Golar LNG Revenues Rise (Bermuda)>> LNG World News

Golar LNG Limited reported consolidated net income of $35.4 million and consolidated operating income of $58.0 million for the three months ended June 30 .

Revenues in the second quarter were $107.0 million as compared to $83.1 million for the first quarter of 2012. The increase is primarily as a result of increased rates for Golar Arctic and Golar Grand throughout the quarter following the commencement of their new 3 year charters and, both NR Satu and Golar Viking commencing new charters in May. This is reflected in an improved average Time Charter Equivalent (TCE) rate for the second quarter at $97,118 per day compared to $90,464 for the first quarter.

Operating costs in the second quarter at $17.8 million are lower than the first quarter at $27.9 million. This is mainly due to the majority of the expensed reactivation costs for both Hilli and Gandria being incurred in the first quarter of 2012 as both vessels completed their reactivation in April.

Net interest expense for the second quarter at $8.5 million is higher than the $6.1 million incurred in the first quarter mainly due to a full quarter?s interest charge accruing on the Company?s convertible bond issue in March 2012.

Other financial items increased to a loss of $4.4 million in the second quarter compared to $2.6 million in the first quarter. This is mainly due to the negative movement in the valuation of currency swaps and forward contracts.

Tax expense is higher this quarter at $0.4 million compared to a first quarter?s tax credit of $1.2 million. This is mainly due to tax provisions made in respect of the company?s Indonesian operations related to the ownership and management of the company?s fourth FSRU, the NR Satu. However, the tax exposure in Indonesia is mitigated by the recognition of revenue from the charterer such that the taxes paid are fully recovered.

LNG World News Staff, August 23, 2012

Source: http://www.lngworldnews.com/golar-lng-revenues-rise-bermuda/

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Refinery fire probe looks at spark sources

RICHMOND, Calif. (AP) ? Investigators probing the cause of a blaze at Chevron's Richmond refinery are looking at heaters and responding emergency vehicles as possible ignition sources for the massive vapor cloud that spewed from an old, leaky pipe.

U.S. Chemical Safety Board investigator Don Holmstrom says refineries like Chevron's have fired heaters that could have provided a spark for the Aug. 6 inferno.

Holmstrom said a responding Chevron fire truck could be another possible source of ignition, since the 150-to-200-foot-high vapor cloud covered a large area.

The blaze knocked an important refinery unit offline, reducing the facility's production and sending thousands of people to hospitals with breathing and eye irritation complaints.

The average price for a gallon of regular on Wednesday in California was $4.09, up from $3.86 Aug. 7.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/refinery-fire-probe-looks-spark-sources-160750933.html

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What Does a Good Death Mean to You and Your Family? Have You ...

When my father was healthy, he used to jokingly say that he would throw himself off the Golden Gate Bridge when he got old and too sick to care for himself.? But, years later, when he was dying of metastatic melanoma, he didn?t talk about how or where he wanted to die with me or my brother.? And, even though I was in Medical School at the time and should have known better, I didn?t bring it up either.? Luckily, his wife, my wonderful step-mother Toni, took charge.? With the help of one of her other step-daughters, a nurse, she provided my Dad with comfortable, round the clock care.? He died at home surrounded by people he loved and who loved him.? For my family, despite the ravages of an unforgiving illness, this was a ?good death.?

We were lucky.? Although polls show that most people say want to die at home, however, most end up dying in hospitals, nursing homes, and other institutions.? Of course, there are times when it is unavoidable.? But there are other times when it occurs because the wishes of the person dying were not known.

A new project, spearheaded by Ellen Goodman and colleagues in collaboration with the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI) aims to change that.? Called The Conversation Project, its goal is ?to make it easier to initiate conversations about dying, and to encourage people to talk now and as often as necessary so that their wishes are known when the time comes.?

The Project?s cornerstone is a website that offers visitors a Conversation Starter Kit and asks people to submit their personal stories to be shared at theconversationproject.org and via You Tube, Twitter, and Facebook.? The idea is to hear other people?s stories about the deaths of friends and relatives.? And, to tell your own? hopefully normalizing the experience and making future Converstions easier to have.

The Project does not judge what is a ?Good Death? and what is a bad one.? And it does not advocate for any particular type of end-of-life approach.? Rather it focuses on people telling their loved ones about their end of life preferences.

I had an opportunity to preview some of the stories that appear on the site that just went live today, August 13, 2012.? Each one is different. ?One tells the story a detail-oriented dad writing to his daughter about all of his end-of-life issues, ranging from exactly what and where his assets were to which hymns he wanted sung at his memorial and exactly who was to give his eulogy.

Another is about an 86 year old mother of six who was lucky enough to spend 75 years with the man she loved.? After he died at the age of 88, she decided she did not want to live any longer.? She was 86 and living in a rehab facility.? She asked her daughters to take her for a chocolate milkshake after his memorial.? And then ?she simply stopped eating and drinking.?

One person wrote about being willing to let her 80 year old mom die without aggressive medical intervention she knew her mom did not want ? because her mom had talked to her about her wishes.? But her sister, who had not had the conversation about end of life wishes with said, ?I am not ready.?? The aggressive interventions were instituted and the mother survived the hospitalization and is now living, ?her worst nightmare? of physical incapacity in a nursing home.

One man described visiting his dad who was dying from an inoperable brain tumor in his room in a nursing home.? Although often unresponsive, that morning, he woke up and motioned his son to come close, asking him if he was going to get better.? The son told him he wasn?t. ?The dad then told him he did not want to continue in this way and asked his son to tell the doctors he had had enough.?? The son did as he was asked.

After reading these stories, I realized that although my husband and I have had advance directives for years, we have not had ?The Conversation.?? And, outside of joking remarks, like my Dad did with me, our grown-up kids don?t really know how we want out end-of-life experience to be.? We are all going to be together at Thanksgiving.? One of the things that is going to be on the menu of our favorite holiday this year will be a family discussion of our end-of-life preferences.

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Source: http://healthworkscollective.com/psalber/44076/what-does-good-death-mean-you-and-your-family-have-you-had-conversation

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Chaussures Femme tods Why You Should Take to Investing Early in ...

One thing?s for sure. The longer you keep your money in your investment portfolio working for you, the more money you?ll accumulate for whatever goal or opportunity that is out there waiting for you.

The good news is you don?t have to panic. But you do have to get serious about it. Making up for lost time could mean cutting back on your spending. If you don?t start saving or investing in stocks or other instruments until your forties, you?ll need to set aside 20 percent of your gross income. If you wait until your fifties, your target will have to be 30 percent. As a last resort, you may have to sell your house, your cottage, and your second car; get a second job; and reduce your leisure spending. Recent changes in tax laws by Congress also help. Late starters can put double the amount away for retirement in their prime earning years ? fifty and beyond ? to help lessen the blow of dragging their feet and starting their retirement planning so late.

- Year 3: $133

- If you set aside $200 a month at a 10.2 percent return, you could start investing at age twenty-one and stop ten years later and have a $1 million nest egg at age sixty-five. That means a $22,Mocassins Tod?s,000 investment over one decade gets you $1 million down the road. Of course, assuming continued inflation, $1 million then won?t buy you what $1 million would today. But it?ll buy you a heck of a lot more than nothing will.

It gets better the sooner you start. Sure, they say life begins at forty. But saving for retirement should have started long before that ? if you believe all those retirement planning books and articles. It?s advice many people ignore. What if you?re now in your forties and you haven?t even started?

Here?s a trick some financial planners use. To find out how many years it will take your mutual fund investment to double, divide the annual rate of return by 72. So at a 7 percent return, your money will double in ten years and quadruple in twenty years.

Let?s say that you have invested $100 that is compounded at 10 percent per year. Here?s what you can expect to happen:

The Rule of 72

- Year 1: $110
Why You Should Take to Investing Early in Life
- Year 50: $11,739

Who knows? Life offers up opportunities when we least expect them. So if a friend offers you a chance to manage your own pub in Ireland or if you get the chance to sail around the world,Bottes Tod?s Bank Guarantee ? What Is It-, that?s great. But only if you?re in a position to pay for it.

If you?re lucky enough to start investing early, you can take more risk. That doesn?t mean putting all your money into penny stocks. But it does mean having a greater percentage of your investments in higher-earning equities rather than the more cautious Treasury and savings bonds that many people select as they get older.

- If you start investing $100 a month at age twenty-five into a retirement account that gains 10 percent a year, by age sixty-five you?ll have $632,000. But if you don?t start investing the same amount until you?re thirty-five, you?ll only take away $226,Using TradeStation Indicators,000 when you retire. Starting at twenty-five will get you $406,000 more,De luxe Ballerines Tod?s Unproblematic Ways To Sav, at a cost of only $12,000.

Consider these examples:

After one year, your investment only gains a measly ten bucks. But look what happens when you give your investment a real chance to grow? After fifty years, you?ve earned quite a bundle. The moral of the story? The longer you keep your money invested, the bigger your total return will be.

Retirement may not be your only financial goal as you continue to invest and beef up your portfolio. You may want to quit your job and start your own business. You may want to buy a vacation home. You may want to go back to college.

- Year 2: $121Bottes Tod?s Bank Guarantee ? What Is It-

Source: http://zedfed.com/?p=41827

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House files suit against Holder over gov't records

FILE - In this July 26, 2012 file photo, Attorney General Eric Holder speaks in the Cabinet Room of the White House in Washington. The Republican-run House has asked a federal court to enforce a subpoena against Attorney General Eric Holder. The subpoena demands that Holder produce records related to a bungled gun-tracking operation known as Operation Fast and Furious. The failure of Holder and House Republicans to work out a deal on the documents led to a vote in June that held the attorney general in contempt of Congress. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh, File)

FILE - In this July 26, 2012 file photo, Attorney General Eric Holder speaks in the Cabinet Room of the White House in Washington. The Republican-run House has asked a federal court to enforce a subpoena against Attorney General Eric Holder. The subpoena demands that Holder produce records related to a bungled gun-tracking operation known as Operation Fast and Furious. The failure of Holder and House Republicans to work out a deal on the documents led to a vote in June that held the attorney general in contempt of Congress. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh, File)

WASHINGTON (AP) ? The Republican-run House on Monday asked a federal court to enforce a subpoena against Attorney General Eric Holder, demanding that he produce records on a bungled gun-tracking operation known as Operation Fast and Furious.

The lawsuit asked the court to reject a claim by President Barack Obama asserting executive privilege, a legal position designed to protect certain internal administration communications from disclosure.

The failure of Holder and House Republicans to work out a deal on the documents led to votes in June that held the attorney general in civil and criminal contempt of Congress. The civil contempt resolution led to Monday's lawsuit.

Holder refused requests by the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee to hand over ? without preconditions ? documents that could explain why the Justice Department initially denied in February 2011 that a risky tactic was used to allow firearms to "walk" from Arizona to Mexico.

Federal agents lost track of many of the guns. The operation identified more than 2,000 illicitly purchased weapons, and some 1,400 of them have yet to be recovered.

The department failed to acknowledge its incorrect statement for 10 months.

"Portentously, the (Justice) Department from the outset actively resisted cooperating fully with the committee's investigation," the lawsuit said.

"Among other things, the department initially declined to produce documents; later produced only very limited numbers of documents in piecemeal fashion; refused to make available to the committee certain witnesses; and limited the committee's questioning of other witnesses who were made available," it said.

The Justice Department previously said that it would not bring criminal charges against its boss. Democrats have labeled the civil and criminal contempt citations a political stunt.

Numerous lawmakers said this was the first time a Cabinet official had been held in contempt.

The lawsuit asked that:

?The executive privilege claim by Obama be declared invalid.

?Holder's objection to the House records subpoena be rejected.

?The attorney general produce all records related to the Justice Department's incorrect assertion in early 2011 that gun-walking did not take place.

The administration's position reciting the words "executive privilege" rests entirely on a common law privilege known as the "deliberative process privilege" and "is legally baseless," says the lawsuit.

Historically, there are two main types of executive privilege. One privilege, for "presidential communications," only covers the president and the work of top aides preparing advice for the president.

?The other, known as "deliberative process privilege," covers a much wider category of administration officials, even if they weren't working on something for the president specifically.? Presidents are required to have a stronger argument to justify keeping secrets under this broader authority, which can involve documents they never saw or were even intended to see.

A federal appeals court has ruled that this broader privilege is easier for Congress to overcome and it "disappears altogether when there is any reason to believe government misconduct has occurred."

The lawsuit said the documents "would enable the committee (and the American people) to understand how and why the department provided false information to Congress and otherwise obstructed the committee's concededly legitimate investigation."

It challenged the executive privilege claim on several legal grounds, contending it was asserted indirectly by the deputy attorney general in a letter to Congress, and that the documents do not involve any advice to the president. The department's actions do not involve core constitutional functions of the president, the suit said.

The suit contended the administration's position, if accepted, "would cripple congressional oversight of executive branch agencies...."

In past cases, courts have been reluctant to settle disputes between the executive and legislative branches of government.

Given recent experience, the Republican-controlled committee's lawsuit could result in a compromise or an appeal by the losing side.

In 2008, a federal judge rejected the George W. Bush administration's position that senior presidential advisers could not be forced to testify to the House Judiciary Committee. The decision was regarded as vindication of Congress's investigative powers.

But the ruling also said that Congress's authority to compel testimony from executive branch officials was not unlimited. The Bush administration appealed, but after Barack Obama became president in 2009, the newly elected Congress and the administration reached a settlement. Some of the documents at issue in the case were provided to the House and former White House counsel Harriet Miers testified.

The battle over congressional subpoenas for documents and testimony arose when Congress looked into whether political motives and White House involvement had prompted the dismissal of U.S. attorneys.

Gun-walking long has been barred by Justice Department policy, but federal agents in Arizona experimented with it in three investigations during the George W. Bush administration before Operation Fast and Furious. The agents in Arizona lost track of several hundred weapons in the three earlier operations.

___

Associated Press Writer Pete Yost contributed to this story.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2012-08-13-Fast%20and%20Furious/id-9df5014ef3f942f2b650260c184eaf9d

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Philanthropy: The culture of asking

By Kate Hunter, Executive Director, CASE Europe.

There is nothing new about philanthropy and education. Many of the origins of the UK?s 250 or more higher education institutions lie in the generosity and far-sightedness of individuals, communities and organisations. Two centuries ago the citizens of Glasgow contributed through a subscription campaign to move the growing University of Glasgow to a new campus in the west end of the city; a legacy from insurer Barber Beaumont led to the establishment of the People?s Palace, an institution providing education for the people of the capital?s East End, today known as Queen Mary, University of London. Shipping magnate Joseph Constantine made a gift that led to the establishment of Constantine technical college in the north east, a predecessor institution of Teesside University.

These stories of transformation and philanthropic support for education are replicated in cities and institutions all over the country. Some might say that these are examples of Victorian philanthropy where a sense of moral duty or noblesse oblige among the wealthy was the driver behind such generosity. Today educational philanthropy is reinventing itself, with more and more people giving to support universities and a greater understanding and active support for the case for education. With state funding for higher education unlikely to increase, philanthropy has an increasingly significant role to play in HE?s financial equation. It will never replace state support, nor are donors motivated to support an institution?s core costs, but philanthropy can provide for the margin of excellence, accelerate change and allow for budget offsetting. Universities are ?exempt charities? and so asking for philanthropic support is completely legitimate; some may even refer to this as a moral imperative.

For almost a decade successive UK governments have recognized and encouraged, through a range of interventions, a culture of asking and giving to support higher education. A capacity building programme and a ?200m investment in the Matched Funding for Voluntary Giving scheme from 2008-2011 have focused on professionalizing fundraising and incentivising gifts. This pioneering initiative ? amid the economic crisis ? helped the number of donors giving to our higher education institutions grow to over 200,000, up by 20 per cent over two years, with cash income raised by the sector now reaching over ?0.5 billion per year for the last three years.

Universities are becoming more professional in their fundraising approaches and stewardship of donors. They are also increasingly able to communicate the positive impact that gifts of any size can make. They are getting better at ?asking?, which more frequently brings positive responses from alumni and others. Making a gift to a university is no longer the domain of just the very rich; it?s becoming something that ordinary people, including students, do. This year?s Loughborough University?s ?20.12 ?gradgift? scheme saw over 600 students and supporters contribute funds for? student hardship and other projects.

Today?s donors are motivated for three principal reasons. First, they want to create opportunities for scholarship and study, supporting deserving students in need of ?nancial assistance, or projects which provide wider access to higher education. Second, they may be driven by a sense of gratitude for their own experiences of higher education and want to see that continued for the next generation. Third, donors of all sorts and sizes recognise that solutions for many of the challenges facing the global community lie in the university research laboratory, classroom or lecture hall. Our universities are where the answers to problems of global warming, health inequalities and social equity are to be found. Donors are excited by the truly cutting-edge research and transformative teaching that our universities continue to deliver on a regular basis.

In making a gift to a university, donors of all types and levels want their contribution to make a difference to a cause, project, institution or community that they care passionately about. This desire to achieve transformation and impact is a common motivation among donors. The ground-breaking ?7million gift, announced last week, from the John & Lucille van Geest Foundation to the University of Leicester to support cardiovascular research is undoubtedly an exceptional gift, motivated by similar reasons. It will have transformative effect on future cardiovascular patients in the Leicester community and ultimately globally ? they will benefit from accelerated research and personalised medicine.

Equally significantly, the Leicester gift is one of a growing number of multi-million pound donations made to an increasing number and type of institution across UK higher education. Recent gifts from Mica Ertegun and Michael Moritz to support scholarships at Oxford are truly inspirational, but let?s also applaud the ?10m gift to Southampton University for cancer immunology, Dickson Poon?s ?20m gift for King?s College London?s School of Law and Nat Puri?s ?1m gift for engineering at London South Bank University. These gifts raise ambitions, sights and set examples. While some institutions may have previously dismissed fundraising, saying ?we don?t have the tradition, projects or alumni profile?, the success of Leicester and other universities demonstrate that the cumulative fundraising advantage, or ?Matthew effect?, may not always be true. Next month?s HEFCE review of higher education philanthropy, led by Professor Shirley Pearce, is expected to bust that particular myth once and for all.

Kate Hunter is Executive Director at CASE Europe. You can find her on Twitter @kahunter.

Source: http://leicesterexchanges.com/2012/08/13/the-culture-of-asking/

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Tax Credits and Deductions | Finance Business Marketing

Your goal when preparing your taxes is to try to reduce as much as possible your gross. Tax credits and deductions are the tools you use to cut your gross down.

Most people focus on tax deductions when preparing their taxes. It is the most common of terms and understood by just about everyone. If you are new to the process, is simply a tax deduction on that amount you can subtract from your gross earnings. For instance, you might own a small business and drive a lot. The business mileage is deductible, so you should be able to claim a deduction for the mileage rate per mile times the Appropriate allowed by the IRS. Once you claim all your deductions, your gross will be reduced to a number called a net profit for businesses or adjusted gross income for personal taxes. Tax deductions are held up as the great tool for the masses. I scoff at tax deductions. They are helpful, but pale in comparison to the mighty tax credit. Let me make it clear. My tax credit will crush your tax deduction just about any day. Most people fail to look for tax credits when preparing their returns. Heck, many people do not even know what they are. Let?s take a look. A tax credit is a beautiful thing. Why? Well, it is not helpful like a tax deduction when it comes to reducing your gross. It is far more powerful. A tax credit is deducted from the tax you owe. Let that sink in for a minute. It is a dollar for dollar reduction of the amount you mine you have deterministic to pay the IRS after figuring out your net profit or adjusted gross income. Let?s look at an example. Assume I suddenly decide to adopt a child. The federal government thinks this is a noble goal and it is going to reward me. I am going to get a tax credit of roughly $ 10,000 or so. I go ahead and prepare my taxes for the year. After deducting everything legitimate, I end up with my adjusted gross income. I flip over to the tax tables and discover I owe $ 11,000 to the IRS. Yikes! Wait a minute. I get to deduct my $ 10,000 tax credit. Now I only $ 1,000! This is the value of the tax credit. Tax credits are incredibly powerful ways to knock down your tax liability. Claim as many deductions as you can, but make absolutely sure to claim every tax credit possible.

Source: http://www.loveshuoshuo.info/?p=36942&utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=tax-credits-and-deductions

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Happy Dreams Massage Therapy for Ladies - Kuala Lumpur, Health ...

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Source: http://www.sheryna.com.my/Happy-Dreams-Massage-Therapy-for-Ladies-Kuala-Lumpur-447098

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Ruby Sparks : CineSnob

Zoe Kazan and Paul Dano combine rom-com and magic realism in "Ruby Sparks."

Starring: Paul Dano, Zoe Kazan, Chris Messina
Directed by: Jonathan Dayton (?Little Miss Sunshine?) and Valerie Faris (?Little Miss Sunshine?)
Written by: Zoe Kazan (debut)

Vanity Fair had the right idea late last year when it started recapping episodes of the comedy series ?New Girl? by categorizing each of Zooey Deschanel?s idiosyncrasies as either ?adorkable? (a personality trait described as dorky and adorable) or ?tweepulsive? (the same trait, but at a more cloying level). It?s not a standard gauge for most critics, but with a surge of overly-quirky scripts like ?Ruby Sparks? finding their way to the big and small screen in the last few years, it?s one that definitely needs to be adopted faster than Greta Gerwig can ride her vintage Schwinn to a nerdcore concert. Aren?t stereotypes fun?

Add the name Zoe Kazan (granddaughter of legendary director Elia Kazan) into the ever-growing list of annoyingly-charming actresses who will find it difficult to inject the right amount of cuteness into a role before someone decides they want to put a pillow over said actress?s face. The possibility for asphyxiation is two-fold for Kazan who not only stars in Sparks, but is also credited as the lone screenwriter. The story follows Calvin (Paul Dano), a novelist with writer?s block who writes a female character (with his typewriter, of course) for his new book and is stunned when she appears in the real world.

Directed by Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris (?Little Miss Sunshine?), ?Sparks? is a clever little idea reminiscent of 2006?s underappreciated Will Ferrell comedy ?Stranger Than Fiction.? Its problem, however, lies in Kazan?s calculated screenplay, which never materializes into anything as interesting as its initial concept. Kazan shows signs of potential, but she fluffs up Sparks instead of examining its darker elements. Until she learns naming a writer?s dog F. Scott Fitzgerald is beyond pretentious (and even more so if she is being ironic), she?ll settle somewhere in the middle of the pack where writers suffering from writer?s block isn?t necessarily a bad thing.

Grade: C

Source: http://www.cinesnob.net/archives/ruby-sparks/

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