You can also listen to this audio by clicking HERE or on the Play Button
5/27/2012
5/20/2012
G8 summit ends (video)
You can also watch this video by clicking HERE or on the Play Button
After watching the video and understanding the main ideas, check the context where the following words are used
- Retreat
- Acknowledge
- Call for
- Woes
- Shrink
- Take steps
- Boost
- Agreed upon
- Advocate
- Defeated
- Pro growth
- Stagnant
- Address
- Shortage
- Committed
- Hosted
- Pledge
- Counterpart
- Made progress
- Home city
Mark Zuckerberg's special week
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — For Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg, it …………………………………. (be) quite a week – from birthday, to IPO, to "I DO".
On Monday 14 Zuckerberg …………………………………. (turn) 28 and on the same day, his 27-year-old girlfriend of nearly a decade, Priscilla Chan …………………………………. (graduate) from medical school at the University of California, San Francisco, where she …………………………………. (study) pediatrics. The couple …………………………………. (meet) at Harvard more than nine years ago
On Friday 18 Zuckerberg …………………………………. (take) his company public in one of the most anticipated stock offerings in Wall Street history.
And on Saturday 19, a day after the historic Facebook stock offering, Zuckerberg …………………………………. (marry) his girlfriend at a small ceremony at his Palo Alto, Calif. home.
A source …………………………………. (authorize) by the couple and who …………………………………. (speak) only on the condition of anonymity. …………………………………. (say) Zuckerberg …………………………………. (design) the ring featuring "a very simple ruby."
The ceremony …………………………………. (take) place in Zuckerberg's backyard before fewer than 100 guests, who all …………………………………. (think) they …………………………………. (be) there to celebrate Chan's graduation from medical school.
The person …………………………………. (disclose - negative) the names of the people who …………………………………. (attend) the party to protect their privacy. Food …………………………………. (be) served family-style and …………………………………. (include) dishes from the couple’s favorite Palo Alto sushi restaurant.
The seemingly well-coordinated timing …………………………………. (be) largely a coincidence, the guest said. The wedding had been planned for months and the couple was waiting for Chan to finish medical school, but the date of the IPO was a “moving target”.
Even after the IPO, Zuckerberg …………………………………. (remain) Facebook's single largest shareholder, with 503.6 million shares. And he …………………………………. (control) the company with 56 percent of its voting stock.
The site, which …………………………………. (be) born in a Harvard dorm room eight years ago, …………………………………. (be) a worldwide network of almost a billion people and …………………………………. (make) its founder Time magazine’s Person of the Year in 2010 at age 26.
Mark Zuckerberg, who …………………………………. (grow) up in Dobbs Ferry, N.Y …………………………………. (update) his Facebook status to "married" on Saturday. As of Sunday noon, 776,814 people …………………………………. (like) his status change, which …………………………………. (be) accompanied by a photo of the couple in wedding attire.
Chan’s own Facebook page, which now lists her as married to the founder, said she…………………. (be) a native of Braintree, Mass., and …………………………………. (attend) high school in nearby Quincy. She …………………………………. (graduate) from Harvard in 2007 and then …………………………………. (teach) science to fourth and fifth graders at the Harker School in San Jose for two years before …………………………………. (start) medical school, according to her profile.
5/18/2012
A new restaurant in Los Angeles
The Century, a luxury condominium tower in Century City, will soon house a restaurant operated by high-profile Los Angeles chef David Myers.
His yet-to-be-named restaurant will be open to the public and also cater private meals and events for residents of the 41-story tower such as Candy Spelling, who owns the top two floors.
The ground-floor restaurant will have a separate driveway and
entrance from the residences, said Jeff Blau, president of the Related
Co., the developer of the tower on Avenue of the Stars."It will feel like a real restaurant with valet parking," he said. "The building was designed with this concept in mind."
Related Co has put chef-driven restaurants in some of its residential properties in New York, including Time Warner Center, but this will be among the first such developments in Los Angeles.
Myers operates Comme Ca, a French-style brasserie in West Hollywood, and Pizzeria Ortica, an Italian restaurant in Costa Mesa. His restaurant in the Century will be influenced by his travels and the time he spent in Japan over the last year setting up a culinary outpost in Tokyo.
"We’ll focus on incredible ingredients blended with influences of the Silk Road path of Japan and southeast Asia," he said.
The Art Deco-inspired Century was completed in 2010 and the cost was $300 million. Spelling, the widow of television mogul Aaron Spelling, was one of the first buyers and is still constructing her penthouse.
5/15/2012
Yahoo's former CEO Scott Thompson
Scott Thompson’s résumé now lists him as former CEO of Yahoo Inc. after he agreed to resign amid controversy about his academic record, The Wall Street Journal reports.
Thompson resigned after the company’s board received evidence supporting claims that he knowingly claimed to have a computer science degree when he did not. The technology company’s board continues an investigation that could lead it to fire Thompson for cause, which would cost him millions of dollars in severance pay
The publication also reported that Thompson told Yahoo’s board that he has been diagnosed with thyroid cancer.
If you want to read more about Thompson's resignation and how much it could cost him, click HERE and go to my other blog
5/12/2012
Yahoo CEO's résumé: Scott Thompson explains
The embattled CEO, who has been under fire since a Yahoo investor revealed the false academic credential last week, said that he had never proofread the résumé compiled by the firm and did not know of the error until the uproar began.
Thompson claimed that he never submitted a physical résumé to either Yahoo or PayPal, where he was president of its eBay division before joining Yahoo in January, because hiring firms compiled their own dossiers to give to prospective employers. According to a report Thursday from Business Insider, Thompson said he did not review the documents from the firms. It’s likely, he said, that a misstated credential listed on a dossier by a placement firm employee was duplicated repeatedly in later biographies.
Thompson admitted that he made a mistake by not reviewing the documents.
Yahoo's largest outside investor Daniel Loeb was the first to bring attention to Thompson’s misleading résumé. He also questioned the academic credentials and leadership of Yahoo board member Patti Hart, who headed the search committee that hired Thompson. Yahoo announced Tuesday that Hart would not seek reelection to the board.
In a letter to the board Wednesday, the Third Point hedge fund wrote: “Mr. Thompson's ‘apology’ was clearly insufficient and it seems that the only thing he actually regrets is that he has been caught in a lie and publicly exposed. Without any explanation or accountability, Yahoo! has been left to flounder under a discredited leader for an undefined period. So, after six days, we must ask – what is this Board waiting for?”
In Wednesday’s letter, Loeb demanded that Thompson and Hart be replaced immediately with nominees that the hedge fund recommended for the board, and that a Third Point nominee lead the next CEO search committee. Loeb also said that the company should appoint an interim CEO immediately, suggesting either Yahoo chief financial officer Tim Morse — who served as interim CEO earlier this year — or Global Media head Ross Levinsohn.
“This is the only way for Yahoo! to move past this embarrassing episode,” the letter said.
After confirming that Thompson held only an accounting degree, Yahoo launched an investigation to review the CEO’s academic record.
By Hayley Tsukayama
From The Washington Post
Third Point LLC sent Yahoo! a demand today pursuant to Section 220(b) of the Delaware General Corporation Law to inspect books and records relating to the hiring of CEO Scott Thompson, the appointment of Patti Hart to the Yahoo! Board, and the selection of Board Members Peter Liguori, John Hayes, Thomas McInerney, Maynard Webb, Jr., and Fred Amoroso.
If you want to read Third Point’s demand, click HERE or on the Read Button
5/11/2012
Chinese activist's background
Chen’s most publicized case came in 2005. Chen exposed harsh illegal measures by local authorities when enforcing the one-child policy. Family planning officials from Linyi municipal authorities in Shandong forced thousands of people to undergo sterilization or to abort pregnancies. Chinese national regulations prohibit such brutal measures. The officials were also accused of detaining and torturing relatives of people who had escaped from the forced measures.
Chen filed a class-action lawsuit for excessive enforcement of the one-child policy on the women’s behalf and drew attention to the plight of the villagers.
Although the suit he filed was rejected, the incident was publicised on the Internet and by the U.S. publication Time, which interviewed Chen. This prompted the National Population and Family Planning Commission to launch an investigation in August 2005. A month later, the Commission announced that several Linyi officials were detained.
As a result of this lawsuit, Chen was placed under house arrest from September 2005 to March 2006, with a formal arrest in June 2006. During his trial, Chen’s attorneys were forbidden access to the court, leaving him without a proper defender. On 24 August 2006, Chen was sentenced to four years and three months for “damaging property and organizing a mob to disturb traffic”.
Chen was released from prison on 8 September 2010 after serving his full sentence, but remained under house arrest or “soft detention” at his home in Dongshigu Village Chen and his wife were reportedly beaten shortly after a human rights group released a video of their home under intense police surveillance on February 9 2011
On April 22 2012, Chen escaped his house arrest and fled to the U.S. Embassy in Beijing.
On May 2 2012 he left the embassy for medical treatment at a Beijing hospital. He agreed to depart the embassy under a deal reached by U.S. and Chinese authorities that would have allowed him to stay in a safe place in China and study law. But he changed his mind hours after leaving the embassy, saying his family had been threatened, and he wanted to go to the United States.
It was reported on 4 May 2012 that he will be allowed by China to travel to the United States to study.
Chen’s case received sustained international attention, with the U.S. State Department, the British Foreign Secretary, Human Rights Watch, and Amnesty International issuing appeals for his release. Chen is a 2007 laureate of the Ramon Magsaysay Award and in 2006 was named to Time Magazine's list of "2006's Top 100 People Who Shape Our World" in the category of "Heroes and Pioneers.
Early life
Chen was born November 12 1971, in the small village of Dongshigu, Shandong Province, approximately 200 km from the city of Jinan. Due to a severe fever, Chen lost his sight at an early age. He was illiterate until 1994 when he was enrolled by Qingdao High School for the Blind and graduated in 1998. Chen began developing an interest in the law, and enlisted his brothers to read legal texts to him. He then studied in Nanjing University of Chinese Medicine from 1998 to 2001, specializing in acupuncture and massage. After graduation he returned to his home region and found a job as a masseur in the hospital of Yinan county. Nonetheless, he managed to attend law classes, and learned enough to aid his fellow villagers when they sought his assistance
Activism
Chen’s first experience petitioning authorities was in 1994, when he traveled to Beijing to appeal against taxes that were being wrongly levied on his family. In China, disabled persons, such as Chen, are theoretically exempt from taxation and fees. The appeal was successful, and thereafter Chen helped other individuals with disabilities to avoid undue taxation. He also began organizing villagers to engage in collective action campaigns. In 2000, Chen organized villagers in his hometown and 78 others to petition against a paper mill that had been spewing noxious chemicals into a river, destroying crops and killing wildlife.
5/07/2012
AT&T is making big investment
 |
NEW YORK - (Reuters) - AT&T Inc (T.N) is making a big investment in a nationwide wireless home monitoring service that will potentially add $1 billion to its annual revenue as part of its ongoing effort to expand beyond cell phones.
The new service called "Digital Life" will monitor homes for everything from water damage to burglaries and will let customers remotely do things like adjust temperature or unlock doors, using an Internet connection.
AT&T will start trials of the service this year. It will involve sensors and cameras linked to a central home system that will connect wirelessly to AT&T monitoring centers, said Glenn Lurie, the AT&T executive spearheading the project.
Lurie said in an interview that AT&T is hiring "lots of people" to support the service and confirmed that they will announce the plan on Monday in New Orleans
He did not want to set a specific revenue target for the business but said he sees it as one of AT&T's largest revenue growth opportunities, "if not the largest," with "very significant" incremental growth" in 2013.
"When you're a company like AT&T, when you're a $130 billion plus company, ... you look at opportunities that are billion-dollar opportunities," Lurie said. "Obviously to grow our business at any level, , you have to look for significant opportunities. We view this as a significant opportunity."
Lurie said the industry is ripe for growth since only 20 percent of U.S. homes have security systems.
Lurie added that AT&T might also expand the service to support small businesses and senior citizens who want to live in their own homes even though they need close health monitoring.
"Our goal is to bring something people have never seen before," Lurie said.
Photo credit: Reuters Danny Moloshok
edited from Reuters
5/06/2012
Top Reasons Happy Couples File Wedding Insurance Claims
Vendor and venue problems are the most frequent causes of wedding day mishaps that result in insurance claims.Wedding insurance experts at Travelers Insurance recently analyzed the company’s wedding insurance claims from 2011 and found that a total of 31 percent of all wedding claims were the result of problems associated with vendors and venues.
The most common vendor- and venue-related problems include the facility or vendor going out of business, flowers and photos not being delivered and DJs not showing up.
Sickness, injury and mishaps accounted for 19 percent of the wedding insurance claims and catastrophic weather-related problems accounted for 10 percent.
Vandalism and theft represented 13 percent of claims, a new category revealed in the 2011 analysis.
Other problems, such as military duty/deployment, unavoidable cancellation of weddings and issues with attire accounted for an additional 17 percent of the claims.
Travelers is hoping to help couples understand common wedding day problems so that they may take steps to minimize the typical risks that could ruin their special day.
“Given that the leading causes of wedding claims continue to be a result
of vendor and venue issues, couples should seriously consider the
financial risks associated with planning a wedding and protect their
investment and budget accordingly,” said Chantal Cyr, vice president for
Travelers Wedding Insurance.The amount that couples spent on weddings in the U.S. decreased from $26,542 to $25,631 in 2011, according to The Wedding Report, a research company tracking the wedding industry.
But it’s still a significant investment. The average price tag of a wedding decreased last year by 3.4 percent, yet couples actually spent nearly 21 percent more on the reception location, said Shane McMurray, CEO and founder of The Wedding Report.
“Wedding insurance has become even more essential for any family looking to protect itself against vendor and venue mishaps – close to home or far away – from lost deposits to missing flowers,” said McMurray.
The Wedding Protector Plan from Travelers includes coverage for rehearsal events that take place within 48 hours of the wedding for as little as $160. It also covers items such as lost deposits, perishable materials, unavoidable cancellation due to weather or military leave, lost or damaged photographs, damaged gifts, host liability and more.
from The Insurance Journal
5/04/2012
Argentina's Olympics video (The Sun's article)
By ANDREW SNELL and DAVID WILLETTS
ARGENTINA sparked outrage last night after running a TV advert showing an Argie Olympian doing step-ups on a British war memorial to our fallen heroes in the Falklands.
You can also watch this video by clicking HERE or on the Play Button
The deliberately provocative ad says hockey player Fernando Zylberberg, who will compete at London 2012, is training “on Argentine soil”. It was released by President Cristina Kirchner’s government.
In the film Zylberberg is shown working out at Port Stanley’s Globe Tavern. He runs past the office of Falklands newspaper Penguin News and a red telephone box. And to rub salt in the wound, he does step-ups on the islands’ Great War Memorial honouring British sailors who died battling the German fleet in 1914. The 90-second ad ends with the slogan: “To compete on English soil, we are training on Argentine soil.”
It was screened on Argentine TV stations on Wednesday night — the 30th anniversary of the sinking of Argie warship General Belgrano during the Falklands conflict. Today is the anniversary of the devastating Argentine Exocet missile attack on HMS Sheffield.
The ad, filmed WITHOUT permission of island authorities, triggered outrage in Britain last night.
Falklands War survivor Simon Weston, who paid his respects at the memorial during a visit in March, called the film “an insult”.
Derek Cole, head of the Falklands Veterans Foundation, said: “It is disgraceful. The athlete is on a war memorial. They are dancing on our servicemen’s graves.”
MP Andrew Rosindell, secretary of the Falkland Islands Parliamentary Group, said: “It’s offensive to islanders and to those who lost their lives. We should make a complaint to the Olympic authorities and Kirchner. But she isn’t the sort of person who will listen.”
The ad even drew condemnation from the Foreign Office. A spokesman said: “The Olympics are about sport, not politics. We are dismayed at the insensitivity and disrespect demonstrated by the film makers in their use of a war memorial as a prop.”
Ian Hansen, of the Falkland Islands Legislative Assembly, said: “We will not be bullied by the Argentine government with pieces of cheap propaganda like this.”
Argentina claims sovereignty over the Falklands, which they call the Malvinas. But the ad may backfire on Kirchner as many Argentines were critical of it. One told newspaper La Nacion: “It is a disgrace.”
from The Sun
ARGENTINA sparked outrage last night after running a TV advert showing an Argie Olympian doing step-ups on a British war memorial to our fallen heroes in the Falklands.
You can also watch this video by clicking HERE or on the Play Button
In the film Zylberberg is shown working out at Port Stanley’s Globe Tavern. He runs past the office of Falklands newspaper Penguin News and a red telephone box. And to rub salt in the wound, he does step-ups on the islands’ Great War Memorial honouring British sailors who died battling the German fleet in 1914. The 90-second ad ends with the slogan: “To compete on English soil, we are training on Argentine soil.”
It was screened on Argentine TV stations on Wednesday night — the 30th anniversary of the sinking of Argie warship General Belgrano during the Falklands conflict. Today is the anniversary of the devastating Argentine Exocet missile attack on HMS Sheffield.
The ad, filmed WITHOUT permission of island authorities, triggered outrage in Britain last night.
Falklands War survivor Simon Weston, who paid his respects at the memorial during a visit in March, called the film “an insult”.
Derek Cole, head of the Falklands Veterans Foundation, said: “It is disgraceful. The athlete is on a war memorial. They are dancing on our servicemen’s graves.”
MP Andrew Rosindell, secretary of the Falkland Islands Parliamentary Group, said: “It’s offensive to islanders and to those who lost their lives. We should make a complaint to the Olympic authorities and Kirchner. But she isn’t the sort of person who will listen.”
The ad even drew condemnation from the Foreign Office. A spokesman said: “The Olympics are about sport, not politics. We are dismayed at the insensitivity and disrespect demonstrated by the film makers in their use of a war memorial as a prop.”
Ian Hansen, of the Falkland Islands Legislative Assembly, said: “We will not be bullied by the Argentine government with pieces of cheap propaganda like this.”
Argentina claims sovereignty over the Falklands, which they call the Malvinas. But the ad may backfire on Kirchner as many Argentines were critical of it. One told newspaper La Nacion: “It is a disgrace.”
from The Sun
5/01/2012
Occupy activists rallied throughout NY
You can also watch this video by clicking HERE or on the Play Button
Please listen to the video at least 3 times, and once you have understood all the ideas and details, pick up the words the speaker uses to mean:
- Began
- Menace
- New York Police Department
- Places
- Increasing
- No less than
- Sales assistants
- Not going to work as a form of protest
- Agree with their opinion
- Back up
- Express their opinion
- Ambition, intense desire for money
Australian billionaire to build new Titanic
CANBERRA, Australia – An Australian billionaire will build a high-tech replica of the Titanic at a Chinese shipyard and its maiden voyage in late 2016 will be from England to New York, just like its namesake planned.
Billionaire Clive Palmer built a fortune on real estate on Australia's Gold Coast tourist strip before becoming a coal mining magnate. He is Australia's fifth-richest person with more than $5.2 billion.
Palmer announced on Monday he has signed a memorandum of understanding with state-owned Chinese company CSC Jinling Shipyard to build the Titanic II.
"It will be as luxurious as the original Titanic, but will have state-of-the-art 21st-century technology and the latest navigation and safety systems," Palmer said in a statement. He called the project "a tribute to the spirit of the men and women who worked on the original Titanic."
The Titanic II is the first of four luxury cruise ships that CSC Jinling Shipyard will build for Palmer.
Palmer did not provide a cost estimate. He said he had established a new shipping company, Blue Star Line Pty. Ltd., and that design work for the Titanic II began some months ago with assistance from a historical research team.
The diesel-powered ship will have four smoke stacks like the coal-powered original, but they will be purely decorative.
Brett Jardine, general manager for Australia and New Zealand in the industry group International Cruise Council, said Titanic II will be small by modern standards but will prove viable at the top end of the luxury market.
"From a marketing point of view, many will embrace it and perhaps there'll be some that won't," Jardine said.
While the Titanic II will carry around 1,680 passengers, most modern cruise ships create economies of scale by catering for more than 2,000 passengers, he said.
Please finish the following questions - using your imagination and creativity !!!
1. What will the billionaire………….
2. Where will the billionaire ………
3. When will its maiden voyage ………..
4. Where will its maiden voyage ……….
5. How did Clive Palmer ………….
6. When did Clive Palmer……….
7. What did Clive Palmer…………
8. How many boats will CSC Jinling Shipyard……..
9. Did Clive Palmer ……..
10. When did the design ………
11. Will many people……..
12. How many passengers will …….
13. How many passengers do ……..
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