Fireworks cause deadly highway collapse in China

BEIJING (AP) ? A truckload of fireworks intended for Lunar New Year celebrations went off Friday in a massive, deadly explosion that destroyed part of an elevated highway in central China, sending vehicles plummeting 30 meters (about 100 feet) to the ground.

State TV broadcaster CCTV said eight people were confirmed dead and 11 injured after seven vehicles were recovered from the wreckage. The death toll appeared likely to rise: The official Xinhua News Agency said the collapse smashed and buried at least 25 vehicles.

Earlier reports by China National Radio and some other outlets of 26 people killed were later removed from websites, without explanation.

An 80-meter (260-foot) stretch of a major east-west highway collapsed in Mianchi county in Henan province. It scattered blackened chunks of debris and shattered the windows of a nearby truck stop.

A truck driver interviewed on CCTV said he was only 20 meters (yards) away from the explosion.

"I heard a huge bang and immediately braked. I saw small fireballs falling down one by one," said the unidentified truck driver, whose truck windshield was smashed from the impact of the blast.

"I then heard the sounds of clanking and exploding for five to six minutes," the driver said. "My face was covered in dust."

Photos posted online by Xinhua showed a stretch of elevated highway gone, with one truck's back wheels perched at the edge of a shorn-off section of the highway. Other photos showed firefighters below spraying water on scorched hunks of concrete, wrecked trucks and flattened shipping containers.

There was no immediate word on the cause of the explosion. It occurred about 90 kilometers (55 miles) west of Luoyang, an ancient capital of China known for grottoes of Buddhist statues carved from limestone cliffs.

Fireworks are an enormously popular part of Chinese Lunar New Year festivities. To meet the demand, fireworks are made, shipped and stored in large quantities, sometimes in unsafe conditions.

A result is periodic catastrophe: In 2006, on the first day of the Lunar New Year, a storeroom of fireworks exploded at a temple fair in Henan, killing 36 people and injuring dozens more. In 2000, an unlicensed fireworks factory in southern China exploded, killing 33 people, including 13 primary and secondary school students working there.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/fireworks-cause-deadly-highway-collapse-china-065131273.html

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Polar YOLO Extremes: how to do personal finance right

There are some great posts this week on Personal Finance. I particularly love Michelle?s post I?ll never be a frugal blogger (*fist bump*) because, god knows, I won?t either. I?ve even been labeled the ?YOLO blogger? because I have a tendency to spend money rapidly, excessively, and with a kind of jubilation that sends fear into your average frugalista?s heart. I am fearless though, because I believe money is a tool to enjoy your life.

Now, how you enjoy your life (and how much) is up to you. Different people value different things to different degrees, which is why it?s ok to blow your disposable income on marshmallow cream if that?s what makes you happy. As with all things, moderation is key, and extreme frugality will make you as miserable as spending until you?re broke and in-debt.

Now this:

Not only is that a brilliantly hilarious video featuring my future husband, Adam Levine, it also provides an awesome, very honest message using both pop culture and sarcasm, which is my personal favorite way of saying anything.?They do include some commentary on financial planning if you want to skip ahead to 2:00, or just read the lyrics below:

Take no chances, stop freelancing right now
Invest in your future, don?t dilute your finances,?401K, k?
Make sure it?s low risk, then get some real estate
How much? 4.2%, 30 year mortgage, that?s important, that?s a great deal!
If you can afford it, don?t forge it, know your last bill
Renting is for suckers right now
Have dependable savings and you?ll retire with money in your account
YOLO? Say no-no, isolate yourself and just roll solo, be careful-o

The rest of the video also makes me LOL at everything from not going to loud clubs or concerts to never traveling, which as you know, are activities that occupy the bulk of my free time. One of my favorite things about having money is spending it, so I don?t really get why anyone would choose to shower in cold water or not order wine with dinner just to keep the bills down. People have a lot of good reasons for not doing fun things, and there?s no shortage of these reasons in the Personal Finance community but the cliche is true: personal finance is personal.

THAT FACE! <3

?

Everyone does money differently, and I think in an ideal world every preachy PF blogger would like you to spend money the way they do, because everyone thinks they?re doing it ?right?.?I feel the real gauge of whether or not you?re doing it right is pretty straightforward:

If the answer is no, you?re doing it wrong.

If the answer is yes, you?re doing it right.

How much you want to ?do right? is up to you, be it $50 or $5000 there?s really no wrong answer. You can live on Kraft dinner and bank all your disposable income, or not. You can pay down your debts with only the minimum payment and be in debt for years and years, or not. There is a happy medium between the extremes, but it?s for you to determine. Personally if you?re here looking for advice I would also encourage you to:

• commit to saving 10%+ of your income for retirement
• build an emergency fund that could replace 3+ months of your income
• pay off high-interest all debt
• purchase income-generating assets
• earn as much money as you possibly can

But that?s just me.?Every choice has its perks and pitfalls, you just have to be prepared to live with the consequences of your choice. (Note: other people may not be able to live with the consequences of your choice, and will be vocal about it.)

I think many readers surfing personal finance blogs don?t want to retire at 35. They just want to be in a better financial position than they currently find themselves in. Maybe a little less debt, a little more savings, a whole lot more peace of mind.

Some people want money for money?s sake, some people want money for a certain lifestyle, some people don?t even want money at all, they just find it a necessary evil that they need to undertake in order to afford things like groceries and rent. However you do money, just make sure your bottom line is going up and its doing so at the rate you want it to. No one has to live with your money but you, so you get to make the rules. But this also means if you?re not happy with where you are, you have to take responsibility for that and change your situation.

However, if you?re like me and you are very happy with your money and how you spend it, then live on, friend, live on ? because you only live once.

?

Source: http://www.moneyaftergraduation.com/2013/02/01/polar-yolo-extremes/

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The Benefit Information Center Tells You All the Perks Your Credit Card Offers

Most credit cards offer extra benefits that you may not be aware of or using. These include perks like travel insurance and emergency roadside assistance. If you're not sure which benefits your particular card offers, head over to the Benefit Information Center.

The site asks you for the first 10 digits of your credit card number; the field doesn't even let you put in the entire (usually 16-digit) number, so don't worry. It's not taking your personal credit card information. Those first ten digits denote the credit card network and particular program.

Then the site provides the list of benefits for your particular card as well as links to terms and conditions, claim forms, and phone numbers for contacting your card issuer or the provider of those services.

It could be helpful to check your benefits so you don't overspend on benefits like extended warrantees or travel insurance.

The Benefit Information Center | via Business Insider

Photo by Ruben Schade

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/lifehacker/full/~3/E5VvuH74oBA/the-benefit-information-center-tells-you-all-the-perks-your-credit-card-offers

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Why are British workers getting less productive? | Left Foot Forward

Low wages, low business investment and a misallocation of capital have led to a ?dramatic fall? in labour productivity, according to a new report.

The Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) believes Britain is producing 12.8% less than had labour productivity growth continued at pre-recession rates. [Source: The productivity puzzles (pdf)]

Falling productivity helps to explain why employment has been rising in the UK despite sluggish growth in output.

British workers now produce 2.6% less output per hour worked than they did at the start of 2008.?The IFS believes the key reasons for this are low real wages, low business investment and a misallocation of capital.

Its research suggests lower wages allow firms to employ more people, and this in turn has a negative effect on productivity.?According to the report, a more flexible labour market and more demanding benefit system are combining to cause employment to remain stable.

These two changes mean labour supply in this recession have remained higher than in the recessions of the 1980s and 1990s.

The second main reason given by the IFS for falling productivity is a fall in business investment. Investment is now around 16% lower than its pre-recession high. This is a sharper fall than in previous recessions, and a fall that has demonstrated significant persistence.

?If workers have less, and less good, capital to work with they will produce less,? says the report. ?The report also blames the misallocation of capital, suggesting an impaired financial sector is failing to effectively deliver capital towards more productive and away from less productive firms.

The report rejected some of the other explanations given for what it terms the ?productivity puzzle?. One was the ?labour hoarding? argument, the suggestion firms are employing more workers than necessary.?It also dismissed the idea the demise of financial services has led directly to a fall in productivity.

Another interesting finding by the report was the public sector has bucked this trend.?There has been a 6% fall in public sector employment since 2009, a period during which public sector output rose slightly.

The report notes:

?The long run effects of lower employment on service quality remains to be seen.?

Wenchao Jin, a research economist at IFS, commented:

??The fall in labour productivity seems to have been driven by low real wages and low firm investment. Productivity slowdown has happened right across the economy. They have not been driven by a change in the composition of the economy nor by a change in the composition of the workforce.?

See also:

? This depression is the longest in modern history, so why is the economy still creating jobs? ? January 25th, 2013

? GDP growth masks fall in wages and impact on union rights ? October 29th, 2012

? The economic puzzle: The stats may be good but the grim jobs news keeps coming ? October 26th, 2012

Source: http://www.leftfootforward.org/2013/02/why-are-british-workers-getting-less-productive/

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Four At Once: Volcano Quartet Erupts On Kamchatka

anavictoriasaavedra writes "A unique show is taking place on Kamchatka these days: Four separate but nearby volcanoes are erupting simultaneously on the Russian peninsula. A Moscow film crew has produced an awe-inspiring 360-degree video of the natural fireworks." The video is well worth watching and panning around in. There are also a bunch of high-res still photo panoramas.

Source: http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdotScience/~3/4141xnUls9s/story01.htm

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Somali govt charges woman who says she was raped

MOGADISHU, Somalia (AP) ? A human rights group says the Somali government has charged a woman who has said she was raped by security forces. The group said a journalist who interviewed her was also charged.

Human Rights Watch said three other people, including the woman's husband, were charged with assisting the alleged rape victim to evade investigators. The rights group said in statement Wednesday that Somali government should drop the politically motivated charges.

Rights groups say there is an increase in media attention given to the high prevalence of rape and other sexual violence in Somalia, including attacks allegedly committed by security forces.

Rape is rampant in Mogadishu, where tens of thousands of people who fled a famine in 2011 in the south live in poorly protected camps. Government troops are often blamed.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/somali-govt-charges-woman-says-she-raped-094409720.html

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IDC: iPad loses a little marketshare, still dominates global tablet sales in Q4 2012

While Samsung continues to claim the top spot in smartphone sales, Apple is doing the same with tablets. According to IDC, the iPad (in all its shapes) is still the most popular tablet -- by a long way. Apple claimed a 43.6 percent market share for the last quarter, shipping 22.9 million tablets. The iOS tablets lost 6.8 percent of the market share during the quarter, although this loss is substantially less than what IDC monitored earlier this year. Since the same period last year, that's an increase of 48.1 percent Apple tablets shipped, while total tablet numbers increased 74.3 percent in total. Samsung sidles into second place with all those different screen sizes shipping 7.9 million units and claiming a 15.1 percent market share -- since Q4 2011 that's a huge 263 percent year-on-year increase. Amazon (11.5 percent marketshare) ASUS (5.8 percent) and Barnes and Noble (1.9 percent) round out the top five, while other manufacturers were still able to claim 22.1 percent of total tablet sales -- presumably including Microsoft's Surface, whose effect was described as "muted". The full table of sales and marketshare is right after the break.

(Update: IDC has released some corrected figures. We've adjusted our write-up above.)

Filed under: Tablets, Apple, Samsung

Comments

Via: TNW

Source: IDC

Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/T84Js7b8_eU/

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