as saying: "It is important that drivers give their full attention to the road when they are behind the wheel and do not behave in a way that stops them from observing what is happening on the road."

He added in quotes that were actually given to StuffTV: "We are aware of the impending rollout of Google Glass and are in discussion with the police to ensure that individuals do not use this technology while driving."

More Technically Incorrect

The spokesman added that the department sees it as something that comes under the rubric of careless or distracted driving.

Earlier this year, Republican lawmakers in West Virginia, led by Rep. Gary Howell -- spurred, oddly, by a Technically Incorrect post -- tried to get a ban on Glassing and driving enacted in their own state.

The issue ended up being tabled for a future date.

In reaction to the potentially troubling news from the old country, a Google spokesman told me: "It's early days and we are thinking very carefully about how we design Glass because new technology always raises new issues. Our Glass Explorer program, which reaches people from all walks of life, will ensure that our users become active participants in shaping the future of this technology."

You might choose to translate that as: "Oh, lumme. But there's no actual law against it yet, is there?"

Some current Google Glass explorers have told me that wearing Glass behind the wheel makes them reach for their phones less.

In the past Google has offered that it doesn't see Glassing and driving as dangerous.

Indeed, at the time of West Virginia's move, a company spokesman told me: "We actually believe there is tremendous potential (with Glass) to improve safety on our roads and reduce accidents. As always, feedback is welcome."

It seems as if the British government is beginning to offer its feedback.

Of course, a law will have to first actually be enacted. Moreover, how will that law handle the fact that, one day, Google Glass will be inserted onto prescription glasses?

Will Britain's nice policemen tell drivers to take their prescription Google glasses off? That might be interesting.

Google has powerful connections with the British government. I can just imagine the calls being placed after the Department of Transport's statement.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/cnet/JhqR/~3/W3gqDPWUt6k/

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Rock of ages: Bridgewater United Methodist Church celebrates 100 years in stone building

The first entry in the diary of young Abbie F. Lawrence of Bridgewater is dated Feb. 1, 1874: ?Converted at Raynham Mass.?

The next entry on Feb. 3 states, ?Came home to Bridgewater.?

And less than a week later, Abbie, just 21 years old, writes on Feb. 8, ?Went out and talked with the people about starting a Methodist Episcopal Church in town.?

And so she did.

?I think it?s pretty amazing in the 1800s she?d be so bold in her faith. It?s an incredible history for us to build on. It?s in the DNA of the church,? said the Rev. Patricia A. Miller Fernandes of the Bridgewater United Methodist Church, founded by Lawrence all those years ago.

BUMC is gearing up for a year-long celebration marking the 100^th anniversary of the laying of the cornerstone on Aug. 4, 1913 of the beautiful granite ?stone church? at Cedar and School streets.

According to a June 10, 1914 newspaper article on the occasion of the church?s dedication, Abbie Lawrence was so moved by the fervent preaching at that Raynham revival meeting, she experienced ?a remarkably bright and clear conversion? and was determined to establish a Methodist Society in her hometown of Bridgewater.

And she wasted no time.

She went door-to-door, raising $400 in short order, no small sum in those days, to secure a pastor. The first Sunday morning service was held just three months later, on May 3, 1874, in the old wooden Swedenborgian church, which today serves as BUMC?s parish house next door to the stone church.

Fernandes said she finds young Abbie?s story inspiring.

?She was on fire to learn more about God in a time when not a lot of women were leaders,? said Fernandes, who has been pastor at BUMC for nearly 10 years.

Lawrence later married a successful Bridgewater businessman, Ferdinand C. Gammons, who purchased the land at the corner of Cedar and School streets, moved the house that had been located there, built the stone church at a cost of $35,000 and sold it to the congregation for $1.

The building has many fine features, but the focal point, both inside and out, is a soaring stained-glass window designed at the time of construction depicting Christ the ?Good Shepherd? in a flowing red robe cradling a lost sheep in his arms as the rest of the flock looks up at them, rapt.

Fernandes calls it a ?gorgeous? work of art, the faces sensitively rendered, the colors subtle and exquisite, like the art glass of that era.

The window, near the front entrance, serves as a ?beacon? to the community, a reminder of God?s grace and the value and sanctity of each life, Fernandes said.

?If even one sheep is lost, he will go to find the one to bring it back to the 99,? she said.

Lawrence commissioned the window in memory of her mother, Sarah Lawrence, a charter members of the church. And in her will Abbie Lawrence set aside money so that the window would always be illuminated at night.

Fernandes thought of that bequest a few years ago when a halfway house for recovering drug users was located across the street from the church.

Many of the residents would attend the Methodist church on Sundays. But others said they could not bring themselves to enter the building. They seemed to feel they were unworthy to cross the threshold.

Still, sometimes at night, Fernandes would see them outside sitting on the stone wall across the street looking up at the radiant stained glass window with its powerful message of redemption, illuminated from within as Lawrence had requested, and praying.

?I felt even though they could not find their way into the church, they still had a connection to and longing for God and love and hope,? Fernandes said.

As to Lawrence, Fernandes said, as the light continues to shine on her window, ?She?s still making a difference.?

The congregation is planning celebrations each month to mark the 100^th anniversary, beginning with a cookout and music circa 1913. They may also put on a play reenacting the church?s founding.

But as grateful as the congregation is to have had such a wonderful home for the past century, it is not a building that makes a church, Fernandes said.

The United Methodist Church has a great tradition of working for social justice, she said. And right here in Bridgewater, members of the congregation have reached out to each other and beyond, providing ?food, scholarships, camperships, love, lodging, support and acceptance, just to name a few of the ways we are the church,? Fernandes said.

BUMC provides a monthly meal to Father Bill?s & MainSpring, supports the homeless ministry through the Common Cathedral in Boston, houses Literacy Place and supplies tutors and sends school kits to developing countries and hygiene kits to disaster areas.

?The church still is a sign of hope to the world that there is healing and compassion,? Fernandes said.??

Source: http://www.wickedlocal.com/hanson/news/x273442829/Rock-of-ages-Bridgewater-United-Methodist-Church-celebrates-100-years-in-stone-building?rssfeed=true

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Coach, US Steel and Goodyear are big market movers

NEW YORK (AP) -- Stocks that moved substantially or traded heavily Tuesday on the New York Stock Exchange and the Nasdaq Stock Market:

NYSE

The Mosaic Co., down $9.15 to $43.81

A massive Russian potash producer pulled out of a sales partnership, signaling an end to a global cartel that commands 70 percent of the world market. That's likely to reduce sharply the price of potash, a nutrient used in fertilizers, and has already cut into shares of companies that produce it.

Coach Inc., down $4.55 to $53.30

Shares slumped after the company announced the departure of two top executives and poor sales of handbags during the final quarter of the year.

United States Steel Corp., down $1.27 to $17.71

The steel maker posted a second consecutive quarterly loss, making it five out of seven in the red, and it gave a cautious forecast for the current period.

Occidental Petroleum Corp., down $2.16 to $88.32

The company delivered a profit that topped Wall Street expectations, but its revenue numbers left investors wanting.

Pitney Bowes Inc., up $1.88 to $16.60

The mailing equipment and software company beat expectations for the quarter and said it will sell its North American management services unit to Apollo Global Management for $400 million.

Nasdaq

Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co., up $1.52 to $18.56

The company's second-quarter earnings more than doubled and it is optimistic about the entire year. Goodyear even did well in Europe, a danger zone for most automotive companies, doubling its earnings there to $51 million.

Vanda Pharmaceuticals Inc., up $3.56 to $11.61

The Food and Drug Administration is planning a faster review of the company's sleep disorder drug, tasimelteon. That could bring the drug to market sooner than most had expected.

R.R. Donnelley & Sons Co., up $2.68 to $18.93

The stock jumped to its highest price in almost two years after the printing company beat Wall Street projections for the second quarter.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/coach-us-steel-goodyear-big-204159159.html

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Best mileage tracking apps for iPhone: Trip Cubby, TaxMileage, klicks, and more!

For expenses, for taxes, or for plain old metrics, here are the best apps to help track gas mileage right from your iPhone - no log books required!

Anyone who wants to be compensated for travel, be it from an expense account at work or from a deduction on taxes, knows how arduous and can be to keep - and remember to use - a written ledger. Luckily, mileage tracking apps for the iPhone can make it, if no less monotonous, at least a lot more convenient. Whether you're on the job or self-employed, need it for an expense or tax claim, or just want keep track for your own maintenance or metrics, the App Store has several options. Here are the best.

Trip Cubby

Trip Cubby is my personal favorite mileage tracking app because it has lots of options, and that means it can be used for a lot of different things. You can choose between trip types such as business, charitable, and medical. From there just enter your odometer readings and the vehicle you're driving, and Trip Cubby will take care of the rest. You can also add notes and additional expenses, and can also mark expenses and paid or unpaid as you're reimbursed.

For frequent travelers and people that need to easily email or produce expense reports for employers in order to be reimbursed, Trip Cubby is the best choices.

• $2.99 - Download Now

klicks

klicks is all about fast input. Launch klicks, start typing in the end destination, tap on it when it populates the search field, and go. (Your current location is used as the starting point.) You can add reasons for travel, change rates, etc. and once you're done, add it to your log. klicks also automatically records the return journey for you if you have the option enabled it settings. klicks supports exporting trip reports by emailing a .csv to any recipient you want.

If speed is more important to you than details, klicks is a great option.

• $1.99 - Download Now

TaxMileage

TaxMileage is strictly focused on recording mileage for expense reports. You can add multiple vehicles and different companies, and use optionally GPS to make tracking trips even easier. TaxMileage also attaches decent looking route maps to the entries you make. TaxMileage is free to use but expense reports cost extra. Plans start at $9.99 a year and go up from there.

If you're a contractor or find yourself submitted expense reports to multiple sources, go with TrackMileage.

• Free - Download Now

Triplog

Triplog is a way to track travel automatically with no additional input required. If you're starting a trip, just open Triplog and start logging. There's no option manually enter trips. If you're good about remembering to launch it, though, Triplog is a fantastic tool that does pretty much everything for you. It's also got a great search feature that uses Google Places to give even better results.

If you typically drive to a lot of the same locations and don't need to separate mileage for reimbursement by different companies or reimbursement sources, Triplog will do just fine.

• $2.99 - Download Now

Your picks?

We know there's lots of you out there that travel for work frequently and bring your iPhones along. What kind of mileage tracking system do you have? Are you using any of the above apps or have you found something that suits your needs better? Sound off in the comments and let us know!

Best Apps

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Expense Apps

Apps

Featured

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheIphoneBlog/~3/JklRAkmfnSc/story01.htm

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Margaret Spellings, George W. Bush Foundation President, Calls For Education Legislation Transparency

At a time when there exists an unequal distribution of high-quality teachers and public school closures are being labeled as human rights violations, experts agree improvements in education legislation are a pressing necessity.

Margaret Spellings, the former George W. Bush Administration Education Secretary, joined Huffpost Live at the Aspen Ideas Festival to recommend solutions to the education crisis. Spellings, who was recently appointed as the President of the George W. Bush Foundation, advocated for Congress to reflect more specifically on past legislative results when developing education bills -- more specifically the No Child Left Behind Act, which she helped design during her time under the Bush Administration.

?No Child Left Behind, as I said, is way past due for, you know, building on the lessons that we?ve learned in that period of time and making some tweeks and some improvements, and we can and we should do that," she told Ahmed Shibab-Eldin of HuffPost Live.

In the video above, Spellings also urged Congress to improve government accountability and transparency in education legislation.

Currently, House education committee chair Rep. John Kline (R-Minn.) is attempting to amend the NCLB act so that states will not be required to set annual goals for public schools, HuffPost Reports. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan called Kline's bill a retreat on government accountability for the education of disadvantaged kids.

"It marks a retreat from high standards for all students and would virtually eliminate accountability for the learning of historically underserved students -- a huge step backward for efforts to improve academic achievement," he declared in a recent statement. "It would lock in major cuts to education funding at a time when continued investments in education are the only way we can remain competitive on the world stage."

This video is part of a series of interviews with speakers, attendees and panelists at The Aspen Ideas Festival, produced by The Huffington Post in conjunction with The Aspen Institute. For more videos from the series, click here. For more information about The Aspen Institute, click here.

Also on HuffPost:

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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/07/29/margaret-spellings-education-solutions-huffpost-live_n_3671134.html

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Exclusive Twitter chat with Traci Steele of ?Love and Hip Hop Atlanta? 9:15pm tonight

Want to know what the stars of Love and Hip Hop are thinking? ?Here your chance to get your questions answered. Tonight June 3rd beginning at 9pm ET chat live with Traci Steele, rolling out?s latest cover girl.
* 9:15 PM EST ? ? ? ? ? ? Live Twitter Chat @Rollingout
To talk with Traci Steele?of Love and Hip Hop Atlanta ?Monday 9:15pm?ET and
Use Hashtags?#ROLHHA??in the same tweet to get your questions answered.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/rollingout/~3/KV6kQ-PubjQ/

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A Kind of Magic: Creating The Agony and the Ecstasy of Steve Jobs: The Musical

Promotional art for "The Agony and the Ecstasy of Steve Jobs: The Musical."

Mike Daisey is one of the world?s most gifted talkers. If you?ve ever seen him perform, as he has on many occasions since 2008 here in DC at Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company, or perhaps heard one of his two, very different, appearances on This American Life last year, you?ll know that one of his tools is silence. When you?ve made a 15-year career out of speaking to paying crowds for 90 to 150 minutes at a time, and occasionally much longer, you learn what a pause can do for you.

So why not take Daisey?s most-heard and most-discussed work, The Agony and the Ecstasy of Steve Jobs, and fill it with music? According to Daisey, the show has been adapted for roughly 80 productions on six continents since he posted a transcript of the monologue on his website in February 2012 and gave his blanket permission for anyone to adapt and perform it, royalty-free. But none of them has been a full musical.

Timothy Guillot, who wrote the book, music and lyrics for the sung-through version, which premiered in the Capital Fringe Festival and has its final performance this afternoon.

Guillot saw TATESJ during its July 2012 remount at Woolly, after Daisey had stripped the show of the elements he admitted to having made up. (I wrote about all this at some length last year.) He wanted to see the show?s initial run, in the spring of 2011, but he couldn?t get a ticket. When Guillot did finally see the show, he said it was the binary structure of the show that inspired him to adapt it. Many of Daisey?s monologues spin parallel narratives that eventually converge; in TATES, he gives us a history of Apple Computer crosscut with the story of his journey to Shenzen, China, to visit the plants where Apple products are manufactured.

The piece is Guillot?s fourth musical.

?I?m a classically trained musician and composer, but the music I write is within the confines of a rock band,? Guillot explains. ? A lot of my music is very rhythm forward? No surprise, then, that he plays drums in the musical?s four-piece ensemble.

Guillot says he downloaded the transcript and begin going through it with a pencil and a highlighter. He ended up writing 16 original songs for his adaptation, which in its current form runs about 70 minutes. A few song titles: ?Genisues and Bozos,? ?Apple is Fucked,? ?The Secret Union,? ?Sun.? The latter is named for Sun Danyong, a Foxconn employee who was jailed and beaten for losing an iPhone prototype. (Foxconn is the Chinese manufacturing behemoth that assembles the electronics designed and sold by Apple and many, many other companies.)

Another big divergence from the source material is that Guillot has turned Daisey?s solo play in to a five-hander, with Steve Isaac playing both Steve Jobs and Mike Daisey, and a four-actor chorus sharing a number of other roles. He also added a character, Daisey?s wife?although she isn?t based on Jean-Michele Gregory, Daisey?s real-life spouse, and the director of many of his monologues, including the original, non-musical TATESJ.

Guillot says the decision to add the character came from his wish to give the show a set of emotional bookends. In the monologue, Daisey talks about seeing test photos taken by an iPhone camera at the Foxconn plant where it was made. The photos ended up online after someone neglected to delete them before the phone was shipped.

?I wanted to bring an emotional perspective to the inciting incident of the show,? Guillot says. ?I wanted to show his love of technology and his discovery of these photos. He calls his wife over and they look at the pictures together.?

Daisey told me via e-mail that he?d hoped to make it down from New York to see the show, but ultimately got too busy with his current project, a continuous, 29-night, 44-hour monologue titled All the Faces of the Moon. ?But he recalled having a favorable impression of Guillot when they?d met earlier this year, when Daisey was performing American Utopias at Woolly. And the premise seemed to intrigue him.
?As far as I know this is the only one that is a full musical adaptation?the one in Mandarin has some shadow puppetry, and the German one has interactive video, but no others are all music as far as I can tell,? Daisey wrote.

The Agony and the Ecstasy of Steve Jobs: The Musical is at Mount Vernon United Methodist Church ? Mountain at 4 p.m. Tickets are available here.

Source: http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/blogs/fringe/2013/07/28/a-kind-of-magic-creating-the-agony-and-the-ecstasy-of-steve-jobs-the-musical/

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You're very welcome. And thank you for brightening my days with your beauty and animal videos. Haha.

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Daniel Gibson, Husband of Keyshia Cole, Arrested for Assault and Battery

Source: http://www.thehollywoodgossip.com/2013/07/daniel-gibson-husband-of-keyshia-cole-arrested-for-assault-and-b/

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How do you escape from a history recorded on Facebook, Instagram?

(AP Photo/Karly Domb Sadof) Instagram is demonstrated on an iPhone Monday, April 9, 2012, in New York.

We just graduated from college. We?ve got thousands of pictures on Instagram, conversations on Gchat and status updates on Facebook to show for it ? a digital record of that long week, seemingly each fragment of thought and every step of the day we graduated.

And we, like many people, often forget that so many less important moments of our lives are catalogued in the same way. Recently, Facebook launched a sophisticated tool called Graph Search, which helps reveal information from within your social network. Such tools make it dramatically easier to unearth data about the lives of everyone we know ? and people we don?t. They also underscore the urgent need to define the norms that govern how this information will be used.

Ours is the first generation to have grown up with the Internet. The first generation that got suspended from school because of a photo of underage drinking posted online. The first generation that could talk in chat rooms to anyone, anywhere, without our parents knowing. The first generation that has been "tracked" and "followed" and "shared" since childhood.

All this data will remain available forever ? both to the big players (tech companies, governments) and to our friends, our sort-of friends and the rest of civil society. This fact is not really new, but our generation will confront the latter on a scale beyond that experienced by previous generations.

This digital longevity raises new issues: One is that our former selves may live on beyond their real existence. It used to be that if a teenager went through "a phase," generally only their family, friends and teachers would know or remember. Those days are gone. Another issue is that false versions of your identity, suggested by disparate pieces of data, might be contrived and proposed as the real you. Thanks to technology, someone can know more about you than you know about yourself ? or, at least, think that they do.

These misrepresentations matter because they can shape unfair opinions or even cause unnecessary harm. Say that as an opinionated 16-year-old, someone wrote polemical public posts about her opposition to abortion. Her views shifted during college, but she never posted an announcement of that. Then, 10 years later, she applies to teach under a pro-choice principal. The principal checks Facebook, sees her history ? and then glances to his five other equally qualified applicants.

Nearly the entire lives of our generation have been catalogued and stored in servers, with the most mature and carefully thought-through utterances indistinguishable, as data, from thoughtless pre-teen rants. We gave much of this information willingly, if half-wittingly. A fact of being a young person today is that our data are out there forever, and we must find ways to deal with that.

Certainly there will be many uses for information, such as health data, that will wind up governed by law. But so many other uses cannot be predicted or legislated, and laws themselves have to be informed by values. It is therefore critical that people establish, with their actions and expectations, cultural norms that prevent their digital selves from imprisoning their real selves.

We see three possible paths: One, people become increasingly restrained about what they share and do online. Two, people become increasingly restrained about what they do, period. Three, we learn to care less about what people did when they were younger, less mature or otherwise different.

The first outcome seems unproductive. There is no longer much of an Internet without sharing, and one of the great benefits of the Internet has been its ability to nurture relationships and connections that previously had been impossible. Withdrawal is unacceptable. Fear of the digital future should not drive us apart.

story continues below

The second option seems more deeply unsettling. Childhood, adolescence, college ? the whole process of growing up ? is, as thinkers from John Locke to Dr. Spock have written, a necessarily experimental time. Everyone makes at least one mistake, and we?d like to think that process continues into adulthood. Creativity should not be overwhelmed by the fear of what people might one day find unpalatable.

This leaves the third outcome: the idea that we must learn to care less about what people did when they were younger or otherwise different. In an area where regulations, privacy policies and treaties may take decades to catch up to reality, our generation needs to take the lead in negotiating a "cultural treaty" endorsing a new value, related to privacy, that secures our ability to have a past captured in data that is not held to be the last word but seen in light of our having grown up in a way that no one ever has before.

Growing up, that is, on the record.

Julian B. Gewirtz, who interned at Facebook in 2011, is a Rhodes scholar who plans to study global history at the University of Oxford this fall. Adam B. Kern, a von Clemm fellow, plans to study philosophy at Oxford. They graduated from Harvard College in May.

Copyright 2013 The Salt Lake Tribune. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Source: http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/money/56652223-79/data-generation-facebook-college.html.csp

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Austrian flap over bell dedicated to Hitler

VIENNA (AP) ? Like many others in Austria's countryside, a tower bell above the red-tiled rooftops of Wolfpassing village marks the passing of each hour with an unspectacular "bong." But this bell is unique: It is embossed with a swastika and praise to Adolf Hitler.

And unlike more visible remnants of the Nazi era, the bell was apparently overlooked by official Austria up to now.

Ensconced in the belfry of an ancient castle where it was mounted by fans of the Nazi dictator in 1939, the bell has tolled on for nearly 80 years. It survived the defeat of Hitler's Germany, a decade of post-war Soviet occupation that saw Red Army soldiers lodge in the castle and more recent efforts by Austria's government to acknowledge the country's complicity in crimes of that era and make amends.

Some of those efforts have focused on identifying relics of that time and ensuring they're either removed or put in historical context. As an example, officials often cite government moral and material support for the restoration of the Mauthausen concentration camp, where a museum documents atrocities for school children and other visitors.

The Wolfpassing bell pays homage to Hitler for his 1938 annexation of Austria, a move supported back then by the vast majority of the nation's citizens. It describes Hitler as "the unifier and Fuehrer of all Germans" and says he freed the "Ostmark" ? Nazi jargon for Austria ? "from the yoke of suppression by foreign elements and brought it home into the Great-German Reich."

Local historian Johannes Kammerstaetter says most villagers would have known about it. But village mayor Josef Sonnleitner asserts even the villagers had no clue until the first media reports last month on the "Fuehrerglocke," or "Fuehrer Bell."

"Nobody cared until all this publicity," he said on the telephone. He refused a request for a longer interview, saying he was busy for the next two weeks with haying.

In any case, the government's recent sale of the castle ? with all its historical trappings ? has suddenly made the bell an issue beyond the sleepy village of 1,500 people about 100 kilometers (60 miles) west of Vienna.

In a country particularly sensitive about suggestions it has not fully faced its Nazi past, officials are scrambling for explanations of why the bell apparently evaded notice for so long. They also are under pressure to justify a ruling by the government agency in charge of historic monuments that it must remain part of the castle as part of its heritage? despite the refusal of the new owner to say what he plans to do with it.

Propagating Nazi values or praising the era is illegal in Austria. Kammerstaetter, the historian, has formally asked state prosecutors to examine whether the government's sale of the bell is a criminal offence. He says the change of ownership could constitute a case of "spreading National Socialist ideology" on the part of the government agency in charge of state-owned property

Raimund Fastenbauer, a senior official of Vienna's Jewish community, invokes other concerns, noting that other Hitler-era relics like the dictator's house of birth in the western town of Braunau have become a magnet for neo-Nazis.

"I think the best thing would be if the bell disappeared and was buried somewhere," he says.

For its part, the government says that the sale was legal, along with the decision to keep the bell in the belfry as an integral component of the castle.

Economics Minister Reinhold Mitterlehner says the agency overseeing the sale was not aware of the inscription.

He notes in a letter to Kammerstaetter that "the bell up to now was neither publicly displayed nor generally accessible," adding that he does not see the sale as constituting a criminal offense.

Ernst Eichinger, a spokesman for the agency responsible for government real-estate, says that with a portfolio of more than 28,000 buildings ? many of them huge ? "we cannot search every centimeter" before a sale.

Concerns are heightened by the lack of clarity about what the new owner, Tobias Hufnagl, plans to do with the relict. Two web domains linked to him or his holding company, hufnagel.cc and thinvestments.com, did not open.

Sonnleitner, the Wolfpassing mayor, says has not been able to directly contact Hufnagl, despite weeks of trying.

In a terse email this week responding to numerous Associated Press queries seeking permission to film the bell and asking about its fate, Hufnagl said he had "no interest" in exchanges with the AP.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2013-07-28-EU-Austria-Hitler's-Bell/id-d9a2597e0cd241dcabe93c4aed493228

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Wedding: Chad Turner & Margaret Blunschi

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Source: http://theadvertiser.com/article/20130728/ANNOUNCEWAVE/307280303/-1/rss01

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VatorNews - Personal finance platform LearnVest raises $16.5M

If there?s one thing we got out of the recession, it?s an endless supply of personal finance tools. It?s nice to think that you?re not poor, you?re just not doing it right. One of the personal finance platforms that rocketed to the top was LearnVest, which launched with the intriguing angle of being a financial education and management platform for women. Last year, the company broadened its target demographic to include men. Now, LearnVest is powering up with a big boost of capital.

LearnVest announced Friday that it has landed $16.5 million in a strategic round of funding from American Express Ventures, Claritas Capital, Carlyle Group founding member Ed Mathias, former T. Rowe Price Global Investment Services CEO Todd Ruppert, and existing investor Accel Partners. The new capital brings LearnVest's total raised to date to $41 million.?

The company said that the new capital will be used to scale LearnVest Planning?s Action Program, a seven-step program designed to jumpstart users? financial planning. Customized to a user?s specific circumstances, the program connects him or her with a certified financial planner to come up with expert ?Challenges.? The seven steps of the program include organizing your finances, balancing your budget, planning for the future, finding the right insurance and estate documents, saving for big purchases, figuring out how to allocate investment assets, and updating your program when your situation changes.

In addition to the new funding, LearnVest also added a new west coast office in Phoenix, Arizona (for some reason??). Dubbed the LearnVest Planning Office, it will serve as a hiring and training hub for the company?s financial planners.

?We believe strongly in the mission of LearnVest Planning to provide accessible financial advice,? said American Express Ventures managing partner Harshul Sanghi, in a statement. ?As we seek to?expand our portfolio of products across American Express, we believe LearnVest Planning can?be an important?partner in helping us to bring customers more convenient, affordable and transparent ways to manage their money.?

LearnVest is also angling for some distribution through a partnership with Workplace Solutions, which will bring LearnVest?s services to employees as an employee benefit.

And finally, LearnVest has added four new advisors: Ed Mathias and Todd Ruppert, along with CEO of AOL?s Brand Group Susan Lyne, and former Weight Watchers CFO Ann Sardini.?

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Source: http://vator.tv/news/2013-07-26-personal-finance-platform-learnvest-raises-165m

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Feds: Halliburton agrees to plead guilty to destroying evidence in 2010 Gulf oil spill

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Norwegian Town Using Sun-Tracking Mirrors To Light Up Dark Winter Days

[unable to retrieve full-text content]oritonic1 writes "During their long, cold winters, the Norwegian town of Rjukan doesn't enjoy much by way of daylight—so the town (population 3,386), installed three giant sun-tracking mirrors to shine a steady light over a 2000 square foot circle of the town square. From Popular Mechanics: 'Call it a mood enhancer. Or a tourist attraction. But the mirrors, which will be carried in via helicopter, will provide an oasis of light in an otherwise bleak location at the center of the 3500-population town. Three mirrors with a total surface area of about 538 square feet will sit at an angle to redirect winter sun down into the town, lighting up over 2150 square feet of concentrated space in the town square. A similar idea exists in the Italian village of Viganella, which has used brushed steel to reflect light since 2006.'"

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdotScience/~3/sZYzP8iYYkY/story01.htm

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Spain passenger train derails, killing at least 40

Emergency personnel respond to the scene of a train derailment in Santiago de Compostela, Spain, on Wednesday, July 24, 2013. A train derailed in northwestern Spain on Wednesday night, toppling passenger cars on their sides and leaving at least one torn open as smoke rose into the air. Dozens were feared dead, with possibly even more injured. (AP Photo/ El correo Gallego/Antonio Hernandez)

Emergency personnel respond to the scene of a train derailment in Santiago de Compostela, Spain, on Wednesday, July 24, 2013. A train derailed in northwestern Spain on Wednesday night, toppling passenger cars on their sides and leaving at least one torn open as smoke rose into the air. Dozens were feared dead, with possibly even more injured. (AP Photo/ El correo Gallego/Antonio Hernandez)

Emergency personnel respond to the scene of a train derailment in Santiago de Compostela, Spain, on Wednesday, July 24, 2013. A train derailed in northwestern Spain on Wednesday night, toppling passenger cars on their sides and leaving at least one torn open as smoke rose into the air. Dozens were feared dead, with possibly even more injured. (AP Photo/ El correo Gallego/Antonio Hernandez)

Emergency personnel respond to the scene of a train derailment in Santiago de Compostela, Spain, on Wednesday, July 24, 2013. A train derailed in northwestern Spain on Wednesday night, toppling passenger cars on their sides and leaving at least one torn open as smoke rose into the air. Dozens were feared dead, with possibly even more injured. (AP Photo/ El correo Gallego/Antonio Hernandez)

Emergency personnel respond to the scene of a train derailment in Santiago de Compostela, Spain, on Wednesday, July 24, 2013. A train derailed in northwestern Spain on Wednesday night, toppling passenger cars on their sides and leaving at least one torn open as smoke rose into the air. Dozens were feared dead, with possibly even more injured. (AP Photo/ El correo Gallego/Antonio Hernandez)

A woman is evacuated by emergency personnel at the scene of a train derailment in Santiago de Compostela, Spain, on Wednesday, July 24, 2013. A train derailed in northwestern Spain on Wednesday night, toppling passenger cars on their sides and leaving at least one torn open as smoke rose into the air. Dozens were feared dead, with possibly even more injured. (AP Photo/ El correo Gallego/Antonio Hernandez)

MADRID (AP) ? A passenger train derailed Wednesday night on a curvy stretch of track in northwestern Spain, killing at least 40 people caught inside toppled cars and injuring more than 140 in the country's worst rail accident in decades, officials said.

Bodies were covered in blankets next to the tracks and rescue workers tried to get trapped people out of the train's cars, with smoke billowing from some of the wreckage. Some passengers were pulled out of broken windows, and one man stood atop a carriage lying on its side, using a pickaxe to try to smash through a window. Images showed one car pointing up into the air with one of its ends twisted and disfigured, and another severed in two.

Officials gave differing death tolls in the immediate aftermath of the crash just outside Santiago de Compostela, on the eve of the city's annual religious festival that attracts tens of thousands of Christian pilgrims from around the world.

Alberto Nunez Feijoo, president of the region of Galicia where Santiago de Compostela is the capital, said at least 40 people died. But the president of Galicia's main court, Miguel Angel Cadenas, was quoted from the scene by the Cadena Ser radio station saying 56 died. Rescue workers were still searching through the smoldering wreckage of the train's cars Thursday morning in the pre-dawn darkness.

State-owned train operator Renfe said in a statement that 218 passengers and an unspecified number of staff were on board the eight-carriage train during the 8.41 p.m. (1841 GMT) crash on a section of tracks about 2.5 miles (4 kilometers) from Santiago de Compostela that came online two years ago .

Renfe and track operator Adif were cooperating with a judge who has been appointed to investigate the accident, Renfe said.

A regional Galicia health official, Rocio Mosquera, told reporters early Thursday morning that more than 140 passengers from the train had been treated at area hospitals, with their conditions ranging from light injuries to serious and some still in surgery hours after the crash.

Officials in Santiago de Compostela canceled ceremonies planned for Thursday, when Catholic pilgrims converge on the city to celebrate a festival honoring St. James, the disciple of Jesus whose remains are said to rest in a shrine. The city is the main gathering point for the faithful who make it to the end of the El Camino de Santiago pilgrimage route that has drawn Christians since the Middle Ages.

The crash happened about an hour before sunset after the train emerged from a tunnel and derailed on the curve ? sending cars flying off the tracks. At least one caught fire in a scene that Feijoo said was "Dante-esque."

"The train travelled very fast and derailed and turned over on the bend in the track," passenger Sergio Prego told Cadena Ser. "It's a disaster. I've been very lucky because I'm one of the few be able to walk out."

Another passenger, Ricardo Montero, told the radio station that "when the train reached that bend it began to flip over, many times, with some carriages ending up on top of others, leaving many people trapped below. We had to get under the carriages to get out."

Xabier Martinez, a photographer who arrived at the scene as rescue workers were removing dozens of bodies, said two injured train passengers told him they felt a strong vibration just before the train's wagons jumped the tracks.

Officials said they believed the crash was an accident but declined to offer more details, saying an investigation was under way into the cause. There was no speculation by officials that it might be a possible act of terror, like the commuter train bombing attacks in Madrid in 2004 that killed 191 people.

The train, which belongs to the state-owned Renfe company, started from Madrid and was scheduled to end its journey at El Ferrol, about 95 kilometers (60 miles) north of Santiago de Compostela. Although it was not one of Spain's highest speed bullet trains called AVEs, it was a relatively luxurious version that uses the same kind of track as Spain's fastest expresses.

It was Spain's deadliest train accident since 1972, when an accident on a track heading to the southwestern city of Seville killed 77 people, the Europa Press news agency reported. A train traveling from Madrid to the Galicia region in 1944 crashed and killed 78 people. A subway crash in the southern city of Valencia killed 43 people in 2006 and was blamed on excessive speed.

King Juan Carlos and Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy both offered their condolences to the victims in Santiago de Compostela. Rajoy, who was born in the city, announced he would visit the crash site Thursday.

___

Associated Press writer Alan Clendenning contributed to this story.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2013-07-24-Spain-Train%20Derailment/id-5606aa331dfe43c4818b683e88674043

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EU: investment banks appear to have colluded

BRUSSELS (AP) ? The European Commission says many of the world's largest investment banks appear to have colluded to block attempts by exchanges to trade and offer more transparent prices for financial products known as credit derivatives.

The commission, the executive arm of the European Union, said Monday it has informed 13 banks ? including Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan and Morgan Stanley ? as well as the industry association for derivatives itself, the International Swaps and Derivatives Association, ISDA, of the preliminary conclusions of an investigation that began in March.

The Commissioner for competition policy, Joaquin Almunia, told reporters in Brussels that Deutsche Boerse and the Chicago Mercantile Exchange tried to break into the credit derivatives business between 2006 and 2009.

But "the banks acted collectively to prevent this from happening...because they feared it would reduce their revenues."

He said the banks will now have a chance to respond, but if the commission's suspicions are confirmed it "would constitute a serious breach of our competition rules."

The commission's investigation focuses on credit default swaps, often known simply as CDS contracts, which are essentially insurance that pays out when a company or country fails to honor a debt.

Indicating the size of the potential market distortion, Almunia said that at the moment there are 2 million such contracts outstanding, with a notational value of 10 trillion euros ($13 trillion).

The big banks have historically traded these contracts "over the counter" ? that is, among themselves, releasing little information about trading prices to others who want to buy or sell them.

Almunia declined to say how much the banks might be fined if found guilty. He noted the banks themselves have been given some information about how fines could be calculated along with the official statement of objections they have been sent. But he said it was "too soon" to begin discussing fines publicly, given that the commission will only make a final determination as to whether the banks indeed broke antitrust rules later this year.

Other organizations that were sent the statement of objections were Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Barclays, Bear Stearns, BNP Paribas, Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank, HSBC, JP Morgan, Royal Bank of Scotland, and UBS, as well as the data service provider Markit.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/f70471f764144b2fab526d39972d37b3/Article_2013-07-01-EU-EU-Investment-Banks-Derivatives/id-2c85c91d7a194a0b854be0614f2d05ac

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Bill Haas pulls away to win at Congressional

Bill Haas, left, poses with Tiger Woods after winning the AT&T National golf tournament at Congressional Country Club, Sunday, June 30, 2013, in Bethesda, Md. (AP Photo/Nick Wass)

Bill Haas, left, poses with Tiger Woods after winning the AT&T National golf tournament at Congressional Country Club, Sunday, June 30, 2013, in Bethesda, Md. (AP Photo/Nick Wass)

Bill Haas poses with a trophy after winning the AT&T National golf tournament at Congressional Country Club, Sunday, June 30, 2013, in Bethesda, Md. (AP Photo/Nick Wass)

Bill Haas reacts after winning the AT&T National golf tournament at Congressional Country Club, Sunday, June 30, 2013, in Bethesda, Md. (AP Photo/Nick Wass)

Bill Haas watches his drive from the fourth tee during the final round of the AT&T National golf tournament at Congressional Country Club, Sunday, June 30, 2013, in Bethesda, Md. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)

Bill Haas putts on the third green during the final round of the AT&T National golf tournament at Congressional Country Club, Sunday, June 30, 2013, in Bethesda, Md. (AP Photo/Nick Wass)

BETHESDA, Md. (AP) ? Bill Haas made the long walk across a makeshift bridge and under the grandstands to the 18th green for the trophy presentation, high-fiving kids along the railing and raising his cap to thousands of fans who cheered as they saw him coming.

His victory Sunday in the AT&T National was even sweeter when he compared it with all the times he failed.

"As many times as I've choked and hit bad shots and I've been nervous and it hasn't worked out ? I was feeling all those things today ? and to hit good, quality golf shots down the stretch is such a good feeling," Haas said. "I wish I could explain it. It's amazing."

His golf spoke volumes.

Haas pulled away from a crowd of contenders with three straight birdies, two good pars and one good hop. It led to a 5-under 66, giving him a three-shot win at Congressional over Roberto Castro and putting him into distinguished company on two levels.

Haas has won at least one PGA Tour event in each of the last four years, joining Phil Mickelson, Dustin Johnson and Justin Rose. And he kept the pedigree of champions at the AT&T National on a day when a half-dozen players were trying to win their first PGA Tour event. In the seven-year history of the tournament, Rose was the lowest-ranked player to win. He was No. 35 when he won at Aronimink in 2010. Haas started the week at No. 29.

Haas is honest to fault, which explains why he is too hard on himself. He talked about how he "threw up on myself" at Riviera when he lost a three-shot lead in the final round, and he twice used the word "choke" in describing past failures.

"That's terrible to say that 'I choke' and 'I throw up on myself,' but I'm just honest that I did that," he said. "But go from there. How do you get better? Don't do it again, you know? That's my best statement. Just don't do that again. Today, I didn't do it. I think it makes it that much sweeter, too, when you can remember the times you stunk."

He made only one bogey, making good on his pledge Saturday to clean up his card after a third round that included a triple bogey on the 11th hole.

As many as six players had a share of the lead at some point until Haas rolled in a 10-foot birdie putt on No. 8. Worried about a splotch of mud on his ball, he hit his approach to just inside 12 feet for birdie on the par-5 ninth, and then hit a 5-iron to 10 feet for another birdie on the 10th.

Haas led by at least two shots the entire back nine, though he never allowed himself to think about winning until he stood over a 3-foot par putt on the 18th hole and realized he had three putts to win.

"I just kept the ball in front of me," Haas said. "Nothing too crazy."

The 31-year-old won for the fifth time in his career, and this was the first one with Tiger Woods on the property ? not to play, but to hand out the trophy. Woods sat out this week with an elbow injury and won't play again until the British Open, though he was impressed with what he saw.

"He played beautifully today," Woods said. "He handled his business through the tougher stretch of holes and pulled away."

Castro, part of a four-way tie for the lead at the start of the final round, made Haas work for it.

"He didn't make any mistakes, and the birdies on 9 and 10 were big," Castro said after his 69.

The other leaders fell away. Andres Romero had a double bogey on the fourth hole and shot 75. James Driscoll didn't make a birdie in his round of 74.

Jordan Spieth, the 19-year-old from Texas who needs a win to become a PGA Tour member and be eligible for the FedEx Cup playoffs, started his day by holing out from a fairway bunker for eagle and chipping in for birdie to tie for the lead. He dropped a shot at No. 11 ? the hardest hole at Congressional ? about the time Haas was on his critical run of birdies. Spieth had a 69 and finished sixth, pushing his earnings for the year over $1.1 million.

Castro bogeyed the opening hole, and that was his only mistake. He was one shot out of the lead at the turn, couldn't match birdies with Haas at the par-3 10th, and then stuck with him the rest of the day.

"It helped that Roberto played so well," Haas said.

Haas, who finished on 12-under 272, never allowed himself to think about winning, even after he seized control around the turn. Congressional wouldn't let him. Even though he made 15 birdies on the weekend, he remembered the triple bogey on the 11th hole Saturday that temporarily derailed him.

This time, he found the fairway, hit onto the green, took two putts for par and exhaled.

Haas saved par from a bunker on the par-3 13th with a 6-foot putt that swirled 360 degrees around the cup before falling, and then picked up an unlikely birdie on the 14th when his 9-iron was drifting toward a mound covered with shaggy rough to the right of the green. It hopped off the mound to about 10 feet, and he went from a possible bogey to a birdie when he made the putt.

He made one more birdie with a wedge that checked up a foot from hole on the par-5 16th, and Haas was on his way.

The biggest struggle after that was hoisting the silver trophy of the U.S. Capitol over his head in the stifling heat of the closing ceremony on the 18th green.

Haas was still smarting over losing a three-shot lead in the final round at Riviera, making five bogeys in a seven-hole stretch in the middle of his round. He had the 36-hole lead at the Memorial until a 76-71 weekend.

He was solid on Sunday at Congressional, and the win moved him to No. 7 in the FedEx Cup standings with the playoffs about two months away. That's important to Haas, who won the FedEx Cup in 2011 and failed to qualify for the Tour Championship last year.

D.H. Lee made nine birdies to match a tournament-best 64 and tied for third with Jason Kokrak, who briefly shared the lead on the front nine and had a 69. Stewart Cink closed with a 67 and finished alone in fifth, his best finish on the PGA Tour in stroke play since he won the British Open four years ago at Turnberry.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/347875155d53465d95cec892aeb06419/Article_2013-06-30-GLF-ATandT-National/id-5d38551197d6497e8b81ea78451f7f10

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