Pacific Gas and Electric Co (PG&E) CEO, Chairman and President Peter Darbee will be retiring at the end of the month, the energy company revealed on Thursday, and will reportedly be getting a $35 million golden handshake.

In a statement, Darbee said that “Over the past year, our company has faced difficult challenges that have diminished confidence in PG&E among some of our customers, regulators and others.”

“My decision to retire is aimed at helping PG&E turn the page and carry on with the work we are doing to become a safer, stronger company,” the top executive said.

The news comes after the company has experienced a rough year owing to a gas pipeline explosion in San Bruno last year which took eight lives and razed eight homes.

The Sept. 9, 2010 explosion at the pipeline owned by PG&E has made it the subject of an investigation which recently landed the company a warning of being levied fines amounting to $1 million a day.

Critics, including Assemblyman Jerry Hill, have called the retirement package “obscene”, a report from Mercury News says.

The Utility Reform Network executive director Mark Toney also said, according to The Associated Press, that “Not one more dime of customers’ money should be spent on rewarding Darbee’s failures.”

“PG&E not only needs to clean house, it needs to change priorities, and focus spending on safety, reliability and customer service, rather than executive perks and excesses,” Toney said, according to the AP.

Different surveys conducted by European researchers suggest that a lot of women today are considering egg freezing for the perfect guy.

European researchers conducted surveys to find out if women would bank on the process of egg freezing and to find out the reasons why women would wan to.

The results showed that women would want to freeze their eggs for these reasons: half of them would freeze it for Mr. Right and a third of them wants to do the process for insurance policy against infertility, while some of the rest wanted to freeze their eggs to delay starting a family.

These results were revealed in the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology conference where doctors from Belgium UK, and all around Europe attended.

While most of the respondents were students from different universities in Europe, those who wanted to freeze their eggs for Mr. Right aged 30 and above.

The process of egg freezing is a technology, which empowers women to save their eggs for future IVF (in vitro fertilization) treatment for future usage if necessary.

Although the chances of success for this process rely on younger and healthier eggs, many adult women are currently into the new technology and consider it as their very last resort.

According to Clare Lewis Jones of the Infertility Network UK, “Age has an impact on male as well as female fertility and when they do meet Mr. Right, they may well find that he has fertility problems.”

This process is also pricey considering the cost per attempt runs up to £3,000. And there are chances that some women may have to undergo through the process thrice or three cycles so that a sufficient number of eggs would be preserved.

Dr. Julie Nekkerbroeck, one of the researchers from Belgium, said 27% of the women they conducted their surveys unto have desires to freeze their eggs in order to give progress into their relationships before they even start to have babies.

Her team of researchers also found out that the group of women with an average age of 38, who are still hunting for Mr. Right will only use their frozen eggs after 5 years. This group of women also understood that young and healthier eggs are crucial for the process to succeed.

“We found that they had all had partners in the past, but they had not fulfilled their desire to have a child because they thought that they had not found the right man.” Said Dr. Nekkerbroeck.

According to Dr. Srilatha Gorthi of the Leeds Centre for Reproductive Medicine, this is the very first time that women, especially younger women, have their attitude towards the issue of fertility was examined.

Dr. Gorthi said the society should lend support to young women. She said, “Women thinking about undergoing this procedure must be provided with accurate information and have counseling to both the benefits and limitations of oocyte freezing compared with other options.”

Ms. Lewis-Jones also said it is extremely important that people understand the effects of age towards their fertility and that fertility treatment, no matter how efficient it may sound like, is no guarantee of success.

The series of workers’ strikes in the industrial province of Guandong, China have already claimed massive work stoppages at two Japan-based car manufacturing firms.

Since June 22, Toyota’s assembly plant has been at halt after workers at a neighbouring plant of Denso, an automobile parts manufacturer, have gone on strike. Honda was also put to halt.

The strikes have been a result of widening labour issues in China ranging from poor working conditions to unfairly low wages and lack of benefits. There has been no legal basis for the series of strikes but with the extent of work stoppages and the eventual monetary loss of the companies, labour groups are resolute in their demands. As a matter of fact, many of the previous actions have forced companies to give in.

The scenario at Denso started on Monday with more than 200 workers walking out of the plant after their demand for higher pay had fallen to deaf ears of the management.

A week ago, Toyota’s principal manufacturing plant was also forced into idle state after a three-day strike at a parts’ supplier plant. The halt resulted in millions of losses in potential worldwide sales.

Even Japan’s top car manufacturer Honda was not spared from labour discontent. Its affiliate, Guanggi Honda Automobile, was also forced to stop due to strikes at a Japanese firm. Honda was hoping it could resume its business by tomorrow.

Despite flexible labor policies, the Chinese authorities have been tolerating the strikes at foreign-owned work-yards.  Foreign-owned corporations have been forced to observe labour laws and respect fundamental labour rights. But the treatment of labour concerns within the framework of the Chinese government is more firm and harsh so as to avoid a nationwide labour unrest.

For the past 60 years, real estate prices in Australia have inflated drastically in comparison to other well-developed countries.  The rise has been quite obvious from 1997 until 2004 but there has been a resurgence of property bubble from 2008 until 2010 where prices of real estate have already reached to unaffordable levels when compared to the average income of the general population. While the rest of the global piece have adjusted fairly to the current economic recession through the reduction of housing costs, Australia’ s real property investments have since doubled.

Even the Australian government, through the House Price Index data released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics, admitted that prices in real estate properties at the country’s capital cities have risen to 20% in just 12 months. In Canberra for instance, average houses cost around 495,000 Australian dollars to date while prices in Melbourne have leaped 21% marking at  $549,980 and increase of $116,917 from the previous year.

Property bubble initially affects the local economy with an artificial rise of investments and spending in relation of real estate. But sooner or later, once the bubble reaches to its peak, Australia may soon suffer what several states in the United States have experienced particularly California and Los Angeles. When the United States’s housing sector bubbled way back five years ago (reaching its peak after four years) adjustable rate mortgages have adjusted in unprecedented levels as well. Borrowers have been convinced that they can eventually refinance their investments more favorably. This happened as loan packages, sales incentives and marketing benefits especially easy initial payment schemes have been introduced to the general market. But after a number of years when the bubble reaches its peak, prices of real properties begin to fall significantly and default payments and property closures rocked the volatile real estate economy. Easy credit condition pushed borrowers to access housing units drastically but when interests start to beset the average and low-earning population as other economic factors are beginning to affect them as well, repayment or real estate refinancing have become more difficult as they expect.

Prices of housing units in the United States such as those in California at present have deflated to a median 40%. Coupled with other issues like unemployment, several of these borrowers have already been burdened with sky-rocketing debts that they can no longer pay.

When the property bubble bursts, national economy will slump deep. For as long the bubble continues it will develop an artificial cloak to a volatile economy. In fact real property investments will increase figures in the domestic spending trends. But soon, investors in the Australian real property sector will suffer what their counterparts in past US property bubble–era have endured. For the promised superficial returns in the sector did not realize. And because real estate bubble have nowhere to go but to break apart, Australian economy will plunge deep into severe crisis that no monetary floatation can save.

Average Australian population can no longer afford the current housing prices. No wonder why twelve out of the twenty unaffordable real estate markets in the world are in Australia with the remaining are located in parts of Ireland, Canada, United Kingdom and New Zealand. In Sydney, properties now cost more than nine times the average annual income of families.  In Newcastle, Adelaide and the remote Darwin, homes will cost around 700% of the current average household income a year. Banks and other market players in the real estate have now been spreading a borrowing euphoria with mortgage terms citizens can never pay during their life’s term. In brief, Australian is now entering an era which the United States have now been on the tip of. What Americans have experienced in urban and peri-urban Los Angeles Australians will sooner embrace.

But the fact that the prices of housing units in Australia are currently at unaffordable levels do not actually affect the real estate demand. The government, too, have pushed the button for artificial rise in real estate demand as incentives await those few early patrons. So expect investments in the sector will pull-in further. With mortgage conditions now available for low and average income earners to avail even if that will mean their lifelong term, many Australians are still persuaded to buying properties. They are caught in the belief that sooner their acquired properties will eventually increase in value and they can sell them at prices much higher than their mortgage payments- a belief that American history has already proven a sham. Sooner, what has become of Los Angeles and California will happen in Australia when the property bubble finally breaks out.

Studies show more pregnant women are wearing fashion shoes like Ugg boots, ballet pumps, flip flops and high heels, without considering the risks it might cause to them, says experts.

And the reason behind is pregnant celebrities look stunning on stilettos and ordinary pregnant women feel the pressure to keep up, also according to the survey.

Of the 1,000 pregnant women interviewed for the Society of Chiropodists and Podiatrists, 66% of them regularly wear flip flops, 30% wore Ugg boots, 53% wear ballet pumps and 32% of them wear high heels.

Ms. Lorraine Jones, a representative from the Society said none of these shoes bring good comfort to pregnant women; infact, it brings harm on the contrary.

“High heels alter your posture, shorten your calf muscles and place increased pressure on your back and knees,” said Miss Jones.

The survey showed 7 out of 10 pregnant women admit they suffer from foot problems. 37% of them suffer from swollen ankles, 45% of them suffer from swollen feet and 16% of them experience arch and heel pain.

The fashion shoes do not provide the necessary comfort and support that every pregnant woman needs; these shoes are very unsuitable to be used daily, said Ms. Jones.

“Weight gain and hormonal changes in pregnancy have a huge impact on the body.

“Muscles and ligaments soften and stretch because of an increase in the ovarian hormone relaxin, which makes your feet more prone to ankle and ligament strains on a daily basis.

“In pregnancy this places extra pressure on your joints when they are already under strain – which can result in a host of foot, leg and back problems and could increase the likelihood of falls,” Ms. Jones stated.

She goes on pressing the rule that women should instead choose shoes with that 1 ½in heel as this can help the pregnant woman shift her weight forward towards the feet. These mini inched shoes are proven to relieve the discomfort that pregnant women feel while standing up.

Not only that, The Society of Chiropodists and Podiatrists released an advisory for pregnant women, urging them to follow the following pointers:

1)    Wear supportive and comfortable footwear. Choose those with straps, laces and Velcro, as these are ideal.

2)    Look for shoes specifically designed with extra shock absorption. If the part of the shoes feels like it can support the arch and the heel, it is the right choice.

3)    Avoid wearing high heels as this can place unnecessary pressure on joints at a time when they are already under strain.

4)    Avoid crossing the legs or ankles when sitting because these do not only cause varicose veins, it could also strain the legs even further.

Ms. Jones further added some advices saying, if women must feel the urge to wear high heels, they should only do so on occasions and at those times must avoid standing for too long.

“Many of the pregnant celebrities you see wearing high heels in magazines are attending events so, like them, try to keep your high-heeled, high-fashion shoes for a special occasion and stick to a more supportive shoe on a daily basis,” she concluded.

The medical journal, “The Lancet” published a report that says up to 100,000 lives will be saved yearly by a known drug that will be administered to hemorrhaging trauma patients.

A drug called tranexamic acid or TXA combats the effects of severe bleeding as it has properties that speed up blood clotting. This drug could lower the risk of the patient’s probability to die by 15%.

Researchers, who have studied 20,000 patients for this report, said TXA would benefit developing countries the most since it is in these countries where people die of severe injuries caused by traffic accidents and homicide.

The count of patients worldwide, who died because of extreme bleeding, has reached 600,000 annually. The World Health Organization also reported that six million people around the world dies because of injuries. This mortality rate is 10% of the entire mortality rate being tallied globally.

This is the very first time TXA has been tested for its effectiveness on severely bleeding injured patients.

274 hospitals in 40 countries, which have injured and furiously bleeding patients, participated in this trial. The patients were injected with a gram of TXA and a placebo. They were observed for less than eight hours.

After a four-week period of study, observing the rate of death of dying patients, researchers found out that TXA is indeed effective. It reduced the risk of death from blood loss by one sixth.

Professor Ian Roberts, epidemiology professor form London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, “Tranexamic acid is one of the cheapest ways to save a life there is.”

Prof. Roberts led the international trial and noted the significant benefits caused by TXA.

“The large number of patients treated in very different healthcare settings around the world means we can be sure that prompt use of TXA will be of benefit to trauma patients in all kinds of facilities,” the Professor said.

And to add up to the good news, there were no side effects that occurred during the period of study, contrary to what the researchers and doctors had feared.

In Asian countries such as India and China, TXA could definitely reduce death rates by saving about 12,000 patients with severe bleeding, according to researchers. They have estimated about 100,000 lives to be saved across the world every year.

In the United States, an estimated 2,000 deaths will be prevented with the use of TXA. This good news goes as well in Europe. In the UK, almost 1,800 number of severe bleeding cause death are noted every year, but researchers say the miracle called TXA could cut this down by 280.

Prof. Roberts addressed the benefits and the practicality of TXA drug and why it should be distributed worldwide. He said, “TXA is one of the cheapest ways to save a life there is”.

Other than the medicinal benefits of TXA, it only costs £3 per gram and can be easily administered in extreme situations. Furthermore, it does not need to be refrigerated and medical companies can easily manufacture it.  TXA helps solve poverty problems.

Dr. Etienne Krug, the director of violence and injury prevention and disability at the World Health Organization, stated that every doctor need to be aware and be familiar with the results of the test.

“We want to avoid injuries happening in the first place but we also need to strengthen the trauma response. Death and serious injury throw families into poverty, so the problem affects hundreds of millions every year worldwide,” said the Doctor.

National Institute for Health Research, the BUPA Foundation, the drug Pfizer Drug Company and the JP Moulton Charitable Foundation all joined to fund the trial.

Mr. Earl Howe, the UK health minister, concluded, “This is a great example of how important research can help the NHS save more lives and spread best practice around the world.”

Eight weeks after the oil explosion that cost the outpour of 118 million gallons of oil into the vast ocean, the US government and the BP Company finally settled into terms that include $20B and a sincere apology to the nation.

US President, Barrack Obama, succeeded in pulling off a $20B guarantee from BP plc to fund the people’s businesses that were destroyed after the massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

“We asked for that two weeks ago and they laughed at us,” Mayor Tony Kennon said in an interview.

“Thank you, President Obama, for taking a bunch of rednecks’ suggestion and making it happen,” he added.

Mr. President had promised before that he would “make BP pay.”  After four hours of intense negotiations inside the walls of the White House, BP plc chairman said they are ready.

“What this is about is accountability,” said President Obama in brief announcements in the State Dining Room after the successful negotiation with the BP executives.

“For the small-business owners, for the fishermen, for the shrimpers, this is not just a matter of dollars and cents. … A lot of these folks don’t have a cushion,” said the President.

Although people affected by the oil spill have started to lose hope that their suffering would never be given any ending, the Obama administration interceded and had successfully created the fund. This is the President’s first success in the saga that threatened everything the president had hoped to focus on.

The $20B deal was the President’s non-negotiable demand. The fund is to be paid exclusively by the British company. There will be no government fund either. But an administrator, a pay czar, will run the fund created. This Obama administration appointed Kenneth Feinberg.

Mr. Kenneth Feinberg, an American lawyer who specializes in mediation and alternative dispute, was popularly known as the man who manned the restoration fund for the families who have lost family members on the 9-11 terrorist attack. Now he will oversee the BP disaster compensation fund appointed to him by the current administration.

In a statement, Mr. Feinberg said “honored by the President’s confidence in me and will work tirelessly to provide prompt, appropriate compensation to all those victims of the disaster. I assure everybody that the Independent Claims Facility will be administered in a fair and impartial manner. Time is of the essence. I urge all those who have suffered financial loss as a result of the oil spill to file a claim as soon as possible. ”

The extent of the damage when the oilrig exploded last April 20 resulted to the death of 11 of the company’s workers, destruction of the wildlife, the beaches, and the marshlands. The Gulf’s ecology along with the people who are residing in the area’s cost of income, e.g. tourism and fishing was terribly jeopardized.

BP began to do some actions to stop the oil spill to reach the sea. Last Wednesday, the company burned oil that was siphoned from the damaged oil well. This effort intended to stop the damage to reach further heights.

The company plans to install equipment that will capture 90 percent of the leaking oil. But the leak is expected to continue for at least until relief wells will be finished by the month of August.

The BP plc Chairman Carl-Henric Svanberg apologized in behalf of his company and said “this tragic accident that should never have happened.”

“We care about the small people,” said the Chairman when he was interviewed after the session at the white House.

His comment however raised eyebrows from the victims of the tragic oil spill.

“We’re not small people,” said Justin Taffinder from New Orleans. “We’re human beings. They’re no greater than us. We don’t bow down to them.”

Terry Hanners, who owns a construction company in the Gulf Shores, said, “These BP people I’ve met are good folks. I’ve got a good rapport with them. But BP does not care about us. They are so far above us. We are the nickel-and-dime folks of this world.”

But the BP spokesman Toby Odone said the company chairman is Swedish. He said in an email “it is clear that what he means is that he cares about local businesses and local people. This was a slip in translation.”

Among the $20 billion escrow fund that will be utilized to repair the environmental damages, BP Company will also be paying $100 million fund to support the oilrig workers whose works were postponed in a six-month period by the US President after the tragedy.

Southwest Airlines is leading the individual airline satisfaction rankings for 17 consecutive years, this is according to the University of Michigan’s latest American Customer Satisfaction Index for the airline industry.

The findings are similar to the J.D. Power and Associates 2010 North America Airline Satisfaction Study, which were released last week.

Ranking second in the index is the Continental and American. The Index uses interviews to measure the rankings. They score the airlines in an average of 0 to 100. The last on the list is the United Airlines.

Airfarewatchdog.com also conducted a poll of air travelers, which came out recognizing Southwest Airlines. 2,100 people took the online poll on the website from May 17 to June 3, and they chose Southwest as the best airlines.

More than 75% said Southwest offers the best prices and services that are worth your money, which puts the airlines on top of the list, JetBlue and Continental follows in the second spot.

Southwest’s flight attendants also got the highest vote, as the friendliest attendants in the industry, next to them are Delta/Northwest, JetBlue and American.

Delta/Northwest, however, have the same number of foes with the Southwest fans, because according to the survey they have the least-friendly flight attendance. The second and third in the category are United and American.

It is not surprising that the survey also showed the frustration of the travelers for paying more for amenities, which are supposedly free, like for example, checked bags. Passengers dislike fees among any other things when traveling.

But the survey also shows that air travelers are only willing to pay for drinks, Internet access and more legroom. The travelers who are willing to pay for pillow and blanket did not even reach one percent. Many of them consider this as frivolous.

Here is an example of what an air traveler would say to the CEO of the airline they like the most if given a chance: “Feed us food you’d eat yourself.”

Delta/Northwest is the airline, which served the worst food for the entire year; this is according to the survey. United and American follow them.

Mr. Claes Fornell, the founder of the satisfaction index said in a statement “Airlines are making more satisfied air travelers, but it won’t last for a long time according to the surveys we have conducted.”

Mr. Fornell also added that there are more passengers now more than usual, this may create congestion, and worse, delays.” He also pointed out that “Airline rates are also getting higher.”

Angry ruckus flooded in the Apple and AT&T websites last Tuesday after a huge number of people ordered the latest of the Apple technology, iPhone4.

Apple fans have another reason to complain after being disappointed with the AT&T services, the only iPhone carrier in the United States. This is when Apple and its partners started getting orders from fans for the new iPhone4.

A big number of people who ordered the phone from the websites of Apple and AT&T, which were supposed to be released the following Thursday, stumbled into some major message difficulties.

The messages and customer data tried to be obtained by the customers started to crop up. As of why this technical mishap occurred, nobody still knows. There was still no clear cause of the problems.

Upset fans filled Apple bulletin boards and other social networking sites with messages of disappointment and even anger in the early hours of the day.

To add up to the problems, there were a number of readers of Gizmodo who shouted ‘unfair’ because when they opened their account in the AT&T site, they were logged in to accounts owned and used by complete strangers.

According to Mark Siegal, spokesman for AT&T, an investigation is being conducted to address these problems. He said that they have not yet replicated the issue, but he made it clear that there were no call-detail records, Social Security numbers or credit card information included in the information.

Tom Lustig, a 41-year-old data analyst stationed in New York, shared his frustrating experience of trying to gain access to the Apple and AT&T sites. He tried both of the services the whole day but was not successful on getting in. He had the same problems as he called the Apple’s customer service hotline. Mr. Lustig said some sales representative redirected him to AT&T when he made the call.

On Fifth Avenue in Manhattan, where the Apple store is located, customers were just told by the Apple workers that orders couldn’t be processed because of some technical difficulties encountered by the AT&T systems. The Apple staff suggested to the customers to reserve an iPhone for June 24 instead.

Mr. Roger Entner, head of mobile research at the Nielsen Company, defended Apple Company from the issues.  He said that those who were interested in getting an iPhone4 was overwhelmed by the release of the iPad, which also had some major problems concerning shortage and shipping delays due to its high demand.

But Mr. Entner said he was surprised that AT&T was unprepared for this kind of problem considering this is not the first ever release of Apple’s iPhone.

“This is the fourth iPhone launch for AT&T, and demand has gone up every single time,” Mr. Entner said.

“Yet something always goes wrong,” he added.

According to Mr. Entner, this might be another destructive problem that could further affect the reputation of AT&T. He sited last week’s AT&T’s trouble as an issue of security breach exploded when over 100,000 personal data of iPhone3G users was exposed. AT&T is widely criticized for Apple users for providing erratic services.

Mr. Siegal, on the other hand, pointed the reason of the difficulties to the groundbreaking number of interest for the latest iPhone technology. He acknowledged that the demand was greater compared to the preorder days for earlier versions of the iPhone.

“Today was the busiest online sales day in AT&T history,” Mr. Siegal said in a statement.

US schools include engineering in their curriculum to be taught to kindergarten students even before the kids can perfectly spell the word.

School districts across the US include engineering lessons in their already packed curriculum to give priority to lessons that were once left for school clubs and summer camps or until students reach college.

This is an effort to address the issue of American students competence in the global market.

Supporters of this effort acknowledge the benefits, as they believe that engineering reinforces students’ skills in mathematics and science. Engineering also promotes critical thinking and a student’s creativity, as well as teaching students to take intellectual risks and let go of their fears.

“We still hear all the time that little kids can’t engineer,” said Christine Cunningham, director of the program Engineering is Elementary.

“We say they’re born engineers — they naturally want to solve problems — and we tend to educate it out of them,” she retorted.

Engineering is Elementary is a program that was developed at the Museum of Science in Boston. It offers lessons on 20 topics for about $350 each. The program is now used in all 50 states, in more than 3,000 schools.

STEM programs, which stand for science, technology, engineering and math, are backed up and promoted by the Obama administration. Infact, the administration launched the ’s Race to the Top competition, which distributes a stimulus budget of $4.35 billion for education reforms across the states.

The US Congress is considering the legislation at the same time. This is after over 100 businesses and organizations like I.B.M. and Lockheed Martin have endorsed to promote engineering education to kids from kindergarten level up until the 12^th grade.

Engineering lessons are starting to spread all across the United States. The local school district in Manassas, Va. already $300,000 for the children’s engineering program. Manassas is already known to have a thriving biotech industry and is now looking to pass on the knowledge to its children.

The three hundred grand budgets equipped six of the state’s elementary schools with kits to be used in projects relating to engineering such as making musical instruments from miscellaneous items; building miniature infrastructures out of uncooked spaghetti pasta and other stuffs.

The educational trend is also used at the new Midway Elementary School of Science and Engineering in Anderson, S.C. Kindergarten students in this state celebrates Groundhog Day by using a pulley system to buoy up a paper groundhog off from the ground.

But critics, composed of some teachers, some parents, and some engineers alike, inveigh against this program amidst its growing popularity. They worry about whether the program is really effective as it deemed it would be and should schools shell out more of its very limited resources for the engineering subject.

Associate Education Professor, Janine Remillard, of the University of Pennsylvania, said, “Just giving kids an engineering problem to solve doesn’t mean it will lead to learning.”

The professor although does not oppose the curriculum, impressed the importance of good teaching to make the program to work well.

“They could just go through the motions and end up with a robot that can do a particular thing, but the next problem they face will be a new problem. This is where good teaching comes in,” Professor Remillard said.

Mr. William E. Kelly, the spokesman for the American Society for Engineering Education warned that lessons of engineering for kids should be kept in perspective.

“You’re not really learning what I would call engineering fundamentals,” he said talking about the programs. “You’re really learning about engineering.”