Cheating at Harvard

Harvard Government Class Students Probed for Cheating - Bloomberg: "About 125 students who took a popular Harvard University government class are under investigation in the largest academic misconduct scandal known at the school.
The focus of the probe is a take-home final exam on which some students may have collaborated or copied answers, officials at Harvard, in Cambridge, Massachusetts, said yesterday. Students familiar with the investigation said the course being probed was Government 1310: Introduction to Congress, the Harvard Crimson student newspaper reported."

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Rounding Error, Chipotle trouble

Chipotle says keep the change after practice of rounding bills up, down comes to light - Bottom Line: "As of August 1, Arnold said those restaurants only will round down in customers' favor, and a notification has been added to the bottom of each receipt. Arnold said Chipotle didn't profit when the rounding went both ways. "We never benefitted in any way other than making lines move faster," he said.
"I think if they were rounding up ... and weren’t disclosing it, it might be actionable by a state attorney general under unfair and deceptive practices laws," Ed Mierzwinski,  consumer program director with Public Interest Research Group said via email. "

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Giving millions, getting billions- the reality of the "alternate universe"

Donors Invest Millions in Romney for Billions in Returns - Bloomberg: "More than half of Adelson’s gambling-empire profits come from his four casinos in the Chinese territory of Macau. Adelson’s Sands China Ltd. (1928), which develops, owns and operates the resorts, accounted for $2.95 billion of the company’s total $5.34 billion in revenue in the first half of this year, according to its second-quarter earnings report.

If the value of the Chinese currency were higher against the dollar -- as Romney has demanded -- it would give a boost to Adelson’s bottom line. That’s because gamblers from China, who make up the bulk of visitors to Macau’s casinos, would bring the same amount of yuan for betting no matter the exchange rate, said Grant Govertsen, an analyst with Union Gaming Group. So, in dollar terms, they’d be spending more.

Sands officials were asked in a 2010 earnings call what would happen if China loosened restrictions on its currency, which may prompt it to rise.

“It’ll have a big meaning in Macau, and, of course, we’re all in favor of that,” Adelson said. Neither he nor his company representatives returned calls for comment."

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Lying + making things up = the New Normal

They built that: how a Republican lie turned into an alternate universe | Michael Cohen | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk: ""You didn't build that."

That single phrase, taken out of context by Republicans, has become the GOP's symbol of Obama's supposed contempt for the free market and entrepreneurship, and for his socialist assault on America. Sure, it's a misleading lie to cast it that way. But in the hands of Republicans intent on furthering their vision of the free market as a fragile institution whose success relies on as little interaction with the federal government as possible, it quickly became a stand-in for all that is wrong with Obama.

And so, the Republicans made "We built that" the theme of Tuesday's convention proceedings. Speaker after speaker hammered on this theme, accusing Obama of disrespecting small business. But they did so with almost a wilful sense of hypocrisy. For example, Delaware lieutenant governor candidate Sher Valenzuela attacked Obama for the line despite the fact that, just a few months ago, she gave a detailed speech to a business group about how they could do a better job getting government contracts."

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Hurricane level craziness

Riven by factionalism, the Republican party looks hell-bent on self-destruction | Hadley Freeman | Comment is free | The Guardian: "I think it is my fondness for Arrested Development that explains my enjoyment of the Republican convention currently taking place in Tampa, Florida. "Taking place" was nearly an overstatement as the convention has been curtailed owing to fears over hurricane Isaac. Strangely, there has been no word from former presidential candidate and dementor Michele Bachmann or modern-day Savonarola Pat Robertson about how this storm signifies holy displeasure, even though both have previously connected meteorological shifts with God. One year ago, Bachmann claimed that hurricane Irene, which caused at least 56 deaths, was God saying: "'Are you going to start listening to me here?' … Government is on a morbid obesity diet and we've got to rein in the spending." Robertson said that Haiti's 2010 earthquake, in which at least 100,000 people died, was retribution for the country's "pact with the devil". Maybe their speeches were among those that had to be cut because of the weather."

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China and renewable energy- E&Y rankings

China Widens Renewables Lead Over U.S. in Ernst & Young Ranking - Bloomberg: "China widened its lead over the U.S. in a renewable energy ranking compiled by consultant Ernst & Young that gauges the attractiveness to investors of wind and solar power projects in those countries.
The U.S., weighed down by “uncertainty over the country’s long-term renewable energy strategy,” dropped 1.5 points to 66 in the quarterly renewables “attractiveness index,” E&Y said today in an e-mailed report. That pushed it into a tie for second with Germany, trailing China’s score of 70.2.
“The upcoming elections have led to an understandable slowdown in the decision-making process in the U.S.,” Ernst & Young Global Cleantech Leader Gil Forer said. “Germany is pushing ahead with its ambitious renewable energy agenda.”"

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Perception about taxes

Majority in U.S. say rich pay too little in taxes - Business - Personal finance - Tax Tactics - NBCNews.com: "The poll found that many Americans believe rich people to be intelligent and hard-working but also greedy and less honest than the average American. Nearly six in 10, or 58 percent, say the rich don't pay enough in taxes, while 26 percent believe the rich pay their fair share and 8 percent say they pay too much.
Even among those who describe themselves as "upper class" or "upper middle class," more than half — 52 percent — said upper-income Americans don't pay enough in taxes; only 10 percent said they paid too much. This upper tier was more likely to say they are more financially secure now than they were 10 years ago — 62 percent, compared to 44 percent for those who identified themselves as middle class and 29 percent for the lower class. They are less likely to report problems in paying rents or mortgages, losing a job, paying for medical care or other bills and cutting back on household expenses."

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Facebook and privacy, $700,000 worth of it.

Facebook Spent $700,000 On Mark Zuckerberg's Private Jets Last Year - Business Insider: "Here's one little bit from Facebook's initial public offering that were reminded of last night: Facebook spent about $700,000 on private charter flights for CEO Mark Zuckerberg last year.
It's not like Zuckerberg is jet-setting, though. The flights are private because the intent is to keep Zuckerberg, the CEO of a company whose service is used by nearly a billion people, safe from stalkers and other kinds of crazy people."

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Basic etiquette thrown out of the window...when flying

Airlines: You can't wear that - Travel - NBCNews.com: "The First Amendment prohibits government from limiting a person's free-speech rights, but it doesn't apply to rules set by private companies, Larsen says. He notes that government security screeners didn't challenge Guha; private Delta employees did."

In short, since airlines and their planes are private property and not a public space like the courthouse steps, crews can tell you what to wear.

In the early years of jet travel, passengers dressed up and confrontations over clothing were unimaginable. They're still rare — there aren't any precise numbers — but when showdowns happen, they gain more attention as aggrieved passengers complain on the Internet about airline clothing cops. It's unwelcome publicity for airlines, which already rate near the bottom of all industries when it comes to customer satisfaction.

Showing off Status or Revealing Emptiness?

Corporate Takeover of the Day · Business ETC: "IN RUSSIA, Starbucks is giving away sleeves that make any coffee look like its from Starbucks, according to BuzzFeed.
Starbucks has been in the Russian market for about five years now. Russia is one of Starbucks’ key markets for future expansion as the nation’s coffee culture continues to develop.
It’s an aggressive promo that local competitors aren’t going to like. But, after all, Starbucks has some serious muscle."

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Corporate Speech - one item not going up in smoke

Court strikes down graphic warnings for cigarettes - Health - Addictions - NBCNews.com: "WASHINGTON — A U.S. appeals court ruled on Friday that cigarette companies do not need to comply with new federal rules requiring their products to show graphic warning images, such as of a man exhaling smoke through a hole in his throat.
The 2-1 decision by a court in Washington, D.C., contradicts a ruling in a similar case by another court in March, setting up the possibility that the U.S. Supreme Court will weigh in on the dispute.
The court's majority found the label requirement from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration violated corporate speech requirements .
"This case raises novel questions about the scope of the government's authority to force the manufacturer of a product to go beyond making purely factual and accurate commercial disclosures and undermine its own economic interest -- in this case, by making 'every single pack of cigarettes in the country mini billboard' for the government's anti-smoking message," wrote Judge Janice Rogers Brown of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.
The FDA "has not provided a shred of evidence" showing that the graphic labels would reduce smoking, Brown added."

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Scholarships are in decline as tuition soars - Money - TODAY.com

Scholarships are in decline as tuition soars - Money - TODAY.com: "The percentage of students reporting winning scholarships dropped markedly, to 35 percent in the 2011-2012 school year, from 45 percent the year before, according to How America Pays for College 2012, a recent survey of college students and their families by student lender Sallie Mae.
Scholarship recipients are still getting almost exactly the same amount as the previous year, an average of $7,673. But the availability of money is being hurt as cash-strapped states cut funding for scholarships to public schools and the schools themselves aren't always able to make up the difference."

$8 million to zero Some states, like Georgia and Florida, have altered scholarship rules regarding who qualifies and how much money they get. Others have taken even more drastic steps.

Michigan's Merit and Promise scholarship program doled out more than $8 million to more than 6,500 students at the University of Michigan for the 2007-2008 school year, according to Pam Fowler, executive director of the college's Office of Financial Aid. By 2010-2011, that had fallen to zero.

Cash-poor states aren't providing more scholarship money despite record high enrollments, says Haley Chitty, spokesperson for the Washington, D.C.-based National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators.

"That means fewer funds are being spread out among more and more students," Chitty says.

According to Illinois State University's Grapevine project, which tabulates every state's financial support for higher education, such funding fell an average of 7.6 percent in 2011-2012.

Maternity leave - different times for different firms

Google's formula to retain women: Longer maternity leave - Life Inc.: "Many employers end up scratching their heads when women who are seemingly on the fast track to the corner office end up leaving their companies.
Google managers decided to use their expertise deciphering data to figure out why it was happening within their ranks.
A story in the New York Times titled “In Google’s Inner Circle, A Falling Number of Women” discusses how the search engine giant used its own internal data to figure out why some women leave the firm.  One of the best nuggets was buried in the next-to-last paragraph of the story."

A story in the New York Times titled “In Google’s Inner Circle, A Falling Number of Women” discusses how the search engine giant used its own internal data to figure out why some women leave the firm.  One of the best nuggets was buried in the next-to-last paragraph of the story.

“Another time Google was losing women was after they had babies. The attrition rate for postpartum women was twice that for other employees. In response, Google lengthened maternity leave to five months from three and changed it from partial pay to full pay. Attrition decreased by 50 percent.”

Bingo!

That piece of data — albeit from a limited sample of corporate America — points to a simple idea: If women can get some extra paid time to get their bodies and minds back on track after the baby comes they may be able to figure out how to make work-life balance a reality when they return.

Unfortunately, research from the Families and Work Institute shows employers are cutting back on providing full pay during such leave.

Although employers have grown more likely to offer some form of paid maternity leave, they are becoming less likely to provide time off with full pay.

About 58 percent of employers provide some form of pay for maternity leave based on the latest survey, up from 46 percent in 2005. But only 5 percent of all employers offer full pay for new mothers, down from an estimated 6 percent in 2005.

Phonetiquette, not Phony etiquette

The most annoying things you do with your phone that you should quit (or at least be aware of) - Digital Life: "Talking on the phone while driving; checking Facebook at the dinner table; taking pictures of everything. We're all annoying someone with the way we use our phones.
Last week Lifehacker asked readers what annoyed them most about how people use their smartphones. Many shared pet peeves, but just as often they admitted that they're also guilty of doing these annoying things.
It's impossible to make hard rules about phone etiquette, since you might find annoying what I find perfectly acceptable, but at the very least, it's worthwhile to know that some people might be annoyed by your behavior."

PoliticAnalytics in full swing

The Associated Press: AP Exclusive: Romney uses secretive data-mining: "Building upon its fundraising prowess, Mitt Romney's campaign began a secretive data-mining project this summer to sift through Americans' personal information — including their purchasing history and church attendance — to identify new and likely wealthy donors, The Associated Press has learned.
The project employs strategies similar to those the business world uses to influence the way Americans shop and think. Now they're being used to sway presidential elections. The same personal data consumers give away — often unwittingly when they swipe their credit cards or log into Facebook — is now being used by the people who might one day occupy the White House.
For Romney's data-mining project, which began as early as June, the Republican candidate quietly turned to a little-known but successful analytics firm that previously performed marketing work for a colleague tied to Bain & Co., the management-consulting firm that Romney once led.

The head of Buxton Co. of Fort Worth, Texas, chief executive Tom Buxton, confirmed to the AP his company's efforts, which help Romney identify potentially wealthy and previously untapped Republican donors across the country. The Romney campaign declined to discuss on the record its work with Buxton or the project's overall success.

There are no records of payments to Buxton from Romney's campaign, the Republican National Committee or a joint fundraising committee. Under federal law, companies cannot use corporate treasury funds or resources, such as proprietary data analysis, for in-kind contributions to federal campaigns.

The effort by Romney appears to be the first example of a political campaign using such extensive data analysis. President Barack Obama's re-election campaign has long been known as data-savvy, but Romney's project appears to take a page from the Fortune 500 business world and dig deeper into available consumer data.

Buxton said he's working for the Romney campaign because he wants "to be on the winning team."

He once worked with a former Romney business partner to provide insights, for example, about where Petco should open a new pet-supply store to maximize profits. In addition to Buxton, the data-mining project was described to the AP by a Romney fundraiser who spoke on condition of anonymity because the fundraiser did not want to face repercussions for describing internal campaign processes.

Businesses use those kinds of analytics firms to answer key questions for clients, such as where to build a retail store or where to mail pamphlets touting a new product. The analysis doesn't directly bring in campaign contributions, but it generates the equivalent of sales leads for Romney's campaign.

The project relies upon a sophisticated analysis by powerful computers of thousands of commercially available, expensive databases that are lawfully bought and sold behind the scenes by corporations, including details about credit accounts, families and children, voter registrations, charitable contributions, property tax records and survey responses. It combines marketing data with what is known in this specialized industry as psychographic data analysis, which tries to ferret out Americans' consumer behavior and habits.

An early test analyzed details of more than 2 million households near San Francisco and elsewhere on the West Coast and identified thousands of people who would be comfortably able and inclined to give Romney at least $2,500 or more.

An AP analysis this week determined that Romney's campaign has made impressive inroads into even traditionally Democratic neighborhoods, collecting more than $350,000 this summer around San Francisco in contributions that averaged $400 each. High-dollar donors have been essential to Romney's election effort, unlike Obama, who relies on more contributors giving smaller amounts.

Romney and the GOP have out-fundraised Obama's re-election effort for the past three months.

The fate of the presidency may depend on who raises more money in the campaign, whose cost for the first time is approaching $2 billion. That figure includes hundreds of millions of dollars spent by super political action committees that accept unlimited and in some cases effectively anonymous contributions from millionaires, companies, labor groups and others to pay for television campaign advertisements across the nation.

Buxton confirmed that the data-mining project began with the help of Dick Boyce, Romney's former Bain & Co. colleague, after Romney joined fundraising forces with the Republican National Committee. Buxton expressed such confidence in his business and analysis methods that, in nearly two decades of running his firm, he told AP he has always been able to answer essential questions for customers.

"I can look at data of any kind and say, 'I want to know who that $100 donor could be,'" Buxton said. "We look at data of any kind."

Obama's campaign employs its own form of data analysis to lure potential supporters, via Facebook and Twitter, to fine-tune messages for supporters and potential donors. The Obama campaign declined to comment on its internal fundraising practices, although Buxton said it doesn't work with Obama's campaign.

Romney's campaign has also been secretive about how it raises its money, and most fundraising events have been closed to the press. Unlike Obama, Romney's campaign has declined to publicly identify the names of major fundraisers, known as bundlers, who have helped amass much of its money. Details of this project have not been made public until now.

Buxton is not listed as a vendor in any of the campaign's finance reports submitted to the Federal Election Commission, although some campaigns do not report expenses until the vendor sends them a bill.

When AP initially asked Buxton about its work for Romney, it declined to acknowledge that it helped raise money for the RNC, even as its own website displayed a prominent log-in page for "2012 presidential donor prospecting." That web address contained the letters "RNC" — a common abbreviation for the Republican National Committee. After the AP's continued questioning, the company replaced the "RNC" letters in the web address with a generic "campaign" the next day.

This is not Buxton's first foray into politics: In 2006, the company produced 1,000 names for a Connecticut campaign to meet a write-in ballot requirement, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram then reported, and 900 of them signed up.

Few in Washington campaign circles recognized the work of Buxton, although it lists thousands of other clients in the public and private sector, including hospitals and local governments."

Win

Armstrong's titles- punctured

Armstrong to Be Stripped of Tour Titles, Banned for Life - Bloomberg: "Cyclist Lance Armstrong will be stripped of his record seven Tour de France titles and banned from the sport for life after refusing to fight drug allegations by the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency.
“He will be banned for life and loss of results since Aug. 1, 1998,” Annie Skinner, a USADA spokeswoman, said in an e-mail last night. An official statement will be issued today, she said."

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President Higgins- on the money

Getting to the heart of the young Irish - The Irish Times - Fri, Aug 24, 2012: "Among the submissions that have arrived so far are calls for awareness about citizenship, equality and respect to be taught at primary level; at second level a greater emphasis on informing students about how the State works and who is responsible for decision-making; at third level greater space to debate big-picture issues such as what we can expect out of education, careers and the economy.

They are issues close to the President’s heart.

He has long railed against the corrosive effects of “radical individualism” and the need to build a new future underpinned by an ethic that emphasises the needs of the many, rather than the speculative adventures of the few.

“We need now, more than ever, a vibrant, imaginative and creative population to re-build our land, to build a real Republic,” he said.

While many despair at the shaky future that awaits a new generation, he said there were also opportunities. Young people have an opportunity to know more about connections between science, technology and the environment; they are likely to be more questioning of institutions."

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Throwing away food

Americans throw away 40 percent of their food: study - Bottom Line: "“Everyone has a role to play in reducing food waste,” Gunders said. “This is just something that’s really flown under our radar. As a country, we just haven’t been thinking about this. But it’s one of the easiest things we can do to reduce our environmental footprint.”
Ironically, the food squandering findings come just as a new Gallup poll shows that nearly one in five Americans say they haven’t had enough money to buy groceries on some days during the past 12 months.
At the same time, a record drought baking half the country will help drive food prices 3 to 4 percent higher next year, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Much of the waste is fueled by food companies and grocery chains that oversell and overstock. Also to blame are consumers who over-purchase - packing their shopping carts and refrigerators with far more than they need after being tempted by buy-one-get-one-free deals that often include short, shelf-life items like milk and produce, the NRDC reports."

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Disappearing bulge in the middle (class)

Many in middle class say they are doing worse financially - Life Inc.: "The Great Recession and weak recovery have left slightly fewer Americans feeling like they are part of the middle class, and many who do still identify themselves as such say they are now worse off.
A new and comprehensive survey on how the middle class feels, released Wednesday by Pew Research Center, finds 42 percent of people who identify themselves as middle class say they are in worse shape financially than before the recession began. About 32 percent are in better shape, and the rest either don’t know or see no difference.
The recession officially ran from December of 2007 to June of 2009, although economic growth has generally been slow since and unemployment has remained high."

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Revving up to a Tire-ing problem

‘Jet Engine With Teeth’ Chews Old Rubber Into New Products - Bloomberg: "Every year, Americans discard about 300 million tires. That’s about a third of the 1 billion thrown out worldwide. About half of those are burned for fuel, which is just slightly better than landfilling. The rest end up in playgrounds, mulch for gardens or in berms along highways.
Lehigh Technologies wants America’s scrap rubber. The nine-year-old company has raised more than $50 million for processors that collect it, freeze it and shatter it into bits. ``Think of it as a jet engine with teeth,'' said Chief Executive Officer Alan Barton, who holds a Ph.D. in chemistry from Harvard University.
Barton’s company has developed a process that lowers the material’s temperature to negative-300 degrees Fahrenheit, which makes it brittle like glass. It's then fed into a specially designed mill -- a turbine that spins at more than 2,000 revolutions per minute."

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Tiger-size problem

Tiger population of India facing 'total disaster' due to tourism ban | Environment | guardian.co.uk: "It is not difficult to guess which animal the town of Sawai Madhopur has tethered its fortunes to. Fancy a drink? Pop into the Tiger bar at the Taj hotel. Want to rest your head? Try the Tiger Moon Resort. Want to shop? There are tiger-print pyjamas, aprons, tablecloths, bedspreads. Little in this Rajasthani town has not succumbed to tiger mania.

Sitting cross-legged on a stage by the main road last Saturday, Yadvendra Singh handed over his business card, decorated, of course, with orange and black stripes. Since 1992 he has run Tiger Eye Adventure Tours, taking visitors from around the world on safari inside the nearby Ranthambore national park.

But for the past three weeks, Singh has not been allowed in the park to check on the 27 adult tigers and 25 cubs who call it home. No one has, after India's supreme court issued an order banning tourism in all core tiger habitats."

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Globalization of Halal Markets

BBC News - The rise of the affluent Muslim traveller: "Muslims are predicted to make up almost one in three of the world's population by 2025, and increasing numbers of well-heeled, well-educated Muslims are already seeking out goods and services that meet their needs - not only at home, but also when they travel.

An early morning call from Malaysia. It's an old friend enquiring about London's best halal hotel.

Enthused by the coverage of Queen Elizabeth's Diamond Jubilee, the London Olympics and Mo Farah's double gold wins, he has decided to visit London with his family as soon as Ramadan finishes this month.

He would like to stay in a Muslim-friendly hotel, do I have any suggestions?

I ask a few friends and search some online Muslim websites - only to draw a blank. The closest London can offer is a vegetarian-friendly hotel. But it's not just the assurance of halal food that my friend is hoping for."

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Thanks to Guy Browning- for the How to...Morris Dance

How to ... Morris dance | Life and style | The Guardian: "Morris dancing is the English equivalent of the New Zealand haka and it, too, puts fear into those who witness it, though possibly for slightly different reasons. The traditional costume for morris dancing is a cross between cricket whites, a peasant smock and winter underpants. There are also bells on the legs to warn the general public that acts of morris are about to be committed and to clear the area.

Often, morris men dance with big, white handkerchiefs. This is the English equivalent of the short Zulu stabbing spear, or assegai. The handkerchiefs are held tightly and then whipped around in an aggressive fashion. In much the same way that the Scottish inspire fear and confusion by fighting in skirts, the English promote shock and awe by aggressive use of the handkerchief. It is also useful for clearing the nose."

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Wildlife vanishing...

Wildlife vanishing fast in Brazil's forest fragments - The Times of India: "OSLO: Animals living in patches of rainforest cut off from bigger expanses of jungle by farms, roads or towns are dying off faster than previously thought, according to an academic study published on Tuesday.

"We uncovered a staggering rate of local extinctions," the British and Brazilian researchers wrote in the online science journal PLOS ONE. "

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Proud to be a 13 percent-er

Romney: 'I never paid less than 13 percent' in taxes - First Read: "Mitt Romney said Thursday that he had never paid less than a 13 percent effective tax rate after reviewing his returns from the past decade.
The presumptive Republican presidential nominee did not pledge to release any additional returns beyond what he had previously pledged, but essentially quashed rumors that he paid no taxes at some point."

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Worrisome Smoking Trends

Indian female smokers outpuff males - The Economic Times: "NEW DELHI: Smoking is eight times more prevalent among Indian men than women. However, an average Indian female smoker puffs more cigarettes a day (7) than male (6.1).

Over one in five (21%) Indian male tobacco users smoke daily as against only 3% of women. Nearly half of Indian men (47.9%) aged 15 years and above consume tobacco. Nearly 206 million Indians use smokeless form of tobacco (loose-leaf chewing tobacco and snuff). Smokeless tobacco use is high among Indian men at 32.9%. One in every five female tobacco users in India uses the smokeless form as against one in 10 who smoke.

Also, an average Indian woman is taking up smoking at 17.5 years as against 18.8 years among men.
"

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Mass exodus in South India: free speech, social networks, fear and governance issues

The Hindu : States / Karnataka : After Bangalore, Chennai too sees exodus: "South India — which has never seen non-locals fleeing the region for fear of their lives — continued to witness the unprecedented exodus of citizens from the Northeast on Thursday, with thousands from Chennai too rushing to the railway station to take the train home.

In Bangalore, where it all began, their flight continued unabated with 7,500 more people boarding four Guwahati-bound trains — three special trains apart from the regular Bangalore-Guwahati Express.

On Thursday evening, nearly 3,000 workers and students, mostly from Assam, were seen waiting at Chennai Central, eager to board the two Guwahati-bound trains that were scheduled for departure at 2 a.m. and 4 a.m. on Friday. A number of them had arrived from Coimbatore and Madurai.

“Nothing has happened till now, but we are very sure something really bad is going to happen. Our Bangalore friends have said we have to leave before August 20,” said Bishnu, 21, who hails from Dibrugarh and works as a waiter in a restaurant in Chennai."

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A-Z in tax avoidance

Study: Abbott, Boeing, Motorola among companies that pay more to CEO than in taxes - chicagotribune.com: "Four large Chicagoland companies are among 26 publicly traded firms that paid more to their CEOs in 2011 than they did in federal taxes, according to a study released Thursday by a left-leaning Washington, D.C., think tank.

Tax breaks on research and development, past losses and foreign-held earnings were among those lightening the load for many companies on the list, which included Abbott Laboratories, Boeing Co., Motorola Solutions and Motorola Mobility, according to the study by the Institute for Policy Studies. "

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Romney and The 13% Solution

Chicago Tribune: Chicago breaking news, sports, business, entertainment, weather and traffic - chicagotribune.com: "Under fire from Democrats for refusing to release more than two years of tax returns, Mitt Romney said Thursday that he had paid federal income taxes at a rate of at least 13% for each of the last 10 years.."

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Reduced grammage in package: will it reduce waist-age?

ITC, Parle, Britannia, Dabur India cut pack weight to avoid price hikes - The Economic Times: "Despite slowing growth and rising cost pressure, consumer goods companies are doing all it takes to hold back price hikes.

As companies begin to comply with the standard packaging norms, they are reducing the weight of packs, known as grammage in trade parlance, to the nearest standard weight in a bid to keep prices unchanged.

Even in cases where grammages have been increased to conventional weights, companies are focusing on cost absorption to ensure that volumes don't suffer. For consumers, this spells good news. Due to increase in cost of raw materials and the rupee depreciation, which has made imports more expensive, FMCG companies have increased prices by 8-10 % since July 2011.

To boost sales without impacting margins, earlier most firms reduced grammages without increasing prices. While the consumer affairs ministry had restricted the sales of 19 products above 10 grams at non-standard weights, the rule was later modified to exempt products of higher weights to win industry support. The rules will be applicable from November. "

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Education in Sustainability- the key to sustainable growth

Why companies like Infosys, Wipro, HUL, M&M are going all out to get more employee buy-in - The Economic Times:

Companies like Infosys, Wipro, Hindustan Unilever (HUL) and Mahindra & Mahindra are discovering that it is not just enough for CEOs to talk about sustainability; executives have to live it out, and, over time drive it too. That's why many companies are going all out to getemployee buy-in on their sustainability programmes: from recognising and rewarding efforts among staff and funding events they organise, to turning them into sustainability evangelists within and outside the company.

"Sustainability is at the heart of our business," says Nitin Paranjpe, CEO and MD at HUL. "The Unilever Sustainable Living Plan (USLP) takes a value-chain approach to sustainability, right from sourcing to consumer use and disposal of our products. Employees have a key role in enabling this."

To survive, every company will eventually need to become sustainable, says Amita Joseph, director of Business and Community Foundation (BCF). "It's important to get buy-in from all your stakeholders...including employees...," she says.

Conversely, not being sustainable presents a business risk, says Beroz Guzdar, senior vice-president, Group Sustainability at Mahindra & Mahindra (M&M). "The idea is to make our employees sensitive to both the environment and the communities around them while also drive home the point that not doing so amounts to a business risk," says Guzdar. "For instance, we have to tell our plants to conserve water because without it, there can be no work." Taking it a step further, Guzdar's team also asks its plants to try and improve the water tables of the catchment communities, in the long-term interest of the company.

Back in the office, M&M's sustainability team acts as an advisory body for the company's 11 verticals to map strategies, actions and processes that take into consideration climatechange, natural resource constraints and local people. Suggestions for sustainable practices come from everywhere - including the shadow boards at M&M, who have been asked to ideate around the theme of sustainability. But it is programmes like the Employee Social Option (Esops) and initiatives undertaken by the individual verticals that clinch employee buy-in. Employees doing well in sustainability receive a congratulatory letter from CEO Anand Mahindra, himself a huge advocate of it.

Companies are also discovering that a commitment to sustainability can help attract and retain talent. "This helps to increase the motivation levels among our employees, given that they find their jobs more fulfilling, being driven by a larger purpose," says Paranjpe. Adds PS Narayan, head of sustainability at Wipro: "A younger workforce is much more clued in to sustainability and may actively choose to join only organisations that have a strong sustainability commitment."

Let everyone invent

"We welcome ideas from anywhere, whether it's from employees or even our supply chain," says Infy's Parikh. "And we do whatever we can, in terms of funding and infrastructure, to support it. It's not about the money, but about becoming more sustainable as a company."

"Sustainability means different things to different people," says Wipro's Narayan. "So trying to communicate to employees about what it is, in a top-down manner, will not work. At Wipro, we feel employees view sustainability in their own way." Some might be passionate about it from the environment perspective, others may be more concerned with the community. But the best way to get employees engaged with the idea is to let them do their own thing, Narayan says. While his team tries not to impose the agenda, the initiatives come with a caveat. The sustainability team is available as a mentor and a possible funder, but employees must take the projects forward on their own.

But at HUL, head of sustainability, Meeta Singh has found that a top-down approach can be effective too. During the company's recent drive on health and keeping fit, says Singh "somebody at the top starts off a movement - it could be Doug Bailey, Nitin Paranjpe or Dhaval Buch - and the next thing you know thousands of employees are following that, and doing things like running in the Mumbai marathon". The company takes such movements forward with appropriate initiatives, says Singh, and looks to functional heads to cascade ideas about sustainability down to their juniors. To give some structure to this process, HUL has tied up with Cambridge University in the UK for select employees to do a course on how to embed sustainability with communities. Five functional heads have already undergone the programme. But it's not just the leaders; employee engagement on sustainability is a must for future targets at HUL.

Before HUL's Mumbai staff moved to their new campus in Andheri, Singh received a host of suggestions on how to make the premises more eco-friendly, from planting more trees to having low-flow taps in the washrooms.

Then there is the idea of employees as sustainability champions. "There is always a small, core group of employees in every location who take the extra initiative to make that big difference," says Wipro's Narayan.

"We call them the 'sustainability evangelists', and the most effective way to get employee buy-in, is to have these evangelists talk to their colleagues. That creates more ready receptivity than imposing ideas from the top."

Stockman's analysis of Paul Ryan’s Fairy-Tale Budget Plan - NYTimes.com

Mr. Stockman presents a good analysis of the economic  issues , and critiques the Paul Ryan plan.

Paul Ryan’s Fairy-Tale Budget Plan - NYTimes.com: "Mr. Ryan professes to be a defense hawk, though the true conservatives of modern times — Calvin Coolidge, Herbert C. Hoover, Robert A. Taft, Dwight D. Eisenhower, even Gerald R. Ford — would have had no use for the neoconconservative imperialism that the G.O.P. cobbled from policy salons run by Irving Kristol’s ex-Trotskyites three decades ago. These doctrines now saddle our bankrupt nation with a roughly $775 billion “defense” budget in a world where we have no advanced industrial state enemies and have been fired (appropriately) as the global policeman.

Indeed, adjusted for inflation, today’s national security budget is nearly double Eisenhower’s when he left office in 1961 (about $400 billion in today’s dollars) — a level Ike deemed sufficient to contain the very real Soviet nuclear threat in the era just after Sputnik. By contrast, the Romney-Ryan version of shrinking Big Government is to increase our already outlandish warfare-state budget and risk even more spending by saber-rattling at a benighted but irrelevant Iran."
...

Likewise, hacking away at the roughly $400 billion domestic discretionary budget (what’s left of the federal budget after defense, Social Security, health and safety-net spending and interest on the national debt) will yield only a rounding error’s worth of savings after popular programs (which Republicans heartily favor) like cancer research, national parks, veterans’ benefits, farm aid, highway subsidies, education grants and small-business loans are accommodated.

Like his new boss, Mr. Ryan has no serious plan to create jobs. America has some of the highest labor costs in the world, and saddles workers and businesses with $1 trillion per year in job-destroying payroll taxes. We need a national sales tax — a consumption tax, like the dreaded but efficient value-added tax — but Mr. Romney and Mr. Ryan don’t have the gumption to support it.

The Ryan Plan boils down to a fetish for cutting the top marginal income-tax rate for “job creators” — i.e. the superwealthy — to 25 percent and paying for it with an as-yet-undisclosed plan to broaden the tax base. Of the $1 trillion in so-called tax expenditures that the plan would attack, the vast majority would come from slashing popular tax breaks for employer-provided health insurance, mortgage interest, 401(k) accounts, state and local taxes, charitable giving and the like, not to mention low rates on capital gains and dividends. The crony capitalists of K Street already own more than enough Republican votes to stop that train before it leaves the station.

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A not-so-small reason for German stability: not going overboard

German Small Businesses Reflect Country's Strength - NYTimes.com: "She summed up the frugal Mittelstand approach to business by quoting an old saying. “You can only wear one pair of pants,” said Ms. Bollin-Flade, who was wearing a pantsuit. “The second one is in the closet and you don’t need the third.”"

The poor: nobody to blame but themselves- get rich the R(omney)R(yan) way

The Poor Get Poorer: How Ryan's Budgets Would Affect Ours - Derek Thompson - The Atlantic: "Remember when Romney said he's "not concerned about the very poor" because there's a safety net for them? Well, there wouldn't be the same safety net after Ryan's plan took root. Romney doesn't have to embrace every detail of Ryan's plan, and he won't. But he has embraced the philosophy of Ryan's vision: That true freedom means freedom from government dependency, and that the poor are somehow richer, in spirit or in literalness, if they take less money from the government. Ryan believes that his budget could unlock spectacular growth and increase lower-income wages. And it might! But most of what we know about the impact of technology, emerging markets, and off-shoring suggests that gaping income inequality is a side-effect of global capitalism more than an outcome of progressive government. 

This budget would have a very predictable outcome: It would make poor families poorer, and more exposed to the risks of medical or financial calamity, all under the banner of "Responsibility And Freedom." Ryan is free to march under his banner. But don't ask me to call it responsible."

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Side-walks and footpaths: character of a city

Cities like Brussels, Stockholm, and Paris are very friendly for pedestrians. Unfortunately Indian cities are extremely hazardous for any one foolish enough to walk. Oases like IITs exist where one can walk safely but for many citizens walking can be dangerous.

The Hindu : Cities / Chennai : Footpaths maketh a city: "The single biggest activity promoting good health is walking, but Chennai is notorious for its hostility to walkers

Governments investing tax money of citizens should naturally consider whether their projects benefit the maximum number of people. At the very least, they should refrain from spending money in a way that adds to the misery of the population.

Chennai’s administrators are colossal failures in this regard. To them, a good city is measured by ever wider roads, no footpaths, and constantly flowing vehicular traffic — and they will not hesitate to spend staggering amounts to ensure that. Our civic leaders should rethink their unintelligent policy approaches for a variety of reasons. Here are some compelling ones.

There is a strong connection between the nature of the city — or built environment — and public health. The single biggest, near-universal activity that promotes good health is walking, but Chennai is now globally notorious for its hostility towards walkers — the Union ministry of urban development notes that the city has the worst ‘walkabililty index’ among comparable centres in the country, with non-existent or unusable footpaths."

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No raining on this drought

The Hindu : News / National : Are man-made factors behind erratic monsoon?: "India is heading for a drought, in meteorological terms, for the fourth time in the past 11 years. The previous droughts during this period were in 2002, 2004 and 2009.

A meteorological drought, in the sense that atmospheric scientists typically use the term, occurs when a monsoon ends with nationwide rainfall during the season falling below 90 per cent of the long-term average.

Such a string of droughts is not unprecedented. However, scientists have noticed some worrisome features in the monsoon in recent years. The question, inevitably, is whether human-induced factors driving climate change are involved, and whether they could affect rain in the coming years too.

There were five droughts between 1965 and 1975, and five more between 1979 and 1989, points out J. Srinivasan, who heads the Divecha Centre for Climate Change at the Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore. However, during the periods of 1965-1975 and 1979-1989, there were two ‘excess’ monsoon years when the nationwide rainfall quantum exceeded 110 per cent of the long-term average.

But there has not been a single excess-monsoon year since 1994. "

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No trash talking on the topic

The Hindu : News / National : A crisis in highly urbanised Kerala: "There is hardly any informed person in Kerala who does not have an opinion about waste being generated in the process of urbanisation, but nobody knows how exactly to manage it.

There is a serious crisis in urban waste management that has manifested itself in the form of deadlocked garbage disposal plans in some municipalities and Corporations in the State. It highlights the gap between accepted standards in solid waste management and their achievement.

Caught in the struggle are the civic bodies, the people and the government. The impasse in garbage disposal and treatment is acutely felt in the Corporations of Thiruvananthapuram, Kochi, Kozhikode, Thrissur and Kollam, and the municipalities of Kannur and Thalassery.

With an urban population share of nearly 48 per cent, Kerala comes close to the global rate. The hotspots of garbage management crisis in the State are a reflection of the collective failure to devise an appropriate strategy and technology. The crisis has turned local panchayats against municipalities and Corporations on the one hand and the civic bodies against the government on the other."

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Kingfisher- files fly by government

The Hindu : Business / Industry : Kingfisher file controversy gets deeper: "It is a well known fact that Mr. Bhushan had warned Kingfisher of action if it did not adhere to DGCA norms. Mr. Bhushan was granted an extension of one year by the Appointments Committee of Cabinet headed by Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh. However, he was abruptly removed from the post on July 10. It was alleged his firm directive to Kingfisher led to his ouster from the DGCA.

In a letter to Mr. Sukul with copies to Cabinet Secretary, Ajit Kumar Seth and Civil Aviation Secretary, Nasim Zaidi, Mr. Bhushan had asked Mr. Sukul to initiate action against the wrongdoing of a very serious nature.

It is learnt that in his note as a DGCA, he had recommended sending a notice to Kingfisher airlines asking it to pay up dues of its employees and creditors within 15 days failing which their license could be suspended."

Resume-ing fraud: dharma is hard in the land of Gita

Resume fraud weighs on Indian IT industry, one in five CVs contain fake information - The Economic Times: BANGALORE/NEW DELHI: Last month, R Nandan, a 33-year-old employee of IBM, was discovered to have used his wife's academic credentials to get his Rs 24-lakh-a-year job, putting the spotlight on rampant resume fraud faced by India's $100-billion information technology services sector.

Had it not been for falling out with his wife, Nandan's fraud may never have been exposed. Every year, despite the IT industry's stated resolve to stamp out the problem of applicants lying about their academic qualifications and work experience, thousands like Nandan manage to sneak in. This is raising questions about whether companies are serious about tackling an issue which has the potential to harm India's reputation as the world's preferred location for outsourcing technology services.

One in every five CVs floating in the Indian IT industry is suspect, industry insiders and hiring experts say.

"At any given point in time, up to 10 per cent of the existing workforce in companies would be caught for fabricating or exaggerating their qualifications if verification tests are conducted," said Aditya Mishra, head of staffing business at Ma Foi Randstad, a leading HR services company in India.

HR experts say that the issue of resume fraud is very closely related to the integrity of the employees and their employer, and such instances would definitely have an impact on India's image.

"If companies don't get their act together on this, their reputation will be impacted. It speaks about their integrity," said Ganesh Shermon, partner and country head for human capital advisory services at KPMG.

The industry's inability to stop candidates who seek to game the system has partly got to do with lack of firm commitment from companies to follow uniform practices across the industry. "Honestly, most IT firms don't care; they just terminate these employees and forget about it. Unless employees, who fake their credentials, are taken to the police, this issue will never come to an end," a senior executive of another Bangalore-based IT company said, on condition of anonymity.

Continued high prevalence of resume fraud also raises questions about the efficacy of National Skills Registry, an initiative that industry body Nasscom started over five years ago as a long-term solution to the problem. As many as 118 large companies are members of the registry, which currently has a database of 1.1 million candidates, according to Nasscom. Of this, nearly 8 million candidate profiles have been vetted, so far, with the help of some 17 third-party background verification agencies.

"When hiring and employee churn happens at such a large scale, some of these fraudsters manage to sneak in and that is bound to happen where things happen at this scale," said Nasscom president Som Mittal, who did not think that resume fraud has reached a proportion where it threatens India's image as preferred offshore location. "Of course it is best if we can eliminate the problem. We will crack this." The industry body expects it would take another 18 months before the registry would achieve critical mass of candidates and becomes a de facto choice for companies.

Meanwhile companies claim that they have deployed checks and balances to ensure that bad apples don't sneak in and create a stink risking the entire firm's reputation.

Wipro said typically 20 per cent or one in every five resumes in the industry is fake or has forged information. Wipro has deployed an e-Recruitment system, which brings down the fake resume rate to less than 1 per cent of the total active applications, the company said.

Infosys said that it conducts several rounds of interviews before making an offer but still comes across cases of fraud. "We conduct a verification of credentials given by the candidate, mainly education and previous employment record. We do get occasional cases of fraud which we deal with strictly as per our code of conduct," an Infosys spokeswoman said in an email response.

Most large IT companies also outsource some of the background verification to third-party agencies such as Authbridge, Pinkerton, and Crederity.

Once university databases becomes accessible online and electronic marksheets are available, companies will likely have better chance at catching the black sheep, but till then the industry will have to rely on eternal vigil by hiring agencies and HR managers to ensure that the sector's reputation is not affected.

Fails to pay pilots, complains about his hardship: World according to Mallya

Vijay Mallya to striking pilots: Understand the extreme hardship that I am going through - The Times of India: "NEW DELHI: With a strike by pilots disrupting Kingfisher Airlines' flight schedules, its chairman Vijay Mallya on Thursday termed the protest as "disruptive" and warned the agitators that they could quit if they felt their action was justified.

He also asserted that the airline would be "re-capitalized whether the government changes the current FDI policy or not".

In an open letter to his staffers, the third in so many months, Mallya warned, "If some colleagues feel that I will be pressurized by flight cancellations, they are wrong. Instead, I will stop my own support as a few are effectively holding the entire company to ransom ... " "

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Making CEOs very wealthy while Hurd-ing the company, the HP way

Hewlett-Packard’s Whitman Dismantles Hurd-Era Empire - Businessweek: "Hewlett-Packard Co. (HPQ) Chief Executive Officer Meg Whitman, in her drive to boost profitability, took another step toward dismantling the computing empire former CEO Mark Hurd built with $24.3 billion in acquisitions.

The company is writing down the value of its enterprise- services business by $8 billion and shuffling management at the top of the division, Hewlett-Packard said yesterday. That follows an announcement in May that Whitman is eliminating 27,000 jobs, many of them from that unit.

The writedown reflects the dwindling value of Electronic Data Systems Corp., bought by Hurd for $13.2 billion in 2008. The deal pushed Hewlett-Packard into the low-margin business of information-technology outsourcing, handled more efficiently by rivals such as Wipro Ltd. (WPRO) and Tata Consultancy Services Ltd. (TCS) It left the company Whitman inherited ill-equipped for the shift toward cloud computing, making it a laggard in services that help clients deliver software over the Internet."

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Big Mac Economindex: Not quite beefy

McDonald's reports July sales were worst in 9 years - Market Day: "McDonald's Corp reported flat sales in July at established restaurants around the world, its worst performance in more than nine years and a sign that a weakening global economy was hitting discretionary spending on the lower end.
Analysts polled by Consensus Metrix expected a gain of 2.3 percent at restaurants open at least 13 months."

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Pfizer pays- part of the standard operating procedure

Pfizer pays $60 million to settle bribery charges - Business - Boston.com: "WASHINGTON (AP) — Pfizer has agreed to pay the federal government $60 million to settle allegations that its employees bribed doctors and other foreign officials in Europe and Asia to win business and boost sales.

The Securities and Exchange Commission said Tuesday that Pfizer’s overseas subsidiaries made illegal payments to health care workers in China, Italy, Russia, Croatia and other Eastern European countries. As early as 2001, Pfizer sales representatives tried to conceal the bribes by recording them as legitimate business expenses for travel, entertainment and marketing purposes, the agency said.

‘‘Pfizer subsidiaries in several countries had bribery so entwined in their sales culture that they offered points and bonus programs to improperly reward foreign officials who proved to be their best customers,’’ said Kara Brockmeyer, chief of SEC’s foreign enforcement division."

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Fear- a poor excuse for faculty not doing the right thing

Essay urging a new option for faculty on course evaluations | Inside Higher Ed: "When it comes to teaching, a highly personal and performative activity, fear of failure can take many forms. But for many faculty members it is crystallized in a single, dreaded object: the student course evaluation. The possibility of receiving negative student evaluations can be a powerful deterrent to colleagues who may be interested in incorporating new technology, radically altering course design, or exploring new areas of expertise. In an effort to counter that fear, we have just instituted a new policy at Middlebury College that allows faculty to designate new courses as exempt from official course evaluations -- a system that quickly became known as the "pass/fail option for faculty.""

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California cuts University of Phoenix off from student aid funds

California cuts University of Phoenix off from student aid funds - Phoenix Business Journal: "University of Phoenix is among 154 schools that no longer are eligible for student financial aid from the California Student Aid Commission.
Diana Fuentes-Michel, executive director of the California Student Aid Commission, said colleges and universities that have a default rate higher than 15.5 percent or a graduation rate lower than 30 percent no longer will be eligible to receive student aid in its Cal Grant Program for the 2012-13 academic year. The standards were tightened during California’s last legislative session.
For the most part, for-profit schools such as UOP were hit hardest, she said."

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McMidnight McBreakfast

McDonald's new breakfast time: Midnight - Yahoo! Finance: "The Oak Brook, Ill.-based fast food chain says some of its locations are offering items from the breakfast menu — such as Egg McMuffins, Sausage McMuffins and hotcakes — starting at midnight.
Danya Proud, a spokeswoman for McDonald's, said in an email that several markets are adopting the program, but that it isn't being done nationwide yet. She did not have specifics, but added that Boston and Denver are among markets either participating or exploring the option.
The way the program works can vary, too. Proud said some restaurants are offering the full breakfast menu, while others are offering only select items.
The Columbus Business First reported that most of central Ohio's 127 McDonald's restaurants are offering "Breakfast After Midnight," with the only exceptions being those that aren't open 24 hours a day.
McDonald's breakfast menu also includes oatmeal, fruit and yogurt parfait, hash browns and a sausage burrito."

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Romney- setting new lows as a liar, even among politicians

Dubious claim behind Romney welfare attack - First Read: "Not exactly. The memo states, for instance, that HHS “will only consider approving waivers relating to the work participation requirements that make changes intended to lead to more effective means of meeting the work goals of TANF."
In other words, a state would have to offer an alternative program similar to the work requirements first put into place by the 1990s welfare reform law in order to receive the waiver.
The Romney campaign has homed in only on the fact that the work requirement could be waived by the government; they haven't spoken to the alternatives governors might offer as a replacement.
"If you look at the memorandum issued by the Department of Health and Human Services, one of the items in which they express their willingness to issue waivers is -- a project that demonstrates attainment of superior employment outcomes in lieu of participation rate requirements," Burks said Tuesday. "In other words, that's exactly the core of the welfare work requirement, is states reach the participation rate threshold. So they express their willingness to waive the core requirement, which is exactly what we're talking about here today.""

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American Airlines management- taking the big compensation, but running the airline without meeting safety requirements

FAA could fine American Airlines $162M for violations - Overhead Bin: "An investigation revealed the company knowingly violated safety and maintenance rules. The investigation reveals the FAA has serious concerns over American’s maintenance system with some of the alleged problems dating back to 2007.
The FAA said American failed to fix wiring issues between the engines and wings on the Boeing 757s and flew nearly 15,000 flights with passengers months after knowing about the problem.
Another proposed $28 million fine deals with landing gear and testing issues in 777s.
The penalties continue to add up after American continued to fly the Boeing 767s more than 2,000 times without making the required changes to the plane engine mounts and wing structures."

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Fake Twitter meets No-Substance Romney

Mitt Romney suspiciously gets 116K Twitter followers in one day | Internet & Media - CNET News: "As of this writing Romney has 783,500 followers; apparently many of these followers are new to Twitter, which is a telltale red flag for fake Twitter accounts. According to Barracuda Labs, Twitter follow services charge around $18 for 1,000 followers plus extra for selling tweets and retweets. These dealers can be found on eBay or through Google searches. "This underground Twitter business is just blooming," Ding wrote.
Here's some of the report's stats on Romney's newest 152,966 Twitter followers (between July 21st and July 26th 2012):
The number of Romney's followers increased 17 percent (or 116,922) on a single day July 21, 2012 -- going from 673,002 to 789,924
25 percent of these followers are less than 3 weeks old (created after July 17th 2012), 80 percent of them are less than 3 months old
23 percent or about 1/4 of these followers have never tweeted
10 percent of these accounts have already been suspended by Twitter"

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People killed, President asks for "soul searching"

Sikh gunman was ex-soldier linked to racist group | Reuters: "Wisconsin has some of the most permissive gun laws in the country. It passed a law in 2011 allowing citizens to carry a concealed weapon.

President Barack Obama said Americans need to do more "soul searching" to find ways to reduce violence.

"All of us recognize that these kinds of terrible, tragic events are happening with too much regularity," Obama said at a White House bill-signing ceremony when asked whether further gun control measures were needed.

The shooting came just over two weeks after a gunman killed 12 people at a theater in Aurora, Colorado, where they were watching a screening of the new Batman movie."

What we have lost in Rice and Spice

The Hindu : Life & Style / Metroplus : Samba and shine: "Did you know there’s a rice variety in Tamilnadu called ‘Maapilai samba’ that was fed to bridegrooms before the wedding? Thooyamalli, another traditional rice variety, gets its name from its striking resemblance to jasmine buds, while seeraga samba — which looks like the spice it’s named after — is as fragrant as its distant cousin the Basmati, grown in the foothills of the Himalayas.

So how come none of these make their way to our pressure cookers? Neither have I heard of these before, nor do local stores stock beyond the regular two or three varieties of rice. “Rice has now become synonymous with ponni,” says Madhusoodhanan K, co-founder of Dhanyam organic superstore. “Good quality rice is expected to have small, thin and white grains. It’s really unfortunate, because the thicker varieties aren’t just more nutritious, they also have more flavour.”"

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Top 10 Western movies

Vertigo has supplanted Citizen Kane at the top of the Sight and Sound poll for the greatest film of all time.

Should we be dizzy at Vertigo's rise to the top? - The Irish Times - Sat, Aug 04, 2012: "The Hitchcock film has topped the only poll that matters – ‘Sight & Sound’ – a list that offers a strong argument for the virtues of patience and serious thinking when assessing cinema

My Choices:

Citizen Kane
Rebecca
12 Angry Men
Running on Empty
Ghost and Mrs. Muir
Godfather
Stand by Me
Local hero
Roman Holiday
Magnificent Seven

Extreme weather: no other explanation, unless one is a Republican

NASA scientist links climate change, extreme weather - CNN.com: ""This is not a climate model or a prediction but actual observations of weather events and temperatures that have happened," he wrote in a Washington Post opinion piece meant to accompany the study.
"Our analysis shows that it is no longer enough to say that global warming will increase the likelihood of extreme weather and to repeat the caveat that no individual weather event can be directly linked to climate change. To the contrary, our analysis shows that, for the extreme hot weather of the recent past, there is virtually no explanation other than climate change."
The study, which was published by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, looks at the past six decades of global temperatures and finds what Hansen described as a "stunning" rise in the frequency of extremely hot summers."