Festival crowd flocks to Hicks' book signing

David Hicks received a standing ovation at his first public appearance, at the Sydney Writers Festival today.

Hicks is the Australian who was branded a terrorist by the US Government and spent five and a half years in Guantanamo Bay, after he was captured in Afghanistan in 2001, and sold to the Americans.

Hicks was being interviewed by journalist Donna Mulhearn following the publication of his book Guantanamo : My Journey about his experiences as a freedom fighter and then enemy of the United States.

The audience of 900 were people of all ages, most of whom clapped during his talk and gave him a standing ovation at the end.

At times, the quietly-spoken Hicks found it difficult to recount some of his experiences of torture inside Guantanamo.

During the interview, Hicks repeated his assertion that not only was he not fighting for al-Qaeda but had not even heard of the terrorist group until his American interrogators mentioned the name.

Hicks, who grew up in Adelaide and was a high school drop-out, said he had converted to Islam to gain a sense of belonging. He travelled to Kosovo and Kashmir to help suffering civilians after he had worked in Japan as a horse trainer.

Mr Hicks was convicted by a US military commission on charges of providing material support for terrorism but has faced no charges in Australia.

The US Military Commissions Act of 2006, ''which is the one I was forced to plead guilty under'', had since been scrapped by US President Barack Obama, Mr Hicks told the festival.

''Because of that my US lawyers say that my conviction is now null and void,'' he said.

Mr Hick said he never hurt anyone, and never planned to hurt anyone during his time in Kosovo and Pakistan and Kashmir.

''I went overseas with the intention to help people. Some people may think it's a bit weird, a bit strange, impulsive, naive - OK. But my intentions were good. And unfortunately I ended up being detained and tortured and accused of being a terrorist.'' A long queue formed as Mr Hicks signed copies of his book, under the gaze of the ABC's Australian Story cameras, but he refused to answer media questions.

World air traffic:Iceland Erupts Again

Plume of smoke has risen 20km (12 miles) into the sky from the volcano.

But Iceland's Meteorological Office says the eruption should not cause widespread disruption to air traffic.

Last year, ash clouds from another Icelandic volcano, Eyjafjallajokul, led to the closure of a large section of European airspace.

Governments feared that ash particles could cause aircraft engines to fail, and the closure caused chaos to air travellers.

Different ash

Hjordis Gudmundsdottir, a spokeswoman for the Isavia civil aviation authority - which has imposed a flight ban of 120 nautical miles (222 km) around Grimsvotn - said: "We have closed the area until we know better what effect the ash will have."

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Glaciologist Matthew Roberts: the eruption "shouldn't have any far-reaching effects"

But officials say it is unlikey to have the same impact as last year.

Pall Einarsson, a geophysicist at the University of Iceland, said the 2010 eruption was a rare event.

Icelandic Met Office website reported that ash is falling in the vicinity of the Vatnajokull glacier. This also includes towns of Hofn i Hornafirdi and Kirkjubaerklaustur as well as farmland nearby. The plume is up to 12 miles (20km) high, but the basalt eruption is meant to give the ash a density that will prevent a Eyjafjallajokull-style spreading.

Other effects associated with Grímsvötn is glacial flooding. As lava protrudes the Vatnajokull glacier and the ice is melted, water is produced.

There has been some confusion about this eruption. Icelandic authorities have found themselves disambiguating to the global media that Grímsvötn is not the more powerful Eyjafjallajokull, which disrupted air traffic last year. Although Grímsvötn Volcano has interrupted air traffic in the past, it has never downed international flights. This particular eruption is not expected to interrupt European air traffic in the next 24 hours.

Authorities were reportedly reassuring the nearby locals that there is no need for evacuations.

According to the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, in 1783 this very volcano's 16.7 mile long fissure system (known as 'Skaftar') "produced the world's largest known historical lava flow during an eruption". It lasted for seven months and damaged crops and livestock. This in turn also caused a famine resulting in the death of one fifth of Iceland's population.

Macy's Stors

Macy's, Inc. (NYSE: M) is a department store holding company and owner of Macy's and Bloomingdale's department stores. Macy's Inc.'s stores specialize mostly in retail clothing, jewelery, watches, dinnerware, and furniture.

Macy's Inc. is headquartered in Cincinnati, Ohio and operates just over 850 stores in the United States. The company's Macy's locations and related operations account for 90 percent of the company's revenue, while luxury-oriented Bloomingdale's stores and associated ventures represent the balance of the company's business. Macy's is well known for its flagship department stores, most notably in New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Boston, the former Dayton's in Minneapolis, the former Kaufmann's in Pittsburgh, the former Burdine's in Miami, the former Wanamaker's in Philadelphia, and the former Marshall Field's location in Chicago and the former Famous Barr in St. Louis.

May Department Stores acquisition

On July 18, 2005, Federated Department Stores announced that they would acquire May Department Stores company for $11 billion in cash and stock. Also part of the buyout was the bridal and formal unit of May, consisting of David's Bridal and After Hours Formalwear. Federated would also assume $6 billion of May's debt, bringing total consideration to $17 billion. 

The deal would create the nation's largest department store chain with over 1,000 stores and $30 billion in annual sales. To help finance the deal, Federated agreed to sell its combined proprietary credit card business (but still administrated by FACS Group, a subsidiary of Federated) to Citigroup. The merger was completed on August 30, 2005, after an assurance agreement was reached with the State Attorneys General of New York, California, Massachusetts, Maryland and Pennsylvania.

Federated announced plans to sell 80 store locations in 2006, having pledged in its settlement to sell most of them as viable businesses, with preference being given to a group of thirteen competitors. This number could fluctuate pursuant to Federated's negotiations with various mall landlords and its final decision regarding using former Macy locations for its luxury Bloomingdale's operation.

On January 12, 2006, Federated announced its plans to divest May Company's Lord & Taylor division (55 stores in 12 states) by the end of 2006 after concluding that chain did not fit with their strategic focus for building the Macy's and Bloomingdale's national brands. On June 22, 2006, Macy's announced that NRDC Equity Partners, LLC would purchase Lord & Taylor for US$1.2 billion, and completed the sale in October 2006.

On September 9, 2006, May Company division stores Famous-Barr, Filene's, Foley's (the prior two were former Federated stores in their own right), Hecht's, The Jones Store, L. S. Ayres, Marshall Field's, Meier & Frank, Robinsons-May, and Strawbridge's brands ceased to exist as Federated replaced most of them with the Macy's masthead, and a select few converting to the Bloomingdale's brand. The conversion of Marshall Field's in Chicago has been particularly criticized, with many customers boycotting the State Street store and staying away from the emporium in droves. The Chicago Tribune continues to report on the poor reception of Macy's in Chicago. 

Kaufmann's in Pittsburgh also had a dislike to the change most due to the concern of the local parade run by the store. Other stores like Famous-Barr in St. Louis also disliked the change, but not nearly as much as Marshall Field's.

Downsizing

On Wednesday, February 6, 2008, Terry Lundgren announced the localization strategy and the company's plan to shed 2,550 jobs. This new localization strategy is known as "My Macy's."

Employees of the Macy's North headquarters office in Minneapolis, the Macy's Northwest headquarters office in Seattle, and the Macy's Midwest headquarters office in St. Louis were given pink slips, as Macy's pared its seven regional centers to four. Buyers, accountants and senior executives lost their jobs. About 40 new jobs will be created in May as part of the restructuring.

By 2009, the company expects to save $100 million a year from the cuts.

On February 2, 2009 Macy's said it will cut 7,000 jobs, or 4 percent of its work force, and slash its dividend as it looks to lower expenses. Cincinnati-based Macy's Inc. said the work force reduction includes positions in offices, stores and other locations. The cuts will include some unfilled jobs. "Reducing our workforce is an unfortunate outcome of the current economic environment, and I am frustrated that so many of our people will be unable to move forward with us as we proceed into a very exciting future for Macy’s and Bloomingdale's" said Terry J. Lundgren, chairman, president and chief executive officer. "

Macy's will also begin getting rid of its division structure and integrating its functions into one organization, effective immediately. Macy's central buying, merchandise planning, stores senior management and marketing functions will be located primarily in New York. Corporate-related business functions, such as finance and human resources, will be primarily in Cincinnati. To buy with local consumers in mind, Macy's developed a concept called "My Macy's", in which the buyers and planners all look at what the local consumer base is looking for in their local Macy's store. This will help bring a better sense of branding, sizing and marketing to each Macy's store nationwide.

CEO for big Bloomie's outlet:Macy's

NEW YORK, May 20 - Macy's Inc (M.N) will take it slowly as it expands its Bloomingdale's outlet stores, preferring to wait for the right locations even as developers woo the upscale retailer, its chief executive said.

Macy's, which operates 41 full service Bloomingdale's department stores, last month said it would open another three Bloomingdale's outlets stores this year, on top of the four it opened last year.

"We haven't assigned a number (of stores)," CEO Terry Lundgren said on a conference call with reporters on Friday. "We'll play it by ear over the next several years as we roll out."

Outlets are no-frills stores where department store chains traditionally have sold returned or unsold merchandise at steep discounts. More recently, some retailers have ordered merchandise, typically more affordable, specifically for outlet stores.

In recent years, luxury chains such as Saks Inc (SKS.N), Nordstrom Inc (JWN.N) and Coach Inc (COH.N) have opened more outlets to cater to bargain-hunters who love top brands, a source of revenue growth. Saks, for instance, closed six department stores last year, and now operates more outlets than full service stores.

Lundgren said the company was willing to wait to get into the right outlet malls.

Top outlet mall developers are wooing Bloomingdale's, he said.

"The outlet center developers are highly interested in Bloomingdale's because they know we'll bring additional traffic to the centers," he said.

Bloomingdale's accounts for about 10 percent of overall Macy's Inc stors.

2012 Honda Civic Turns Macy's

NEW YORK, May 17, 2011-- Fashion-forward 2012 Honda Civic Coupe, wearing the official livery of an IZOD IndyCar pace car, has taken up residence in the windows of the Herald Square and Roosevelt Macy's stores to promote the Civic Racing Style sweepstakes heralding the arrival of the all-new, ninth generation Honda Civic.  

Civic "window dressing" is to help promote the Civic Racing Style sweepstakes which heralds the arrival of the all-new, ninth generation Honda Civic. Beyond the contest, the arrival of the new Civic has many people very excited.

The contest is open only to New York residents, but the Civic being on display in NYC has people all over the country excited about the new 2012 Civic.

"Teaming with iconic brands like Macy's and IZOD and offering consumers chances to win a new Honda Civic and the experience of starting an IndyCar race with Mario Andretti makes this one of the most unique promotions we have undertaken, there is nothing like it in sports," said Richard Kent, senior manager of Honda.

Visitors to the Herald Square and Roosevelt Field Macy's stores, or to any of 53 participating New York-area Honda dealerships, are eligible to join the Honda contest. Eleven (11) top-prize winners in the Civic Racing Style sweepstakes will win a 2012 Honda Civic LX Coupe and a $2,500 IZOD shopping spree. Twenty (20) runners up will win a "second chance" trip for two to the IZOD IndyCar World Championship race in Las Vegas, Nevada, which includes one more opportunity to win a 2012 Civic before the start of the season-ending race.

In addition to the Civic Racing Style sweepstakes, visitors to the Macy's and Honda stores will be eligible to enter a second contest, the Honda Fastest Seat in Sports sweepstakes, in which winners will have the opportunity to ride along with legendary racecar driver Mario Andretti in a specially prepared, two-seat IndyCar for the start of an upcoming IZOD IndyCar race.

"Teaming with iconic brands like Macy's and IZOD and offering consumers chances to win a new Honda Civic and the experience of starting an IndyCar race with Mario Andretti makes this one of the most unique promotions we have undertaken, there is nothing like it in sports," said Richard Kent, senior manager of Honda.

Under the banner "To Each Their Own", the 2012 Honda Civic made its world debut last month at the New York International Auto Show. The 2012 Civic boasts the most diverse lineup in the history of Civic with six unique models:

4-door Civic Sedan

2-door Civic Coupe

high-performance, 201-horsepower Civic Si Sedan and Coupe

The 41mpg(1) Civic HF

The 44mpg(1) Civic Hybrid

A Civic Natural Gas model.

Additional highlights of the new Civic lineup:

Available new technology features include an intelligent Multi-Information Display (i-MID), USB Audio Interface, Bluetooth HandsFreeLink, and a Satellite-Linked Navigation System with voice recognition and FM Traffic

Advanced safety systems include the Honda-exclusive Advanced Compatibility Engineering (ACE) body structure for frontal collision energy management and vehicle-to-vehicle crash compatibility.

Major gains in fuel economy, including the 44mpg(1) Civic Hybrid, America's most fuel efficient sedan, and the 41mpg(1) Civic HF.

New powertrain technologies include a re-engineered 1.8-liter 4-cylinder engine with enhanced fuel economy, a larger and more powerful 2.4-liter 4-cylinder Si power plant, and a new Civic Hybrid powertrain that delivers higher overall performance and improved fuel economy

Local El Paso residents who have questions about the new 2012 Civic or want to take one for a test drive are encouraged to stop by Rudolph Honda - the premiere Honda dealership in El Paso and surrounding areas. Their sales team are helpful, friendly, and professional. With a long history of serving local residents, they are excited to be able to offer the great new Honda Civic.

Harold Egbert Camping

Harold Egbert Camping (born July 19, 1921) is a Christian radio broadcaster and president of Family Radio, a California-based religious broadcasting network that spans more than 150 outlets in the United States of America as well as a website.

Camping's trademarks include his deep, sonorous voice coupled with a slow cadence. He has also used Bible-based numerology to predict dates for the end of the world. His most recent end times prediction was that the Rapture would occur on May 21, 2011 and that God would subsequently completely destroy the Earth and the universe five months later on October 21. He had previously predicted that the Rapture would occur in September 1994. Both of these predictions have been proven incorrect by the continued existence and sustainment of Earth's Human population.

In 1970, Camping published  Biblical Calendar of History , in which he dated the Creation of the world to the year 11,013 BC and the Flood to 4990 BC. This was in contrast to Bishop James Ussher's famous chronology, which placed creation at 4004 BC and the Flood at 2348 BC. Camping argued that Ussher's dates "agree neither with the Biblical nor the secular evidence" and thus Ussher's methodology was flawed.

Camping surmised that word in the Old Testament scriptures "begat" did not necessarily imply an immediate father-son relationship, as had been assumed by Ussher and others who hadn't fully studied the biblical timeline according to incomplete information. Camping noted the use of the phrase "called his name" (Hebrew qara shem), found three times in Genesis 4-5, which he characterized as a "clue phrase" to indicate an immediate father-son relationship. Despite the fact that this "clue phrase" does not occur regarding Noah naming Shem, Camping maintains that there is enough evidence to otherwise conclude that they did in fact have an immediate father-son relationship. He also points out the use of qara shem in Isaiah 7:14, where we are told, "Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.

Camping assumes that since qara shem implies an immediate father-son relationship (e.g., Adam-Seth, Seth-Enosh and Lamech-Noah), all other relationships between the Antediluvian patriarchs (except Noah-Shem) are of ancestors and their distant descendants. That is, when one patriarch died, the next one who is mentioned was not his son but was actually a distant multi-great grandson who was born in that same year, thus Camping's concept of the "reference patriarch," i.e., various events are referenced to a specific year of a particular patriarch's life as a means of keeping an accurate chronological record (in much the same way we reference historical events by year to the birth of Christ). Despite the fact that there is no evidence that any ancient civilization kept track of time in this way,Camping uses this concept as the backbone of his chronological view of Biblical history.

Harold Family Radio

In 1961, Family Radio began the Open Forum program, a live weeknight call-in program that Camping hosts. Listeners call in primarily with questions about the meaning of certain passages from the Bible, and Camping answers them by means of interpretations, often with reference to other Biblical passages. Occasionally the questions pertain to general Christian doctrine, such as the nature of sin and salvation, and to matters of everyday life conduct, such as marriage, sexual morality, and education. This program has continued to the present time and is broadcast on the more than 150 stations owned by Family Radio in the United States. The Open Forum is also translated into many foreign languages and together with other Family Radio programming is broadcast worldwide via shortwave station WYFR, a network of AM and FM radio stations, a cable television station, and the Internet.

Family Radio runs various programs on its radio stations. Programs that do not conform to Camping's understanding of the Biblical principle of comparing scripture with scripture (1 Corinthians 2:13) are normally removed from programming upon discovery. Before Camping started teaching that the "Church Age" had ended, programs produced outside of Family Radio were welcome provided they did not accept any "extra-Biblical revelation", and were associated with teachings accepted by the historic Christian faith. Now Camping refuses any ministry associated with the organized church. These programs can be heard by radio, satellite, television, short wave and Internet broadcasts.

His organization also utilizes numerous low-power television signals, for example WFME-TV digital television channel 66 in the New York City area. As of April, 2009, that transmitter has been configured to send out ten separate subchannels, with the first (66-1) carrying the main video at a low quality 480i, the second and third (66-2 and 66-3) sending out a blank video image and, respectively, carrying the audio of "Family Radio East" and "Family Radio West". The other seven have no video and are a mix of different audio content, mostly of a religious nature, and NOAA Weather Radio on 66-9.

Controversies of Harold Camping

Camping's Biblical study regarding time and Christ's second coming is based on the cycles of:

Jewish feast days in the Hebrew calendar, as described in the Old Testament,

the lunar month calendar (1 synodic month = 29.53059 days), and

A close approximation of the Gregorian calendar tropical year (365.24219 days, rounded to 365.2422 ).

He projects these into modern times and combines the results with other information in the Bible.

Camping calculates date of the crucifixion of Christ as Friday April 1, AD 33. Not all commentators agree with that date. Hoehner argues for April 3, 33 A.D. Other students of the subject have placed the event in AD 29, 30, or 31.

Camping further calculates that the Rapture is 722,500 days after the crucifixion of Christ.From April 1 to May 21 is 51 days. Additionally, multiplying using the same math Camping uses returns an approximation of the remaining days. Using his date of April 1, AD 33, a total of 1978 years multiplied by 365.2425 days/year (Gregorian calendar) results in 722,449.66 days. Multiplying by 365.2422 (tropical year, seven significant digits) results in 722,449.07 days. Multiplying by 365.24219 (tropical year, eight significant digits) results in 722,449.05 days. If one accounts for leap seconds, each year is slightly longer than the previous. Since 1972 to 2011, the earth rotates 24 seconds slower. This is a difference of 0.000278 day over 39 years, for an average of only 0.000007 day per year.

In 1992, Camping published a book titled 1994?, in which he proclaimed that Christ's return might be on September 6, 1994. In that publication, he also mentioned that 2011 could be the end of the world. Camping's predictions use 1988 as a significant year in the events preceding the apocalypse; this was also the year he left Alameda Bible Fellowship. As a result, some individuals have criticized him for "date-setting. Camping's latest publications, We are Almost There! and To God be The Glory, refer to additional Biblical evidence which, in his opinion and that of others mentioned by him, pointed to May 21, 2011 as the date for the Rapture and October 21, 2011 as the date for the end of the world.

In an article "Is Harold Camping and Family Radio a Cult?", the evangelical Got Questions Ministries opposed Camping's teachings because they believe his entire method of Bible interpretation is flawed:

"Harold Camping employs an allegorical method of interpreting Scripture. Because of this method, the meaning of any Scripture passage is purely subjective, subject to the mind and imagination of the person. … Camping's use of an allegorical method of interpretation for Scripture, and especially for unfulfilled prophecy, is fatally flawed. It undermines the very nature of communication. God gave us His Word to communicate very specific information.