Wind farm impact to be examined

15 December 2012 Last updated at 10:20 ET By Zoe Kleinman Technology reporter, BBC News

The developer behind a planned offshore wind farm on the south coast of England says it will look to see how it can "mitigate" the concerns of campaigners.

Questions have been raised about the impact on the view and cultural significance of its location.

It will be off a stretch of coastline known as the Jurassic Coast.

Navitus Bay Development has revised its plans - the farm will be smaller and further out - but local MP Richard Drax said they were still not sufficient.

The coastline is one of just eight in the world to be awarded World Heritage Site (WHS) status by Unesco, and concerns have been raised over whether the title would be revoked if the wind farm goes ahead.

The site currently attracts 16m tourists a year to the area, according to its official website.

The 95 mile (152km) long Jurassic Coast gets its name because some 175 million years of geology are visible in its rocks.

Cultural concerns

In an interview with the BBC, Navitus Bay Development director Mike Unsworth said "regular discussions" had taken place with the local WHS steering group about maintaining the coastline's status.

"The feedback we've had is that the designation is for its natural geology," Mr Unsworth told the BBC.

"They've said it's unlikely that [the WHS] designation will be impacted by the development. But what they have also said is the setting of the WHS - in terms of how you view it or what you view from - is a concern to them. We continue to look at how we can mitigate that."

Following various criticisms, the developers now propose that the wind farm, known as Navitus Bay, should only have 218 turbines no more than 200m (600ft) high.

The firm's original plans were for 335 turbines up to 210m high.

Mr Unsworth said the site would now also be 3km (1.8 miles) further away from Bournemouth than previously planned, in order to minimise its visual impact.

The Corporation of Trinity House, which looks after sea farers, had advised that the farm could affect a popular navigational channel.

'Fresh feedback'

Mr Drax, Conservative MP for south Dorset, said the revised plans were not sufficient.

"The key problem, I think... is the fact it's so close to the coastline," he said.

"The recommendation from the EU is about 23km (14 miles). This will now be about 14km (9 miles) - it's just too close. Despite the fact there will be less of them we are still going to see these vast structures off one of the most beautiful coastlines in the world."

The new proposals will be put back out to public consultation in 2013.

"What I said to Richard [Drax] was, come to the next round of consultations, have a look at the new photo montages, take a view at that point and then provide us with fresh feedback," said Mr Unsworth.

The Corporation of Trinity House, which looks after sea farers, had also advised that the farm could affect a popular navigational channel.

The navigational channel is by a lighthouse called Hurst Point which is used by local boats and fishermen, said Trinity House.

"We have moved the northern boundary further south which provided greater navigational safety for recreational sea users," said Mr Unsworth.

The Navitus Bay project is a partnership between energy firms Eneco Wind (UK) and EDF.

The construction of the wind farm could create 1,000 jobs and bring ?100m to the local economy, the developers claim.

Mike Unsworth was interviewed on BBC Radio Solent programme The Big Dorset Brunch.

Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-20726813#sa-ns_mchannel=rss&ns_source=PublicRSS20-sa

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Japanese women enamored of "Mr Right" love game apps

TOKYO (Reuters) - After being saved from kidnapping, you discover you're the daughter of the prime minister and your life is in imminent danger. You are introduced to a handful of handsome bodyguards, and must decide who you want to protect you 24 hours a day.

That's the scenario for one of several role-playing "love games" currently popular in Japan, allowing women to safely spend time with their choice of Mr. Right without actually dealing with a live person - even as marriage rates in Japan fall.

"In the game, you're the lone woman, and the attention of all the guys is on you," said "han-kura," a 37-year-old office worker who uses that alias on a blog dedicated to these games.

The role-playing games are based on characters typical of Japanese manga comics, with all the men slender and elegant. The player becomes the heroine and chooses an ideal mate from several "knight in shining armor" characters, developing a relationship through the choices they make in the storyline.

The games, which can be played on smart phones, are especially popular with working single women in their 30s who feel they don't have the time or energy for a real relationship due to their demanding work schedule, said Kana Shimada, a novelist who writes about modern women and relationships.

"It may be virtual, but if it's ?a boyfriend from a game,' then you can enjoy it whenever you want," said Shimada. "The games that make you feel the ups and downs of a real relationship have all the elements to get women hooked."

The video game industry has always had a strong male following, but it seems to have found a way to finally capitalize on female users. The sector based on such love simulation games grew by 30.4% with 14.6 billion yen ($177.3 million) in sales in 2011, according to Yano Research Institute.

The games come in several episodes, each costing around 500 yen ($5.98).

The growth of smart phones has had a hand in this popularity through their portability and privacy, said Nozomi Wada, an editor at AppBank, a website that reviews apps.

"The biggest reason for its popularity is that users like myself can play it secretly in the palm of our hands without other people noticing it," said "han-kura."

About 10 makers continuously roll out new versions with additional characters and storylines for their popular titles. The difference between a hit and a bust is how deeply the player can immerse into the game, said Wada.

"If it's a fantasy theme, then it has to be downright illusionary," added Wada. "You wouldn't want your imagination to be shattered in the middle of the game."

Some app makers such as the company known as Voltage have released localized versions in China and the United States by tweaking the male characters to match the tastes of local women. Downloads in the United States, still in the first year of their efforts, are currently around one-tenth of Japan, said Voltage CEO Yuji Tsutani.

And how do the games differ?

Tsutani said that the U.S. version of "Pirates in Love," the men have facial features with more depth and realism - and the heroine is more assertive. ($1 = 83.6100 Japanese yen)

(Reporting by Kimiteru Tsuruta, editing by Elaine Lies)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/japanese-women-enamored-mr-love-game-apps-023724712--finance.html

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The Advantages of Ready to Assemble Cabinets Ventura - DIME-Co ...

???You are here: DIME Home > Home Improvement > The Advantages of Ready to Assemble Cabinets Ventura

Compared with custom-made cabinets, there are more shops that offer to make ready-to-assemble cabinets. As opposed to the exclusivity of custom-made cabinets and the mass market appeal of pre-made stock cabinets, ready-to-assemble cabinets are definitely more practical for a lot of people. You can find boutiques and shops that offer these kinds of cabinets. All you need to do is check out how reputable the particular shop is, then you can probably order the right style and measurement of the cabinets you want for your house.

Author: Cabinetry Ventura
Date: Dec 14, 2012 - 10:41:54 AM

Printer?friendly?page

Although most people would prefer to have custom-made cabinets, this cannot always be done because they are quite expensive. So instead of shelling out your money on these kinds of cabinets, you can order Ready To Assemble Cabinets Ventura that will fit your budget and the space in your house. They are definitely much more convenient and cost-efficient that custom-made and pre-made stock cabinets.

Numerous shops and designs to choose from

Compared with custom-made cabinets, there are more shops that offer to make ready-to-assemble cabinets. As opposed to the exclusivity of custom-made cabinets and the mass market appeal of pre-made stock cabinets, ready-to-assemble cabinets are definitely more practical for a lot of people. You can find boutiques and shops that offer these kinds of cabinets. All you need to do is check out how reputable the particular shop is, then you can probably order the right style and measurement of the cabinets you want for your house.

And once you have found the right shop for the cabinets you want to order, you should then choose from a variety of designs and styles that the shop has. You would, of course, need to be very careful about choosing a design that would be compatible with the overall style of your house.

Fast delivery

As opposed to custom-made cabinets, Ready To Assemble Cabinets Ventura can be delivered in just under a week after you order them. Some even guarantee to deliver it to your homes in a few days time. This is because there are already patterns for these cabinets, and all the manufacturer has to do is to use these patterns according to the measurement of the cabinets you ordered.

This easy manufacturing process enables you to receive your ready-to-assemble cabinets in just a few short days. There's no need to wait for weeks and months just so the manufacturer can finish what you ordered. Aside from the fact that you have ordered something you customized according to your needs, you can also enjoy them as soon as you finish filling up the order form.

Easy installation

Once you decide to buy a ready-to-assemble cabinet, you will surely not have any problems in assembling it in your house. That is one of the main features and advantages of Ready To Assemble Cabinets Ventura. You will have an easy time installing a ready-to-assemble cabinet because they are already fitted in your house. There is no need also to ask someone to assemble the cabinets because they are manufactured in such a way that it will be easy for anyone to build and construct.

With these advantages and benefits, why will anyone not prefer a ready-to-assemble cabinet that will add style and glamour to your house?

Cabinet Sense
Cabinet Sense Inc.
2221 Madera Road, Unit B
Simi Valley, CA 93065
877-240-6700 or thru fax at 805-520-0376 or email at info@cabinetsense.com
http://www.cabinetsense.com/cabinets/index.php

About:
Cabinet Sense, Inc. has been providing our customers high value and high quality kitchen and bath cabinetry for over five years. We work with some of the most established cabinet manufacturers both domestic and abroad in creating cabinetries that suit the demands of the North American market. Customers who are highly satisfied with our products range from developers, home improvement contractors, dealer distributors, show room and designers, and of course, end users.

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Italy's Bersani says Monti discipline vital after vote

ROME (Reuters) - Italy's centre-left leader Pier Luigi Bersani, front runner to lead the next government, backed Prime Minister Mario Monti's reforms on Thursday and said the former European Commissioner would continue to play a role after elections early next year.

Bersani told foreign reporters in Rome that Monti's agenda of fiscal rigor and respect for the budget limits agreed with European partners would be indispensable.

"Discipline and credibility are points we cannot turn back from," Bersani said.

Bersani, who has said previously that it would not be a good idea for Monti to stand in the elections as a candidate, said he was sure the 69 year-old economics professor would have an important part to play after the vote.

He said he was confident the centre-left would have enough support for a solid majority in both the lower and upper houses following the election and said he was open to dialogue with centrist parties.

The centre-left is well ahead in opinion polls for elections expected to be held in February. Bersani, the centre-left's candidate for prime minister, is in pole position to take over Monti's efforts to control strained public finances and tackle a deep recession.

(Reporting By Steve Scherer and Giselda Vagnoni, writing by Catherine Hornby)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/italys-bersani-says-monti-discipline-vital-vote-112745581--business.html

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Robert Zemeckis on taking "Flight" with Denzel Washington - and his socks

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) - When director Robert Zemeckis read the script for "Flight," he knew he was ready to make another live-action movie.

The filmmaker's previous three films - "The Polar Express," "Beowulf" and "A Christmas Carol" - were shot in the motion-capture technique, in which human actions are recorded, then used to digitally animate computer characters.

"When this screenplay came along, I thought it shouldn't be done in performance capture, it shouldn't be done in 3D," Zemeckis told the audience Wednesday night at TheWrap's screening series in the Regent Theatre in Westwood. "I'm always led by the screenplay."

He called his last three films in digital cinema "great training" for returning to a cast of live actors, given that motion-capture films are shot on much shorter schedules, and he only had 45 days for "Flight."

"My biggest concern about doing a movie with so little time is, would the cast - when you do a drama like this - have enough days to get what you need?" he told TheWrap's awards editor Steve Pond in the Q&A that followed the screening.

So he and star Denzel Washington spent hours hashing out the character of Captain Whip Whitaker, the alcoholic, if brilliantly talented, pilot who miraculously lands his nose-diving airliner but faces possible jail-time because he had alcohol and cocaine in his system at the time of the crash.

"That's the really fun part of moviemaking, just understanding the character," Zemeckis said. "Then deciding everything from what kind of car he's going to drive to what color socks he's going to wear."

Pond looked surprised.

"By the time you started shooting, you knew what color Denzel's socks should be?" he asked.

"If I'm on set and a set decorator asks, 'what color should that door be?' and I don't have an answer, there's a problem," the 61-year-old director said. "I feel that, as a director, I should be able to answer that question of what socks he was wearing."

But the pressure of returning to live-action and directing what he called a "serious, adult film" with hero cycles reminiscent of Greek mythology, is difficult. He needed a creative partner.

Screenwriter John Gatins, who had begun working on the screenplay in 1999, joined him for the month-and-a-half-long shoot in Georgia.

"I needed a creative soulmate, someone who's there in the movie," he said. "In the heart of battle to say everyone is suggesting we change this line and have the writer there to say, no way. We drove back and forth to the set in the same car every day."

And this wasn't the first time Zemeckis had filmed a massive plane crash.

His 2000 live-action movie, "Cast Away," starring Tom Hanks, began with a FedEx plane plummeting down in the South Pacific.

"Cameras got smaller, which made things a lot easier," he said. "We have a lot of digital effects, a lot of physical effects - everything is like a giant, sort-of special effects stew."

And with a tight schedule and a tighter $31 million budget, Zemeckis had to reintroduce himself to those cameras and figure out ways to shoot certain scenes without building expensive sets.

In one, Washington and his co-stars Kelly Reilly and James Badge Dale - whose brief but important cameo as an oracle-like cancer patient gives the film its Greek-like quality - are furtively smoking cigarettes in the stairwell of a hospital.

The cramped space and inevitable audio echo make for a difficult scene to shoot - most directors of Zemeckis' stature would just build a staircase to shoot in.

He didn't.

"I couldn't believe I was actually shooting that in a real stairwell," he said, laughing. "That really brought me back to my film school experience."

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/robert-zemeckis-taking-flight-denzel-washington-socks-225614999.html

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Michigan's right-to-work will ripple across the US

7 hrs.

Allison Linn , NBC News

Whither Michigan, so may go other union-friendly states.

The right-to-work legislation signed by?Michigan Gov. Rick Synder?on Tuesday?marks a victory for Republican lawmakers and others who believe that unions hurt the U.S. economy.?The pair of?new laws,?which make?Michigan the 24th right-to-work state, make it harder for its?workers to organize and to maintain power because workers covered by union contracts will no longer be required to pay dues.

The impact of Michigan?s decision will be felt far beyond the borders of the once-staunchly pro-union state. Even though the ranks of union workers have been dwindling across the nation, the influence of big unions is still felt from the halls of government to corporate board rooms, and their clout affects everything from the economy to the political field. But the rising number of right-to-work states could further drain that influence.

"It?s a union story today, and a much broader economic story tomorrow,? said Harley Shaiken, a professor at UC Berkeley and an expert on union issues.?

That's partly because there are so few union members left for such legislation to directly impact.?Only 11.8 percent of American workers, or nearly 14.8 million people, were union members in 2011, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. That?s down substantially from just a decade earlier, when 13.3 percent of workers, or 16.3 million people, were union members.

Even in Michigan ? long considered the stronghold of unionized workers in America ? just 17.5 percent of workers, or 671,000 people, are union members.

That?s marks a very steep drop from the early 1970s, when about 40 percent of workers in the state were unionized, said Henry Farber, an economics professor at Princeton University and an expert on labor unions.

That figure has fallen steadily in the decades since, as heavily unionized automakers shed U.S. jobs because the auto industry became increasingly globalized.

Despite the gradual erosion of union representation?in Michigan, Farber said it?s still a stunning change to see such a highly industrialized state adopt right-to-work legislation that severely limits labor?s power.?

He expects Michigan's legislation to have a major ripple effect on other historically labor-friendly states like New York and New Jersey.

?The symbolism is mainly that it will embolden opponents in other states to try to do similar things,? he said.

That, in turn, could deal another blow to already weakened unions.

Those who oppose unions say that?s a victory for businesses who want more flexibility in how they manage their work?forces, and for workers who don?t want to be constrained by union rules or collective bargaining agreements. That, they say, will ultimately create more jobs and help the state?s economy.

?The right to work law will provide significant economic benefits for the state?s workers and small businesses,? Mark Mix, president of the National Right to Work Committee, said in a video posted on the organization?s website following the move in Michigan.?

But union proponents say such ripple effects could extend beyond just the minority of Americans who are directly covered by union contracts. They say that without unions, workers are at risk for lower wages and less job security.

Shaiken, the Berkeley professor, argues that unions are often key advocates, on both a state and national level, on issues that affect workers more generally. Those include affordable health care, unemployment insurance, Social Security and the minimum wage.

Michigan's new law also?could have political implications for Democrats who have relied on unionized labor's political and financial support,?Shaiken said.

Major unions such as the AFL-CIO and the UAW were staunch supporters of President Barack?Obama?s successful re-election bid. Any moves that hurt their membership numbers, or ability to collect dues, also could impact their ability to support Democrats in future elections.

There also could be a ripple effect on some unions' ability to financially support political moves that would help preserve their own livelihood, said Michael Hicks, director of the Center for Business and Economic Research at Ball State University.

His research has shown that it's quite difficult to judge the impact of right-to-work legislation on things like wages. But he said such laws can reduce the amount of money unions collect because workers are no longer required to pay dues, and many people opt to pocket that money instead.

He thinks that could affect how much clout?public sector unions, such as teachers, have to help support political efforts for things like maintaining pension benefits. Those are the type of hot-button issues state and local governments are sure to take up as they work to deal with severe budget shortfalls in the coming years.

"I do really believe that the biggest argument, the biggest push, for this (right-to-work legislation) was designed to weaken unions in their negotiations?with state governments," Hicks?said.

Farber, the Princeton professor, expects that there will be a modest drop in the number of workers who are unionized in Michigan once the legislation goes into effect. Also, because workers could choose to not pay dues and still be represented, unions could see less money coming in.

In addition, he said, new businesses or plants may be less likely to unionize because of the weakened union power.

Farber?s research also has shown that strongly unionized work?forces sometimes create a ?threat effect? where other workplaces offer higher wages and better benefits because they worry that if the workers aren?t treated as well they will unionize. He said that threat is lessened in right-to-work states.

?To see Michigan go this way ? it?s quite remarkable, really,? he said.

Source: http://www.nbcnews.com/business/economywatch/michigans-right-work-will-ripple-across-us-1C7559684

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Retiring lawmakers cash in with pensions - abc27 WHTM

HARRISBURG, Pa. (WHTM) -

A tree on the steps of the state Capitol reminds us it's the season of giving, but for Harrisburg's retiring lawmakers it's also the season of getting.

According to numbers compiled by the reform activist group Rock the Capital, outgoing Senator Jeffrey Piccola will get $211,855.42 in a lump sum payment and a yearly pension of $83,845.80.

Piccola, who served 36 years in the House and Senate, will make more in retirement than the $82,000 salary paid to rank-and-file lawmakers last year.

Representative Ron Buxton, after 20 years in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives, will get more than $66,000 a year. He didn't take a lump sum.

"Both Mr. Piccola and Mr. Buxton voted to increase their pension and now they're gonna reap the benefits," Rock the Capital founder Eric Epstein said. "The thing that I find curious is, as the City of Harrisburg is about to fly off a fiscal cliff, they're gonna retire with a golden parachute."

The lump sum is the amount a lawmaker put into the system, plus 4 percent interest. The pension is a formula calculated by years of service and highest three years' salary.

The system's been tightened a bit in recent years, including the elimination of lump sum payouts for new hires, but that doesn't cover longtime lawmakers.

Epstein said retiring lawmakers also get health care for life.

"What's frustrating here is the lack of balance," Epstein said. "The average pension for a Pennsylvanian being $28,000, and then you have legislators going out with a golden parachute asking teachers to take a freeze. There is a fundamental disconnect and if the people who are making the laws want to make life better for everybody else, then they have to live like everybody else."

Source: http://www.abc27.com/story/20341413/retiring-lawmakers

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