Daily Archives: September 5, 2012

Prisoners Fear Freedom in Crisis-Hit Europe

Posted: September 5, 2012 at 8:12 pm

The cost of freedom under austerity is weighing more than ever on prisoners who struggle with financial instability on release and are more likely to re-offend than ever, continuing a vicious circle of crime and punishment just as prisons approach full capacity across Britain and the rest of Europe, charities say.

According to reports from nationwide prison organizations, the majority of ex-offenders struggle to cope with debt, housing costs, unemployment and austerity upon release from prison.

They say that the financial factor is borne out by the the rate of recidivism -- or relapse into crime -- which has reached record highs in 2012, with 90 percent of prisoners having previous convictions, according to the Ministry of Justice.

Chris Bath, executive director of Unlock, the National Association of Reformed Offenders, told CNBC that prisoners face "enormous financial barriers" on release from prison, and he warned that the cycle of crime, punishment and re-offending -- which costs the British economy 95 billion pounds ($150 billion) a year -- is set to continue if the financial hardship faced by prisoners on release is not addressed.

[ More From CNBC: 10 White Collar Criminals Wanted by the FBI ]

"If I had a pound for every person I've met who said to me 1I thought prison was going to be the hard bit,'" he told CNBC.

"At least in prison you have a roof over your head and food in your stomach. The moment you walk out of prison you become a social leper, a low-skilled ex-con -- you are completely lost and you become nothing."

With 75 percent of employers saying they would reject someone with a conviction, Bath told CNBC that it was extremely hard for ex-offenders to return to the "straight and narrow" and find a job in a society where even the most skilled and experienced workers cannot find employment.

Indeed, with most prisoners reported to be "financially excluded" even before they enter prison, and a third having no bank account, according to research by the Civil and Social Justice Survey, the chances of going straight and returning to a decent and law-abiding way of life when no-one will employ them is slim, Bath told CNBC.

However, with 230,000 people going through the criminal justice system every year and 9.2 million of Britons of working age having criminal records, according to the Police Crime Database, Bath told CNBC that there is an urgent problem of millions of people exiting the prison system to a "society that doesn't want them back."

The rest is here:
Prisoners Fear Freedom in Crisis-Hit Europe

Posted in Freedom | Comments Off on Prisoners Fear Freedom in Crisis-Hit Europe

Does freedom of the city allow you to graze sheep?

Posted: at 8:12 pm

4 September 2012 Last updated at 21:59 ET

Olympians Sir Chris Hoy and Jessica Ennis are set to be given the freedom of their home cities. So what does it mean to be a freeman or freewoman?

Will Britain's most successful Olympian be able to graze his cattle on The Mound in Edinburgh?

Or if the gold medal-winning cyclist decides to ditch his bike and attempt to park his car for free on George Street, will he be "exempt for tolls and charges in the city", as freemen of the past would have been?

Similarly, if Ennis wants to use her freedom of Sheffield - expected to be approved on 5 September - to drive sheep through the centre of the city, will she be allowed?

The answer is no. The award is symbolic and grazing rights are not part of the modern freeman's privileges.

Hoy, who will get his freeman status on 16 September, would still expect a parking ticket from the Scottish capital's blue meanies.

So what use is being given the freedom of the city?

Philip Whiteman, from the Institute of Local Government Studies at the University of Birmingham, says it is "not dissimilar" to the Honours list awarded on behalf of the Queen.

"It is effectively the only way that a local authority can confer honours," he explains.

Read the rest here:
Does freedom of the city allow you to graze sheep?

Posted in Freedom | Comments Off on Does freedom of the city allow you to graze sheep?

Freedom 7 capsule touches down

Posted: at 8:12 pm

Freedom 7, NASA's first spacecraft to launch an astronaut into space, has landed in Boston for display at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum.

The space capsule, which on May 5, 1961 lifted off with astronaut Alan Shepard for a 15 minute suborbital mission, arrived at the JFK Library on Aug. 29. On loan from the Smithsonian, Freedom 7 had previously been on exhibit for 14 years at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Md.

"Freedom 7 has arrived!" the library announced on its Facebook page. "Thanks to a generous loan from the (National) Air and Space Museum, Freedom 7 will be here until December 2015."

The 7.8-foot (2.4 meter) tall spacecraft, which weighs about 2,300 pounds (1,040 kilograms), will go on display at the JFK Library on Sept. 12. The capsule's public debut coincides with the 50 year anniversary of Kennedy's speech at Rice University in Houston, where he famously championed a manned moon mission. [America's First Spaceship (Infographic)]

Space news from NBCNews.com

Science editor Alan Boyle's blog: Scientists are giving students the chance to name an asteroid that's the target of a future NASA mission and just might hit us in the 22nd century.

"We choose to go to the moon," Kennedy said on Sept. 12, 1962. "We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard."

Less than seven years later, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin achieved JFK's goal of landing on the moon. Armstrong, who died on Aug. 25, will be remembered at a national service in Washington, D.C., to be held on Sept. 12 also.

The JFK Library has not yet announced the details for the opening of its Freedom 7 exhibit. The display marks only the second time that a Mercury spacecraft has visited Massachusetts. Liberty Bell 7, which followed Freedom 7 into space, was displayed at the Museum of Science in Boston in 2002.

The JFK Library hosts a permanent exhibit devoted to the space program, which includes a moon rock returned to Earth in 1971 by the Apollo 15 crew.

Originally posted here:
Freedom 7 capsule touches down

Posted in Freedom | Comments Off on Freedom 7 capsule touches down

Boston-based Liberty Mutual ups charitable giving

Posted: at 8:12 pm

BOSTONInsurer Liberty Mutual Group Inc., already one of the largest supporters of nonprofits and community groups in the Boston area, has announced it will significantly increase its charitable giving in Massachusetts this year.

The only Fortune 100 company based in Boston says it will increase local donations by about 20 percent to $17 million from $14.2 million last year.

Several other companies with a large presence in Massachusetts, including Bank of America and John Hancock Financial Services, said they will keep local charitable giving at about the same levels as 2011.

Melissa MacDonnell, director of Liberty Mutual's philanthropy programs, tells The Boston Globe ( http://b.globe.com/R7q8GG) that the company "cares deeply" about the community.

Liberty Mutual just renewed its sponsorship of the Boston Pops Fireworks Spectacular with a three-year, $8 million deal.

Information from: The Boston Globe, http://www.boston.com/globe

Copyright 2012 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

Excerpt from:
Boston-based Liberty Mutual ups charitable giving

Posted in Liberty | Comments Off on Boston-based Liberty Mutual ups charitable giving

Liberty Gold Announces 'Visible Gold' in Initial Samples on Their Arizona Property

Posted: at 8:12 pm

NEW YORK, NY--(Marketwire -09/05/12)- Liberty Gold, Corp. (LBGO) has announced that they have 'visible metallics and gold' from bulk samplings taken from their properties. Initial samples were collected from 5 different locations within the Domestic Portfolio holdings to determine whether, once processed, visible gold was present at 3 different screen sizes: 100 minus, 50 minus and 25 minus. Samples from each of the 5 different locations resulted in the detection of visible metallics.

Lynn Harrison, Liberty Gold's President and CEO is encouraged by the results of the samplings and will now proceed with larger samplings to assess the full mineral potential of the property. The company has also recently announced the doubling of their Alaska claim.

In June 2012, Goldman Sachs updated its forecast on the gold price to US$ 1,940.- within the following 12 months, i.e. by mid of 2013. Barclays Capital expects a gold price of US$ 1,790.- in the fourth quarter of 2012, while Morgan Stanley now predicts gold prices to be on a level of US$ 2,000.- during that quarter.

Other active metal mining stocks are: Great Northern Iron Ore (GNI), Kaiser Aluminum (KALU) and Commercial Metals Co (CMC)

This report is for information purposes only, and is neither a solicitation to buy nor an offer to sell securities. Information, opinions and analysis contained herein are based on sources deemed to be reliable and are subject to change without notice. A third party has hired and paid Century Capital Markets one thousand two hundred and ninety five dollars for the publication and circulation of this news release. Accordingly, certain information included herein may be forward-looking within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. However, no representation, expressed or implied, is made as to the accuracy, completeness or correctness. In light of the above, we accept no liability for any losses arising from an investor's reliance on or use of this report. We do not and have not had any ownership interest in said third party of any kind.

Read more:
Liberty Gold Announces 'Visible Gold' in Initial Samples on Their Arizona Property

Posted in Liberty | Comments Off on Liberty Gold Announces 'Visible Gold' in Initial Samples on Their Arizona Property

Synopsys' Open-Source Liberty Format to Incorporate On-Chip Variation Extensions

Posted: at 8:12 pm

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., Sept. 5, 2012 /PRNewswire/ --

Highlights:

Synopsys, Inc. (SNPS), a world leader in software and IP used in the design, verification and manufacture of electronic components and systems, today announced it intends to incorporate on-chip variation (OCV) extensions in its open-source Liberty library format, the de-facto modeling standard for integrated circuit (IC) implementation and signoff. The new extensions will help standardize usage of the popular stage-based Advanced OCV (AOCV) modeling approach for 40- and 28-nm processes nodes. The final format extensions and ratification as part of the Liberty standard will be completed with the guidance and assistance of the Liberty Technical Advisory Board.

The Liberty library format is the semiconductor industry's most widely adopted library standard used by virtually all EDA implementation, analysis and library characterization tools as the library model exchange for timing, noise, power and test behavior. In May 2006, an industry-wide Liberty Technical Advisory Board was formed to facilitate the evolution of the Liberty library modeling standard. The Liberty Technical Advisory Board functions under the auspices of the IEEE Industry Standards and Technology Organization (IEEE-ISTO). Its 14 member companies represent the broad semiconductor industry including the design community, EDA companies, silicon foundries, and semiconductor intellectual property (IP) companies. A complete list of members can be found at http://opensourceliberty.org/liberty_techadvisory.html. Liberty is available for download to the entire semiconductor design community under standard open-source terms. The latest Liberty syntax specifications and tools can be found at http://www.opensourceliberty.org.

"Standardizing the Liberty format extensions through the Liberty Technical Advisory Board allows the design community and EDA tool suppliers an opportunity to contribute and participate in the standardization process," said Rich Goldman, vice president of corporate marketing and strategic alliances, Synopsys. "In the past 2 years, the Liberty Technical Advisory Board has helped guide the ratification of over 10 new additions to Liberty to improve design for low-power flows."

The standardization of on-chip variation extensions via the Liberty Technical Advisory Board will benefit the semiconductor industry by:

AvailabilityThe Liberty Technical Advisory Board is expected to finalize and ratify the OCV extensions to Liberty in November 2012, making it available to open-source licensees shortly thereafter.

About SynopsysSynopsys, Inc. (SNPS) is a world leader in electronic design automation (EDA), supplying the global electronics market with the software, intellectual property (IP) and services used in semiconductor design, verification and manufacturing. Synopsys' comprehensive, integrated portfolio of implementation, verification, IP, manufacturing and field-programmable gate array (FPGA) solutions helps address the key challenges designers and manufacturers face today, such as power and yield management, system-to-silicon verification and time-to-results. These technology-leading solutions help give Synopsys customers a competitive edge in bringing the best products to market quickly while reducing costs and schedule risk. Synopsys is headquartered in Mountain View, California, and has approximately 70 offices located throughout North America, Europe, Japan, Asia and India. Visit Synopsys online at http://www.synopsys.com/.

Forward Looking StatementsThis press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, including statements regarding the expected incorporation of the OCV extensions into the Liberty library format and the expected finalization and ratification of the OCV extensions by the Liberty Technical Advisory Board. These statements are based on current expectations and beliefs. Actual results could differ materially from those described by these statements due to risks and uncertainties including, but not limited to, unforeseen production delays, failure to perform as expected, errors or defects and other risks detailed in Synopsys' filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, including those described in the "Risk Factors" section of Synopsys' Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the fiscal quarter ended July 31, 2012.

Editorial Contacts:Sheryl Gulizia Synopsys, Inc. 650-584-8635 sgulizia@synopsys.com

Read the rest here:
Synopsys' Open-Source Liberty Format to Incorporate On-Chip Variation Extensions

Posted in Liberty | Comments Off on Synopsys' Open-Source Liberty Format to Incorporate On-Chip Variation Extensions

VMworld 2012: Back To The Future (Of The Datacenter): A Management Odyssey

Posted: at 8:12 pm

Summary: Dave Bartolleti reflects on VMWorld 2012 and VMWare's push to return to the future of the datacenter.

I had a great time, as always, at VMworld last week. My seventh time was busier than ever. If I had to summarize my gut feeling about this year, it was VMwares return to the future of the datacenter. Yes, there was plenty of cloud-ness, but the main thrust of VMwares message was: theres a lot left to virtualize, encapsulate, and mobilize in the datacenter, and were the best company to help you do itwhether or notyoure heading for the clouds.Thecloud isnt everything, nor should it be. Its one ofmany pathsto a more efficient, responsive, and available IT infrastructure. Companies arent going from datacenters and managed services to the cloud in one monolithic transition. Theyre looking at everything from their virtualized workloads to their big databases to their productivity apps and asking two questions: can I run them cheaper, faster and better in house first? And, when will it make more sense to run them in my or someone elses cloud? Part of that decision is cost will cloud save money?

A bigger question, though, is: Who decides? Will application teams and app developers go to the cloud themselves, without waiting for IT? In many cases, they already are. Or will todays virtualization admins lead the way? VMwares betting on both, and used VMworld this year to arm its core audienceVMware adminswith a strategy.My colleague Glenn ODonnell calls VMwares core audience theIlluminati (heh)and VMworld is certainly designed for them.

So is the newunified vCloud Suite, combining vSphere, vCenter Operations Management (with config and capacity rolled in last year) and vCloud Director into a complete virt+cloud management stack.Thats a lot of boxes, but VMware has to do it: as the hypervisor itself gets less sticky, and ascompetition catches up, VMware has to both broaden and simplify the management story to arm datacenter admins with enough of the right tools to not only create a killer private cloud but get their application environments ready for a public cloud.The vCloud Suite, combined with the DynamicOps and Nicira acquisitions, gives VMware a story for virtualization of every existing datacenter tier (and the foundation for thesoftware-defined datacenter), plus the connectors and lifecycle management tools to mobilize workloads to public IaaS platforms. Of course, the acquisitions also herald anew era of openness at VMware, with OpenStack also on the horizon.

vCloud Suite is still obviously a marketecture at this point. The acquisitions were just wrapped up a few weeks ago, so Ill give them a pass, but Im looking forward to some real guidance on when and how each should box is going to be built, integrated, and deployed. Which VMware orchestrator, service manager, and lifecycle tools have won the day? Which acquired management tools (and there are plenty) will quietly fade away? Im hoping to hear more on this from Barcelona.

And if you needed any more evidence that the VMware Illuminati still call the shots at VMworld, look at the two vendors that won theTechTarget Best of VMworld 2012awards Management category, New Technology category,andBest of Show:IntiguaandHotlink. Intigua virtualizes and encapsulates management agents, those bugbears of every admins life; HotLink lets you manage Hyper-V and other VM typesincluding AWS instancesfrom vCenter seamlessly. Im impressed by both companies and have been diving deeper on both recentlythese products are simple, laser-focused, easy to understand and demo, and designed to make real-world, everyday management of virtual environments simpler, faster, and less of a mess. Period.

For VMware, though, this was a management & strategy show, not a product show.Rounding out the news, VMware also announcededucation and advisory servicesand enhancedofferings for SMBs. And Dave Johnson covers theView-related content with his usual flair here. Finally, just for the record,Im neutral about the shift back to processor-based pricing. The backlash was fierce, and it was right to listen to customers, but I still dont think counting physical infrastructure is the way to license for the next generation of datacentersorclouds. Its clear vRAM wasnt the way either, though.

Next for VMware?Focus, focus, focus. Where does the company want to win? The current answer is everywhere: datacenter and cloud, packaged apps and new apps, the entire systems management stack, admins and developers, virtualized storage, software-defined networking, and the virtual desktop. Thats a lot of simultaneous vectors to juggle, a lot of established competitors to chase, a lot of partners to woo, and a lot of new acquisitions to pull together. Over to you, Pat!

Read the original here:
VMworld 2012: Back To The Future (Of The Datacenter): A Management Odyssey

Posted in Illuminati | Comments Off on VMworld 2012: Back To The Future (Of The Datacenter): A Management Odyssey

'I'm in this much debt…' – Free Speech – BBC Three – Video

Posted: at 8:10 pm

05-09-2012 09:44 Get involved online to have your say on debt: Free Speech Debt Special - Tuesday 11th September - 8pm - BBC Three More about this programme:

Read more here:
'I'm in this much debt...' - Free Speech - BBC Three - Video

Posted in Free Speech | Comments Off on 'I'm in this much debt…' – Free Speech – BBC Three – Video

Would you trample on your parents' portraits?

Posted: at 8:10 pm

A protester stepping on a picture of Pahang Menteri Besar Datuk Seri Adnan Yaakob

DAP supremo Lim Kit Siang trampling on the pictures of the three assemblymen in 2009

DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng stepping over the pictures of the three assemblymen

THE primitively ugly jungle dance where a bunch of badly raised youngsters trampled on and showed their backsides to portraits of the prime minister, his wife and the Election Commission chief on Merdeka Day eve at Dataran Merdeka might be considered a form of free speech, a democratic act similar to pro-testers' torching flags and effigies.

Portrait trampling and stomping, and effigy and flag burning are the etiquette of defiance, especially against the United States' flag and the effigy of any sitting American president.

Americans may squirm at this fury but the natives' right to morph into a "rage monster" -- to borrow Tony Stark/Ironman's dry quip describing David Banner's Hulk -- is still an indispensable right.

The Americans should know: they pioneered the cantankerously radical forms of free speech -- flag burning is constitutional, Occupy Wall Street fashionable, and long before these were the norm, legions of past Americans staged popular demonstrations, from the town crying/pamphleteering of Thomas Paine to the furious chants against the Vietnam War and Iraqi invasions.

Americans have accepted being targets of hot-blooded derision as the side-effect of their quarrelsome foreign policy. They too have no right to mind the reaction because that is the costly price Government leaders (and their families, friends and associates) pay to rule in a democracy.

Nevertheless, the police think differently: a student from a private Cheras college has been hauled up for the portrait trampling on Penal Code charges of causing public nuisance and intentionally causing insult to provoke peace.

Government critics, especially the opposition party kind, will of course chide the police for going into overdrive but extend their rants to char the PM, their customary target of contempt for anything and everything that goes wrong for them whether real or imaginary.

Read the original:
Would you trample on your parents' portraits?

Posted in Free Speech | Comments Off on Would you trample on your parents' portraits?

NRB to Lay Out Internet 'Free Speech' Charter

Posted: at 8:10 pm

/ 09.05.2012 02:15PM

NRB to Lay Out Internet 'Free Speech' Charter

Group seeks cooperation of Facebook, Google and Apple

The group plans to release a Free Speech Charter for the Internet in the coming days, Sept. 12. It cites recent incidents such as the Chick-fil-A protests, wherein NRB feels that certain positions were discriminated against by some Internet media companies.

NRB has been critical of policies of many such companies regarding types of content allowed on their platforms; an NRB official wrote late last year, These new media giants have declared that they possess both the right and the will to use standard-less, arbitrary power to shut down ideas they simply do not like. Considering how a handful of these giant technology companies rule entire fields of Web-based communications, the threat to freedom of discourse is breathtaking.

The NRB also acknowledges that the issue is not clear-cut, with conflicting positions between traditional public free speech and the rights of media property owners to police their content. The new program is associated with the NRBs John Milton Project for Religious Free Speech.

Related: New Media Have a Free Speech Problem (NRB Commentary, Nov. 2011)

Tuesday 12:00AM Court Upholds ivi.tv Shutdown

iivis actions harm plaintiffs retransmissions and advertising revenues by substantially diminishing the value of their copyrighted programming." ~US Court of Appeals

Read more from the original source:
NRB to Lay Out Internet 'Free Speech' Charter

Posted in Free Speech | Comments Off on NRB to Lay Out Internet 'Free Speech' Charter