Proposed Boston public food market still on slow cook

Plans for Boston Public Market, a proposed year-round indoor/outdoor food market along the Rose Kennedy Greenway, are progressing slower than anticipated, with no opening date in sight.

The Boston Public Market Association is focused on hiring a new executive director, creating a business plan and finding an architect for the project, which will feature foods from Massachusetts and the rest of New England.

Getting those building blocks in place will help the nonprofit raise the 
$11 million needed to open the 28,000-square-foot market in a state-owned building on Blackstone Street, association Chairman Brian Kinney said at a Public Market Commission meeting this week.

"We haven't said when we're going to open," Kinney said. "I don't have a crystal ball. I don't want to open prematurely or badly, because you can only open once."

But, Kinney told the commission, "You should have increased confidence that this is going to get done, and it's going to get done well."

The nonprofit had a setback when its executive director, hired last May, left after seven months.

"There was a mismatch," Kinney said. "We ended the relationship as of the end of (2012)."

While Kinney said the woman was experienced in food retail development, the board felt it needed someone with different skills, including strong local relationships.

Meanwhile, the nonprofit's fundraising has yielded "firm," signed commitments for $1.5 million, all but $300,000 of which is from board members.

"It's really a snowball that we've begun to roll down the hill, and it's picking up steam," Kinney said of fundraising, which he'd like to see hit $15 million, so the market can open with an endowment in place. "As we've talked to people, I'm actually pretty confident the support is there."

That sum would be in addition to the $4 million committed by the state, most of which will go toward bringing the building and its systems up to code.

00.48 | 0 komentar | Read More

Experts offer good read on Amazon’s latest buy

Experts are hailing Amazon's decision to acquire social reading website Goodreads as a brilliant move that will steer traffic — and sales — to Amazon, which started as an online bookstore and grew to become the world's largest online retailer.

The deal, which was announced Thursday and will be finalized in a few weeks, marks a move to integrate social media with the books found on Amazon's Kindle e-reader.

"Amazon has an incredible recommendations feature, but by tying in who your friends are and what they're buying, all of a sudden you'll see recommendations for those books," said Todd Van Hoosear, owner of Fresh Ground, a Cambridge social-media consulting group.

And the average person is more likely to buy a book that a friend has recommended than one a stranger has, said David Gerzof Richard, a professor of social media marketing at Emerson College.

In addition to reader reviews, other features found on Goodreads' website, including online book clubs and the ability to share passages, may also eventually be available to Kindle users.

Gerzof Richard said he wouldn't be surprised if Amazon expanded into other consumer sharing platforms such as gdgt, which has reviews of electronic goods.

"Amazon knows how powerful experienced-consumer reviews are for converting to sales," he said.

00.48 | 0 komentar | Read More

The Ticker

Battery maker gets cute with name

Lithium ion battery maker A123 Systems is changing its corporate name to B456 Systems Inc. to satisfy one of the embattled company's obligations under an asset purchase agreement with Wanxiang America Corp.

Chinese auto parts manufacturer Wanxiang Group acquired all of the company's heavily government-subsidized assets for more than $256 million earlier this year, after the Waltham-based company filed for bankruptcy.

Lexington co. nets major funding

QD Vision, a nanomaterials product company that makes optical components for LCD applications, has closed a $20 million round of financing to expand production capacity and fund long-term company growth. The company said its Color IQ components significantly improve LCD color performance in televisions, monitors and mobile displays.

CVS CEO pay spikes 44 percent

CVS Caremark Corp.'s President and CEO Larry Merlo's pay spiked 44 percent to $20.4 million last year. In a regulatory filing, the company said Merlo's base salary rose slightly, while other benefits saw greater increases. Merlo joined the company in 1990.

Dynasil Corp. risks delisting

Watertown-based Dynasil Corp. of America is no longer in compliance with the NASDAQ stock market after the closing price for its common stock fell below $1 per share for 30 consecutive days.

The company has until Sept. 23 to regain compliance or face delisting.

Hub on Alaska's horizon

Seattle-based airline carrier Alaska Airlines has launched nonstop flights between San Diego and Boston, the sixth new city the carrier has begun serving from the California city in the past year. To celebrate, the airline is offering a $159 one-way fare available now through April 9 for travel from April 30 through June 12.

THE SHUFFLE

• Acentech Inc. of Cambridge has hired Sarah McGillicuddy, left, as director of marketing and business development. McGillicuddy previously served as director of marketing and was a business development manager at construction management firm Richard White Sons Inc.
• Cambridge-based Tokai Pharmaceuticals Inc. has promoted Jodie Morrison to the position of chief executive officer. Morrison most recently served as chief operating officer and vice president of clinical affairs for the company.
• Square 1 Bank of Boston has hired Michael Madden as senior vice president and managing director in the Boston office. Madden was previously a principal at Edison Ventures.

00.48 | 0 komentar | Read More

NKorean propaganda mill serves up soft side of Kim

SEOUL, South Korea — The outside world focuses on the messages of doom and gloom from North Korea: bombastic threats of nuclear war, fantasy videos of U.S. cities in flames, digitally altered photos of leader Kim Jong Un guiding military drills. But back home, North Koreans get a decidedly softer dose of propaganda: Kim portrayed as a young, energetic leader, a people person and family man.

Mixed in with the images showing Kim aboard a speeding boat on a tour of front-line islands, or handing out commemorative rifles to smartly saluting soldiers, are those of Kim and his wife clapping at a dolphin show or linking arms with weeping North Korean children.

The pictures can look odd or obviously staged to outsiders. But they're carefully crafted propaganda meant to give North Koreans an image of a country governed by a leader who is as comfortable overseeing a powerful military as he is mingling with the people.

Analysts say the images also hint at something that often gets lost amid the threatening rhetoric: North Korea's supreme commander isn't an all-powerful, isolated monarch who can govern without considering his people's approval. Kim is still busy building his reputation at home.

"Even dictatorships respond to public opinion and public pressure," said John Delury, a North Korea analyst at Seoul's Yonsei University. "He's expected to pay attention to and make improvements in the common people's standard of living. They've put that promise out in their domestic propaganda."

It's a tall order. Living standards in Pyongyang, the capital, are relatively high, with new shops and restaurants catering to a growing middle class. But U.N. officials' reports detail harsh conditions elsewhere in North Korea: up to 200,000 people estimated to be languishing in political prison camps, and two-thirds of the country's 24 million people facing regular food shortages.

When it comes to North Korean propaganda, much of the world focuses on the series of outlandish videos uploaded to the country's YouTube channel and government website, largely for foreign consumption. In one fantasy, missiles rain down on a burning American city while an instrumental version of "We Are the World" plays in the background. In another, President Barack Obama and U.S. troops burn.

But what most North Koreans see on state TV is a different propaganda message: Kim Jong Un bending down to receive flowers from children, Kim visiting families living in rustic homes on front-line islands, Kim mobbed by gushing female soldiers.

As with any propaganda or PR, the images are carefully staged. And many make foreign news headlines only when experts and photo editors discover that North Korea is digitally altering them. For instance, in a picture distributed recently by state media, troops and hovercraft land on a barren, snow-dappled beach. Experts say some of the multiple hovercraft have been copied and pasted into the image.

But North Korea's propaganda makers aren't concerned about the criticism abroad to their heavy-handed photo editing. "These efforts are aimed more at an unsophisticated domestic peasant audience than those of us who are more discerning," said Ralph Cossa, president of the Pacific Forum CSIS think tank in Hawaii.

The caring domestic persona being built for Kim by his image specialists is aided by his wife, Ri Sol Ju.

She is young and glamorous, a chic and smiling presence at his side in many of the country's propaganda images. The couple is often photographed at amusement parks, nurseries, factory tours and concerts.

"It's a more complex kind of image he has as a leader," Delury said. "The basis of his legitimacy domestically has to do with these other, non-military things."

The propaganda machine in North Korea also worked to build up a caring image for Kim's father, the late Kim Jong Il. He doggedly appeared at tours of factories, farms and military posts. But while Kim Jong Un puts his wife front and center and is a relaxed presence on camera, his father was stiff in photos and secretive about his family life.

North Korea takes pains to select and sometimes alter photos so its leaders appear in the best light possible, said Seo Jeong-nam, a North Korean propaganda expert at Keimyung University in South Korea.

For example, past propaganda specialists were careful not to pick photos that showed the large lump on the back of the neck of Kim's grandfather, North Korean President Kim Il Sung, Seo said. When Kim Jong Il was alive, North Korean photographers tried to make him look taller in photos than he actually was, often positioning him slightly in front of others, Seo said.

As for Kim Jong Un, Seo said North Korea's propaganda mill chooses photos that show off his strong resemblance to his grandfather, who still is depicted on state TV as the loving father of the nation, surrounded by children and adoring citizens.

___

Associated Press writer Sam Kim contributed to this story. Follow Klug at www.twitter.com/APKlug and Kim at www.twitter.com/samkim_ap.

00.48 | 0 komentar | Read More

Robotics competition wrapping up in Hartford

HARTFORD, Conn. — More than 1,800 high school students from across New England will be making robots throw Frisbees and climb pyramids on the final day of a regional robotics contest in Hartford.

The annual FIRST Robotics Competition Connecticut Regional wraps up Saturday at the Connecticut Convention Center. Thirty-nine high school robotics teams from Connecticut and 15 teams from other New England states are taking part in the two-day event, sponsored by Hartford-based United Technologies Corp.

The students have worked since January building 100-pound robots that must precisely aim Frisbees and climb pyramids on a 27-feet-by-54-feet field in this year's challenge.

Winning teams will move on to the FIRST International Championship in St. Louis from April 25 to 28. FIRST stands for "For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology."

00.48 | 0 komentar | Read More

UMass-Lowell launches Portuguese studies center

LOWELL, Mass. — Officials at the University of Massachusetts-Lowell say their newest academic and cultural center will explore and celebrate the history and contributions of Portuguese people in the United States and abroad.

The school says the Saab-Pedroso Center for Portuguese Studies and Culture will sponsor events, offer study-abroad programs and coordinate faculty collaborations with universities in the Portuguese cities of Lisbon and Braga.

The center is named after UMass-Lowell alumnus whose combined gift of $850,000 helped establish the initiative. They include Lowell residents Mark Saab and his wife, Elisia Saab, as well as Luis Pedroso of Hampton, N.H.

The school launched the center Thursday night at a reception attended by the consul general of the Portuguese Consulate in Boston and the chancellors of UMass-Lowell and UMass Dartmouth. The two campuses will collaborate on some programs through the center.

00.48 | 0 komentar | Read More

Egypt, Iran resume direct flights after decades

CAIRO — A commercial airliner left Egypt for Iran on Saturday in what was the first direct passenger flight between the two countries in more than three decades, Egyptian airport officials said.

Cairo-Tehran relations have warmed since the June election of Egypt's Islamist president, Mohammed Morsi. Diplomatic relations were frozen after Egypt signed its 1979 peace treaty with Israel and Iran underwent its Islamic Revolution.

Cairo airport officials say a private Air Memphis flight departed for Tehran carrying eight Iranians, including two diplomats. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not allowed to speak to reporters.

Egypt's tourism minister visited Tehran last month to sign an agreement promoting tourism between the countries. Egypt's Foreign and Civil Aviation Ministries, however, have set regulations restricting the number and movement of Iranian tourists in Egypt.

Ali al-Ashri, an Egyptian foreign ministry official, said Iranian tourists would only be allowed to visit certain sites, such as the ancient cities of Luxor and resort areas like Sharm el-Sheikh. Cairo was not on the list of places they would be allowed to visit, mainly because it is the site of shrines of revered Shiite figures.

The airport officials said future flights are likely to be scheduled from cities in southern Egypt and will not go through the capital.

The thaw in relations between Sunni-majority Egypt and Shiite Iran is facing scrutiny from Egypt's ultraconservative Muslims, who view Iran's rapprochement with Cairo with suspicion. Ultraconservative Salafis consider Shiites heretics, and fear that Iran is trying to spread its faith in the Sunni world.

On Friday, Salafi protesters stormed a meeting at al-Azhar University, which is affiliated with the Sunni world's most prestigious learning institute. They were trying to stop an Iranian official from attending the meeting. The meeting eventually went ahead as scheduled.

00.48 | 0 komentar | Read More

Bank of Cyprus big savers to lose up to 60 percent

NICOSIA, Cyprus — Big depositors at Cyprus' largest bank may be forced to accept losses of up to 60 percent, far more than initially estimated under the European rescue package to save the country from bankruptcy, officials said Saturday.

Deposits of more than 100,000 euros ($128,000) at the Bank of Cyprus will lose 37.5 percent in money that will be converted into bank shares, according to a central bank statement. In a second raid on these accounts, depositors also could lose up to 22.5 percent more, depending on what experts determine is needed to prop up the bank's reserves. The experts will have 90 days to figure that out.

The remaining 40 percent of big deposits at the Bank of Cyprus will be "temporarily frozen for liquidity reasons," but continue to accrue existing levels of interest plus another 10 percent, the central bank said.

The savings converted to bank shares would theoretically allow depositors to eventually recover their losses. But the shares now hold little value and it's uncertain when — if ever — the shares will regain a value equal to the depositors' losses.

Emergency laws passed last week empower Cypriot authorities to take these actions.

Analysts said Saturday that imposing bigger losses on Bank of Cyprus customers could further squeeze already crippled businesses as Cyprus tries to rebuild its banking sector in exchange for the international rescue package.

Sofronis Clerides, an economics professor at the University of Cyprus, said: "Most of the damage will be done to businesses which had their money in the bank" to pay suppliers and employees. "There's quite a difference between a 30 percent loss and a 60 percent loss." With businesses shrinking, Cyprus could be dragged down into an even deeper recession, he said.

Clerides accused some of the 17 European countries that use the euro of wanting to see the end of Cyprus as an international financial services center and to send the message that European taxpayers will no longer shoulder the burden of bailing out problem banks.

But German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble challenged that notion, insisting in an interview with the Bild daily published Saturday that "Cyprus is and remains a special, isolated case" and doesn't point the way for future European rescue programs.

Europe has demanded that big depositors in Cyprus' two largest banks — Bank of Cyprus and Laiki Bank — accept across-the-board losses in order to pay for the nation's 16 billion euro ($20.5 billion) bailout. All deposits of up to 100,000 are safe, meaning that a saver with 500,000 euros in the bank will only suffer losses on the remaining 400,000 euros.

Cypriot officials had previously said that large savers at Laiki — which will be absorbed in to the Bank of Cyprus — could lose as much as 80 percent. But they had said large accounts at the Bank of Cyprus would lose only 30 to 40 percent.

Asked about Saturday's announcement, University of Cyprus political scientist Antonis Ellinas predicted that unemployment, currently at 15 percent, will "probably go through the roof" over the next few years.

"It means that (people) ... have to accept a major haircut to their way of life and their standard of living. The social impact is yet to be realized, but they will be enormous in terms of social unrest and radical social phenomenon," Ellinas said.

There's also concern that large depositors — including many wealthy Russians — will take their money and run once capital restrictions that Cypriot authorities have imposed on bank transactions to prevent such a possibility are lifted in about a month.

Cyprus agreed on Monday to make bank depositors with accounts over 100,000 euros contribute to the financial rescue in order to secure 10 billion euros ($12.9 billion) in loans from the eurozone and the International Monetary Fund. Cyprus needed to scrounge up 5.8 billion euros ($7.4 billion) on its own in order to clinch the larger package, and banks had remained shut for nearly two weeks until politicians hammered out a deal, opening again on Thursday.

But fearing that savers would rush to pull their money out in mass once banks reopened, Cypriot authorities imposed a raft of restrictions, including daily withdrawal limits of 300 euros ($384) for individuals and 5,000 euros for businesses — the first so-called capital controls that any country has applied in the eurozone's 14-year history.

The rush didn't materialize as Cypriots appeared to take the measures in stride, lining up patiently to do their business and defying dire predictions of scenes of pandemonium.

Under the terms of the bailout deal, the country' second largest bank, Laiki — which sustained the most damaged from bad Greek debt and loans — is to be split up, with its nonperforming loans and toxic assets going into a "bad bank." The healthy side will be absorbed into the Bank of Cyprus.

On Saturday, economist Stelios Platis called the rescue plan "completely mistaken" and criticized Cyprus' euro partners for insisting on foisting Laiki's troubles on the Bank of Cyprus.

____

AP business correspondent Geir Moulson in Berlin and APTN reporter Adam Pemble in Nicosia contributed.

00.48 | 0 komentar | Read More

APNewsBreak: Gas trade group seeks fracking probe

ALBANY, N.Y. — A formal complaint filed with New York's lobbying board asks it to investigate whether Artists Against Fracking, a group formed by Yoko Ono and son Sean Lennon, is violating the state's lobbying law.

The complaint obtained by The Associated Press was made by the Independent Oil & Gas Association to the state Joint Commission on Public Ethics.

The energy trade group based its request for an investigation on an AP report that found that Artists Against Fracking and its advocates didn't register as lobbyists. Registration requires several disclosures about spending and activities.

A spokesman for Artists Against Fracking says the group's activities are protected because they were made during a public comment period. He also says celebrities involved in the group are protected because they are longtime activists, not lobbyists.

00.48 | 0 komentar | Read More

Patients of Tulsa doctor line up to get tested

TULSA, Okla. — About 150 to 200 patients of a Tulsa oral surgeon accused of unsanitary practices queued outside a health clinic Saturday, hoping to discover whether they were exposed to hepatitis or the virus that causes AIDS.

Letters began going out in stages Friday to 7,000 patients who had seen Dr. W. Scott Harrington during the past six years — warning them that poor hygiene at his clinics created a public health hazard. The one-page letter said how and where to seek treatment but couldn't explain why Harrington's allegedly unsafe practices went on for so long.

Testing for hepatitis B, hepatitis C and the virus that causes AIDS began at 10 a.m. Saturday, but many arrived early and stood through torrential downpours.

Kari Childress, 38, showed up at the Tulsa Health Department North Regional Health and Wellness Center at 8:30 a.m., mainly because she was nervous.

"I just hope I don't have anything," said Childress, who had a tooth extracted at one of Harrington's two clinics five months ago. "You trust and believe in doctors to follow the rules, and that's the scariest part."

Inspectors found a number of problems at the oral surgeon's clinics in Tulsa and suburban Owasso, according to the state Dentistry Board, which filed a 17-count complaint against Harrington pending an April 19 license revocation hearing. According to the complaint, needles were reinserted into drug vials after being used on patients, expired drugs were found in a medicine cabinet and dental assistants administered sedatives to patients, rather than the doctor.

One patient, Orville Marshall, said he didn't meet Harrington until after he had two wisdom teeth pulled about five years ago at the Owasso clinic. A nurse inserted the IV for his anesthesia; Harrington was there when Marshall came to.

"It's just really scary, it makes you doubt the whole system, especially with how good his place looked," said Marshall, 37.

An instrument set reserved for use on patients with infectious diseases was rusty, preventing its effective sterilization, and the office autoclave — a pressurized cleaner — was used improperly and hadn't been certified as effective in at least six years, according to the complaint.

Dr. Matt Messina, a practicing dentist in Cleveland and a consumer adviser for the American Dental Association, said creating a safe and hygienic environment is "one of the fundamental requirements" before any dental procedure can be performed.

"It's not hard. It just takes effort," he said.

Weekly autoclave testing can be performed for less than $400 annually, according to the website of the Autoclave Testing Services of Pearl River, New York.

Autoclaves themselves typically can be purchased for $1,000 to $8,000, depending on their size and features. And an average dental practice can expect to pay more than $40,000 a year in equipment, tools and supplies alone, according to several dental organizations.

Attempts to reach Harrington have been unsuccessful. No one answered the door Thursday at his home, which property records show is worth more than $1 million. His practice a few miles away, in a tony section of the city where plastic surgeons operate and locals congregate at bistros and stores like Saks Fifth Avenue, has a fair-market value of around $851,000.

His malpractice lawyer, Jim Secrest II, did not respond to phone messages left Thursday or Friday. A message at Harrington's Tulsa office said it was closed and an answering service referred callers to the Tulsa Health Department.

State epidemiologist Kristy Bradley and Tulsa Health Department Director Bruce Dart sent letters Friday to all 7,000 patients they found in Harrington's records, urging them to be screened. More patients may be at risk, but Harrington's files go back only to 2007.

Nursing student Anisa Lewis, 22, said Harrington had a good reputation in the community, and friends recommended his practice when she had to get her wisdom teeth taken out in 2005.

"I'm a little nervous because I read the complaints filed against him, and in nursing school, we're taught how to handle and clean our instruments, she said. "It was very shocking to read some of the allegations," which she called "far beyond the pale of the precautions you're supposed to taking."

Susan Rogers, the executive director of the state Dentistry Board, said her agency has a budget of around $1 million, much of that generated from license renewal fees and dentist certification. It also has only five employees to monitor more than 2,000 dentists.

The state Dentistry Board's website revealed part of the problem.

"With three incoming telephone lines and essentially one person handling the phones, emails, snail mail, renewals, new license/permit applications, walk ins ... we will miss phones calls," the website says.

"So follow the instructions on the message," the site says. "We will respond to your request as soon as we can in the order in which it is received, but it will take time.  We appreciate your patience."

00.48 | 0 komentar | Read More