Friday, November 30, 2012
Red Bull adamant it can get stronger
Kelly Clarkson, Pitbull, More Added To 'VH1 Divas' Lineup
Annual girl-power party airs live on VH1 December 16, with Adam Lambert set to host.
By Jocelyn Vena
Kelly Clarkson
Photo: Getty Images
2013 will be hardest year yet ? Ferrari
January memorial for Sid Watkins
Small Business and Vets are served by California State Agencies
Union walkout cripples ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach
A small union of maritime clerks managed to shut down most of the nation's busiest seaport complex Wednesday, raising concerns about harm to the fragile economy.
New hope for Metro rail system for Bristol
HOPES that Bristol will have a fully functioning Metro rail system have taken a massive step forward.
Bristol North West Tory MP Charlotte Leslie, who led a cross-party delegation of city and regional MPs to meet transport minister Simon Burns last week, has now been given official confirmation that the Government has been convinced that it needs to look at the case for the so-called Henbury Loop Line – a rail link from a reopened Henbury station to the Severn Beach line.
Under current plans presented by the West of England Partnership, there would only be a reopened 'spur' to Henbury station which would mean that passenger trains could only stop there and return the way they came.
It would also mean that anyone travelling by train from Shirehampton to Henbury would need to go all the way into Bristol and out via Filton to reach their destination.
Ms Leslie has argued forcefully that a spur instead of a loop would represent a significant disappointment and leave the city's Metro system as a "massive missed opportunity".
Ms Leslie said: "Plans for mass housing development risk unacceptable congestion on north Bristol's roads, unless a loop line is in place.
"The loop would also mean people in north Bristol would have easy access to workplaces in and around Avonmouth, which has recently been designated an enterprise area."
Now, however, the possibility of a loop has been given considerable weight by Mr Burns.
And Ms Leslie is looking forward to working together on the project with Mayor George Ferguson who spoke in favour many times during his election campaign.
Ms Leslie, right, said: "The plans for the Metro, as they stand, fall short of ideal. While they are a massive step forward, I believe that without the Henbury Loop, it will be the missed opportunity of a generation.
"In short, as the plans stand, the line would 'stop' at Henbury, not link up to the Severn Beach Line ... meaning passengers travelling from Redland or Clifton Down looking for a connection to Cribbs Causeway would have to go all the way into Bristol and out again via Filton.
"The ironic thing is that the track is there for freight now – we just need the green light for passenger services along with a reopened Henbury station."
In his letter to Ms Leslie, Mr Burns said: "I was very interested to learn about the Bristol Metro Phase 2 and to hear your view that it should include services on a full loop line through Henbury and Avonmouth rather than for trains to turn back at Henbury as currently envisaged in the work commissioned by the West of England Partnership. As a result of the case you put forward, I agree with you that this merits further investigation, given the future plans for housing and commercial development in the area."
Department for Transport officials will be happy to work with the partnership on this task. I will confirm this to them, strongly suggesting that any work to assess the scheme should include looking at the feasibility of introducing services on the whole Henbury Loop."
Ms Leslie has now launched a petition and campaigns on websites Facebook and Twitter to ensure that as many voices are heard to bring pressure on the partnership.
This can be found at www.henburyloop. bristolpetitions.com. There is a Facebook page at www.facebook.com/henburyloop and Twitter users can follow Ms Leslie at @CLeslieMP then #henburyloop
She said: "This scheme is vital to the future of Bristol and I will be fighting until it happens.
"I hope the campaign for a Henbury Loop brings businesses, charities, and residents together to fight to get Bristol on track.
"And to get things done in Bristol, political parties need to stop bickering and pull in the same direction.
"I have already involved Mayor Ferguson in these initial discussions and I look forward to working with him further."
Earlier this year, Ms Leslie brought together the region's MPs who signed a joint submission to the Department for Transport to fight as one for the region's best transport interests.
Powerball's $580-million jackpot inspires wishes, dreamers
Thursday, November 29, 2012
George H.W. Bush, skydiver at 85, in hospital at 88 with bronchitis
Every single Apple ad now unofficially available in an iTunes playlist
YES, EVERY APPLE TV ADS EVER BROADCASTED! There's a lot to discover in the Playlists - Go watch! Ads missing? Let me know.
Who could forget the classic iPod ads featuring dancing silhouettes and rhythmic music, the multitude of ads based on the Mac versus PC war. More recently Apple has focused on features like the iPhone?s ability to take panoramic photographs and of course the ability to access all corners of the screen on the iPhone 5?s larger screen with one hand. Of course not all of them have been great, the recent Genius ads were a bit of a fail but there are certainly many more great ads than bad.
You can see them all over at YouTube although we don?t know how long they will last as it is not an official Apple source. If you have some time to kill and love all things Apple, you can do a lot worse than sit back and enjoy some or all of these ads. If you watch any, make sure to let us know which ones you liked best.
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Google Drive for iPhone and iPad updated with spreadsheet editing
Google Drive for iPhone and iPad has been updated with improved collaboration and on-device sharing. Users can now create, edit, and collaborate on spreadsheets and upload to Drive with other apps using "Open in..." There is also a new Uploads section that allows you to manage upload progress and see recent uploads.
The ability to edit spreadsheets has been one of the biggest user requests, so it's great to see Google respond by including that ability. It still isn't possible to update presentation, but hopefully that will be coming in the future as well.
Google Drive is a Dropbox-like service that lets you store documents pictures, and other files and share them with whoever you want. A free account includes 5GB of storage space with options to upgrade to 25 GB and 100 GB for $2.49/mo and $4.99/mo, respectively.
Free - Download now
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Zanardi targets Paralympic encore
American Eagle sees strong holidays, Aeropostale wary
Carlisle to buy Belden's Thermax-Raydex business for $265 mln
said it will buy Belden Inc's Thermax-Raydex
business for about $265 million, including debt.
