Marvel Alterniverse Store – Islands of Adventure Universal Orlando Resort HD 1080p – Video

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Marvel Alterniverse Store - Islands of Adventure Universal Orlando Resort HD 1080p
Take a video tour inside the Marvel Alterniverse Store located in Marvel Super Hero Island at Islands of Adventure at the Universal Orlando Resort in Orlando...

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Marvel Alterniverse Store - Islands of Adventure Universal Orlando Resort HD 1080p - Video

Survival urges tourism boycott of Andaman Islands

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London, May 3 : Tribal rights body Survival International has launched a tourism boycott of India's Andaman Islands, until the degrading practice of 'human safaris' to the 400-strong Jarawa tribe is stopped.

The tribal rights organization is calling on the 200,000 tourists visiting the islands every year to stay away - until tourists are banned from the road through the Jarawa's forest and an alternative sea route is put in place.

Survival has written to over 200 travel companies and websites in eleven countries urging them to stop their tours to the Andaman Islands, and will place ads targeted at tourists to discourage them from visiting the popular travel destination. Survival is also asking members of the public to pledge not to travel to the islands until the demands are met.

Hundreds of tourists from India and around the world travel along the illegal Andaman Trunk Road every day to ogle at members of the Jarawa tribe, a practice which Survival describes as "treating them like animals in a safari park."

Survival said it had asked Enmai, a young Jarawaa, how he felt when outsiders took pictures of him, and he said, "I don't feel good. I don't like it when they take photos from their vehicles."

India's Supreme Court banned tourists from the road for seven weeks, reducing the traffic along the Andaman Trunk Road by two thirds. But the ban was lifted after the Islands' authorities changed their own regulations in order to let the 'human safaris' continue, said Survival.

The tours have been widely condemned both in India and around the world. India's Minister for Tribal Affairs called them 'disgraceful' and 'an embarrassment', and last year, in response to a submission by Survival, the United Nations expressed their 'deep concern' about the 'human safaris' and called for the illegal road to be closed.

Survival's Director Stephen Corry said, 'The Andaman government is arguing that the road is a necessary lifeline for the north of the islands. It's nonsense: in fact there's no reason for the road. The route by boat is faster, more convenient and cheaper for islanders, so providing an alternative sea route is better for locals, tourists, and the Jarawa alike. There will be no end to these degrading human safaris until tourists stop using the road, and we'll continue the boycott until that happens."

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Survival urges tourism boycott of Andaman Islands

Survival Launches Tourism Boycott of India’s Andaman Islands

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Survival Launches Tourism Boycott of Indias Andaman Islands

Survival International has today launched a tourism boycott of Indias Andaman Islands, until the degrading practice of human safaris to the 400-strong Jarawa tribe is stopped.

The tribal rights organization is calling on the 200,000 tourists visiting the islands every year to stay away until tourists are banned from the road through the Jarawas forest and an alternative sea route is put in place.

Survival has written to over 200 travel companies and websites in eleven countries urging them to stop their tours to the Andaman Islands, and will place ads targeted at tourists to discourage them from visiting the popular travel destination. Survival is also asking members of the public to pledge not to travel to the islands until the demands are met.

Hundreds of tourists from India and around the world travel along the illegal Andaman Trunk Road every day to ogle at members of the Jarawa tribe treating them like animals in a safari park.When asked how he felt when outsiders took pictures of him, Enmai, a young Jarawa, said, I dont feel good. I dont like it when they take photos from their vehicles.

Earlier this year, Indias Supreme Court banned tourists from the road for seven weeks, reducing the traffic along the Andaman Trunk Road by two thirds. But the ban was lifted after the Islands authorities changed their own regulations in order to let the human safaris continue.

The tours have been widely condemned both in India and around the world. Indias Minister for Tribal Affairs called them disgraceful and an embarrassment, and last year, in response to a submission by Survival, the United Nations expressed their deep concern about the human safaris and called for the illegal road to be closed.

Survivals Director Stephen Corry said today, The Andaman government is arguing that the road is a necessary lifeline for the north of the islands. Its nonsense: in fact theres no reason for the road. The route by boat is faster, more convenientand cheaper for islanders, so providing an alternative sea route is better for locals, tourists, and the Jarawa alike. There will be no end to these degrading human safaris until tourists stop using the road, and well continue the boycott until that happens.

ENDS

Scoop Media

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Survival Launches Tourism Boycott of India’s Andaman Islands

CSU Channel Islands will remain closed Friday after fire threatens campus

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CSU Channel Islands will remain closed Friday, a day after officials evacuated the Camarillo campus and the nearby University Glen neighborhood after they were threatened by the Springs fire.

Friday typically is a light day for academic classes, said university spokeswoman Nancy Gill. It makes sense at this point.

Students who live on campus were not allowed back Thursday night and all student housing remained closed, Gill said. About 15 Channel Islands students are staying at a nearby Red Cross shelter, she said. University Glen, however, was reopened to residents late Thursday.

When the campus decided to evacuate Thursday morning, officials were mostly concerned about smoke from the nearby fire. Just four hours later, 20-foot flames had spread to the campus, leaving hills and newly-planted landscaping charred, but no buildings burned.

The evacuations were announced in emails, texts, Facebook posts and by loudspeaker in class. Student Heidi Ahmed, about to join the long stream of cars leaving campus, was more worried about the upcoming week than the smoke blowing over her.

Theres a lot going on at school next week, she said. Its the week before finals.

As the fire burned, University Glen resident Alan Penn and others stood on Lewis Road watching flames snake along the hill next to campus.

Penn and his wife rushed home from their jobs in Thousand Oaks to evacuate, but emergency personnel had stopped letting anyone into the neighborhood.

I have a dog and cat at home, and my windows are open, Penn said. My fear is that theyll get consumed by smoke.

On campus, firefighters put out two small fires, sparked by embers landing in pine needles on the roofs of empty buildings. Another building was in the path of the fire, but firefighters put out the blaze before it caused any damage.

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CSU Channel Islands will remain closed Friday after fire threatens campus

Islands Stay Hotels expands in Palawan

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ISLANDS Stay Hotels, the no-frills, value chic hotel of The Islands Group, recently opened its newest franchise branch in Puerto Princesa, Palawan.

Attending the opening of the new branch were Ellen Hagedorn, wife of Puerto Princesa Mayor Edward Hagedorn, franchisee Janet Concepcion and The Islands Group executive vice president and chief culture officer Camille Aldeguer.

Members of the media, public officials and some leaders of the travel and hospitality industry in Palawan were also present during the event.

Puerto Princesa, Palawan is a beautiful place and we are happy to finally have a presence there. Now, visitors of Palawan can experience Islands Stay Hotels, a value hotel shaped by its brand of service, said Jay Aldeguer, founder and chairman of The Islands Group.

Islands Stay Hotels Puerto Princesa, Palawan is located just along Puerto Princesas main road, a five-minute walk from the airport. (PR)

Published in the Sun.Star Cebu newspaper on May 03, 2013.

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Islands Stay Hotels expands in Palawan

Bank of the Philippine Islands 1Q Net Profit PHP8.4 Billion, Up 43% on Year

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Bank of the Philippine Islands (BPI.PH) said Thursday first-quarter net profit rose 43% from the year-earlier period, helped by double-digit growth in loans and gains on securities trading.

BPI, the Philippines' third-largest lender by assets, posted a net profit of 8.4 billion Philippine pesos ($204 million) in the January-March quarter, up from PHP5.88 billion in the year-earlier period.

The bank said in a statement that net loans reached PHP514 billion at the end of the first quarter, up 19% from the same period a year earlier. It added that total revenue was up 21% because of a "favorable market condition" that allowed the bank to book gains in securities trading.

Operating costs reached PHP6.6 billion, up 7% on year.

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Bank of the Philippine Islands 1Q Net Profit PHP8.4 Billion, Up 43% on Year

Oregon Medicaid Study Points Out Failings of U.S. Health Care

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Rick Bowmer / AP

Ora Botwinick examines Dahlia Arbella, 5, at the North Portland Health Center in Portland, Ore., on June 18, 2012

Among all the criticisms of President Obamas health care reform law, the most salient may be that the Affordable Care Actfocuses on access to insurance at the expense of cost and quality care. A new set of results from a study on Oregons Medicaid program supports this critique and offers a window into the broader shortcomings of the U.S. health care system.

The results, published this week in the New England Journal of Medicine, found that in a randomized controlled trial, the health of Oregonians on Medicaid did not differ significantly from a control group left off the rolls of the public insurance program. Researchers looked at the health of some 12,000 people, measuring their cholesterol and blood-sugar levels, among other factors. The results also indicated that Medicaid enrollees were less prone to depression, less likely to incur catastrophic out-of-pocket health expenses and much more frequent users of health care services. (Study participants were gathered from a group of Oregon residents eligible for Medicaid and put on a waiting list for the program. Those able to enroll in Medicaid were chosen by lottery and compared against those left on the waiting list.)

These findings can tell us many things about American health care. Here are a few:

Preventive care isnt all its cracked up to be. The Oregon study found that people on Medicaid got more preventive care including mammograms, flu shots and Pap smears than those in the uninsured control group. While it might seem logical that heading off and identifying potential health problems early through screening tests and doctor visits will lead to faster, cheaper treatment, the truth is much more complicated. Prevention as a population-based health strategy saves money only if the savings generated by preventing or catching health problems early in some people outweighs the cost of all the doctor visits and screening tests performed on people who are well and dont need treatment. In addition, some screening tests particularly those intended to catch certain cancers early lead to lots of unnecessary harm and false positive tests.

We need more quality control in medicine. The Affordable Care Actincludes programs and funding to add more quality control to health care, but this priority is eclipsed by the laws emphasis on expanding health-insurance coverage, largely through Medicaid. The fact that payments to doctors and hospitals dont depend onhealth outcomes in most cases is an enormous problem. As the Oregon results showed, Medicaid enrollees got more care, in doctors offices in particular, when they had insurance but didnt necessarily have better health. This is partly because their doctors got their Medicaid payments regardless of whether the care they provided was effective.

This leads directly to another insight we can glean from the Oregon results: patients need to be more involved in managing their health. Chronic conditions like hypertension and diabetes have a lot to do with weight, diet and adherence to medication regimens,which patients can control. Without a patients commitment to carefully manage these factors, the best and most available doctor on the planet wont make much difference in the overall health of many people. Its hard to think of a way that the government can address this. Revoking insurance for patients who dont take good of themselves would never fly, although the Affordable Care Actdoes allow insurers to charge smokers higher premiums and some corporations offer cash payments or breaks on insurance premiums if workers participate in wellness programs.

Medicaid is not enough. The Medicaid and control groups in the Oregon study are statistically identical in terms of race, age and gender. In addition, everyone in the study was eligible for Medicaid, meaning they were all poor. But as policy experts know, poor people have health risk factors that dont include access to insurance and doctors. Getting on the Medicaid rolls doesnt automatically eliminate factors like lack of education, lack of access to healthy food and household financial strain that can impact health and health management.

Insurance is about health, but its also about money. A major value of comprehensive health insurance is that it protects people from financial ruin if they have a horrible health emergency or an expensive long-term condition that requires treatment. A homeowner living near a river doesnt buy flood insurance to prevent floods or protect his home if a flood occurs. He buys flood insurance so that if his house is destroyed, he will be able to recover financially. This too is a major purpose of health insurance. The latest results from Oregon showed that being on Medicaid nearly eliminated catastrophic out-of-pocket medical expenditures. This matters and may be part of the reason earlier results from the ongoing Oregon study indicated that those on Medicaidwere happier.

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Oregon Medicaid Study Points Out Failings of U.S. Health Care

Future of health care is big issue missing from campaign

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But the prospect is diminishing that governments will be able to meet that demand without significant reforms to the way we provide care and the infusion of a lot more money than taxpayers seem willing to provide to keep afloat the public system as we now know it.

While in opposition, the New Democrats had a lot to say about health care, with specific complaints about the way the Liberals were running the system.

Before he became leader, Adrian Dix was the NDP's health critic.

In his last session of the legislature in that role, Dix grilled the Liberals over a range of health care issues that one might reasonably assume would be part of the NDP's plan to do things differently.

But when the health plank of the NDP's platform was unveiled a couple of weeks ago, it didn't look much different than the promises the Liberals were making and it made no mention of the issue that consumed much of his attention as a critic - the growing role of private clinics.

While in opposition, Dix attacked the government for not doing enough to investigate whether they were in violation of the Canada Health Act and to bring in penalties to prevent extra billing.

He told Sun columnist Vaughn Palmer that he wouldn't allow doctors who worked in private clinics to also work in the public system.

He and other New Democrats also attacked the government for contracting out cleaning and other services in public health facilities.

Given the financial restraints imposed by the promise to cost out and pay for campaign promises, it's not too surprising that the opposition complaints over the amount of money being put into health care didn't translate into promises to pump a lot more money into the system.

Indeed, in the first year of an NDP government, funding for health care is projected to increase by just $24 million. The total increase over three years for promises announced so far is $254 million, a big boost by most standards but a lift that pales in comparison to the $50 billion already scheduled to be consumed in that period with a status quo budget.

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Future of health care is big issue missing from campaign

Zimmer Holdings to Present at Deutsche Bank Securities Annual Health Care Conference

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WARSAW, Ind., May 3, 2013 /PRNewswire/ --Zimmer Holdings, Inc. (NYSE and SIX: ZMH), a global leader in musculoskeletal healthcare, announced that it will be participating in the Deutsche Bank Securities 38th Annual Health Care Conference at The Westin Boston Waterfront Hotel in Boston, Massachusetts on May 29, 2013, at 9:20 a.m. Eastern Time.

A live webcast of the presentation can be accessed via Zimmer's Investor Relations website at http://investor.zimmer.com. The webcast will be archived for replay following the conference.

About the Company Founded in 1927 and headquartered in Warsaw, Indiana, Zimmer designs, develops, manufactures and markets orthopaedic reconstructive, spinal and trauma devices, dental implants, and related surgical products. Zimmer has operations in more than 25 countries around the world and sells products in more than 100 countries. Zimmer's 2012 sales were approximately $4.5 billion. The Company is supported by the efforts of more than 8,500 employees worldwide.

Zimmer Safe Harbor StatementThis press release contains forward-looking statements within the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 based on current expectations, estimates, forecasts and projections about the orthopaedics industry, management's beliefs and assumptions made by management. Forward-looking statements may be identified by the use of forward-looking terms such as "may," "will," "expects," "believes," "anticipates," "plans," "estimates," "projects," "assumes," "guides," "targets," "forecasts," and "seeks" or the negative of such terms or other variations on such terms or comparable terminology. These statements are not guarantees of future performance and involve risks, uncertainties and assumptions that could cause actual outcomes and results to differ materially. For a list and description of such risks and uncertainties, see our periodic reports filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. We disclaim any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as may be set forth in our periodic reports. Readers of this document are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, since, while we believe the assumptions on which the forward-looking statements are based are reasonable, there can be no assurance that these forward-looking statements will prove to be accurate. This cautionary statement is applicable to all forward-looking statements contained in this document.

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Zimmer Holdings to Present at Deutsche Bank Securities Annual Health Care Conference