Seals at Kosice Zoo

On Sunday, April 1st, the people of Kosice and the surrounding area, especially their youngest offspring, had the chance to go to Kosice Zoo up at Kavecany and welcome the newly-arrived seal pups. The first hundred children who came to the Zoo between 1.00 and 1.45 pm bringing their own hand-painted pictures of their favorite little animals received an interesting gift. Then everyone who sent a photo of the seals' welcoming to the Ocel Vychodu editorial office by 3 pm on Monday, April 2nd, had a chance of winning our competition with a first prize of a thousand Slovak crowns.

Change of mobile operator

On April 1st U. S. Steel Kosice changed operators for all the Company cell-phones. The old numbers, or more precisely the operator codes 902, 903 and 904, will continue working until each user has a fully-functional new number. Nevertheless, if some staff are still not using their Orange SIM-card, for example because they are on holiday or something else is preventing them, then they should start doing so without further delay. The objective of this change was to save costs, so it is important now to avoid pointless telephoning on the old network, or from the old network to the new one, to USSK extensions and vice-versa.
Users should hand in their T-Mobile SIM-cards and old cell-phones as soon as possible to those employees who they collected their Orange SIM-cards and new cell-phones from, or they can hand them in at the BSCe Voice Communications Section. The important thing is to remember that from now on every number, whether for a cell-phone or fixed line, must be preceded by the nnational code +421, and not just a zero as it has been to date. At the same time it applies to all USSK company phone numbers that the old operator codes 902, 903 and 904 are being replaced with the new universal code 917. The final six-figure user numbers remain unchanged. Short calls can also be made to cell-phones and fixed-line extensions using so-called VPN (Voice Private Network).

U. S. Steel to acquire Lone Star Technologies

United States Steel Corporation and Lone Star Technologies, Inc. announced last week that they have entered into a definitive agreement under which U. S. Steel will acquire Lone Star, a leading manufacturer of welded oilfield tubular goods, for $67.50 per share in cash, an aggregate value of approximately $2.1 billion. The agreement was unanimously approved by the boards of directors of both U. S. Steel and Lone Star. U. S. Steel expects that the acquisition of Lone Star will strengthen its position as a premier producer of tubular products for the energy sector and will create North America's largest tubular producer.
The transaction will broaden U. S. Steel's energy product offerings by joining U. S. Steel's predominantly seamless tubular business with Lone Star's complementary welded tubular business, coupling manufacturing and tubular processing services. Following the transaction, U. S. Steel will have annual North American tubular manufacturing capability of approximately 2.8 million tons. U. S. Steel projects that the combination with Lone Star's operations will generate annual pre-tax operating synergies in excess of $100 million by the end of 2008. The transaction is subject to the approval of Lone Star's shareholders and other customary closing conditions, including regulatory approvals, and is expected to close in the second or third quarter of 2007.

What is concealed in an Original Nutty Celebration?

Have you ever experienced an Original Nutty Celebration? Really? If you look into the first literary work by Katarina Eva Caniova with the same name, complemented with color pictures by the artist Jana Slosarova, you will be welcomed to one as a guest. You will become part of the author's world, full of the things and the people closest to her, the ones she loves and without whom her life would not be what it is. The wit, humor and the richness of composition of our colleague's illustrations (Jana is Ocel Vychodu's graphics specialist and a member of the Public Affairs team), not only reveal much about her rich inner life, but also lend the anecdotes a further dimension.
These two ladies in tandem have produced a modest work which will appeal to you at first (and second) sight. The "first opening" of the book took place within a circle of friends and acquaintances on Friday, March 23rd, at 5 pm in the East Slovakian Gallery in Kosice. Even though the day itself was overcast and tearful, there was a shower of golden rain on the book in the form of forsythia petals, the first spring blossom. The anecdotes were sprinkled with symbolic gold by the "father of hikers" Ceněk Cermak, one of the founders of the Kosice Hiking Club, with whom Katarina Caniova has covered hundreds of kilometers, together with the U. S. Steel Kosice President's wife, Susan Lohr.

Playing to Kosice people in April

On its tour of Poland, Hungary and Slovakia, there will be a chance for Kosice people to hear a concert in the House of Art on April 11th by the unique ensemble of more than a hundred menbers called the Rochester Philharmonic Youth Orchestra (RYPO) from the USA, bringing together the most skillfull of musical instrumentalists aged between 13 to 19 years. For the Slovak audience they have prepared compositions by Leonard Bernstein, George Gershwin and Aaron Copeland, but also by Antonin Dvorak and Bela Bartok.