In case you haven’t noticed, Rockstar Games has been in a bit of a PR kerfuffle. Last weekend, an open letter began circulating around the net accusing the publisher of fostering “degrading” work conditions at Red Dead Redemption developer Rockstar San Diego, and later in the week an anonymous employee compared Rockstar’s New York headquarters to the all-seeing, evil-incarnate Eye of Sauron from the Lord of the Rings (via MTV Multiplayer). But evidently taking a page out of the “any publicity is good publicity” strategy guide, Rockstar New York isn’t distancing themselves from such remarks — they’re embracing it.
Above is one of a three-image series of new wallpapers available for download on Rockstar’s website, which is obviously having a bit of fun over the statement. The series of wallpapers is called “The Eye is Watching,” and as Kotaku noted, there’s even a direct San Diego reference in there — those two domes represent the San Onofre nuclear power plant just outside the city.
So to recap, the wives of a bunch of Rockstar San Diego employees accused Rockstar of terrible working conditions, one other employee compared them to the embodiment of evil in the most successful fantasy literature ever, and in response Rockstar made some pictures that at least seem to send the message of, “Hey, isn’t this hilarious?!” An odd choice, but then we’re no PR masterminds.
I hadn’t actually been paying much attention to the Russian:Belarus dispute over oil supplies. After the annual debacles that we are used to over natural gas supplies that flow from Russia to Western Europe through Ukraine, and which seem somewhat quiescent at the moment, I had failed to grasp how much Western supplies of oil from Russia flow through Belarus. But as is pointed out in Foreign Policy, the flow is significant, and this is a more far-reaching conflict than I grasped.
As a brief review:
In 2001, Belarus unilaterally canceled a contract that mandated the sharing of these revenues, leading to substantial losses for Russian pipeline monopoly Transneft and the Russian state budget. Now, Transneft is demanding that Belarus pay full import duties for the portion of Russian oil that it resells on the European market, a demand that could cost Belarus as much as $5 billion per year. The Belarusian government argues that the Russia-Belarus customs union obviates the need for Minsk to pay duty on imports from Russia. Although deliveries through the Druzhba pipeline have not, as of mid-January, been cut off, the prospect that Transneft (whose chairman is Russian Deputy Prime Minister Igor Sechin, a close confidant of Prime Minister Vladimir Putin) will turn off the taps to force compliance from Minsk is clearly one that has European leaders worried because the European Union imports about a third of its oil from Russia, mostly via Belarus. Already, the prospect of supply disruptions has driven U.S. crude oil prices to a 15-month high, presumably to Moscow’s delight.
Well, as my post on Wednesday showed, I am not convinced that this conflict had a lot to do with the rise in oil prices (which actually dropped a little today, on their overall march upwards). But that does not lessen the longer-term impact of what is going on. It is, as it was with the Ukraine dispute, to with control, with Russia seeking to control fuel distribution in these countries, and through supply controls also influence the directions in which the country moves.
Russia is now warning that it will reduce oil flows to Belarus even further and wants the duty on the roughly 290,000 bd that is refined in Belarus and then exported to the West. At the moment the refineries in Belarus have a relatively short reserve (between a few days and a week, reportedly – depending on source) and the current contracts have expired.
Germany and Poland are believed to be hit hardest once Russia halts shipments through the Druzhba pipeline. Germany depends on Russian crude for about 15 percent of its total consumption, and Poland buys from Russia to meet 75 percent of its market demands.
Minsk has threatened to raise the transit fee for its European customers more than tenfold, from 3.9 dollars to 45 dollars per metric ton, should Moscow not agree to its conditions, RIA Novostinews agency quoted an unidentified expert close to the talks as saying.
At the moment the talks appear to be stalled. However they are not limited to the transit of oil. There is also a dispute over the transmission of electric power. Belarus acts as a transit country for power both to Kalingrad and to the countries of the Baltic. It has assumed somewhat greater urgency with the closure of the Ignalina nuclear power plant in Lithuania. The plant closed on December 31, and there are fears of greater dependence on Russia for future power. Russian complacency about the situation is not, I suspect, exactly helpful.
“It is inevitable that Russia is going to become a bigger supplier of energy to Europe and particularly to the Baltic countries. Ultimately there comes a point where you have to let the old days go,” Chris Weafer, chief strategist on Moscow’s Uralsib bank, told New Europe on 5 January, adding that the Baltics, which sorely need energy supplies, should adopt a pragmatic approach and rely on their eastern neighbor and forget the legacy of the Soviet Union. As long as Russia continues to try and build a modern and diversified economy with greater global integration, then it needs the goodwill of the West just as much as the West needs Russia’s energy.
Bids for construction of a new plant are due to be submitted by the end of this month, with the hope of getting the new plant on line by 2018. (Kalingrad is hoping to have its own reactor in about the same time frame).
In the interim the Baltic states are going to be dependent, not only on Russia for their electricity and oil, but also on satisfactory conditions to allow the transit of both through Belarus on their way.
Meanwhile, over in Ukraine, there is an election underway, with initial voting to take place on Sunday. It is perhaps for that reason that there have been no major gas disruptions so far this year. Anger with the current administration is giving a bit of a boost to a third candidate, so perhaps it is in Russia’s best interests to retain a low profile at this point. In fact Russia is claiming credit for keeping the UK supplied with gas as supplies from Norway dropped due to bad weather at some of the production sites. However Russia is also being nice to Turkey as insurance just in case it will still need to do some bypassing around Ukraine to supply Western Europe after the election is over.
Not that conditions in Ukraine itself have been unaffected. There are some 175 towns and villages that are reported to be still without power, due to the bad weather. This is a decided improvement from the 1,598 who lost power in the Dec 29th storm. At least they are more used to the cold.
Those in Florida who aren’t, and plugged in too many heaters, are also causing power outages down there.
بتمويل من شركة سعودية…التوقيع على انشاء مشروع زراعي متكامل بتكلفة (200) مليون دولار
دشنت شركة فرص الدولية للاستثمار (السعودية) امس الجمعة نشاطها بالسودان بافتتاح مقر فرعها بالسودان وتوقيع اتفاق مبدئي لانشاء مشروع سباعي متكامل للانتاج الزراعي بولاية سنار بتكلفة اجمالية (200) مليون دولار، والموافقة على تمويل مشروع الشيخ صالح كامل للاسكان الاقتصادي بمدينة بحري والذي تنفذه مجموعة النحلة التي تترأسها وداد يعقوب وشرف تدشين انشطة شركة فرص الاستثمارية رئيس الغرفة الاسلامية للتجارة والصناعة التي تتبع لها الشركة د.الشيخ صالح كامل، وسفير الكويت بالخرطوم، والقنصل السعودي، والامين العام للمجلس الاعلى للاستثمار، السفير شاور ولفيف من رجال الاعمال والمال وشدد الدكتور الشيخ صالح كامل في كلمته في احتفال التوقيع على ان تهتم الشركة بتمويل مشاريع البنية التحتية، والتي بدونها لا يأتي الاستثمار الى السودان من مطارات وطرق، وموانئ وطاقة مؤكدا ان هناك اهتماما خاصا بمشروعات الامن الغذائي والمائي.
وقال ان المشروعين التي بدأت بهما الشركة يحققان الامن الغذائي والسكني معلنا عن دعمه اللا محدود للسودان ووقوفه مع مشروعاته التنموية ووصف الرئيس التنفيذي لشركة فرص الدولية للاستثمار د.حاتم جميل مختار المشروع السباعي بانه من اكبر المشاريع المتكاملة للانتاج الزراعي في منطقة شرق افريقيا ويحظى بالدعم الفني والمالي من عدد من المساهمين والبنوك في السودان والعالم العربي منها البنك الاسلامي للتنمية (جدة) موضحا ان المشروع يمتد على مساحة (300) الف فدان.
وتعهد بنقل التقنية وتوطينها عبر شركاء عالميين في مجال الانتاج الزراعي بشقيه النباتي والحيواني ومجال التصنيع والتسويق بجانب ادخال الزراعة الحديثة وتطبيق الحزم التقنية المتكاملة والملائمة للبيئة مؤكدا ان الشركة تضاعفت استثماراتها في السودان.
واكد عبدالرحمن الطيب ابوبيه في كلمته انابة عن الامين العام للصندوق القومي للاسكان انهم بصدد انفاذ مشروع المأوى القومي وتوقع بتنقية (5) الاف وحدة سكنية خلال سنتين معددا الخطوات التي تمت بهذا المشروع ووصف تمويل انشاء المدن المقفولة بالخرطوم بانها خطوة جيدة تدفع المشروع مشيدا بدور الشركة فرص للتنمية المحدودة.
واضاف د.رضوان محمد احمد وزير الزراعة بولاية سنار والموقع على الاتفاق ان المشروع يتيح فرص التوظيف والعمل لانسان المنطقة وتعظيم الفوائد الزراعية واحداث نقلة للولاية معتبرا المشروع بداية علاقة طيبة مع الشركة.
Brisbane’s newest pedestrian bridge. The bridge is a multiple-mast, cable-stay structure based on principles of tensegrity, an architectural and engineering system in which the structural integrity is a synergy between balanced tension and compression components. This produces a lightweight yet strong and stable structure.
Some people love it and some think it’s a tangled mess – I think it’s hot!
Someone else posted here about getting shakie when their Bgs get low. As my body gets use to lower numbers I have this feeling several time a day. During the day its okay but at night I can’t fall back to sleep. My bg lows are not actuall that low when I get below 90 it feels like trembling. I have only taken my reading a couple of times in the middle of the night and it’s usually around 88.
So the problem I wake up every night hungry and shakie. I have tried drinking one of the glucerna drinks or have some protein but the shakieness continuals. I am still working on eating enough and controling bg levels. So I am not sure if I just am not eating enough.
I was thinking of making some kind of drink with unsweetned almond milk and a little juice. Maybe the sugar and protein would allow me to go back to sleep.
I would appreciate any suggestion as I am getting tired of being tired.
You can vote between five nominees. These were based on the highest averages for the images that were submitted last week.
Please give all photos a fair chance and try not to vote only by the building or forumer you like, but also on the photo technique, setting and quality.
Brisbane’s newest pedestrian bridge. The bridge is a multiple-mast, cable-stay structure based on principles of tensegrity, an architectural and engineering system in which the structural integrity is a synergy between balanced tension and compression components. This produces a lightweight yet strong and stable structure.
Some people love it and some don’t – I love it
Postoje razne klasifikacije ovih spomenika,ali mislim da ih je najbolje predstaviti prema teritorijalnom pristupu odnosno prema naseljenom mestu ili Gradu.Uzecu objekte koji imaju veze urbanim duhom tog Grada.
Pocecu azbucnim redom,kako ne bih favorizavao neki Grad,mesto ili varos.
Beograd
Vracar
Зграда III мушке гимназије
Налази се у Његошевој улици бр. 15. Саграђена је 1906. према пројекту архитеката Драгутина Ђорђевића и Душана Живановића, а радове је извео предузимач Васа Тешић. Архитектонски је обликована у стилу академизма. Има приземље и спрат. Конципирана је као слободна грађевина, повучена према улици, са основом у облику ћириличног слова Ш, која обухвата главни подужни тракт са наглашеним централним ризалитом и три попречна дворишна крила од којих је средње знатно краће. Обрада фасаде заснива се на строго спроведеној класичној симетрији. Средишњи ризалит главне фасаде јако је наглашен као и део са каријатидама на улазном порталу, удвојеним стубовима на спрату, богатом пластичном декорацијом прозорских отвора и три бронзана попрсја Доситеја Обрадовића, Вука Караџића и Јосифа Панчића, радовима познатог вајара Петра Убавкића. Архитектонску пластику извео је Фрања Валдман, а сликарске декорације ентеријера Драгутин Инкиостри Медењак и Пашко Вучетић. У развоју средњег школства у Београду, Трећа београдска гимназија имала је изузетан значај и као педагошка институција и као архитектонски простор организован по најмодернијим европским принципима. Конзерваторско-рестаураторски радови на објекту извођени су 197071. и 1997. Кровни покривач је замењен 2002.
Зграда I српске опсерваторије
Налази се у Булевару ослобођења бр. 8. По оснивању Провизорне астрономске и метеоролошке опсерваторије 1887. у Београду, приступило се припремама за подизање зграде за њен смештај. Зграда Метеоролошке опсерваторије саграђена је 189091. као павиљон са спратом мање површине од приземља, према пројекту архитекте Димитрија Т. Лека, а по скици њеног оснивача, професора Милана Недељковића. Изведена је у духу романтизма. Главна фасада завршава се зупцима који образују атику и ограду терасе, постављене изнад једног дела поткровља, а остале фасаде степенастим забатима. Прозори у приземљу и улазна врата су лучно завршени. Декорацију фасада чине оквири прозора и испупчене хоризонталне траке на зидовима. Око зграде је формиран парк. Њеном изградњом Србија је добила прву зграду такве намене, опремљену савременим инструментима, установу дугог континуираног рада, из које се развијала и ширила ова служба. Конзерваторско-рестаураторски радови завршени су 19871988.
We’re still working through CES content, with a few more stories being prepared for next week. The big winners here? The upcoming LEGO Universe has enchanted everyone who sees it, and Microsoft’s announcement that the upcoming Modern Warfare 2 content will be exclusive—for a time—to the Xbox 360 has some gamers celebrating, and others fuming.
Let’s take a look at the big stories of this week.
Indian researcher visiting Israel’s Institute of Technology tries to prove through genetic profiles whether members of terror organization are descendents of lost Jewish tribe
Are members of the Taliban, the radical Islamist terror organization in Afghanistan and Pakistan, in fact descendents of a lost Hebrew tribe which migrated to the region after being exiled 2,700 years ago?
Shanez Ali, a young Indian researcher, who is currently visiting Israel, is trying to answer that question.
Ali arrived in the Holy Land as a guest of Karl Skorecki, deputy head of the Rambam Medical Center in Haifa who also serves as manager of the Rappaport Institute for Research in the Medical Sciences within the Israel Institute of Technology .
Ali, an expert on genetic profiles of Mumbai populations, will attempt to tackle the question whether the main tribe comprising the Taliban includes descendents of the lost tribe of Ephraim.
Professor Skorecki, who is renowned for his groundbreaking work in the field of Jewish genetics, will be overseeing Ali’s research.
Her study is expected to last anywhere between three months and a year and will be funded by a scholarship on behalf of the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
The Taliban is mainly comprised of members of the Pashtun people, Afghanistan’s largest ethnic group. Locally, the Pashtuns are thought to be descendents of an Afridi tribe originating from Uttar Pradesh in India.
Ali brought with her DNA samples of the Afridi tribesmen in order to examine their genetic connection to the lost Jewish tribes.
Theories of such a connection are based on ancient manuscripts and popular traditions within the Pashtun people, however no scientific study has yet succeeded in proving the relation.
Nevertheless, Muslim and Jewish scientists have claimed over the years that the theory is in fact correct.
When my patients go back to talking about how much they hate their mother, rather than how much they hate the government for getting them into this financial mess. Carole Lieberman, psychiatrist, Beverly Hills, Calif.
When my commission is more than I pay my baby-sitter. Kelly Brockington, high-end retail saleswoman, New York
When I no longer count mail-in rebates as income. Nancy Lombardo, comedian, New York
When the car ads on television replace those for depression meds.Tom Pryor, director, Small Business Development Center for Enterprise Excellence, Fort Worth, Texas
When I become first in line at the stroke of noon at our local thrift shop and the pickins are more like they were two years ago. Ohhhh, we used to get some gooood stuff. Joy Cadden, handbag designer, Millville, Del.
Hi,
My name is Kris. I am very new to diabetes and I was wandering if anyone could give me any advice on drinking? I am not a big drinker but I do occasionally have a beer or ten with my freinds. I have not had a drink in over a month since I found out I am diabetic. A friend of mine invited me to a play-off party tonite to cheer on my Indianapolis Colts and I know there will be drinking involved and I was wandering if any of you could give me a heads up. Thanks so much
Fire brigade in city of Hania on island of Crete says many of synagogue’s archives, computers and CDs destroyed in blaze
A synagogue on the Greek island of Crete has been targeted by arsonists for the second time in three weeks, local police said Saturday.
They said an unknown number of people entered the building in the city of Hania, broke through a first-floor door and started a fire.
The fire brigade said the blaze partly destroyed the synagogue’s wooden ceiling, as well as many of its archives, computers and CDs. It estimates the damage at $43,000.
The attack occurred around 4 am (0200 GMT) Saturday.
Police said about 2,500 books, many of them rare editions, have been destroyed in this and a previous arson attack three weeks ago.
FOLLOWING the plan by the National Sports Commission to privatise the National Stadium, Surulere, Lagos, the Lagos State Government has signified interest to take over the facility.
Tribunesports scooped that the Lagos State Government has submited its bidding documents to the technical committee set up by the NSC to look into privatisation of the facility . And the bidding, according to the source is receiving favourable consideration from the committee which is expected to storm the state for on the spot assessment any moment from now.
The decision of the state government to acquire the National Stadium was as a result of its plan to bid for the 2020 Olympics. The government had argued that for it to actualise its dream of hosting the Olympics, it need a world-class arena and as such decided to take over the running of the National Stadium and carry out some renovations instead of constructing a new sporting arena of Olympics standard.
The source added that some structure would be put up such as a standard Games Village around the arena to boost the chances of getting the hosting rights.
The end is near for the Daily News and several other newspapers in the LA market owned by Denver’s Dean Singleton, the Denver media mogul whose holding company is filing for bankruptcy.
Many papers in the MediaNews chain ran a company press release that buried the bankruptcy, saying Singleton’s holding company, Affiliated Media, had cut a deal with creditors holding nearly $1 billion in virtually worthless paper.
The deal will leave Singleton and his management still in charge but in control of only 20 percent of the stock. That will reduce the burden of debt to just $165 million, according to the Wall St. Journal, which the company’s value at $200 million and noted it is the seventh newspaper company to file for bankrupty, including the LA Times and Orange County Register.
The WSJ reported what the MediaNews announcement did not: What Singleton plans to do now.
“Singleton said he wanted to try to be the aggressor in merging newspapers…cleaning up the company’s debt load allows him to help lead newspaper-industry consolidation,” the WSJ reported.
“People in the industry have pointed to MediaNews’s paper in St. Paul
and the Star Tribune in Minneapolis as potential candidates for a
combination, as well as to adjacent papers in Southern California
published by MediaNews, Tribune Co. and Freedom Communications Inc. There are potential regulatory hurdles to some newspaper combinations.”
When asked which newspapers might be combined, Mr. Singleton answered: “You can look at the map.”
If you look at the LA map you will see Singleton owns the South Bay Breeze, the Long Beach Press-Telegram, the Whittier Daily News, Pasadena Star-News, San Gabriel Valley Tribune, Inland Valley Bulletin and San Bernardino Sun.
In the past 10 years, Singleton has tried to consolidate many operations of those papers, then backed off and tried various other strategies without success, hit hard by the decline of newspapers and more recently the recession.
The Hearst Corp. has been his principal benefactor over those years, buying the Daily News offices and other property from MediaNews and partnering in some newspapers. The WSJ, in reporting details about the bankruptcy, said Hearst had a $400 million stake.
What the implications of the deal and Singleton’s “merger” and consolidation” comments is this: There just isn’t enough money in newspapers to allow for competition, even the pretense of competition.
Hearst and MediaNews own almost all the newspapers in the Bay Area, for instance, from San Francisco to San Jose, Contra Costa and Oakland — all of them crippled by debt and falling revenue.
The entire LA market is owned by MediaNews and Tribune Co., throw in the bankrupt Register and you have Orange County with options on San Bernardino and possibly Riverside County.
It’s noteworthy that the San Diego Union-Tribune ,bought last year cheaply without heavy debt, is believed to have become profitable again after staff cuts and scaling spending to revenue..
That is the point. One paper without competition can thrive for a good many years even in the face of the Internet and the lack of younger readers. Two or more cannot.
So look for deals quickly.
It’s not a coincidence that the Times just took over printing the Wall St. Journal and others papers, forcing it to move to early deadlines as the Daily News did several years ago.
The predicate of the deals are already in place and you can be sure a lot of negotiations have been going on behind the scenes for a long time.
The only obstacle to the Times taking over the whole LA market and potentially salvaging the existing papers nameplates in localized editions is the U.S. Justice Department and laws against monopolies.
As someone who worked in corporate journalism for four decades and bristled against its homogenizing of the news, you can take my word for it that there hasn’t been much competitive journalism in newspapers for most of those years.
The corporate rules of journalism sucked the life out of newspapering, eliminating the kind of robust wars when there 12 newspapers in New York, eight in LA, six in Chicago with multiple owners and very different points of view.
One monopoly newspaper in major cities is sustainable and should have been done several years ago before staffs were gutted, talent and skill lost and the value to readers diminished.
Many will lament the loss of competition but competition has been an illusion for years and there should only be a brief mourning period for newspapers that lived a long and prosperous life and died of old age.
One healthy mainstream corporate newspaper can do things we will never be able to achieve on the Internet.
Most of all, they can provide a singular place for a shared experience available to everyone for an overview of who and what we are, an overview sanitized by the so-called objectivity they provide.
And they will have the resources to send teams of reporters out on the big stories like earthquakes and catastrophes of one sort or another and to develop staff with highly specialized skills and experience in specific areas.
The real question is whether they will provide an over-arching vision that will bring vast and complex metropolitan areas together.
For our city, that has always been the problem. The Times has failed to offer a vision of greater LA that is inclusive and reflective of the incredible complexity of the region, geographically, ethnically, demographically and all the social, cultural and political ways we differentiate ourselves.
That is where the value to readers and advertisers is — and where the money is for publishers.
Jan. 16 (Bloomberg) — Hong Kong lawmakers approved funding for a HK$66.9 billion ($8.6 billion) train line linking the city with Chinas high-speed rail network.
Lawmakers voted 31 to 21 to ratify the project, which had been delayed twice amid objections about the cost and homes that will be destroyed in the rural New Territories, said Emily Lau, chairwoman of the finance committee.
The train line will plug Hong Kong into Chinas network by 2015, cutting travel times and deepening Hong Kongs links with the worlds fastest-growing major economy. The railway is one of the 10 infrastructure projects that Hong Kongs government plans to help boost its economy.
We support this project because the economic benefits it can bring are very important to Hong Kong, lawmaker Paul Tse said in a legislative council meeting today. Hong Kong needs to look into the future and consider the jobs that the project would create, the tourism opportunities with more people traveling between Hong Kong and China.
Hong Kongs government plans to construct an underground terminal in the citys West Kowloon district, across Victoria Harbor from Hong Kong Island. Hong Kong-based MTR Corp. will construct the link at a cost of HK$2.57 billion per kilometer.
Demonstrators chanted slogans and waved banners outside the council building, demanding that the government review the project as it will cost too much and destroy village homes in the rural New Territories.
Protests, Clashes
Radio Television Hong Kong said as many as 10,000 demonstrators had gathered outside the building. Some protestors clashed with the police as they tried to break through metal barriers to get into the building, local television footage showed.
The polices public relations branch wasnt able to immediately comment on the protest, or give an estimate on the number of demonstrators.
The train will travel at speeds of up to 350 kilometers per hour (217 miles an hour), cutting the travel time from Hong Kong to Beijing by two-thirds to eight hours, the government said in a paper presented to lawmakers.
The high-speed railway will save the Hong Kong public 40 million hours per year, generating an annual economic rate of return of 9 percent annually, according to the governments paper to the Legislative Council.
Hong Kongs government believes the project will generate a profit and it wont need to rely on bank loans for funding, Eva Cheng, secretary for transport and housing, told lawmakers today.
Start Construction
Were looking to start construction as soon as possible and this is also the wish of the majority of the Hong Kong people, Cheng said at a press briefing after the meeting. We will monitor work on the project very closely.
The railway is one of 10 infrastructure projects that Hong Kongs government plans to help boost its economy. It also intends to construct a bridge linking Hong Kong with the gambling enclave of Macau and the city of Zhuhai across the border from Macau.
The government still hasnt yet given any details on how it will ensure the project will generate profit, lawmaker Cyd Ho, who voted against the funding, said. I hope that the government wont return to the legislative council again to seek additional funding.
With little over a week before launch, the pricing for the Palm Pre Plus and Pixi Plus has apparently been leaked. According to an anonymous tipster, Verizon Wireless will be matching the prices of the Sprint Palm Pre and Pixi by offering the improved Palm Pre Plus for $149 after a $100 mail in rebate and two year service agreement with the Pixi Plus coming in at a mere $99 after an undisclosed rebate amount and a two year agreement. Making the deal even sweeter, the tipster claims that the Pixi may launch as part of Verizon Wireless’ popular BOGO promotions. Not bad, Palm. Not bad.
