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Thursday, May 30, 2013

Ousted 'Voice' singer to Levine: 'Don't feel bad'

Brittany Frederick TODAY contributor

8 hours ago

Not so long ago, Judith Hill and Sarah Simmons were both strong candidates to win season four of ?The Voice.? On Tuesday night, both were axed from the hit singing competition.

Their reactions were vastly different.

?I was a little shocked,? admitted Judith after the show, ?but I think it was also a good, good lesson.?

Her blind audition was so strong that "The Voice" used it to promote the season premiere back in March. Yet she acknowledged that her version of the will.i.am and Justin Bieber song ?#thatPower? failed to connect with the voting public, even as she defended her decision to take the track in a funk direction.

?I don't think anything went wrong musically. I think that it was really one of my more exciting performances,? she said. ?I think that if a song is a lot more familiar, has a lot more pop sensibilities, I think that America tends to draw more to that than something they're not used to.?

So what lesson did Judith learn from her ?Voice? elimination? ?I think that I've learned more about America,? she explained. ?I've learned more about just how they receive music, and how to really make sure everything is something they can relate to.?

Teammate Sarah was much less surprised when her name was called. ?I just felt surrendered,? she told TODAY.com. ?You can't complain at all with this. I have no negative thing to say about it. It was an adrenaline rush and it was a taste of my dream.?

In fact, Sarah found herself calming down their coach, Adam Levine.

?He was really upset,? she explained. ?He wanted to talk to us outside (after the show).?

That discussion revolved around selecting Gotye?s ?Somebody That I Used To Know? for what became Sarah?s final performance on the ?Voice? stage. ?For the live rounds, I've basically chosen all of my songs (in) collaboration with (Adam), but for this one, he chose it for me,? she continued. ?I know he was feeling really bad that I was going home.

?I told him 'Please don't feel bad, because I've never worked so hard in my life on a freaking song.' I told him it challenged me and it stretched me.?

She left the show with high praise for her Grammy-winning coach. ?He?s amazing,? she enthused. ?I know he wants to stay in contact, which is awesome. He's a really good person. I'm really grateful to know him.?

Even ?Voice? host Carson Daly admitted to being stunned by the exits of Judith and Sarah, but he also suggested there was something to be gleaned from the development. ?I was surprised. I was surprised at Judith probably more than Sarah, because she's been just such a frontrunner from our eyes,? he admitted.

?But once we go live and we turn the power of the show over to America, there's something liberating about that. If you?re shocked about (Tuesday night's) results, then maybe there's something about America and the way they think and feel that you don't know about.?

Source: http://www.today.com/entertainment/ousted-voice-singer-coach-adam-levine-please-dont-feel-bad-6C10109736

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Wednesday, May 29, 2013

Incoming Rutgers AD has no plans to resign

NEWARK, N.J. (AP) ? Julie Hermann is not resigning as Rutgers' incoming athletic director following a report that 16 years ago she humiliated and emotionally abused players while coaching the women's volleyball team at Tennessee. And the university is standing behind her.

"I never considered withdrawing because I feel very qualified to lead Rutgers into the future and into the transition into the Big Ten," Hermann said Monday during a conference call in response to a report in the Star-Ledger of Newark. "And I do feel the support of the Rutgers community."

Embattled Rutgers President Robert Barchi said in a statement the university looks forward to her running the athletic department. He added that she was the best of the 63 candidates interviewed for the job of succeeding Tim Pernetti.

"Rutgers was deliberative at every stage of this process," Barchi said. "Over the course of the search, Julie's record established her as a proven leader in athletics administration with a strong commitment to academic success as well as athletic excellence, and a strong commitment to the well-being of student athletes.

Despite the Star-Ledger report, Barchi said Hermann's entire career is stellar and "We remain confident that we have selected an individual who will work in the best interests of all of our student athletes, our athletics teams, and the university."

Speaking to four reporters on a conference call in which each participant was allowed two questions, Hermann denied having knowledge of a letter written by the 15 players on Tennessee's volleyball team. She said her former boss never heard of it and she never heard her former players make the allegation.

Rutgers officials have talked to her about it in recent days, she said.

Hermann acknowledged she was an intense coach and may have made a few mistakes handling her team. The 49-year-old administrator said she has matured and believes she is qualified to lead the scandal-marred Rutgers program. Her first day on the job is June 17.

It was Hermann's first comments since the Star-Ledger's story Sunday revealed that the Tennessee volleyball team in 1996 sent a letter to the school in which the players said Hermann called them "whores, alcoholics and learning disabled."

Hermann left the following year to work with the United States national volleyball team.

"As I recall, Julie Hermann did not continue as our head coach only due to a lack of significant improvement in her final season overall record with the Lady Vol volleyball program," former Tennessee athletic administrator Debby Jennings wrote in a message to the AP.

Jennings filed a federal lawsuit against the University of Tennessee last September alleging age and sex discrimination led to her forced retirement at the age of 57 in May 2012.

In the past two days, state lawmakers have criticized Hermann's hire and Gov. Chris Christie has said he will speak with school officials about the report. Barring a resignation, only the university's board of governors can withdraw Hermann's appointment.

The governor appoints six of the board's 11 voting members and can wield pressure through a variety of ways, perhaps by threatening to cut school funding or refusing to renominate a board member who doesn't support his view.

With President Barack Obama scheduled to tour the New Jersey shore Tuesday to see the rebuilding after Hurricane Sandy, it is unlikely that Christie will turn his attention to Rutgers until Wednesday.

Former New Jersey Gov. and current State Sen. Dick Codey was furious with the latest controversy at Rutgers, saying officials made Pernetti the scapegoat after video of men's basketball coach Mike Rice physically and verbally abusing his players during his three-year tenure came to light in early April.

Rice, who initially had been suspended, fined and ordered to undergo anger management counseling, was fired by Barchi the day after the video was broadcast. Pernetti was forced to resign two days later.

"His successor is someone who is an obvious liar, a flat-out liar," Codey said in a telephone interview with the AP on Monday evening. "She shouldn't be the AD anywhere, whether it's Rutgers or anywhere else. She should stay in Louisville and not come back to the state, and Barchi should go to Louisville himself because he is not a leader. It's dumb and dumber."

Hermann believes she can be an effective leader at Rutgers, which also had several other key officials resign. And after hiring former Scarlet Knights star Eddie Jordan to become the men's basketball coach, the university mistakenly called him a graduate when he had never finished his degree.

"All of my life has prepared me to lead this organization," said Hermann, who would be the first woman to serve as Rutgers' athletic director and only the third female AD at the 124 schools playing at college football's top tier.

"Whatever mistakes you make as a young person, you've got to learn from them and go and grow," she added. "It is my intent to go to Rutgers with this vast experience of super highs and super lows and lead what I hope is an outstanding team into the Big Ten."

On other comments from the 10-minute call included:

?Hermann said the company that vetted her for Rutgers did ask about a lawsuit filed by one of her assistant coaches over a job termination.

?Hermann believes she can raise funds despite what has happened.

?Hermann denied the name calling, specifically when asked about calling the players "whores."

"That's not part of my vocabulary. ... Here's what I would say. Am I an intense coach? Absolutely an intense coach as many coaches are," she said. "But there is a big canyon between being super intense and abuse, and this was not an abusive environment for these women. Was it challenging? It was incredibly challenging. Was I aware that there were players that were unhappy? I was aware of that at the end of the season and I was unhappy."

___

AP Sports Writer Teresa Walker in Memphis, Tenn., and AP newsman Bruce Shipkowski in Trenton contributed to this report.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/incoming-rutgers-ad-no-plans-resign-232535998.html

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EU duties on Chinese solar panels losing member-state support

By Robin Emmott and Ethan Bilby

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - A majority of EU governments oppose a plan to impose hefty duties on solar panel imports from China, a survey of member states showed on Monday, undermining efforts by Brussels to pressure Beijing over its trade practices.

The European Commission, the EU's executive, accuses Chinese firms of selling solar panels at below cost in Europe - a practice known as "dumping" - and plans to impose duties, making it far harder for China to gain market share.

The duties, averaging 47 percent, will come into force from June 6 for a trial period and could be withdrawn if both sides reach a negotiated settlement.

It is the largest trade case the Commission has undertaken, with about 21 billion euros of China-made solar panels sold in the EU.

The duties are being proposed by the EU's trade commissioner, Belgian lawyer Karel De Gucht, who met with Chinese Vice-Minister of Commerce Zhong Shan for an informal meeting in Brussels on Monday.

The Chinese side described the meetings as "constructive" and said the pair discussed solar duties as well as an EU threat to open an investigation into mobile telecom equipment makers Huawei and ZTE.

But Zhong said that either EU move would lead to a definitive Chinese response.

"Such practices of trade protectionism are not acceptable to China," a spokeswoman for the Chinese mission to the European Union said in a statement, and would "seriously sour the climate on bilateral trade and economic engagement."

"The Chinese government would not sit on the sidelines, but would rather take necessary steps to defend its national interest," if the EU went ahead, the statement said.

The fear of Chinese reprisal and potential loss of business has led Germany, Britain and the Netherlands to be among at least 14 member states to oppose the sanctions, diplomats told Reuters.

The Commission said China was pressuring some EU countries to oppose the duties.

"Commissioner De Gucht ... made it very clear to the Vice-Minister that he was aware of the pressure being exerted by China on a number of EU member states, which explains why they are positioning themselves as they are in their advisory positions towards the European Commission," the Commission said in a statement.

The EU's 27 countries had until last Friday to submit a formal, written response to De Gucht's plans. While the trade commissioner would still have the right to impose the duties, doing so in the face of member states' opposition would be hard.

The Commission statement said De Gucht told China's vice-minister he wanted "to examine the possibility of a negotiated settlement in partnership with the United States should this become necessary."

Provisional duties will more than likely still go ahead on June 6, once they are published in the European Union's official journal, officials say, but the pressure to roll them back before they become permanent in December will be intense.

The split underlines the depth of division in the EU over how to deal with China, a critical market for many EU exporters and the region's second biggest trading partner over all.

Reuters spoke to 21 of the EU's 27 countries and confirmed that 15 opposed the duties, while six supported them. The other six either declined to say or were unreachable.

France and Italy are leading a group of countries that say De Gucht is right to go ahead with sanctions, arguing that China's rapid rise in solar panel output to more than the world's entire demand could not have happened without illegal state support.

Chinese companies have captured more than 80 percent of the European market from almost zero a few years ago.

De Gucht met China's deputy commerce minister for informal talks in Brussels on Monday, a day after Chinese Premier Li Keqiang and German Chancellor Angela Merkel, meeting in Berlin, called for an end to the dispute, as well as another conflict over Chinese telecoms companies accused of dumping in Europe.

Germany initially supported De Gucht's plans for duties, and it was a German company, Solar World, that first raised the complaint against the Chinese.

But rather than punitive measures, Merkel now appears to favor a negotiated solution, wary of the potential impact on German exporters if China were to take retaliatory steps.

"There is no need for more sanction measures," German Economy Minister Philipp Roesler told a news conference on Monday after talks with Li.

TRADE CHIEF'S STRATEGY

Although De Gucht says he had no intention of damaging European business interests in China, he wants to show Beijing that the Commission is serious about preventing dumping and that China must play by international trade rules.

France shares that view.

"We want to see a balanced relationship between China and the European Union," said French Industry Minister Arnaud Montebourg. "Countries that use protectionism, and China is one of them, should accept reciprocal rules," he told reporters.

EU officials told Reuters earlier this year they were frustrated with the Chinese leadership's lack of engagement.

By levying provisional duties, the Commission feels it has leverage, because under EU law the sanctions could be cemented for up to five years from December if no solution is found.

According to a copy of the Commission's solar investigation obtained by Reuters, the Commission found clear evidence of dumping by Chinese producers.

"The Commission was presented with prima facie evidence that dumping occurred. They can't just ignore that," said Stuart Newman, a legal adviser to the Foreign Trade Association, a lobby group based in Brussels.

(Reporting by Luke Baker, Ethan Bilby, Robin Emmott, Francesco Guarascio and Phil Blenkinsop in Brussels, Yann Le Guernigou in Paris and Andreas Rinke in Berlin; Editing by Mike Collett-White, Will Waterman and Peter Cooney)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/eu-duties-chinese-solar-panels-losing-member-state-063816867.html

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Tuesday, May 28, 2013

ECE Service Provider Enrolment Agreements Need More ... - Attn!

New Zealand?s leading provider of home-based childcare PORSE, is calling on all early childhood education services to provide more transparency in enrolment agreements with families receiving 20 Hours ECE.

PORSE founding director Jenny Yule said it was time to raise the bar on greater transparency for families across all ECE services.? It was important to clarify, that 20 Hours ECE is not ?free? for everyone ? but it can reduce every family?s childcare bill.

?Every family receiving the 20 Hours ECE subsidy has a right to know exactly what it covers and what, if any, other charges or donations they are paying for Early Childhood Education and Care.?

Ms Yule said the Ministry of Education has ignored calls from The Home Early Learning Organisation, HELO, to review its 20 Hours ECE policy, which would help eliminate confusion for families and service providers.

?Given the lack of action, PORSE decided to be the industry?s leading example initiating our own review,? said Ms Yule.

?Having reviewed how we implement 20 Hours ECE, I am very concerned that parents with children in both centre and home-based childcare may not be getting all the facts.?

There are strict rules governing 20 Hours ECE and the way information is presented.

Last year the Government made it harder to charge extra within the hours claimed as 20 Hours ECE, particularly for families who employ a nanny in their own home.

Obviously where families are paying the minimum wage or above, the subsidy will only cover a portion of this, but to get the full benefit of the subsidy 20 Hours ECE hours must now be seen at ?no cost?,? says Ms Yule.

PORSE has now changed its processes and enrolment agreements to ensure 20 Hours ECE remains accessible to all families and that it meets Ministry of Education requirements.

?We have made improvements to ensure families continue to access this higher rate of funding from the Government and we have provided more transparency to parents by introducing our new enrolment agreements. We encourage the rest of the ECE sector to do the same.

?PORSE?s enrolment agreements are now a leading example, for both home and even centre based services, and we expect all other ECE service providers to follow us by being clear to families that 20 Hours ECE should show at no cost which is a key requirement of the Ministry of Education.?

Ms Yule said a lot of the changes were structural to ensure information was presented in a way that is acceptable to the Ministry.

?We also saw this an opportunity to explain to families how we implement 20 Hours ECE given the confusion that exists.?

PORSE is now working with its staff and educators to help families understand the changes.

?Every family is different, our objective is to ensure families are able to maximise the full subsidy benefits and that childcare costs are affordable.?

Source: http://www.attn.co.nz/2013/05/28/ece-service-provider-enrolment-agreements-need-more-transparency/

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Monday, May 27, 2013

2 rockets hit Lebanese Hezbollah stronghold

BEIRUT (AP) ? Rockets slammed Sunday into two southern Beirut neighborhoods that are strongholds of Lebanon's Hezbollah group, wounding four people and raising fears that Syria's civil war is increasingly moving to Lebanon.

Lebanon's sectarian divide mirrors that of Syria, and Lebanese armed factions have taken sides in their neighbor's civil war. One leader of Syria's overwhelmingly Sunni rebels had threatened to strike Hezbollah strongholds to retaliate against the Iranian-backed Shiite group for sending fighters to assist Syrian President Bashar Assad.

Street fighting between rival Lebanese groups has been relatively common since the end of the country's 1975-1990 civil war, but rocket or artillery attacks on Beirut neighborhoods are rare.

The rockets were launched hours after the militant group's leader, Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah, vowed to help propel Assad to victory in Syria's civil war and warned that his overthrow would give rise to extremists.

One rocket fired Sunday landed in the Mar Mikhael district on the southern edge of the capital, striking a car exhibit near a church on the street and causing all four casualties, a Lebanese army statement said. Another struck the second floor of an apartment in a building in Chiyah district south of Beirut, about two kilometers (one mile) away from Mar Mikhael. The apartment's balcony appeared peppered with shrapnel, but no one was wounded.

The state-run National News Agency said among the wounded in the Mar Mikhael blast were three Syrians.

A security official said rocket launchers were found in woods in a predominantly Christian and Druse area in suburbs southeast of Beirut. The official spoke on condition of anonymity in line with regulations.

An ongoing battle in the Syrian town of Qusair on the Lebanese border, which government troops backed by Hezbollah pounded with artillery on Saturday, has laid bare the Shiite group's growing role in the Syrian conflict. Hezbollah initially tried to play down its involvement, but could no longer do so after dozens of its fighters were killed in the town and buried in large funerals in Lebanon.

Col. Abdul-Jabbar al-Aqidi, commander of the Syrian rebels' Military Council in Aleppo, appeared in a video this week while apparently en route to Qusair, in which he threatened to strike in Beirut's southern suburbs in retaliation for Hezbollah's involvement in Syria.

"We used to say before, 'We are coming Bashar.' Now we say, 'We are coming Bashar and we are coming Hassan Nasrallah,'" he said, in reference to Hezbollah leader Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah.

"We will strike at your strongholds in Dahiyeh, God willing," he said, using the Lebanese name for Hezbollah's power center in southern Beirut. The video was still online on Youtube on Sunday.

Hezbollah lawmaker Ali Ammar said the incident targeted coexistence between the Lebanese and said the U.S. and Israel want to return Lebanon to the years of civil war. "They want to throw Lebanon backwards into the traps of civil wars that we left behind," he told reporters. "We will not go backwards."

Interior Minister Marwan Charbel blamed "saboteurs" and said: "We hope what is happening in Syria does not move to Lebanon."

Nasrallah's Saturday speech offered the clearest public confirmation yet that the Iranian-backed group is directly involved in Syria's war. They also were Nasrallah's first remarks since Hezbollah fighters have pushed to the front lines of the battle for Qusair.

In his televised address, he said Hezbollah members are fighting in Syria against Islamic radicals who pose a danger to Lebanon, and pledged that his group will not allow Syrian militants to control areas along the Lebanese border. He pledged that Hezbollah will turn the tide of the conflict in Assad's favor, and stay as long as necessary to do so.

"We will continue this road until the end, we will take the responsibility and we will make all the sacrifices," he said. "We will be victorious."

Lebanese Sunnis sympathetic to the Syrian opposition have also been fighting in Syria alongside the rebels. Nasrallah urged both sides to fight for their side in Syria "and leave Lebanon out of it."

The fighting next door has nonetheless repeatedly spilled over the border. For the past week, Assad's opponents and supporters have been clashing in the Lebanese port city of Tripoli, using mortars, grenades and machine guns to attack densely populated areas.

Syria's main opposition group, the Syrian National Council, slammed Nasrallah's speech as an "an attempt to pit the Lebanese people against their Syrian brothers and sisters who have revolted against the brutal dictator." In a statement issued Sunday, it said his speech "has the potential for serious ramifications in the region."

"It explicitly declares Iranian interests as superior to the basic, inherent rights of people across the region," the statement said.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/2-rockets-hit-lebanese-hezbollah-stronghold-051511235.html

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Sunday, May 26, 2013

Apps of the Week: Tetris Blitz, Impossible Road, Limelight, and more

Every week, the editors and writers at iMore carefully select some of our favorite, most useful, most extraordinary apps. This week's selections include a few games, an awesome read-later app, an app for keeping track of movies, a guitar tuner, an app dedicated to a famous classic band, and app that that is sure to increase your typing speed on the iPhone.

Pocket - Ally Kazmucha

I've tried many read it later services and up until last year, I had always used Instapaper. Then when RIL (Read It Later) transformed into Pocket and got a major overhaul, I couldn't stop myself from trying it. And I haven't looked back sense.

Pocket is absolutely gorgeous. Not only that, it's super fast and supports almost any browser and platform you could think of. Not only is there a native iPhone and iPad app, but a Mac one too. And for those who like to save things directly from their browsers, yep, there's support for those too. Even reading on the Pocket website is enjoyable.

The way content is laid out is unique and one of the best I've found so far. If you haven't tried it out yet, it's free so you've got nothing to lose.

Free - Download Now

Limelight - Joseph Keller

Limelight is an iPhone app that helps you keep track of movies, not just those in your collection, but also those that you may have just seen in theaters, as well as those you want to see. Create an account and begin searching for movies and mark whether or not you?ve seen them. Movies will then either be added to your Watched or To Watch lists, which can be shared with other Limelight users as well as your friends, through Twitter, Facebook, iMessage, and email. You can also follow the libraries that other users publish, finding new movies that you want to see by doing so. If you see or own a lot of movies, Limelight is a great way to keep track of and share them all. Check it out on the App Store for $1.99.

$1.99 - Download Now

Impossible Road - Simon Sage

If Super Hexagon has taught me anything, it's that I'm a sucker for punishment. Enter the brutally difficult Impossible Road. There are no power-ups, no in-app purchases, and barely any colors or shapes. All you have to do is keep a ball on a downward-spiraling track for as long as possible using left and right tap controls. If you fall off, you've got a moment to land on the track further down, but if you free-fall for too long, you've got to start all over. Players are scored based on how many checkpoints they pass through or skip by falling off the edge and recovering. The high contrast art style and minimalist music keep tension high for the fleeting seconds you manage to stay on the track. If you have any unresolved childhood issues with Rainbow Road from Mario Kart, or have an innate fear of heights to ~~get over~~ revel in, Impossible Road is a good place to start.

$1.99 - Download Now

GuitarTuna - Chris Parsons

After being away for a couple of months, I came home and decided I wanted to play a little guitar. I quickly realized that before I could do that, it would certainly need some tuning. For the life of me I couldn't find my tuner so figured it would be a perfect time to try out some of the tuner apps available on iOS. I downloaded 3-4 and began testing them out, and in the end I went with a free (ad-supported) app called GuitarTuna and, well, I'm never paying for a tuner app again. GuitarTuna is awesome, idiot proof and free. Can't really beat it. If you're looking for a basic and easy to use guitar tuning app, look no further.

Free - Download Now

The Doors - Richard Devine

Sadly this week saw the passing of The Doors' keyboard player, Ray Manzarek. So, what better way to commemorate than by kicking back listening to their 'Best of' album and checking out the official The Doors app on the iPad.

Pictures, music, videos, lyrics, all here and only the beginning. The Doors app for iPad is filled with content about the band, how they created their sound, and even an exclusive comic that chronicles Jim Morrison's 'Incident' in Miami. A must have for all The Doors fans out there.

$4.99 - Download Now

TextExpander Touch - Rene Ritchie

Just over a month ago, Text Expander Touch was my pick of the week. Why am I picking it again so soon? Because Smile Software just released Text Expander Touch 2.0.

The basic overall functionality hasn't changed, and everything I used before is still what I use now -- I type in shots bits of text and TE spits out long strings of code or copy. Here's the example I used last time, typing this:

ssocial

Automagically gets me this:

Twitter: http://twitter.com/imore Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/imorecom Google+: http://www.gplus.to/imore YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/imorevideo

But for the higher level nerds among us, here's what's new:

Fill-in snippets, formatted snippets (including copy and send email actions), "Insert?" menu item for macros, %\ selection range macros, and more.

In other words, the power user just got handed a bunch more power.

$4.99 - Download now

Tetris Blitz - Leanna Lofte

I've always been a big Tetris fan, and Tetris Blitz is a new twist to the class game. You have two minutes to clear as many lines as possible, but instead of the traditional gameplay of rotating and dropping each piece, Tetris Blitz gives you options for placement of the pieces. You simply tap the spot you want the piece to go, or cycle through more choices. There are also power-up in Tetris Blitz that help you rack up the points. Tetris Blitz is not traditional Tetris, but I'm enjoying this new, high-paced version.

Free - Download now

Your choice?

Now that we've chosen our favorites for the week, we want to hear yours! Did you pick up a killer app, accessory, or game this week? Let us know in the comments below!

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheIphoneBlog/~3/KAHESBjSRcA/story01.htm

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