It News

September 19, 2012

First Class Travel for Luxury Yachts

By JIM CARRIER
Published: September 19, 2012

GENOA, ITALY — On the eve of the 65th Cannes Film festival this year, Lady Joy, a star American attraction, arrived by ship under gray, rain-spitting skies in this grimy north Italian port, before setting off along the coast for the French Riviera, her stylists and makeup artists primping her for a cocktail party she would shortly host.

Lady Joy is a $38 million, 157-foot, or 48-meter, superyacht.

Launched in Seattle in 2007 and one of the largest private seagoing vessels in the world, she was perfectly capable of sailing to France from Fort Lauderdale, Florida, her last port of call.

Back to school in Chicago as teachers' strike ends
By Greg McCune
CHICAGO, Sept 19 | Wed Sep 19, 2012

Striking Chicago public school teachers attend a press conference by The Chicago Teachers Solidarity Campaign outside the office of Mayor Rahm Emanuel in City Hall in Chicago on Sept. 17, 2012.

(Reuters) - Chicago students return to school on Wednesday after a teachers' strike ended, thrilling parents who had to stay home from work to care for their kids, pay for alternative childcare or leave them with friends and relatives for more than a week.

Representatives of the 29,000 striking Chicago public school teachers and support staff voted on Tuesday to suspend their strike and accept a compromise agreement on a new three-year contract with Mayor Rahm Emanuel.

Some 350,000 kindergarten, elementary and high school students return to classes after missing seven school days in the third-largest U.S. school district after New York and Los Angeles.

It was the first time since 1987 that Chicago teachers had walked off the job and nearly everyone in the city seemed relieved that it was over.

New study again links ‘sexting’ with risky sexual behaviour in teenagers

Genevra Pittman, Reuters | Sep 17, 2012

One out of every seven Los Angeles high school students with a cellphone has sent a sexually explicit text message or photo, according to results of a 2011 survey that also found “sexters” more likely to engage in risky sex behaviours.

In the new study, the L.A. teenagers who had sent racy texts were seven times more likely to be sexually active than those who said they’d never sexted.

Samsung downplays rumors of Galaxy S4 for early 2013

The company takes to Twitter to pour cold water on what it says are overheated reports of a March 2013 release for the next Galaxy S phone.
by Lance Whitney September 18, 2012

Consumers awaiting Samsung's Galaxy S4 may face a longer wait than reported yesterday.
The Korean handset maker today denied rumors that the next Galaxy S phone would launch next March. Loosely translated from the Korean, Samsung's Twitter post stated: "Please note that some media reported speculation that the Galaxy S3 subsequent models will be released in a simple rumor is not true. [If] not doing anything, why spread these rumors?"

Thousands of LSU student return to dorms after bomb threat (+video)

Louisiana State University's entire campus was evacuated after a bomb threat was called in Monday morning. By evening students were able to return to their dorms after bomb-sniffer dogs had swept the area.
By Sheila V. Kumar, Associated Press / September 17, 2012
BATON ROUGE, LA.

The thousands of students who live on the Louisiana State University campus will be able to return to their dormitories after bomb-sniffing dogs and police methodically swept residential halls Monday following a threat that sparked a campus-wide evacuation.

LSU spokesman Herb Vincent said officials hope to reopen the Baton Rouge campus by Monday night, but they aren't certain if a building-by-building sweep will be complete before Tuesday.

"Residential Life buildings have now been deemed ready to return to normal operations. That notification is going out now to the campus community," Vincent said.

Pink’s butter argument song

Published on September 18th, 2012 | by newsdesk
Pink has told Spotify she wrote a song about an argument over butter.
The singer explained how ‘Just Give Me a Reason’ on her new album, ‘The Truth About Love’, is inspired by the small signals a person can give when a relationship is breaking down.

She told music streaming service Spotify: “Sometimes [one partner] can be like, ‘The way you passed me the butter this morning, I kinda feel like we’re going to be over in a month and we need to talk’ and he’s like, ‘I just passed you the f***ing butter, what are you talking about?’ and that’s how I felt the song should go, ‘We’re growing apart, you don’t spoon any more, like it’s all over’.”

FedEx Says Economy Is Worsening, Cuts Outlook

By: AP With CNBC.com | 18 Sep 2012

FedEx said the global economy is worsening and it's again cutting its forecast for the fiscal year ending in May.
The company said it also expects net income for the current quarter ending in November to fall well below last year's quarter.

For the full year, the Memphis, Tenn., company now expects to earn between $6.20 and $6.60 per share, compared with a previous forecast of $6.90 to $7.40 per share.

State Department warns travelers away from Sudan, Tunisia

Embassy staffing cut in Tunis and Khartoum as part of rising tide of violence.
September 17, 2012

By MATTHEW LEE
The Associated Press

WASHINGTON — The State Department on Saturday cut embassy staffing to minimum and issued travel warnings for Sudan and Tunisia due to security concerns over rising anti-American violence.

"Given the security situation in Tunis and Khartoum, the State Department has ordered the departure of all family members and nonemergency personnel from both posts, and issued parallel travel warnings to American citizens," said department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland.

Luxury Travel Misses The Point

09/18/2012 by Robert Schrader

This weekend, I decided to travel with my boyfriend Henrique to the island of Koh Samet. Less foreigner-infested than sex tourism hotspot Pattaya, but approximately the same distance from Bangkok, Koh Samet provides a more "real" Thailand travel experience.

Unfortunately, we succumbed to one the less-savory aspects of real Thailand travel: We got scammed. The driver of our bus abandoned us at a gas station in the middle of nowhere and, when we refused to pay the exorbitant rate the conveniently-placed taxi driver quoted us, found ourselves quickly stranded in a place where nobody spoke English.

President Obama’s real opponent in 2012

Posted by Chris Cillizza and Aaron Blake on September 18, 2012

With total television ad spending on the presidential race now having crested $500 million, the real fight on the airwaves is not between President Obama and Mitt Romney but rather between President Obama and a cavalcade of conservative-aligned outside groups, according to an analysis of ad buy information provided to the Fix.
As of Friday evening, Republicans had spent $314 million on ads with Romney accounting for just 27 percent ($86 million) of that total. Democrats had spent $277 million on ads with Obama accounting for 80 percent ($222 million) of that total.

New York Manufacturing Level Keeps on Falling

Monday, 17 Sep 2012
By: Reuters

Factory activity in New York state contracted for a second month in a row in September, falling to its lowest level in nearly 3-1/2 years as new orders shrank further, a report from the New York Federal Reserve showed on Monday

The New York Fed's "Empire State" general business conditions index dropped to minus 10.41, from minus 5.85 in August, frustrating economists' forecasts for an improvement to minus 2, according to a Reuters poll. It was the lowest level since April 2009.

'Resident Evil' Box Office Continues To Grow

The Huffington Post | By Christopher Rosen

Posted: 09/17/2012
Paul W.S. Anderson's "Resident Evil: Retribution" opened in first place at the box office over the weekend, raking in $21 million in ticket sales. That news might come as a surprise to those who haven't been keeping up with the "Resident Evil" franchise.

"Retribution" -- which, like "Resident Evil: Afterlife" was released in 3D -- is the fourth straight "Resident Evil" film to finish in first place at the box office during its opening frame. Since the release of "Resident Evil" in March of 2002, all five films in the franchise have grown internationally: $62 million, $78 million, $97 million, $236 million. "Retribution" opened in 50 territories overseas and grossed an estimated $50 million, more than "Resident Evil: Afterlife" earned during its first salvo. That puts the fifth film in this franchise on course to top $236 million internationally. All told, the "Resident Evil" films have earned almost $1 billion in worldwide box office.

One reason "Resident Evil" may become one of the quietest $1 billion franchises in the history of Hollywood is that domestic audiences have cooled on the films; per EW.com, "Resident Evil: Retribution" sold the fewest tickets of any film in the series thus far. Not that Sony, the studio behind the "Resident Evil" franchise, minds too much: As U.S. grosses are slowly waning, international ticket sales are booming. Think of "Resident Evil" like an R-rated zombie version of "Ice Age," a franchise that is more important to overseas audiences than those here in the States.

All of which is to say, Paul Thomas Anderson wasn't the only Paul Anderson to have a good weekend at the box office.

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Panda Mei Xiang Gives Birth to Cub

National Zoo’s giant panda gives birth to long-awaited cub

After five consecutive pseudopregnancies in as many years, Mei Xiang gave birth Sunday night although her cub has yet to be seen.

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 17, 2012

The National Zoo’s female giant panda has given birth to a cub following five consecutive pseudopregnancies in as many years.
Mei Xiang gave birth Sunday at 10:46 p.m., the zoo said. The staff can hear the cub, but has yet to see it because Mei Xiang has built a large nest in her den.

India Travel Tours launches New Packages To Rajasthan And Golden Triangle

By: Dinesh | Posted on September 17, 2012

As the festive season is fast approaching, so Delhi tour operators have already started the exercises to make their current packages more delivering and attracting. Joining the race, Delhi based India Travel Tours has also expanded its bucket of packages be it Rajasthan Tour, Golden Triangle, Wildlife Tour, Spiritual Tour or Goa Tour. As Rajasthan tours and Golden Triangle tours have always been at top in demand so special emphasis has been laid over these packages.

Ask a travel pro: What are charters?
BY AMY BERTRAND
Every Monday we ask a few questions of a St. Louis travel professional. Last week, we talked about a charter to Huatulco, Mexico. We had a number of questions about this whole charter business, so this week, we talked to Joe Lang of Joe Lang Travel of Creve Coeur about charters.

What exactly is a charter?

A charter flight is a flight that a wholesaler such as Funjet has contracted with to offer seats prearranged in order to give you a nonstop flight to a specific destination, such as St. Louis to Cancun, St. Louis to Montego Bay, St. Louis to Punta Cana. Those are some of the main examples. Only a few cities in the country have this charter flight arrangement. One of the big things they do is save you time. Some of those destinations, it's hard to find a direct flight.

Quietly One of the Biggest Games of the Day: Bills vs. Chiefs

2012/9/17
From FANIQ

We know the Patriots will be in the playoff picture come December. The same can probably be said about the Texans, Steelers*, and Ravens, but which teams are going to be the ones on the fence when the AFC’s six playoff teams start rounding out? The Bills and Chiefs both had a decent amount of preseason hype, in serious discussion as potential playoff contenders, but disappointing week one performances by the two teams left a lot of NFL watchers with some skepticism. Which team will be able to bounce back more effectively?

The Bills started out last season in dream fashion, only to fizz out over the course of the year. Still, the big addition of Mario Williams over the offseason led a lot of NFL watchers to believe the Bills could be for real this year. Last season, their defense couldn’t stop anyone that came their way. While losing 8 of their last 9 games in 2011, the Bills surrendered 30 or more points 5 times. Williams and the Bills defense disappointed in a big way last weekend, giving up 48 points to a Jets offense that was filled with question marks going into the season.

AT&T: 'Most successful' iPhone 5 launch smashes sales records
The giant carrier says Apple's latest iPhone has broken sales records in the first weekend of the highly anticipated smartphone going on sale.
by Zack Whittaker September 17, 2012

AT&T said today that the iPhone 5 has sold faster than any previous model of the Apple smartphone.
The network declined to offer numbers on the first weekend of the iPhone 5 going on sale -- normally reserved for Apple, in which an announcement is expected in the coming days -- but the cell network giant said it set a "sales record" for its first day of pre-orders and over the weekend.

Martinez Tops in Middleweight Title Fight

September 15, 2012
By Journal's all-purpose sports report.
6:41 pmPre-match by Gordon Marino
Welcome to the Wall Street Journal blog of the Julio Cesar Chavez vs Sergio Martinez bout.

Chavez will be defending for the WBC middleweight crown, one that Martinez relinquished but is eager to reclaim.

2012 Creative Arts Emmys: Find Out Which TV Stars Won and Lost!

by Brett Malec Sat., Sep. 15, 2012

Emmy season is in full swing!
Earlier today, some of television's biggest and brightest stars gathered inside the Nokia Theatre in L.A. for the Creative Arts Emmy Awards.
So did Bridesmaids funnylady Melissa McCarthy win big? Who's the most hilarious guest-starring guy around? And did Clint Eastwood's infamous Super Bowl commercial earn an Emmy?
Read on for all the awards-show scoop…
Surprising Emmy winners from the past

T-Mobile to offer nano-SIM cards for unlocked iPhone 5s-- report

Nano-SIM cards will arrive at the carrier in mid October, allowing owners of unlocked iPhone 5s to jump to its network, says a report.
by Edward Moyer September 15, 2012

T-Mobile will start carrying nano-SIM cards in mid October, allowing owners of unlocked iPhone 5s to jump to the carrier, according to a report.
The Verge says it's confirmed the news with T-Mobile, following a tweet that went out from @T-MobileHelp earlier in the week.
This past Wednesday -- the day Apple took the wraps off the iPhone 5 -- T-Mobile kicked off its "Unlocked & Unlimited" campaign, under which it will be carrying unlocked iPhones in its stores for demonstration purposes, airing national commercials inviting unlocked iPhone users into its stores, and launching a few of its own iPhone apps.

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