Sylvain Chavanel Wins De-Panne 2012

Final General Classification 

1 CHAVANEL, Sylvain (OMEGA PHARMA-QUICKSTEP) 12:05:44
2 WESTRA, Lieuwe (VACANSOLEIL-DCM) + 0:04
3 BODNAR, Maciej (LIQUIGAS-CANNONDALE) + 0:14
4 TUFT, Svein (GREENEDGE) + 0:17
5 TERPSTRA, Niki (OMEGA PHARMA-QUICKSTEP) + 0:18
6 SERGENT, Jesse (RADIOSHACK-NISSAN) + 0:22
7 DURBRIDGE, Luke (GREENEDGE) + 0:32
8 DEVOLDER, Stijn (VACANSOLEIL-DCM) + 0:39
9 IRIZAR ARANBURU, Markel (RADIOSHACK-NISSAN) + 0:51
10 TURGOT, Sébastien (EUROPCAR) + 0:55

Eddy Merckx Accused of Corruption Cycling

ENGLISH VERSION BELOW

El exciclista belga Eddy Merckx ha sido inculpado en un caso de corrupción relacionado con la policía local de Bruselas, que habría favorecido al quíntuple campeón del Tour en una subasta pública para la compra de un lote de bicicletas.

En el caso también está inculpado Philippe Boucar, comisario de Policía del distrito de Anderlecht (sur de Bruselas), quien habría favorecido a Merckx en la compra de la policía local de un pedido de 48 de bicicletas en el marco de una contratación pública, según el diario belga “La Dernière Heure”. Merckx, que desde su retirada del ciclismo profesional comercializa una marca de bicicletas con su propio nombre, se habría beneficiado presuntamente de esta licitación a cambio de dejar uno de estos vehículos a precio especial al comisario. Las bicicletas estaban destinadas a equipar la brigada ciclista de la policía de Anderlecht y fueron pagadas con fondos provenientes de las recaudaciones por multas de tráfico.

ENGLISH:

Eddy Merckx has been indicted in a corruption case related to the ordering of several dozen bikes from the Eddy Merckx brand by Anderlecht commissioner Philippe Boucar. Boucar is alleged to have benefited in 2006 and 2007 from the manufacturer Eddy Merckx Cycles by prematurely informing Merckx of the existence of the city’s wish to procure 48 bicycles, and by providing for Merckx the bids submitted by competing companies.

Boucar is suspected of having received a Merckx carbon bike well below retail price as part of the deal. The indictment was delayed to allow Merckx to receive the Legion of Honor award from French President Nicolas Sarkozy.

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Home Depot Layoffs 400 People in Baton Rouge

The Home Depot will lay off 225 workers in its customer support and distribution operations in Baton Rouge over the next 18 months.

Company spokesman Stephen Holmes told The Advocate (http://bit.ly/GZyFSK) that the layoffs will hit 90 workers at Home Depot’s distribution facility for online purchases. Another 135 will face layoffs in sales, purchasing and finance positions for Home Depot subsidiary Your Other Warehouse.

Holmes said the decision to cut the positions was made on geographic and logistical concerns. Atlanta-based Home Depot has most of its support functions in its home city.

“It just makes sense to have those centralized here with similar functions,” Holmes said.

Last October, Home Depot announced the layoffs of 400 people at its Baton Rouge call center. Holmes said those layoffs will be completed this summer following the opening of new centers in Atlanta and Ogden, Utah.

The company said employees will have the opportunity to pursue other positions with the company, and those who do not relocate or find another position in the company will be provided severance packages and outplacement assistance.

The 135 positions with Your Other Warehouse, which distributes bath and kitchen accessories, faucets and fixtures, will be consolidated in Atlanta. The 90 positions from the distribution facility also will probably end up in Georgia, he said.

From: http://ping.fm/g1khn

Villaraigosa L.A. Must Layoff Thousands of People

Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa said Thursday that he will call for layoffs of city employees as part of the budget he proposes next month.

“We’re going to lay off a large number of employees. I’m not going to say how many,” he told an audience at the City Administrative Officer Investors Conference, at the Grammy Museum in downtown’s L.A. Live complex.

The announcement comes weeks after the city’s five-member employee bargaining committee, which includes Villaraiogsa, asked city unions to give up raises that are scheduled for the fiscal year that begins July 1. Those unions refused to reopen contract talks.

Since the recession began, more than 300 city workers have been laid off and thousands more have retired or been transferred to agencies not affected by the budget crisis, such as the Department of Water and Power. The city now faces a $220-million budget shortfall.

Villaraigosa said his budget, which comes out April 20, will also include plans for a long-term lease of city parking garages — a proposal rejected by the City Council in the past. He also promised to seek pension reforms by pushing for a higher retirement age for city workers.

“I’ve said to our employees,” the mayor continued, “either we get it through the City Council … or I’m going to put an initiative on the ballot the way they’ve done in San Jose, the way they’ve already done in San Diego and the way they’re gonna do in cities around the country.”

From: http://ping.fm/yedAC

US Economic Hotels George4Title Reports

“Thanks Ben Bernanke, now, even a run down old motel room costs $29 plus tax. I wouldn’t even be able to call a cellphone or an 800 number according to the lady. How can I report something to the government from the room? They advertise WIFI, but there’s none really. The motel is owned by foreigners and Americans work for them at minimum wage. Don’t stay at this place unless you absolutely have to (located in Kingman AZ). It would be more pleasant to sleep out on the ground on BLM land. Housing sucks, apartments suck, motels suck, mcdonalds suck, everything is beginning to suck in America.” –George4Title
 

Cycling Helmets Prevent Brain Injury HDFT

HIGH DEFINITION FIBER TRACKING

This is the study of a man who was riding his ATV without wearing a helmet. CYCLISTS…wear a helmet at all times while riding your bike! The HDFT process uses data from MRI scanners which is then processed through algorithms to show a visualization of the brain along with the breaks along the “fiber tracts” which contains millions of neuronal connections. Traditional testing like CT scans and MRI’s only showed part of the story. After 3 weeks in a coma the patient still could not move his left side. For this particular patient, only the HDFT showed a lesion on the brain connected with his left-sided weakness.

This 32-year-old man sustained a severe TBI. Computed tomography and MRI revealed an area of hemorrhage in the basal ganglia with mass effect, but no specific information on the location of axonal injury could be obtained from these studies. Examinations of the patient at Week 3 and Week 8 after TBI revealed motor weaknesses of the left extremities. Four months postinjury, 257-direction diffusion spectrum imaging and HDFT analysis was performed to evaluate the degree of axonal damage in the motor pathway and quantify asymmetries in the left and right axonal pathways. High-definition fiber tracking was used to follow corticospinal and corona radiata pathways from the cortical surface to the midbrain and quantify projections from motor areas. Axonal damage was then localized by assessing the number of descending fibers at the level of the cortex, internal capsule, and midbrain. The motor deficit apparent in the clinical examinations correlated with the axonal losses visualized using HDFT. Fiber loss estimates at 4 months postinjury accurately predicted the nature of the motor deficits (severe, focal left-hand weakness) when other standard clinical imaging modalities did not. A repeat scan at 10 months postinjury, when edema and hemorrhage had receded, replicated the fiber loss. Using HDFT, the authors accurately identified the presence and location of damage to the underlying white matter in this patient with TBI. Detailed information of injury provided by this novel technique holds future potential for precise neuroimaging assessment of TBI.

Article Journal

People who take Ritalin are far more aware of their mistakes

A new study, by Dr Rob Hester from the Department of Psychological Sciences and colleagues at the Queensland Brain Institute, investigated how the brain monitors ongoing behaviour for performance errors — specifically failures of impulse control.

It found that a single dose of methylphenidate (Ritalin) results in significantly greater activity in the brain’s error monitoring network and improved volunteers’ awareness of their mistakes.

Diminished awareness of performance errors limits the extent to which humans correct their behaviour and has been linked to loss of insight in a number of clinical syndromes, including Alzheimer’s Disease, Schizophrenia and Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. The findings demonstrate that activity within those parts of the brain that deal with human error, including the dorsal anterior cingulate (dACC) and inferior parietal lobule (IPL) differs depending on whether participants are aware of their performance errors. Critically, researchers showed that a single, clinically relevant dose of methylphenidate, which works by increasing the levels of catecholamines in the brain, dramatically improved error awareness in healthy adults.
Researchers used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to show that methylphenidate was able to promote the conscious awareness of performance errors by strengthening activation differences within the dACC and IPL for errors made with and without awareness, compared to placebo and other comparison drugs.
While the study provided only a single dose of methylphenidate to healthy participants, and needed to be replicated in people using standard clinical doses, the data highlights the potential of pharmacotherapy in addressing problems of awareness and insight that features in a range of neurologic and psychiatric conditions.
Dr Hester said failure to recognise errors was related to poor insight into a person’s clinical condition, which can impair treatment.
“For example, in conditions such as Schizophrenia and Alzheimer’s Disease, poor error awareness has been associated with delusions, paranoia and has been the cause of considerable distress to patients,” he said.
“Failing to recognise your own error at the time can account for the difference between your recollection and the reality that confronts you. Understanding the brain mechanisms that underlie how we become conscious of our mistakes is an important first step in improving error awareness, and potentially reducing these symptoms.”

From: http://ping.fm/USYOZ

JFK Airport Baggage Scandal Thefts Per Day

Think twice before you check your luggage at John F. Kennedy International Airport.
Cash, jewelry, electronics and other valuables are being stolen from passengers’ baggage at a staggering rate.

It’s happening as a result of inside jobs that aren’t being stopped, CBS 2’s Marcia Kramer reports exclusively.

All Rita Lamberg has left is an empty jewelry drawer and pictures of the $160,000 worth of watches, rings and necklaces that were stolen from her baggage at JFK Airport.

“I am so sick. This is a lifetime, a lifetime of my savings,” Lamberg said.

But Lamberg isn’t alone. Law enforcement sources told Kramer that thefts at the airport have increased at a staggering and alarming rate. There are now more that 200 a day — and that’s every day. Baggage handlers, jetway workers and even security people are all in on the ongoing scam to steal you blind.

“The belly of the airplane has become like a flea market for airport employees. They go in there and go through all the luggage unencumbered, unchecked,” JFK security lawyer Kenneth Mollins said.

Mollins is representing Lamberg as she tries to get reimbursed by the airline. Former NYPD detective Frank Shea was hired by other clients who were also ripped off at the airport. They both said the theft problem at JFK is a nightmare that is going unchecked.

“What we’re seeing out there is that really anything that isn’t nailed down is being stolen and for that matter I would caution, some day, if there weren’t tires missing from an aircraft,” Shea said.

Sources told Kramer that one of the things that makes the thieves so successful is that they engage in luggage profiling. They go after the most expensive luggage, but they also check out where you come from. So if you live in Scarsdale or Muttontown or North Woodmere you’re more likely to have your bags opened and possibly things stolen.

“It’s really occurring on the tarmac or as it’s being loaded onto the aircraft,” Shea said.

From: http://ping.fm/BpPCF

Family Blood Sangre de Familia Liz Gallardo

Wating for this movie to come to the theaters…soon, please!

GAME Begins Closing Stores

Game has begun closing stores as it enters administration, and has announced that it can no longer offer refunds, exchanges or redeem reward points and gift cards.
It is estimated that 277 stores will be closed immediately with some shutting their doors today – MCV has a comprehensive user-generated list of shops that have already ceased trading – and around 2119 people are set to lose their jobs across the company.

Online sales may be affected by the events over the next few days (the website is down at time of writing) and the Group has taken to Facebook to confirm that refunds, exchanges, Reward Card points and gift cards can no longer be accepted.
Unsurprisingly, Game will not be accepting pre-owned software or hardware “at this time”.
Original report: The latest reports suggest that Game has been unable to find a buyer to stop it going into administration.
This means that 6,000 jobs are now in question, with Sky News reporting that the administrator will soon announce which of Game’s 600 high street shops will be closed.
However, PwC, the company sorting the whole procedure out, is expected to ensure that all staff are paid any wages owed at the end of the month, reported to total around £12 million (about $19 million).

From: http://ping.fm/fh0m6