Seven shot dead in Florida hostage rampage

By Zachary Fagenson

MIAMI (Reuters) - A tenant went on a shooting rampage at a Florida apartment building, killing six people before a SWAT team killed him and rescued two neighbors he was holding hostage on Saturday, police said.

The hostages were unharmed, police in the Miami suburb of Hialeah said.

"We don't have a clear motive," said Hialeah police spokesman Carl Zogby. "This was an irrational act and many times there is no rational explanation."

Neighbors said the gunman may have been facing eviction, but police were still investigating.

The melee began on Friday evening when the gunman, identified as Pedro Vargas, 42, set fire to the apartment he shared with his mother, police said.

The building managers, 78-year-old Italo Pisciotti and Camira Pisciotti, 68, saw smoke pouring out and ran to the apartment, Zogby said.

"He came out of the door and shot both of them several times, killing them right at the scene," he said.

Vargas went back inside his burning apartment, walked out on the balcony and fired 10 to 20 shots into the street, Zogby said.

A man who lived across the street was killed as he walked from a parking lot toward his home. Vargas also shot at emergency crews and police, preventing them from giving immediate aid to the victims, police said.

The gunman then went to a third-floor apartment, kicked down the door and shot dead a couple and their 17-year-old daughter, Zogby said.

Vargas then ran through the building, firing erratically and exchanging gunfire with police as they arrived and tried to engage him. He ran to the fifth floor, where he took two people hostage and barricaded himself inside their apartment, police said.

Negotiators made contact with him during the night but the talks fell apart and the SWAT team swarmed in about 2 a.m., police said. Vargas had plenty of ammunition left and was firing and "ready to fight" when police killed him, Zogby said.

"All this while, officers are trying to save the hostages, grab them, pull them out of the apartment while this gun battle was going on," he said.

Police initially said Vargas' mother collapsed and was taken to a hospital during the chaos, but later said she had been away visiting relatives during the shootout.

The apartment complex in the blue-collar, mostly Hispanic community housed about 90 families.

More than a hundred police officers from Hialeah and surrounding communities responded to the situation. Some apartment residents were in tears as the investigation continued on Saturday. Others stood on balconies and in hallways looking bewildered.

Police said Vargas was described by neighbors as a quiet man and had no criminal history.

The ceiling and outside wall of his apartment were charred from the fire and blood from the slain building managers stained the door. Three small red flowers had been placed nearby. Down the hall were more flowers and a heart-shaped glass ashtray with three red candles burning in it.

(Writing and additional reporting by Jane Sutton; Editing by Vicki Allen and Jackie Frank)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/hostage-taker-six-others-killed-florida-apartment-shooting-122334506.html

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Old Theater Android App

Date Added: Saturday, July 27th, 2013 at 8:08 am

This is an application for Old Theater in Poland.
Artistic green-lime colors with cubes and primitives.
If you need PSD please love it ? I love it :)

Source: http://mycolorscreen.com/2013/07/27/old-theater-android-app/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=old-theater-android-app

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UNIONS IN DISGUISE? GOP Lawmakers Question Rise of 'Worker Centers'

Roughly 200 so-called "worker centers" across the country are representing employees who work in everything from the fast-food industry to the taxi business.?

But some key Republican lawmakers are asking if those centers are actually acting more like labor unions. The concern is that the rise of these groups has become a way around the rules that govern bona-fide unions -- like requirements to submit financial filings to the feds every year.?

House education committee Chairman John Kline, R-Minn., and Rep. Phil Roe, R-Tenn., sent a letter this week to newly confirmed Labor Secretary Thomas Perez requesting that he clarify the situation.?

"In the last decade, the line between so-called 'worker centers' and labor organizations has blurred. Today, many of these worker centers are dealing with employers directly on behalf of employees," they wrote.?

They cited the example of one such group lobbying, back in the late '90s, for increased minimum wages in restaurants in the Koreatown area of Los Angeles. The four-year campaign of pickets and boycotts was ultimately successful.?

But lawmakers want to know what makes one group a union, and another something else.?

"We're just asking the secretary to clarify what those things are. And it's very well spelled out if you read the law what it is. What you can and can't do and what your reporting requirements are and are not," Roe told Fox News.?

Alexandra Suh, executive director of the Koreatown Immigrant Workers Alliance in Los Angeles, defended its activities.?

"My understanding is that unions' main role is to seek to represent a body of employees at a specific workplace and, in an ongoing way, formally bargain and negotiate contracts with the employer on behalf of those individuals. KIWA does not play this type of role," Suh said.?KIWA was involved in seeking higher wages at Los Angeles restaurants.?

Others are convinced the unions are skirting the rules with these groups.?

A full-page ad from the Center for Union Facts has been running showing the AFL-CIO'S Richard Trumka, and then the same picture of him in a disguise as a "worker center" big shot.?

Many say worker centers do provide useful services such as job training and English-as-a-second-language classes.?

But the Heritage Foundation's James Sherk said "some worker centers are also being used by unions are front organizations, to advance their own agenda, rather than looking at a purely altruistic effort to benefit workers."?

Source: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/07/27/unions-by-another-name-lawmakers-question-rise-worker-centers/

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Delhi University declares ninth cut-off list after start of academic session

New Delhi:?The Delhi University today declared its ninth cut-off list to the four-year undergraduate programme after completion of the orientation process.

The list is mainly for students belonging to reserved categories. There are, however, a few courses still open for general students.

However, seats for science courses are closed for general candidates who can only now try in arts and commerce.

There are seven colleges with commerce seats and six with economics seats.

It is mainly evening colleges like Shyam Lal, Sri Aurobindo College and Satyawati College that are waiting for general students to fill up seats.

While three colleges have vacancies for Hindi and Sanskrit, two have seats for history.

Indraprastha College for Women has again opened admission to commerce, English and Hindi after having declared closed in the eight cut-off list.

"There has been migration of commerce students to B-schools ever since the Master of Business Administration and Chartered Accountancy results have been declared," Indraprastha College for Women principal Babli Moitra Saraf told IANS.

Moti Lal Nehru College (evening) is the only college that has seats vacant for almost all the courses it offers.

The Bhaskaracharya College of Applied Sciences and Ram Lal Anand College that had made news during the first cut-off, are still waiting for students to fill B.Tech (computer science) seats. The cut-off has been moderately brought down to 93 per cent.

In the first cut-off list, Ram Lal Anand College had put the ceiling at 100 per cent for admission to its B.Tech (computer science) course while Bhaskaracharya College of Applied Sciences have kept it in the bracket of 97-99.75 per cent for commerce and B.Tech courses.
DU Registrar Alka Sharma said: "Students have to complete their admission process by July 29 after which any admission undertaken by colleges would not be accepted."

The university introduced the four-year undergraduate programme from this academic session. Under it, students will be required to study 11 foundation courses in the first two years with the main subjects under disciplines I and II and applied courses.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/NdtvNews-Cities/~3/3K8d7f4uyGM/story01.htm

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U.S. To Russia: We Won't Kill Or Torture Snowden

The U.S. has pledged not to seek the death penalty for NSA-whistleblower Edward Snowden. To persuade the Minister of Justice to give up Snowden, it appears that Eric Holder had to ironically assure Russian authorities that it will respect human rights. "The United States would not seek the death penalty for Mr. Snowden should he return to the United States," he wrote. "We believe these assurances eliminate these asserted grounds for Mr. Snowden?s claim that he should be treated as a refugee or granted asylum, temporary or otherwise."

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/fe3ha1Sm2kM/

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Wearable electrodes from Japan let users monitor their heart rates just by slipping on a T-shirt

Wearable technology looms on the horizon right now, with products like Google Glass and the rumored?iWatch attracting attention as much for their practical applications as for their curiosity factor. Not only can we bring our computers anywhere now, we can wear them too.

Most of these products can be categorized as consumer accessories ? watches, headbands, etc. ? but Japan?s NTT has developed an actual textile with computing capabilities. Specifically, they?ve invented a wearable textile electrode that can be placed inside a T-shirt, where it can can monitor one?s heart rate.

Check out the video below to see how it works.

According to Diginfo.tv?the textiles are made from a synthetic fiber core that is coated with a conductive polymer. Since the electrodes are soft and comfortable to wear, they allow for long term monitoring of one?s heart rate without electrolyte pastes or gels.

The most obvious use for this technology is in medicine, of course, but with wearable technology a natural fit for health and fitness apps like Nike+, it seems well-poised to function on a more consumer-oriented level too.

NTT is in the process of testing the fabric on 100 wearers to further assess its effectiveness and safety.

?Image credit via Thinkstock

Source: http://thenextweb.com/shareables/2013/07/25/wearable-electrodes-from-japan-let-users-monitor-their-heart-rates-just-by-slipping-on-a-t-shirt/

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'Beep Baseball' A Homerun With Blind Players

Ryan Strickland takes a practice swing. Even though most players are legally blind, batters, basemen and outfielders all wear blindfolds in Beep Baseball so that people who can see shadows, for example, don't have an advantage.

Jessica Robinson for NPR

Ryan Strickland takes a practice swing. Even though most players are legally blind, batters, basemen and outfielders all wear blindfolds in Beep Baseball so that people who can see shadows, for example, don't have an advantage.

Jessica Robinson for NPR

The air smells like cut grass and barbecue at Friendship Park in north Spokane, Wash. And Bee Yang is up to bat. The outfielders get ready. Yang is known as a power hitter.

But this is not your usual baseball game. There's a twist: most of the athletes on the field are visually impaired. Players know where the ball is by listening for it. It's called Beep Baseball, named for the beeping sound the balls make.

Yang listens for the pitch.

He swings.

He hits the ball and takes off toward first base, which has started buzzing. Over in left field, a player scrambles after the beeping ball. But Yang reaches the base first.

Twenty-six U.S. teams, plus one in Taiwan, make up the National Beep Baseball Association, and starting this weekend, 20 teams will meet in Georgia for the World Series of Beep Baseball.

Troy Leeberg is the coach of the Spokane team. Like many of the players here, the last time he was on a baseball diamond was in high school.

"But with my vision, I couldn't see the ball coming to hit it. So they finally just said 'You're just the ball boy now.' But now I'm 45, and this is our second season here," Leeberg says.

In this version of the game, you score a run by reaching a base before the opposing team's outfielders pick up the ball. In all of Beep Baseball history, there have been only five balls caught in mid-air. There's no second base. The infielders at first and third guard bases that look like blue foam pillars. And the pitcher, who has at least some vision, is on your own team.

Kelsie Weir is the pitcher for the Spokane Pride, one of the positions in Beep Baseball that requires some vision. The balls contain an electronic beeping device so blind players know where it is.

Jessica Robinson for NPR

Kelsie Weir is the pitcher for the Spokane Pride, one of the positions in Beep Baseball that requires some vision. The balls contain an electronic beeping device so blind players know where it is.

Jessica Robinson for NPR

The evolution of the sport mirrors a shift in thinking about disabilities in the U.S. Back when the game began in Colorado in the 1960s, there was no running. No diving after the ball. And players were bundled up in all sorts of padding. They found the game boring.

It finally took off in the 1970s when the rules of Beep Baseball were revised to be less protective.

Vivian Huschke lost her vision after college.

"If I did running, it was like, sighted guides hanging on, chained with somebody. So when they said, 'Yeah, you're going to run from there to the base,' it's like, 'With no cane, no sighted guide, you just run free?' "

Beep Baseball games are full of jokes that might seem politically incorrect elsewhere. "Keep your eye on the ball" they'll banter. At one point, half the field cracks up when one player hits the ball ? and her teammate unknowingly congratulates the wrong person.

Teri Fimpel says Beep Baseball is a rare place where she doesn't have to explain herself or her disability.

"So it's just, I don't know, it's like our own private little world. It's like our own private community where we can talk and be ourselves, but yet have the understanding that we're all equal," Fimpel says.

The Spokane team may take a break from practice next week to listen to the final game in the World Series of Beep Baseball on a live stream. For these players, it isn't blindness that unites the team ? it's just a love of baseball.

Source: http://www.npr.org/2013/07/24/204876507/beep-baseball-a-homerun-with-blind-players?ft=1&f=3

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