'Hornets' Returning To Charlotte, Bobcats Start Name Change Process: Report

Best 2013 Sports Photos

Austria's Wolfgang Loitzl soars through the air during his competition jump of the third stage of the four hills ski jumping tournament during foggy weather in Innsbruck, Austria, Friday, Jan. 4, 2013. (Matthias Schrader, AP)

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Sweden's skip Margaretha Sigfridsson shouts during her gold medal game against Scotland at the 2013 world women's curling championship in Riga, Latvia, Sunday, March 24, 2013. (Roman Koksarov / AP)

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Philadelphia Phillies center fielder Ben Revere makes a diving catch of Will Middlebrooks's seventh-inning fly ball in a spring training baseball game against the Boston Red Sox in Clearwater, Fla., Sunday, March 24, 2013. (Kathy Willens / AP)

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North Carolina coach Roy Williams cheers on his team during the second half of a second-round game against Villanova in the NCAA college basketball tournament Friday, March 22, 2013, in Kansas City, Mo. (Charlie Riedel / AP)

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North Carolina's Dexter Strickland (1) and Reggie Bullock (35) stretch before practice for a second-round game of the NCAA college basketball tournament, Thursday, March 21, 2013, in Kansas City, Mo. North Carolina is scheduled to play Villanova Friday. (Charlie Riedel / AP)

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Michigan State guard Denzel Valentine (45) grabs a rebound over Valparaiso guard Matt Kenney (23) in the first half of a second-round game of the NCAA college basketball tournament in Auburn Hills, Mich., Thursday March 21, 2013. (Paul Sancya / AP)

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Miami Marlins' Placido Polanco, left, scores on a double by Giancarlo Stanton as Washington Nationals catcher Kurt Suzuki, right, cannot hold on to the ball during the sixth inning of an exhibition spring training baseball game Wednesday, March 20, 2013, in Jupiter, Fla. The Nationals won 7-5. (Jeff Roberson / AP)

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Lotus driver Kimi Raikkonen, left, of Finland, Ferrari's Fernando Alonso, center, of Spain and Red Bull's Sebastian Vettel of Germany celebrate on the podium after the Australian Formula One Grand Prix at Albert Park in Melbourne, Australia, Sunday, March 17, 2013. Raikonen won the race with Alonso second and Vettel third. (Andrew Brownbill / AP)

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Florida guard Mike Rosario (3) reacts after being fouled by Alabama during the second half of an NCAA college basketball game in the semifinals of the Southeastern Conference tournament, Saturday, March 16, 2013, in Nashville, Tenn. (John Bazemore / AP)

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In this photo taken with a fisheye lens, Boston Bruins' Nathan Horton, left, celebrates a goal by Andrew Ference against Washington Capitals goalie Michal Neuvirth (30) during the second period of an NHL hockey game in Boston, Saturday, March 16, 2013. The Bruins won 4-1. (Winslow Townson / AP)

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Utah's Jason Washburn celebrates after blocking a shot by California in overtime during a Pac-12 men's tournament NCAA college basketball game, Thursday, March 14, 2013, in Las Vegas. Utah won 79-69. (Julie Jacobson / AP)

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San Diego Padres shortstop Tyler Stubblefield misses a ground ball hit by Kansas City Royals' Orlando Calixte for a double in the ninth inning in an exhibition spring training baseball game Friday, March 15, 2013, in Surprise, Ariz. (Gregory Bull / AP)

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Miami's Kenny Kadji (35) tries to go over Illinois' D.J. Richardson for a shot during the first half of a third-round game of the NCAA college basketball tournament Sunday, March 24, 2013, in Austin, Texas. (David J. Phillip / AP)

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Nathalie Pechalat and Fabian Bourzat, of France, perform during a practice session for the World Figure Skating Championships, Tuesday, March 12, 2013, in London, Ontario. (Darron Cummings / AP)

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Alexa Scimeca and Chris Knierim, of the United States, react as they watch their scores during the pairs free program at the World Figure Skating Championships Friday, March 15, 2013, in London, Ontario. (Darron Cummings / AP)

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St. Louis Cardinals' J.R. Towles (46) reacts after fouling a ball off his foot as New York Yankees catcher Chris Stewart watches in the third inning of a spring training baseball game in Tampa, Fla., Monday, March 11, 2013. (Kathy Willens / AP)

Best 2013 Sports Photos

Auburn forward Cabriana Capers (35) crashes into the scorer's table after saving the ball from going out of bounds during the second half of their NCAA college basketball game against LSU in the Southeastern Conference tournament, Thursday, March 7, 2013, in Duluth, Ga. LSU won 65-62. (John Bazemore / AP)

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Chicago Bulls' Joakim Noah (13) drives to the basket as San Antonio Spurs' Tim Duncan, right, defends during the first half of an NBA basketball game on Wednesday, March 6, 2013, in San Antonio. (Eric Gay / AP)

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Athletes start the New Zealand Ironman on March 2, 2013 in Taupo, New Zealand. (Phil Walter / Getty Images)

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David Villa of FC Barcelona duels for a high ball with Fabio Coentrao and Pepe (R) of Real Madrid CF during the La Liga match between Real Madrid CF and FC Barcelona at Bernabeu on March 2, 2013 in Madrid, Spain. (David Ramos / Getty Images)

Best 2013 Sports Photos

Los Angeles Lakers guard Kobe Bryant, right, is smacked on the head by Atlanta Hawks forward Josh Smith as he puts up a shot during the first half of their NBA basketball game, Sunday, March 3, 2013, in Los Angeles. (Mark J. Terrill / AP)

Best 2013 Sports Photos

Jason Porplyzia of the Crows attempts to take a mark on the shoulders of Corey Enright of the Cats during the round two AFL NAB Cup match between the Geelong Cats and the Adelaide Crows at Simonds Stadium on March 2, 2013 in Geelong, Australia. (Scott Barbour / Getty Images)

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Columbus Blue Jackets' Nick Foligno, right, fights with Chicago Blackhawks' Sheldon Brookbank during the first period of an NHL hockey game in Chicago, Friday, March 1, 2013. (Nam Y. Huh / AP)

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To launch the release of Nitro Circus 3D : The Movie, available on DVD 25th March, Team Nitro Circus sets a Guinness World Record at 02 Arena on February 28, 2013 in London, England. (Clive Rose / Getty Images)

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Kyle Larson (32) goes into the catch fence as he collides with Justin Allgaier (31), Brian Scott (2), Parker Klingerman (77) and Dale Earnhardt Jr. (88) at the conclusion of the NASCAR Nationwide Series auto race Saturday, Feb. 23, 2013, at Daytona International Speedway in Daytona Beach, Fla. (Terry Renna / AP)

Best 2013 Sports Photos

Ronda Rousey, left, tries to pull an armbar on Liz Carmouche during their UFC 157 women's bantamweight championship mixed martial arts match in Anaheim, Calif., Saturday, Feb. 23, 2013. Rousey won the first women?s bout in UFC history, forcing Carmouche to tap out in the first round. (Jae C. Hong / AP)

Best 2013 Sports Photos

Wanderlei Silva, left, defeats Brian Stann by knockout in their light heavyweight fight during the UFC on FUEL TV event at Saitama Super Arena on March 3, 2013 in Saitama, Japan. (Josh Hedges / Zuffa LLC / Getty Images)

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Pumas' Luis Fuentes, top, heads the ball over Morelia's Aldo Leao during a Mexican soccer league match in Mexico City, Sunday, Feb. 17, 2013. Pumas won 1-0. (Christian Palma / AP)

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Nick Scholfield falls from Caulfields Venture in The Follow Us On Twitter @lingfieldpark Handicap Steeple Chase at Lingfield racecourse on February 12, 2013 in Lingfield, England. (Alan Crowhurst / Getty Images)

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Matt Smith of Oldham Athletic scores his team's second goal to make the score 2-2 during the FA Cup with Budweiser Fifth Round match between Oldham Athletic and Everton at Boundary Park on February 16, 2013 in Oldham, England. (Alex Livesey / Getty Images)

Best 2013 Sports Photos

Denny Hamlin, driver of the #11 FedEx Express Toyota, Kyle Busch, driver of the #18 M&M's Toyota, Jeff Gordon, driver of the #24 Drive To End Hunger Chevrolet, Mark Martin, driver of the #55 Aaron's Dream Machine Toyota, Martin Truex Jr., driver of the #56 NAPA Auto Parts Toyota, Joey Logano, driver of the #22 Shell-Pennzoil Ford, and Jimmie Johnson, driver of the #48 Lowe's Yellow Chevrolet, are involved in an incident during the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Sprint Unlimited at Daytona International Speedway on February 16, 2013 in Daytona Beach, Florida. (Nick Laham / Getty Images)

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Florida linebacker Jon Bostic (1) hits Louisville quarterback Teddy Bridgewater (5) hard enough to dislodge his helmet in the first quarter of the Sugar Bowl NCAA college football game Wednesday, Jan. 2, 2013, in New Orleans. (Bill Haber, AP)

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Andy Jones of the United States competes during the Red Bull Cliff Diving qualifying round in the Hawkesbury River on January 31, 2013 in Sydney, Australia. (Cameron Spencer, Getty Images)

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Los Angeles Kings right wing Dustin Brown (23) passes the puck against the Phoenix Coyotes in the second period during an NHL hockey game Saturday, Jan. 26, 2013, in Glendale, Ariz. (Rick Scuteri, AP)

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Jonathan Cassar competes in the senior men's free skate program at the U.S. figure skating championships in Omaha, Neb., Sunday, Jan. 27, 2013. (Nati Harnik, AP)

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The Bungan suf life saving crew lose control of their boat during the Ocean Thunder Surf Boat Series at Dee Why Beach on February 2, 2013 in Sydney, Australia. (Cameron Spencer, Getty Images)

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St. John's forward Amir Garrett, top center, battles Georgetown players Otto Porter (22) and Jabril Trawick, behind, for a rebound during second half of an NCAA college basketball game, Saturday, Feb. 2, 2013, in Washington. Georgetown won 68-56. (Richard Lipski, AP)

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Utah center Dallin Bachynski, left, and Colorado guard Askia Booker compete for a rebound in the first half during an NCAA college basketball game Saturday, Feb. 2, 2013 in Salt Lake City. (Steve C. Wilson, AP)

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Daryl Jacob falls from Valoroso at the last in The Carling Johny Whitcombe Fan Club Novices' Steeple Chase at Wincanton racecourse on January 31, 2013 in Wincanton, England. (Alan Crowhurst, Getty Images)

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Madison Chock and Evan Bates compete in the Short Dance Program during the 2013 Prudential U.S. Figure Skating Championships at CenturyLink Center on January 25, 2013 in Omaha, Nebraska. (Jonathan Daniel, Getty Images)

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Patrick Bordeleau #58 of the Colorado Avalanche lands a punch on Brad Staubitz #25 of the Anaheim Ducks as they engage in a fight at the Pepsi Center on February 6, 2013 in Denver, Colorado. (Doug Pensinger, Getty Images)

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Wisconsin's Tiera Stephen, left, fouls Penn State's Mia Nickson during the first half of an NCAA college basketball game Thursday, Jan. 31, 2013, in Madison, Wis. (Andy Manis, AP)

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Nadine Browne (R) lands a right hook on Lauryn Eagle (L) during the Australian Female Lightweight Title bout at Sydney Entertainment Centre on January 30, 2013 in Sydney, Australia. (Matt King, Getty Images)

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Congo's Yves Diba beats out Mali's Samba Diakite for the ball during their African Cup of Nations Group B soccer match, in Durban, South Africa, Monday, Jan. 28, 2013. (Rebecca Blackwell, AP)

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A surfer takes part in the Arnette Punta Galea Big Wave World Tour, on January 28, 2013 in the Northern Spanish Basque town of Getxo. 16 surfers took part during the five hours surf competition, riding 5 meters high waves. (Rafa Rivas, AFP / Getty Images))

Best 2013 Sports Photos

Houston Texans defensive end J.J. Watt (99) of the AFC pulls down New York Giants defensive end Jason Pierre-Paul (90) of the NFC after Pierre-Paul made an interception during the fourth quarter of the NFL Pro Bowl football game in Honolulu, Sunday, Jan. 27, 2013. The NFC beat the AFC 62-35. (Marco Garcia, AP)

Best 2013 Sports Photos

Matt Hopper of Quins is upended during the LV= Cup match between Harlequins and London Welsh at Twickenham Stoop on January 26, 2013 in London, England. (Tom Shaw, Getty Images)

Best 2013 Sports Photos

Peter Buchanan falls from Bold Sir Brian in The Murphy Group Steeple Chase at Cheltenham racecourse on January 26, 2013 in Cheltenham, England. (Alan Crowhurst, Getty Images)

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Marcin Gortat #4 of the Phoenix Suns falls hard to the court after being fouled by Caron Butler #5 of the Los Angeles Clippers during the second half of the NBA game at US Airways Center on January 24, 2013 in Phoenix, Arizona. The Suns defeated the Clippers 93-88. (Christian Petersen, Getty Images)

Best 2013 Sports Photos

Tennessee's Taber Spani, right, keeps the ball in play as she collides with Vanderbilt guard Kady Schrann, left, in the first half of an NCAA basketball game, Thursday, Jan. 24, 2013, in Nashville, Tenn. (Mark Humphrey, AP)

Best 2013 Sports Photos

Ashley Cain competes in the Ladies Short Program during the 2013 Prudential U.S. Figure Skating Championships at CenturyLink Center on January 24, 2013 in Omaha, Nebraska. (Jonathan Daniel, Getty Images)

Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/05/21/hornets-charlotte-bobcats-changing-name_n_3310241.html

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Israeli peace negotiator: Stalemate bad for Israel

JERUSALEM (AP) ? Israel's chief peace negotiator said Tuesday that the current stalemate with the Palestinians is harmful for Israel, days before U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry is expected to arrive in Israel for his latest push to restart long-dormant talks.

Tzipi Livni told a parliamentary committee that resuming negotiations was "first and foremost an Israeli interest."

Direct negotiations have been largely frozen since the two sides were reportedly close to a deal in late 2008. The Palestinians demand a freeze in Jewish West Bank settlement construction before talks resume. Israel insists negotiations should take place without preconditions and that the matter of the settlements should be resolved along with all other issues through peace talks.

Livni said the stalemate delivers a blow both to Israel's legitimacy and its freedom to act militarily if needed. She warned that the Palestinian narrative of the conflict is gaining traction.

Kerry is due in Israel Thursday to try and restart the stalled talks.

Also Tuesday, Israel's military said soldiers shot and wounded a Palestinian as he threw a firebomb in the West Bank during a violent protest. The teenager's family says he was not involved.

The military said dozens of Palestinians threw rocks at soldiers near a settlement Tuesday when troops noticed a protester aiming a firebomb at them. Soldiers called on him to stop, then fired warning shots and later fired at his lower extremities when he refused, it said.

The wounded Palestinian's family said Ata Sharaki was playing with a friend next to the fence of the settlement when he was shot. They said he is 13 years old.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/israeli-peace-negotiator-stalemate-bad-israel-110250639.html

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Does France have right plan to revive its economy?

PARIS (AP) ? The man charged with reviving France's shrinking economy and attracting businesses to invest there is gaining a reputation for doing the opposite.

As the country's first-ever minister for industrial renewal, Arnaud Montebourg has told the world's largest steelmaker it is not welcome in France; exchanged angry letters with the head of an American tire company he was supposedly wooing; and scuttled Yahoo's offer to buy the majority of a video-sharing website.

Montebourg, a 50-year-old lawyer from Burgundy, is the public face of President Francois Hollande's plan to revitalize Europe's second-largest economy, which is in recession and grappling with 11 percent unemployment. The plan is to make the French economy more competitive globally ? especially for manufacturers ? by making it easier to fire workers, offering a payroll tax credit and investing in small businesses.

Economists have praised the labor reforms as a step in the right direction. But mostly they say France's economic plan is all wrong: It is too complicated; it favors a top-down approach to innovation; and it ignores some of the most serious problems plaguing France's economy, such as high labor costs.

And then there is Montebourg, whose public spats with international companies and efforts to block layoffs are making France look like an unappealing place to do business.

In fairness to Montebourg, he's not so much the problem as he is the symbol of it, analysts say. Even if Hollande were to replace him ? and that's looking increasingly likely ? it's unclear whether the substance of the industrial renewal strategy would change.

The sheer size of France's economy has cushioned it somewhat from the worst of Europe's debt crisis, which has brought depression-level unemployment to countries like Spain and Greece. It is home to many huge industrial companies, like EADS, parent company to plane-maker Airbus; Total, the world's fifth-largest investor-owned oil company; and Sanofi, the world's fourth-largest pharmaceutical company. France is also a cradle for design, high fashion and fine wine, embodied by world leaders like LVMH and L'Oreal.

But make no mistake, analysts warn: The French economy, which had no growth in 2012 and shrank at an annualized rate of 0.8 percent in the first three months of 2013, is in slow-motion free fall.

Profit margins at French companies are the lowest they have been in 30 years. In the past decade, one in six industrial jobs has been lost. And economists forecast unemployment will rise to 11.6 percent next year.

Hollande says the decline in French manufacturing ? from 16 percent of gross domestic product in 1999 to 10.7 percent a decade later ? is at the heart of his country's stagnation. Many European economies have seen a similar trend, but France's slide has been more pronounced than most. Reverse the decline, Hollande believes, and you reverse the stagnation.

"The goal of reindustrialization is a perfectly legitimate goal. The only question to ask for France is ... whether it's too late," says Elie Cohen, an economist at Sciences Po university in Paris. "It's probably too late."

Serge Lelard, who started a plastics company called Microplast in 1984, feels the same way. Montebourg, who buzzes around France touring businesses on a near-weekly basis, recently visited Microplast's factory outside Paris. He held it up as an example of the kind of small manufacturing businesses that France needs to keep and attract.

But Lelard is dismissive of the government's reindustrialization plan. He says there is too much talk and not enough action that addresses the competitive disadvantages French companies face in the global marketplace.

Microplast, which sells plastic bits that connect the wires in cars, has struggled along with the French auto industry. Lelard is pessimistic about the company's chances of survival.

France's economic challenges are rooted in government policies that protect workers at the expense of their employers. It has the highest payroll taxes in the European Union to fund generous health and retirement benefits. It has the highest tax on capital, which discourages investment. It aggressively fights companies that try to outsource jobs. And it makes firing an employee expensive and difficult.

These problems have existed for decades, but a growing global economy and France's control over its own currency and spending policies masked them. Slowly, however, those masks have been removed.

First, the euro was introduced at the turn of the millennium. Europe's strongest economies, like Germany, gained a competitive advantage: The value of the euro, held down by the weaker nations that used it, made German exports more affordable overseas. By contrast, countries like France suffered because the euro was valued more highly than their own currency, making French exports more expensive for buyers outside the eurozone.

Then the global recession dried up demand for French products at home and around the world. Finally, Europe's debt crisis prompted the government to cut spending and raise some taxes to reduce its budget deficit.

With these crutches pulled away, France's industry was pushed to its breaking point.

But Hollande, a Socialist, came to power last year by promising more of the same: He vowed to spark growth without cutting generous benefits.

There are three main planks to Hollande's reindustrialization plan: up to a 6 percent rebate for companies on some payroll taxes, labor reforms that make it easier to fire employees or cut their salaries during hard times, and a public investment bank with 42 billion euros ($55 billion) to invest in small businesses.

But new programs are announced frequently. Millions in grants and other incentives have been promised for everything from spurring the construction of electric cars to bringing robots to factory floors.

"That's exactly what you should not do. They're ... complicating instead of simplifying," says Anders Aslund, an economist with the Peterson Institute for International Economics in Washington. Aslund says the government should avoid giving grants for specific industries and instead help all industries ? with permanent tax breaks, for example.

Last year, Montebourg unveiled a plan to give several hundred million euros in grants and tax credits to car companies and subcontractors in an effort to encourage the development of electric cars and batteries.

But economists say the French government should not try to invent successful sectors. Never mind that France is an unlikely place to incubate an auto revolution. Its car industry can't compete with global rivals like Volkswagen and Hyundai that have lower labor costs and stronger cultures of innovation. For example, French research institutions lack the strong links to industry that allow entrepreneurs in other countries to quickly convert lab discoveries into products.

The flip side of France's efforts to create booming new industries is its aversion to letting struggling ones die out.

"A saved job is always a victory," Montebourg, who is on the far left of the Socialist party, said at a recent lunch with journalists. He declined to be interviewed for this story.

But that's not how many economists see it. Part of Germany's success is its willingness to let some lower-level manufacturing jobs move to other countries, says Christian Ketels, a researcher at Harvard Business School. That allows German companies to stay competitive and keep high-skilled, higher-paid jobs at home.

"To my knowledge, France is really the only country in Europe that is upset about outsourcing," says Aslund.

One of the most glaring examples of this no-job-left-behind policy has been France's campaign to block steelmaker ArcelorMittal from shuttering the two blast furnaces its plant in Lorraine, in eastern France ? in spite of the fact that local mines are used up, it's far from ports and its furnaces are out of date.

That plant is "a perfect example of what you should close down," says Aslund.

Instead, Montebourg took up the cause, threatening to nationalize the plant and declaring that the company wasn't welcome in France. It's unclear how much of this rhetoric was in line with government policy ? the suggestions of nationalization were quickly struck down by the prime minister ? but the affair deeply bruised France's reputation as a serious place for business. In the end, the company will shutter the furnaces but other operations at the plant will continue.

Montebourg also tried to save a Goodyear plant in northern France by asking American tire manufacturer Titan if it was willing to invest. The answer from Titan's CEO mocked France's work practices in an embarrassing public letter ? and Montebourg took the bait, shooting back an equally chest-thumping missive.

There looks to be little hope of saving the Goodyear plant, but litigation could drag on for months if not years.

Just this month, Montebourg vetoed Yahoo's attempt to take a 75 percent stake in video-sharing website, Dailymotion. Citing concerns about Yahoo's health as a company, Montebourg said the government, which owns a stake in Dailymotion's owner, France Telecom, would only approve a 50-50 deal. Yahoo walked away.

Business owners say that the government remains more of a hindrance than a help. There are too many regulations and too much paperwork even for mundane tasks.

But the fundamental problem French manufacturers face is simple: Workers get paid too much to make products that cost too little.

The French government argues that its hourly labor costs are not much higher than Germany's ? 34.20 euros per hour on average in 2012 versus 30.40 euros per hour, according to Eurostat. But France's range of products ? with some notable exceptions, like Chanel handbags or Moet & Chandon champagne ? is generally of a lower quality than Germany's.

In other words, if it costs the same to make a Peugeot as it does a BMW, guess which company is going to have more left over to reinvest in innovation? And investing in innovation is how you make a Peugeot more like a BMW.

And it's not even that France pays top dollar to attract the best workers. Its wages are above average, though not spectacularly so. But its payroll taxes are the highest in Europe.

The government's new "competitiveness tax credit," which will eventually give companies up to 6 percent back on some workers' salaries, is a step toward lessening this burden for a time. Early surveys, however, show few companies are taking advantage of it, according to study by consultancy Lowendalmasai.

How come? The paperwork is too complex.

___

Follow Sarah DiLorenzo at http://twitter.com/sdilorenzo.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/does-france-plan-revive-economy-092441481.html

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Does the US need federal fracking regulations?

Federal regulations on fracking barely apply because the states involved already have a say in the way drilling proceeds, Graeber writes. Perhaps, he adds, it's the energy industry that has a right to question why the government 'is moving forward with these requirements in the first place.'

By Daniel J. Graeber,?Guest blogger / May 20, 2013

Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell talks to reporters after touring the Loxahatchee National Wildlife Refuge in Palm Beach County, Fla. Jewell's proposed fracking regulations showcase her dual legacy by trying to win support of the energy industry and environmentalists alike, Graeber writes.

Alan Diaz/AP/File

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The U.S. Energy Department last week said it gave conditional authority for a facility in Texas to eventually export liquefied natural gas. New drilling technologies mean the United States could become a natural gas export leader, though opponents of LNG say that's likely to lead to more hydraulic fracturing.? Last week, the government published more than 100 pages of documents that spell out what it sees as the way forward for hydraulic fracturing. The Interior Department said it took a "common sense" approach to the debate, though both sides of the argument have expressed concern.

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So far only one company in the United States, Cheniere Energy, has the licenses necessary to ship natural gas to the global market.? The terminal at Sabine Pass was built originally for imports, but with the shale natural gas boom, that?situation?turned around a few years ago. The U.S. Energy Department now?said?it gave its preliminary approval for the export of LNG from a terminal at Quintana Island, Texas.? Combined, the two facilities would be able to export about 3.5 billion cubic feet of natural gas per day, marking the U.S. debut in a global natural gas market dominated by the likes of Russia and Qatar.?(Related article:?Study Finds no Trace of Fracking Fluid in Arkansas Drinking Water)

Critics of LNG exports from the United States worry it will lead to more hydraulic fracturing, a controversial practice at the heart of the U.S. energy debate. Concerns over hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, range from groundwater contamination by trace amounts of carcinogens to earthquakes. The U.S. Interior Department last week announced a "common sense" approach to fracking regulations on federal lands.? The new plans, all 171 pages of?them, give drillers the ability to use the industry-backed?FracFocus?to disclose what types of chemicals they use in the fracking process. That frustrated green groups who worried the government wasn't serious enough about the risks associated with the controversial procedure.?

Love: Lucille Redmond Intervivew | Fluid Radio

Posted On: May 21, 2013
Posted In: C.E. Alexander, Lucille Redmond
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In March 2012, at the urging of friends, award-winning writer and journalist Lucille Redmond published her first collection of short fiction. Titled Love (stories of love, Ireland, sex, sea, snow and money), the book?anthologizes previously-published material and three new works.

Love is a stunning debut, a humbling display of wit and weight, of process and voice.? ?The Sanctuary Keeper? strips a male friendship down to its events and filters them ruthlessly.? The best musical?comparison here is Brian Eno, no question, until the needle rips across the vinyl with a sudden crash into the fourth wall: ?Nothing further occurs.? At the opposite end of her?collection Redmond places??Wolf and Water,? which nods in more directions than she lets on. (Kant?? Nietzsche? Yeats? Keep reading.) If anything the book cover downplays the violence of the title story, although the brutal core of ?Elsewhen? is encased in startling tenderness.

Redmond is the granddaughter of Irish nationalist Thomas MacDonagh and the aunt of Clichy-based composer Laurent Redmond. Find her Twitter feed @Redmond_Lucille, her blog at Heatseekers, and her Amazon purchase page at LoveLucilleRedmondUS. We corresponded by email in early May, on the subjects of reading, teaching and the unraveling of an empire:

You?ve taught in prison, but as far as I can tell there is no word on who the inmates were or what subject. Do you care to elucidate?

In Ireland, the prison services run excellent courses for long-term prisoners, offering all kinds of skills training and personal development. Some of the courses offered are artistic training, and I used to teach ?creative writing? ? which is to say a basic course in fiction, prose and poetry ? along with other writers: Brendan Kennelly, Kate Cruise O?Brien and I generally worked in tandem.

The scheme was started by the Irish Writers? Co-Operative, which persuaded the Arts Council to come on board, and then the prison service took it up and formalised it. The Co-Op also started the Writers in Schools service, under which schools can get a small grant from the Arts Council to pay writers to go and talk to schoolkids and run workshops with them ? very useful for teachers, who can demonstrate (usually) that not all writers are dead, and often handy for those secret writers who discover that what they do isn?t so weird after all.

No comment on the types of prisons, or the prisoners you taught? Can we assume they weren?t all convicted of tax evasion or insider trading?

The Writers in Prisons scheme is part of the Irish prisons? training schemes, so you can be working with various different types of prisoners. My first group was towards the very beginning of the scheme, and while I obviously wouldn?t be rude enough to ask them what had brought them to this place, they were really helpful when I asked what kind of burglar alarm to get. (?A small, yappy dog? was the answer ? ?you just go and find somewhere easier, all other things being equal.?) Very funny, witty guys, at that age at the edge between the twenties and thirties when most people get sense and straighten out their lives ? usually because they meet someone who?s more important to them than whatever adventures they?d committed to when they were younger.

Later I did a brief stint in the women?s prison, though it was harder to teach there because most women prisoners are in jail for short sentences for things like prostitution and shoplifting, and they won?t be in a writing group long enough to get deeply into it. And their attention tends to be elsewhere, anyway ? they?re worried crazy about their children, and being in jail is causing trouble in their lives in all kinds of ways that civilians can?t imagine.

And I did a few sessions in a young offenders? centre, working with the poet Brendan Kennelly. Rather than get the lads to sit down and write, Brendan liked to get them telling stories and making poems in speech and action ? he?d give them a setup and have them work out a scenario, acting it as they went.

All of the prisoners we taught seemed to value the work a lot, and wrote deeply felt and thoughtful poems and prose ? often short, powerful fragments.

If you want a strange little fact about the prisons, I asked some guys who were serving long sentences if they found it strange when they were released. They said two things completely threw them: children, which they hadn?t seen throughout their sentence ? all these tiny people racing around screaming ? and the clatter of someone coming down a bus stairs fast, which sounded like they were back in jail and hearing feet clanging on the big spiral staircases of the prison.

You have taught creative writing in more traditional ways as well. With your own fiction, do you stick to what you teach, or do you find that all bets are off?

I have taught in various ways ? at one stage in Galway I was teaching a group of shy schoolgirls to write using the role-playing game Paranoia. They were dancing on the desks and screaming with laughter as one girl read out a line of a story composed by her group: ?The teacher walked into the smoke-filled hell of the staffroom?, when the door swung slowly open, the principal looked in and backed slowly out again.

Teaching adults, I currently do a beginners? course in my local college, with classes on narrative, voice, point of view, dialogue and so on. I?ll set up a blind maillist for each class, and then (if any individual student gives permission for any individual piece of work) send work around for pre-class reading. We generally have a lot of fun.

Do I stick to what I teach? Yes, because what I teach is ?follow your hero through adventures?. That?s what I like to do.

I also like to attend workshops given by writers I admire, to pick their brains and see what they have to add ? it?s something all writers should do.

You?re writing a short book about your grandfather Thomas MacDonagh. For any readers who might not be as familiar with the events of 1916, do you care to describe?

My grandfather and his friends made a small revolution that destroyed the greatest empire since Rome. The 1916 Rising began the Irish War of Independence, which lost Britain its first colony ? the others soon followed us out.

My grandfather was an unlikely revolutionary. He was an adoring husband and father, a poet, ran a scientific and literary magazine, was a professor (in the American sense) in University College Dublin, had published books of poetry and had plays performed in the Abbey Theatre; WB Yeats wrote two of his greatest poems ? ?Easter 1916? and ?Sixteen Dead Men? about his and his friends? execution by firing squad, and how it changed everything for Ireland. ?He might have won fame in the end, so daring and sweet his thought? was how Yeats wrote about MacDonagh.

Yeats knew him well, and had known my grandmother, Muriel, and her sister Grace and their ten siblings from childhood; their father, Frederick Gifford, was the Yeats family lawyer. Grace has become a kind of symbol of gloomy revolutionary romanticism because she married another of the 1916 leaders, Joseph Plunkett, an hour before he was executed. Another sister, Nellie, was a Citizen Army woman who smuggled James Larkin into William Martin Murphy?s Imperial Hotel to address the locked-out workers during the 1913 Dublin Lockout, inspiring syndicalists and socialists around the world.

Going back a bit, the Giffords? grandfather had been an idealistic Protestant clergyman, personal chaplain to Lady Harriet Kavanagh; he died in the Famine on Christmas Eve 1850; Thomas MacDonagh?s grandfather was a hedge schoolmaster in the west of Ireland ? but enough?

I cannot help but think of the final pages of ?And the Green Sea Ebbs Away? when I read Patrick Pearse?s quotation: ?They think that they have pacified Ireland. They think that they have purchased half of us and intimidated the other half.? Do you agree? If so, was this intentional?

It was. ?And the Green Sea Ebbs Away? is set on a sea planet invaded by earth people who have themselves genetically engineered so they can live in the planet?s conditions. But the judicial murder at its centre is based on the murder of the Kearney family by the landlord Ponsonby Shaw in Gleann na Sm?l. I was intentionally writing about a society riven with political tension and inequality, which swings towards violent revolution because of an injustice. And the character I chose for the centre of it ? the person who is decent and kind and loving, but who is caught up in that destruction, was quite deliberate.

This makes it sound like a didactic work of propaganda, but I wasn?t writing at all for that purpose ? I was writing a story of hopeless love, like so many of the stories in the collection Love.

Speaking of, let?s take ?Elsewhen,? and specifically its lapses out of third-person. It feels almost more honest that way, an admission that the writer tries to keep herself out of the narrative, but often fails.

I used the varying person ? the third person for Omurchu, the well-off boy from a Moslem merchant family; the first person for the trafficked prostitute ? as a pair of lenses to shimmer your view of them as they fall in love and doom approaches.

Using both third-person and first-person narrators in this very short piece also allowed me to slow the speeding narrative. And to make it funnier.

?Wolf and Water? is alluring for its headstrong female character and timeless theme, but more than anything it?s a page-turner. Again, was this intentional? And which appeals to your more as a reader? As a writer?

Absolutely intentional. I don?t think I could say that I prefer page-turners; I?m greedy ? I want both. I love Tana French?s In the Woods, which has an absolutely weird story with a delightfully unrealised ending; I love Clare Keegan?s Foster, a novella that dives straight for its end, but you can absolutely taste every moment. At the moment I?m reading Nadeem Aslam?s The Blind Man?s Garden, about the war in Afghanistan, and I?m torn between greedily gobbling my way through the whole story as it rushes along, and stopping to breathe in fabulous details like a hidden herd of horses rising out of the ground.

I like a clear line of narrative ? no question about that.

That?s a fantastic opening paragraph to ?Green Sea Ebbs.? Your rewriting of a historical event and then plunging it underwater is easily my favorite plot device in the book. Do you care to comment on this particular choice?

I?m not sure why I did it. That first sentence: ?I was daydreaming of sex when I found the axe, on a baking day in August, on my knees weeding the beans at the end of the market garden.? I think it came from a friend of mine, a great-great-grandson of those Kearneys who were murdered in Gleann na Sm?l, telling me about the bloody axe being produced in a court where the landlord was both the accuser and the judge; he leaned across the woodstove to me and said: ?First time a man was ever shot with an axe.?

The person who tells the story had to be at its centre, yet be an outsider; so she was in love with the youngest of the boys accused by the great landowner. The original Kearneys were regarded by the Ascendancy as Fenian troublemakers. It wasn?t such a far leap.

It?s hard to get past Rose?s silence during the last pages of ?Love.? You even draw our attention to it: ?They were the last words she spoke.? Combined with Moriarty?s bizarre remarks and inaction, it seems like a comment on the silence surrounding all domestic violence. Do you agree?

I do. In fact, those words were taken from a news story; they were the reported words of a man explaining how he had killed his wife. And the refusal of the garda ? the village policeman ? to help Rose as she runs away from the murderous Coley is part of the silence on ?domestic? violence, but it?s also part of the sheer terror in the face of someone in a murderous state. Moriarty?s courage fails him, and he doesn?t dare to take on Coley. Oddly, when I wrote that, the Garda? ? an almost entirely unarmed police force whose motto is that they must maintain the law ?not by force of arms or numbers, but on their moral authority as servants of the people? ? were facing heavily-armed IRA members with enormous courage.

In one case, an unarmed garda persuaded a homicidal maniac from one of the offshoots of the IRA, loaded down with submachine guns and the like, to get out of his getaway car and come back to the garda station with him; the man then escaped ? and the garda recaptured him and kept him, without any use of violence.

But I wanted Moriarty to be an ordinary man who is utterly cowed by insane violence, and simply pretends not to see it, as so many, so often, do.

[Days later I asked about her current listening, to tie the interview back to Fluid Radio. Pardon the indelicate segue.]

The album I played most recently ? oh, I?m such an old fogey I kind of keep playing the same stuff: albums like Clandestino by Manu Chao and Pirates? Choice by Orchestre Baobab and Smaointe by Deirbhile N? Bhrolch?in, with its stunning version of ?Liam ? Raghallaigh? ? and then there are single tracks. A joyous and inescapably catchy 1998 single by the British Indian band Cornershop, ?Brimful of Asha?, is going around and around in my head at the moment unstoppably. Brimful of Asha on the 45, Brimful of Asha on the 45?

-Interview by C.E. Alexander (@CAlexanderRun) for Fluid Radio. His fiction debut The Music and the Spires is available now through Zidi Publishing.

www.heatseekers.blogspot.co.uk

Source: http://www.fluid-radio.co.uk/2013/05/love-lucille-redmond-intervivew/

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New study finds blind people have the potential to use their 'inner bat' to locate objects

Public release date: 20-May-2013
[ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Peter Franklin
p.franklin@soton.ac.uk
44-238-059-5457
University of Southampton

New research from the University of Southampton has shown that blind and visually impaired people have the potential to use echolocation, similar to that used by bats and dolphins, to determine the location of an object.

The study, which is published in the journal Hearing Research, examined how hearing, and particularly the hearing of echoes, could help blind people with spatial awareness and navigation. The study also examined the possible effects of hearing impairment and how to optimise echolocation ability in order to help improve the independence and quality of life of people with visual impairments.

Researchers from the University of Southampton's Institute of Sound and Vibration Research (ISVR) and University of Cyprus conducted a series of experiments with sighted and blind human listeners, using a 'virtual auditory space' technique, to investigate the effects of the distance and orientation of a reflective object on ability to identify the right-versus-left position of the object. They used sounds with different bandwidths and durations (from 10400 milliseconds) as well as various audio manipulations to investigate which aspects of the sounds were important. The virtual auditory space, which was created in ISVR's anechoic chamber, allowed researchers to remove positional clues unrelated to echoes, such as footsteps and the placement of an object, and to manipulate the sounds in ways that wouldn't be possible otherwise (e.g. get rid of the emission and present the echo only).

Dr Daniel Rowan, Lecturer in Audiology in ISVR and lead author of the study, says: "We wanted to determine unambiguously whether blind people, and perhaps even sighted people, can use echoes from an object to determine roughly where the object is located. We also wanted to figure out what factors facilitate and restrict people's abilities to use echoes for this purpose in order to know how to enhance ability in the real world."

The results showed that both sighted and blind people with good hearing, even if completely inexperienced with echolocation, showed the potential to use echoes to tell where objects are. The researchers also found that hearing high-frequency sounds (above 2 kHz) is required for good performance, and so common forms of hearing impairment will probably cause major problems.

Dr Daniel Rowan adds: "Some people are better at this than others, and being blind doesn't automatically confer good echolocation ability, though we don't yet know why. Nevertheless, ability probably gets even better with extensive experience and feedback.

"We also found that our ability to use echoes to locate an object gets rapidly worse with increasing distance from the object, especially when the object is not directly facing us. While our experiments purposely removed any influence of head movement, doing so might help extend ability to farther distances. Furthermore, some echo-producing sounds are better for determining where an object is than others, and the best sounds for locating an object probably aren't the same as for detecting the object or determining what, and how far away, the object is."

The knowledge gained from this study will help researchers to develop training programmes and assistive devices for blind people and sighted people in low-vision situations. The team is also extending their research to investigate finding of objects in three-dimensional space and why some blind people seem to be able to outperform others, including sighted people.

###

The research was partly funded by a Research Council UK Basic Technology Programme grant to the Bio-Inspired Acoustical Systems project and Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) Vacation Bursaries.

Notes for editors:

1. The paper Rowan, D., Papadopoulos, T., Edwards, D., Holmes, H., Hollingdale, A., Evans, L., & Allen, R. (2013) 'Identification of the lateral position of a virtual object based on echoes by humans' is published in Hearing research, 300, 5665. doi:10.1016/j.heares.2013.03.005

The paper can be viewed at: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0378595513000737

2. The research team:

Dr Daniel Rowan is a Lecturer in Audiology in the Hearing and Balance Centre, ISVR, University of Southampton.

Dr Timos Papadopoulos is a James Martin Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the Biodiversity Institute, Department of Zoology and in the Machine Learning Research Group, Department of Engineering Science, both at the University of Oxford.

Professor Robert Allen is Emeritus Professor in Biodynamics and Control in ISVR, University of Southampton.

Dr David Edwards, Hannah Holmes, Anna Hollingdale and Leah Evans contributed to this project as part of their PhD, MSc and BSc programmes in Audiology in ISVR. Rebekah White carried out the data collection of one study on a summer research placement during her BSc Audiology.

3. The University of Southampton is a leading UK teaching and research institution with a global reputation for leading-edge research and scholarship across a wide range of subjects in engineering, science, social sciences, health and humanities.

With over 23,000 students, around 5,000 staff, and an annual turnover well in excess of 435 million, the University of Southampton is acknowledged as one of the country's top institutions for engineering, computer science and medicine. We combine academic excellence with an innovative and entrepreneurial approach to research, supporting a culture that engages and challenges students and staff in their pursuit of learning.

The University is also home to a number of world-leading research centres including the Institute of Sound and Vibration Research, the Optoelectronics Research Centre, the Institute for Life Sciences, the Web Science Trust and Doctoral training Centre, the Centre for the Developmental Origins of Health and Disease, the Southampton Statistical Sciences Research Institute and is a partner of the National Oceanography Centre at the Southampton waterfront campus.

For further information contact:

Glenn Harris, Media Relations, University of Southampton, Tel: 023 8059 3212, email: press@soton.ac.uk

http://www.soton.ac.uk/mediacentre/

Follow us on twitter: http://twitter.com/unisouthampton

Like us on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/unisouthampton

---

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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.

Public release date: 20-May-2013
[ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Peter Franklin
p.franklin@soton.ac.uk
44-238-059-5457
University of Southampton

New research from the University of Southampton has shown that blind and visually impaired people have the potential to use echolocation, similar to that used by bats and dolphins, to determine the location of an object.

The study, which is published in the journal Hearing Research, examined how hearing, and particularly the hearing of echoes, could help blind people with spatial awareness and navigation. The study also examined the possible effects of hearing impairment and how to optimise echolocation ability in order to help improve the independence and quality of life of people with visual impairments.

Researchers from the University of Southampton's Institute of Sound and Vibration Research (ISVR) and University of Cyprus conducted a series of experiments with sighted and blind human listeners, using a 'virtual auditory space' technique, to investigate the effects of the distance and orientation of a reflective object on ability to identify the right-versus-left position of the object. They used sounds with different bandwidths and durations (from 10400 milliseconds) as well as various audio manipulations to investigate which aspects of the sounds were important. The virtual auditory space, which was created in ISVR's anechoic chamber, allowed researchers to remove positional clues unrelated to echoes, such as footsteps and the placement of an object, and to manipulate the sounds in ways that wouldn't be possible otherwise (e.g. get rid of the emission and present the echo only).

Dr Daniel Rowan, Lecturer in Audiology in ISVR and lead author of the study, says: "We wanted to determine unambiguously whether blind people, and perhaps even sighted people, can use echoes from an object to determine roughly where the object is located. We also wanted to figure out what factors facilitate and restrict people's abilities to use echoes for this purpose in order to know how to enhance ability in the real world."

The results showed that both sighted and blind people with good hearing, even if completely inexperienced with echolocation, showed the potential to use echoes to tell where objects are. The researchers also found that hearing high-frequency sounds (above 2 kHz) is required for good performance, and so common forms of hearing impairment will probably cause major problems.

Dr Daniel Rowan adds: "Some people are better at this than others, and being blind doesn't automatically confer good echolocation ability, though we don't yet know why. Nevertheless, ability probably gets even better with extensive experience and feedback.

"We also found that our ability to use echoes to locate an object gets rapidly worse with increasing distance from the object, especially when the object is not directly facing us. While our experiments purposely removed any influence of head movement, doing so might help extend ability to farther distances. Furthermore, some echo-producing sounds are better for determining where an object is than others, and the best sounds for locating an object probably aren't the same as for detecting the object or determining what, and how far away, the object is."

The knowledge gained from this study will help researchers to develop training programmes and assistive devices for blind people and sighted people in low-vision situations. The team is also extending their research to investigate finding of objects in three-dimensional space and why some blind people seem to be able to outperform others, including sighted people.

###

The research was partly funded by a Research Council UK Basic Technology Programme grant to the Bio-Inspired Acoustical Systems project and Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) Vacation Bursaries.

Notes for editors:

1. The paper Rowan, D., Papadopoulos, T., Edwards, D., Holmes, H., Hollingdale, A., Evans, L., & Allen, R. (2013) 'Identification of the lateral position of a virtual object based on echoes by humans' is published in Hearing research, 300, 5665. doi:10.1016/j.heares.2013.03.005

The paper can be viewed at: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0378595513000737

2. The research team:

Dr Daniel Rowan is a Lecturer in Audiology in the Hearing and Balance Centre, ISVR, University of Southampton.

Dr Timos Papadopoulos is a James Martin Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the Biodiversity Institute, Department of Zoology and in the Machine Learning Research Group, Department of Engineering Science, both at the University of Oxford.

Professor Robert Allen is Emeritus Professor in Biodynamics and Control in ISVR, University of Southampton.

Dr David Edwards, Hannah Holmes, Anna Hollingdale and Leah Evans contributed to this project as part of their PhD, MSc and BSc programmes in Audiology in ISVR. Rebekah White carried out the data collection of one study on a summer research placement during her BSc Audiology.

3. The University of Southampton is a leading UK teaching and research institution with a global reputation for leading-edge research and scholarship across a wide range of subjects in engineering, science, social sciences, health and humanities.

With over 23,000 students, around 5,000 staff, and an annual turnover well in excess of 435 million, the University of Southampton is acknowledged as one of the country's top institutions for engineering, computer science and medicine. We combine academic excellence with an innovative and entrepreneurial approach to research, supporting a culture that engages and challenges students and staff in their pursuit of learning.

The University is also home to a number of world-leading research centres including the Institute of Sound and Vibration Research, the Optoelectronics Research Centre, the Institute for Life Sciences, the Web Science Trust and Doctoral training Centre, the Centre for the Developmental Origins of Health and Disease, the Southampton Statistical Sciences Research Institute and is a partner of the National Oceanography Centre at the Southampton waterfront campus.

For further information contact:

Glenn Harris, Media Relations, University of Southampton, Tel: 023 8059 3212, email: press@soton.ac.uk

http://www.soton.ac.uk/mediacentre/

Follow us on twitter: http://twitter.com/unisouthampton

Like us on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/unisouthampton

---

[ | E-mail | Share ]

?

AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.

Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-05/uos-nsf052013.php

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Who is building what in Sochi for 2014 Olympics

SOCHI, Russia (AP) ? The cost of the 2014 Winter Games in the Russian city of Sochi now stands at $51 billion, making it the most expensive Olympics in history. More than half of the bill is being footed by Russian state-controlled companies and business tycoons. A look at what the major players are building in Sochi:

THE RUSSIAN GOVERNMENT

The government is building five of the six arenas in the coastal cluster, which will host indoor competitions such as ice skating, for about $10 billion. Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Kozak, who is overseeing the Sochi preparations, said the government will spend a total of about $18 billion before the games begin in February 2014.

GAZPROM

The world's largest natural gas producer, a publicly traded company, has many Olympic projects in Sochi, including building a cross-country skiing and biathlon center, one of the three Olympic villages and an Alpine ski resort. Gazprom is also building a power station in a Sochi suburb for about $740 million and a pipeline to bring gas supplies to the Sochi area for about $1 billion. The total price tag for Gazprom stands at roughly $3 billion.

POTANIN

Metals tycoon Vladimir Potanin, whose fortune is estimated at $14.3 billion, started building the Roza Khutor ski resort before Sochi was picked to hold the 2014 Olympics. Infrastructure required by the International Olympic Committee cost $500 million, boosting his total bill in Sochi to $2.5 billion. In addition to the Alpine ski runs at Roza Khutor, Potanin's holding company, Interros, has built an Olympic village and a snowboarding and freestyle park.

DERIPASKA

Metals tycoon Oleg Deripaska, estimated to be worth $8.5 billion, is mainly involved in infrastructure development in Sochi. His holding company, Basic Element, is building an Olympic village, a sea port and has just finished revamping the Sochi airport. Basic Element expects to spend a total of $1.4 billion in Sochi.

SBERBANK

The state-controlled bank is set to spend at least $1.3 billion building a media center in Sochi, as well as a ski jump complex.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2013-05-20-OLY-Sochi-Oligarchs-Box/id-146df299b9174b138ee45ad9cf689ca2

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