Paul Gauguin Cruises New Ship the M/v Tere Moana Christened in ...

Paul Gauguin Cruises christened its new luxurious ship, the m/v Tere Moana , in an official ceremony held dockside on December 29, 2012, in Marigot, St. Martin. Cruise guests, local dignitaries, and media were in attendance.

Mireille Bailey , The Moana's godmother and wife of Richard Bailey , Chairman of Paul Gauguin Cruises and President and CEO of Pacific Beachcomber S.C., presided over the festivities, delivering a moving speech before christening the ship with a bottle of Veuve Clicquot La Grande Dame Champagne. ?Mr. Bailey along with Diane Moore , President of Paul Gauguin Cruises, and Captain Rajko Zupan , the ship's Master, spoke during the ceremony, which included plaque presentations by St. Martin's Vice President of the Collectivite, Port Chairman, Port Director, and Tourist Board.?St. Martin's Father Samson Dorival delivered the ship's blessing, and ceremony attendees were serenaded by the festive music of a Caribbean steel drum band. ?

After the ceremony, a Champagne reception followed by a gala dinner was held aboard The Moana before the ship set sail on its inaugural 7-night Caribbean voyage to visit islands in the French West Indies, British Virgin Islands, and St. Kitts & Nevis.?In January and February, The Moana embarks on 13- and 14-night Panama Canal cruises. From April through November, the ship operates a variety of 7-night European voyages.?During spring and fall, 14-night transatlantic crossings are available between Europe and the Caribbean.

Like The Gauguin, The Moana offers an elegant yet casual ambiance, luxurious accommodations, gourmet dining, trademark Polynesian hospitality, and extraordinary all-inclusive value. At 330 feet long and 46 feet wide, The Moana has a draft of 11.5 feet, and accommodates 90 guests with a staff of 60. The ship's 45 oceanview staterooms, 8 of which offer private balconies, feature a king-size bed donned with fine linens and feather-down duvet; a flatscreen TV; DVD/CD player; iPod? docking station; in-stateroom refrigerator replenished daily with soft drinks, beer, and bottled water; robes and slippers; spacious closets; and a bathroom with sumptuous bath products.??

The Moana offers two elegant dining venues and incorporates regionally infused cuisine of destinations visited featuring fresh ingredients from local markets.?Evenings feature live piano music in Le Salon , the perfect place to enjoy cocktails and unwind after a day of adventure. The ship's Deep Nature Spa by Algotherm delivers signature spa treatments, and a fitness center is equipped with the latest cardio and weightlifting equipment. The ship's outdoor decks feature a swimming pool, hot tub, chaise lounges, and Balinese beds. In select ports, kayaking and paddleboarding are available from the ship's watersports marina. And the ship's La Boutique features jewelry, apparel, sundries, and souvenirs.

About Paul Gauguin Cruises?

Owned by Pacific Beachcomber S.C., French Polynesia's leading luxury hotel and cruise operator, Paul Gauguin Cruises operates the 5+-star cruise ship, the 332-guest m/s Paul Gauguin, providing a deluxe cruise experience tailored to the unparalleled wonders of Tahiti, French Polynesia, and the South Pacific. It is one of the top exclusive charter and incentive group venues in the industry and has completed more than 570 South Pacific cruises, serving more than 176,250 guests, including more than 15,000 honeymooners, since its inaugural sail in 1998. The Gauguin's 2012 accolades include a second place for small-ship cruise lines in Travel + Leisure's "World's Best Awards" and was recognized as one of the "Top 20 Small Cruise Ships" by readers of Conde Nast Traveler.

In December 2012, the 90-guest m/v Tere Moana began sailing under the Paul Gauguin Cruises banner after completing a multifaceted renovation and offers voyages in Europe, the Caribbean, and Latin America.

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Source: http://www.cruiseindustrywire.com/article68583Paul_Gauguin_Cruises_New_Ship_the_M_v_Tere_Moana_Christened_in_St__Martin.html

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Will 4G change the way we do business? | The New Economy

With 4G networks offering users faster mobile connectivity, Michal Zuk asks what benefits businesses can reap from the new technology

With the implementation of 4G networks, mobile phones and tablets are supposed to effectively perform every internet role currently fulfilled by a PC. In theory, 4G networks can operate at between four and 10 times the speed of 3G, significantly increasing bandwidth and throughput capabilities for users.

These increased speeds can provide plenty of benefits for businesses, but, before they make the switch from 3G to 4G, there are a few things they should be aware of. There is no universal standard for what counts as a 4G network. The G simply stands for ?generation? and indicates that the technology is significantly superior to its predecessor and non-backward compatible. 4G is supposed to be an upgrade from 3G but individual speeds will vary depending on the service provider. Upgrading with the same service provider will always guarantee increased internet speed but switching from the 3G network of a superior carrier to the 4G network of an inferior one may make no difference at all.

The International Telecommunications Union Radiocommunication sector (ITU-R) did, in March 2008, set out minimum capability standards for 4G: 1 gbit/s for low-mobility communications, such as those used by pedestrians, and 100 mbit/s for high-mobility ones, such as those on trains. The first marketed 4G networks deployed on both the Mobile WiMax and the Long Term Evolution (LTE) candidate systems failed to meet these standards, but the ITU-R soon backpedalled and decided they could be considered 4G. All current 4G networks fall short of the original standards. The LTE Advanced network, launched in October 2012 by Russian carrier Yota, comes close, but compatible handsets for Yota?s network won?t be available until later this year at the earliest.

With wildly varying specifications, the key for businesses is to ensure they have the right provider to suit their needs. Making the switch can then provide them with certain important benefits.

Need for speed
While many 3G networks are fast enough to perform common mobile internet functions, they can be seriously slowed down during peak times when a large number of users are online simultaneously.

Having the internet slow to a crawl can be a frustrating experience for those working on the go and can decrease productivity. Switching to 4G may alleviate these problems, albeit not eliminate them. 4G will still be affected during peak times but its higher base speed should make it possible to continue surfing comfortably.

Increased speeds also allow for faster video streaming and switching to 4G can provide businesses with expanded possibilities for video conferencing. While current 3G networking is capable of video conferencing, the feed often lags, becomes grainy or just stops transferring; it is limited by worries about dropped calls during important conversations. 4G?s increased capabilities can calm these concerns and make mobile video conferencing an effective and reliable means of communication. International voice calls over Skype from mobile devices should also become more stable, allowing international businesses to further cut costs.

There are other benefits of 4G unrelated to speed. Sending and receiving calls becomes vastly more secure as conversations go through a Voice-over-Internet Protocol. 3G calls by contrast go through the airwaves, making it easier for information to be intercepted. Making the switch can both alleviate fears of important information falling into the wrong hands and allow businesses to save money on security technology.

Quick decisions
The advantages of 4G will affect businesses in different ways and the decision of when to make the switch must be dependent on particular costs and benefits.? 4G networks are still being rolled out around the world and many areas lack effective coverage. The negligent number of devices supporting 4G and existing pricing plans may mean making the switchover isn?t worthwhile.

Currently, 4G will probably provide the greatest benefits to communications and travel-intensive businesses where employees need to be connected to the office at all times.

However, as Martin Stiven, Vice President of Everything Everywhere?s B2B division argues, 4G may prove particularly beneficial to certain sectors. He said: ?Construction firms will be able to set up on-site offices quickly, and security firms will be able to install CCTV in record time. Not only that, but independent retailers will have the opportunity to set up pop-up shops without waiting multiple weeks? lease time for fixed line broadband to be installed.?

Still, businesses need not rush to implement the new technology right away unless it particularly suits their operations. As with all innovations, the quality of 4G networks will rise and the costs of switching will fall as competition in national markets and the amount of supportive devices increases. In the long run, however, 4G is here to stay and older networks and devices will become obsolete. Businesses must be prepared to future-proof their operations or risk being left behind: this does not mean adopting a sooner-rather-than-later attitude. On the contrary, the decision of when to switch needs to be a prudent one, attentive to the specific needs of the workplace against the costs and resources available.

Source: http://www.theneweconomy.com/technology/will-4g-change-the-way-we-do-business?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=will-4g-change-the-way-we-do-business

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Software Development, Website Development - Bihar Social ...

GET VISIBLE....GET SOLD....http://www.maksinfotech.in

Times have changed, people have changed and most importantly perspective towards life has changed. With a changed mindset or I should rather say technically evolved mindset ways of doing business have also changed.

Small businesses are not small any more they have rather converted into growing businesses. The changed perspective (thanks to technology) has allowed business owners to think big and reach out to more customers. Social Networking sites have turned out to be one the biggest invention. They might not be as big an invention as ?FIRE? however they have surely enlightened people with a completely new concept of communication.

The internet has surely succeeded in bridging the gap between the huge conglomerates and the start-ups. Earlier loads of new ideas went to trash because of lack of funds and lack of investors. As the internet started eating away time from a common man?s daily life even the marketing costs of businesses started diminishing. Internet has started acting as a very important link between a supplier and a buyer and this process has helped reduce the cost of doing business by leaps and folds.

However, the question to be asked by all the business owners is (especially the start-ups) with growing opportunities, with growing audience and with growing volume of buyers what are the steps required to grow one?s business?......... And even after ages the answer remains the same.... GET VISIBLE.....

Internet Marketing has presented a viable solution to many Entrepreneurs and budding Businessmen. Internet Marketing has helped companies reduce the overall marketing cost at the same time it has also increased the market penetration opportunities for business owners.

However the Guru mantra still remains the same... GET VISIBLE....

There is a very common saying in the SEO world... ?If you are not on the first page of Google, you are not on the Internet?. How true this is.... Let?s all of ask ourselves, how many of us go past the first page of Google while searching for anything? At least I don?t, I would rather change the keyword and search again.

So it?s very important to be on the first page of any search engine. This can be achieved by getting proper SEO done for your business. There are lots of ways to get your site a better ranking and better reach. The main ways of getting this done are Onpage and Offpage optimization. Pay per Click option is also available. However, this can be expensive and often out of reach of growing businesses. SEO is a very niche process of marketing and business owners should remember that it requires a lot of experience and a team of experts to do Internet Marketing. Improper SEO can also get your website blocked by Google. These are a few things which should be kept in mind by any Business Owner before outsourcing your SEO work.

On that note I would like to wish all the growing businesses very good luck......and would like to reiterate...GET VISIBLE...http://www.maksinfotech.in

Source: http://www.peopleofbihar.com/xn/detail/6373132%3ABlogPost%3A134175?xg_source=activity

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Google tracks the world's New Year's resolutions on an interactive map

15 hrs.

Rosa Golijan , NBC News

Need help carrying out your New Year's resolution??There's a map for that: Google has created an interactive geographic resolution tracker, to remind you that you are not struggling?alone.

When the clock struck?midnight and 2013 was born, many of us quietly resolved to change something. This will be the year we will lose those extra 10 pounds, be kinder to our friends, learn a new language, change career paths, fall in love, and so on. A combination of Google's celebrated?mapping and translation technologies, wrapped in a charming design, the?new tool encourages users to write down those goals and show the world what improvements 2013 may bring.

To participate, head to Google's Zeitgeist page. Watch the resolutions pop up all over the map then, if you're feeling inspired,?click the button to add your own resolutions. Once you enter the resolution (along with your postal codes and country name), you select a category such as love, health or career.?

One of the neat things about Google's brainchild is that it allows users to enter resolutions in their native languages and then automatically?translates them for others around the world.

Thanks to this setup, a person who only speaks English can still watch in realtime as someone in Germany declares their intention to meet some pretty girls this year, someone living along the Adriatic Sea pledges to take life easier, and?a Russian resident swears this is the year he'll get in shape.

Want more tech news?or interesting?links? You'll get plenty of both if you keep up with Rosa Golijan, the writer of this post, by following her on?Twitter, subscribing to her?Facebook?posts,?or circling her?on?Google+.

Source: http://www.nbcnews.com/technology/technolog/google-tracks-worlds-new-years-resolutions-interactive-map-1C7753066

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World looks to 2013 after violence, economic woes

Confetti flies over New York's Times Square after the clock strikes midnight during the New Year's Eve celebration as seen from the Marriott Marquis hotel Tuesday, Jan. 1, 2013 in New York. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer)

Confetti flies over New York's Times Square after the clock strikes midnight during the New Year's Eve celebration as seen from the Marriott Marquis hotel Tuesday, Jan. 1, 2013 in New York. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer)

Fireworks explode over Elizabeth Tower housing the Big Ben clock to celebrate the New Year in London, Tuesday, Jan. 1, 2013. (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth)

Fireworks light up San Francisco Bay as the west coast city rings in the New Year 2013. The Embarcadero was again the focal point of the New Year's celebrations as people from all over the Bay Area came to ring in the new year on Tuesday, Jan. 1, 2013. (AP Photo/San Francisco Chronicle)

Fireworks light up San Francisco Bay as the west coast city rings in the New Year 2013. The Embarcadero was again the focal point of the New Year's celebrations as people from all over the Bay Area came to ring in the new year on Tuesday, Jan. 1, 2013. (AP Photo/San Francisco Chronicle)

Confetti and other items from the New Year's festivities litters the street in New York's Times Square early Tuesday morning Jan. 1, 2013. (AP Photo/Tina Fineberg)

NEW YORK (AP) ? As the world rang in 2013 with spectacular fireworks displays and showers of confetti, the specter of economic uncertainty and searing violence dimmed some festivities and weighed on the minds of revelers hoping for a better year.

"With all the sadness in the country, we're looking for some good changes in 2013," Laura Concannon, of Hingham, Mass., said as she, her husband, Kevin, and his parents joined hundreds of thousands of people who celebrated the new year in Times Square on Monday.

Matias Dellanno, 37, of Buenos Aires, Argentina, stood in the middle of the square with his wife and 3-year-old son. His eyes caught the multicolored lighting illuminating the square just before midnight.

"I feel a completely new hope for 2013," he said. "It can't be any worse than last year, when my business lost clients. It was a rough year for everyone. The new year has to be better!"

Revelers with New Year's hats and sunglasses boasting "2013" packed the streets in the 35-degree cold to count down the first ball drop in decades without Dick Clark, who died in April and was honored with his name printed on confetti and on one of the crystal panels on the Times Square ball.

Syracuse University student Taylor Nanz, 18, said she and a friend had been standing in Times Square since 1:20 p.m. Monday. They hadn't moved from their spot because "if you leave, you lose your place," she said.

"It's the first time ? and the last time," she said. "Never again."

Security in Times Square was tight, with a mass of uniformed police and plainclothes officers assigned to blend into the crowd. Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly claimed that Times Square would be the "safest place in the world on New Year's Eve," and officers used barriers to prevent overcrowding and checkpoints to inspect vehicles, enforce an alcohol ban and check handbags.

In the state capital of California, a midnight fireworks show was canceled after a fight at a Sacramento restaurant ended with two people fatally shot and three wounded.

But in Las Vegas, police and about 300 Nevada National Guard troops kept the night peaceful, with only 13 people arrested. Sin City hosted sold-out concerts featuring Beyonce, the Red Hot Chili Peppers and the Black Keys, and revelers jammed the Strip to watch as seven hotel-casinos unleashed identical eight-minute rooftop fireworks displays at midnight.

The celebrations on the West Coast took place nearly 24 hours after lavish fireworks displays lit up skylines in Sydney, Hong Kong and Shanghai.

In Myanmar, about 90,000 people gathered in a field to watch a countdown for the first time, according to organizers. The reformist government that took office in 2011 in the country, long under military rule, threw its first public New Year's celebration in decades.

In the United Arab Emirates city of Dubai, multicolored fireworks danced up and down the world's tallest building, the Burj Khalifa.

In Rome, Pope Benedict XVI celebrated with a vespers service in St. Peter's Basilica to give thanks for 2012 and look ahead to 2013. He said that despite all the death and injustice in the world, goodness prevails. A man scaled the scaffolding around St. Peter's Square and draped a banner calling on the pope to "Stop Terrorism."

In Russia, spectators filled Moscow's Red Square as fireworks exploded near the Kremlin. In Rio de Janeiro, revelers dressed head-to-toe in white as dictated by Brazilian tradition flooded onto Copacabana beach for a concert.

In London, the chimes of the clock inside the Big Ben tower counted down the final seconds of 2012 and fireworks dazzled the sky above Parliament Square. Streamers shot out of the London Eye wheel and blazing rockets launched from the banks of the River Thames.

But parts of Europe held scaled-back festivities and street parties, the mood was restrained ? if hopeful ? for a 2013 that is projected to be a sixth straight year of recession amid Greece's worst economic crisis since World War II.

Festivities were canceled across New Delhi, the Indian capital, amid days of mourning and reflection about women's safety after a rape victim died on Saturday.

In Times Square, some revelers checked their cellphones for news of lawmakers' tentative deal to skirt the so-called fiscal cliff, a combination of expiring tax cuts and spending cuts that threatened to reverberate globally. The U.S. Senate approved a bill to avert the cliff well after midnight, though a vote in the House was pending Tuesday or Wednesday.

The recent elementary school massacre in Newtown, Conn., and the devastation from Superstorm Sandy also mingled amid the memories of 2012.

"This has been a very eventful year, on many levels," Denise Norris said as she and her husband, the Rev. Urie Norris, surveyed the Times Square crowd waiting for the countdown show with Ryan Seacrest as host.

Seacrest remembered Clark and his legacy, saying it was one that would be continued, and that Clark himself had told him: "Seacrest, the show must go on."

Yvonne Gomez, 53, a physician from Grand Forks, N.D., glowed as she and her husband, 63-year-old potato farmer Gregg Halverson, took in the festivities in New York.

"I couldn't begin the new year in a more beautiful way," she said. "I married him two weeks ago and here we are in the middle of Times Square celebrating the new year ? two widowers who found each other."

For Elvis Rivera, of Manhattan, who stopped by Times Square to take photos, 2012 a death and job losses in his family. How did he feel about its end?

"Relieved," Rivera said.

___

Associated Press writers Hannah Drier in Las Vegas; Colleen Long in New York; Aye Aye Win in Yangon, Myanmar; Silvia Hui in London, and Ashok Sharma in New Delhi contributed to this report.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2013-01-01-New%20Year's%20Celebrations/id-51da9eade4d5430488a7c4127f8bdbea

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As Offline Retail Dies, Commercial Real Estate Apocalypse Looms ...

As we do more and more of our shopping while sitting on our couches in our pajamas with an Ultrabook, we?re destroying a glorious American institution: the mall. Realspace retailers large and small alike have gone bankrupt and shut down or scaled back: a process that the recession only sped up. The best case scenario? Those former malls might become community colleges or gain some condos. What?s more likely? Rotting husks of shopping centers dotting our cityscapes, dragging down property values and making everyone sad.

There?s a mall near you right now that?s a virtual ghost town. (Don?t believe me? Click on your state on Deadmalls.com. One dead mall in my city even has its own satirical Facebook page.) One analysis by commercial real estate firm Co-Star shows that 200 malls in the United states have more than a third of their space vacant. Another estate executive told journalists this past June that he expects at least ten percent of large malls to fail and shut down in the coming decade. Will they become mixed-use developments that will revitalize surrounding areas and repurpose those hulking empty Bon-Ton and Borders stores? Probably not. Developments filled with shops and condos need a population with high per capita income and high population density. If a community has both of those things, its malls probably aren?t failing in the first place.

The Death of the American Shopping Mall [Atlantic Cities] (Thanks, Dan!)
Retail REIT Executive: Most Failed Malls Will Languish [WSJ]

Source: http://consumerist.com/2012/12/31/as-offline-retail-dies-commercial-real-estate-apocalypse-looms/

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Asian nations giving enthusiastic welcome to 2013

CANBERRA, Australia (AP) ? Fiscal cliff? Recession? Not in Asia, where the first countries to see 2013 are enthusiastically welcoming the new year.

Increasingly democratic Myanmar is having a public countdown for the first time. Jakarta plans a huge street party befitting Indonesia's powering economy.

In Sydney, eager revelers camped Sunday night on the shores of the harbor to get the best vantage points as 1.5 million were expected to gather to watch the fireworks show centered on the Sydney Harbor Bridge.

The shores were packed when an eight-minute preliminary show for young children exploded over the harbor three hours before the main event in Sydney and as the clock struck midnight in Samoa and other South Pacific islands to the east, ushering in the new year there.

In Hong Kong, this year's 12.5 million Hong Kong dollar ($1.6 million) fireworks display is billed by organizers as the biggest ever in the southern Chinese city. Police expected as many as 100,000 people to watch, local news reports said.

The buoyant economies of the Asia-Pacific are prepared to party with renewed optimism despite the so-called fiscal cliff threatening to reverberate globally from the United States and the tattered economies of Europe.

Celebrations were planned around the world, with hundreds of thousands expected to fill Times Square in New York City to watch the drop of a Waterford crystal-studded ball.

One day after dancing in the snow to celebrate the first anniversary of leader Kim Jong Un's ascension to supreme commander, North Koreans were preparing to mark the arrival of the new year, marked as "Juche 102" on North Korean calendars. Juche means self-reliance, the North Korean ideology of independence promoted by national founder Kim Il Sung, who was born 102 years ago. His grandson now rules North Korea.

In New Delhi, the festive mood was marred by the death Saturday of a young rape victim.

Hotels, clubs and residents' associations in the Indian capital decided to cancel planned festivities and asked people to light candles to express their solidarity with the victim whose plight sparked public rallies for women's safety.

"Let there be no New Year celebrations across the country. It will be a major tribute to the departed soul," said Praveen Khandelwal, secretary-general of the Confederation of All India Traders, an umbrella group of operators of shops and businesses across the country.

In a field in Myanmar's largest city, Yangon, workers were testing a giant digital countdown screen with the backdrop of the revered Shwedagon pagoda.

Arranged by local Forever Media group and Index Creative Village, a Thai event organizer, the celebration is the first public New Year countdown in Myanmar, a country ruled for almost five decades by military regimes that discouraged or banned big public gatherings.

"We are planning this public New Year event because we want residents of Yangon to enjoy the public countdown like in other countries," said Win Thura Hlaing, managing director of Forever Blossom company, a subsidiary of Forever Media.

With live music performances by celebrities, light shows, food stalls, fireworks and other activities, the countdown is expected to draw 50,000 people, Win Thura Hlaing said.

Jakarta's street party centers on a 7-kilometer (4-mile) main thoroughfare closed to all traffic from nightfall until after midnight. Workers erected 16 large stages along the normally car-clogged, eight-lane highway through the heart of the city. Indonesia's booming economy is a rare bright spot amid global gloom and is bringing prosperity ? or the hope of it ? to Indonesians.

Spirits in the capital have been further raised by the election of a new, populist governor who is pledging to tackle the city's massive infrastructure problems.

In Sydney, Lord Mayor Clover Moore said about 1.5 million spectators were expected to line the harbor to watch the 6.6 million Australian dollar ($6.9 million) fireworks display, while another 2 million Australians among a population of 22 million would watch on television.

"This is really putting Australia on the map in terms of welcoming people to the new year," Moore told reporters before the event.

Thousands lined the harbor shore in festive crowds under a blue summer sky by late afternoon, their number undiminished by Australian government warnings that the Washington deadlock on the U.S. debt crisis was partly to blame for a slowing Australian economy.

Australian pop singer Kylie Minogue was hosting the event.

Florida tourist Melissa Sjostedt was among the thousands gathered near a southern pylon of the bridge. She said seeing the fireworks would fulfill an ambition that began a decade ago when she read about them in National Geographic magazine.

"Ever since that, I've always wanted to see this for real, live, in person," she said.

New Yorker Mathieu Herman said he had flown to Australia specifically for the New Year celebrations on the harbor.

"I saw it last year on TV and it looked fabulous. I said to myself it's something I've just got to do," Herman said.

Despite a somber mood in the Philippines due to devastation from a recent typhoon, a key problem for authorities remained how to prevent revelers from setting off huge illegal firecrackers ? including some nicknamed "Goodbye Philippines" and "Bin Laden" ? that maim and injure hundreds of Filipinos each year, including many children.

A government scare tactic involving doctors displaying brutal-looking scalpels used for amputations for firecracker victims has not fully worked in the past so health officials came up with a novel idea: Go Gangnam style.

A government health official, Eric Tayag, donned the splashy outfit of South Korean star PSY and danced to his Youtube hit "Gangnam Style" video while preaching against the use of illegal firecrackers on TV, in schools and in public arenas.

"The campaign has become viral," Tayag said. "We've asked kids and adults to stay away from big firecrackers and just dance the Gangnam and they're doing it."

Hong Kong feng shui master Raymond Lo predicted 2013 would be less turbulent than 2012 because the Chinese New Year in February will usher in the year of the snake, bringing an end to the year of the dragon, which was associated with water. Water is one of the five elements in feng shui theory, the Chinese practice of arranging objects and choosing dates to improve luck.

"Water is fear. So that's why we have had so much turbulence especially in the winter months," such as doomsday prophecies, school shootings and concerns about the fiscal cliff, said Lo.

"But the good news is that the coming year of the snake is the first time that fire has come back since 2007. Fire actually is the opposite to water, fire is happiness. So therefore the year of the snake is a much more optimistic year. So you can see signs of economic recovery now," he added.

"The positive thing is that people are very optimistic, therefore it will have a very strong drive on the economic recovery. We expect the stock market will do well, the property market will do well," Lo said.

___

Associated Press writers Aye Aye Win in Yangon, Myanmar; Jean Lee in Pyongyang, North Korea; Chris Brummitt in Jakarta, Indonesia; Kelvin Chan in Hong Kong; Ashok Sharma in New Delhi; and Jim Gomez in Manila, Philippines, contributed to this report.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/asian-nations-giving-enthusiastic-welcome-2013-061809017.html

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