Diana's death 'shaped British royals of today'

Princess Diana's death 15 years ago this week made the British monarchy more attuned to their own image and changed forever the way the young royals behave to their subjects, royal watchers say.

Diana died in a car crash in a Parisian road tunnel on August 31, 1997 alongside her companion Dodi Fayed, triggering an extraordinary chain of events.

Within hours, a carpet of flowers began spreading from her home at Kensington Palace in London as Britons threw off their reserved reputation and mourned openly.

In one of the defining moments of his time as prime minister, Tony Blair described her as the "people's princess", striking a chord with the grieving nation.

Yet Queen Elizabeth II appeared to have misjudged the public mood, initially choosing to remain at Balmoral in Scotland instead of returning to London.

Amid accusations she was out of touch and acting coldly towards her former daughter-in-law -- Diana and Prince Charles had divorced in 1996 -- the queen eventually made an unusual televised address.

Diana's funeral was heavy with emotion, not least when her brother Earl Charles Spencer used his sermon to attack the press who had pursued her throughout her adult life and who might have contributed to the crash which killed her.

Perhaps nothing illustrates the passage of time since Diana's death better than the bewildered little boy who walked behind her coffin -- the grown-up Prince Harry, now 27, made a very different public impression in recent days after his wild 'strip billiards' holiday in Las Vegas.

Despite her younger son's sometimes raucous behaviour, Diana's legacy can be seen clearly in her two sons and in William's wife Catherine, the former Kate Middleton, according to royal historian Kate Williams.

"In the last three or four years the young princes have really taken over a lot of the mantle of Diana, so we think less about Diana and more about William, Harry and Kate," Williams told AFP.

"It seems as if the young royals are very much in Diana's mould. They are giving to charity, they are very caring and they are out there meeting the people and seem much less stuffy."

Even before her divorce from Charles, Diana had thrown herself into charity work, especially championing the plight of landmine victims. Shortly before she died she visited Bosnia to meet people maimed by landmines.

Williams believes that if Diana were alive today she would be heading up her own charity.

"Diana had a very good divorce settlement and she was a great humanitarian and it is my belief that she would have spent that divorce settlement on setting up her own charity in which she did work for the poor, the sick and landmines victims."

She would have taken a role akin to a UN Goodwill Ambassador, such as Queen Rania of Jordan or Hollywood actress Angelina Jolie, Williams believes.

Diana's death continues to resonate. Tourists visiting the memorial fountain to her in Hyde Park this week vividly recalled the shock.

Stephanie Cooper, a tourist from Billericay in Essex, said: "It was one of those moments like the New York attacks, it is one of those things like the death of JFK, you will always remember where you were and what you were doing."

Filming has started on a new movie starring British actress Naomi Watts as Diana. Based on the recollections of her long-time bodyguard Ken Wharfe, it shows her being hounded by the paparazzi.

Diana's death was not the only factor in the royal family's lack of popularity in the late 1990s -- a succession of divorces and scandals had also eroded their image.

"It made people in Britain very confused about what people expected from their royal family -- were they not expected to set an example?" Williams said.

"But things have changed -- the royals' popularity has really soared and the queen is at her most popular since she came to the throne in 1952."

Landmark events such as the wedding of William and Catherine last year and the queen's diamond jubilee this year have boosted the royals' standing -- the queen even appeared in a spoof film parachuting into the Olympics opening ceremony.

"The royal family have tried very hard to market their image since Diana," Williams noted.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/dianas-death-shaped-british-royals-today-053843737.html

bill cosby Perry Hall High School us open Hurricane Isaac 2012 bill nye Snooki Baby terrell owens

Obama to try to make case for sticking with him

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) ? Don't expect President Barack Obama to try to reinvent himself next week at the Democratic Party's national convention. Instead, he and a slew of his defenders will seek to convince voters to stick with the president they know rather than gamble on someone new, a challenging task given that most Americans say the country is heading in the wrong direction.

"This Thursday, I will offer you what I believe is a better path forward, a path that grows this economy, creates more jobs and strengthens the middle class," Obama said Saturday in Des Moines, Iowa, previewing his pitch. "And the good news is, you get to choose which path we take."

While Democratic loyalists will fill the stadium where Obama accepts the nomination Thursday night, the president's target audience is the small sliver of undecided voters in battleground states who will be critical to the outcome of what polls show is a tight race with two months to go. His campaign also will try to revive some of its insurgent, grassroots appeal from 2008 by using technology to let people participate in the convention. That effort also will help Obama's team collect more data on voters.

Starting Tuesday, a parade of high-profile speakers will stand on a blue-carpeted stage in Charlotte's Time Warner Cable Arena to vouch for Obama's economic agenda, which his team says is focused on the middle class: ending tax cuts for the rich and reducing the debt, while spending more on education, energy and infrastructure. Several voters ? called "American Heroes" by Obama's team ? also will speak at and appear in videos at the convention, putting a human face on Obama's program.

The Democratic convention starts less than a week after Republicans gathered in Tampa, Fla., to nominate Mitt Romney as the party's presidential candidate. Democrats hope that by holding their convention second, Obama can emerge with momentum on his side as the race for the White House bounds into its final stretch.

Obama will largely be responsible for generating that momentum. He will close the convention Thursday night with a speech in an outdoor football stadium, just as he did in 2008. Mindful of the comparisons to four years ago, Obama's campaign is scrambling to ensure that the 74,000-seat stadium is filled to capacity. The largest crowd Obama has drawn during the 2012 campaign is about 14,000 people, far less than the jaw-dropping crowds he attracted in the 2008 campaign.

As in 2008, the campaign will use the large gathering to register voters and recruit new volunteers through text messaging and Twitter.

Aides say Obama won't ignore the economic woes that have defined his four years in the White House. But they say he plans to focus largely on the future, and why he believes his policies will succeed in a second term. Obama isn't expected to outline any new policy proposals. Instead, he plans to make the case for continuing what he has started. And he is expected to double down on agenda items, like immigration and tax reforms, that gained little traction during his four years in office.

"When the convention is over, folks with be left with a clear road map of where he thinks America needs to go," said Stephanie Cutter, Obama's deputy campaign manager. "And it will be clear what his focus will be in an Obama second term."

Working against Obama: the nation's 8.3 percent unemployment rate, sluggish economic growth and fears the economy could slip back into a recession.

There's also a general malaise. An Associated Press-GfK poll conducted earlier this month showed 60 percent of registered voters say the country is heading in the wrong direction, while just 35 percent say it is heading in the right direction.

The convention opens Tuesday with first lady Michelle Obama, whose popularity far surpasses her husband's, as a featured speaker. San Antonio, Texas, Mayor Julian Castro also is slated for that night. He will be the first Hispanic to deliver the Democratic convention's keynote address. Their roles on the convention's opening night are part of Democrats' efforts to shore up support among women and Hispanics, two crucial voting blocs where Obama holds an advantage over Romney.

Mrs. Obama is expected to make the case that Obama is the best candidate to advocate on behalf of the middle class because he has experienced their struggles himself.

Many voters already have heard Mrs. Obama's stories about her husband being raised by a single mother and his grandparents or having struggled to pay off student loans.

But she is emphasizing them again in this campaign in hopes of drawing a contrast with Romney's privileged upbringing.

Polls show voters think Obama understands the economic issues that are important to them better than Romney, even though the Republican has an edge on who voters believe is better suited to manage the economy.

Former President Bill Clinton, who is emerging as one of the campaign's most effective surrogates, will headline the convention Wednesday and formally nominate Obama. He hopes to remind voters of the flush economy he presided over and make the case that Obama's policies will lead to similar results.

Vice President Joe Biden and Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry will address the large stadium crowd Thursday night before Obama speaks.

Kerry, seen as a potential second-term secretary of state under Obama, will try to capitalize on the Democratic Party's rare advantage on national security issues. He is expected to trumpet Obama's decision to order the raid that killed Osama bin Laden and the president's plan to end the Afghanistan war, a sharp contrast to Republicans who rarely mentioned the war during their convention or the tens of thousands of troops still engaged in combat.

Obama's young daughters start school in Washington next week and are not expected to have a formal role at the convention. But they could come to Charlotte Thursday night for the president's acceptance speech.

Obama picked Charlotte as his convention site in part to help boost his chances of holding onto North Carolina, a state he moved into the Democratic column in 2008 for the first time in decades. Democrats acknowledge that the political landscape in North Carolina has shifted back toward the Republicans, though they hope the convention will help them reverse that course.

"We know that Republicans want to win it back," Cutter said. "But that's one of the reasons we chose Charlotte to host the convention. It's a pretty big investment in that state, and it gives us an advantage."

Romney's running mate, Paul Ryan, will seek to steal some of the spotlight from Democrats when he campaigns in Greenville, N.C., on Monday. Romney will spend next week preparing for debates. He has no public events scheduled.

___

Follow Julie Pace at http://twitter.com/jpaceDC.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/obama-try-case-sticking-him-205424637--election.html

1000 words ron white ron white buckyballs buckyballs awake mario batali

Widefield's Starke wins golf tournament after blowing away his personal best

Widefield?s Nate Starke had never broken 80, never won a tournament and had perhaps never felt more anxious than he did as scores were trickling in at the Cherokee Ridge Golf Course clubhouse Thursday. Starke?s pacing finally ended when he saw his 73 would hold up as the top score among the 48 players at the Mitchell Marauder Invitational, an event that counts toward the 4A Metro standings. ?(Coronado?s) Kyle (Kleckner) came up and told me I would probably win,? Starke said. ?That?s when I realized. ?My heart was pumping too fast.? The splitting of local leagues has caused scheduling headaches and controversy, but here was the positive, if unintended consequence ? a player who might never have been in contention against the top players from Air Academy or Cheyenne Mountain earned the right to leave the course with a first-place medal around his neck. ?It felt good,? Starke said. Stark was eyeing his first round in the 70s when he was at 39 at the turn. He then shot 34 ? with birdies on the two par 5s, Nos. 2 and 9 ? when he replayed what is essentially a nine-hole course. He credited solid chipping and just one of those days that golfers wish they could bottle up and save. The same feeling wasn?t shared by league front-runner Isaac Petersile of Coronado, but the freshman did what he needed to do to maintain his large lead by shooting 80 and finishing in a three-way tie for sixth place. Also in that tie was Mesa Ridge?s Braden Bentley, who missed a chance to cut into Petersilie?s seven-stroke lead after three events. Only one tournament remains in the 4A Metro, and it?s the event Coronado is hosting. ?That should be a good confidence booster,? Petersilie said. ?I should be able to just go out and relax.? Petersilie said he didn?t even know until last week that a league champion would be crowned, so it?s not exactly a top goal. It?s easy to understand the confusion, as the league itself has yet to decide on a format. Last year, when the now eight-team 4A Metro was twice as large and sharing events with the six-team 5A Metro, five league meets were played and the individual leaders were determined by golfers? top four scores in those five meets. With only four events this year, 4A Metro coaches haven?t decided if the league will be determined by all four events, or by the top three. Either way, Petersilie?s lead figures to be safe; as does Coronado?s in the team standings. The Cougars won the title Thursday by two shots over Liberty and beat the 4A Metro runner-up ? Widefield ? by eight shots to increase its lead to 55 shots over the Gladiators. All four Coronado golfers placed in the top 10. Liberty?s Tyler Nolan took second individually at 75, followed by Rampart?s Ben Tarasiewicz at 76. 4A METRO LEADERS (Through three of four events) INDIVIDUAL Isaac Petersilie, Coronado 70-77-80?227 Braden Bentley, Mesa Ridge 70-77-80?234 Kyle Kleckner, Coronado 78-85-79?242 Nate Starke, Widefield 87-84-73?244 Wes Moran, Coronado 78-88-82?248 TEAM Coronado 706 Widefield 761 Woodland Park 836 Mesa Ridge 839... Click here to continue to the story

Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/48853721/ns/local_news-colorado_springs_co/

whitney houston death the vow the voice season 2 ron paul maine safe house jay z and beyonce baby cpac

Outsourcing: Arijit Bhattacharyya, CEO of VirtualInfoCom.com (Part 4 ...

Sramana Mitra: This was a game that you designed?

Arijit Bhattacharyya: Right.

SM: And you sold it in the Kolkata market?

AB: Kolkata and outside Kolkata.

SM: What was the price point of the game? How much did you sell it for?

AB: We sold a CD for 99 rupees (~$1.78), and we got 20% of it. The reseller got 80% of each sale.

SM: Got it. How much revenue did you make from that 20% royalty you negotiated?

AB: I think within two years we earned about three and a half lakhs (~$6k).

SM: Altogether, you made a little over six lakhs (~$10k) from that game.

AB: Right. Along with that we started mailing different large companies that sell games through telephone operators like Vodaphone, but in those days, there was no Vodaphone. We created games for them, Java-based games, small casual games, and sold them through the operators. That?s how we scaled that segment of the organization. We scaled up from a small animation farm and institute with one game. After that, we started making money from the games. Then we moved into corporate animated video. I did the marketing because I had the money to do it.

SM: When you started selling games to mobile providers through the carriers, tell me more about that business model. Were you coming up with the game concepts?

AB: Yes. We created the concepts. We created an entire game from zero to 100 and sold it to them. It wasn?t selling, actually. We had to give them the games, and they would sell the games through the operators, and we would get part of the payment.

SM: How many games did you develop in this mode?

AB: More than 150. Some of them are first-person shooter (FPS) games; some of them are casual games; some of them are simple, small strategy games that we used to have in our mobiles like Samsung, Nokia, and some Java-based mobiles, Chinese mobiles.

SM: How much did you get paid for downloads?

AB: It depended on the sharing business. In those days, we got 30%, although we were the developers. The third party got 70%. That was the rule because in those days, there was no app store. We had to accept that. But we had a good name in the market, and with that name, we got a couple of outsourcing projects from abroad. We got a couple of projects from the U.S., in New York City. We got a couple of companies that asked us to develop games and animated videos for them.

I thought, if I?m getting queries from those areas, and I?m doing a good business, why don?t I start finding resellers? I put up a small ad that we?re looking for resellers for this kind of service. We?ll create mobile apps, mobile games, animated videos, and so on. We got a good response. We got nearly seven resellers within a year, and they took orders for us. To date, we still do things that way. We have resellers in the U.S., the U.K., African countries, and Japan.

SM: How many resellers do you have?

AB: Today, we have nearly 175 resellers.

SM: And what kind of volume of projects do they produce, and what percentage do you pay them?

AB: It depends on the reseller and the number of projects he brings. It starts at 10% and goes up to 35%. It varies from project to project.

SM: Is that your primary source of revenue today?

AB: The resellers provide 60% of my revenue. The remaining 40% is generated through online marketing, app stores, and all. Regarding the training, we have collaborations with these kinds of resellers, and we get probably 25% from the resellers in the training segment altogether. Now, we open a small segment in a country or city outside of India and ask the reseller to get business for us, and we?ll provide full marketing support along with a good portfolio. The reseller just needs to give us the projects. And in the case of students, they just need to send us the student profiles and we?ll take it from there. We currently train people in Japan online. In London, we have this kind of business. In Nigeria, we have a similar kind of business. That?s how we?re growing.

In 2004, we started hiring resellers and continued doing that until 2006. We had about 29 resellers within two years. They gave us orders, and whoever was getting training at the institute, I would recruit into the production pipeline. So, we have a chain of seniors, juniors, and freshers. We have a proper recruiting and training system. We take money to train people and then recruit them to our organization. After that, we give them wages.

This segment is part 4 in the series : Outsourcing: Arijit Bhattacharyya, CEO of VirtualInfoCom.com
1 2 3 4

Source: http://www.sramanamitra.com/2012/09/01/outsourcing-arijit-bhattacharyya-ceo-of-virtualinfocom-com-part-4/

channel 2 news adrienne bailon yelp stock honda classic news channel 5 nashville weather jason varitek

Health and Fitness Challenges - A Healthy Lifestyle For Mind Body ...

A daily walk has many health benefits

There are always challenges in life, but it becomes so much more fun and easier to meet these challenges when we can do it with others. Health and Fitness Challenges are no exception.

My friend Angie Newton has put together a list of Health and Fitness Challenges on her blog, that are worth taking a look at, and perhaps joining one. They start in September so check them out as soon as possible.? You can see them at http://www.losingitandlovingit.com/blog I know I am going to join one for sure.

While you are at her blog be sure to read her article about drinking enough water. With the temperatures ranging from the high 80?s to above 100 degree?s in parts of the world this summer, it is more important than ever that we don?t become dehydrated.

Eat healthy, Laugh Often and Enjoy Life.

Source: http://www.healthyfoodanddiet.com/health-and-fitness-challenges/

laura dekker stephen colbert south carolina seal seal and heidi klum drew peterson untouchable herman cain south carolina palmetto

Ryan says Eastwood was being himself during RNC speech (tbo)

Share With Friends: | | Politics - Top Stories News, RSS Feeds and Widgets via Feedzilla.

Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/244960406?client_source=feed&format=rss

cause of whitney houston death the watchmen whitney houston dies beverly hills hotel beverly hills hotel whitney houston national anthem dolly parton i will always love you

VCT manager ISIS Equity Partners leads Impetus Automotive MBO ...

31 Aug 2012

London-based VCT manager ISIS Equity Partners has led the management buyout of Impetus, a consultancy that supplies sales and aftersales support services to the automotive industry.

The Warwick, UK-based business offers programmes and projects for vehicle manufacturers, with much of their work taking place within dealerships and national sales companies.

The company has a team of over 250 employees working with 25 vehicle manufacturers across the UK, mainland Europe, Asia Pacific, South America and Russia.

Revenues have increased by 50 per cent since 2010.

Clients include VW, Land Rover, Audi, Toyota, BMW, Citroen, Fiat, Ford and Jaguar, and around 15 per cent of work is already delivered outside of the UK.

The investment will support Impetus in its continued expansion into new markets, building on the presence the company has already established in the UK and further development of new services.

The management team led by David Gorvett, who will now assume the role of CEO, have increased their equity stake through the buyout.

The majority owners prior to the deal were Steve Allen, Phil Cowley and John Vize, who are now stepping back from the business after achieving their exit.

Debt funding was provided by Lloyds Bank Wholesale Banking & Markets Acquisition Finance.

The MBO team was advised by Odyssey Corporate Finance.

Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

?Impetus Automotive is a high quality business that is well positioned for expansion, both in the UK and overseas,? said Charlie Robinson at ISIS Equity Partners.

?We are very much looking forward to working with David and the team as they continue to focus on the needs of their clients and support them in taking the business to the next phase of its growth.?

Equity for the deal was provided by ISIS? Baronsmead VCTs, which closed earlier this year with aggregate commitments of ?16.54m.

Copyright ? 2012 AltAssets

---

Tags: automotive, business services, ISIS Equity Partners, private equity, VCT

Source: http://www.altassets.net/private-equity-news/by-news-type/deal-news/vct-manager-isis-equity-partners-leads-impetus-automotive-mbo.html

correspondents dinner 2012 white house correspondents dinner 2012 whcd 2012 nfl draft kevin durant jazz fest zurich classic