| Halliburton, the US energy services giant, has admitted destroying evidence relating to the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil rig explosion in the Gulf of Mexico, the worst such disaster in American history. A Justice Department statement released late Thursday said the company had agreed to plead guilty to criminal conduct that occurred when it was carrying out its own post-accident investigation. Eleven people died and 4.9 million barrels of oil gushed into the Gulf over a three-month period after the explosion, with BP -- who leased Deepwater Horizon -- ending up paying billions of dollars in compensation and cleanup costs. Halliburton Energy Services, BP's contractor, had been accused by the British oil giant of destroying evidence. BP has also asked Halliburton to pay damages stemming from the April 2010 accident off the coast of Louisiana. The Justice Department statement said Halliburton -- which constructed the cement casing of the well at the center of the disaster -- had carried out its own internal investigations in May and June the same year. However, the results of computer simulations conducted as part of that probe were ordered to be destroyed and were never recovered, it said. In addition to a guilty plea -- which is subject to court approval -- Halliburton has agreed to pay the maximum statutory fine of $200,000. The company said in a statement that it would make a separate and voluntary $55 million payment to the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation. The disaster wreaked havoc on the Gulf region's environment and economy. The central subject of the cooperation and guilty plea deal was the number of heavy metal collars, known as centralizers, placed at various points on the cement casing of the Macondo well that eventually exploded. The Justice Department said that prior to the blowout, Halliburton had recommended that 21 centralizers be used, but BP instead opted for six. Halliburton's post-accident tests failed to back up its earlier suggestion. "These simulations indicated that there was little difference between using six and 21 centralizers. (The) Program Manager was directed to, and did, destroy these results," the Justice Department statement said. In a later incident in or around June 2010, similar evidence was also destroyed when Halliburton's cementing technology director asked another more experienced employee to repeat the simulations. When he "reached the same conclusion" he was directed to "get rid of" the simulations, the statement said. "In agreeing to plead guilty, Halliburton has accepted criminal responsibility for destroying the aforementioned evidence," the Justice Department added. Halliburton's statement said the agreement with the Justice Department would conclude the criminal investigation into its actions over the giant spill. "A Halliburton subsidiary has agreed to plead guilty to one misdemeanor violation associated with the deletion of records created after the Macondo well incident, to pay the statutory maximum fine of $200,000 and to accept a term of three years probation," it said. Several government probes have castigated BP, rig operator Transocean and Halliburton for cutting corners and missing warning signs that could have prevented the disaster. Last year, BP agreed to pay $4.5 billion in penalties and pleaded guilty to multiple criminal charges relating to the explosion and ensuing spill. The company also spent more than $14 billion on the response and cleanup and has paid another $10 billion to businesses, individuals and local governments that did not join an ongoing class action lawsuit. |
Wednesday, July 31, 2013
Halliburton admits destroying US oil disaster evidence - TechSc1ence
Job cuts loom as EADS changes name to Airbus - TechSc1ence
| EADS will take the name of its flagship brand Airbus and target higher profits by combining defence and space units, Europe's top aerospace group confirmed on Wednesday, in a move that could involve job cuts. Nine months after bowing to political opposition to his attempt to merge with UK arms firm BAE Systems, Chief Executive Tom Enders declared civil jets the main "growth engine" for EADS investors, who pushed shares to new highs. After unveiling a strong batch of commercial earnings that included a rise in Airbus order targets, Enders did not rule out job cuts in the group's 45,000-strong defence and space operations, which will be based in Germany. "It (the reorganisation) means some real restructuring, but we are forced to do it: the defence business is ... shrinking in Europe," he said. The company warned the move could lead to restructuring charges later in the year - a standard sign of layoffs ahead. But it also deferred politically sensitive decisions until after German elections in September by promising a detailed review. The changes will come into affect starting from January 1, allowing time for what could be lengthy talks with unions. "To keep the company economically successful, the restructuring must take place in a socially acceptable way," Ruediger Luetjen, head of the company's European works council and a representative of trade union IG Metall, told Reuters. STANDOFF The company is already on a potential collision course with the German government over the allocation of jobs for Airbus A350 jets, in a dispute that shows few signs of easing. People familiar with the matter say Airbus is unwilling to give guarantees over the share of work on the latest jet as long as Germany holds back a development loan. Berlin, for its part, wants guarantees about work on future Airbus projects. "The German government will work closely (with EADS) during the upcoming restructuring process and will place great importance on Germany's interests as an industrial location," Economy Minister Philipp Roesler said. EADS was formed in 2000 from a merger of French, German and Spanish assets that incorporated passenger jetmaker Airbus, founded three decades earlier and now a global rival to Boeing. The name EADS - originally European Aeronautic, Defence & Space Co - was never widely recognized and the group has long discussed changing its name to Airbus. But politics have until now made it difficult to tinker with Europe's leading symbols. Enders hopes the decision to unite under a globally recognized brand will galvanize the rest of the business from space rockets to helicopters and encrypted communications. EADS will be called Airbus Group and will combine defence and space activities in one division together with Airbus Military transporters, currently twinned with passenger jets. Eurocopter, the world's largest commercial helicopter maker, will also be renamed Airbus Helicopters. 'NOBODY AUTONOMOUS' The decision to co-opt the Airbus brand may test a delicate balance between 'old EADS' and the Airbus division, where CEO Fabrice Bregier is widely seen as Enders' future successor. Industry sources noted the unit is keeping the one-word name "Airbus" rather than a more hierarchical divisional title like that of its direct counterpart, Boeing Commercial Airplanes. But by uniting defence and space and rallying behind one brand, EADS is adopting much of the look and feel of its rival, where planemaking has traditionally had less independence. Enders dismissed media "rumours" about such sensitivities and is seen likely to avoid clashing with Bregier. But he ruled out a return to fiefdoms that beset EADS under past managements. "Nobody is autonomous on this planet. I have a board and the same goes for division heads in the group," he told reporters. Powered by commercial demand for Airbus planes, second-quarter EADS operating profit rose 23 percent to 887 million euros on revenue of 13.945 billion, up 3 percent. Airbus makes up two thirds of sales and is expected to remain dominant. Analysts were expecting profit of 839 million euros. Shares in EADS closed up 1.4 percent at 44.89 euros. The new order target puts Airbus on course to beat its 2012 gross order tally of 914 jetliners. Industry sources say business in the pipeline suggests it could reach 1,200 orders. Airbus is battling to regain leadership of the $100 billion (65 billion pounds) annual jet market after Boeing grabbed top spot last year. Strategy chief Marwan Lahoud said all divisions would join efforts to increase margins to 10 percent by 2015, from a group average of 5.6 percent in the first half of this year. That would bring EADS roughly in line with Boeing, though the comparison is blurred by accounting differences that allow the U.S. company to spread some costs over a longer period. Enders said testing for the A350, the newest Airbus jet, was going "very, very well" but the project remained challenging. |
University – Education Flat UI PSD Template (Nonprofit) - TechSc1ence
| University – is a flexible flat UI PSD template for educational organizations. It will perfectly suit the needs of any modern university, college, school or other educational business. The template consists of well-organized components that are easy to modify. You are free to create as many unique layout structures as you wish. That's why current PSD template can be used on a variety of websites, no matter their main type and primary audience. |
Tuesday, July 30, 2013
JLV 3D Gallery (Galleries) - TechSc1ence
| JLV 3D Gallery is a userful module made for Joomla 2.5 and Joomla 3.x
See video How to install and using JLV 3D Gallery module here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NCMuaqummGs |
Dreamer - Photo & Video Parallax WordPress Theme (WordPress) - TechSc1ence
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Description If you are searching something different and out of the line, please check out the Dreamer – Photo & Video Parallax WordPress Theme. Dreamer is a fully configurable and easy to use one page parallax template with a lot of great features. It has been specifically designed to be easily customized and it's created for creatives who want to make portfolio in few minutes. Photo & Video Version Fullscreen Video Background version is available HERE! Fullscreen Photo Slideshow version is available HERE Features - Fully Responsive, Updates v1.2 - July 30 Fixed: Portfolio Button (paperclip icon link) v1.1 - July 29 Fixed: Header CSS Fixed: Homepage Slideshow Credits All images and videos used in the demo are not distributed with the theme. They are all licensed under Creative Commons and credited to their respective creator/owner. Photos Some Portfolio and News Photos are property of Sean McCabe JavaScript Modernizer – the feature detection library for HTML5/CSS3 Icons Somicro – 33 Free Social Media Icons Fonts Ubuntu – google.com/webfonts Video Resonance: Appear with a trace |
Colangine - Creative Flat HTML5 Template (Creative) - TechSc1ence
| Colangine is a Creative and Flat HTML5 Template with 59 Valid html templates, Multipurpose and modern, fullwide, boxed and blocked version. fully responsive with pretty dropdown menu navigation for small screen devices. Wow 13 Awesome slider with different effects. seo optimized, pages fullwide, left sidebar and right sidebar. Supported RTL languages like persian and arabic. php ajax contact form working, and more features… Visit Colangine on your Smart Devices
RTL Support
PSD Files Included
Main Features
Credits
Changelog v1.0.1 – July 30th, 2013 - Added PrettyPhoto for Portfolio items - Updated jQuery to Latest Version - IE8 and IE9 Minor CSS Errors Fixed - Added Live Style Customizer in demo version v1.0 – July 29th, 2013 - Initial Release |
Syntac - Premium Personal Portfolio PSD Template (Portfolio) - TechSc1ence
| Syntac is a professional, modern personal portfolio psd template with the latest flat design and plenty of unique design elements in 2 color schemes.
Includes:
The images used in the preview are from Daniel Zedda and not included in the main download. |
Allure Responsive Magento Theme (Fashion) - TechSc1ence
| Allure Shop is a slick sofisticated responsive Magento theme template design. Super neat design, really modern and high fashion skin for the website. The theme would be a perfect reflection of your magnificent products. It is an excellent Magento theme solution for numerous businesses due to its option to allow you to change the color of the template design with one click in the template parameters. Using the color options you can have any color you wish. It adapts beautifully to all devices .Large size slideshow plus promotion blocks blow fresh air into the website and to make it more glamour and magnificent.Easily control your template layout and responsive layout via the template parameters.. All our layouts carry clean coding and you can be sure the quality of the templates is premium. Choose your free beauty templates now and enjoy! Compatibility: magento 1.5.x.x, magento 1.6.x.x, magento 1.7++ We supply a full help with our products and after purchase – support to all our customers. If you are interested in our fully installation you can find detailed information on our website THEME FEATURES
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Canada Post Woocommerce Shipping Plugin (WooCommerce) - TechSc1ence
| This Canada Post Shipping Plugin for WooCommerce provides integration with Canada Post and your WooCommerce website. It is able to provide live shipping rates directly to your customers in their shopping cart and at checkout. Also, it provides up-to-date package information from Canada Post's Parcel Tracking service. This plugin is fully bilingual in English and Français (French) and is compatible with WPML, a multilingual plugin for Wordpress. It can be used to ship with in Canada as well as Worldwide. Parcel Tracking Service Package Tracking is available when you enter the PIN (Parcel Identification Number) or Tracking Number into the customers order details. This plugin will automatically look up the most recent and up to date event information available for your order from Canada Post, when you view the order. You can set an automatic email notification to be sent to your customer when the package is mailed or delivered. The tracking information can be set to allow your customer to receive up to date information on their order either as an email notification and/or at your customer order page. Live Shipping Rates in the Shopping Cart This shipping plugin uses the product's weight and dimensions to calculate the most accurate shipping rates. The shipping cost can be calculated with boxes, if configured. If desired there is the option to add a mark-up rate to shipping charges. You are able to choose which services from Canada Post you want to offer your customer (ie. Regular mail, Xpresspost, Expedited, etc). There is also an option available to add additional handling time if needed. The shipping charges will be calculated and displayed using current and live rates directly from Canada Post. An additional feature gives you the option to set up Lettermail; which gives you the ability you to set a flat rate for regular post items that are small enough to be delivered with Canada Post Lettermail within Canada or the US. In addition this feature can be set for flat rate shipping for sales or promotions. Multilingual / Bilingual English and Français (French) Shipping rates and information from Canada Post can be shown in English or Français (French). This is set by your Wordpress installation or WPML language selection. The plugin includes a language file for French (fr_FR), which provides full French translation for all admin screens and labels. Note: Support communication and documentation is currently only in English. Canada Post Services Available Domestic (within Canada)
To USA
International
Summary of Features
Software Requirements
Updates Version 1.2
Version 1.1
Version 1.0
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Monday, July 29, 2013
Bulk Mysql Database Import (Database Abstractions) - TechSc1ence
| This is a script that helps users that do not know any sql or that have a csv or txt file with loads of data and would like to input the data in a database. |
PixGridder Pro Page Grid Composer for Wordpress (Utilities) - TechSc1ence
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A GRID BUILDER I prefer to define this plugin as a "grid builder" instead of a page builder, because a page builder is commonly intended as a tool that allows to create sections and, usually, comes with shortcodes such as tabs, accordions, particular sections, galleries etc… And, in many cases, all these shortcodes are not compatible with other similar plugins you prefer to use. PixGridder is instead very simple, because it only allows to split your page (or post or custom post, you can decide it) in rows and columns, simply by moving the functions available on your tinyMCE editor from the whole page to each column you decide to split your page in. In this way you can use the plugins you prefer with the shortcodes you prefer (and also the buttons available on your tinyMCE editor) since the editor it is exactly the same one you would have without using PixGridder. HOW IT WORKS PixGridder doesn't generate shortcodes, it only puts into your posts and pages some html comments like this one: <!--pixgridder:row[cols=3]--> They're invisible except through the source code. So if you want to disable the plugin you don't have to worry about a lot of strange and unuseful shortcodes across your content because everything will stay hidden to the search engine robots too. However, if you want to remove any trace of the plugin from the source code, you can do it by enabling the "no trace" option, so, when you delete the plugin from your plugin list, all the options and all the comments related to it will be removed, but you'll keep unaltered your content. A BRIEF DESCRIPTION PixGridder is a page grid composer for Wordpress.With PixGridder you can compose grids made by rows and columns for your pages, posts and custom post types. The editor is the same one you would use without the plugin installed, same features, buttons, media uploader, "Visual" and "Text" tabs etc. Through the user interface you can expand or reduce the column width, change the column layout, clone the columns or the rows, add columns or rows, delete them, sort them and add IDs and CLASSES to your columns and to your rows The preview tab displays the real frontend preview, with the header, the javascript effects etc. If you edit something from the "Builder tab" the new changes will be loaded immediately after into the live preview panel. PixGridder comes with a powerful admin panel with many features available inside. You can choose among many effects to apply to the elements on your page, to make them appear with cool transitions when you scroll the page itself. You can set almost anything and then compile you CSS file. Then you can download the CSS file or push it automatically to your theme directory. You can also add particular rules for your custom post types or page templates, such as a different number of columns or a particular output. Credits Icons are from Fontello.com (licenses available there for all the sets) |
Sunday, July 28, 2013
JoomShareBar Pro (Social Networking) - TechSc1ence
Features:
The goal of JoomShareBar is to be THE Ultimate Social Sharing Plugin for Joomla! Do you miss features, designs or buttons. |
Penguin and Panda passed High Quality Link Building Service with only Three review copy - TechSc1ence
Feed: Digital Point
Posted on: Sunday, July 28, 2013 09:08
Author: jickjak
Subject: Penguin and Panda passed High Quality Link Building Service with only Three review copy
| "Complete Link Building" is a combination of all the very basic as well as extremely important link building services.Link building is the main factor by which modern Search Engines rank web pages. As such a focus link building campaign must be at the core of a successful search engine optimization strategy. The package includes directory submission, article submission, blogposts, DMOZ submission and press release Submission. Packages (special offer) : 200 Manual PR2+ Directory Submissions Price: $50 TOS: How to Order:
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(28-07-2013) Yandex co-founder dies aged 48 - TechSc1ence
Yandex co-founder dies aged 48 Jul 28th 2013, 12:25
Press Association –
Russia's largest search engine, Yandex, says its co-founder Ilya Segalovich has died. He was 48.
Yandex director general Arkady Volozh said that Segalovich died on Saturday at a London hospital.
Mr Volozh said in the company's blog that Mr Segalovich was diagnosed with stomach cancer last year. He responded positively to chemical therapy, but then developed a brain cancer that caused his death.
Yandex announced Mr Segalovich's death on Thursday, but corrected itself within hours, saying that he was on life support with no brain function. Mr Volozh said doctors removed life support after it became clear Mr Segalovich couldn't be saved.
Mr Segalovich, 48, founded Yandex in 2003 with Mr Volozh, his school friend. The company has been a Russian success story, with a share of 62% of the search engine market in Russia compared with Google's 25.6%.
Saturday, July 27, 2013
(28-07-2013) Tech News Headlines - Yahoo! News UK - TechSc1ence
Tech News Headlines - Yahoo! News UK Jul 28th 2013, 05:14