The Press Wire

© Business Wire 2008
2008-05-28 04:28:18 -

- CEMEX Inc., the nation’s largest cement and ready-mix company, announced today that it has signed a lease for its U.S. headquarters in a building that will be constructed as one of the few green buildings in Houston, further showcasing its commitment to the environment through sustainable development practices.

“Clean air, water and sound environmental management applications such as green building practices are fundamentals to our success as a company,” said Gilberto Perez, President of CEMEX USA. “Locating our U.S. headquarters in an office built upon sustainable ecological and environmental principles strengthens our company and preserves the quality of life for present and future generations.”

According to the U.S. Green Building Council’s Houston chapter, there are currently less than 15 Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certified buildings in the area. The new CEMEX USA headquarters will be the largest green building of its kind in Houston, and CEMEX’s concrete will help make it green. Much of the concrete will reflect more of the sun’s energy during the day and does not radiate as much stored heat at night. This reduces the urban heat island effect, as it decreases the building’s energy usage and the demand on air conditioning systems, especially in the summertime. In addition, the CEMEX concrete mixes also employ recycled alternative materials, such as fly ash. Instead of land-filling fly ash, a byproduct of coal burned at power plants, using it in concrete improves the workability of the concrete, reduces the amount of water needed, and makes it a stronger concrete.

“CEMEX continuously looks for ways to reduce its footprint and produce environmentally friendly products,” said Andy Miller, CEMEX USA’s Executive Vice President of Human Resources. “We are excited to provide our Houston employees a healthy and safe workplace that will also be green.”

Green buildings often incorporate the most efficient heating, ventilation and air conditioning systems, use state-of-the-art lighting and optimize daylight, use recycled content for outside and interior construction, conserve energy and water, reduce waste sent to landfills, and are designed to be healthy work environments for their occupants. The average LEED certified building uses 32 percent less electricity and saves 350 metric tons of CO2 emissions annually.

The new facility is currently being constructed at the corner of Gaylord and Memorial City Way near the Memorial City Mall in west Houston. CEMEX will occupy 170,000 square feet of the 325,000 square foot office building. The construction is expected to be completed in the first quarter of 2009.

Kevin Snodgrass of Cushman & Wakefield represented CEMEX in the lease negotiations.

CEMEX USA operations have received numerous awards in recognition of high safety standards and environmental accomplishments. Its U.S. network consists of 14 cement manufacturing facilities, more than 370 ready-mix concrete plants, more than 115 aggregate quarries, and approximately 30 fly ash, 60 block and 50 concrete pipe plants.

CEMEX is a growing global building materials company that provides high quality products and reliable service to customers and communities in more than 50 countries throughout the world. The company has a rich history of improving the well-being of those it serves through its efforts to pursue innovative industry solutions and efficiency advancements and to promote a sustainable future. For more information, visit www.cemexusa.com.

To learn more about the U.S. Green Building Council’s LEED certification and green buildings, visit www.usgbc.org.

CEMEX Inc.
Director, External Communications
Jennifer Borgen, 713-650-6200

View source for Cemex USA going green for environment and air quality.

In other news, CEMEX and Ready Mix USA Announce Plans to Create a Joint Venture for quality products.

View Cemex sustainability efforts for clean air quality and environment policies.

View a profile for Cemex as a cement company concerned for air quality.

In related news, the Cemex in Davenport wins the environment award.

View more resources for Cemex’ environment and air quality efforts.

View the air quality department’s profile for Cemex

Many Cemex California awarded for environment excellence along with other cement companies Holcim, CPCC, etc.

    MIDLAND, Pa., Sept. 10 /PRNewswire/ -- Lincoln Park Performing Arts

Center (http://www.lppac.org/) will host the HealthRhythms Group Empowerment Drumming program on Sept. 12-14, 2008. Leading neurologist and mind-body researcher Barry Bittman, M.D., and music therapist Christine Stevens will present the program at the Lincoln Park facility in Midland, Pa.

The workshop will show participants various group drumming exercises that can benefit their health. Those attending will also receive more information and research about group drumming.
"The HealthRHYTHMS(R) program with Dr. Bittman and REMO is the first step in the development of a comprehensive recreational music making program at Lincoln Park," says Stephen Catanzarite, Lincoln Park's managing director.
Hospitals, schools, corporations, and communities can use the drumming techniques to support overall well-being, according to Dr. Bittman's research. CNN Headline News featured Dr. Bittman to discuss his 2003 study that showed one company's employees had improved moods and reduced burnout rates after participating in group drumming sessions.
Christine Stevens recently traveled to Iraq, where she used drumming to help resolve conflicts and empower Iraqi youths. The first lady of Iraq attended the sessions, and now drum circles are being used as a community building tool in the country.
"Our goal is to offer music-based programs in hospitals for integrative medicine, in schools for classroom management, in corporations for employee wellness and teambuilding, and for community and intergenerational events," added Catanzarite.
The Lincoln Park Performing Arts Center is located 45 minutes northwest of Pittsburgh and southeast of Youngstown. The $30 million facility opened in 2006 and is home to the Lincoln Park Performing Arts Charter School, a Pennsylvania public charter school providing a state-approved academic program along with professional training in music, theater, dance, creative writing, vocal performance and media arts.
Everyone is invited to attend HealthRhythms. No prior music or healthcare experience is needed to participate in the program and drums will be provided. Members of the media are also welcome to attend the sessions.
SOURCE Lincoln Park Performing Arts Center

Go to the website for the Lincoln Center.

View the website for the Lincoln Park Performing Arts Center.

View this press release for Lincoln Park Performing Arts Center to Host Highly Acclaimed Music and Medicine Program.

Newest McCain-Palin advertisement in the 2008 campaign highlights the education platform.

ARLINGTON, VA — Today, McCain-Palin 2008 released its latest television ad, entitled “Education.” The ad highlights Barack Obama’s lack of accomplishment on education save for voting to teach “comprehensive sex education” to kindergartners. The ad will air in key states.

VIEW THE AD HERE: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uVLQhRiEXZs

Script For “Education” (TV :30)

ANNCR: Education Week says Obama “hasn’t made a significant mark on education”.

That he’s “elusive” on accountability.

A “staunch defender of the existing public school monopoly”.

Obama’s one accomplishment?

Legislation to teach “comprehensive sex education” to kindergartners.

Learning about sex before learning to read?

Barack Obama.

Wrong on education. Wrong for your family.

JOHN MCCAIN: I’m John McCain and I approved this message.

PASADENA, Calif. — NASA’s Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity has climbed out of the large crater that it had been examining from the inside since last September.

“The rover is back on flat ground,” an engineer who drives it, Paolo Bellutta of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, announced to the mission’s international team of scientists and engineers.

Opportunity used its own entry tracks from nearly a year ago as the path for a drive of 6.8 meters (22 feet) bringing the rover out over the top of the inner slope and through a sand ripple at the lip of Victoria Crater. The exit drive, conducted late Thursday, completed a series of drives covering 50 meters (164 feet) since the rover team decided about a month ago that it had completed its scientific investigations inside the crater.

“We’re headed to the next adventure out on the plains of Meridiani,” said JPL’s John Callas, project manager for Opportunity and its twin Mars rover, Spirit. “We safely got into the crater, we completed our exploration there, and we safely got out. We were concerned that any wheel failure on our aging rover could have left us trapped inside the crater.”

The Opportunity mission has focused on Victoria Crater for more than half of the 55 months since the rover landed in the Meridiani Planum region of equatorial Mars. The crater spans about 800 meters (half a mile) in diameter and reveals rock layers that hold clues to environmental conditions of the area through an extended period when the rocks were formed and altered.

The team selected Victoria as the next major destination after Opportunity exited smaller Endurance Crater in late 2004. The ensuing 22-month traverse to Victoria included stopping for studies along the route and escaping from a sand trap. The rover first reached the rim of Victoria in September 2007. For nearly a year, it then explored partway around the rim, checking for the best entry route and examining from above the rock layers exposed in a series of promontories that punctuate the crater perimeter.

Now that Opportunity has finished exploring Victoria Crater and returned to the surrounding plain, the rover team plans to use tools on the robotic arm in coming months to examine an assortment of cobbles — rocks about fist-size and larger — that may have been thrown from impacts that dug craters too distant for Opportunity to reach.

JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, manages the rovers for the NASA Science Mission Directorate, Washington. For images and information about NASA’s Opportunity and Spirit Mars rovers, visit: http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.html.

Guy Webster 818-354-6278
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California
guy.webster@jpl.nasa.gov

Dwayne Brown
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1726
dwayne.c.brown@nasa.gov

NEWS RELEASE: 2008-168

Keep abreast of the whole Mars Rover exploration at NASA

Watch the Mars Rover mission video on You Tube.

Visit the Mars Rover exploration blog.

News MSNBC reports on the Mars Rover making its way out of a crater.

Top 25 are each over a city block long and filled with amenities

NEW YORK, Jul 09, 2008 (BUSINESS WIRE) — POWER & MOTORYACHT, the #1 enthusiast marine category publication, unveiled its 23rd annual list of the world’s 100 largest megayachts, a.k.a. “The POWER & MOTORYACHT 100.” A megayacht is defined as a privately owned yacht at least 80 feet long; there are nearly 4,000 yachts in this booming category today. Not only has the number of yachts in the category grown, but their size has increased as well in the 23 years since the list was first compiled. In 1985, the largest yacht on the POWER & MOTORYACHT 100 measured 123′. Today, the smallest of the 100 measures 206′.

“With millionaires giving way to billionaires, not only does the demand for new megayachts increase, but also luxury and size,” said Diane M. Byrne, Executive Editor of POWER & MOTORYACHT. “In fact, the top two yachts on our list are longer than Giants’ Stadium.” She added, “And while the owners flaunt their wealth with the size of their yachts, at the same time many keep their contents and amenities a tightly guarded secret, so rumors abound.” Many owners wish to remain anonymous, but some of the current top 25 read like a “Who’s Who” of the world’s business elite, especially Russian oil billionaires, whose names pepper many of the yachts on the list.

The POWER & MOTORYACHT 100 includes:

– AL SALAMAH – 456′10″ – The biggest and most secretive yacht, as virtually everyone involved won’t talk about what’s inside the megayacht belonging to the Saudi Arabian Defense Minister, Prince Sultan bin Abdul Aziz. She’s rumored to have more than 80 rooms, a crew of 96 and an indoor swimming pool.

– RISING SUN – 452′8″ – Jointly owned by Oracle Corporation head Larry Ellison and movie mogul David Geffen, she comes equipped with a basketball court and a landing craft specially designed to carry an SUV ashore.

– OCTOPUS – 414′0″ – Paul Allen’s vessel has traveled around the world and carries a “toy” boat that resembles a submarine. It also has not one, but two helipads. These might be the most economical means to travel, for at $4.50/gallon, it costs over $1mm to fill up OCTOPUS. Of course, if you have to ask the price…

– SAVARONA – 408′0″ – Built over 75 years ago at a cost of $4mm, this available-for-charter beauty can brighten your party with its 282-foot-long grand staircase and authentic Turkish hamman (Turkish bath).

– A – 394′0″ – Launched only this January, A, designed by Philippe Starck, is so radical that the Wall Street Journal’s “Wealth” columnist dubbed it the ugliest yacht in the world. While most yacht-spotters assumed the owner was Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich, the owner is in reality Andrei Melnichenko, a 36-year-old Russian who made his money through banking and energy companies.

– TURAMA – 381′11″ – Available for charter at 630,000 euros per week (about $857,000 at press time), you can entertain adults in the disco, children in the playroom, and sleep 70 in its guestrooms.

– TATOOSH – 302′8″ – Paul Allen’s second yacht on the list (see #3 above) entertained Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie and family last May prior to the Cannes Film Festival.

– ICE – 295′3″ – Owned by (another) Russian oilman, Suleiman Kerimov was the setting for his 40th birthday party, where he entertained his guests with performances by both Christina Aguilera and Shakira.

– LAUREN L – 295′3″ – Owned by Liveras Yachts, it is available for charter for a mere $1.2MM a week. The former Constellation has been refitted to cater to 48 overnight guests and includes an expanded sundeck, sauna, hair salon, and other health and beauty amenities.

– CARINTHIA VII – 321′5″ – The largest yacht in the world owned solely by a woman (Heidi Horten, a German retail giant). Its home is the International Yacht Club of Antibes.

About POWER & MOTORYACHT

POWER & MOTORYACHT, founded in 1985, is the #1 publication in the marine category, with a circulation of over 157,000. It is the flagship publication of the Marine Group, published by Source Interlink Media, a division of Source Interlink Companies, Inc. a media and marketing services company and one of the largest publishers of magazines and online content for enthusiast audiences. Source Interlink is also a leading distributor of home entertainment products, including DVDs, music CDs, magazines, games, books, and related items.

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