Lower Oil Prices Lead Iraqi Security Forces to Cut Payrolls Halt Key Purchases

The security chief of Massey Energy's Upper Big Branch mine was arrested Monday and charged with obstructing the investigation into last year's explosion that killed 29 miners, the first criminal charges stemming from the worst

Reviews

[Mabry]

A push to win over skeptics of the immigration bill by devoting more money to securing the border with Mexico weakened support for the bill among some pro-immigrant groups.     Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic, the spaceship that will carry 500 people who have signed up for a trip to space, made its first powered flight and broke the sound barrier for its first time.    In speech at conference, Harvard professor implied economist lacked foresight because he was childless and gayHistorian and author Niall Ferguson has apologised "unreservedly" for "stupid and tactless" remarks in which he implied that John Maynard Keynes did not care about future generations – because he was childless and gay.Ferguson, a professor at Harvard, was speaking at the Altegris conference in California, which attracts an audience of investors and financial analysts, when he was asked questions about the influential British economist. "I made comments about John Maynard Keynes that were as stupid as they were insensitive," he said in a statement emailed to the Observer and also posted on his website.The apology came after reports emerged from bloggers and financial reporters at the conference that Ferguson claimed Keynes's economic philosophy was influenced by his homosexuality. Lance Roberts, a reporter for the website StreetTalk Live, posted a transcript of notes taken from Ferguson's speech and a question-and-answer session afterwards.Roberts said Ferguson appeared to allude to a theory that Keynes's long-term economic theories were flawed because he was gay and had no children. "Keynes was a homosexual and had no intention of having children. We are not dead in the long run … our children are our progeny. It is the economic ideals of Keynes that have gotten us into the problems of today," Roberts wrote in his notes of Ferguson's remarks.Another reporter, Tom Kostigen of Financial Advisor, gave a longer account. Kostigen wrote that Ferguson had also made mention of the fact that Keynes had married a ballerina, despite his gay affairs. "Ferguson asked the audience how many children Keynes had. He explained that Keynes had none because he was a homosexual and was married to a ballerina, with whom he likely talked of 'poetry' rather than procreated," Kostigen wrote. He added that the audience at the event went quiet when the remarks were uttered.The account was also backed up by a Twitter message posted by conference attendee and journalist Daniel Jamieson, a senior editor at Investment News. "Ferguson … Keynes didn't care about the long-run 'cause he was a homosexual, had no children'," he wrote.In his apology Ferguson explained: "I had been asked to comment on Keynes's famous observation 'In the long run we are all dead.' The point I had made in my presentation was that in the long run our children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren are alive and will have to deal with the consequences of our economic actions."He added: "I should not have suggested – in an off-the-cuff response that was not part of my presentation forex growth bot Keynes was indifferent to the long run because he had no children, nor that he had no children because he was gay. This was doubly stupid. First, it is obvious that people who do not have children also care about future generations. Second, I had forgotten that Keynes's wife Lydia miscarried."Kostigen left little doubt in his account that he found Ferguson's remarks offensive. "Apparently, in Ferguson's world, if you are gay or childless, you cannot care about future generations nor society. This takes gay-bashing to new heights," Kostigen wrote.Ferguson insisted he was not anti-gay. "My disagreements with Keynes's economic philosophy have never had anything to do with his sexual orientation. It is simply false to suggest, as I did, that his approach to economic policy was inspired by any aspect of his personal life. As those who know me and my work are well aware, I detest all prejudice, sexual or otherwise," he said."My colleagues, students and friends – straight and gay – have every right to be disappointed in me, as I am in myself. To them, and to everyone who heard my remarks at the conference or has read them since, I deeply and unreservedly apologise," he added.Ferguson's retracted assessment of Keynes's outlook echoes arguments previously aired by American historian Gertrude Himmelfarb. She wrote that the economist's links to the Bloomsbury set – known for their philosophy of living for the moment – were reflected in his economic theories. Himmelfarb, too, mentions Keynes's "in the long run" pronouncement and cites Austrian economist Joseph Schumpeter who once referred to Keynes's "childless vision".Ferguson, a Scot, is an outspoken figure who has written numerous bestselling books on history and economics including Empire: How Britain Made the Modern World and The Ascent of Money: A Financial History of the World.He has fought in public with other well-known figures, including Nobel prizewinning economist Paul Krugman over the economic policies of Barack Obama, and writer Pankaj Mishra. Mishra had been critical of Ferguson's book Civilisation in the London Review of Books and Ferguson accused him of labelling him as a racist and threatened to sue for libel.Ferguson's views, often criticised for placing too much of a positive spin on western empires and imperialism, have won high-profile support among some rightwing politicians, especially the British education secretary, Michael Gove.Niall FergusonGay rightsHarvard UniversityUnited StatesSexualityPaul Harrisguardian.co.uk © 2013 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds     The latest simulator for the upcoming Firefox mobile OS is aimed to please developers planning to sell applications.     MIT composer Peter Child may have been born in England, but these days he's steeped in "Americana.""Americana" is the title of a program to be presented by the New England Philharmonic, where Child is composer in residence. The program will include the world premiere of Child's choral piece, "The Sifting: Three fat burning furnace pdf Longfellow." The orchestra presents "Americana" on Saturday, March 4, in Kresge Auditorium at 8 p.m. Admission is free with an MIT ID."The Sifting" will be performed with the Simmons College Chorale, directed by Sharon Brown, and the Boston Conservatory's Women's Chorus, directed by Miguel Felipe. Child selected the three Longfellow poems with the Philharmonic's theme in mind, he said. The trio express a "compelling Romantic philosophy," he said. "They condemn worldly ambition, express a sense of ideal reality that underlies appearance and everyday illusion, and extol a sense of divinity contained in human beings. It is this 'transcendentalist' quality, combined with their lyricism, that attracted me," Child writes in his program notes. The concert will also include Elliott Carter's "Variations for Orchestra"; Gunther Schuller's "Violin Concerto No. 2" (Danielle Maddon, violin); and Charles Ives' "Three Places in New England." For more information, visit www.nephilharmonic.org. Flexible, inflatable device combines 180 lenses In the saloon at the center of Adam Szymkowicz’s “Clown Bar” the regulars wear clown makeup and costumes, and speak in the hard-boiled slang of 1930s gangsters. CIA Director Leon Panetta helped touch off an avalanche of erroneous expectations Thursday when he testified that there was a "strong likelihood" that Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak would step down by the end of the day. PANAMA CITY, FLA. -- Most people who arrive for their weekend getaway in the hot and humid area commonly called the "Redneck Riviera" make a beeline for the beach, rip off their clothes and take a quick dive in the ocean. President Obama drew fire Sunday from congressional Republicans and independent budget experts for his reluctance to advance a plan that would tackle the nation's biggest budget problems in the spending blueprint he will submit to Congress on Monday. THE QUESTION Numerous studies have shown cholesterol-lowering statins to aid in preventing complications and progression of cardiovascular disease, extending the lives of those who take them. But do the drugs do the same for people who do not have the disease and want to keep from developing it? The first thing to go might be your smartphone's connection to YouTube, with videos becoming increasingly choppy and then one day just failing to download. In your impatience, you decide to scout out the latest posts in the Twittersphere, except that, too, is temporarily down. Your e-mail is stal... Carruthers at Uttoxeter is the best bet of the dayFfos Las1.55 Fishing Bridge 2.30 Bob Ford 3.05 Overnight Fame 3.40 Enter Milan 4.15 Mountainous 4.50 Sentimentaljourney 5.25 Monkey Kingdom (nb)Kempton2.15 Lordofthehouse 2.50 Poungach 3.25 Shernando 4.00 Kandari 4.35 Open Hearted 5.10 Great's Autrechene 5.40 The SkyfarmerLingfield1.45 Wordiness 2.20 Tarooq 2.55 Teophilip 3.30 Farraaj 4.05 Spring Tonic 4.40 Grey Mirage 5.15 Cool SkyUttoxeter2.05 Rocky Elsom 2.40 Savant Bleu 3.15 Hold Court 3.50 Carruthers (nap) 4.25 Financial Climate 5.00 Mr Robinson 5.30 Deputy DanWolverhampton5.50 Dashwood 6.20 Classic Colori 6.50 Mr Plod 7.20 Hiddon Coin 7.50 Rise To Glory 8.20 google sniper review Eric The Grey 9.20 HallstattHorse racing tipsHorse racingChris Cookguardian.co.uk © 2013 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds Worried about fitting into your bathing suit, shorts and other revealing summer clothes without feeling chronically hungry and deprived? The inaugural Ballymaloe Literary Festival of Food and Wine celebrates the art of food writing.     The Justice Department sued BP and eight other companies Wednesday over the Gulf of Mexico oil disaster, the federal government's first legal filing in its broad investigation of the worst oil spill in U.S. history. "I Love New York" is not only a popular ad campaign to promote tourism in the Empire State. It also sums up the affection felt by millions who call the Big Apple home. Three new titles explore the city's diverse neighborhoods, history and charm. Reviews of “The Rape of Lucretia,” recorded live at the Aldeburgh Festival in England, and other releases. It was likely the first time Senegalese sabar drums, a cello, a didgeridoo, an accordion, a piano and panpipes made from test tubes all occupied one stage together. From Balinese gamelan to original glass instruments, the CAST (Center for Art, Science & Technology) Marathon concert presented five full hours of genre-bending new music on April 5 in MIT's Kresge Auditorium. A follow-up to 2011's FAST Forward Marathon concert, the concert celebrated the convergence of art and technology — from simple percussive acts to the most sophisticated gestural controls — and showcased the many creative tools and techniques used by artists from MIT and beyond. Evan Ziporyn, Kenan Sahin Distinguished Professor of Music, curated the concert in the spirit of aesthetic adventurousness. The marathon brought together the vast and diverse musical talent that has always existed at MIT, further galvanized by the expertise of visiting artists from a variety of styles and traditions. During FAST, Ziporyn says, "We learned just how many artists and how much artistic activity there already was at MIT; the energy and ideas that are produced when you simply nudge these people a bit closer together, particularly when you stir the pot with a few outside guests, is amazing." Opening the show was MIT's own Gamelan Galak Tika led by Guest Creative Director Dewa Alit, a gamelan master. Featured also were special guests Hauschka and Pamela Z, two artists at the forefront of contemporary experimental music. Employing custom MIDI controllers, Pamela Z used her classically trained voice, found text and objects, digital delay loops, and gestural controls to create layered and incantatory sound collages. With such experimental music, she says, "you can combine bel canto techniques with screeching. You don't have to pick one." Such creative suffusion was the order of the day. Hauschka also employed found objects in his extensions of John Cage's "prepared piano." By inserting everything from ping-pong micro niche finder bottle caps into the "guts" of the piano, Hauschka created distinctly un-piano like sounds, in an effort to replicate acoustically the sounds of electronica. At the concert, his piece "Radar" ingeniously reproduced the pulsing techno sounds of a dance club. The concert culminated in an unheard-of world fusion version of Terry Riley's minimalist masterpiece "In C." In the piece, renowned guest artists performed with members from six different MIT musical groups: The MIT Symphony Orchestra, MIT Wind Ensemble, Festival Jazz Ensemble, Rambax, Galak Tika and the new Glass Lab Band, whose original glass instruments were developed under the leadership of Glass Lab Director Peter Houk and Visiting Artist Mark Stewart. Perhaps no better a piece than "In C" to accommodate this multifarious cross section of musical practices. Heralded as the first of its kind when it debuted in 1964, the minimalist"In C" is composed of 53 short musical phrases which musicians are urged to play through at their own pace, creating ever-shifting layers of canons and polyrhythms. Holding the piece together is the metronomic C note called "The Pulse." Much of "In C" is left to chance; there is no fixed length or number of performers. At the concert, its loose, overlapping texture was both rousing and hypnotic at once, rising and falling over time. The idiosyncrasies of each particular instrument emerged the longer one listened, and then dissolved back into the river of sound. "Experimental glass instruments jamming together classical cellos and traditional Senegalese drums, making something beautiful, groovy and unprecedented to me this is a portrait of the arts at MIT," Ziporyn says. As early spring approaches, gardeners are thinking about their properties, and I've received questions about vehicular circulation, screening, controlling damage from deer and other topics. The PBS affiliate WGBH Boston/Channel 2 aired the MIT music documentary "Awakening: Evoking the Arab Spring Through Music" on May 31. Several firsts were involved in this event: the broadcast marked the first time PBS has shown an MIT music documentary; this was the first work that MIT Video Productions has produced specifically for broadcast television; and the 30-minute program featured the world premiere of "Awakening," by composer and MIT alumnus Jamshied Sharifi. The work debuted in March 2012, performed by the MIT Wind Ensemble led by Dr. Frederick E. Harris, director of wind and jazz ensembles for MIT Music and Theater Arts. Sylvia Mathews Burwell has been out of Washington for more than a decade, but President Obama’s pick to be his next budget director will see a familiar cast of characters if the Senate confirms her for the post. Read full article >> Meeting in Beijing, the presidents of the two countries agreed to work together to resume six-nation talks, stalled since 2008, aimed at ending the North’s nuclear programs. Rising gas prices are killing the cabbies and sending other drivers looking for different ways to get from here to