10:43pm UK, Tuesday September 07, 2010

Damien Pearse, Sky News Online

Social housing firm Connaught, which employs 10,000 people, has gone into administration after failing to raise extra funding from lenders.

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The FTSE 250-listed company announced it was in the process of appointing KPMG as administrators after it earlier suspended trading of its shares.

Connaught stated speaks with lenders and investors on additional financial support had “failed to reach a satisfactory conclusion”.

In a statement the firm continued: “Following extensive discussions with the group’s secured lenders, it is now clear that sufficient support would not be extended to the group as a whole to enable it to continue trading as a going concern.

“As a consequence, the board is saddened to announce that it is in the process of appointing partners from KPMG as administrators of Connaught plc and its subsidiary, Connaught Partnerships Limited, which comprises its Social Housing Division.”

The company’s other main subsidiaries, Connaught Compliance, National Britannia Holdings, Fountains and Connaught Environmental, are not being placed into administration.

Coming from the North East of England, I feel a great empathy with people who find themselves the casualties of industrial strife.

Artist John Dolan

The news comes on the day that Sky News begins a series of Hard Times reports revealing how the current economic plight is worse than in the aftermath of the 1980s recession.

The Exeter-based repair and maintenance specialist has been in turmoil since it warned in June that Government spending cuts could blow a £200m hole in revenues.

Watch Hard Times live on Sky Player throughout the day

The firm has around 180 multimillion-pound social housing contracts in the UK.

Royal Bank of Scotland recently provided Connaught with a further £15m in an attempt to keep the group going, it has been reported.

Sir Roy Gardner, who recently became chairman of the company, had also attempted to put together a rescue plan with the help of several new directors.

Until their suspension, the company’s shares had fallen by more than 90%.

The fall came after the warning in June that it had identified 31 projects where spending will be delayed as a result of austerity measures.

Founder Mark Tincknell left the company earlier this year on health grounds

Hard Times across the UK – more stories and analysis:

:: What will you cut out if money becomes tight. See our survey

:: The North East anticipates to suffer more than any other region.

:: Liverpool’s rebirth could be short-lived with plans to rebuild or refurbish 26 schools scrapped.

:: Cuts in the South West threaten to delay the building of badly needed inexpensive homes.

The say government will also make an upfront payment of $5 million to the council.

Sports Minister Terry Waldron stated he hoped the money will be used to make up the funding shortfall for redeveloping Beatty Park Leisure Centre.

Mr Waldron stated the agreement is a major milestone in the development of a rectangular stadium in Perth.

See government announcement below:

A major milestone in the development of Perth’s new rectangular stadium has been achieved with the Town of Vincent accepting the State Government’s offer for a lease agreement for Perth Oval (nib Stadium).

Sport and Recreation Minister Terry Waldron stated the Town of Vincent had accepted the State Government’s offer of a 50-year lease of Perth Oval at $25,000 per year.

“In addition to an annual lease fee, the State Government will provide an upfront payment of $5million to the Town of Vincent with a preference that this money is used to address the funding shortfall for the redevelopment of Beatty Park Leisure Centre,” Mr Waldron said.

“This Government has made it clear that our major rectangular codes have been ignored for too long in terms of major infrastructure and, with this announcement, we have taken an important step in delivering our vision for a 25,000 seat stadium for the Western Force and Perth Glory.

“This decision will also assist the West Australian Rugby League in their efforts to establish a WA franchise in the expanded National Rugby League competition.

The Minister stated the redevelopment of Perth Oval was an opportunity for the State Government and the Town of Vincent to build on their strong relationship to realise the vision for a modern rectangular stadium that would meet the needs of a number of sporting codes and enhance the entertainment options for the people of WA.

Town of Vincent mayor Nick Catania stated the council had considered the Government’s offer at a special council meeting last night.

“I am extremely pleased that the council unanimously approved the offer which is very attractive and will grant the town to provide numerous benefits for its residents,” Mr Catania said.

“The town will continue to work with the State Government on the redevelopment project; we see this as a real win-win situation for the Government, the codes and the town.

The end vision for this facility is a 25,000 seat stadium based on the Skilled Park, Gold Coast model; detailed design and planning work is currently under way with building scheduled to commence in 2012.

This is an astonishing and, to me, somewhat frightening turn of events. The folks who ran a very smart presidential campaign in 2008 have left the defining of the Obama presidency to others, in this case people on the edge of insanity. For example, a recent Pew poll reported that “nearly one in five Americans (18 percent) now state Obama is a Muslim, up from 11 percent in March 2009.” In other words, the longer Obama has been in office, the more ignorant people have become about him.

This news about the growing ignorance concerning Obama’s religion came not too long after yet another poll revealed that 24 percent of Americans do not think Obama was born in the United States. An earlier poll showed that 10 percent of Americans think he was born in Indonesia, where he lived as a boy, 7 percent believe he is Kenyan and still others state (correctly) that he was born in Hawaii but do not know, a notable Elvis motion picture notwithstanding, that Hawaii is an American state.

Obama’s approval rating tracks at about 47 percent. Ronald Reagan did worse at this stage of his presidency, but he was both liked and known. Obama is not all that liked and not very much known. He has become a polarizing figure — irrationally hated by Republicans and lacking much of his original support. Among whites, for instance, if the election were held now, Obama would get just an alarming 28 percent of the vote. We are once again two nations.

Some of Obama’s travails stem from the lousy economy — unemployment up at around 10 percent. But the latest figures, while significantly higher than when he took the oath of office, are clearly the consequence of the monster recession-cum-financial debacle he inherited. This was in addition to two wars and a large debt. If in his private phone call to George W. Bush last week, the president did not drop a “Thanks a lot” into the conversation, he is a man of saintly forbearance.

It is clear by now that Obama has granted others to define him. For this, Obama needs to blame Obama. His stutter-step approach to certain issues — his wimpy statements regarding the planned Islamic center in Manhattan, for instance — erodes not just his standing but his profile. What we thought we knew, we do not. Like a picture hung in the sun, he fades over time.

Obama is stuck with Obama — the good and the bad. There is more of the former than the latter, so all is not lost. But what Obama can do — what he must do — is get some new people. His staff ill-serves him so that he presents a persona at odds with his performance. Not only has he compiled a pretty remarkable legislative record, but he moved with dispatch to rescue the financial system, save the auto industry and — in case no one was looking — implement reforms of our woebegone education system. The more he wins, the more somehow he loses.

Go back to Obama’s recent Oval Office speech. It was only his second and so great importance was attached to it. He should have had something momentous to say. In fact, he had nearly nothing so state — no news to make or report. The speech clocked in at 2,547 words. But if encomiums to both American and Iraqi troops were deleted, it went for only 1,948 words, which meant that about one-quarter of it was mush. Yes, indeed, we all love the troops — apple pie and momma, too. Now, let’s get on with it.

The president needs better speechwriters. The president needs a staff to tell him not to give an Oval Office address unless he has something worthy of the Oval Office to say. The president needs someone to look into the camera so that, when the light goes on and he says, “Good evening,” he looks commander-in-chiefish: big. In other words, the president needs to fire some key people. Either that, or the way things are going the American people are going to fire him.

HELENA, Mont. — The president of a Montana tea party group has been kicked out of the organization for an exchange on his Facebook page that appeared to condone violence against homosexuals.

The Big Sky Tea Party Association’s board of directors voted Sunday to remove Tim Ravndal as president after members learned of the on-line conversation in July that began with a comment about an American Civil Liberties Union lawsuit over rights for same-sex couples.

Ravndal apologized over the weekend after being contacted by The Great Falls Tribune, which first reported the story, but that did not halt the board’s decision. Chairman Jim Walker called the comments “unacceptable.”

Report: Congressional charities pull in corporate cash Tea party or establishment, GOP looks for gains Speaker-in-waiting Boehner balances GOP factions Arizona governor states beheadings claim ‘an error’

“The discussion in that Facebook conversation is entirely outside the position of the Big Sky Tea Party,” Walker stated in a statement. “We continually make it known that we will not tolerate bigoted dialogue, behavior or messages at our functions, our meetings or within our ranks.”

The July 23 Facebook comment and subsequent exchange has been removed, but a screen-shot showed it originated with Ravndal posting that “Marriage is between a man and a woman period! By giving rights to those otherwise would be a violation of the Constitution and my own rights.”

That post prompted a response from another Facebook user, who wrote: “I think fruits are decorative. Hang up where they can be seen and appreciated. Call Wyoming for display instructions.”

To that, Ravndal responded: “Where can I get that Wyoming printed instruction manual?”

The conversation appears to reference the 1998 death of University of Wyoming student Matthew Shepard, who was beaten and tied to a fence post. Police stated Shepard was attacked because he was gay.

Montana Human Rights Network organizers stated they became aware of the Facebook posting on Friday after a couple of Montana political blogs reprinted the exchange. Organizer Kim Abbott stated her organization immediately called for Ravndal’s removal and for the Big Sky Tea Party Association to clarify its position.

Poll: Clear GOP advantage ahead of midterms

With Labor Day marking the traditional starting point of the campaign season, Republicans have a nine-point edge among likely voters, according to a new NBC News/WSJ poll. Full story

Chicago Mayor Daley will not run again Updated 110 minutes ago Rep. Frank faces town hall foe in Mass. primary Updated 11 minutes ago Mont. tea party removes leader after anti-gay post Updated 73 minutes ago Palin non-word ‘refudiate’ gets most on-line searches

Two days later, Ravndal was gone.

“We think that they moved swiftly, they condemned the anti-gay rhetoric,” Abbott told The Associated Press on Tuesday. “We’re especially happy about the unequivocal statements that the tea party will not welcome this type of inflammatory, bigoted behavior into their party, and we hope they stick to it.”

Ravndal did not return calls and e-mail requests for comment on Tuesday.

Ravndal told the Tribune on Friday that he was sorry for the post but told the Tribune he “never made the connection” to Shepard’s murder.

He also apologized on his Facebook page that stated “I made a mistake and commented on a post that implied that I condone violence against another human being.

“NOthing could be farther from the truth. Those that know me comprehend and that is all that matters!” Ravndal wrote.

Copyright 2010 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Chinese computing platform and information technology application solutions provider Inspur has published a strategy to promote its cloud computing business, and it plans to launch China’s first self-developed cloud computing operating system before the end of 2010.

Wang Endong, senior vice president of Inspur, told local media that the development of Chinese cloud technologies needs to meet the actual demand in China where industry users account for over 50% of the Chinese digital information market. In regards to the dispersion of industry organizations and the closed data, industry users are people who most urgently need the cloud computing technologies.

Inspur’s self-developed cloud computing operating system can reportedly manage a data center with over 5,000 servers. Meanwhile, the company will launch a full range of software and hardware infrastructure solutions, including massive servers and high-density servers.

Inspur has recently signed a cloud computing cooperation agreement with Shandong Computer Science Center. The two parties will jointly complete the resource integration, sharing, and coordinating of 13 software parks across Shandong province, and set up the largest software industry cloud and the future cloud computing research center in China.

Related Links:http://www.miit.gov.cn

Replacing icons one by one is not really something that many users would like to, as it takes lots of time to complete. For starters, each icon needs to be changed in the program properties.

7conifier promises an easier more elegant solution. The free program can automatically change the default icon set of the Windows 7 operating system.

It is compatible with all 32-bit and 64-bit editions of Windows 7, and has no other requirements than the already installed Microsoft .net Framework 3.5.

icon set windows 7

The software recommends to save the current icon set prior to making changes to it. This back-up is highly recommended, as it is the only option to revert the changes and restore the default icon set.

Three icon sets are delivered with the program. Two dark and one light icon set, which only change program icons of support programs. This means that icons of programs like Internet Explorer, Google Chrome, Firefox or Microsoft Excel are changed, while others are not.

7conifier can kill the explorer process after an icon set has been selected. The new icon set would otherwise be visible after the next restart or log on.

The program missed a few icons during operation. It did for instance miss to change the Mozilla Thunderbird icon, even though it is included in the icon set. That was easily fixed by manually changing the icon to the one in the icon package.

It is possible to switch between icon sets easily in the program interface, and to restore the default icon set if a back-up has been created on the first run.

The program comes with an editor that can be used to create new icon sets for Windows 7.

create icon package windows 7

A click on Package > Create > From Pinned or Manually creates a new icon package. From Pinned means that the program will automatically add the icons of the pinned taskbar and begin menu shortcuts.

New programs can be added, and icons changed for all applications in the editor. That way it is possible to create a new icon set that can be easily applied in the end.

7Conifier is a professional looking program that ships with three good looking icon sets and the option to create custom ones. Users need to make sure that the 7Conifier program stays in the same location after applying one of its icon packages to the system.

The program makes no changes to the Windows Registry and can be deleted when it is no longer needed. Users should however make sure that they restore the default icon set before they delete the program.

© Martin for gHacks Technology News, 2010. | Permalink | Add to del.icio.us, digg, facebook, reddit,

After getting divorced from Nick Lachey and finishing off her round of involvements with NFL quarterback Tony Romo and musicia John Mayer,

Jessica Simpson might have finally found her man! As states her recent twitter picture with boyfriend, Eric Johnson.

The picture, shows the singer-actress, dressed in a wonderful red dress, looking admirably at Eric.

‘I met a wonderful man. Damn I’m lucky!’ , exclaimed Jessica on her Twitter page.

She was also reported to have been living on a barge in London with her boyfriend, the actor Rupert Friend, 28, after leacing an East London apartment owned by her mother.

Last year the Hollywood star won critical acclaim for her West End debut, performing alongside Damian Lewis in a version of Molière’s The Misanthrope.

Her spokesman was unavailable for comment last night.

Hitting the gym helps slow the aging process in space, as well as on Earth, Canadian scientists have found.

Normally, spending six months on the International Space Station can be like taking a trip on an accelerated aging device that makes astronauts as weak as 80-year-olds.

Researchers discovered that in the weightless environment of space, without exercise:

Muscle-power decline in 40-year-old astronauts is equivalent to that of a person twice as old. Astronauts lose more than 40 per cent of the slow-twitch fibres in their calf muscles, which are important for balance and posture. Up to two per cent of bone mineral density is lost each month — four times the rate for a post-menopausal women on Earth.

Canadian astronauts contributed data for a seven-year study by Prof. Richard Hughson, research chair in vascular aging and brain health at the University of Waterloo.

Hughson describes his research to the CBC’s Kelly Crowe.

Simon Lee, a post-graduate researcher who is presenting his work at the Society for General Microbiology’s autumn meeting in Nottingham, describes how the group identified up to nine different molecules in the insect tissues that were toxic to bacteria. These substances could lead to novel treatments for multi-drug resistant bacterial infections.

The group found that the tissues of the brain and nervous system of the insects were able to kill more than 90% of Meticillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) and Escherichia coli, without harming human cells. Studying the specific properties of the antibacterial molecules is currently underway in the laboratory. “We hope that these molecules could eventually be developed into treatments for E. coli and MRSA infections that are increasingly resistant to current drugs,” explained Mr Lee. “Also, these new antibiotics could potentially provide alternatives to currently available drugs that may be effective but have serious and unwanted side effects,” he said.

The pharmaceutical industry is generating fewer and fewer new antibiotics due to lack of financial incentives, meaning that alternative sources of new drugs are much needed. Mr Lee explained why it is unsurprising that insects secrete their own antimicrobials. “Insects often live in unsanitary and unhygienic environments where they encounter many different types of bacteria. It is therefore logical that they have developed ways of protecting themselves against micro-organisms,” he explained.

Story Source:

The above story is reprinted (with editorial adaptations by ScienceDaily staff) from materials provided by Society for General Microbiology, via EurekAlert!, a service of AAAS.

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.