Debate heats up over future of London airports

THE FUTURE of London?s airport capacity will move back into the spotlight this week as Heathrow prepares to make a fresh push to build a third runway, and Boris Johnson moves to distance himself from plans to build an airport in the Thames Estuary.

Heathrow is expected to tell the government?s aviation commission that it needs to expand to compete with other European hubs.

The busiest airport in Europe, which sees 70m passengers a year travel through its halls, was blocked from going ahead with a new runway when the coalition came to power in 2010.

But the airport hopes the Davies Commission, which is looking at long-term options for air travel in Britain, will recommend expansion at the site.

The airport?s submission will pledge to hold off on a fourth runway until at least 2040, according to the Sunday Telegraph. Heathrow said in March that growing demand for air travel warrants a third runway immediately, but that the case for a fourth is less clear.

The airport, owned by Spanish conglomerate Ferrovial, is also expected to dismiss mixed mode ? the practice of using existing runways for simultaneous take-offs and landings in order to cram in more flights per day. Department for Transport figures show there will be 11m a year of unmet passenger demand at Heathrow by 2020.

Meanwhile Boris Johnson, the Mayor of London, is expected to pull back from plans to build an airport in the Thames Estuary ? the so-called Boris Island ? in favour of a site on the nearby Isle of Grain, in north Kent.

Johnson will today set out his three preferred options for a new hub in the east of London ahead of a full submission to the Davies Commission later in the week. The Commission, tasked by the government with examining the future of British air travel last year, will make preliminary findings this year and a final recommendation in 2015.

It held its first public hearings last week, in which Heathrow boss Colin Matthews warned the UK could lose its status as a major European hub if his airport was not allowed to expand.

Source: http://www.cityam.com/article/debate-heats-over-future-london-airports

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Spitzer tells Leno he cares about public service

NEW YORK (AP) ? Eliot Spitzer, whose 2008 resignation as New York's governor amid a prostitution scandal provided no shortage of fuel for gibes to late-night TV comics, ventured into the lion's den Friday, appearing on "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno."

Spitzer appeared on Leno's show in California less than 24 hours after a four-day flurry of canvassing for 3,750 valid petitions to run for city comptroller ? submitting over 27,000 petitions to the city Board of Elections late Thursday night ahead of a midnight deadline.

And Leno, who has poked at Spitzer's reentrance to New York City's politics since the former attorney general announced Sunday he was running to be the city's comptroller, asked him straight up: "Why enter at the 11th hour?"

Spitzer said that after all he'd done in the past five years he finally thought, "You know what, there's a position there, which I've written about, thought about, the Controller's position, from which I think I can actually serve," he said. "And I said to myself I want to contribute through public service."

Leno's show has provided a stage before for candidates launching unexpected campaigns: Arnold Schwarzenegger announced his ultimately successful run for California governor on Leno's set in 2003. The program also has been a memorable forum for public figures' atonement moments, as when actor Hugh Grant made his first TV appearance after he was arrested with a prostitute in 1995.

Spitzer's appearance came after his leading rival said earlier Friday he wouldn't challenge the tarnished ex-governor's petitions to run for city comptroller, leaving Spitzer's surprise comeback campaign a clearer path toward the Democratic primary this fall.

Other contenders or voters can contest a candidate's signatures for reasons ranging from an ambiguous address to a canvasser who's not registered in the candidate's party. But Democratic comptroller hopeful Scott Stringer, who was a heavy favorite in the comptroller's race before Spitzer got into it Monday, said he had no plans to contest Spitzer's signatures and would encourage supporters not to do so, either.

"I'm not someone who challenges petitions," Stringer, who is currently Manhattan's borough president, said while greeting voters Friday in downtown Brooklyn. "Let's get into the fight now."

While they won't face Spitzer in the primary, Republican candidate John Burnett and Libertarian Kristin Davis, a former madam who has criticized Spitzer, also said through aides that they wouldn't challenge his petitions.

Spitzer's campaign said in a statement Friday he "looks forward to making the case every day for an independent comptroller for the City of New York."

On the "Tonight Show," Leno admired Spitzer for his work as attorney general going after Wall Street and the mob and then asked him how he could "make this big a blunder," referencing the prostitution scandal.

"People who fall prey to hubris, end up falling themselves," Spitzer said, adding there was no good explanation for his behavior. "And this is something that I think infected me."

"Saturday Night Live" actor Bill Hader, who did an impression of Spitzer in a 2010 skit, joked with the ex-governor, who said he decided to get back into public life about a year ago and with his family's approval.

Leno gleefully seized on Spitzer's newborn candidacy earlier this week, particularly relishing the fact that Davis is also a contender.

"There's a tough choice for the voters, huh? I mean, one is involved in the most degrading profession of all time, and the other ran a whorehouse," Leno said during Monday's opening monologue.

Spitzer's last-minute, self-financed candidacy hurled a curveball into what had seemed a straightforward race for the city's top financial post, one that conducts audits and invests huge city employee pension funds.

On Leno's show, he touted his record pursuing financial crimes, telling Leno "Wall Street desperately wants me to lose," because of his previous work as attorney general, and added he would use the comptroller's control over the city's pension funds to pursue Wall Street again.

"That is where the power really comes from," he said. "$140 billion of pension funds, which in the equity markets are a lever to control corporate governance, reign in CEO pay, make sure that the Wall Street titans are acting fairly and honestly, making sure that the markets are functioning properly, making sure capital is allocated as it should be."

Earlier in the evening, the Wall Street Journal reported Maurice "Hank" Greenberg, the former American International Group Inc. chief executive, had filed a defamation lawsuit against Spitzer in state Supreme Court. An attorney for Greenberg did not immediately return a request for comment. Spitzer's campaign issued a statement calling the lawsuit frivolous.

Spitzer quickly jumped to a 42 percent-to-33 percent lead among registered Democrats, including those leaning toward but not settled on a candidate, according to a The Wall Street Journal-NBC 4 New York-Marist poll taken in the first two days of his campaign.

Pundits, and even Spitzer himself, had said it would be a challenge to get the needed signatures in just four days; other candidates had started in early June. Campaigns generally gather at least two to three times as many signatures as needed, as a cushion in case some are invalidated.

Stringer said he submitted more than 100,000 signatures, all of them gathered by volunteers; Spitzer's campaign paid canvassers.

Burnett, who has worked in various financial capacities on Wall Street, filed about 8,000 signatures and was looking forward to facing whomever wins the Democratic primary, his campaign said.

"We especially wish Eliot the best of luck," the Burnett camp said in a statement Friday.

Green Party candidate Julia Willebrand's campaign didn't immediately respond to messages Thursday and Friday.

___

Associated Press writers Lynn Elber in Los Angeles and Jake Pearson in New York contributed to this report.

___

Follow Jennifer Peltz at http://twitter.com/jennpeltz

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/spitzer-tells-leno-cares-public-022048655.html

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Yoga - The Whole Deal! | Smart Healthy Women

Yoga developed in India (and here there is no accurate date) maybe B.C. 3,000, with the first written description of yoga appearing around B.C. 1500. The Romans and the Greeks had also developed a system of physical fitness and training simultaneously and also recognised the mind, body and spirit connection. Aristotle wrote in B.C. 350 ?The results of a good physical education are not limited to the body alone, but they extend even to the soul itself?. Good health in yoga encompasses the healthy body, the healthy mind and the keen and buoyant spirit. Mind, body, spirit = as one. So why is it today, we seem to know so much less about ourselves than our ancient fathers.

Here is a wonderful exercise to bring your mind?s awareness back into your body. This exercise is credited with being able to add up 1.5 centimetres of height to some people over a 60 day period. It only takes a few minutes. Lie comfortably on your yoga mat, and take a gentle and lengthening stretch ? toes pointed, hands above your head fingers reaching out. Think of your arms and legs as the arms of a compass reaching for north and south. Inhale at the beginning of the stretch over a 3 second count, hold it for 6 seconds and then gently exhale over a 3 second count. The stick pose is best done lying down ? so that you aren?t compounding any postural problems, and so that you can truly free up your vital organs from gravity.

Just think of your posture throughout the day, how cramped your organs are from bending over, sitting crooked, slouching. Now as you lie there just envisage the wonderful, refreshing and revitalising blood flowing to your organs ? oxygen, nutrients, hormones are now rushing unfettered to your major organs. Be aware of what feels different when you stand up again. What hurts that didn?t when you were lying down. Now try and adjust your posture to recreate the ease you felt on the floor. Roll back your shoulders, tuck in your tail and support your organs with a pulled in tummy. Seek alignment. Where is your chin pointing. Where are your eyes looking ? ahead, up or down. Is one shoulder carried higher or more forward than the other. Awareness brings correction.

SINGING TEA ? here is a wonderful recipe for the soul. I call it singing tea as I find the next day I am walking around singing out loud (and in tune which is even more of a miracle) and feeling very happy. ?Take 3 teaspoons of dried lemon balm, add some grated ginger, lemon juice and a bit of honey. Two cups a day are ideal. Steep for 5 minutes and enjoy!

If you have a question about yoga, food or fitness please feel free to write to me at Rikki@ballinabeachvillage.com.au.?

Source: http://smarthealthywomen.com/yoga-the-whole-deal/

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Fla. motorcycle racer dies after hitting 285 mph

LIMESTONE, Maine (AP) ? A motorcycle racer trying to top 300 mph died Sunday after losing control and zooming off a runway at a former air base in northern Maine.

Bill Warner, 44, of Wimauma, Fla., was clocked at 285 mph before he lost control but it was unclear how fast the motorcycle was traveling when it veered off the paved runway and crashed, said Tim Kelly, race director the Loring Timing Association, which hosted "The Maine Event" at Loring Air Force Base.

Warner was conscious and talking after the crash just befor 10 a.m., Kelly said, but he died about an hour and 15 minutes later at a hospital in Caribou.

"No one will touch Bill's achievements or be the type of racer he was. He was a personal friend and the land-racing community is less for his loss," Kelly said.

Riding his modified turbocharged Suzuki Hayabusa, Warner previously hit 311 mph on the same course in 2011, using 1.5 miles of pavement. That's considered to be the world land speed record for a conventional motorcycle, Kelly said.

This time he was trying to hit 300 mph using just a mile of pavement, and he'd made several passes before the one in which he crashed, Kelly said.

The Maine Event is an annual timed speed event that utilizes the 14,200-foot-long runway at the former Strategic Air Command base that closed in 1994. The Loring Timing Association uses 2.5 miles of the runway for its events, and there's an additional buffer of 2,000 feet, Kelly said.

On Sunday, about 400 spectators watched as Warner began veering right after passing the 1-mile mark, traveling upright for another 2,000 feet before exiting the runway and crashing, Kelly said.

The remainder of Sunday's event was canceled. The Limestone Police Department and Maine State Police were investigation the crash.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/fla-motorcycle-racer-dies-hitting-285-mph-211956306.html

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India ready for investment treaty talks with US: Commerce chief

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2013 NBA Free Agency: Atlanta Hawks Make Correct Decision Going With Jeff Teague Over Brandon Jennings

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Kevin Liles-USA TODAY Sports

This summer has been nearly disastrous for the Atlanta Hawks. Losing out on Dwight Howard and the likes of other top free agents such as Andre Iguodala and their own Josh Smith has hurt their plans for 2013, but they have managed to salvage one of the more important pieces to their core.

Point guard Jeff Teague had received an offer from the Milwaukee Bucks for four years and $32 million in which the Hawks decided to match. Atlanta had also considered bringing in Bucks point guard Brandon Jennings instead, maybe for a possible sign-and-trade, but wound up retaining Teague.

For the Hawks, this was the best decision. Teague has two important parts of the stat sheet that stand out over Jennings.

First, Teague shoots the ball at a much higher percentage. Though he averaged about three points less than Jennings last season, he shot the ball at at 45.1 percent versus Jennings? 39.9 percent. jennings also shot the ball almost 16 times per game ? too much to be called a true point guard.

Secondly, Teague put up more assists last year than Jennings at 7.2 versus 6.5 which essentially wipes out the small margin in the turnover differential in which Teague averages just a small percentage more.

But, the Hawks need somebody to facilitate at the point guard position. If you cannot get the ball to a guy like Kyle Korver at an efficient rate, you won?t survive on that team. Jennings not only averages less assists, but again, more total shots per game.

In the end, neither point guard is a top guy in the NBA at his position, but Teague was the better choice long-term. Jennings has a reputation about him that seems to demand a lot more of him in respect to proving his worth to teams around the league. Teague has been consistent in what he does and that?s a huge reason why they brought him back.

Ryan Heckman is a Senior?NBA?Writer?for?RantSports.com.?Follow him on?Twitter??@ryanmheckman,??Like??him on?Facebook?or?add him?to your?network?on?Google.

Source: http://www.rantsports.com/nba/2013/07/14/2013-nba-free-agency-atlanta-hawks-make-correct-decision-going-with-jeff-teague-over-brandon-jennings/

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Rakuten, Japan's E-Commerce Juggernaut

It's easy to get all caught up in what's going on here in the US with respect to the e-commerce front, only to be reminded how much innovation and change is being driven elsewhere around the world.

And those changes aren't just necessarily innovations being left to given home markets.

See Rakuten, which TechCrunch just reported, is launching a beta to take its "Wuaki" video streaming service to the UK.

According to the post by Ingrid Lunden, the UK is simply going to be a first stop in Wuaki.tv's European expansion beyond the company's home market in Spain.

You read that right: A Japanese e-commerce vendor that launched a video stream company in Spain, which is now expanding into the UK.

Rakuten, a Japanese-based e-commerce, entertainment, and Internet company is the largest e-commerce site in Japan and among the world's largest in sales. In recent years, it has expanded its efforts across Asia, Europe, and the US, where it has invested heavily in e-commerce storefronts and logistics through its acquisitions of Buy.com and Webgistix. More recently, Rakuten has invested heavily in mobile e-commerce sales from which Rakuten now enjoys one quarter of all its revenues in Japan.

Rakuten has already entered the US market via its acquisition of Buy.com, a $250 million deal back in 2010. TechCrunch reported that year Rakuten in Japan already had 64 million members in that country, and had reached $3.2 billion in sales.

It has also expanded in select markets in Asia, including Korea, Thailand, and China, and according to its Wikipedia entry, has over 10,000 employees worldwide.

Rakuten has followed in the footsteps of groundbreakers like Tesco and others through the introduction of its "Rakuten Super Points" program, one designed to reward loyal shoppers with points redeemable as payment toward future purchases.

In the US version of the program, Rakuten builds on Buy.com's existing customer service efforts, which includes a 45-day product return policy with no restocking fees, along with free shipping on millions of products throughout Rakuten.com.

Rakuten has also been very busy on related fronts, having bought Webgistix, a US-based logistics and services company specializing in e-commerce fulfillment technologies for retailers.

Webgistix helps e-commerce companies manage their supply chains with software for order fulfillment, freight management, and shipment optimization, and also owns a network of fulfillment centers that allows merchants to reach 98 percent of e-commerce customers in the US within one to two business days.

As TechCrunch observed in its recent coverage, "Webgistix is Rakuten's answer to Amazon Prime in the U.S."

It's Rakuten's mobile commerce strategy that probably most bears watching, however.

Company CEO Hiroshi Mikitani told TechCrunch last year that a quarter of the company's $5 billion in annual revenues was coming via mobile phones, and that overall mobile was growing 300 to 400 percent year-over-year.

That means within only a couple of years, mobile could account for half of all Rakuten's transactions.

With all these investments, one wonders whether a more broad-based investment in mass and social media marketing might be in the works to help build awareness of the Rakuten brand in the US?

Then again, that would be the e-commerce equivalent of crossing the Rubicon... or, in Rakuten's circumstance, the Amazon.

Source: http://www.internetevolution.com/author.asp?section_id=587&doc_id=265561&f_src=internetevolution_section_587

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