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20-03-2012 00:24 Golden State Warriors fans boo owner Joe Lacob during a jersey retirement for Chris Mullin.

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Golden State Warriors fans boo owner Joe Lacob during Chris Mullin jersey retirement (full) - Video

TOM PULLAR-STRECKER

Retirement Commissioner Diana Crossan has labelled her $5.8 million budget "pathetic", telling MPs the commission needed three times as much money.

Crossan later upped that to "20 times", while acknowledging that was probably how many people felt about budgeting for retirement.

She is not alone in pleading poverty.

Chief ombudsman Beverley Wakem said last month that the Office of the Ombudsmen was in crisis and appealed for an extra $1m to be added to its $8.6m budget.

Privacy Commissioner Marie Shroff last month told Justice Minister Judith Collins that its $3.4m budget had not increased since 2006 and rapid growth in ICT and online activity was "placing pressure on its regulatory, policy and communications capabilities".

Appearing in front of a select committee yesterday, Crossan said that if the Commission for Financial Literacy and Retirement Income had more money, the first place she would put it would be in schools.

"The Australians announced last year that $10m would go into teaching financial education in schools over the next three years. We get nothing in particular for this."

The Bankers Association and the Young Enterprise Trust had helped develop teaching resources and the commission had partnered with banks to provide education to schoolchildren, but Crossan said she believed financial literacy would best be taught by "ordinary classroom teachers".

ASB Bank's retail general manager, Ian Park, said it had helped 175,000 schoolchildren learn basic money management skills since it launched its free "GetWise" programme two years ago and last year doubled the number of "classroom facilitators" to six.

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Retirement commissioner seeking increase

What can we learn about retirement planning from successful investors? Plenty! Bank of America and Merrill Lynch recently published their Affluent Insights Survey of 1,000 investors with assets of $250,000 or more, and the results are indeed insightful.

Any time successful people are willing to share their point of view, I'm interested to see what I can learn. You'll see that these secrets aren't rocket science and can be used by anybody, not just the privileged, to get ahead financially. In fact, these "secrets" are just common sense, offering guidelines on what to do -- and not do -- when it comes to your money. Let's take a look.

Secret No. 1: Redefine retirement

The successful investors consulted for the survey are changing the definition of retirement. Almost three-fourths of respondents who aren't yet retired view this upcoming life stage as a second act during which they plan to work full or part time. Almost 30 percent intend to cycle between work and leisure, 22 percent plan to work at a job they enjoy more than the one they currently have, and 14 percent want to continue working part time in their current job.

About one in four define retirement as never working again, while only 14 percent define retirement as hitting a certain age.

Secret No. 2: Make lifestyle tradeoffs

If given the choice, half of the affluent Americans surveyed who are not yet retired would rather retire later than make tradeoffs in their lifestyle now. But 81 percent would choose to reduce their standard of living when push comes to shove -- as it most certainly will, even for affluent investors. The survey respondents reported a variety of actions they'd be willing to take; each of the following actions would be taken by one-fourth to one-third of the survey respondents:

-- Trim day-to-day expenses -- Buy fewer luxuries -- Limit vacations -- Cut back on entertainment -- Keep the same car longer -- Leave less of an inheritance -- Downsize their home

I contend that these actions won't ruin their lives. Even if they have to implement some of these strategies in order to save enough for retirement, they'll still enjoy a good life.

Secret No. 3: Plan for retirement

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Retirement Secrets of Successful Investors

Video Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NC-a5c1rI8c

19-03-2012 15:17 Cut part of Dream High 2 ep 15 with Jiyeon (Rian) Song : "Run The World (Girls)" by Beyoncé http://www.youtube.com ------------------ Copyright Disclaimer Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. Non-profit, educational or personal use tips the balance in favor of fair use.

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Dream High 2 (ep 15 performance HD cut) Jiyeon - Run The World (Beyoncé) - Video

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20-03-2012 11:51 Cut part of Dream High 2 ep 16 with JB and Jiyeon Song : "Imma Be" - Black Eyed Peas http://www.youtube.com ------------------ Copyright Disclaimer Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. Non-profit, educational or personal use tips the balance in favor of fair use.

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Dream High 2 (ep 16 cut) JB's performance

The merged division will not be called the Printing and Personal Systems Group.

HP has confirmed reports that it plans to shove its Imaging and Printing Group (IPG) division into the Personal Systems Group (PSG) lead by Todd Bradley. The combined entity will officially be called the Printing and Personal Systems Group, and as reported on Tuesday, Vyomesh Joshi, executive vice president of IPG, will be leaving the company.

On Wednesday HP said that Joshi will be retiring after a 31-year career at HP. Under Joshis leadership, IPG has grown revenue from $19 billion to $26 billion, and doubled its operating profit to approximately $4 billion.

"VJ embodies the spirit of HP and his impact on the company has been tremendous," said Meg Whitman, president and chief executive officer, HP. "Under his leadership, IPG accelerated innovation and pioneered solutions that transformed the printing market. We wish him the very best as he embarks on a new chapter in his life."

The newly christened Printing and Personal Systems Group (PPSG) is part of HP's "organizational realignment" to improve performance and drive profitable growth across the entire HP portfolio. HP said that combining these two entities will rationalize HPs go-to-market strategy, branding, supply chain and customer support worldwide.

"This will lead to a better customer experience and drive innovation across personal computing and printing," the company explained on Wednesday. "This realignment is expected to provide opportunities for cost savings and accelerate HPs ability to pursue profitable growth and reinvest in the business."

In addition to the new PPSG, HP said it is also taking steps to unify and streamline certain key business functions. The Global Accounts Sales organization will join the HP Enterprise Group led by David Donatelli which now includes Enterprise Servers, Storage, Networking and Technology Services.

HP also plans to unify its Marketing functions across business units under Marty Homlish, executive vice president and chief marketing officer. HPs Communications employees worldwide will be similarly unified under Henry Gomez, executive vice president and chief communications officer. The company is even moving the Global Real Estate function from Finance into Global Technology and Business Processes.

"Ensuring we have the right organizational structure in place is a critical first step in driving improved execution, and increasing effectiveness and efficiency," Whitman stated. "The result will be a faster, more streamlined, performance-driven HP that is customer focused and poised to capitalize on rapidly shifting industry trends."

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HP Confirms Printer, PC Groups Merger

By Meena Krishnamsetty - March 21, 2012 | Tickers: AU, ABX, GG, HMY, NEM | 0 Comments

Meena is a member of The Motley Fool Blog Network -- entries represent the personal opinions of our bloggers and are not formally edited.

AngloGold Ashanti (NYSE: AU) remains the largest position in John Paulsons Advantage Fund (see more of John Paulsons top picks). AngloGold Ashanti is the third largest gold producer in the world, behind Barrick (NYSE: ABX) at number one and Newmont (NYSE: NEM) at number two, with annual output of over 4.3 million ounces. It has a number of new projects coming online that will boost annual production to an estimated 5.5 million ounces by 2015. Paulson & Co.s 2011 production estimates for Barrick is 7.7 million ounces and for Newmont is 5.2 million ounces. With mines in the United States, South America, West Africa, and South Africa, AngloGold Ashanti has a global presence.

When the new management team took over in late 2007, it set to turnaround the business by: eliminating the hedge book, improving safety, restoring growth, and diversifying out of South Africa. Management completely eliminated the hedge book by October 2010, fully exposing AngloGold Ashanti to the spot price of gold.

Management was successful in its other initiative to improve the AngloGold Ashantis safety performance. AngloGold Ashantis safety statistics have shown meaningful improvement, and in the four and a half years to June 2011 the Companys injury frequency rate declined by 63%. With the operational turnaround under its belt, managements focus has shifted towards delivering future increases in production. The new projects in the United States, South America, and Continental Africa are expected to increase production by 27% by 2015. This enhancement of production growth y-o-y will be an important factor in driving stock price performance. AngloGold Ashanti has recently begun commissioning the new Corrego do Sitio mine in Brazil, and has initiated construction activities on the Tropicana mine in Australia and at the Kibali joint venture in the DRC. Two development projects in Colombia can potentially begin to contribute around 2020. When the market acknowledges AngloGold Ashantis achievements, the shares should outperform.

Improvements in the Companys balance sheet and operational performance as well as international growth opportunities have not been lost on credit rating agencies. Recently, Moodys upgraded its rating from Baa2 from Baa3, recognizing improvements in the fundamentals. The increase in operational strength positions the Company well for hefty upcoming capex budgeted over the next three years (approximately $2 billion in FY12.) This will be supported by strong cash flow generation. During FY11, AngloGold Ashanti generated $833 million in free cash flow. From a debt perspective, AngloGold Ashanti has indicated that it has the capacity to increase its net debt balance to $1.8-2 billion, as needed. We believe this upgrade may improve AngloGold Ashantis cost of capital and generally speaking we believe management will manage the Companys leverage appropriately.

Despite this strong financial performance, the shares declined by 13.8% in 2011. AngloGold Ashanti shares are now trading close its 52-week low of $37.42, presenting an attractive opportunity to initiate a position. Despite AngloGold Ashantis strong operational performance, it trades at a discount to its peer group. Paulson estimates that AngloGold Ashanti shares trade at 6.9x EV/EBITDA versus other large producers that trade at much higher multiples, Harmony (NYSE: HMY) at 10.5x, Newcrest (NCM) at 11.1x, and Goldcorp (NYSE: GG) at 13.0x (based on February 7, 2012 closing prices).

Furthermore, earlier this month, AngloGold Ashanti announced its planned, $335 million acquisition of the Mine Waste Solutions assets of First Uranium (FUM). AngloGold Ashanti has had a 20% stake in FUM since 2011 with its eye on a growth strategy in the Vaal River region. We believe this to be a smart tack-on acquisition for AngloGold Ashanti as there are significant opportunities to achieve synergies since AngloGold Ashanti already has a prominent presence in the area. Management expects that this will add 75,000 to 80,000 ounces to its total output and provide further gold and uranium production upside. Importantly, this acquisition a substantial capital investment that would otherwise be required to construct a plant to process its Vaal River tailings, and reduces long-term potential environmental liabilities. We see additional value in adding capacity (aside from the R100 million capex AngloGold Ashanti has set forth) to increase existing uranium capacity and/or acquiring capacity to treat regional tailings that would serve to manage the risk of future environmental liabilities.

From a macro point of view, we are bullish on gold for the long-term, as is George Soros, given unprecedented amounts of quantitative easing by central banks and the sovereign debt crisis in Europe. And at these prices, gold and select miners present a favorable risk reward profile. AngloGold Ashanti is our pick among South African miners. We like that the Company has entered a growth phase and that its strategy is to diversify into promising regions like Australia, Brazil and Colombia. While stock price performance has been disappointing in the short-term, AngloGold Ashantis strong fundamentals should eventually be reflected.

The Motley Fool has no positions in the stocks mentioned above. InsiderMonkey has no positions in the stocks mentioned above. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services free for 30 days. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

Continued here:
Why John Paulson Loves AngloGold Ashanti

Hewlett-Packard on Wednesday morning confirmed that it will be rolling its printer business into its personal computer unit to "improve performance and drive profitable growth."

As part of the realignment, long-time imaging and printing group head Vyomesh Joshi will retire from the company. Todd Bradley, who has served as the executive vice president of the PC group since 2005, will lead the newly combined unit, which will be called the Printing and Personal Systems Group.

Palo Alto, Calif.-based HP said the move will help streamline its market strategy, branding, supply chain, and worldwide customer support efforts. Together, the two business units had about $65 billion in sales in 2011, more than half of HP's total revenue last year. Rumors of the restructuring first surfaced yesterday on AllThingsD.

"This combination will bring together two businesses where HP has established global leadership," Meg Whitman, president and chief executive officer at HP, said in a statement. "By providing the best in customer-focused innovation and operational efficiency, we believe we will create a winning scenario for customers, partners and shareholders."

But some are questioning the move, saying it might hurt the company. Global Equities Research's Trip Chowdhry said HP's personal computer division "may destroy" its healthy printer division. HP has failed to innovate in the PC space its computers lag behind Apple on screen resolution, design, and network technologies, Chowdhry said. The company is still thought of as a leader when it comes to printing, however.

"Instead of innovating, HP is masking the incompetency of the PC business, by merging it with the stronger printer business," Chowdhry wrote in a Wednesday note to investors.

But HP said the move will drive innovation across both units, and provide opportunities for cost-savings, allowing the company to pursue growth and reinvest in the business.

HP had a rather tumultuous 2011; for more, see PCMag's Year in Review for HP, as well as the slideshow below charting the company's greatest hits.

Continued here:
HP Restructures, Combines PC and Printer Units

KOROITs Patrick Sinnott says coach Sam McCosh laid the foundations for his teams success this season and for his personal success at last nights presentation.

The Saints captain was named the Warrnambool and District Cricket Association under 17 cricketer of the year after polling 26 votes during the home-and-away season.

Sinnott collected 21 wickets and scored 398 runs at an average of 44.2.

The all-rounder, who modestly only described himself as a batsman, believed McCosh was instrumental in guiding Koroit to a semi-final appearance.

Our coach really helped us at training, he said.

I improved along with the whole team because of Sam.

It was a successful season because we made finals.

The 17-year-old opener said his aim each time he went to the crease was to try and be his teams anchor.

I just tried to stay around and work with the others who were around me, he said.

Batting-wise, sometimes I did all right and sometimes I was a little bit off.

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Captains claim junior honours

pd21 Professional Development Creates Computer-Savvy Educators to Enhance Student Achievement

Boston, MA (PRWEB) March 20, 2012

Pearson is partnering with the award-winning Edvation to help teachers fast-track their skills development and use of technology in the classroom with their online pd21 professional development system. Educators will be test-driving the program live at the 67th annual ASCD conference in Philadelphia March 24-26. From gaining proficiency in Microsoft Office suite to social media tools and applications like SketchUp (for learning to design) and GeoGebra (for understanding algebra), pd21 will help teachers integrate a wealth of powerful resources into their classrooms in practical and engaging ways to impact student learning and achievement.

Stefan Kohler, head of teacher effectiveness and professional development for Pearson School, said, Every day we are talking to teachers across the country and they are telling us they are hungry to accelerate their own tech abilities in order to enhance the content of their lessons and create deeper student engagement. He continued, In addition to helping them quickly improve their own skills, our partnership with Edvation will also help to speed the adoption of technology in the classroom by giving teachers a library of more than 150 project-based technology integration curriculum activities to use with students that support Math, Science, Social Studies and Language Arts in grades K-12. Each standards-based project can be immediately used in the classroom, to build confidence and proficiency and provides an opportunity to translate professional development learning into immediately effective classroom practice.

Edvations CEO Adam Smith said, Now that we have partnered with Pearson, the #1 school education company in the nation, we have the ability to reach so many more teachers who are looking to improve their individual computer skills. With Pearson, we look forward to helping educators across the country become more knowledgeable about the many ways they can individually enhance their students achievement through use of technology. He added, We have seen teachers catapult from basically zero computer literacy to working with their students to develop games and puzzles or creating photo essays within a semester. Its truly amazing to see the kind of creativity that our teachers bring to their classrooms once theyve taken advantage of the pd21 system.

pd21 meets teachers at their individual level of technology proficiency, providing various options for courses, from self-paced online tutorials to anytime/anywhere workshops that focus on meaningful technology integration and 21st Century teaching.

Kohler said one of the reasons Pearson teamed up with Edvation was because the pd21 program is proven to support systemic, district-wide success by providing for both teachers needs with research-based content, planning and learning facilities; and meeting administrators needs - with comprehensive management and reporting tools.

For more information, go to http://www.pd21.com

About Edvation

Edvation empowers educators with tools and resources to support the successful integration of technology and 21st Century skills development into standards-based curriculum and classroom practice. Providing curriculum, assessment, professional development and training solutions, Edvation is focused on the meaningful integration of technology to enhance learning and support systemic school improvement processes. With proven solutions implemented worldwide since 1996, Edvations award-winning products and services are used to support integrated state and district-level digital learning goals, improve and measure technology literacy, and provide educational leaders with the data needed for informed decision-making. For more information about Edvations award winning K-12 educational solutions visit http://www.edvation.com.

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Pearson Announces Online Program to Help Teachers Develop Their Personal Technology Skills for Today’s 21st Century ...