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To delay may mean to forget
- Your help will ease human suffering and save lives -
Donation instructions: see below & Home Page
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STAF, Inc - until every family is doing well©
We at STAF, Inc. want to know how this advice website has improved your & your family's life
Let us know in your donation letter
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World's # 1 free advice website Successo-Pedia©
for all family matters, success, health, wealth
& for the good life
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with
Free Question & Answer service
__________________________________________________________
- not-for-profit -
- the leading new organization in all family & life success topics -
* Nationwide - Worldwide *
__________________
World's # 1 free advice website Successo-Pedia©
for all family matters, success, health, wealth
& for the good life
____________________
with
Free Question & Answer service
__________________________________________________________
STAF, Inc.'s mission for your family's best:
Less suffering - more life™
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To inspect STAF, Inc.'s first 4 pages in its original founding acceptance documents provided by the State of New York:
click the green click: mission - STAF, Inc.'s purpose and its mission statements are in those 4 pages
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STAF, Inc. saves lives
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"STAF, Inc. is your STAFF for your NEW life"
* health * family happiness * financial freedom
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Gardening is the most important activity
in life
and:
even that is not so important
(Chinese Proverb)
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STAF, Inc. is a not-for-profit organization & needs your donations - donation instructions, see: Home page
As its name indicates, SAVE THE AMERICAN FAMILY - STAF, Inc. is helping families in all their challenges nationwide in The U.S. and in addition, STAF Inc.'s services are worldwide.
As a not-for-profit we do need your donations as cash funds and/or as your volunteer services.
For cash funds donations see the contact information in the home page.
Volunteering your time to serve people together with us communicate via email (info in home page).
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In this tab (= page) these topics & related info
(1) airplanes & air travel
(2) cars,
(3) computers,
(4) ecology,
(5) energy,
(6) phones,
(7) science,
(8) ships & cruises,
(9) traveling
(10) work & employment
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Additional car, car loans & other car topics in sub-tab: Credit & Credit Cards
Additional work & employment topics in tab: services, there in sub-tab: investments & finances
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Click: Global carbon emissions hit record high
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Interested in improving the world -
then look into this source
Click green for further info
Change.org - Start, Join, and Win Campaigns for Changewww.change.org/
Change.org is the web's leading platform for social change, empowering anyone,
anywhere to start petitions that make a difference
How to use change.org - See one example article below titled
Oregon Meth House Owners Settle With Freddie Mac
________________
Declarations Of Internet Freedom
article below after some other topics
_________________
Reputation Reputation - Definition
The beliefs or opinions that are generally held about someone or something
whether true or not E.g. "His reputation was tarnished by allegations that he had taken bribes."
to tarnish = to stain or become stained; taint or spoil E.g. "A fraud that tarnished his reputation."
Are you a lawyer, doctor, politician, teacher, stockbroker, professional of service or the owner of a business of any type or a person to whom good, positive reputation is important, then protect your good reputation. What people see when they google you affects your business & income negatively or positively. Wrong public statement in the internet or in an other source will harm you and cost you lost income - it does not matter if the statements are wrong. Protect your good reputation - select a company giving monitoring services for opinions in the internet, newspapers, broadcasting, or any other form public data. Search the web for services. Below a few web links to start with.
Declarations Of Internet Freedom
article below after some other topics
_________________
Reputation Reputation - Definition
The beliefs or opinions that are generally held about someone or something
whether true or not E.g. "His reputation was tarnished by allegations that he had taken bribes."
to tarnish = to stain or become stained; taint or spoil E.g. "A fraud that tarnished his reputation."
Are you a lawyer, doctor, politician, teacher, stockbroker, professional of service or the owner of a business of any type or a person to whom good, positive reputation is important, then protect your good reputation. What people see when they google you affects your business & income negatively or positively. Wrong public statement in the internet or in an other source will harm you and cost you lost income - it does not matter if the statements are wrong. Protect your good reputation - select a company giving monitoring services for opinions in the internet, newspapers, broadcasting, or any other form public data. Search the web for services. Below a few web links to start with.
- Reputation.com™ Ranked #1 (877) 837 4019 www.reputation.com/Official-Site
- Protecting Online Reputations. The Original & The Best Since 2006.
Personal Reputation Mgmt
Attorney Reputation Mgmt
Corporate Reputation Mgmt
Physician Reputation Mgmt - Reputation 1- (877) 732 1868reputationmanagementconsultants.com/
Fastest Clearing of Negative Posts. Expert Maximum Control. - Manage Your Reputation - Take Control - RemoveYourName.comwww.removeyourname.com/
Protect Your Personal Data From The Web. Act Now! - Companies monitoring other type of public information - search the web It matters - protect your good reputation - connect with necessary monitoring services now
FREE CELL PHONE & 250 MONTHLY MINUTES
Our organization Save The American Family - STAF, Inc., -not-for-profit, seeks and tests all services we believe will help you to improve your quality of life.
Sometimes the challenges in economy forces anyone to turn to the public help. That's one reason we all pay taxes.
A free cell phone with 250 monthly minutes, based on a government mandated program, will help - if you qualify.
The program is called "Lifeline Assistance" program and is supported by the Universal Service Fund program.
When you look at the details in any phone bill (of all kinds) there is a small fee charged for this fund.
You will qualify for the free cell phone with 250 monthly minutes when:
(1) your provable income is below certain levels, or
(2) you participate in certain government programs as, e.g.:
(a) Food Stamps, (b) Medicaid, (c) LIHEAP/HEAP (energy assistance program), (d) Section 8, (e) and some other general assistance programs.
There a several companies round the country providing the free cell phone service.
Find out in the internet what companies give service in your state.
Here three (3) companies, one located in the West Coast, one located in the East Coast, and one in the middle (North).
All these three give services round the country. STAF, Inc. studied their options and rated their customer service. The results below.
==========================================================================================================================================================
(1) Number 1-one in customer service (based on STAF, Inc.'s evaluation) is
SAFELINK Wireless Click: SafeLink Wireless
(2014) Customer Service: 800-SAFELINK (= 723-3546) - customer service open 1 - 2 h earlier and closes 1 -2 later than the other providers - can be helpful- open Mon - Sat 8 - 10 and sometimes extra hours (all announced when you call them).
Best time to call: at the morning opening time
Website: www.safelink.com click: SafeLink Wireless
(West Coast - nationwide services - not in every state - no free phone service provider covers every state)
Their customer service people answer in the U.S. and overseas, e.g. in Philippines - they are well-trained, polite, patient and they "GET the thing done"
Good in this Safelink service is (1) you can call free from you cell phone to their customer service/technical support/for any question (not every free phone-provider does it free). With Safelink some other services may still be free when some other service givers may charge some small fee. (2) If your phone is stolen or you otherwise lose it. They will send a new phone free-of-charge in just a few days, when some other services may charge for the replacement phone.
When you call them their waiting time for phone service is announced every minute stating how many other customers are ahead you - that feature MAKES A REAL DIFFERENCE;
The other two STAF, Inc. studied are:
(2) Reach-Out Wireless, located in Columbus, Ohio, phone (2014) (customer service) 1-888-411-2711,
Mon-Sat from 9 a.m. EST. Click: ReachOut Mobile
(Nationwide services - not in every state - no free phone service provider covers every state.)
What made a difference in their customer service is:
(1) their customer service representatives (in 2014) are English speaking Americans, very friendly & well-trained;
(2) their service options (when you have their phone service) is of high quality and covers everything effectively;
(3) they use Verizon network, perhaps the largest network in the USA;
(4) their waiting time for phone service is announced every minute (stating how many other customers are ahead you - that feature MAKES A REAL DIFFERENCE;
HINT: call immediately at 9 am EST and you may have to wait 1 - 10 minutes only. At the time we, at the STAF, Inc., studied these different customer services, no other company provided that helpful information. If you call Reach-Out Wireless later in the day, your waiting time may be over one (1) hour.
Negative is when you call this company, you do not get to call their customer service free from the cell phone they provided for your use - you can call a toll free number from a pay phone (not easy to find a working one any more).
Their website is: www.callrow.com
(3) East Coast, headquartered in Parsippany, New Jersey - nationwide services - not in every state - no free phone service provider covers every state
Assurance Wireless
Click: Assurance Wireless (2014) Customer service : 1-877-598-9543
Every day - the only provider, STAF, Inc. tested, giving access by phone to their customer service
Mon - Sun 9 am to 9 pm
Provided by Virgin mobile using the Sprint network
Sometimes their mail service is no good.
__________
There are many more - study the website - STAF, Inc. endorses SAFELINK if their service is available in your state.
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The "What We Know" initiative:
Climate Change
Date: March 19, 2014
Article A
The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)
is the world’s largest non-government general science membership organization and the executive publisher of Science,
a leading scientific journal. Its mission is “advance science for the benefit of all people.”
Its goals include providing a voice for science on societal issues and promoting the responsible use of science in public policy. There may be no more pressing issue intersecting science and society than climate change and the What We Know initiative was born in response to that reality.
The "What We Know" initiative
is dedicated to ensuring that three “R’s” of climate change communicated to the public.
- The first is Reality — 97% of climate experts have concluded that human-caused climate change is happening.
- The second is Risk — that the reality of climate change means that there are climate change impacts we can expect, but we also must consider what might happen, especially the small, but real, chance that we may face abrupt changes with massively disruptive impacts.
- The third R is Response — that there is much we can do and that the sooner we respond, the better off we will be.
To guide the What We Know initiative click: AAAS convened a group of prominent experts in climate science
to address the fact that many Americans still erroneously believe that the scientific community is divided on the issue and that Americans are largely unaware of the full spectrum of climate risks – both what is likely to happen and what might happen — that human-caused climate change presents to Americans now and in the future.
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AAAS - The world's largest science community
Kicks Off Initiative
to Recognize Climate Change Risks
The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) is an international non-profit organization with the stated goals of promoting cooperation among scientists, defending scientific freedom, encouraging scientific responsibility, and supporting scientific education and science outreach for the betterment of all humanity. It is the world's largest and most prestigious general scientific society, with 126,995 individual and institutional members at the end of 2008, and is the publisher of the well-known scientific journal click: Science, which has a weekly circulation of 138,549
AAAS is announcing the launch of a new initiative to expand the dialogue on the risks of climate change. At the heart of the initiative is the AAAS's " What We Know" report, an assessment of current climate science and impacts that emphasizes the need to understand and recognize possible high-risk scenarios.
"We're the largest general scientific society in the world, and therefore we believe we have an obligation to inform the public and policymakers about what science is showing about any issue in modern life, and climate is a particularly pressing one," said Dr. Alan Leshner, CEO of AAAS. "As the voice of the scientific community, we need to share what we know and bring policymakers to the table to discuss how to deal with the issue."
Nobel laureate Dr. Mario Molina, distinguished professor of chemistry and biochemistry at the University of California, San Diego and Scripps Institution of Oceanography and co-chairs, Dr. Diana Wall, distinguished professor of biology and director at Colorado State University's School of Global Environmental Sustainability and Dr. James McCarthy, Alexander Agassiz Professor of Biological Oceanography at Harvard, chaired the climate science panel that generated the report.
They, along with the 10 panelists spanning climate science specialties, will engage in the initiative in various ways, from speaking engagements to testimonials on a forthcoming interactive web site to knowledge sharing with other professionals. The initiative encourages Americans to think of climate change as a risk management issue; the panel aims to clarify and contextualize the science so the public and decision-makers can be more adequately informed about those risks and possible ways to manage them.
The report provides three key messages for every American about climate change:
- Climate scientists agree: climate change is happening here and now.
- We are at risk of pushing our climate system toward abrupt, unpredictable, and potentially irreversible changes with highly damaging impacts.
- The sooner we act, the lower the risk and cost. And there is much we can do.
Bob Litterman, former Goldman & Sachs Co. executive and senior partner at Kepos Capital, has participated in discussions with the panel on how to accurately measure climate-related risks and the need for a language to talk about climate change through the lens of risk management.
"Scientists have developed a solid understanding of how the climate is responding to the build-up of greenhouse gases, but they recognize the considerable uncertainty about the long-run impacts — especially potential economic damages. Economists understand how to create incentives to limit pollution production with maximum effect and minimum collateral damage, but crafting the appropriate response is a complex valuation process that requires quantifying those same uncertainties," Litterman said. "To do so requires scientists and economists to work together, ask tough questions, and break the boundaries of their professional silos. That's what's this initiative aims to do."
Click green for further info
Source: AAAS
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Article B
White House to Introduce Climate Data Website
Date: March 19, 2014
Source: NYT
WASHINGTON — President Obama wants Americans to see how climate change will remake their own backyards — and to make it as easy as opening a web-based app.
As part of its effort to make the public see global warming as a tangible, immediate and urgent problem, the White House on Wednesday will inaugurate a website aimed at turning scientific data about projected droughts and wildfires and the rise in sea levels into eye-catching digital presentations that can be mapped using an app.
Mr. Obama’s counselor, John D. Podesta, who has been charged with creating a strategy to build political support for Mr. Obama’s climate change agenda, and the White House science adviser, John P. Holdren, came up with the idea. In theory, the app, at climate.data.gov, would be a powerful tool, allowing local governments or home and business owners to type in an address — as they do on sites like Google Earth — to quickly see how the projected rise in sea levels might increase the chance that their house will be flooded in the coming years. But in practice, until climate science and mapping applications can live up to the site’s ambitions, it will remain very much in its testing phase.
At the beginning, the website will serve chiefly as a clearinghouse for climate science data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the United States Geological Survey, the Defense Department and NASA, according to Mr. Holdren and Mr. Podesta. The first batch of data will focus on coastal flooding and the rise in sea levels.
Average users will not be able to do much yet on their own. Instead, NASA and the NOAA will call on researchers and private companies to create software simulations illustrating the impact of sea level rise.
White House officials say they hope to help recreate the success of desktop and mobile apps and software that were built by private companies using government data, like on the real estate sites Trulia, Redfin and Zillow. Those apps use information from the Bureau of Labor Statistics and the Census Bureau to help families make more informed decisions about buying a house.
Robert M. Pestronk, executive director of the National Association of County and City Health Officials, said he hoped the new climate data tools would help municipal officials plan for climate change. “Local health officials are on the front lines of preparing for and addressing the health effects of climate change — from reduced air quality to extreme weather to climate-sensitive infectious disease like West Nile virus and Lyme disease,” he said.
The website, Mr. Pestronk said, “will provide valuable data to guide and support local health departments in their efforts to ensure the health and safety of people in their communities.”
But the research and projections on climate change are vastly more nuanced than simple housing, labor and census statistics. While a number of scientific reports have reached the consensus that carbon pollution from the burning of fossil fuels has warmed the planet — leading to a future of rising sea levels, melting land ice, an increase in the most damaging types of hurricanes, and drought in some places and deluges in others — scientists warn against trying to use that data to model precisely what will happen when.
“The essence of dealing with climate change is not so much about identifying specific impacts at a specific time in the future. It’s about managing risk,” Prof. Chris Field, the director of the department of global ecology at Stanford University, said in February.
“The thing that’s important about framing climate change as a risk is that it puts the emphasis where it should be. Not that a specific thing will happen at a certain time — some things are known, some things aren’t,” said Professor Field, an expert on earth sciences and a member of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, a group of scientists that regularly publishes reports on the state of climate science.
Professor Field pointed out that higher emission levels could lead to more intense warming in the coming decades, and thus higher sea levels, but lower pollution levels could lead to different results.
Mr. Obama hopes to make climate change a signature issue of his second term, and the Environmental Protection Agency is working on a pair of highly debated regulations that could cut emissions but would also shutter hundreds of coal-fired power plants, the chief cause of carbon pollution.
Republicans, who have already started to push back, have called the proposed rules a war on coal.
Since joining the White House in January, Mr. Podesta has taken on the uphill task of building a political case for the E.P.A. rules, both by defusing the opposition and building support for them by creating, among voters, an urgent sense that they are necessary. The website is the latest step in that strategy. This year, the White House unveiled a series of regional climate hubs, research centers aimed at highlighting the impacts of climate change on farmers and offering resources to help.
Mr. Podesta has his work cut out for him. Sixty-seven percent of Americans believe that global warming is occurring click: according to a Pew poll conducted in October 2013. But click: another Pew poll in January 2014 found that Americans prioritized global warming at No. 19 on a list of 20 issues for Congress and the president.
Source: NYT
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For everyone worldwide to know
“This is the dream of the future, solving energy”
Fusion,
the process that powers the sun - the cleaner future is close
Machinery of an Energy Dream
The Challenge: How to Keep Fusion Going Long Enough
Fusion (Physics) = a thermonuclear reaction in which nuclei of light atoms join to form nuclei of heavier atoms, as the combination of deuterium atoms to form helium atoms. Compare fission
Fission (Physics) = the splitting of the nucleus of an atom into nuclei of lighter atoms, accompanied by the release of energy. Compare fusionClick: Fissile material
Click green for further info
LIVERMORE, Calif. — Fusion, the process that powers the sun, is the forever dream of energy scientists — safe, nonpolluting and almost boundless. Even here at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, where the primary focus of fusion work involves nuclear weapons, many scientists talk poetically about how it could end the world’s addiction to fossil fuels.
“It’s the dream of the future, solving energy,” said Stephen E. Bodner, a retired physicist who worked on fusion at Livermore in the 1960s and ’70s, recalling that the military focus was basically a cover story, a way to keep government money flowing to the lab for energy research.
“Everyone was winking,” he said. “Everyone knew better.”
The basic concept behind fusion is simple: Squeeze hydrogen atoms hard enough and they fuse together in helium.
A helium atom weighs slightly less than the original hydrogen atoms, and by Einstein’s equation E = mc2, that liberated bit of mass turns into energy. Hydrogen is so abundant that unlike fossil fuels or fissionable material like uranium, it will never run out. But controlled fusion is still a dream, avidly pursued and perpetually out of reach. Scientists have never figured out a way to keep a fusion reaction going long enough to generate usable energy. The running joke is that “fusion is 30 years in the future — and always will be.”
Now, however, scientists here have given the world some hopeful progress. Last month, a team headed by Omar A. Hurricane announced that it had used Livermore’s giant lasers to fuse hydrogen atoms and produce flashes of energy, like miniature hydrogen bombs. The amount of energy produced was tiny — the equivalent of what a 60-watt light bulb consumes in five minutes. But that was five times the output of attempts a couple of years ago.
When a physicist named Hurricane generates significant bursts of fusion energy with 192 mega-lasers, the Twitterverse revels in the comic book possibilities.
“Wasn’t he in X-Men?” one person tweeted.
“Awesome science story, but there’s a zero percent chance that a fusion laser scientist named Dr. Hurricane isn’t a supervillain,” another chimed in.
Actually, Dr. Hurricane, 45, is more Clark Kent than superhero. Instead of saving the world, his ambition is to explore the scientific puzzle in front of him.
He said it was too early to speculate about future laser-fusion power plants, and tried to deflect credit to the more than 20 scientists on the team. “I don’t want it to be about me or my funny name,” he said.
The fusion reaction occurred at the National Ignition Facility, a Livermore project with a controversial and expensive history. After the United States ended underground nuclear testing in 1992, lab officials argued that some way was needed to verify that the weapons would work as computer models said they would. The National Nuclear Security Administration, part of the Department of Energy, agreed.
The key to the facility is its middle name — ignition. For simplistic government purposes, ignition was defined as a fusion reaction producing as much energy as the laser beams that hit it. To achieve that, an initial smidgen of fusion has to cascade to neighboring hydrogen atoms.
Continue reading the main story
The center of NIF is the target chamber, a metal sphere 33 feet wide with gleaming diagnostic equipment radiating outward. It looks like something from “Star Trek.” Indeed, it has been in “Star Trek,” doubling as the engine room of the Enterprise in last year’s “Star Trek Into Darkness” movie. (NIF’s vast banks of laser amplifiers also served as a backdrop for a starship commanded by a renegade Starfleet admiral.)
The laser complex fills a building with a footprint equal to three football fields. Each blast starts with a small laser pulse that is split via partly reflecting mirrors into 192, then bounced back and forth through laser amplifiers that fill a couple of warehouse-size rooms before the beams are focused into the target chamber, converging on a gold cylinder that is about the size and shape of a pencil eraser.
The laser beams enter at the top and bottom of the cylinder, their heat generating an intense bath of X-rays that rushes inward to compress a peppercorn-size pellet. The pellet contains a layer of carefully frozendeuterium and tritium, the heavier forms of hydrogen, and in a brief moment — about one ten-billionth of a second — the imploding atoms fuse together.
The scientists call it bang time.
Each shot is so short that the cost in electricity is just $5.
Livermore officials were confident enough that NIF would achieve ignition soon after it was turned on that they laid out a plan for building a demonstration power plant, called Laser Inertial Fusion Energy with the appealing acronym LIFE, technology they said could be ready for the world’s electrical grids by the 2030s.
Dr. Bodner, who had left Livermore in 1975 and set up a competing program at the Naval Research Laboratory, was a persistent critic of NIF. In 1995, he wrote a paper predicting that instabilities in the imploding gas would thwart ignition.
“Why did they go forward with something that failed almost immediately?” he said in an interview.
Dr. Bodner championed a different laser fusion concept that he believed would work far better for a power plant. The gold cylinder in Livermore’s design is inefficient. Not all of the laser energy is converted into X-rays; most of the X-rays miss the pellet. Only 0.5 percent of the laser energy reaches the fuel.
In Dr. Bodner’s designs, the lasers shine directly on the fuel pellets. That creates other technical difficulties, but Dr. Bodner said his team was able to show those could be overcome. He retired in 1999.
NIF began firing its lasers in 2009. A banner unfurled on the outside of the building proclaimed, “Bringing Star Power to Earth.” But for all of the technical wizardry, the first three years of bang time were largely a bust.
Livermore’s computer simulations had predicted robust implosions leading to ignition. Instead, each pellet released just a bit of energy. Livermore officials remained publicly confident. Edward Moses, then NIF’s director,told the journal Nature, “We have all the capability to make it happen in fiscal year 2012.”
It did not happen. The cost of building and operating NIF to date is $5.3 billion.
In stars like our sun, the immense gravity provides the squeeze that enables fusion. On earth, there are two main possibilities: powerful lasers to jam the hydrogen together, as at NIF, or magnetic fields to contain a hot hydrogen plasma until the atoms collide and fuse. Most fusion energy research has focused on the latter approach, particularly doughnut-shaped machines known as tokamaks.
From the 1970s to the mid-1990s, the amount of power produced by ever larger machines doubled every year, on average. In 1994, the Tokamak Fusion Test Reactor at Princeton generated 10.7 million watts of power for a brief moment. Three years later, the Joint European Torus in England topped that, at 16 million watts.But by then, without an immediate energy crisis, government financing of fusion research had dipped sharply.
The next step is a mammoth international collaboration known as Iter, originally an acronym for International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor, but now referring to the Latin for “the way.” Construction on Iter has begun in southern France, with the first operations expected to begin in the 2020s — if it comes together.
Under a byzantine, dispersed management structure, the partners in the project (the European Union, Japan, China, Russia, the United States, India and South Korea) agreed to contribute pieces of the reactor, with the central Iter organization attempting to coordinate. Click: A review criticized Iter’s management for delays and cost overruns.
Iter officials, however, say they are fixing the problems.
“This is a risk we consider well managed,” said Carlos Alejaldre, an Iter deputy director general.
General Atomics, a company in San Diego, is responsible for a main piece of the American contribution, a stack of huge magnetic coils at the center of Iter that will help control the shape of the hydrogen gas within the doughnut-shaped ring. The company has spent the past few years rounding up the machinery it will need to produce the seven coils, each more than 13 feet wide and weighing 120 tons. It will begin manufacturing a test coil this summer, and company officials say they are on track to finish production on schedule.
If Iter succeeds, a demonstration fusion power plant is to follow.
Tony S. Taylor, General Atomics’s vice president for magnetic fusion energy, started there in 1979. “I wanted to do something that was useful for the future of mankind,” he said. Back then, practical fusion power was expected to be 30 years away.
Thirty-five years later, Dr. Taylor, nearing retirement age, is still waiting. “It could have happened on that time scale,” he said. “What’s limiting our progress is funding.”
For most of his Livermore career, Dr. Hurricane worked in the classified shadows as a nuclear weapons designer. In 2009, he received a prestigious award for solving a mystery first recognized in the 1960s involving the physics of what happens inside nuclear bombs, although he still cannot say much about that.
“There was a discrepancy there,” he said, carefully choosing words. It was not a limitation of computer simulations but something more fundamental. “It was more mysterious,” he said. “We actually did resolve what the discrepancy was and understand the origin of the problem..”
With NIF’s failure at ignition, Dr. Hurricane was asked to take a fresh look. “The managers knew I just like solving problems,” he said. “And I don’t have any other ambition,” he joked.
In the rush to achieve ignition, the NIF scientists had used laser pulses that hit the fuel pellet as hard as possible, but the pellet was being ripped apart before fusion occurred. Dr. Hurricane adjusted the laser pulse to warm the gold cylinder initially. That reduced the implosion pressure, but calmed some of the instabilities, yielding a higher rate of fusion.
In September, Dr. Hurricane’s team had its first shot that showed signs of the fusion reaction spreading through the fuel.
“Now we at least have a sparking match,” said Jeff Wisoff, NIF’s acting director.
Since then, they have nudged up the energy by using cylinders of depleted uranium instead of gold, although the output is still considerably short of ignition.
But Dr. Hurricane is not aiming to solve the world’s energy problems.
“I actually don’t constrain myself personally with the practical applications at this point,” he said. “We don’t have to get a home run here.” In his baseball analogy, he said, he was looking to just get on base with singles and walks, and if enough small things work, then perhaps NIF will get to ignition.
Even then, practical fusion would still likely be decades away. NIF, at its quickest, fires once every few hours. The targets take weeks to build with artisan precision. A commercial laser fusion power plant would probably have to vaporize fuel pellets at a rate of 10 per second.
And if Dr. Bodner is right, the best approach is not even being pursued.
Click to see the pictures: Machinery of an Energy Dream
Source: New York Times Credit Jim Wilson/The New York Times ... powers the sun, is the forever dream of energy scientists — safe, nonpolluting and almost boundless.
____________
Future of Fusion, Cancer as Demon Baby, Laughing for Science 25:16 Play
Click green on the last line - if the link has expired go to NYT's website and find Podcasts
We look at how far nuclear fusion has come — and how far it has yet to go; contemplating the frightful parallels between a growing embryo and a runaway tumor; what is the science behind side-splitting, tear-inducing humor? Click: Subscribe to the Podcast » David Corcoran and Jeffery DelViscio
__________________________________________
“This is the dream of the future, solving energy”
Fusion,
the process that powers the sun - the cleaner future is close
Machinery of an Energy Dream
The Challenge: How to Keep Fusion Going Long Enough
Fusion (Physics) = a thermonuclear reaction in which nuclei of light atoms join to form nuclei of heavier atoms, as the combination of deuterium atoms to form helium atoms. Compare fission
Fission (Physics) = the splitting of the nucleus of an atom into nuclei of lighter atoms, accompanied by the release of energy. Compare fusionClick: Fissile material
Click green for further info
LIVERMORE, Calif. — Fusion, the process that powers the sun, is the forever dream of energy scientists — safe, nonpolluting and almost boundless. Even here at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, where the primary focus of fusion work involves nuclear weapons, many scientists talk poetically about how it could end the world’s addiction to fossil fuels.
“It’s the dream of the future, solving energy,” said Stephen E. Bodner, a retired physicist who worked on fusion at Livermore in the 1960s and ’70s, recalling that the military focus was basically a cover story, a way to keep government money flowing to the lab for energy research.
“Everyone was winking,” he said. “Everyone knew better.”
The basic concept behind fusion is simple: Squeeze hydrogen atoms hard enough and they fuse together in helium.
A helium atom weighs slightly less than the original hydrogen atoms, and by Einstein’s equation E = mc2, that liberated bit of mass turns into energy. Hydrogen is so abundant that unlike fossil fuels or fissionable material like uranium, it will never run out. But controlled fusion is still a dream, avidly pursued and perpetually out of reach. Scientists have never figured out a way to keep a fusion reaction going long enough to generate usable energy. The running joke is that “fusion is 30 years in the future — and always will be.”
Now, however, scientists here have given the world some hopeful progress. Last month, a team headed by Omar A. Hurricane announced that it had used Livermore’s giant lasers to fuse hydrogen atoms and produce flashes of energy, like miniature hydrogen bombs. The amount of energy produced was tiny — the equivalent of what a 60-watt light bulb consumes in five minutes. But that was five times the output of attempts a couple of years ago.
When a physicist named Hurricane generates significant bursts of fusion energy with 192 mega-lasers, the Twitterverse revels in the comic book possibilities.
“Wasn’t he in X-Men?” one person tweeted.
“Awesome science story, but there’s a zero percent chance that a fusion laser scientist named Dr. Hurricane isn’t a supervillain,” another chimed in.
Actually, Dr. Hurricane, 45, is more Clark Kent than superhero. Instead of saving the world, his ambition is to explore the scientific puzzle in front of him.
He said it was too early to speculate about future laser-fusion power plants, and tried to deflect credit to the more than 20 scientists on the team. “I don’t want it to be about me or my funny name,” he said.
The fusion reaction occurred at the National Ignition Facility, a Livermore project with a controversial and expensive history. After the United States ended underground nuclear testing in 1992, lab officials argued that some way was needed to verify that the weapons would work as computer models said they would. The National Nuclear Security Administration, part of the Department of Energy, agreed.
The key to the facility is its middle name — ignition. For simplistic government purposes, ignition was defined as a fusion reaction producing as much energy as the laser beams that hit it. To achieve that, an initial smidgen of fusion has to cascade to neighboring hydrogen atoms.
Continue reading the main story
The center of NIF is the target chamber, a metal sphere 33 feet wide with gleaming diagnostic equipment radiating outward. It looks like something from “Star Trek.” Indeed, it has been in “Star Trek,” doubling as the engine room of the Enterprise in last year’s “Star Trek Into Darkness” movie. (NIF’s vast banks of laser amplifiers also served as a backdrop for a starship commanded by a renegade Starfleet admiral.)
The laser complex fills a building with a footprint equal to three football fields. Each blast starts with a small laser pulse that is split via partly reflecting mirrors into 192, then bounced back and forth through laser amplifiers that fill a couple of warehouse-size rooms before the beams are focused into the target chamber, converging on a gold cylinder that is about the size and shape of a pencil eraser.
The laser beams enter at the top and bottom of the cylinder, their heat generating an intense bath of X-rays that rushes inward to compress a peppercorn-size pellet. The pellet contains a layer of carefully frozendeuterium and tritium, the heavier forms of hydrogen, and in a brief moment — about one ten-billionth of a second — the imploding atoms fuse together.
The scientists call it bang time.
Each shot is so short that the cost in electricity is just $5.
Livermore officials were confident enough that NIF would achieve ignition soon after it was turned on that they laid out a plan for building a demonstration power plant, called Laser Inertial Fusion Energy with the appealing acronym LIFE, technology they said could be ready for the world’s electrical grids by the 2030s.
Dr. Bodner, who had left Livermore in 1975 and set up a competing program at the Naval Research Laboratory, was a persistent critic of NIF. In 1995, he wrote a paper predicting that instabilities in the imploding gas would thwart ignition.
“Why did they go forward with something that failed almost immediately?” he said in an interview.
Dr. Bodner championed a different laser fusion concept that he believed would work far better for a power plant. The gold cylinder in Livermore’s design is inefficient. Not all of the laser energy is converted into X-rays; most of the X-rays miss the pellet. Only 0.5 percent of the laser energy reaches the fuel.
In Dr. Bodner’s designs, the lasers shine directly on the fuel pellets. That creates other technical difficulties, but Dr. Bodner said his team was able to show those could be overcome. He retired in 1999.
NIF began firing its lasers in 2009. A banner unfurled on the outside of the building proclaimed, “Bringing Star Power to Earth.” But for all of the technical wizardry, the first three years of bang time were largely a bust.
Livermore’s computer simulations had predicted robust implosions leading to ignition. Instead, each pellet released just a bit of energy. Livermore officials remained publicly confident. Edward Moses, then NIF’s director,told the journal Nature, “We have all the capability to make it happen in fiscal year 2012.”
It did not happen. The cost of building and operating NIF to date is $5.3 billion.
In stars like our sun, the immense gravity provides the squeeze that enables fusion. On earth, there are two main possibilities: powerful lasers to jam the hydrogen together, as at NIF, or magnetic fields to contain a hot hydrogen plasma until the atoms collide and fuse. Most fusion energy research has focused on the latter approach, particularly doughnut-shaped machines known as tokamaks.
From the 1970s to the mid-1990s, the amount of power produced by ever larger machines doubled every year, on average. In 1994, the Tokamak Fusion Test Reactor at Princeton generated 10.7 million watts of power for a brief moment. Three years later, the Joint European Torus in England topped that, at 16 million watts.But by then, without an immediate energy crisis, government financing of fusion research had dipped sharply.
The next step is a mammoth international collaboration known as Iter, originally an acronym for International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor, but now referring to the Latin for “the way.” Construction on Iter has begun in southern France, with the first operations expected to begin in the 2020s — if it comes together.
Under a byzantine, dispersed management structure, the partners in the project (the European Union, Japan, China, Russia, the United States, India and South Korea) agreed to contribute pieces of the reactor, with the central Iter organization attempting to coordinate. Click: A review criticized Iter’s management for delays and cost overruns.
Iter officials, however, say they are fixing the problems.
“This is a risk we consider well managed,” said Carlos Alejaldre, an Iter deputy director general.
General Atomics, a company in San Diego, is responsible for a main piece of the American contribution, a stack of huge magnetic coils at the center of Iter that will help control the shape of the hydrogen gas within the doughnut-shaped ring. The company has spent the past few years rounding up the machinery it will need to produce the seven coils, each more than 13 feet wide and weighing 120 tons. It will begin manufacturing a test coil this summer, and company officials say they are on track to finish production on schedule.
If Iter succeeds, a demonstration fusion power plant is to follow.
Tony S. Taylor, General Atomics’s vice president for magnetic fusion energy, started there in 1979. “I wanted to do something that was useful for the future of mankind,” he said. Back then, practical fusion power was expected to be 30 years away.
Thirty-five years later, Dr. Taylor, nearing retirement age, is still waiting. “It could have happened on that time scale,” he said. “What’s limiting our progress is funding.”
For most of his Livermore career, Dr. Hurricane worked in the classified shadows as a nuclear weapons designer. In 2009, he received a prestigious award for solving a mystery first recognized in the 1960s involving the physics of what happens inside nuclear bombs, although he still cannot say much about that.
“There was a discrepancy there,” he said, carefully choosing words. It was not a limitation of computer simulations but something more fundamental. “It was more mysterious,” he said. “We actually did resolve what the discrepancy was and understand the origin of the problem..”
With NIF’s failure at ignition, Dr. Hurricane was asked to take a fresh look. “The managers knew I just like solving problems,” he said. “And I don’t have any other ambition,” he joked.
In the rush to achieve ignition, the NIF scientists had used laser pulses that hit the fuel pellet as hard as possible, but the pellet was being ripped apart before fusion occurred. Dr. Hurricane adjusted the laser pulse to warm the gold cylinder initially. That reduced the implosion pressure, but calmed some of the instabilities, yielding a higher rate of fusion.
In September, Dr. Hurricane’s team had its first shot that showed signs of the fusion reaction spreading through the fuel.
“Now we at least have a sparking match,” said Jeff Wisoff, NIF’s acting director.
Since then, they have nudged up the energy by using cylinders of depleted uranium instead of gold, although the output is still considerably short of ignition.
But Dr. Hurricane is not aiming to solve the world’s energy problems.
“I actually don’t constrain myself personally with the practical applications at this point,” he said. “We don’t have to get a home run here.” In his baseball analogy, he said, he was looking to just get on base with singles and walks, and if enough small things work, then perhaps NIF will get to ignition.
Even then, practical fusion would still likely be decades away. NIF, at its quickest, fires once every few hours. The targets take weeks to build with artisan precision. A commercial laser fusion power plant would probably have to vaporize fuel pellets at a rate of 10 per second.
And if Dr. Bodner is right, the best approach is not even being pursued.
Click to see the pictures: Machinery of an Energy Dream
Source: New York Times Credit Jim Wilson/The New York Times ... powers the sun, is the forever dream of energy scientists — safe, nonpolluting and almost boundless.
____________
Future of Fusion, Cancer as Demon Baby, Laughing for Science 25:16 Play
Click green on the last line - if the link has expired go to NYT's website and find Podcasts
We look at how far nuclear fusion has come — and how far it has yet to go; contemplating the frightful parallels between a growing embryo and a runaway tumor; what is the science behind side-splitting, tear-inducing humor? Click: Subscribe to the Podcast » David Corcoran and Jeffery DelViscio
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Molecules Offer Cleaner,
Milder Way to Break Down Natural Gas
Source: Science Magazine
click: Science www.sciencemag.org/
Scientists have discovered inexpensive materials that can convert natural gas into useful chemicals under mild
conditions, a new study in the 14 March, 20014 issue of the journal Science reports. This approach may eventually
compete with technologies for generating the same chemicals from petroleum, a fossilfuel that emits a lot of
carbon dioxide into the atmosphere when it burns.
Like petroleum, natural gas is a fossilfuel that can be refined and separated into a number of widely-used
consumer products including paints, fuel and fertilizer. "Almost anything that can be made from petroleum can
be made from natural gas," explained Science co-author and Scripps Research Institute scientist Roy Periana.
Natural gas is a cleaner fuel than petroleum, however, emitting no soot or ash and less carbon dioxide when
burned. In a recent Science Live Chat, Environmental Defense Fund Chief Scientist Steve Hamburg
emphasized the benefit of burning natural gas over petroleum. "Compared to other fossilfuels, you get a lot
more work per molecule of carbon dioxide emitted into the air with natural gas," he said. "This is a real plus,
because if we have any hope of reducing climate change, we have to quickly, radically reduce the carbon
emissions from our economy, and natural gas is an important way to do this from the fossilfuels side."
Despite the cleaner status of natural gas and its availability, the current technology for converting it into
chemicals and fuels is very expensive. Thus, the United States and many other countries rely more heavily on
petroleum. It also requires multiple steps and temperatures in excess of 800 degrees Celsius. "If we could
utilize lower temperatures and create technology that generates these products in one step, not only would we
save billions of dollars but we would also reduce the carbon footprint of these essential processes," said
Periana. "It could change the petrochemical industry."
Unfortunately, the processes to convert natural gases in this way haven't been developed. "This is considered
one of the holy grails*) of chemistry," Periana explained.
Now, Periana and colleagues have identified new materials that can successfully break down natural gas into
its constituent goods at lower temperatures and with as few process steps as possible.
Roy Periana describes a pathway for cleaner natural gas products. | Video courtesy of The Scripps
Energy and Materials Center (SEMC) To see the videos:
Visit: click: AAAS - The World's Largest General Scientific Society
= AMERICAN ASSOCIATION FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE*) holy grail = a thing that is being earnestly pursued or sought after. E.g.:"profit has become the holy grail"
Origin for "holy grail: click: Holy Grail
_____________________________________________________
Milder Way to Break Down Natural Gas
Source: Science Magazine
click: Science www.sciencemag.org/
Scientists have discovered inexpensive materials that can convert natural gas into useful chemicals under mild
conditions, a new study in the 14 March, 20014 issue of the journal Science reports. This approach may eventually
compete with technologies for generating the same chemicals from petroleum, a fossilfuel that emits a lot of
carbon dioxide into the atmosphere when it burns.
Like petroleum, natural gas is a fossilfuel that can be refined and separated into a number of widely-used
consumer products including paints, fuel and fertilizer. "Almost anything that can be made from petroleum can
be made from natural gas," explained Science co-author and Scripps Research Institute scientist Roy Periana.
Natural gas is a cleaner fuel than petroleum, however, emitting no soot or ash and less carbon dioxide when
burned. In a recent Science Live Chat, Environmental Defense Fund Chief Scientist Steve Hamburg
emphasized the benefit of burning natural gas over petroleum. "Compared to other fossilfuels, you get a lot
more work per molecule of carbon dioxide emitted into the air with natural gas," he said. "This is a real plus,
because if we have any hope of reducing climate change, we have to quickly, radically reduce the carbon
emissions from our economy, and natural gas is an important way to do this from the fossilfuels side."
Despite the cleaner status of natural gas and its availability, the current technology for converting it into
chemicals and fuels is very expensive. Thus, the United States and many other countries rely more heavily on
petroleum. It also requires multiple steps and temperatures in excess of 800 degrees Celsius. "If we could
utilize lower temperatures and create technology that generates these products in one step, not only would we
save billions of dollars but we would also reduce the carbon footprint of these essential processes," said
Periana. "It could change the petrochemical industry."
Unfortunately, the processes to convert natural gases in this way haven't been developed. "This is considered
one of the holy grails*) of chemistry," Periana explained.
Now, Periana and colleagues have identified new materials that can successfully break down natural gas into
its constituent goods at lower temperatures and with as few process steps as possible.
Roy Periana describes a pathway for cleaner natural gas products. | Video courtesy of The Scripps
Energy and Materials Center (SEMC) To see the videos:
Visit: click: AAAS - The World's Largest General Scientific Society
= AMERICAN ASSOCIATION FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE*) holy grail = a thing that is being earnestly pursued or sought after. E.g.:"profit has become the holy grail"
Origin for "holy grail: click: Holy Grail
_____________________________________________________
Click the green title below to study the article & see the pictures
In case the link has expired search the New York Times with the green title
As Oil Floods Plains Towns,
Crime Pours In
With the new prosperity, soaring crime rates have come to places in Montana ...drawn to the region by the allure of easy money in the oil fields.
_____________________________________________________________________
Step Away From the Phone!
& Have a better life quality
Whenever Michael Carl, the fashion market director at Vanity Fair, goes out to dinner with friends,
he plays something called the “phone stack” game: Everyone places their phones in the middle of the table; whoever looks at their device before the check arrives picks up the tab. stack = a pile of objects
Brandon Holley, the former editor of Lucky magazine, had trouble ditching her iPhone when she got home from work.
So about six months ago, she began tossing her phone into a vintage milk tin (= a metal container) the moment she walked in. It remains there until after dinner.
And Marc Jacobs, the fashion designer, didn’t want to sleep next to a beeping gizmo (= a mechanical device or part whose name is forgotten or unknown; a gadget).
So he banned digital devices from his bedroom, a house rule he shared with audiences during a recent screening of “Disconnect,” a film that dramatizes how technology has alienated people from one other.
As smartphones continue to burrow their way into our lives, and wearable devices like Google Glass threaten to erode our personal space even further, overtaxed users are carving out their own device-free zones with ad hoc tricks and life hacks. (1) for "ad hoc tricks" click: Fallacies: Ad Hoc Explanations, Causes, and Rationalization
(2) life hack = a strategy or technique adopted in order to manage one's time and daily activities in a more efficient way
Whether it’s a physical barrier (no iPads at the dinner table) or a conceptual (= mental, abstract) one (turn off devices by 11 p.m.), users say these weaning techniques are improving their relationships — and their sanity.
“Disconnecting is a luxury that we all need,” said Lesley M. M. Blume, a New York writer who keeps her phone away from the dinner table at home. “The expectation that we must always be available to employers, colleagues, family: it creates a real obstacle in trying to set aside private time. But that private time is more important than ever.”
Much of the digital detoxing is centered on the home, where urgent e-mails from co-workers, texts from friends, Instagram photos from acquaintances and YOLO*) updates on Facebook conspire to upend domestic tranquility.
yolo = abbreviation for "you only live once" = the dumbass's (= stupid; brainless) excuse for something stupid that they did, e.g.: Guy 1: "Hey I heard u got that girl pregnant" Dumbass 1: " Ya man but hey YOLO"; Another common one: LOL = laugh out loud
A popular tactic is to designate a kind of cellphone lockbox, like the milk tin that Ms. Holley uses. “If my phone is buzzing or lighting up, it’s still a distraction, so it goes in the box,” said Ms. Holley, who lives in a row house in Red Hook, Brooklyn, with her son, Smith, and husband, John. “It’s not something I want my kid to see.”
An empty fishbowl, which sits on a dining room credenza, serves a similar function for Jaime David, a publicist at the Starworks Group in New York, except there are consequences for violators. “If someone picks up the phone between 6:30 and 8:30 p.m. without a really good reason, they are tasked with getting our son to bed,” said Ms. David, who lives in Maplewood, N.J., with her husband, Jon, and two sons, Milo, 4, and Jack, 10 months.
Others assign a digital curfew. “No screens after 10 p.m.,” said Ari Melber, a host of MSNBC’s click: “The Cycle,” who lives in a walk-up apartment in Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn, with his fiancée, Drew Grant, a pop culture reporter at The New York Observer. The rule was instituted in January, after a vacation in Honduras where the couple found themselves without Internet access and ultimately happy about it.
“We found the evenings were more relaxing, and we were sleeping better,” Mr. Melber said.
Sleep is a big factor, which is why some, like Mr. Jacobs, draw the gadget-free line at the bedroom. “I don’t want to sleep next to something that is a charged ball of information with photos and e-mails,” said Peter Som, the fashion designer, who keeps his phone plugged in in the living room overnight. “It definitely is a head-clearer and delineates (= describe or portray (something) precisely) daytime and sleep time.”
Households with young children are especially mindful about being overconnected, with parents sensitive to how children may imitate bad habits.
Rebecca Minkoff, a fashion designer, makes a point of turning off the ringers and leaving her two phones on the opposite end of her Dumbo apartment when she plays with her 2-year-old son, Luca. “It isn’t easy, but I do my best to make the few hours I have with my son cellphone-free until he goes to sleep,” Ms. Minkoff said.
Other parents regard dinnertime as sacrosanct*). “It’s a nice break for me when all of us can unplug,” said Josh Pickard, an owner of the restaurants Locanda Verde, Lafayette and the Dutch, who forbids his two teenage children, Lotte, 17, and Jack, 13, from bringing their multiple devices to the dinner table. “ I can just be in one place in one moment.”
*) sacrosanct = regarded as too important or valuable to be interfered with), e.g.: "the individual's right to work has been upheld as sacrosanct; synonyms: sacred, untouchable, respected)
But it’s not just inside the home where users are weaning themselves from the habit. Cellphone overusers are making efforts to disconnect in social settings, whether at the behest*) of the host or in the form of friendly competition.
*) behest = a person's orders or command, instruction, requirement, demand, insistence, bidding, request, wish
The phone-stack game is a lighthearted way for friends to police against define boorish (= rough and bad-mannered)
behavior when eating out. The game gained popularity last year after Brian Perez, a dancer in Los Angeles, posted the idea on his Tumblr page. It has since spawned numerous blog posts and an entry on Urban Dictionary, and is searchable as the hashtag #phonestack on Instagram (definition, see at the end of this article) (though not during dinner, of course).
Of course, one could simply not bring a phone into the restaurant in the first place.
Scott Stratten, the author of “UnMarketing,” a book about engaging consumers via social media, leaves his phone in the car whenever he goes out to eat with his 12-year-old son, Owen. “He has full authority to tell me to put it away during any ‘us’ time,” Mr. Stratten said.
To keep guests from texting under the table, some party hosts are banning devices outright.
Peter Davis, the editor of Scene magazine, recently attended a dinner party for about 12 at a West Village home where the host offered to check guests’ phones and put them in a bowl. While most balked, Mr. Davis said that guests did manage to stay off their phones during the dinner.
“It was a hint not to be on your phone,” he said. “Unless you work in the E.R. or you’re a doctor on call, no one really needs to be on their phone.”
Bans on digital devices seem to be more strictly enforced when a famous person is in attendance, and the host wants to keep a private moment from becoming public fodder on Facebook or YouTube.
Guests invited to Hamish Bowles’s birthday party in June, hosted by Anna Wintour in her Mastic, N.Y., weekend home, received a call from Ms. Wintour’s office asking them to refrain from posting messages on Twitter or Instagram about the party. And when Anderson Cooper held a birthday party in May at Eastern Bloc in the East Village, the invitation reportedly said “no cameras, no plus ones.”
Mindy Weiss, a party planner in New York and Los Angeles who specializes in celebrity events, said cellphone bans are becoming a new normal “on the high-profile end.” She advises hosts to explain the cellphone rules in the invitation, have clear signs at the party and, when possible, carve out a special area for important calls — like a smoking area for those who need to check in with the baby sitter.
Bronson van Wyck, a party planner in New York, fights technology with technology. “There are ways to make a venue a cellphone- and social-media-free zone,” he said, though he wouldn’t specify his exact methods.
But maybe the best way to curb cellphone overuse is by preying on people’s social insecurities. In some circles, being inaccessible is a status symbol.
“Public cellphone use has reached an uncivilized fever pitch, so now it’s chicer behavior to exempt yourself from that,” Ms. Blume said. “You’re not answerable 24/7, and that’s a powerful and luxurious statement.”
Definitions from the article above
Instagram is an online photo-sharing, video-sharing and social networking service that enables its users to take pictures and videos, apply digital filters to them, and share them on a variety of social networking services, such as Facebook, Twitter,Tumblr and Flickr. A distinctive feature is that it confines photos to a square shape, similar to Kodak Instamatic and Polaroid images, in contrast to the 16:9 aspect ratio now typically used by mobile device cameras.
Hashtag (on social media sites such as Twitter) a word or phrase preceded by a hash or pound sign (#) and used to identify messages on a specific topic." Spammers often broadcast tweets with popular hashtags even if the tweet has nothing to do with them"
Source: NY
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A more important article than it looks - for everyone - Avoid serious sicknesses
Repeated studies show what accumulates on your mobile device
is germy nastiness worse than what is on the bottom of your shoe
Article 1 of 2
(Article 2 of 2 link at the end of this article)
Cleaning the Mobile Germ Warehouse
Click green for further info
Take a look at your mobile device. Do you see oily fingerprints and lint on the touch screen? Dust and crumbs forming particulate frost in the corners? Is that a hair stuck at the screen’s edge?
Because our electronics are constantly within our grubby grasp, they can get pretty gross. They are taken into public restrooms, handed to runny-nosed toddlers, passed around to share photos and pressed against sweaty skin in gyms. Repeated studies show what accumulates is germy nastiness worse than what is on the bottom of your shoe.
“That devices can be a source of disease transmission is not a subject of debate anymore,” said Dr. Dubert Guerrero, an infectious disease specialist at Sanford Health in Fargo, N.D., and co-author of a study about the persistence of bacteria on iPads published in The click for the study: American Journal of Infection Control.
So it is a good idea to keep your devices clean, not only to keep from getting sick but also to maintain resale value when it’s time to upgrade. Companies like Best Buy, Target, Gazelle, Amazon, Verizon and AT&T all offer trade-in or cash-back programs, said Derek Meister, a technician for the Geek Squad, Best Buy’s repair and online support service.
“People don’t want any marks or grime on their devices,” Mr. Meister said, because like trading in a used car at a dealership, “the better the condition, the more like new it is, the more money you get on your trade-in.”
A word of warning: Cleaning your device can be tricky, since you don’t want to damage it and manufacturers don’t give you much guidance. It can be done, however, if you’re careful and conscientious.
Dr. Guerrero and his colleagues found that regularly wiping down your device with a moist microfiber cloth was sufficient to eliminate many kinds of common bacteria. More enduring and dangerous bacteria like clostridium difficile (which can cause diarrhea or even inflammation of the colon) and flu viruses may require a sterilizing agent like bleach or alcohol, he said. click: C. difficile
This is a problem, since Apple on its website officially warns against using “window cleaners, household cleaners, aerosol sprays, solvents, alcohol, ammonia or abrasives” to clean its products and advises instead to “simply wipe the screen with a soft, lint-free cloth to remove oil left by your hands.” Other manufacturers offer similar advice or none at all.
And yet, in the Apple Store, you’ll find the 32-percent isopropyl alcohol Clens wipes by Bausch & Lomb. Apple declined to explain the contradiction. Nevertheless, the wipes work great at cleaning grime, muck and marks off your device and they also disinfect. A Clens kit that includes three Clens wipes, a 3-ounce bottle of Clens cleaning spray and a cleaning cloth costs about $20.
But it’s far cheaper to make your own alcohol and water solution. To clean his own mobile devices, Mr. Meister at the Geek Squad said he used a 1:1 ratio of 70 percent isopropyl alcohol and distilled water, which together cost less than $4 at most grocery and drugstores. “You want distilled water and purer alcohol so there are fewer chemicals or minerals left behind when the solution evaporates,” he said.
Fill a spray bottle with the diluted alcohol, lightly moisten a lint-free, preferably microfiber, cloth (no paper towels) and gently wipe down the screen and case. Never spray directly onto the device. To clean corners and around ports, use lint-free foam rather than cotton Q-tips.
If you’re supergermophobic, you might consider purchasing an ultraviolet sanitizer. Violife makes a $50 cellphone sanitizer about the size of a coffee can. Just pop your phone into the dock and replace the lid for ultraviolet light to zap pathogens. Verilux sells a $40 sanitizing wand, which the company claims kills up to 99 percent of germs when waved over your electronics. This won’t improve the look of your device or maximize value at trade-in but it might spare you the sniffles or worse during cold and flu season.
Using a can of compressed air to blow around ports and between keys, on the other hand, will help maintain the look, performance and value of your device. This gets rid of dust and particles that can infiltrate and damage electronics. Another option is to buy a specialized air compressor like the DataVac Electric Duster, which lists for $100 and comes with all sorts of little attachments for cleaning out your devices’ crevices and seams.
“An air compressor gets things really clean and it’s environmentally good because you don’t have a little can to throw away after blowing air,” said Miroslav Djuric, chief information architect at ifixit.com, an online do-it-yourself community. He uses an all-purpose compressor he bought at Home Depot and fitted with an inflating needle (the kind used to inflate a basketball or a bike tire) to precisely direct the air flow.
To repel germs, grease and pet hair from your laptop, there are antimicrobial and protective keyboard, trackpad and palm rest covers that are nearly invisible and washable. Moshi, NewerTech, iSkin and Protect Computer Products all make these covers for less than $30.
“We get so many computers damaged from kids spilling things on them,” said David Bensinger, owner of The Little Laptop Shop in Manhattan. “At least people say it was their kids when they drop the computers off.”
Washable screen protectors for laptops, tablets and smartphones are available from manufacturers such as Boxwave, BodyGuardz, iSmooth and Moshi at a cost of $5 to $40, depending on the size. They are easy to apply and reapply without unsightly bubbles or impaired visibility or functionality of touch screens.
Similarly, Ultra-Sleeves and Chef Sleeves are clear, hygienic and protective iPad and tablet covers. They enclose the entire device and are disposable. They are intended for people working in health care, construction, industrial or restaurant settings. These covers are also ideal for those who might have to share their devices with multiple people during the course of the day, like teachers or salespeople. A pack of 10 costs about $12.
It’s up to you how obsessively you want to clean your mobile devices, but health and electronics experts advise wiping down your mobile device with a moist microfiber cloth at least daily for basic sanitation and upkeep.
Like your toothbrush, “your mobile device is something you want to clean regularly,” said Dr. Guerrero, the infectious disease specialist. And it is probably not something you want to pass around the table.
Click green for further info
Article 2 of 2 The Study
click: American Journal of Infection Control
In case the above link has expired, search the web with this title:
Disinfection of iPad to reduce contamination with Clostridium diff
And click there on left hand corner (down) Full Text
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Wi-Fi Kills Plants, Could Harm Kids
—But Can Be Harnessed for Energy
Wi-Fi can now be harnessed and converted into energy; the health effects of the ubiquitous signals are still a cause for concern among many.
A high school project threw oil on the burning international debate about the adverse health and environmental effects of Wi-Fi radiation.
After 12 days of Wi-Fi radiation from two routers, garden cress seeds turned out stunted, dead, or mutated (showing genetic defects not present before the trial). By contrast, a control group of 200 seeds with the same conditions but no Wi-Fi radiation flourished. The study was conducted by students at Hjallerup high school in Denmark and made headlines in May.
As the experiment was conducted by high school students and not professional scientists, it cannot be considered scientific proof, noted Danish journalist Mathias Bohn in an email to the Epoch Times.
Bohn, who wrote about the experiment for Danish publication DR Nyheder, said, “The results do, however, demonstrate a great deal of internal consistency.” He also said, “The pupils have, to the fullest extent possible with the resources available at this educational level, designed the experiment to study only one variable.”
A top European expert on the subject, neuroscience professor Olle Johanssen at the Karolinska Institute in Sweden, will likely soon repeat the experiment, Bohn said.
In 2009, Austrian Health insurance company AUVA AUVA - Allgemeine Unfallversicherung
released a study linking Wi-Fi to adverse health effects, including cancer, reduced fertility, decreased ability to concentrate, and disturbed sleep. AUVA showed radiation levels well below the standard limits could impact the central nervous system, immune system, and protein synthesis.
The effects mostly occur in metabolically active cells (growing cells), which means children are at a higher risk.
The body uses electromagnetic signals to communicate between cells, organs and tissues. The radiation overlaps and interferes with the body’s internal communication, hence the havoc.
Many schools worldwide have adopted anti-Wi-Fi policies, and many countries—France, Canada, and India, for example—and have adopted anti-Wi-Fi measures and laws. The European Union passed an anti-WIFI resolution in May 2011.
WiFi was not tested before its release in 1997, because it uses an unlicensed part of the radio spectrum. Back then, radiation safety regulations focused only on thermal radiation effects, according to electromagnetic-pollution.com. So Wi-Fi was deemed safe since it did not exceeded radiation levels that result in thermal heating.
In the United States, the highest level of radiation allowed for cellular phones is 1.6 watts per kilogram. The AUVA report showed, however, that damage can occur at a level of 0.1 watts per kilogram.
If you want to limit your child’s exposure to Wi-Fi, you can use the WIFI auto turn off app (Apple users only), or switch off Wi-Fi altogether.
On Nov. 7, Duke University released its five-cell meta-material array, a device that collects Wi-Fi radiation and converts it into electricity.
It works sort of like a solar cell and can be used to recharge cell phone batteries or other small electronic devices. The array is built from inexpensive materials—fiberglass and copper energy conductors on a circuit board. It can also be used to harness energy from satellite signals and sound signals.
The ability to harness these waves could be built into cell phones to help them charge wirelessly; it could be built into the ceiling of a room to capture Wi-Fi waves and convert them into energy.
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Source: The Epoch Times - STAF, Inc. endorses The Epoch Times
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Something big is happening with the computers
Computers have entered the age
when they are able to learn from their own mistakes,
a development that is about to turn the digital world on its head
Brainlike Computers, Learning From Experience
Date: January 2014
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Computers have entered the age when they are able to learn from their own mistakes, a development that is about to turn the digital world on its head.
The first commercial version of the new kind of computer chip is scheduled to be released in 2014. Not only can it automate tasks that now require painstaking programming — for example, moving a robot’s arm smoothly and efficiently — but it can also sidestep and even tolerate errors, potentially making the term “computer crash” obsolete.
The new computing approach, already in use by some large technology companies, is based on the biological nervous system, specifically on how neurons react to stimuli and connect with other neurons to interpret information. It allows computers to absorb new information while carrying out a task, and adjust what they do based on the changing signals.
In coming years, the approach will make possible a new generation of artificial intelligence systems that will perform some functions that humans do with ease: see, speak, listen, navigate, manipulate and control. That can hold enormous consequences for tasks like facial and speech recognition, navigation and planning, which are still in elementary stages and rely heavily on human programming.
Designers say the computing style can clear the way for robots that can safely walk and drive in the physical world, though a thinking or conscious computer, a staple of science fiction, is still far off on the digital horizon.
“We’re moving from engineering computing systems to something that has many of the characteristics of biological computing,” said click: Larry Smarr, an astrophysicist click: Astrophysics who directs click: the California Institute for Telecommunications and Information Technology, one of many research centers devoted to developing these new kinds of computer circuits.
Conventional computers are limited by what they have been programmed to do. Computer vision systems, for example, only “recognize” objects that can be identified by the statistics-oriented algorithms programmed into them. An algorithm is like a recipe, a set of step-by-step instructions to perform a calculation.
But last year, Google researchers were able to get a machine-learning algorithm, known as a neural network, to perform an identification task without supervision. The network scanned a database of 10 million images, and in doing so trained itself to recognize cats.
In June 2013, the company click: said it had used those neural network techniques to develop a new search service to help customers find specific photos more accurately.
The new approach, used in both hardware and software, is being driven by the explosion of scientific knowledge about the brain. click: Kwabena Boahen, a computer scientist who leads Stanford’s click: Brains in Silicon research program, said that is also its limitation, as scientists are far from fully understanding how brains function.
“We have no clue,” he said. “I’m an engineer, and I build things. There are these highfalutin theories, but give me one that will let me build something.”
Until now, the design of computers was dictated by ideas originated by the mathematician
click: John von Neumann about 65 years ago. Microprocessors perform operations at lightning speed, following instructions programmed using long strings of 1s and 0s. They generally store that information separately in what is known, colloquially, as memory, either in the processor itself, in adjacent storage chips or in higher capacity magnetic disk drives.
The data — for instance, temperatures for a climate model or letters for word processing — are shuttled in and out of the processor’s short-term memory while the computer carries out the programmed action. The result is then moved to its main memory.
The new processors consist of electronic components that can be connected by wires that mimic biological synapses. Because they are based on large groups of neuron-like elements, they are known as neuromorphic processors, a term credited to the California Institute of Technology physicist Carver Mead, who pioneered the concept in the late 1980s.
They are not “programmed.” Rather the connections between the circuits are “weighted” according to correlations in data that the processor has already “learned.” Those weights are then altered as data flows in to the chip, causing them to change their values and to “spike.” That generates a signal that travels to other components and, in reaction, changes the neural network, in essence programming the next actions much the same way that information alters human thoughts and actions.
“Instead of bringing data to computation as we do today, we can now bring computation to data,”
said click: Dharmendra Modha, an I.B.M. computer scientist who leads the company’s cognitive computing research effort. “Sensors become the computer, and it opens up a new way to use computer chips that can be everywhere.”
The new computers, which are still based on silicon chips, will not replace today’s computers, but will augment them, at least for now. Many computer designers see them as coprocessors, meaning they can work in tandem with other circuits that can be embedded in smartphones and in the giant centralized computers that make up the cloud. Modern computers already consist of a variety of coprocessors that perform specialized tasks, like producing graphics on your cellphone and converting visual, audio and other data for your laptop.
One great advantage of the new approach is its ability to tolerate glitches. Traditional computers are precise, but they cannot work around the failure of even a single transistor. With the biological designs, the algorithms are ever changing, allowing the system to continuously adapt and work around failures to complete tasks.
Traditional computers are also remarkably energy inefficient, especially when compared to actual brains, which the new neurons are built to mimic.
I.B.M. announced last year that it had built a supercomputer simulation of the brain that encompassed roughly 10 billion neurons — more than 10 percent of a human brain. It ran about 1,500 times more slowly than an actual brain. Further, it required several megawatts of power, compared with just 20 watts of power used by the biological brain.
Running the program, known as Compass, which attempts to simulate a brain, at the speed of a human brain would require a flow of electricity in a conventional computer that is equivalent to what is needed to power both San Francisco and New York, Dr. Modha said.
I.B.M. and Qualcomm, as well as the Stanford research team, have already designed neuromorphic processors, and Qualcomm has said that it is coming out in 2014 with a commercial version, which is expected to be used largely for further development. Moreover, many universities are now focused on this new style of computing. This fall the National Science Foundation click: nsf.gov financed the click: Center for Brains, Minds and Machines, a new research center based at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, with Harvard and Cornell.
The largest class on campus this fall at Stanford was a graduate level machine-learning course covering both statistical and biological approaches, taught by the computer scientist click: Andrew Ng. More than 760 students enrolled. “That reflects the zeitgeist,” said click: Terry Sejnowski, a computational neuroscientist at the Salk Institute
click: Salk Institute, who pioneered early biologically inspired algorithms. “Everyone knows there is something big happening, and they’re trying find out what it is.”
Click: Images for Brainlike Computers
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Source: (1) Internet News, (2) NYT
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90 Companies Produce Two-Thirds
of Global Carbon Emissions
Date November 2013
9 (nine) of them are government-run coal/oil producers
6 (six) are state-run coal/oil producers
Of all these 90 co's: their CEO's or ministers of coal and oil
could all fit 1 or 2 Greyhound buses
Shame - Shame - Shame - BIG SHAME
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New research suggests just 90 companies are responsible for 63 percent of all greenhouse gas emissions from 1751 to 2010—most of them public companies producing oil, gas, or coal.
The report, published in the journal Nature Climatic Change, says nine are government-run coal producers, 31 are state-owned, and 50 are investor-owned companies. The list includes big names like Chevron Corp., Exxon Mobil Corp., Royal Dutch Shell Plc., British Coal Corp.
*) click: Journal home : Nature Climate Changwww.nature.com/nclimate/
“There are thousands of oil, gas, and coal producers in the world,” said the report author Richard Heede at the Climate Accountability Institute in Colorado. “But the decisionmakers, the CEOs, or the ministers of coal and oil if you narrow it down to just one person, they could all fit on a Greyhound bus or two.”
Half of the total estimated emissions were produced in the last 25 years, according to the report, well after greenhouse gas emissions were linked to climate change.
Researchers Call for Policy Change
A handful of other studies have recently been published. Oxford University climate scientist Myles Allen’s study, published Thursday, says reducing carbon emissions is more urgent than previously thought.
“I am hoping this message is getting through,” climate scientist Allen told NBC News. “I am worried it may not.”
Another recent report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change revealed in September 2013 the world has already emitted more than half the carbon maximally possible to contain warming at 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit.
IPCC - Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Changewww.ipcc.ch/The IPCC assesses the scientific, technical and sosio-economic information relevant for the understanding of the risk of human-induced climate change.Publications and Data - IPCC Fourth Assessment Report - Links - Contact
The reports come as the United Nations is meeting in Warsaw for its convention on climate change—an ongoing discussion since 1992.
The goal of the convention is to come to an agreement for emission reductions to be signed in Paris 2015 and to go into effect 2020. The meetings began Nov. 11, 2013 and will continue through Nov. 22/2013
Green groups walked out Thursday in protest and frustration with the lack of progress and ambition in negotiations.
Hoda Baraka of 350.org**) discussed the walkout with RTCC (Responding to Climate Change) at the convention, saying the lobbyists have made it “flagrantly obvious” the discussion would go nowhere. “The fossil fuel industry could very well be said to be the hosts [of the convention],” Baraka said.
RTCC - Climate change news, comments and analysiswww.rtcc.org/Latest climate change and biodiversity news, comments and analysis. ... RTCC -Responding to Climate Change 2013. Privacy Policy | Terms and Conditions ...About us RTCC (Responding to Climate Change) is a news and analysis ...
**)350 means safety from the climate crisis. To preserve our planet, scientists tell us we must reduce the amount of CO2***) in the atmosphere from its current level of 400 parts per million ("ppm")to below 350 ppm. But 350 is more than a number—it's a symbol of where we need to head as a planet.
At 350.org, we're building a global grassroots movement to solve the climate crisis and push for policies that will put the world on track to get to 350 ppm.
Join In by Signing Up >>Read more about the science behind 350.
***) Carbon dioxide - Wikipedia
Tags: carbon emissions climate change United Nations
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Source: The journal Climatic Change
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Growing Clamor About Inequities of Climate Crisis
to clamor = shout loudly and insistently clamor = loud noise
Restitution demanded
restitution = compensation, repair
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WARSAW — Following a devastating typhoon that killed thousands in the Philippines, a routine international climate change conference here turned into an emotional forum, with developing countries demanding compensation from the worst polluting countries for damage they say they are already suffering.
Calling the climate crisis “madness,” the Philippines representative vowed to fast for the duration of the talks. Malia Talakai, a negotiator for the Alliance of Small Island States, a group that includes her tiny South Pacific homeland, Nauru, said that without urgent action to stem rising sea levels, “some of our members won’t be around.”
Click: Alliance of Small Island States – AOSIS
From the time a scientific consensus emerged that human activity was changing the climate, it has been understood that the nations that contributed least to the problem would be hurt the most. Now, even as the possible consequences of climate change have surged — from the typhoons that have raked the Philippines and India this year to the droughts in Africa, to rising sea levels that threaten to submerge entire island nations — no consensus has emerged over how to rectify what many call “climate injustice.”
Growing demands to address the issue have become an emotionally charged flash point at negotiations here at the 19th conference of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change
At a news briefing here, Farah Kabir, the director in Bangladesh for the anti-poverty organization ActionAid International, click: ActionAid International | ActionAidwww.actionaid.org/ ActionAid's vision is a world without poverty in which every person can exercise their right to a life of dignity.
described that country as a relatively small piece of land “with a population of 160 million, trying to cope with this extreme weather, trying to cope with the effect of emissions for which we are not responsible.”
With expectations low for progress here on a treaty to replace the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, Kyoto Protocol - United Nations
widely seen as having failed to make a dent in worldwide carbon emissions, some nations were losing patience with decades of endless climate talks, particularly those who see rising oceans as a threat to their existence.
“We are at these climate conferences essentially moving chess figures across the board without ever being able to bring these negotiations to a conclusion,” Achim Steiner, executive director of the United Nations Environment Program, said in a telephone interview.
United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) - Home pagewww.unep.org/the united nations environment programme (UNEP) is the voice for the environment in the united nations system. it is an advocate, educator, catalyst and ...
Although the divide between rich and poor nations has bedeviled international climate talks for two decades, the debate over how to address the disproportionate effects has steadily gained momentum. Poor nations here are pressing for a new effort that goes beyond reducing emissions and adapting to a changing climate.
While they have no legal means to seek compensation, they have demanded concrete efforts to address the “loss and damage” that the most vulnerable nations will almost certainly face — the result of fragile environments and structures, and limited resources to respond.
The sheer magnitude and complexity of the issue make such compensation unlikely. The notion of seeking justice for a global catastrophe that affects almost every country — with enormous implications for economic development — is not only immensely complicated but also politically daunting.
It assumes the culpability of the world’s most developed nations, including the United States and those in Europe, and implies a moral responsibility to bear the costs, even as those same nations seek to draft a new treaty over the next two years that would for the first time compel reductions by rapidly emerging nations like China and India. As a group, developing countries will within a decade have accounted for more than half of all historical emissions, making them responsible for a large share of the continuing impact humanity will make, if not the impact already made.
Assigning liability for specific events — like Typhoon Haiyan, which struck the Philippines with winds of at least 140 miles an hour, making it one of the strongest storms on record — is nearly impossible. It can take scientists years just to determine whether global warming contributed to the severity of a particular weather event, if it can be determined at all.
Many negotiators here have pressed to create a new mechanism that effectively accepts the idea that the results of climate change are irreversible and that the countries that are hit hardest first must be compensated.
“We’ve reached a stage where we cannot adapt anymore,” said Ronald Jumeau, the United Nations representative for the Seychelles, who is his country’s chief negotiator here. He noted the devastating effects not only of extreme storm events, but also of creeping desertification, salinization and erosion that could result in financial losses and even territorial issues that the modern world has never had to face.
“This is new,” he said. “This is like, ‘The Martians are landing!’ What do you do?”
John Kioli, the chairman of the Kenya Climate Change Working Group, a consortium of nongovernmental organizations, called climate change his country’s “biggest enemy.” Kenya, which straddles the Equator, faces some of the biggest challenges from rising temperatures. Arable land is disappearing and diseases like malaria are appearing in highland areas where they had never been seen before.*) click: Kenya Climate Change Working Group
Developed countries, Mr. Kioli said, have a moral obligation to shoulder the cost, considering the amount of pollution they have emitted since the Industrial Revolution. “If developed countries are reasonable enough, they are able to understand that they have some responsibility,” he said.
How to compensate those nations hardest hit by climate changes remains divisive, even among advocates for such action. Some have argued that wealthy countries need to create a huge pool of money to help poorer countries recover from seemingly inevitable losses of the tangible and intangible, like destroyed traditions.
Mr. Jumeau noted that Congress allocated $60 billion just to rebuild from one storm, Hurricane Sandy, compared with the $100 billion a year that advocates hope to see pledged to a Green Climate Fund by all nations. The fund, intended to help poorer countries reduce emissions and prepare for climate changes, has remained little more than an organizing principle since its creation in 2010, its fund-raising goals unmet.
Others have suggested a sort of insurance program.
The United States and other rich countries have made their opposition to large-scale compensation clear. Todd D. Stern, the State Department’s envoy on climate issues, bluntly told a gathering at Chatham House in London
Chatham House: Independent thinking on international affairs |www.chathamhouse.org/Home of the Royal Institute of International Affairs, Chatham House is an independent policy institute based in London. A source of independent analysis and last month that large-scale resources from the world’s richest nations would not be forthcoming.
“The fiscal reality of the United States and other developed countries is not going to allow it,” he said. “This is not just a matter of the recent financial crisis. It is structural, based on the huge obligations we face from aging populations and other pressing needs for infrastructure, education, health care and the like. We must and will strive to keep increasing our climate finance, but it is important that all of us see the world as it is.”
Appeals to rectify the injustice of climate change, he added, will backfire. “Lectures about compensation, reparations and the like will produce nothing but antipathy among developed country policy makers and their publics,” he said.
Juan Pablo Hoffmaister Patiño, a Bolivian who represents the alliance of developing nations known as the Group of 77 and China, said the issue was not so much about assigning culpability for the looming climate disaster as doing something to help those nations hardest hit.
“Trying to assign the blame is something that even scientifically could take us a very long time, and the challenges and problems are actually happening now,” he said in an interview here. “And we need to begin addressing them now rather than identifying who is guilty and to what degree. We can’t make this issue hostage to finding the responsible ones or not.”
Meanwhile, global emissions continue to rise. A report this month by the United Nations Environment Program warned that immediate action must be taken to reduce emissions enough to limit the rise in average global temperatures to 2 degrees Celsius, or 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit, above preindustrial levels. That is the maximum warming that many scientists believe can occur without causing potentially catastrophic climate change.
The current global turbulence, consistent with what scientists expect to happen as the climate changes, is already taking a toll.
As the hundreds of diplomats and advocates assembled for talks here, Justus Lavi was waiting for rain in Kenya. The wheat, beans and potatoes he planted on his farm in Makueni County sprouted, but the rainy season brought only two days of showers, threatening to ruin his yield.
In northern Somalia, Nimcaan Farah Abdi’s 10 acres of corn, tomatoes and other vegetables were ruined as violent storms swept the Horn of Africa. A typhoon last weekend in nearby Puntland killed more than 100 people, a disaster overshadowed by the far more destructive one in the Philippines.
“My farm has been washed away,” Mr. Abdi said. It was the second year in a row of unusually heavy storms to have destroyed his livelihood, leaving him uncertain about how he will provide for his six children. “God knows,” he added, “but I don’t have anything to give now.”
Steven Lee Myers reported from Warsaw, and Nicholas Kulish from Nairobi, Kenya. Justin Gillis contributed reporting from New York, David Jolly from Paris, and Mohammed Ibrahim from Mogadishu, Somalia.
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Source: The 19th conference of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change & NYT
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Power Plant Uses Algae to Eat CO2 Emissions
The algae consumes about half of the carbon dioxide in the flue gas
BURLINGTON, Kentucky — A Boone County power station is using algae to eat the carbon dioxide emissions from its smoke stacks.
The Kentucky Enquirer reports the project began after Kentucky’s Department for Energy Development and Independence tasked the University of Kentucky with finding a way to reduce carbon dioxide emissions biologically.
The procedure begins with a line connected to the flue gas stack atop Duke Energy’s East Bend Station. The flue gas is pumped into a feed tank where it feeds algae bubbling away in 8-foot tall tubes.
The algae consumes about half of the carbon dioxide in the flue gas. It has to be harvested periodically. Researchers say potential uses for the algae include feedstock, fertilizer and biofuel.
Source: Kentucky Enquirer
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In New Jersey Pines, Trouble Arrives
on Six Legs
The same is going on throughout the U.S. and worldwide
Global warming us sending the insects to eat the trees and kill them
How and what can be done. See below.
Deep in the woods, the whine of chain saws pierced the fall air, and Steve Garcia shouted a warning to fellow loggers as a 40-foot pitch pine crashed to the ground.
He was chopping down trees to save the forest as part of New Jersey’s effort to beat back an invasion of beetles.
In an infestation that scientists say is almost certainly a consequence of global warming, the southern pine beetle is spreading through New Jersey’s famous Pinelands.
It tried to do so many times in the past, but bitterly cold winters would always kill it off. Now, scientists say, the winters are no longer cold enough. The tiny insect, firmly entrenched, has already killed tens of thousands of acres of pines, and it is marching northward.
Scientists say it is a striking example of the way seemingly small climatic changes are disturbing the balance of nature. They see these changes as a warning of the costly impact that is likely to come with continued high emissions of greenhouse gases.
The disturbances are also raising profound questions about how to respond. Old battles about whether to leave nature alone or to manage it are being rejoined as landscapes come under stress.
The New Jersey situation resembles, on a smaller scale, the outbreak of mountain pine beetles that has ravaged tens of millions of acres of forest across the Western United States and Canada. That devastation, too, has been attributed to global warming — specifically, the disappearance of the bitterly cold winter nights that once kept the beetles in check.
In contrast to the West, where dying evergreens are splayed across steep mountainsides for all to see, the invasion in New Jersey has received barely any notice. The state’s pine forests occupy relatively flat land, and the scope of the damage is obvious only from the air.
“It’s a tremendously serious issue, but it hasn’t gotten anybody’s attention,” said State Senator Bob Smith, a Democrat from Piscataway and the chairman of the Environment and Energy Committee.
Scientists and foresters say the lack of public pressure has meant that the state has been slow to mount an adequate response. They are worried that the beetles will not only devastate the Pinelands, but will also eventually attack coastal pinelands on Long Island and Cape Cod.
In New Jersey, the beetles hit a peak in 2010, when they killed trees across 14,000 acres of state and private land. More recently, the damage has been a few thousand acres per year. But with the beetle now endemic in New Jersey, experts do not think that reprieve will last.
“I’m worried about when we really get a superstress on the trees,” said George L. Zimmermann, a forest ecologist at Richard Stockton College of New Jersey, in Galloway. “If the beetle takes off, you could be talking not tens of thousands of acres, but a hundred thousand or more.”
Historically, it was too cold for the beetles to live north of Delaware. In their native habitat in the South, they are always present at low levels, surviving by attacking diseased or weakened pine trees.
The beetles, no bigger than uncooked grains of rice, burrow through a tree’s bark and consume a layer of tissue that provides the tree with nutrients and water. As the evergreens starve to death, they take on the color of a broadleaf forest in autumn.
Healthy trees can fight off small numbers of beetles by exuding a sticky sap that pushes them out. But a large beetle outbreak can overwhelm even vigorous trees. “The way they kill trees is the way wolves kill a moose — they do it by numbers,” said Matthew P. Ayres, a Dartmouth biologist who studies the beetles.
New Jersey has warmed by about 2.3 degrees Fahrenheit over the past century, but that average obscures the change that really matters.
Winter nights of about 8 degrees below zero are needed to kill most beetles. The New Jersey climatologist’s office calculates that such bitter nights used to happen several times per decade in the state. But the last night that cold in the Pinelands was in 1996, and the beetle outbreak was first noticed five years later.
Dr. Ayres, one of the nation’s top beetle experts, has studied New Jersey closely for several years and has published research saying the rising temperatures have made the invasion possible. “I think the scientific inference is about as good as it gets,” Dr. Ayres said. “This is a big deal, and it’s going to forever change the way forests have to be managed in New Jersey.” The region of southern New Jersey once called the Pine Barrens — a term that has fallen out of favor — is the largest remnant of a once-vast coastal pine ecosystem stretching along much of the Atlantic Seaboard. It is partially protected by state and federal law, with about 300,000 acres owned by the public.
On a recent tour, Robert R. Williams, one of New Jersey’s most experienced private forest consultants, pointed time after time to dense stands of woods, thick with spindly pine trees and impenetrable underbrush — usually on state land.
Long ago, fires would have helped keep the forest more open, but they have been suppressed across much of the country for a century to protect life and property. That has left many forests in an overgrown, unnatural condition.
Experience in the South has shown that such “overstocked stands,” as foresters call them, are especially vulnerable to beetle attack because the trees are too stressed fighting one another for light, water and nutrients. Control of the pine beetle has been achieved there by thinning the woods, leaving the remaining trees stronger.
Mr. Williams, who is critical of New Jersey’s government, advocates a similar approach, involving controlled burns and selective tree-cutting. Mr. Smith, whose college degrees include one in environmental science, pushed through a bill that would have encouraged the state to manage its forests more aggressively. But several environmental groups were suspicious that large-scale logging would ensue.
“We saw this legislation as an excuse to come in under the guise of ‘stewardship’ to open up our forests for commercial operations,” said Jeff Tittel, the director of the state’s Sierra Club chapter.
To allay such fears, the senator included a requirement that any state forest plan receive certification from an outside body, the Forest Stewardship Council, which is trusted by many environmental groups.
That approach has been followed successfully in other states, including Maryland. But Gov. Chris Christie vetoed the bill, saying he could not allow the state to “abdicate its responsibility to serve as the state’s environmental steward to a named third party.”
Larry Ragonese, a spokesman for New Jersey’s Department of Environmental Protection, said the state was working on a “new, comprehensive forestry management plan.” Right now, the state is essentially spot-treating beetle outbreaks in hopes of slowing the infestation.
State workers are searching from the air for the telltale red that signals dying pines.
Recently, off Piney Hollow Road in the Winslow Wildlife Management Area, three part-time loggers, including Mr. Garcia, revved their chain saws as they chopped down nearly an acre of pines on state land. Because most beetles do not fly far from the tree where they hatch, cutting out diseased trees can slow their spread.
Lynn E. Fleming, New Jersey’s state forester, said she hoped to confine the beetles to the southernmost part of the state, south of the Mullica River, keeping them out of the heart of the Pinelands. But the beetles are not cooperating; they keep jumping the river.
Dr. Ayres said that if climatic warming continues, nothing would stop them from eventually heading up the coast. That means forest management is likely to become critical in many places where it has been neglected for decades.
“It’s hard for some people to accept — ‘What, you have to cut down trees to save the forest?’ ” Dr. Ayres said. “Yes, that’s exactly right. The alternative is losing the forest for saving the trees.”
Topic: Ecology & Global Warming
Source: NYT
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For every person in our world
Everyone need to know these facts
We are all facing these challenges
No one can run away
No one can escape
No one can hide
Know the facts
.
"The Science of 350, the Most Important Number on the Planet"
Read more about the science behind 350
350 parts per million is what many scientists, climate experts & progressive
national governments are now saying is the safe upper limit for CO2 in our
atmosphere
CO2 = click: Carbon dioxide - Wikipedia
Accelerating arctic warming and other early climate impacts have led scientists to conclude that we are already above the safe zone at our current 400ppm (= parts per million), and that unless we are able to rapidly return to below 350 ppm this century, we risk reaching tipping points and irreversible impacts such as the melting of the Greenland ice sheet and major methane releases from increased permafrost*) melt.
*) In geology, permafrost or cryotic soil is soil at or below the freezing point of water 0 °C (32 °F) for two or more years
click: Permafrost - Wikipedia
There are three numbers you need to really understand global warming: 275, 400, and 350.
Since the beginning of human civilization up until about 200 years ago, our atmosphere contained about 275 parts per million of carbon dioxide. Parts per million is simply a way of measuring the concentration of different gases, and means the ratio of the number of carbon dioxide molecules to all of the molecules in the atmosphere. 275 ppm CO2 is a useful amount—without some CO2 and other greenhouse gases that trap heat in our atmosphere, our planet would be too cold for humans to inhabit.
So we need some carbon in the atmosphere, but the question is how much?
Beginning in the 18th century, humans began to burn coal and gas and oil to produce energy and goods. The amount of carbon in the atmosphere began to rise, at first slowly and now more quickly. Many of the activities we do every day like turning the lights on, cooking food, or heating or cooling our homes rely on those fossil fuel energy sources that emit carbon dioxide and other heat-trapping gases into the atmosphere. We're taking millions of years worth of carbon, stored beneath the earth as fossil fuels, and releasing it into the atmosphere. By now—and this is the second number—the planet has about 400 parts per million CO2 – and this number is rising by about 2 parts per million every year.
Scientists are now saying that's too much – that number is higher than any time seen in the recorded history of our planet—and we're already beginning to see disastrous impacts on people and places all over the world. Glaciers everywhere are melting and disappearing fast—and they are a source of drinking water for hundreds of millions of people. Mosquitoes, who like a warmer world, are spreading into lots of new places, and bringing malaria and dengue fever with them. click: Dengue fever - Wikipedia
Drought is becoming much more common, making food harder to grow in many places. Sea levels have begun to rise, and scientists warn that they could go up as much as several meters this century. If that happens, many of the world's cities, island nations, and farmland will be underwater. The oceans are growing more acidic because of the CO2 they are absorbing, which makes it harder for animals like corals and clams to build and maintain their shells and skeletons. Coral reefs could start dissolving at an atmospheric CO2 concentration of 450-500 ppm. Along with increased intensity of extreme weather, such as hurricanes and blizzards, these impacts are combining to exacerbate conflicts and security issues in already resource-strapped regions.
The Arctic is sending us perhaps the clearest message that climate change is occurring much more rapidly than scientists previously thought. In the summer of 2007, sea ice was roughly 39% below the summer average for 1979-2000, a loss of area equal to nearly five United Kingdoms.
Propelled by the news of these accelerating impacts, some of the world's leading climate scientists have now revised the highest safe level of CO2 to 350 parts per million. That's the last number you need to know, and the most important. It's the safety zone for planet earth. As James Hansen of America's National Aeronautics and Space Administration, the first scientist to warn about global warming more than two decades ago, wrote:
"If humanity wishes to preserve a planet similar to that on which civilization developed and to which life on Earth is adapted, paleoclimate*) evidence and ongoing climate change suggest that CO2 will need to be reduced from its current 385 ppm to at most 350 ppm."
*) click: Paleoclimates - Global Change - University of
Paleoclimatology is the study of past climates. It is a fascinating, multidisciplinary field, combining history, anthropology, archaeology, chemistry, physics, ...
That will be a hard task, but not impossible. We need to stop taking carbon out of the ground and putting it into the air. Above all, that means we need to stop burning so much coal—and start using solar and wind energy and other such sources of renewable energy –while ensuring the Global South a fair chance to develop. If we do, then the earth’s soils and forests will slowly cycle some of that extra carbon out of the atmosphere, and eventually CO2 concentrations will return to a safe level. By decreasing use of other fossil fuels, and improving agricultural and forestry practices around the world, scientists believe we could get back below 350 by mid-century. But the longer we remain in the danger zone—above 350—the more likely that we will see disastrous and irreversible climate impacts.
With your help, we can spread this important piece of information to our fellow citizens, communities, countries, and the world. For more in-depth information on climate science, policy, and solutions, please see our list of recommended resources below.
For more, read Bill McKibben's blog post, "The Science of 350, the Most Important Number on the Planet"
Sources:
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Article 1 of 2
Article 2 of 2 next below - read it - it is about the same person as the article above:
Nick D’Aloisio - worth of your time
Teenager Sells App For $40 Million And
Why You Should Care
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Yes, this is the kid who made 40 million bucks with an app that summarized things.
A few months ago an 18 year old kid from England, sold his app for 40 million dollars to Yahoo. Which makes me ask: How many young people do you know that have projects like his? Creating a website? Starting their own blog? Creating an app? (this 12 year old did). Online staffing firm oDesk.com recently surveyed their users on their views of being an employee in the workplace.
Want to open an online store? Cool. Snap a few pics on your iPhone, open a shopify account, link your Paypal and you could be making those extra bucks to pay off those pesty college loans within a few hours. The consequences are tiny. In fact these days we’re raised with the notion that failing is a good thing. The scarce job market and uncertain economy encourages our generation to do just that bit extra for themselves.
Cloud based devices are changing the way we work. 63% of millenials have smartphone and as a result, we have the opportunity to work with live, real-time collaborative data everywhere we go.
Tools like Google Drive and Dropbox allow you to do just that. We can write documents, post a twitter update and have skype calls… all while sitting butt-naked on the toilet with an iPhone. This generation expects the same freedom with their job in the workplace (although maybe not on the office toilet).
Teenager Sells App For $40 Million And Why You Should CareDid you think I was joking?
My message as a member of this new breed to you Generation X’ers, Baby boomers and C-level execs that are working with, or will begin working with millenials in the near future, is to recognize the changes that are happening. Understand these changes and take full advantage so you can attract and keep the very best people on your team.
Give them more independence. For crying out loud, we spend more time alone with the internet than we do talking to people. If you want the best out of them, Let them be entrepreneurial. Let them take some initiative and they’ll reward you for it.
More Tech articles from Business 2 Community:
Article 2 of 2 next below - it is about the same person as the article above - worth of your time
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Article 2 of 2
Both 1 of 2 and 2 of 2 are about the same person:Nick D’Aloisio
He as Millions and a New Job at Yahoo. Soon, He’ll Be 18
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One of Yahoo’s newest employees is a 17-year-old high school student in Britain.
He is one of its richest, too.
That student, Nick D’Aloisio, a programming whiz who wasn’t even born when Yahoo was founded in 1994, sold his news-reading app, Summly, to the company on Monday for a sum said to be in the tens of millions of dollars. Yahoo said it would incorporate his algorithmic invention, which takes long-form stories and shortens them for readers using smartphones, in its own mobile apps, with Mr. D’Aloisio’s help.
“I’ve still got a year and a half left at my high school,” he said in a telephone interview on Monday. But he will make arrangements to test out of his classes and work from the Yahoo office in London, partly to abide by the company’s new and much-debated policy that prohibits working from home.
Mr. D’Aloisio, who declined to comment on the price paid by Yahoo
(the technology news site AllThingsD pegged the purchase price at about $30 million), was Summly’s largest shareholder.
Summly’s other investors, improbably enough, included Wendi Murdoch, Ashton Kutcher and Yoko Ono. The most important one was Li Ka-shing, the Hong Kong billionaire, whose investment fund supported Mr. D’Aloisio’s idea early on, before it was even called Summly.
“They took a gamble on me when I was a 15-year-old,” Mr. D’Aloisio said, by providing seed financing that let him hire employees and lease office space.
The fund read about Mr. D’Aloisio’s early-stage app on TechCrunch, the Silicon Valley blog of record, found his e-mail address and startled him with a message expressing interest.
The others signed up later. “Because it was my first time around, people just wanted to help,” he said.
For teenagers who fancy themselves entrepreneurs — and their parents, too — the news of the sale conjured up some feelings of inadequacy, but also awe. For Brian Wong, the 21-year-old founder of Kiip, a mobile rewards company, the reaction was downright laughable: “I feel old!”
A few years ago, Mr. Wong was described in the news media as the youngest person ever to receive venture capital funding. But a couple of younger founders came along — “and then Nick broke all of our records,” Mr. Wong said on Monday.
Among the attributes that helped Mr. D’Aloisio, he said, was a preternatural ability to articulate exactly what he wanted Summly to be. “There were no umms, no uhhs, no hesitations, no insecurities,” Mr. Wong said.
Mr. D’Aloisio, for his part, sounded somewhat uninterested in answering questions about his age on Monday. He acknowledged that it was an advantage in some pitch meetings, and certainly in the news media, “but so was the strength of the idea.” He was more eager to talk about his new employer, Yahoo, which is trying to reinvent itself as a mobile-first technology company (having dropped the digital media tagline it used before Marissa Mayer became chief executive last year).
“People are kind of underestimating how powerful it’s going to become and how much opportunity is there,” he said.
For a company that badly wants to be labeled innovative, those words are worth a lot.
Mr. D’Aloisio’s father, who works at Morgan Stanley, and his mother, a lawyer, had no special knowledge of technology. But they nurtured their son’s fascination with it and he started coding at age 12. Eventually he decided to develop an app with what he calls an “automatic summarization algorithm,” one that “can take pre-existing long-form content and summarize it.” In other words, it tries to solve a problem that is often summed up with the abbreviation tl;dr: “too long; didn’t read.”
Summly officially came online last November. By December, Mr. D’Aloisio was talking to Yahoo and other suitors.
Yahoo said in a statement that while the Summly app would be shut down, “we will acquire the technology and you’ll see it come to life throughout Yahoo’s mobile experiences soon.”
Other news-reading apps have attracted corporate attention as of late, reflecting the scramble by media companies to adapt to skyrocketing traffic from mobile devices. The social network LinkedIn was said to be pursuing an app called Pulse earlier this month. Still, the eight-figure payday for a teenage entrepreneur on Monday struck some as outlandish and set off speculation that Yahoo was willing to pay almost any price for “cool.”
Mr. D’Aloisio, though, will have plenty of time to prove his and his algorithm’s worth. As for the sizable paycheck from Yahoo, he said he did not have any specific plans for the sudden windfall. “It’s going to be put into a trust fund and my parents will help manage it,” he said.
He did say, however, that “angel investing could be really fun.” When not working at Yahoo, he will keep up with his hobbies — cricket in particular — and set his sights on attending college at Oxford. His intended major is philosophy.
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Source: NYT
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Important, useful child safety technology for every family with children
New technology, in the form of voice watches and miniature sensing devices, is aimed at thwarting*) such distress by keeping track of children who are too young to carry a smartphone - to thwart = prevent from happening
If a Young Child Wanders, Technology Can Follow
Date: November 2, 2013
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Most parents have experienced that feeling of fear when a young child wanders off at the playground or disappears during a trip to the supermarket. New technology, in the form of voice watches and miniature sensing devices, is aimed at thwarting such distress by keeping track of children who are too young to carry a smartphone.
The new devices use GPS, Wi-Fi and other location-tracking technology and can be linked to apps on a parent’s phone. One device, a watch coming from Filip Technologies, tracks a child’s location and lets him or her get voice calls from up to five people authorized by their parents. (Children lift the watch to their ear or mouth when communicating.)
The watch also has a red panic button that children can push if, for example, they suddenly become separated from their parents in a crowd. Then the watch starts dialing each of the authorized people until one answers. AT&T will be the network provider for the watch; its price has not yet been announced.
Sandra L. Calvert, a professor of psychology and the director of the Children’s Digital Media Center at Georgetown University, views the watches and related products as extensions of the way parents now use smartphones to keep track of older children.
“From a child’s perspective, a parent is like an anchor,” she said. These devices allow the child to move farther and farther away, yet the parent knows where the child is. “If a child gets lost in a store and can push a little button, their parents can find them,” she said. “It helps them to know they are in a range that seems to be safe.”
But the technology offered by the watches and similar products could be a mixed blessing, said Lisa Damour, a psychologist who focuses on parenting and directs the Center for Research on Girls at Laurel School
in Shaker Heights, Ohio, and contributes to Motherlode blog of The New York Times.
“I can understand how a parent might want to know if their child is having a problem, but I don’t think it’s necessarily helpful for children to always be able to turn to their parents when they are struggling,” she said. “We want children to develop problem-solving skills and the capacity to manage stress” as they practice drawing on their own resources, or those of teachers, friends and others around them.
The panic button might have an unintended effect that’s not in the best interest of the child, she said. “It may reduce the parents’ anxiety to give their child a panic button, but I can readily imagine that it increases the child’s anxiety,” she said. “It sends a strong message that the child is at real risk of danger. This goes against what we know statistically.”
In reality, children are now safer from abduction by strangers than they’ve been in decades, said Lisa M. Jones, a research associate professor of psychology at the University of New Hampshire’s Crimes Against Children Research Center. “Abductions in the traditional sense of someone taken by someone else they don’t know, with the intention of keeping or harming the child — that’s quite rare,” she said. “The vast majority of children are victimized by people close to them.”
But even though such abductions are rare, she said, “obviously we are terrified by them.”
Jonathan Peachey, chief executive of Filip Technologies, said the watch might well increase a child’s anxiety, “but I would question whether that’s a bad thing.” With the watch, children have a sense that they can always talk to their parents in threatening situations. “That’s a conversation, and a very positive one for parents to have with their child,” he said.
Another new tracking device, the tiny Trax, also pairs with a smartphone app to allow parents to find their children, particularly very young ones, said Tobias Stenberg, a co-founder of Wonder Technology Solutions, a company in Stockholm that makes the device.
The tracker is meant for those worrisome moments when parents trying to keep an eye on a child playing in the garden, for example, suddenly discover that he or she isn’t there. “Your first reaction is a bit of panic, but if you look at your phone, you can see, ‘Oh, she’s returned to her room,’ ” Mr. Stenberg said.
The Trax, to be available later this month, costs $249 and includes a subscription for two years’ use in more than 30 countries, including the United States. After that, the company will charge a small monthly fee. Parents can draw boundaries on the screens of their smartphones, creating an electronic fence within which their child can roam. But if the child crosses the digital fence, the tracker alerts the parents, Mr. Stenberg said. And if the satellite signal is lost inside a building, for example, the Trax uses motion and direction sensors to determine the child’s position. (The device can also keep track of dogs, he said.)
For parents who opt for smartphones even for young children, many wireless services, like AT&T’s FamilyMap, offer programs that track the phones of family members, sending a text or email to parents telling them, for example, when their child’s phone arrives home after school.
Lynn Schofield Clark, an associate professor at the University of Denver and author of “The Parent App,” said parents who equip their young children with tracking devices still have to try to balance the parental instinct to protect their offspring with the need to nurture their sense of independence and responsibility.
Children can’t be protected by gadgets alone, she said — they also have to learn the basics of being a responsible family member: “We still have to remind them again and again that they have to let us know where they are and not wander off.”
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Source: NYT
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Unemployed in Europe
Stymied by Lack of Technology Skills
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to stymie or to stymy = (1)to hinder or prevent the progress or accomplishment of .... (2) an obstacle or obstruction
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DUBLIN — Week after week, newspapers issue a stream of hopeful headlines: Microsoft, PayPal, Fujitsu and scores of other companies are expanding their investments in Ireland, creating thousands of jobs as unemployment hovers near record highs.
There is just one hitch: Not enough people are qualified to fill all the jobs. In some cases, the companies have had to look outside Ireland to recruit candidates with the right skills.
After a five-year economic crisis, the mismatch represents one of the thorniest problems facing Ireland and many other European countries. Hundreds of thousands of people who lost work, and many young people entering the work force, are finding that their skills are ill suited to a huge crop of innovation-based jobs springing up across the Continent.
“In all countries, there is an expectation that many of the new jobs created will be in the knowledge-intensive economy,” said Glenda Quintini, a senior labor economist at the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. “But we are seeing a worrisome skills mismatch that means a large number of unemployed people are not well prepared for the pool of jobs opening up.”
Employers have long complained that graduates do not have the skills they need. But in a recent click: report, the International Labor Organization warned that “skills mismatches and occupational shifts have worsened” in Europe in the wake of the crisis. People laid off in hard-hit sectors, from construction to finance, face lengthy retraining, while too few graduates entering the job market have chosen engineering, science or technology degrees for the growing innovation-based jobs market.
The gap in Europe has important consequences for the recovery as the euro zone grapples with unemployment rates stuck stubbornly above 12 percent: It may hold back a return to meaningful growth and generate “significant economic and social costs,” according to the European Commission, the policy-making arm of the European Union.
The International Labor Organization went further, warning that the gap might contribute to extended spells of unemployment and might reduce the effectiveness of policy interventions to stimulate growth. In the United States, the phenomenon has also helped contribute to a rise in long-term joblessness, the organization said.
Around two million job vacancies around the European Union are languishing unfilled, about the same number as in 2010, in sectors ranging from hotel work to computer programming, according to Eurostat, the statistics office of the European Union.
A study released in November by Eurofound, the research arm of the European Union, showed that despite the recession, almost 40 percent of companies reported difficulty in finding workers with the right skills, compared with 37 percent in 2008 and 35 percent in 2005.
The problem is especially striking for innovation-based companies, which are generating jobs at a rapid clip as technology spreads through every sector of the economy. By 2015, about 900,000 information and communications technology vacancies may go unfilled in the European Union, the European Commission warned in a recent report on the digital economy. The gap “is of major concern to European competitiveness” and to the economy as a whole, the commission said.
Governments and companies around Europe are fast-tracking efforts to retrain the unemployed for a burst of technology-related jobs. They are also stepping up campaigns to lure university students to mathematics, engineering and science in place of popular courses in the humanities and social sciences.
In Ireland, the government introduced a series of retraining and higher-education programs and sought to polish the allure of mathematics degrees as alarm bells sounded over the issue a couple of years ago. At the time, unemployment was around 14 percent after an economic collapse that destroyed jobs in the construction sector, which had employed around a quarter of the young men in the country.
Multinational technology and social media companies kept investing, lured by Ireland’s ultralow 12.5 percent corporate tax rate and an English-speaking work force. But many have been forced to look outside the country for employees with the right skills, despite more than 391,500 being out of work and a jobless rate of around 12.5 percent.
The issue peaked last summer, when PayPal’s chief executive in Ireland, Louise Phelan, stoked controversy by acknowledging that the company had recruited from 19 other countries for 500 positions in its operations center in Dundalk because of a lack of foreign-language skills among Irish nationals. This summer, Fujitsu, which employs 800 people in Ireland, revealed that it had had to hire most of its Ph.D.-level experts from abroad.
All told, around half of information technology jobs in Dublin were being filled with foreign workers, while around 4,500 information technology jobs in the country were going unfilled because of a limited supply of suitably skilled applicants, various studies have shown. Paul Sweetman, the director of ICT Ireland, a business lobby group, said that part of Ireland’s strategy was to enhance its attractiveness as an investment and work destination by luring bright minds from around the world to the technology sector.
The skills shortage prevented Ireland-based companies from “effectively executing their business strategies,” which created a risk of lower productivity and slower growth, according to a recent report by the consulting company Accenture.
Part of the problem for all countries, not only Ireland, was that technology-related university training lost appeal after the dot-com bust in the early 2000s, said Regina Moran, the executive director of Fujitsu in Ireland. In Ireland, people flocked to construction or tourism work, which blossomed in the middle of the decade.
Ian Sharpe was one of them. He spent nearly 15 years working in the hotel industry until Ireland’s banking crisis strangled the Celtic Tiger and left him jobless in 2010. He languished on benefits as he tried fruitlessly to find new work.
But last year he latched on to back-to-work programs that the government had introduced with businesses.
Recently, 182 candidates — most of them unemployed, with backgrounds in fields including farming, construction and even astrophysics — went through retraining. One company, VMware, hired 82 people, and other companies hired nearly everyone else — including Mr. Sharpe.
On a recent weekday, he was huddled with a team of technicians in the Cork-based offices of VCE, a joint venture between VMware, Cisco, EMC and Intel that provides cloud and virtualization software and services.
After six months as an intern, he was hired full time to help manage a data center, with an annual salary of around 30,000 euros, or about $40,000 — about what he was making as a hotel manager.
The initiatives are not without flaws. For example, as part of the JobBridge internship program, people continue to collect unemployment and receive a modest €50 stipend per week. For many, that barely covers transportation and food. Stories have littered the Irish press of abuses by companies in the program, such as giving interns either menial tasks or fully fledged professional work with no pay, and with no job ultimately materializing.
Such talk was so widespread that Mr. Sharpe said that people had urged him not to enter the program. But he wanted to avoid the fate of a number of his friends who had fallen into a rut, where the longer they were unemployed, the less likely they were to get back into the job market.
“I know people who had to get medication for being depressed, because they don’t see anything coming,” he said.
He now has an air of hope. “I’ve gone from someone who had never been professionally involved in I.T. to getting an engineering position just nine months later,” Mr. Sharpe said.
“You can see where you’re going,” he added. “Finally, there’s something to aim for.”
Source: NYT
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In case the link has expired search the New York Times with the green title
As Oil Floods Plains Towns,
Crime Pours In
With the new prosperity, soaring crime rates have come to places in Montana ...drawn to the region by the allure of easy money in the oil fields.
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Step Away From the Phone!
& Have a better life quality
Whenever Michael Carl, the fashion market director at Vanity Fair, goes out to dinner with friends,
he plays something called the “phone stack” game: Everyone places their phones in the middle of the table; whoever looks at their device before the check arrives picks up the tab. stack = a pile of objects
Brandon Holley, the former editor of Lucky magazine, had trouble ditching her iPhone when she got home from work.
So about six months ago, she began tossing her phone into a vintage milk tin (= a metal container) the moment she walked in. It remains there until after dinner.
And Marc Jacobs, the fashion designer, didn’t want to sleep next to a beeping gizmo (= a mechanical device or part whose name is forgotten or unknown; a gadget).
So he banned digital devices from his bedroom, a house rule he shared with audiences during a recent screening of “Disconnect,” a film that dramatizes how technology has alienated people from one other.
As smartphones continue to burrow their way into our lives, and wearable devices like Google Glass threaten to erode our personal space even further, overtaxed users are carving out their own device-free zones with ad hoc tricks and life hacks. (1) for "ad hoc tricks" click: Fallacies: Ad Hoc Explanations, Causes, and Rationalization
(2) life hack = a strategy or technique adopted in order to manage one's time and daily activities in a more efficient way
Whether it’s a physical barrier (no iPads at the dinner table) or a conceptual (= mental, abstract) one (turn off devices by 11 p.m.), users say these weaning techniques are improving their relationships — and their sanity.
“Disconnecting is a luxury that we all need,” said Lesley M. M. Blume, a New York writer who keeps her phone away from the dinner table at home. “The expectation that we must always be available to employers, colleagues, family: it creates a real obstacle in trying to set aside private time. But that private time is more important than ever.”
Much of the digital detoxing is centered on the home, where urgent e-mails from co-workers, texts from friends, Instagram photos from acquaintances and YOLO*) updates on Facebook conspire to upend domestic tranquility.
yolo = abbreviation for "you only live once" = the dumbass's (= stupid; brainless) excuse for something stupid that they did, e.g.: Guy 1: "Hey I heard u got that girl pregnant" Dumbass 1: " Ya man but hey YOLO"; Another common one: LOL = laugh out loud
A popular tactic is to designate a kind of cellphone lockbox, like the milk tin that Ms. Holley uses. “If my phone is buzzing or lighting up, it’s still a distraction, so it goes in the box,” said Ms. Holley, who lives in a row house in Red Hook, Brooklyn, with her son, Smith, and husband, John. “It’s not something I want my kid to see.”
An empty fishbowl, which sits on a dining room credenza, serves a similar function for Jaime David, a publicist at the Starworks Group in New York, except there are consequences for violators. “If someone picks up the phone between 6:30 and 8:30 p.m. without a really good reason, they are tasked with getting our son to bed,” said Ms. David, who lives in Maplewood, N.J., with her husband, Jon, and two sons, Milo, 4, and Jack, 10 months.
Others assign a digital curfew. “No screens after 10 p.m.,” said Ari Melber, a host of MSNBC’s click: “The Cycle,” who lives in a walk-up apartment in Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn, with his fiancée, Drew Grant, a pop culture reporter at The New York Observer. The rule was instituted in January, after a vacation in Honduras where the couple found themselves without Internet access and ultimately happy about it.
“We found the evenings were more relaxing, and we were sleeping better,” Mr. Melber said.
Sleep is a big factor, which is why some, like Mr. Jacobs, draw the gadget-free line at the bedroom. “I don’t want to sleep next to something that is a charged ball of information with photos and e-mails,” said Peter Som, the fashion designer, who keeps his phone plugged in in the living room overnight. “It definitely is a head-clearer and delineates (= describe or portray (something) precisely) daytime and sleep time.”
Households with young children are especially mindful about being overconnected, with parents sensitive to how children may imitate bad habits.
Rebecca Minkoff, a fashion designer, makes a point of turning off the ringers and leaving her two phones on the opposite end of her Dumbo apartment when she plays with her 2-year-old son, Luca. “It isn’t easy, but I do my best to make the few hours I have with my son cellphone-free until he goes to sleep,” Ms. Minkoff said.
Other parents regard dinnertime as sacrosanct*). “It’s a nice break for me when all of us can unplug,” said Josh Pickard, an owner of the restaurants Locanda Verde, Lafayette and the Dutch, who forbids his two teenage children, Lotte, 17, and Jack, 13, from bringing their multiple devices to the dinner table. “ I can just be in one place in one moment.”
*) sacrosanct = regarded as too important or valuable to be interfered with), e.g.: "the individual's right to work has been upheld as sacrosanct; synonyms: sacred, untouchable, respected)
But it’s not just inside the home where users are weaning themselves from the habit. Cellphone overusers are making efforts to disconnect in social settings, whether at the behest*) of the host or in the form of friendly competition.
*) behest = a person's orders or command, instruction, requirement, demand, insistence, bidding, request, wish
The phone-stack game is a lighthearted way for friends to police against define boorish (= rough and bad-mannered)
behavior when eating out. The game gained popularity last year after Brian Perez, a dancer in Los Angeles, posted the idea on his Tumblr page. It has since spawned numerous blog posts and an entry on Urban Dictionary, and is searchable as the hashtag #phonestack on Instagram (definition, see at the end of this article) (though not during dinner, of course).
Of course, one could simply not bring a phone into the restaurant in the first place.
Scott Stratten, the author of “UnMarketing,” a book about engaging consumers via social media, leaves his phone in the car whenever he goes out to eat with his 12-year-old son, Owen. “He has full authority to tell me to put it away during any ‘us’ time,” Mr. Stratten said.
To keep guests from texting under the table, some party hosts are banning devices outright.
Peter Davis, the editor of Scene magazine, recently attended a dinner party for about 12 at a West Village home where the host offered to check guests’ phones and put them in a bowl. While most balked, Mr. Davis said that guests did manage to stay off their phones during the dinner.
“It was a hint not to be on your phone,” he said. “Unless you work in the E.R. or you’re a doctor on call, no one really needs to be on their phone.”
Bans on digital devices seem to be more strictly enforced when a famous person is in attendance, and the host wants to keep a private moment from becoming public fodder on Facebook or YouTube.
Guests invited to Hamish Bowles’s birthday party in June, hosted by Anna Wintour in her Mastic, N.Y., weekend home, received a call from Ms. Wintour’s office asking them to refrain from posting messages on Twitter or Instagram about the party. And when Anderson Cooper held a birthday party in May at Eastern Bloc in the East Village, the invitation reportedly said “no cameras, no plus ones.”
Mindy Weiss, a party planner in New York and Los Angeles who specializes in celebrity events, said cellphone bans are becoming a new normal “on the high-profile end.” She advises hosts to explain the cellphone rules in the invitation, have clear signs at the party and, when possible, carve out a special area for important calls — like a smoking area for those who need to check in with the baby sitter.
Bronson van Wyck, a party planner in New York, fights technology with technology. “There are ways to make a venue a cellphone- and social-media-free zone,” he said, though he wouldn’t specify his exact methods.
But maybe the best way to curb cellphone overuse is by preying on people’s social insecurities. In some circles, being inaccessible is a status symbol.
“Public cellphone use has reached an uncivilized fever pitch, so now it’s chicer behavior to exempt yourself from that,” Ms. Blume said. “You’re not answerable 24/7, and that’s a powerful and luxurious statement.”
Definitions from the article above
Instagram is an online photo-sharing, video-sharing and social networking service that enables its users to take pictures and videos, apply digital filters to them, and share them on a variety of social networking services, such as Facebook, Twitter,Tumblr and Flickr. A distinctive feature is that it confines photos to a square shape, similar to Kodak Instamatic and Polaroid images, in contrast to the 16:9 aspect ratio now typically used by mobile device cameras.
Hashtag (on social media sites such as Twitter) a word or phrase preceded by a hash or pound sign (#) and used to identify messages on a specific topic." Spammers often broadcast tweets with popular hashtags even if the tweet has nothing to do with them"
Source: NY
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A more important article than it looks - for everyone - Avoid serious sicknesses
Repeated studies show what accumulates on your mobile device
is germy nastiness worse than what is on the bottom of your shoe
Article 1 of 2
(Article 2 of 2 link at the end of this article)
Cleaning the Mobile Germ Warehouse
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Take a look at your mobile device. Do you see oily fingerprints and lint on the touch screen? Dust and crumbs forming particulate frost in the corners? Is that a hair stuck at the screen’s edge?
Because our electronics are constantly within our grubby grasp, they can get pretty gross. They are taken into public restrooms, handed to runny-nosed toddlers, passed around to share photos and pressed against sweaty skin in gyms. Repeated studies show what accumulates is germy nastiness worse than what is on the bottom of your shoe.
“That devices can be a source of disease transmission is not a subject of debate anymore,” said Dr. Dubert Guerrero, an infectious disease specialist at Sanford Health in Fargo, N.D., and co-author of a study about the persistence of bacteria on iPads published in The click for the study: American Journal of Infection Control.
So it is a good idea to keep your devices clean, not only to keep from getting sick but also to maintain resale value when it’s time to upgrade. Companies like Best Buy, Target, Gazelle, Amazon, Verizon and AT&T all offer trade-in or cash-back programs, said Derek Meister, a technician for the Geek Squad, Best Buy’s repair and online support service.
“People don’t want any marks or grime on their devices,” Mr. Meister said, because like trading in a used car at a dealership, “the better the condition, the more like new it is, the more money you get on your trade-in.”
A word of warning: Cleaning your device can be tricky, since you don’t want to damage it and manufacturers don’t give you much guidance. It can be done, however, if you’re careful and conscientious.
Dr. Guerrero and his colleagues found that regularly wiping down your device with a moist microfiber cloth was sufficient to eliminate many kinds of common bacteria. More enduring and dangerous bacteria like clostridium difficile (which can cause diarrhea or even inflammation of the colon) and flu viruses may require a sterilizing agent like bleach or alcohol, he said. click: C. difficile
This is a problem, since Apple on its website officially warns against using “window cleaners, household cleaners, aerosol sprays, solvents, alcohol, ammonia or abrasives” to clean its products and advises instead to “simply wipe the screen with a soft, lint-free cloth to remove oil left by your hands.” Other manufacturers offer similar advice or none at all.
And yet, in the Apple Store, you’ll find the 32-percent isopropyl alcohol Clens wipes by Bausch & Lomb. Apple declined to explain the contradiction. Nevertheless, the wipes work great at cleaning grime, muck and marks off your device and they also disinfect. A Clens kit that includes three Clens wipes, a 3-ounce bottle of Clens cleaning spray and a cleaning cloth costs about $20.
But it’s far cheaper to make your own alcohol and water solution. To clean his own mobile devices, Mr. Meister at the Geek Squad said he used a 1:1 ratio of 70 percent isopropyl alcohol and distilled water, which together cost less than $4 at most grocery and drugstores. “You want distilled water and purer alcohol so there are fewer chemicals or minerals left behind when the solution evaporates,” he said.
Fill a spray bottle with the diluted alcohol, lightly moisten a lint-free, preferably microfiber, cloth (no paper towels) and gently wipe down the screen and case. Never spray directly onto the device. To clean corners and around ports, use lint-free foam rather than cotton Q-tips.
If you’re supergermophobic, you might consider purchasing an ultraviolet sanitizer. Violife makes a $50 cellphone sanitizer about the size of a coffee can. Just pop your phone into the dock and replace the lid for ultraviolet light to zap pathogens. Verilux sells a $40 sanitizing wand, which the company claims kills up to 99 percent of germs when waved over your electronics. This won’t improve the look of your device or maximize value at trade-in but it might spare you the sniffles or worse during cold and flu season.
Using a can of compressed air to blow around ports and between keys, on the other hand, will help maintain the look, performance and value of your device. This gets rid of dust and particles that can infiltrate and damage electronics. Another option is to buy a specialized air compressor like the DataVac Electric Duster, which lists for $100 and comes with all sorts of little attachments for cleaning out your devices’ crevices and seams.
“An air compressor gets things really clean and it’s environmentally good because you don’t have a little can to throw away after blowing air,” said Miroslav Djuric, chief information architect at ifixit.com, an online do-it-yourself community. He uses an all-purpose compressor he bought at Home Depot and fitted with an inflating needle (the kind used to inflate a basketball or a bike tire) to precisely direct the air flow.
To repel germs, grease and pet hair from your laptop, there are antimicrobial and protective keyboard, trackpad and palm rest covers that are nearly invisible and washable. Moshi, NewerTech, iSkin and Protect Computer Products all make these covers for less than $30.
“We get so many computers damaged from kids spilling things on them,” said David Bensinger, owner of The Little Laptop Shop in Manhattan. “At least people say it was their kids when they drop the computers off.”
Washable screen protectors for laptops, tablets and smartphones are available from manufacturers such as Boxwave, BodyGuardz, iSmooth and Moshi at a cost of $5 to $40, depending on the size. They are easy to apply and reapply without unsightly bubbles or impaired visibility or functionality of touch screens.
Similarly, Ultra-Sleeves and Chef Sleeves are clear, hygienic and protective iPad and tablet covers. They enclose the entire device and are disposable. They are intended for people working in health care, construction, industrial or restaurant settings. These covers are also ideal for those who might have to share their devices with multiple people during the course of the day, like teachers or salespeople. A pack of 10 costs about $12.
It’s up to you how obsessively you want to clean your mobile devices, but health and electronics experts advise wiping down your mobile device with a moist microfiber cloth at least daily for basic sanitation and upkeep.
Like your toothbrush, “your mobile device is something you want to clean regularly,” said Dr. Guerrero, the infectious disease specialist. And it is probably not something you want to pass around the table.
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Article 2 of 2 The Study
click: American Journal of Infection Control
In case the above link has expired, search the web with this title:
Disinfection of iPad to reduce contamination with Clostridium diff
And click there on left hand corner (down) Full Text
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Wi-Fi Kills Plants, Could Harm Kids
—But Can Be Harnessed for Energy
Wi-Fi can now be harnessed and converted into energy; the health effects of the ubiquitous signals are still a cause for concern among many.
A high school project threw oil on the burning international debate about the adverse health and environmental effects of Wi-Fi radiation.
After 12 days of Wi-Fi radiation from two routers, garden cress seeds turned out stunted, dead, or mutated (showing genetic defects not present before the trial). By contrast, a control group of 200 seeds with the same conditions but no Wi-Fi radiation flourished. The study was conducted by students at Hjallerup high school in Denmark and made headlines in May.
As the experiment was conducted by high school students and not professional scientists, it cannot be considered scientific proof, noted Danish journalist Mathias Bohn in an email to the Epoch Times.
Bohn, who wrote about the experiment for Danish publication DR Nyheder, said, “The results do, however, demonstrate a great deal of internal consistency.” He also said, “The pupils have, to the fullest extent possible with the resources available at this educational level, designed the experiment to study only one variable.”
A top European expert on the subject, neuroscience professor Olle Johanssen at the Karolinska Institute in Sweden, will likely soon repeat the experiment, Bohn said.
In 2009, Austrian Health insurance company AUVA AUVA - Allgemeine Unfallversicherung
released a study linking Wi-Fi to adverse health effects, including cancer, reduced fertility, decreased ability to concentrate, and disturbed sleep. AUVA showed radiation levels well below the standard limits could impact the central nervous system, immune system, and protein synthesis.
The effects mostly occur in metabolically active cells (growing cells), which means children are at a higher risk.
The body uses electromagnetic signals to communicate between cells, organs and tissues. The radiation overlaps and interferes with the body’s internal communication, hence the havoc.
Many schools worldwide have adopted anti-Wi-Fi policies, and many countries—France, Canada, and India, for example—and have adopted anti-Wi-Fi measures and laws. The European Union passed an anti-WIFI resolution in May 2011.
WiFi was not tested before its release in 1997, because it uses an unlicensed part of the radio spectrum. Back then, radiation safety regulations focused only on thermal radiation effects, according to electromagnetic-pollution.com. So Wi-Fi was deemed safe since it did not exceeded radiation levels that result in thermal heating.
In the United States, the highest level of radiation allowed for cellular phones is 1.6 watts per kilogram. The AUVA report showed, however, that damage can occur at a level of 0.1 watts per kilogram.
If you want to limit your child’s exposure to Wi-Fi, you can use the WIFI auto turn off app (Apple users only), or switch off Wi-Fi altogether.
On Nov. 7, Duke University released its five-cell meta-material array, a device that collects Wi-Fi radiation and converts it into electricity.
It works sort of like a solar cell and can be used to recharge cell phone batteries or other small electronic devices. The array is built from inexpensive materials—fiberglass and copper energy conductors on a circuit board. It can also be used to harness energy from satellite signals and sound signals.
The ability to harness these waves could be built into cell phones to help them charge wirelessly; it could be built into the ceiling of a room to capture Wi-Fi waves and convert them into energy.
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Source: The Epoch Times - STAF, Inc. endorses The Epoch Times
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Something big is happening with the computers
Computers have entered the age
when they are able to learn from their own mistakes,
a development that is about to turn the digital world on its head
Brainlike Computers, Learning From Experience
Date: January 2014
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Computers have entered the age when they are able to learn from their own mistakes, a development that is about to turn the digital world on its head.
The first commercial version of the new kind of computer chip is scheduled to be released in 2014. Not only can it automate tasks that now require painstaking programming — for example, moving a robot’s arm smoothly and efficiently — but it can also sidestep and even tolerate errors, potentially making the term “computer crash” obsolete.
The new computing approach, already in use by some large technology companies, is based on the biological nervous system, specifically on how neurons react to stimuli and connect with other neurons to interpret information. It allows computers to absorb new information while carrying out a task, and adjust what they do based on the changing signals.
In coming years, the approach will make possible a new generation of artificial intelligence systems that will perform some functions that humans do with ease: see, speak, listen, navigate, manipulate and control. That can hold enormous consequences for tasks like facial and speech recognition, navigation and planning, which are still in elementary stages and rely heavily on human programming.
Designers say the computing style can clear the way for robots that can safely walk and drive in the physical world, though a thinking or conscious computer, a staple of science fiction, is still far off on the digital horizon.
“We’re moving from engineering computing systems to something that has many of the characteristics of biological computing,” said click: Larry Smarr, an astrophysicist click: Astrophysics who directs click: the California Institute for Telecommunications and Information Technology, one of many research centers devoted to developing these new kinds of computer circuits.
Conventional computers are limited by what they have been programmed to do. Computer vision systems, for example, only “recognize” objects that can be identified by the statistics-oriented algorithms programmed into them. An algorithm is like a recipe, a set of step-by-step instructions to perform a calculation.
But last year, Google researchers were able to get a machine-learning algorithm, known as a neural network, to perform an identification task without supervision. The network scanned a database of 10 million images, and in doing so trained itself to recognize cats.
In June 2013, the company click: said it had used those neural network techniques to develop a new search service to help customers find specific photos more accurately.
The new approach, used in both hardware and software, is being driven by the explosion of scientific knowledge about the brain. click: Kwabena Boahen, a computer scientist who leads Stanford’s click: Brains in Silicon research program, said that is also its limitation, as scientists are far from fully understanding how brains function.
“We have no clue,” he said. “I’m an engineer, and I build things. There are these highfalutin theories, but give me one that will let me build something.”
Until now, the design of computers was dictated by ideas originated by the mathematician
click: John von Neumann about 65 years ago. Microprocessors perform operations at lightning speed, following instructions programmed using long strings of 1s and 0s. They generally store that information separately in what is known, colloquially, as memory, either in the processor itself, in adjacent storage chips or in higher capacity magnetic disk drives.
The data — for instance, temperatures for a climate model or letters for word processing — are shuttled in and out of the processor’s short-term memory while the computer carries out the programmed action. The result is then moved to its main memory.
The new processors consist of electronic components that can be connected by wires that mimic biological synapses. Because they are based on large groups of neuron-like elements, they are known as neuromorphic processors, a term credited to the California Institute of Technology physicist Carver Mead, who pioneered the concept in the late 1980s.
They are not “programmed.” Rather the connections between the circuits are “weighted” according to correlations in data that the processor has already “learned.” Those weights are then altered as data flows in to the chip, causing them to change their values and to “spike.” That generates a signal that travels to other components and, in reaction, changes the neural network, in essence programming the next actions much the same way that information alters human thoughts and actions.
“Instead of bringing data to computation as we do today, we can now bring computation to data,”
said click: Dharmendra Modha, an I.B.M. computer scientist who leads the company’s cognitive computing research effort. “Sensors become the computer, and it opens up a new way to use computer chips that can be everywhere.”
The new computers, which are still based on silicon chips, will not replace today’s computers, but will augment them, at least for now. Many computer designers see them as coprocessors, meaning they can work in tandem with other circuits that can be embedded in smartphones and in the giant centralized computers that make up the cloud. Modern computers already consist of a variety of coprocessors that perform specialized tasks, like producing graphics on your cellphone and converting visual, audio and other data for your laptop.
One great advantage of the new approach is its ability to tolerate glitches. Traditional computers are precise, but they cannot work around the failure of even a single transistor. With the biological designs, the algorithms are ever changing, allowing the system to continuously adapt and work around failures to complete tasks.
Traditional computers are also remarkably energy inefficient, especially when compared to actual brains, which the new neurons are built to mimic.
I.B.M. announced last year that it had built a supercomputer simulation of the brain that encompassed roughly 10 billion neurons — more than 10 percent of a human brain. It ran about 1,500 times more slowly than an actual brain. Further, it required several megawatts of power, compared with just 20 watts of power used by the biological brain.
Running the program, known as Compass, which attempts to simulate a brain, at the speed of a human brain would require a flow of electricity in a conventional computer that is equivalent to what is needed to power both San Francisco and New York, Dr. Modha said.
I.B.M. and Qualcomm, as well as the Stanford research team, have already designed neuromorphic processors, and Qualcomm has said that it is coming out in 2014 with a commercial version, which is expected to be used largely for further development. Moreover, many universities are now focused on this new style of computing. This fall the National Science Foundation click: nsf.gov financed the click: Center for Brains, Minds and Machines, a new research center based at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, with Harvard and Cornell.
The largest class on campus this fall at Stanford was a graduate level machine-learning course covering both statistical and biological approaches, taught by the computer scientist click: Andrew Ng. More than 760 students enrolled. “That reflects the zeitgeist,” said click: Terry Sejnowski, a computational neuroscientist at the Salk Institute
click: Salk Institute, who pioneered early biologically inspired algorithms. “Everyone knows there is something big happening, and they’re trying find out what it is.”
Click: Images for Brainlike Computers
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Source: (1) Internet News, (2) NYT
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90 Companies Produce Two-Thirds
of Global Carbon Emissions
Date November 2013
9 (nine) of them are government-run coal/oil producers
6 (six) are state-run coal/oil producers
Of all these 90 co's: their CEO's or ministers of coal and oil
could all fit 1 or 2 Greyhound buses
Shame - Shame - Shame - BIG SHAME
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New research suggests just 90 companies are responsible for 63 percent of all greenhouse gas emissions from 1751 to 2010—most of them public companies producing oil, gas, or coal.
The report, published in the journal Nature Climatic Change, says nine are government-run coal producers, 31 are state-owned, and 50 are investor-owned companies. The list includes big names like Chevron Corp., Exxon Mobil Corp., Royal Dutch Shell Plc., British Coal Corp.
*) click: Journal home : Nature Climate Changwww.nature.com/nclimate/
“There are thousands of oil, gas, and coal producers in the world,” said the report author Richard Heede at the Climate Accountability Institute in Colorado. “But the decisionmakers, the CEOs, or the ministers of coal and oil if you narrow it down to just one person, they could all fit on a Greyhound bus or two.”
Half of the total estimated emissions were produced in the last 25 years, according to the report, well after greenhouse gas emissions were linked to climate change.
Researchers Call for Policy Change
A handful of other studies have recently been published. Oxford University climate scientist Myles Allen’s study, published Thursday, says reducing carbon emissions is more urgent than previously thought.
“I am hoping this message is getting through,” climate scientist Allen told NBC News. “I am worried it may not.”
Another recent report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change revealed in September 2013 the world has already emitted more than half the carbon maximally possible to contain warming at 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit.
IPCC - Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Changewww.ipcc.ch/The IPCC assesses the scientific, technical and sosio-economic information relevant for the understanding of the risk of human-induced climate change.Publications and Data - IPCC Fourth Assessment Report - Links - Contact
The reports come as the United Nations is meeting in Warsaw for its convention on climate change—an ongoing discussion since 1992.
The goal of the convention is to come to an agreement for emission reductions to be signed in Paris 2015 and to go into effect 2020. The meetings began Nov. 11, 2013 and will continue through Nov. 22/2013
Green groups walked out Thursday in protest and frustration with the lack of progress and ambition in negotiations.
Hoda Baraka of 350.org**) discussed the walkout with RTCC (Responding to Climate Change) at the convention, saying the lobbyists have made it “flagrantly obvious” the discussion would go nowhere. “The fossil fuel industry could very well be said to be the hosts [of the convention],” Baraka said.
RTCC - Climate change news, comments and analysiswww.rtcc.org/Latest climate change and biodiversity news, comments and analysis. ... RTCC -Responding to Climate Change 2013. Privacy Policy | Terms and Conditions ...About us RTCC (Responding to Climate Change) is a news and analysis ...
**)350 means safety from the climate crisis. To preserve our planet, scientists tell us we must reduce the amount of CO2***) in the atmosphere from its current level of 400 parts per million ("ppm")to below 350 ppm. But 350 is more than a number—it's a symbol of where we need to head as a planet.
At 350.org, we're building a global grassroots movement to solve the climate crisis and push for policies that will put the world on track to get to 350 ppm.
Join In by Signing Up >>Read more about the science behind 350.
***) Carbon dioxide - Wikipedia
Tags: carbon emissions climate change United Nations
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Source: The journal Climatic Change
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Growing Clamor About Inequities of Climate Crisis
to clamor = shout loudly and insistently clamor = loud noise
Restitution demanded
restitution = compensation, repair
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WARSAW — Following a devastating typhoon that killed thousands in the Philippines, a routine international climate change conference here turned into an emotional forum, with developing countries demanding compensation from the worst polluting countries for damage they say they are already suffering.
Calling the climate crisis “madness,” the Philippines representative vowed to fast for the duration of the talks. Malia Talakai, a negotiator for the Alliance of Small Island States, a group that includes her tiny South Pacific homeland, Nauru, said that without urgent action to stem rising sea levels, “some of our members won’t be around.”
Click: Alliance of Small Island States – AOSIS
From the time a scientific consensus emerged that human activity was changing the climate, it has been understood that the nations that contributed least to the problem would be hurt the most. Now, even as the possible consequences of climate change have surged — from the typhoons that have raked the Philippines and India this year to the droughts in Africa, to rising sea levels that threaten to submerge entire island nations — no consensus has emerged over how to rectify what many call “climate injustice.”
Growing demands to address the issue have become an emotionally charged flash point at negotiations here at the 19th conference of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change
At a news briefing here, Farah Kabir, the director in Bangladesh for the anti-poverty organization ActionAid International, click: ActionAid International | ActionAidwww.actionaid.org/ ActionAid's vision is a world without poverty in which every person can exercise their right to a life of dignity.
described that country as a relatively small piece of land “with a population of 160 million, trying to cope with this extreme weather, trying to cope with the effect of emissions for which we are not responsible.”
With expectations low for progress here on a treaty to replace the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, Kyoto Protocol - United Nations
widely seen as having failed to make a dent in worldwide carbon emissions, some nations were losing patience with decades of endless climate talks, particularly those who see rising oceans as a threat to their existence.
“We are at these climate conferences essentially moving chess figures across the board without ever being able to bring these negotiations to a conclusion,” Achim Steiner, executive director of the United Nations Environment Program, said in a telephone interview.
United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) - Home pagewww.unep.org/the united nations environment programme (UNEP) is the voice for the environment in the united nations system. it is an advocate, educator, catalyst and ...
Although the divide between rich and poor nations has bedeviled international climate talks for two decades, the debate over how to address the disproportionate effects has steadily gained momentum. Poor nations here are pressing for a new effort that goes beyond reducing emissions and adapting to a changing climate.
While they have no legal means to seek compensation, they have demanded concrete efforts to address the “loss and damage” that the most vulnerable nations will almost certainly face — the result of fragile environments and structures, and limited resources to respond.
The sheer magnitude and complexity of the issue make such compensation unlikely. The notion of seeking justice for a global catastrophe that affects almost every country — with enormous implications for economic development — is not only immensely complicated but also politically daunting.
It assumes the culpability of the world’s most developed nations, including the United States and those in Europe, and implies a moral responsibility to bear the costs, even as those same nations seek to draft a new treaty over the next two years that would for the first time compel reductions by rapidly emerging nations like China and India. As a group, developing countries will within a decade have accounted for more than half of all historical emissions, making them responsible for a large share of the continuing impact humanity will make, if not the impact already made.
Assigning liability for specific events — like Typhoon Haiyan, which struck the Philippines with winds of at least 140 miles an hour, making it one of the strongest storms on record — is nearly impossible. It can take scientists years just to determine whether global warming contributed to the severity of a particular weather event, if it can be determined at all.
Many negotiators here have pressed to create a new mechanism that effectively accepts the idea that the results of climate change are irreversible and that the countries that are hit hardest first must be compensated.
“We’ve reached a stage where we cannot adapt anymore,” said Ronald Jumeau, the United Nations representative for the Seychelles, who is his country’s chief negotiator here. He noted the devastating effects not only of extreme storm events, but also of creeping desertification, salinization and erosion that could result in financial losses and even territorial issues that the modern world has never had to face.
“This is new,” he said. “This is like, ‘The Martians are landing!’ What do you do?”
John Kioli, the chairman of the Kenya Climate Change Working Group, a consortium of nongovernmental organizations, called climate change his country’s “biggest enemy.” Kenya, which straddles the Equator, faces some of the biggest challenges from rising temperatures. Arable land is disappearing and diseases like malaria are appearing in highland areas where they had never been seen before.*) click: Kenya Climate Change Working Group
Developed countries, Mr. Kioli said, have a moral obligation to shoulder the cost, considering the amount of pollution they have emitted since the Industrial Revolution. “If developed countries are reasonable enough, they are able to understand that they have some responsibility,” he said.
How to compensate those nations hardest hit by climate changes remains divisive, even among advocates for such action. Some have argued that wealthy countries need to create a huge pool of money to help poorer countries recover from seemingly inevitable losses of the tangible and intangible, like destroyed traditions.
Mr. Jumeau noted that Congress allocated $60 billion just to rebuild from one storm, Hurricane Sandy, compared with the $100 billion a year that advocates hope to see pledged to a Green Climate Fund by all nations. The fund, intended to help poorer countries reduce emissions and prepare for climate changes, has remained little more than an organizing principle since its creation in 2010, its fund-raising goals unmet.
Others have suggested a sort of insurance program.
The United States and other rich countries have made their opposition to large-scale compensation clear. Todd D. Stern, the State Department’s envoy on climate issues, bluntly told a gathering at Chatham House in London
Chatham House: Independent thinking on international affairs |www.chathamhouse.org/Home of the Royal Institute of International Affairs, Chatham House is an independent policy institute based in London. A source of independent analysis and last month that large-scale resources from the world’s richest nations would not be forthcoming.
“The fiscal reality of the United States and other developed countries is not going to allow it,” he said. “This is not just a matter of the recent financial crisis. It is structural, based on the huge obligations we face from aging populations and other pressing needs for infrastructure, education, health care and the like. We must and will strive to keep increasing our climate finance, but it is important that all of us see the world as it is.”
Appeals to rectify the injustice of climate change, he added, will backfire. “Lectures about compensation, reparations and the like will produce nothing but antipathy among developed country policy makers and their publics,” he said.
Juan Pablo Hoffmaister Patiño, a Bolivian who represents the alliance of developing nations known as the Group of 77 and China, said the issue was not so much about assigning culpability for the looming climate disaster as doing something to help those nations hardest hit.
“Trying to assign the blame is something that even scientifically could take us a very long time, and the challenges and problems are actually happening now,” he said in an interview here. “And we need to begin addressing them now rather than identifying who is guilty and to what degree. We can’t make this issue hostage to finding the responsible ones or not.”
Meanwhile, global emissions continue to rise. A report this month by the United Nations Environment Program warned that immediate action must be taken to reduce emissions enough to limit the rise in average global temperatures to 2 degrees Celsius, or 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit, above preindustrial levels. That is the maximum warming that many scientists believe can occur without causing potentially catastrophic climate change.
The current global turbulence, consistent with what scientists expect to happen as the climate changes, is already taking a toll.
As the hundreds of diplomats and advocates assembled for talks here, Justus Lavi was waiting for rain in Kenya. The wheat, beans and potatoes he planted on his farm in Makueni County sprouted, but the rainy season brought only two days of showers, threatening to ruin his yield.
In northern Somalia, Nimcaan Farah Abdi’s 10 acres of corn, tomatoes and other vegetables were ruined as violent storms swept the Horn of Africa. A typhoon last weekend in nearby Puntland killed more than 100 people, a disaster overshadowed by the far more destructive one in the Philippines.
“My farm has been washed away,” Mr. Abdi said. It was the second year in a row of unusually heavy storms to have destroyed his livelihood, leaving him uncertain about how he will provide for his six children. “God knows,” he added, “but I don’t have anything to give now.”
Steven Lee Myers reported from Warsaw, and Nicholas Kulish from Nairobi, Kenya. Justin Gillis contributed reporting from New York, David Jolly from Paris, and Mohammed Ibrahim from Mogadishu, Somalia.
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Source: The 19th conference of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change & NYT
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Power Plant Uses Algae to Eat CO2 Emissions
The algae consumes about half of the carbon dioxide in the flue gas
BURLINGTON, Kentucky — A Boone County power station is using algae to eat the carbon dioxide emissions from its smoke stacks.
The Kentucky Enquirer reports the project began after Kentucky’s Department for Energy Development and Independence tasked the University of Kentucky with finding a way to reduce carbon dioxide emissions biologically.
The procedure begins with a line connected to the flue gas stack atop Duke Energy’s East Bend Station. The flue gas is pumped into a feed tank where it feeds algae bubbling away in 8-foot tall tubes.
The algae consumes about half of the carbon dioxide in the flue gas. It has to be harvested periodically. Researchers say potential uses for the algae include feedstock, fertilizer and biofuel.
Source: Kentucky Enquirer
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In New Jersey Pines, Trouble Arrives
on Six Legs
The same is going on throughout the U.S. and worldwide
Global warming us sending the insects to eat the trees and kill them
How and what can be done. See below.
Deep in the woods, the whine of chain saws pierced the fall air, and Steve Garcia shouted a warning to fellow loggers as a 40-foot pitch pine crashed to the ground.
He was chopping down trees to save the forest as part of New Jersey’s effort to beat back an invasion of beetles.
In an infestation that scientists say is almost certainly a consequence of global warming, the southern pine beetle is spreading through New Jersey’s famous Pinelands.
It tried to do so many times in the past, but bitterly cold winters would always kill it off. Now, scientists say, the winters are no longer cold enough. The tiny insect, firmly entrenched, has already killed tens of thousands of acres of pines, and it is marching northward.
Scientists say it is a striking example of the way seemingly small climatic changes are disturbing the balance of nature. They see these changes as a warning of the costly impact that is likely to come with continued high emissions of greenhouse gases.
The disturbances are also raising profound questions about how to respond. Old battles about whether to leave nature alone or to manage it are being rejoined as landscapes come under stress.
The New Jersey situation resembles, on a smaller scale, the outbreak of mountain pine beetles that has ravaged tens of millions of acres of forest across the Western United States and Canada. That devastation, too, has been attributed to global warming — specifically, the disappearance of the bitterly cold winter nights that once kept the beetles in check.
In contrast to the West, where dying evergreens are splayed across steep mountainsides for all to see, the invasion in New Jersey has received barely any notice. The state’s pine forests occupy relatively flat land, and the scope of the damage is obvious only from the air.
“It’s a tremendously serious issue, but it hasn’t gotten anybody’s attention,” said State Senator Bob Smith, a Democrat from Piscataway and the chairman of the Environment and Energy Committee.
Scientists and foresters say the lack of public pressure has meant that the state has been slow to mount an adequate response. They are worried that the beetles will not only devastate the Pinelands, but will also eventually attack coastal pinelands on Long Island and Cape Cod.
In New Jersey, the beetles hit a peak in 2010, when they killed trees across 14,000 acres of state and private land. More recently, the damage has been a few thousand acres per year. But with the beetle now endemic in New Jersey, experts do not think that reprieve will last.
“I’m worried about when we really get a superstress on the trees,” said George L. Zimmermann, a forest ecologist at Richard Stockton College of New Jersey, in Galloway. “If the beetle takes off, you could be talking not tens of thousands of acres, but a hundred thousand or more.”
Historically, it was too cold for the beetles to live north of Delaware. In their native habitat in the South, they are always present at low levels, surviving by attacking diseased or weakened pine trees.
The beetles, no bigger than uncooked grains of rice, burrow through a tree’s bark and consume a layer of tissue that provides the tree with nutrients and water. As the evergreens starve to death, they take on the color of a broadleaf forest in autumn.
Healthy trees can fight off small numbers of beetles by exuding a sticky sap that pushes them out. But a large beetle outbreak can overwhelm even vigorous trees. “The way they kill trees is the way wolves kill a moose — they do it by numbers,” said Matthew P. Ayres, a Dartmouth biologist who studies the beetles.
New Jersey has warmed by about 2.3 degrees Fahrenheit over the past century, but that average obscures the change that really matters.
Winter nights of about 8 degrees below zero are needed to kill most beetles. The New Jersey climatologist’s office calculates that such bitter nights used to happen several times per decade in the state. But the last night that cold in the Pinelands was in 1996, and the beetle outbreak was first noticed five years later.
Dr. Ayres, one of the nation’s top beetle experts, has studied New Jersey closely for several years and has published research saying the rising temperatures have made the invasion possible. “I think the scientific inference is about as good as it gets,” Dr. Ayres said. “This is a big deal, and it’s going to forever change the way forests have to be managed in New Jersey.” The region of southern New Jersey once called the Pine Barrens — a term that has fallen out of favor — is the largest remnant of a once-vast coastal pine ecosystem stretching along much of the Atlantic Seaboard. It is partially protected by state and federal law, with about 300,000 acres owned by the public.
On a recent tour, Robert R. Williams, one of New Jersey’s most experienced private forest consultants, pointed time after time to dense stands of woods, thick with spindly pine trees and impenetrable underbrush — usually on state land.
Long ago, fires would have helped keep the forest more open, but they have been suppressed across much of the country for a century to protect life and property. That has left many forests in an overgrown, unnatural condition.
Experience in the South has shown that such “overstocked stands,” as foresters call them, are especially vulnerable to beetle attack because the trees are too stressed fighting one another for light, water and nutrients. Control of the pine beetle has been achieved there by thinning the woods, leaving the remaining trees stronger.
Mr. Williams, who is critical of New Jersey’s government, advocates a similar approach, involving controlled burns and selective tree-cutting. Mr. Smith, whose college degrees include one in environmental science, pushed through a bill that would have encouraged the state to manage its forests more aggressively. But several environmental groups were suspicious that large-scale logging would ensue.
“We saw this legislation as an excuse to come in under the guise of ‘stewardship’ to open up our forests for commercial operations,” said Jeff Tittel, the director of the state’s Sierra Club chapter.
To allay such fears, the senator included a requirement that any state forest plan receive certification from an outside body, the Forest Stewardship Council, which is trusted by many environmental groups.
That approach has been followed successfully in other states, including Maryland. But Gov. Chris Christie vetoed the bill, saying he could not allow the state to “abdicate its responsibility to serve as the state’s environmental steward to a named third party.”
Larry Ragonese, a spokesman for New Jersey’s Department of Environmental Protection, said the state was working on a “new, comprehensive forestry management plan.” Right now, the state is essentially spot-treating beetle outbreaks in hopes of slowing the infestation.
State workers are searching from the air for the telltale red that signals dying pines.
Recently, off Piney Hollow Road in the Winslow Wildlife Management Area, three part-time loggers, including Mr. Garcia, revved their chain saws as they chopped down nearly an acre of pines on state land. Because most beetles do not fly far from the tree where they hatch, cutting out diseased trees can slow their spread.
Lynn E. Fleming, New Jersey’s state forester, said she hoped to confine the beetles to the southernmost part of the state, south of the Mullica River, keeping them out of the heart of the Pinelands. But the beetles are not cooperating; they keep jumping the river.
Dr. Ayres said that if climatic warming continues, nothing would stop them from eventually heading up the coast. That means forest management is likely to become critical in many places where it has been neglected for decades.
“It’s hard for some people to accept — ‘What, you have to cut down trees to save the forest?’ ” Dr. Ayres said. “Yes, that’s exactly right. The alternative is losing the forest for saving the trees.”
Topic: Ecology & Global Warming
Source: NYT
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For every person in our world
Everyone need to know these facts
We are all facing these challenges
No one can run away
No one can escape
No one can hide
Know the facts
.
"The Science of 350, the Most Important Number on the Planet"
Read more about the science behind 350
350 parts per million is what many scientists, climate experts & progressive
national governments are now saying is the safe upper limit for CO2 in our
atmosphere
CO2 = click: Carbon dioxide - Wikipedia
Accelerating arctic warming and other early climate impacts have led scientists to conclude that we are already above the safe zone at our current 400ppm (= parts per million), and that unless we are able to rapidly return to below 350 ppm this century, we risk reaching tipping points and irreversible impacts such as the melting of the Greenland ice sheet and major methane releases from increased permafrost*) melt.
*) In geology, permafrost or cryotic soil is soil at or below the freezing point of water 0 °C (32 °F) for two or more years
click: Permafrost - Wikipedia
There are three numbers you need to really understand global warming: 275, 400, and 350.
Since the beginning of human civilization up until about 200 years ago, our atmosphere contained about 275 parts per million of carbon dioxide. Parts per million is simply a way of measuring the concentration of different gases, and means the ratio of the number of carbon dioxide molecules to all of the molecules in the atmosphere. 275 ppm CO2 is a useful amount—without some CO2 and other greenhouse gases that trap heat in our atmosphere, our planet would be too cold for humans to inhabit.
So we need some carbon in the atmosphere, but the question is how much?
Beginning in the 18th century, humans began to burn coal and gas and oil to produce energy and goods. The amount of carbon in the atmosphere began to rise, at first slowly and now more quickly. Many of the activities we do every day like turning the lights on, cooking food, or heating or cooling our homes rely on those fossil fuel energy sources that emit carbon dioxide and other heat-trapping gases into the atmosphere. We're taking millions of years worth of carbon, stored beneath the earth as fossil fuels, and releasing it into the atmosphere. By now—and this is the second number—the planet has about 400 parts per million CO2 – and this number is rising by about 2 parts per million every year.
Scientists are now saying that's too much – that number is higher than any time seen in the recorded history of our planet—and we're already beginning to see disastrous impacts on people and places all over the world. Glaciers everywhere are melting and disappearing fast—and they are a source of drinking water for hundreds of millions of people. Mosquitoes, who like a warmer world, are spreading into lots of new places, and bringing malaria and dengue fever with them. click: Dengue fever - Wikipedia
Drought is becoming much more common, making food harder to grow in many places. Sea levels have begun to rise, and scientists warn that they could go up as much as several meters this century. If that happens, many of the world's cities, island nations, and farmland will be underwater. The oceans are growing more acidic because of the CO2 they are absorbing, which makes it harder for animals like corals and clams to build and maintain their shells and skeletons. Coral reefs could start dissolving at an atmospheric CO2 concentration of 450-500 ppm. Along with increased intensity of extreme weather, such as hurricanes and blizzards, these impacts are combining to exacerbate conflicts and security issues in already resource-strapped regions.
The Arctic is sending us perhaps the clearest message that climate change is occurring much more rapidly than scientists previously thought. In the summer of 2007, sea ice was roughly 39% below the summer average for 1979-2000, a loss of area equal to nearly five United Kingdoms.
Propelled by the news of these accelerating impacts, some of the world's leading climate scientists have now revised the highest safe level of CO2 to 350 parts per million. That's the last number you need to know, and the most important. It's the safety zone for planet earth. As James Hansen of America's National Aeronautics and Space Administration, the first scientist to warn about global warming more than two decades ago, wrote:
"If humanity wishes to preserve a planet similar to that on which civilization developed and to which life on Earth is adapted, paleoclimate*) evidence and ongoing climate change suggest that CO2 will need to be reduced from its current 385 ppm to at most 350 ppm."
*) click: Paleoclimates - Global Change - University of
Paleoclimatology is the study of past climates. It is a fascinating, multidisciplinary field, combining history, anthropology, archaeology, chemistry, physics, ...
That will be a hard task, but not impossible. We need to stop taking carbon out of the ground and putting it into the air. Above all, that means we need to stop burning so much coal—and start using solar and wind energy and other such sources of renewable energy –while ensuring the Global South a fair chance to develop. If we do, then the earth’s soils and forests will slowly cycle some of that extra carbon out of the atmosphere, and eventually CO2 concentrations will return to a safe level. By decreasing use of other fossil fuels, and improving agricultural and forestry practices around the world, scientists believe we could get back below 350 by mid-century. But the longer we remain in the danger zone—above 350—the more likely that we will see disastrous and irreversible climate impacts.
With your help, we can spread this important piece of information to our fellow citizens, communities, countries, and the world. For more in-depth information on climate science, policy, and solutions, please see our list of recommended resources below.
For more, read Bill McKibben's blog post, "The Science of 350, the Most Important Number on the Planet"
Sources:
Click green for further info
- A Safe Operating Space for Humanity. Nature 461, 472-475 (24 September 2009); doi:10.1038/461472a; Published online 23 September 2009
- Hansen, James, et al. Target Atmospheric CO2: Where Should Humanity Aim? Submitted April 7, 2008. NASA climate scientist James Hansen's paper about the 350ppm target.
- Hansen, James, et al. Target Atmospheric CO2: Supporting Material. Submitted April 7, 2008.
- The IPCC 4th Assessment Report – link to the latest report by the Nobel-prize winning United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, supported by the world's leading climatologists.
- Baer, Paul, Tom Athanasiou and Sivan Kartha. "The Right to Develop in a Climate Constrained World: The Greenhouse Development Rights Framework" - an important policy framework for how to mitigate climate change while ensuring an equitable path to development for the Global South.
- The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change - link to the official UNFCCC website with information about the UN climate policy process.
- NASA - scientific reports, interactive maps, resources for kids, and more
- RealClimate.org - a blog of climate science, written by climate scientists
- Climate Safety - a very useful new report about current climate science, policy, and solutions
- Pew Center on Climate Change - helpful information about climate science and international policy
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Article 1 of 2
Article 2 of 2 next below - read it - it is about the same person as the article above:
Nick D’Aloisio - worth of your time
Teenager Sells App For $40 Million And
Why You Should Care
Click colored areas for further info
Yes, this is the kid who made 40 million bucks with an app that summarized things.
A few months ago an 18 year old kid from England, sold his app for 40 million dollars to Yahoo. Which makes me ask: How many young people do you know that have projects like his? Creating a website? Starting their own blog? Creating an app? (this 12 year old did). Online staffing firm oDesk.com recently surveyed their users on their views of being an employee in the workplace.
- 72 percent of users at “regular jobs” responded with saying they wanted to be entirely independent.
- 58 percent identified themselves as entrepreneurs.
Want to open an online store? Cool. Snap a few pics on your iPhone, open a shopify account, link your Paypal and you could be making those extra bucks to pay off those pesty college loans within a few hours. The consequences are tiny. In fact these days we’re raised with the notion that failing is a good thing. The scarce job market and uncertain economy encourages our generation to do just that bit extra for themselves.
Cloud based devices are changing the way we work. 63% of millenials have smartphone and as a result, we have the opportunity to work with live, real-time collaborative data everywhere we go.
Tools like Google Drive and Dropbox allow you to do just that. We can write documents, post a twitter update and have skype calls… all while sitting butt-naked on the toilet with an iPhone. This generation expects the same freedom with their job in the workplace (although maybe not on the office toilet).
Teenager Sells App For $40 Million And Why You Should CareDid you think I was joking?
My message as a member of this new breed to you Generation X’ers, Baby boomers and C-level execs that are working with, or will begin working with millenials in the near future, is to recognize the changes that are happening. Understand these changes and take full advantage so you can attract and keep the very best people on your team.
Give them more independence. For crying out loud, we spend more time alone with the internet than we do talking to people. If you want the best out of them, Let them be entrepreneurial. Let them take some initiative and they’ll reward you for it.
More Tech articles from Business 2 Community:
- 10 Video Conferencing Questions Answered...
- 6 Must-Have Photography Apps
- Get Ahead of the Mobile Herd: 5 Best Practices for Mobile-Optimized Marketing
- Top Five Cloud-Based Learning Management Systems (LMS)
- Will “Smart-Devices” Change the Face of SEO As We Know It?
Article 2 of 2 next below - it is about the same person as the article above - worth of your time
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Article 2 of 2
Both 1 of 2 and 2 of 2 are about the same person:Nick D’Aloisio
He as Millions and a New Job at Yahoo. Soon, He’ll Be 18
Click green for further info
One of Yahoo’s newest employees is a 17-year-old high school student in Britain.
He is one of its richest, too.
That student, Nick D’Aloisio, a programming whiz who wasn’t even born when Yahoo was founded in 1994, sold his news-reading app, Summly, to the company on Monday for a sum said to be in the tens of millions of dollars. Yahoo said it would incorporate his algorithmic invention, which takes long-form stories and shortens them for readers using smartphones, in its own mobile apps, with Mr. D’Aloisio’s help.
“I’ve still got a year and a half left at my high school,” he said in a telephone interview on Monday. But he will make arrangements to test out of his classes and work from the Yahoo office in London, partly to abide by the company’s new and much-debated policy that prohibits working from home.
Mr. D’Aloisio, who declined to comment on the price paid by Yahoo
(the technology news site AllThingsD pegged the purchase price at about $30 million), was Summly’s largest shareholder.
Summly’s other investors, improbably enough, included Wendi Murdoch, Ashton Kutcher and Yoko Ono. The most important one was Li Ka-shing, the Hong Kong billionaire, whose investment fund supported Mr. D’Aloisio’s idea early on, before it was even called Summly.
“They took a gamble on me when I was a 15-year-old,” Mr. D’Aloisio said, by providing seed financing that let him hire employees and lease office space.
The fund read about Mr. D’Aloisio’s early-stage app on TechCrunch, the Silicon Valley blog of record, found his e-mail address and startled him with a message expressing interest.
The others signed up later. “Because it was my first time around, people just wanted to help,” he said.
For teenagers who fancy themselves entrepreneurs — and their parents, too — the news of the sale conjured up some feelings of inadequacy, but also awe. For Brian Wong, the 21-year-old founder of Kiip, a mobile rewards company, the reaction was downright laughable: “I feel old!”
A few years ago, Mr. Wong was described in the news media as the youngest person ever to receive venture capital funding. But a couple of younger founders came along — “and then Nick broke all of our records,” Mr. Wong said on Monday.
Among the attributes that helped Mr. D’Aloisio, he said, was a preternatural ability to articulate exactly what he wanted Summly to be. “There were no umms, no uhhs, no hesitations, no insecurities,” Mr. Wong said.
Mr. D’Aloisio, for his part, sounded somewhat uninterested in answering questions about his age on Monday. He acknowledged that it was an advantage in some pitch meetings, and certainly in the news media, “but so was the strength of the idea.” He was more eager to talk about his new employer, Yahoo, which is trying to reinvent itself as a mobile-first technology company (having dropped the digital media tagline it used before Marissa Mayer became chief executive last year).
“People are kind of underestimating how powerful it’s going to become and how much opportunity is there,” he said.
For a company that badly wants to be labeled innovative, those words are worth a lot.
Mr. D’Aloisio’s father, who works at Morgan Stanley, and his mother, a lawyer, had no special knowledge of technology. But they nurtured their son’s fascination with it and he started coding at age 12. Eventually he decided to develop an app with what he calls an “automatic summarization algorithm,” one that “can take pre-existing long-form content and summarize it.” In other words, it tries to solve a problem that is often summed up with the abbreviation tl;dr: “too long; didn’t read.”
Summly officially came online last November. By December, Mr. D’Aloisio was talking to Yahoo and other suitors.
Yahoo said in a statement that while the Summly app would be shut down, “we will acquire the technology and you’ll see it come to life throughout Yahoo’s mobile experiences soon.”
Other news-reading apps have attracted corporate attention as of late, reflecting the scramble by media companies to adapt to skyrocketing traffic from mobile devices. The social network LinkedIn was said to be pursuing an app called Pulse earlier this month. Still, the eight-figure payday for a teenage entrepreneur on Monday struck some as outlandish and set off speculation that Yahoo was willing to pay almost any price for “cool.”
Mr. D’Aloisio, though, will have plenty of time to prove his and his algorithm’s worth. As for the sizable paycheck from Yahoo, he said he did not have any specific plans for the sudden windfall. “It’s going to be put into a trust fund and my parents will help manage it,” he said.
He did say, however, that “angel investing could be really fun.” When not working at Yahoo, he will keep up with his hobbies — cricket in particular — and set his sights on attending college at Oxford. His intended major is philosophy.
Click green for further infp
Source: NYT
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Important, useful child safety technology for every family with children
New technology, in the form of voice watches and miniature sensing devices, is aimed at thwarting*) such distress by keeping track of children who are too young to carry a smartphone - to thwart = prevent from happening
If a Young Child Wanders, Technology Can Follow
Date: November 2, 2013
Click green for further info
Most parents have experienced that feeling of fear when a young child wanders off at the playground or disappears during a trip to the supermarket. New technology, in the form of voice watches and miniature sensing devices, is aimed at thwarting such distress by keeping track of children who are too young to carry a smartphone.
The new devices use GPS, Wi-Fi and other location-tracking technology and can be linked to apps on a parent’s phone. One device, a watch coming from Filip Technologies, tracks a child’s location and lets him or her get voice calls from up to five people authorized by their parents. (Children lift the watch to their ear or mouth when communicating.)
The watch also has a red panic button that children can push if, for example, they suddenly become separated from their parents in a crowd. Then the watch starts dialing each of the authorized people until one answers. AT&T will be the network provider for the watch; its price has not yet been announced.
Sandra L. Calvert, a professor of psychology and the director of the Children’s Digital Media Center at Georgetown University, views the watches and related products as extensions of the way parents now use smartphones to keep track of older children.
“From a child’s perspective, a parent is like an anchor,” she said. These devices allow the child to move farther and farther away, yet the parent knows where the child is. “If a child gets lost in a store and can push a little button, their parents can find them,” she said. “It helps them to know they are in a range that seems to be safe.”
But the technology offered by the watches and similar products could be a mixed blessing, said Lisa Damour, a psychologist who focuses on parenting and directs the Center for Research on Girls at Laurel School
in Shaker Heights, Ohio, and contributes to Motherlode blog of The New York Times.
“I can understand how a parent might want to know if their child is having a problem, but I don’t think it’s necessarily helpful for children to always be able to turn to their parents when they are struggling,” she said. “We want children to develop problem-solving skills and the capacity to manage stress” as they practice drawing on their own resources, or those of teachers, friends and others around them.
The panic button might have an unintended effect that’s not in the best interest of the child, she said. “It may reduce the parents’ anxiety to give their child a panic button, but I can readily imagine that it increases the child’s anxiety,” she said. “It sends a strong message that the child is at real risk of danger. This goes against what we know statistically.”
In reality, children are now safer from abduction by strangers than they’ve been in decades, said Lisa M. Jones, a research associate professor of psychology at the University of New Hampshire’s Crimes Against Children Research Center. “Abductions in the traditional sense of someone taken by someone else they don’t know, with the intention of keeping or harming the child — that’s quite rare,” she said. “The vast majority of children are victimized by people close to them.”
But even though such abductions are rare, she said, “obviously we are terrified by them.”
Jonathan Peachey, chief executive of Filip Technologies, said the watch might well increase a child’s anxiety, “but I would question whether that’s a bad thing.” With the watch, children have a sense that they can always talk to their parents in threatening situations. “That’s a conversation, and a very positive one for parents to have with their child,” he said.
Another new tracking device, the tiny Trax, also pairs with a smartphone app to allow parents to find their children, particularly very young ones, said Tobias Stenberg, a co-founder of Wonder Technology Solutions, a company in Stockholm that makes the device.
The tracker is meant for those worrisome moments when parents trying to keep an eye on a child playing in the garden, for example, suddenly discover that he or she isn’t there. “Your first reaction is a bit of panic, but if you look at your phone, you can see, ‘Oh, she’s returned to her room,’ ” Mr. Stenberg said.
The Trax, to be available later this month, costs $249 and includes a subscription for two years’ use in more than 30 countries, including the United States. After that, the company will charge a small monthly fee. Parents can draw boundaries on the screens of their smartphones, creating an electronic fence within which their child can roam. But if the child crosses the digital fence, the tracker alerts the parents, Mr. Stenberg said. And if the satellite signal is lost inside a building, for example, the Trax uses motion and direction sensors to determine the child’s position. (The device can also keep track of dogs, he said.)
For parents who opt for smartphones even for young children, many wireless services, like AT&T’s FamilyMap, offer programs that track the phones of family members, sending a text or email to parents telling them, for example, when their child’s phone arrives home after school.
Lynn Schofield Clark, an associate professor at the University of Denver and author of “The Parent App,” said parents who equip their young children with tracking devices still have to try to balance the parental instinct to protect their offspring with the need to nurture their sense of independence and responsibility.
Children can’t be protected by gadgets alone, she said — they also have to learn the basics of being a responsible family member: “We still have to remind them again and again that they have to let us know where they are and not wander off.”
Click green for further info
Source: NYT
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Unemployed in Europe
Stymied by Lack of Technology Skills
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to stymie or to stymy = (1)to hinder or prevent the progress or accomplishment of .... (2) an obstacle or obstruction
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DUBLIN — Week after week, newspapers issue a stream of hopeful headlines: Microsoft, PayPal, Fujitsu and scores of other companies are expanding their investments in Ireland, creating thousands of jobs as unemployment hovers near record highs.
There is just one hitch: Not enough people are qualified to fill all the jobs. In some cases, the companies have had to look outside Ireland to recruit candidates with the right skills.
After a five-year economic crisis, the mismatch represents one of the thorniest problems facing Ireland and many other European countries. Hundreds of thousands of people who lost work, and many young people entering the work force, are finding that their skills are ill suited to a huge crop of innovation-based jobs springing up across the Continent.
“In all countries, there is an expectation that many of the new jobs created will be in the knowledge-intensive economy,” said Glenda Quintini, a senior labor economist at the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. “But we are seeing a worrisome skills mismatch that means a large number of unemployed people are not well prepared for the pool of jobs opening up.”
Employers have long complained that graduates do not have the skills they need. But in a recent click: report, the International Labor Organization warned that “skills mismatches and occupational shifts have worsened” in Europe in the wake of the crisis. People laid off in hard-hit sectors, from construction to finance, face lengthy retraining, while too few graduates entering the job market have chosen engineering, science or technology degrees for the growing innovation-based jobs market.
The gap in Europe has important consequences for the recovery as the euro zone grapples with unemployment rates stuck stubbornly above 12 percent: It may hold back a return to meaningful growth and generate “significant economic and social costs,” according to the European Commission, the policy-making arm of the European Union.
The International Labor Organization went further, warning that the gap might contribute to extended spells of unemployment and might reduce the effectiveness of policy interventions to stimulate growth. In the United States, the phenomenon has also helped contribute to a rise in long-term joblessness, the organization said.
Around two million job vacancies around the European Union are languishing unfilled, about the same number as in 2010, in sectors ranging from hotel work to computer programming, according to Eurostat, the statistics office of the European Union.
A study released in November by Eurofound, the research arm of the European Union, showed that despite the recession, almost 40 percent of companies reported difficulty in finding workers with the right skills, compared with 37 percent in 2008 and 35 percent in 2005.
The problem is especially striking for innovation-based companies, which are generating jobs at a rapid clip as technology spreads through every sector of the economy. By 2015, about 900,000 information and communications technology vacancies may go unfilled in the European Union, the European Commission warned in a recent report on the digital economy. The gap “is of major concern to European competitiveness” and to the economy as a whole, the commission said.
Governments and companies around Europe are fast-tracking efforts to retrain the unemployed for a burst of technology-related jobs. They are also stepping up campaigns to lure university students to mathematics, engineering and science in place of popular courses in the humanities and social sciences.
In Ireland, the government introduced a series of retraining and higher-education programs and sought to polish the allure of mathematics degrees as alarm bells sounded over the issue a couple of years ago. At the time, unemployment was around 14 percent after an economic collapse that destroyed jobs in the construction sector, which had employed around a quarter of the young men in the country.
Multinational technology and social media companies kept investing, lured by Ireland’s ultralow 12.5 percent corporate tax rate and an English-speaking work force. But many have been forced to look outside the country for employees with the right skills, despite more than 391,500 being out of work and a jobless rate of around 12.5 percent.
The issue peaked last summer, when PayPal’s chief executive in Ireland, Louise Phelan, stoked controversy by acknowledging that the company had recruited from 19 other countries for 500 positions in its operations center in Dundalk because of a lack of foreign-language skills among Irish nationals. This summer, Fujitsu, which employs 800 people in Ireland, revealed that it had had to hire most of its Ph.D.-level experts from abroad.
All told, around half of information technology jobs in Dublin were being filled with foreign workers, while around 4,500 information technology jobs in the country were going unfilled because of a limited supply of suitably skilled applicants, various studies have shown. Paul Sweetman, the director of ICT Ireland, a business lobby group, said that part of Ireland’s strategy was to enhance its attractiveness as an investment and work destination by luring bright minds from around the world to the technology sector.
The skills shortage prevented Ireland-based companies from “effectively executing their business strategies,” which created a risk of lower productivity and slower growth, according to a recent report by the consulting company Accenture.
Part of the problem for all countries, not only Ireland, was that technology-related university training lost appeal after the dot-com bust in the early 2000s, said Regina Moran, the executive director of Fujitsu in Ireland. In Ireland, people flocked to construction or tourism work, which blossomed in the middle of the decade.
Ian Sharpe was one of them. He spent nearly 15 years working in the hotel industry until Ireland’s banking crisis strangled the Celtic Tiger and left him jobless in 2010. He languished on benefits as he tried fruitlessly to find new work.
But last year he latched on to back-to-work programs that the government had introduced with businesses.
Recently, 182 candidates — most of them unemployed, with backgrounds in fields including farming, construction and even astrophysics — went through retraining. One company, VMware, hired 82 people, and other companies hired nearly everyone else — including Mr. Sharpe.
On a recent weekday, he was huddled with a team of technicians in the Cork-based offices of VCE, a joint venture between VMware, Cisco, EMC and Intel that provides cloud and virtualization software and services.
After six months as an intern, he was hired full time to help manage a data center, with an annual salary of around 30,000 euros, or about $40,000 — about what he was making as a hotel manager.
The initiatives are not without flaws. For example, as part of the JobBridge internship program, people continue to collect unemployment and receive a modest €50 stipend per week. For many, that barely covers transportation and food. Stories have littered the Irish press of abuses by companies in the program, such as giving interns either menial tasks or fully fledged professional work with no pay, and with no job ultimately materializing.
Such talk was so widespread that Mr. Sharpe said that people had urged him not to enter the program. But he wanted to avoid the fate of a number of his friends who had fallen into a rut, where the longer they were unemployed, the less likely they were to get back into the job market.
“I know people who had to get medication for being depressed, because they don’t see anything coming,” he said.
He now has an air of hope. “I’ve gone from someone who had never been professionally involved in I.T. to getting an engineering position just nine months later,” Mr. Sharpe said.
“You can see where you’re going,” he added. “Finally, there’s something to aim for.”
Source: NYT
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E.P.A. Set to Reveal Tough New Sulfur Emissions Rule
WASHINGTON. D.C. — February 2014
There is no other regulatory strategy that is
as important
from a health standpoint, in the foreseeable future
(1) The new rule will have a significant impact on the health of low-income Americans who live near major highways.
(2) The cleaner-burning gasoline will yield between $6.7 billion and $19 billion annually in economic benefits by saving lives and preventing missed work and school days due to illness.
(3) The agency estimates that, annually, the new rule will prevent between 770 and 2,000 premature deaths; 2,200 hospital admissions and asthma-related emergency room visits; 19,000 asthma attacks, 30,000 cases of symptoms of respiratory symptoms in children, and 1.4 million lost school and work days.
To see the history of News about Environmental Protection Agency, including commentary and archival articles published in The New York Times click: History of Environmental Protection Agency -
EPA plans to unveil a major new regulation on Monday March 3/2013 that forces oil refiners to strip out sulfur,
a smog-forming pollutant linked to respiratory disease, from American gasoline blends, according to people familiar with the agency’s plans.
Click: US Environmental Protection Agencywww.epa.gov/
Proposed Safety Measures to Protect Farm Workers. Improvements to training regarding the safe usage of pesticides, how to prevent and treat pesticide ...Careers - Contact EPA - Laws & Regulations - Regulatory Information By Topic
When burned in gasoline, sulfur blocks pollution-control equipment in vehicle engines, which increases tailpipe emissions linked to lung disease, asthma*-1), emphysema*-2), chronic bronchitis*-3), aggravated heart disease*-4) and premature births*-5) and deaths. Proponents of the rule say it will be President Obama’s most significant public health achievement in his second term, but opponents, chiefly oil refiners, say it is unnecessarily costly and an unfair burden on them.
asthma*-1) Click: What Is Asthma? - NHLBI, NIH
emphysema*-2) click: Emphysema: MedlinePlus
chronic bronchitis*-3) click: Chronic Bronchitis: MedlinePlus
aggravated heart disease*-4) click: What causes heart failure?
premature births*-5) click: Premature Birth - Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
The E.P.A. estimates that the new rule will drastically reduce soot and smog in the United States, and thus rates of diseases associated with those pollutants, while slightly raising the price of both gasoline and cars. The rule will require oil refiners to install expensive new equipment to clean sulfur out of gasoline and force automakers to install new, cleaner-burning engine technology.
E.P.A. officials estimate that the new regulation will raise the cost of gasoline by about two-thirds of one cent per gallon and add about $75 to the sticker price of cars. But oil refiners say that it will cost their industry $10 billion and raise gasoline costs by up to 9 cents per gallon.
The E.P.A.’s studies conclude that by 2030, the cleaner-burning gasoline will yield between $6.7 billion and $19 billion annually in economic benefits by saving lives and preventing missed work and school days due to illness. The agency estimates that, annually, the new rule will prevent between 770 and 2,000 premature deaths; 2,200 hospital admissions and asthma-related emergency room visits; 19,000 asthma attacks, 30,000 cases of symptoms of respiratory symptoms in children, and 1.4 million lost school and work days.
“There is no other regulatory strategy that is as important from a health standpoint, in the foreseeable future,” said S. William Becker, director of the National Association of Clean Air Agencies.
click: NACAAwww.4cleanair.org/ The National Association of Clean Air Agencies (formerly STAPPA and ALAPCO) welcomes you to this web site. Explore this web site to locate state and local air ...
Until now, the sulfur content standards in American gasoline lagged far behind those used in the European Union, Japan and South Korea. The new rule will close that pollution gap by cutting American gasoline sulfur content by more than 60 percent, from 30 parts per million of sulfur down to 10 parts per million, starting in 2017.
The cleaner gasoline standard has been Click: years in the making. Mr. Obama asked the E.P.A. to create the rule in a 2010 presidential memorandum, and public health and environmental advocates lobbied the agency vigorously to complete it. It is the most recent in a cascade of aggressive air pollution regulations that have emerged as a hallmark of the Obama administration.
During the 2012 presidential campaign, the forthcoming gasoline rule was a hotly contested political target. Republicans criticized it as an example of what they called the Obama administration’s regulatory overreach.
But since the presidential election, some Republicans have said they welcome the rule. Gov. Gary R. Herbert of Utah, a conservative Republican, said that because of mountain weather patterns, tailpipe smog is often trapped around Salt Lake City, giving his state many days with “gunky air that rivals L.A.”
click: Salt Lake City www.ci.slc.ut.us/ At Salt Lake City Government, we're committed to making digital access to information, City services and your elected officials as easy and efficient as possible
Mr. Herbert said the new rule would help clean up his state’s air. “We’ve got to find a way to eliminate that with cleaner fuels and cleaner autos,” he said in an interview. “Dirty air is not a partisan issue. The fact that we have technology that’s available — cleaner burning fuels, cleaner burning autos — we ought to embrace that.”
The new rule will have a significant impact on the health of low-income Americans who live near major highways, said Dr. Al Rizzo, a pulmonologist at Christiana Care Health System in Newark, Del.
click: Albert A. Rizzo, MD, FACP, FACCP - Christiana Care Health System
and a former chairman of the American Lung Association’s board of directors.
click: American Lung Association: Homepagewww.lung.org/American Lung Association Learn how to improve your lung health. Make efforts towards clean air and smokefree living. Find facts about lung diseases, such as lung cancer, COPD, ...
“The population that lives close to highways, that has the greatest exposure to these pollutants, air quality makes a big difference for them,” Dr. Rizzo said. click: President Charles T. Drevna - AFPMBut oil refiners say that the new rule will hurt their industry. Charles T. Drevna, president of the American Fuel and Petrochemical Manufacturers
click: AFPM | American Fuel & Petrochemical Manufacturerswww.afpm.org/, which lobbies for the oil refining industry, said that the rule comes on top of a series of other burdensome regulations. A decade ago, American gasoline contained 300 parts per million of sulfur, but earlier rules required refiners to cut the sulfur content by 90 percent, down to the current 30 parts per million.
Mr. Drevna said it was easier to comply with the earlier regulations because removing the first 90 percent of sulfur molecules from gasoline can be done without difficulty. Wringing the last 10 percent of those molecules is harder.
“They’re tough little buggers that don’t want to come out,” Mr. Drevna said. “It’s like getting the last little bit of red wine stain out of a white blouse.”
Asked about the E.P.A.’s estimate that the rule would raise prices at the pump by less than a penny a gallon, Mr. Drevna laughed out loud. “I don’t know what model E.P.A. uses,” he said. “The math doesn’t add up.” His industry’s estimate that the rule could raise gasoline prices by up to 9 cents a gallon comes from a study by the American Petroleum Institute, which lobbies for oil companies.
Not all industries oppose the regulation. Although the auto industry estimates that the rule will cost automakers about $15 billion over 10 years, Gloria Bergquist, vice president of the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers, whose members include General Motors, Ford and Toyota, said her group had worked closely with the Obama administration to develop the regulation, and does not oppose it.
click: Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers: Homewww.autoalliance.org. The Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers is an association of 12 of the largest car manufacturers, and is the leading advocacy group for the auto industry.
That is in part, she said, because complying with the new clean-gasoline regulation will help automakers more easily meet another set of Obama administration regulations, tightening vehicle fuel economy standards.
“We understand that this is the trend, to get cars cleaner and cleaner,” Ms. Bergquist said. “Our engineers are prepared to work for it.”
Source: (1) EPA , (2) NYT, (3) STAF, Inc.
________________________________
WASHINGTON. D.C. — February 2014
There is no other regulatory strategy that is
as important
from a health standpoint, in the foreseeable future
(1) The new rule will have a significant impact on the health of low-income Americans who live near major highways.
(2) The cleaner-burning gasoline will yield between $6.7 billion and $19 billion annually in economic benefits by saving lives and preventing missed work and school days due to illness.
(3) The agency estimates that, annually, the new rule will prevent between 770 and 2,000 premature deaths; 2,200 hospital admissions and asthma-related emergency room visits; 19,000 asthma attacks, 30,000 cases of symptoms of respiratory symptoms in children, and 1.4 million lost school and work days.
To see the history of News about Environmental Protection Agency, including commentary and archival articles published in The New York Times click: History of Environmental Protection Agency -
EPA plans to unveil a major new regulation on Monday March 3/2013 that forces oil refiners to strip out sulfur,
a smog-forming pollutant linked to respiratory disease, from American gasoline blends, according to people familiar with the agency’s plans.
Click: US Environmental Protection Agencywww.epa.gov/
Proposed Safety Measures to Protect Farm Workers. Improvements to training regarding the safe usage of pesticides, how to prevent and treat pesticide ...Careers - Contact EPA - Laws & Regulations - Regulatory Information By Topic
When burned in gasoline, sulfur blocks pollution-control equipment in vehicle engines, which increases tailpipe emissions linked to lung disease, asthma*-1), emphysema*-2), chronic bronchitis*-3), aggravated heart disease*-4) and premature births*-5) and deaths. Proponents of the rule say it will be President Obama’s most significant public health achievement in his second term, but opponents, chiefly oil refiners, say it is unnecessarily costly and an unfair burden on them.
asthma*-1) Click: What Is Asthma? - NHLBI, NIH
emphysema*-2) click: Emphysema: MedlinePlus
chronic bronchitis*-3) click: Chronic Bronchitis: MedlinePlus
aggravated heart disease*-4) click: What causes heart failure?
premature births*-5) click: Premature Birth - Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
The E.P.A. estimates that the new rule will drastically reduce soot and smog in the United States, and thus rates of diseases associated with those pollutants, while slightly raising the price of both gasoline and cars. The rule will require oil refiners to install expensive new equipment to clean sulfur out of gasoline and force automakers to install new, cleaner-burning engine technology.
E.P.A. officials estimate that the new regulation will raise the cost of gasoline by about two-thirds of one cent per gallon and add about $75 to the sticker price of cars. But oil refiners say that it will cost their industry $10 billion and raise gasoline costs by up to 9 cents per gallon.
The E.P.A.’s studies conclude that by 2030, the cleaner-burning gasoline will yield between $6.7 billion and $19 billion annually in economic benefits by saving lives and preventing missed work and school days due to illness. The agency estimates that, annually, the new rule will prevent between 770 and 2,000 premature deaths; 2,200 hospital admissions and asthma-related emergency room visits; 19,000 asthma attacks, 30,000 cases of symptoms of respiratory symptoms in children, and 1.4 million lost school and work days.
“There is no other regulatory strategy that is as important from a health standpoint, in the foreseeable future,” said S. William Becker, director of the National Association of Clean Air Agencies.
click: NACAAwww.4cleanair.org/ The National Association of Clean Air Agencies (formerly STAPPA and ALAPCO) welcomes you to this web site. Explore this web site to locate state and local air ...
Until now, the sulfur content standards in American gasoline lagged far behind those used in the European Union, Japan and South Korea. The new rule will close that pollution gap by cutting American gasoline sulfur content by more than 60 percent, from 30 parts per million of sulfur down to 10 parts per million, starting in 2017.
The cleaner gasoline standard has been Click: years in the making. Mr. Obama asked the E.P.A. to create the rule in a 2010 presidential memorandum, and public health and environmental advocates lobbied the agency vigorously to complete it. It is the most recent in a cascade of aggressive air pollution regulations that have emerged as a hallmark of the Obama administration.
During the 2012 presidential campaign, the forthcoming gasoline rule was a hotly contested political target. Republicans criticized it as an example of what they called the Obama administration’s regulatory overreach.
But since the presidential election, some Republicans have said they welcome the rule. Gov. Gary R. Herbert of Utah, a conservative Republican, said that because of mountain weather patterns, tailpipe smog is often trapped around Salt Lake City, giving his state many days with “gunky air that rivals L.A.”
click: Salt Lake City www.ci.slc.ut.us/ At Salt Lake City Government, we're committed to making digital access to information, City services and your elected officials as easy and efficient as possible
Mr. Herbert said the new rule would help clean up his state’s air. “We’ve got to find a way to eliminate that with cleaner fuels and cleaner autos,” he said in an interview. “Dirty air is not a partisan issue. The fact that we have technology that’s available — cleaner burning fuels, cleaner burning autos — we ought to embrace that.”
The new rule will have a significant impact on the health of low-income Americans who live near major highways, said Dr. Al Rizzo, a pulmonologist at Christiana Care Health System in Newark, Del.
click: Albert A. Rizzo, MD, FACP, FACCP - Christiana Care Health System
and a former chairman of the American Lung Association’s board of directors.
click: American Lung Association: Homepagewww.lung.org/American Lung Association Learn how to improve your lung health. Make efforts towards clean air and smokefree living. Find facts about lung diseases, such as lung cancer, COPD, ...
“The population that lives close to highways, that has the greatest exposure to these pollutants, air quality makes a big difference for them,” Dr. Rizzo said. click: President Charles T. Drevna - AFPMBut oil refiners say that the new rule will hurt their industry. Charles T. Drevna, president of the American Fuel and Petrochemical Manufacturers
click: AFPM | American Fuel & Petrochemical Manufacturerswww.afpm.org/, which lobbies for the oil refining industry, said that the rule comes on top of a series of other burdensome regulations. A decade ago, American gasoline contained 300 parts per million of sulfur, but earlier rules required refiners to cut the sulfur content by 90 percent, down to the current 30 parts per million.
Mr. Drevna said it was easier to comply with the earlier regulations because removing the first 90 percent of sulfur molecules from gasoline can be done without difficulty. Wringing the last 10 percent of those molecules is harder.
“They’re tough little buggers that don’t want to come out,” Mr. Drevna said. “It’s like getting the last little bit of red wine stain out of a white blouse.”
Asked about the E.P.A.’s estimate that the rule would raise prices at the pump by less than a penny a gallon, Mr. Drevna laughed out loud. “I don’t know what model E.P.A. uses,” he said. “The math doesn’t add up.” His industry’s estimate that the rule could raise gasoline prices by up to 9 cents a gallon comes from a study by the American Petroleum Institute, which lobbies for oil companies.
Not all industries oppose the regulation. Although the auto industry estimates that the rule will cost automakers about $15 billion over 10 years, Gloria Bergquist, vice president of the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers, whose members include General Motors, Ford and Toyota, said her group had worked closely with the Obama administration to develop the regulation, and does not oppose it.
click: Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers: Homewww.autoalliance.org. The Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers is an association of 12 of the largest car manufacturers, and is the leading advocacy group for the auto industry.
That is in part, she said, because complying with the new clean-gasoline regulation will help automakers more easily meet another set of Obama administration regulations, tightening vehicle fuel economy standards.
“We understand that this is the trend, to get cars cleaner and cleaner,” Ms. Bergquist said. “Our engineers are prepared to work for it.”
Source: (1) EPA , (2) NYT, (3) STAF, Inc.
________________________________
Travel topic
For everyone
No matter what your country
Traveler: Know Your Embassy’s Services
- needed in any emergency -
Towards the end of my three-week trip, a bomb went off just down the street from my hotel and killed two and injured
dozens. If I had registered my travel information with a U.S. Embassy I would have received either warnings to my phone or computer or to my email for such a risk or a report when it happened.
Register your travel information - find out how it is done in your country's embassies. The U.S. offers travel information registration services its embassies.
Below listed some services Embassies will provide typically can provide when you are away from home.
Assistance with Lost Passports: If you lose your passport abroad, your Embassy should be able to help you get a new one. Keep in mind that if you are trekking in a remote area, you will have to find your way back to a major city and handle this task in person.
Assistance With Emergencies: If a citizen is arrested, missing, seriously ill, a victim of a violent crime, or dies, your Embassy should be able to provide services to advise family members on how to proceed with the issues at hand. There may be special phone numbers that you need to use for emergency situations, so be sure to read through the websites thoroughly and take down all the information. Having just a main reception phone number won’t help you in your hour of need.
Birth of a Child: If you are working abroad (or traveling near the end of a pregnancy) and your child happens to be born in a foreign country, you need to contact the Embassy to record the birth and get necessary paperwork taken care of.
Notary Services: If you need notary services for official documentation (like buying property), your Embassy may be able to help you with that for a fee.
Assistance With a Crisis/Evacuation: As for registering your travel information with your Embassy, first you need to check if this service is even offered. For U. S. citizens, there is a program called STEP, which stands for Smart Traveler Enrollment Program. The main benefit of this service is to allow the Embassy to contact citizens and notify them of evacuations or crisis situations in the country you are visited. If you have any concerns with the stability of a location you are traveling to, you may want to consider signing up.
As a rule of thumb before leaving for any trip, I suggest doing a minute of Internet research to at least find out where your country’s Embassy building is located. Even if you never plan on registering with them, have the address and phone number written down and carried with you at all times. Additionally, you may want to program the telephone number into your phone in case you come across an urgent situation.
As always I wish you all the happiest of travels!
Source: Consummate traveler
_______________________________________
For everyone
No matter what your country
Traveler: Know Your Embassy’s Services
- needed in any emergency -
Towards the end of my three-week trip, a bomb went off just down the street from my hotel and killed two and injured
dozens. If I had registered my travel information with a U.S. Embassy I would have received either warnings to my phone or computer or to my email for such a risk or a report when it happened.
Register your travel information - find out how it is done in your country's embassies. The U.S. offers travel information registration services its embassies.
Below listed some services Embassies will provide typically can provide when you are away from home.
Assistance with Lost Passports: If you lose your passport abroad, your Embassy should be able to help you get a new one. Keep in mind that if you are trekking in a remote area, you will have to find your way back to a major city and handle this task in person.
Assistance With Emergencies: If a citizen is arrested, missing, seriously ill, a victim of a violent crime, or dies, your Embassy should be able to provide services to advise family members on how to proceed with the issues at hand. There may be special phone numbers that you need to use for emergency situations, so be sure to read through the websites thoroughly and take down all the information. Having just a main reception phone number won’t help you in your hour of need.
Birth of a Child: If you are working abroad (or traveling near the end of a pregnancy) and your child happens to be born in a foreign country, you need to contact the Embassy to record the birth and get necessary paperwork taken care of.
Notary Services: If you need notary services for official documentation (like buying property), your Embassy may be able to help you with that for a fee.
Assistance With a Crisis/Evacuation: As for registering your travel information with your Embassy, first you need to check if this service is even offered. For U. S. citizens, there is a program called STEP, which stands for Smart Traveler Enrollment Program. The main benefit of this service is to allow the Embassy to contact citizens and notify them of evacuations or crisis situations in the country you are visited. If you have any concerns with the stability of a location you are traveling to, you may want to consider signing up.
As a rule of thumb before leaving for any trip, I suggest doing a minute of Internet research to at least find out where your country’s Embassy building is located. Even if you never plan on registering with them, have the address and phone number written down and carried with you at all times. Additionally, you may want to program the telephone number into your phone in case you come across an urgent situation.
As always I wish you all the happiest of travels!
Source: Consummate traveler
_______________________________________
"We do not take a trip - the trip takes us"
Click: John Steinbeck
Awards: Nobel Prize in Literature, Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, National Book Award for Fiction, Presidential Medal of Freedom
Click all 6 green links above for further info
________________
Travel topic
Sleeping Well in your Hotel
Sleep is a very important task that we all need to do well so we can function in our daily lives. Traveling can really make sleep difficult, whether it is due to jet lag or not having your favorite pillow. I can recall a former boss of mine who used to come down to breakfast exhausted on our trips because she just could not relax in a strange bedroom. I on the other hand thankfully adjust quickly and can usually rest no matter where I go. Let’s go over a few tips to help you get a good night’s sleep in your next hotel stay.
1. Mattresses matter: The worst sleep I ever consistently had on a business trip was in a local Japanese hotel chain I stayed in last year. The mattress was so hard and full of old springs that I woke up each morning with a terrible ache in my back. Although I endured the pain for most of the trip and even slept upside down (my head was where my feet would normally be) to avoid certain unruly coils stabbing my spine, other colleagues of mine have requested hotels to change their mattress when they could not move to another room. My best advice is to stay in a well-known hotel chain that emphasizes in their marketing that they provide quality mattresses and bedding.
2. Allergy-free your room: I do not personally suffer from allergies to feathers, but many of my colleagues do. I would say that most hotels use feather pillows and comforters on their beds, which can be a disaster if you do not tolerate them. I can recall someone I traveled with who had this issue, but the hotel did not have any alternatives for her. It will be a challenge to guarantee a good night’s sleep in this case. Larger hotel chains may have actual allergy free rooms you can stay in, so be sure to ask upon check-in. Alternatively, most have hypoallergenic options for pillows and bedding upon request. If this is a big concern for you, it is always best to call ahead and ask the hotel directly what options they have. For small hotels in remote locations, you may need to bring a pillow from home.
3. Come prepared to tune out noise: On my last business trip I stayed in one of the noisiest hotels ever. The high-rise building was right underneath a popular airport-landing route, and it seemed as if the planes were in my room every few minutes. The windows also did not block the outside sounds too well, so there were constant car horns and city noise coming in. Most of my colleagues suffered as I did the first night, and agreed that getting a good night’s sleep was going to be very difficult. I ended up adjusting to this situation by sleeping with my ear-buds in my ears and listening to various compilations on my iPod so that I could control the volume to sufficiently drown out the noise. Usually by 3 a.m., the noise would be tolerable and I could continue my night of sleep without any electronic accessories.
4. Aromatherapy: Some top notch hotels I have stayed in over the years provided a small tube of essential oil, usually lavender, by the nightstand to infuse on pillows and sheets before retiring for the night. Lavender is a scent that is known for its relaxing and soothing properties, and I can recall enjoying the beautiful smell during the night. If all the other aspects of your bed and surroundings are good, this could be the icing on the cake for your best night of sleep ever. Lavender essential oil is fairly easy to find on the Internet, and may even be in some supermarkets. Prices for a small vial can range between $3 to $20, but a few drops are all you need.
As always I wish you all the happiest of travels!
Source: Consummate Traveler
____________________________
Travel topic
Hotels, Alarms, and Fires….oh my!
I recently took a few days off from work and treated myself to a mini getaway at a very nice New York City hotel near Central Park. My room ended up being on the top floor, the 46th, with a lovely view. On my first night, I was in a very deep sleep with my IPOD headphones still in my ears, when I vaguely sensed an alarm bell and announcement going off in the hallway at 2:45 a.m.
I ripped my earphones off, stood by my door, and sure enough the fire alarm was sounding and someone was explaining on the emergency sound system that the “incident” was all clear and they were sorry for any inconvenience. Well, this type of announcement is a bit unnerving, after all I had no idea what the “incident” was. Could it have been a shooter running loose in the building, a fire, or something else? I attempted to call the manager on duty to find out what was happening, but the phone line was busy and I eventually gave up.
Since I did not see or smell smoke, the most immediate danger I could think of, I stayed in my room. However, who could sleep? This extremely loud alarm and announcement proceeded to go off every 10 minutes or so, until about 3:30 a.m. At this point, a new voice came over the sound system and told all the hotel guests to go back to their rooms. The drama was apparently over.
The next morning, as I took the elevator to the lobby I asked a gentleman who entered on the 43rd floor if he knew what had happened. Apparently, there was a small fire in a wastebasket in one of the rooms on his floor. He said that there had been confusion over what to do exactly, because one set of firefighters asked those on his floor to evacuate to the 40th floor, while another group of firefighters earlier did not require an evacuation. He felt the instructions were not clear or consistent. I would have to agree.
In the end, all of the hotel guests and staff were safe, but this incident was a great reminder of being prepared in case this ever happens to you. I would like to review a few basic safety tips for you to apply on all of your trips going forward:
1. Top floor risks: Yes, the views are amazing when you are way up high. However, if there is an emergency and evacuation is needed, you will most likely need to take the stairs. If you are not physically able to handle such a requirement or are not willing to take the risk, request to make stay on a lower floor when you check in.
2. Keep your essentials packed: If an emergency strikes in the middle of the night, and you need to run out of your room, it is important to get in the habit of keeping all of your essentials ready to go in a backpack or handbag before you retire for the night. By essentials, I mean things such as passport/ID, wallet, medication, and glasses. Don’t try to take everything with you.
3. Put your shoes on: Unless immediate danger is about to strike you, take a minute to put your shoes on before you run out of your room. If you need to run down the stairs or exit the hotel and stand in the street, this may be difficult to do with bare feet or slippers.
4. Always pack a mini-flashlight: In case the hotel lights go out and you need to find the exit and staircase, having a small flashlight will be a lifesaver for you and your fellow hotel guests. Keep it in a handy place, like your bedside table. When your room is dark and your adrenaline is on high alert from the sound of alarms, trust me, the last thing you want to do is fumble around in your luggage to find a flashlight. Mobile phones sometimes have lights already built into them, which can be a good substitute, or you can also explore different flashlight Apps available for your phone. Just don’t forget to charge your phone so that you have enough battery power to get you to safety.
As always I wish you all the happiest of travels!
Source: Consummate Traveler
____________________________
Monitoring Your Every Move
Date: October, 2013
Click green for further info
You may have even less privacy than you thought.
Most Internet users know that Web sites and advertisers monitor what they do online and use that information to pitch products and services. What’s not as well known is that these companies can track individuals as they move between devices like personal computers, cellphones and tablets. This type of “cross-device” tracking raises significant privacy concerns because most users are simply unaware that it is taking place.
Internet companies capable of such monitoring do it through various means, including by figuring out if different devices are using the same Internet connection and are visiting the same Web sites and mobile apps. If, for instance, you have used your home computer to research a Hawaiian vacation, travel companies can show you ads for flights to Honolulu on apps you use on your cellphone.
Internet businesses argue that such targeting benefits everybody: advertisers get access to customers who are more likely to buy their products while individuals receive offers for stuff they are interested in. (The New York Times’s mobile apps include software from advertising networks that gather nonpersonal information about how readers use the newspaper.)
But there’s also a big privacy issue. Many Americans worry that the Internet has already extracted more personal information about them they would like. Now comes the news that advertisers can follow people from work computer to tablet computer to cellphone even though those devices are not connected to one another. New technology also allows advertisers access to mobile phones without the “cookies” they need to access personal computers. This makes it harder than ever for users to escape the gaze of private companies.
By connecting information from these devices, database companies that collect information can know a lot more about individuals than previously thought possible, including, for instance, their physical location and the identity of family members, friends and colleagues. The use of this information to target advertising might amount to a mere annoyance to most people. But such information could also end up in detailed individual profiles that could be obtained by government agencies or purchased by employers or banks to evaluate candidates for jobs or loans.
At some point, the makers of computers, phones and software may devise new tools that allow people to protect themselves from sophisticated forms of tracking. But they will always be one step behind firms that are in the business of collecting information.
The best solution is for lawmakers to pass legislation that sets clear rules that would regulate and limit how businesses collect personal information, what they can use it for and how long they keep it. The rules, which could be enforced by the Federal Trade Commission, should also give consumers an easy way to review files about themselves or simply choose not to have the information collected. At the moment, the advantage on the Internet lies increasingly with the data miners and the advertisers, not the consumer.
Click green for further info
Source: NYT - THE EDITORIAL BOARD
___________________________________
"I found out that there weren’t too many limitations,
if I did it my way"
John R. "Johnny" Cash
_____________
Johnny Cash - Wikipedia
John R. "Johnny" Cash was an American singer-songwriter, actor, and author who was considered one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century.
Born: February 26, 1932, Kingsland, Arkansas - Died: September 12, 2003, Nashville, Tennessee
Movies and TV shows: Walk the Line, The Johnny Cash Show
Spouse: June Carter Cash (m. 1968–2003), Vivian Liberto (m. 1954–1966)
Click: Wikipedia
__________________________________________
Your iPhone uses more energy than a refrigerator
Smartphone energy consumption is only going to increase
Charging up comes at a cost
How much energy does it take to power your smartphone addiction?
Click green for further info:
The average iPhone uses more energy than a midsize refrigerator, says a new paper by Mark Mills, CEO of Digital Power Group, a tech investment advisory. (At the end of the article a link to Mr. Mark Mills, CEO of Digital Power Group.)
A midsize refrigerator that qualifies for the Environmental Protection Agency's Energy Star rating uses about 322 kW-h a year, while your iPhone uses about 361 kW-h if you stack up wireless connections, data usage, and battery charging.
The paper, rather ominously titled "The Cloud Begins With Coal: Big Data, Big Networks, Big Infrastructure, and Big Power," details how the world's Information Communication Technology (ITC) ecosystem — which includes smartphones, those high-powered Bloomberg terminals on trading floors, and server farms that span the size of seven football fields — are taking up a larger and larger slice of the world's energy pie.
The slice right now, according to Mills, is about 10 percent, or 1,500 terawatt hours of power. (For context, one terawatt hours is one trillion watt hours, and one watt terawatt hour can power about 90,000 homes.) Much of that energy is going to server farms, those giant clusters of computer servers that power "the cloud," as well as wireless networks.
And the ITC ecosystem is expected to require more energy as time goes on. Part of the reason is that unlike a flashlight or an air conditioner, much of the technology we're wired to never goes to sleep. Save energy: for the night, turn off your smartphone(s) & computers and other electronics you do not need night time - you'll save, much.
On top of that, our devices are requiring more and more power. "As anyone who has ever tried to husband the battery of a dying smartphone knows, transmitting wireless data — whether via 3G or wi-fi — adds significantly to power use.
As the cloud grows bigger and bigger, and we put more and more of our devices on wireless networks, we’ll need more and more electricity," says Bryan Walsh at TIME.
All added up, Mills calculates that it now takes more energy to stream a high-def movie than to manufacture and ship a DVD of the same film.
So where does coal come into the equation? To start with, the National Mining Association and the American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity sponsored Mills' study. Coal is still the largest source of electricity in the world, so it's safe to say it's playing a huge role in keeping us connected.
Says Mills: “Coal’s dominance arises from the importance of keeping costs down while providing ever-greater quantities of energy to the growing economies, and as the IEA (International Energy Agency; see links at the end of the article for further information) recently noted, the absence of cost-effective alternatives at the scales the world needs.”
If Mills is right that ICT (Information Communication Technology) will fundamentally change the way we use electricity — by putting a premium on reliable, round-the-clock power generation — we need to be thinking seriously about how we can power the information sector with cheaper, cleaner alternatives to coal. This will require making technologies that can provide reliable, baseload power cheaper and more readily available.
The only fix, however, is to keep developing alternatives click: Breakthrough
Click: Bracing for the Cloud for an interesting, informative, factful article
"Digital Economy Requires Massive Amount of Electricity"
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For further info click green above and below
- IEA - International Energy Agency - affordable clean energy for all ...www.iea.org/
The International Energy Agency, working on energy research, forecasts, publications and statistics on topics including: energy security, environmental ...Statistics - Publications - About us - Countries IEA Statistics www.iea.org/stats/index.aspStatistics by Country/Region, Statistics by Product, Statistics Information.
- The Writings of Mark P. Mills » Tech-Pundit - Homewww.tech-pundit.com/Mark P. Mills is the founder and CEO of the Digital Power Group, and writes the Forbes Energy Intelligence column.
- Mark P. Mills – founding partner in Digital Power Capital » Tech ...www.tech-pundit.com/about-mark-mills/Mark P. Mills is the founder and CEO of the Digital Power Group, and writes the Forbes Energy Intelligence column.
Source: The Week & Internet technology archives
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U.S.Auto Sales Are In Overdrive
Date: July 2013
PART A
When the automobile-barons look at the chart showing automobile production this year, 2013, they have a reason for a big smile. The automobile plants in North America are operating at full capacity (I mean near 100% in some cases) and are on schedule to sell the 16 million cars they will produce this year. The automobile industry is booming almost more vibrantly than residential housing, and rewarding investors with solid gains this year, while still selling at low forward multiples of earnings. Ford Motor, with the robust Allan Mulally as CEO, has seen its stock rise 25%, more than the market average and still be selling at 8 times forward earnings expectations, when the broad market sells at 16 times current earnings. Warren Buffet’s Berkshire Hathaway picked up 25 million shares of GM in the first quarter on the strength of its making 15% return on equity.
Thanks to my friends at BMO Capital in Canada, I found North American automotive capacity utilization fascinating and optimistic news. When overall industrial capacity is running below 80%, Ford is running at 100%, GM at 80%, Chrysler at 90%, Honda at 103%, Nissan at 98%, Toyota at 99%, Volkswagen at 90% and an assortment of others, 98%. Their 67 vehicle plants are expected to “churn out 16.0 million units in 2013,” according to Alex Koustas, an economist with BMO. That compares with 2005 when it required 85 vehicle plants to produce 15.8 million vehicles. Moreover, America is very near approaching the record number of auto sales in a single year, which was 16.4 million. Talk about a comeback.
There are several bullish developments in place for the resurgent automobile industry. First, the average age of a vehicle on the road is 11 years, meaning that the newest models have far better technology inside, and especially are more efficient in getting mileage per gallon up to 48 miles at only a slight cost premium to older models. This doubling of mileage when gasoline is flirting with $4.00 a gallon is a powerful economic argument for ditching your rusty old bucket and borrowing at record low interest rates to get a new vehicle.
Clearly, most of these domestic and foreign producers must build new plants in the U.S., must hire more workers, both skilled and unskilled, which should translate into economic growth from the industry that powered America in the post World War decades. And here’s another stunning surprise; The Ford Focus became the best-selling passenger car in China in 2012 for the first time. Finally, a miracle was announced on July 16; Chrysler, the most troubled, but still profitable manufacturer will begin manufacturing its brand-new mid-size car at a factory in Sterling Heights, Michigan, just north of Detroit.
Source: Forbes, Economic News
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PART B
Car prices hit record as buyers load up on options
Date: September 7, 2013
Americans are paying record prices for new cars and trucks, and they have only themselves to blame.
The average sale price of a vehicle in the U.S. hit $31,252 last month, up almost $1,000 over the same time last year. The sharp increase has been driven by consumers loading cars up with high-end stereos, navigation systems, leather seats and safety gadgets.
It's a buying pattern that began around two years ago with low interest rates that let buyers choose pricier cars while keeping monthly payments in check. And automakers have also offered cheap lease deals that include fancy options.
Add in booming sales of expensive pickup trucks, and you get record high prices.
But those conditions could soon change. Although sales are expected to keep rising, automakers say the next wave of buyers who replace older cars will be more cost-conscious, shunning expensive radios and cushy seats to reduce payments. Ford is starting to see that trend in pickup trucks, and is adding a lower-priced model to its top-selling F-Series line.
Most car buyers shop based on expectations for a monthly payment, with the average running around $450, said Jesse Toprak, senior analyst with the TrueCar.com auto pricing website. Since bank interest rates run as low as 2 percent and automakers offer no-interest financing, buyers now have a choice between a lower payment or a nicer car. Unlike rising mortgage rates, shorter-term auto interest rates have remained fairly stable.
"If you can keep your payment the same and get more car, most consumers in the U.S. just get more car," said Toprak, who calculated the record average price.
The average price, he said, went up about $1,400, or 4.5 percent, in the past two years, far faster than normal.
The result is a dream scenario for automakers and car dealers: People are paying record high prices just as demand returns to levels not seen since the Great Recession.
It's also a dream for people like Zachary Bier, a 26-year-old engineer and sales representative in New York City who just leased a $52,000 BMW 335i to replace a 3-Series with an expiring lease. He set out to match his old $650-per-month payment with hopes of getting more features.
For the same payment, he got metallic black paint, upgraded leather seats with red trim and stitching, Bluetooth technology to link his phone to the car, a heads-up display that projects hisnavigation system and other data onto the windshield, and electronic blind-spot detectors, he said.
"I guess I was surprised based on the sticker price that this car has so much more," he said. "For everything that comes on this, I feel like it's a better car."
The reason car companies can offer cheap leases is because used car values are expected to remain high for the next several years. A company will offer an attractive lease rate now if it feels confident that when the lease is over, it can then sell the returned vehicle for a healthy price on the used-car market.
Those who buy instead of lease also get more for their money because low interest rates can bring lower payments. On average, four-year new-car loan rates are just over 4 percent this year, according to Bankrate.com. Back in 2007, before the Great Recession, that figure was 7.68 percent.
That's a big difference for someone buying a loaded-out $31,000 Ford Fusion with a package that includes heated leather seats, premium audio system and 18-inch polished aluminum wheels. Say the buyer trades in a car worth $10,000 and borrows $21,000. At 4 percent interest for four years, the monthly payment would be $474. But if interest rates return to pre-recession levels, the payment jumps to $510, raising total costs by $1,728. That could cause a buyer to cut features to keep the price down.
Rising demand for cars also is helping to drive up prices. Last month, new car sales jumped 17 percent to 1.5 million, their highest level in more than six years.
Business is good for Scott Fink, CEO of a small chain of Hyundai, Mazda and Chevrolet dealers in Florida's Tampa Bay area. His Hyundai dealership in New Port Richey, Fla., sold a record 700 new cars in August. But Fink worries that incomes aren't rising fast enough to keep pace with price growth. Government statistics show personal income rose only 1 percent in the past two years, less than a quarter of the auto price increase.
And Fink fears that eventually the Federal Reserve will ease out of buying bonds, allowing interest rates to rise. Long-term mortgage rates already are up more than a full percentage point since May. So far, though, auto loan rates haven't been affected much, but Fink worries they will go up.
"We know we're a half a point or a point away from seeing a drop in sales," he said. "Every time they raise rates, it takes people out of the market."
Many in the business think prices will moderate some because people who kept their cars through the recession and now need to replace them won't load up on options.
"They tend to be more price-sensitive," General Motors Co. Chief Economist Mustafa Mohatarem said.
The message isn't lost on GM's crosstown rival, Ford Motor Co., which has seen budget-minded buyers shopping for F-150 pickups.
Eric Peterson, marketing manager for the trucks, said wealthier buyers were first to return to the market after the recession, buying expensive versions like the $47,000 Platinum, which comes with heated leather seats, navigation, a premium audio system and other goodies.
Now, Peterson says, contractors and small business owners are hiring workers who also are looking for pickups. But they want something more reasonably priced to haul gear and families.
Ford will try to please them this fall by adding a four-door cab to its lower-cost F-150 STX line. Previously, the STX only came with a two-door cab. The STX has features not available on a base model, like power windows, keyless entry and cruise control. It's also more stylish, with machined aluminum wheels instead of steel ones. But it doesn't have some of the more expensive options like a backup camera or a leather steering wheel.
With a starting price of $34,240 — around $1,500 more than the base model — the new version sits in the fastest-growing part of the pickup market, Peterson says. Forty-six percent of full-sizetruck buyers spent $30,000 to $40,000 on a truck in July, up from 42 percent at the beginning of this year.
Source:
Associated __________________________________________
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Click the green title to see the "5 great cars that never were" - if the link has expired, search the web with the title
5 great cars that never were - Yahoo Autosautos.yahoo.com/news/5-great-cars-never-were-183051562.html
Here's a look at five concept cars that should have made it to the mass ...We wish that Buick had put it on the Detroit assembly lines right after ...
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Article 1 of 3 (Article 2 of 3 next below)
The Secret to Beating a Car Dealer
Source: Credit.com
Click green for further info
There’s a whole lot of money floating in that new car smell and tucked tidily in the seats. Never forget, in the world of automobiles, the dealer wins by netting as much of your money as possible. Every deal point needs to be carefully thought out and vigorously negotiated. You win by knowing the rules of the sport and making them fight for every dollar.
While it’s true that getting a good price is a big part of the hunt, the biggest, most important, super-secret strategy to turn the stealth hunter (them) into the prey: stand tough and fight to maximize your dollar throughout the process.
The Loan
If you are borrowing the money, the biggest ticket item will be your car loan. An astounding 80 percent of car buyers finance their vehicle at the dealership. Every one of them is a sitting duck for an aggressive salesman. Dealers have relationships with several banks, including the financing arms of manufacturers, and they earn a fee for every borrower they refer to the bank. The more money you are willing to pay for access to the money, the more money they make.
Getting the best auto loan deal is a two-step process. First, you need to check your credit report and score. You can use Credit.com’s free Credit Report Card to get your credit scores along with an overview of the information in your credit report. If you want to take a deeper dive, you can get a free copy of each of your credit reports, but that’s limited to once a year. If you want regular access to your credit reports, then you’ll likely have to subscribe to a credit monitoring service.
Once you have a solid handle on your credit history, the second step is to shop for a loan. Check with your credit union or bank, other lenders (both online and bricks and mortar) to find the loan with the lowest fees and interest rates. Cutting the dealer out of the process and being pre-approved for an auto loan could save you hundreds, possibly thousands, of dollars.
The Invoice Price
Once you have your finances ready to go, it’s time to negotiate the price of the car you want. Before you visit the dealership, do some research online to determine the invoice price — i.e., what the dealership paid for the car of your dreams, wants or needs.
Secret: when the dealer buys a car from the manufacturer, there’s a “holdback” that usually equals 2%-4% of the total invoice price. Think of it as their vig. After the dealership sells the car, it receives that amount of money back from the manufacturer over the period of a year.
Offer less than the invoice price — unless you’re buying a popular model, in which case the laws of supply and demand favor the dealership — and then use the holdback to walk the price down to something you can live with.
If they give you a hard time about paying invoice, remember there is always another guy selling cars. Even if you drive off the lot without paying a single penny above the invoice price, the dealer has turned a profit. If the dealership won’t sell you a car for invoice, and it’s not a hot selling car, it’s their loss. You’ll find someone willing to do the deal with you. Keep shopping.
The Warranty
New cars come with various warranties. The dealer may try to sell you an extended warranty, often with fine print that will prevent you from actually using it should anything go wrong, according toConsumer Reports, which suggests ignoring such offers entirely.
If you’re buying a late-model used car with low miles, the dealer will offer you a warranty to cover future repairs. Make sure the original warranty is used up first. If it is, bear in mind that warranties offered are usually not great deals, written to cover only things that rarely break, such as the power train.
If you decide you want a warranty, shop around. Before you walk onto the lot, get a quote for a third-party warranty that provides the best coverage for the least money. Compare this plan to the one offered by the car dealer, and be prepared to walk away from whatever they offer. The dealer’s warranty is likely limited and overpriced. Ask what the warranty costs them, and offer that amount.
Haggle
As surely as the sun rises in the east and sets in the west, the dealer will offer less for your trade-in than it’s worth. Maybe they offer expensive add-ons such as tinted windows, a better stereo, heated seats, a sports package, or etching the vehicle ID number into the windshield. Whatever the case, do your research beforehand to find out what these goodies should cost. Let them know that you know, and insist on cost. Negotiate the price of each item separately.
The end-of-summer auto clearances are beginning in earnest as dealerships across the nation fight to “move metal,” making way for the next year models. Dealers are dropping prices and manufacturers are ramping up a new batch of 0% financing deals on many current models.
Car dealers are in business to make money. That’s fair. You have the responsibility to assure they make as little of that money from you as possible. By getting your loan first and then negotiating everything else separately, you’ll have a much better chance of getting the best deal.
- Can Your Credit Score Save You Money on a New Car?
- The First Thing to Do Before Buying a New Car
- How to Get a Car Loan
Source: This article originally appeared on
Credit.com ______________________________________________
Article 2 of 3 (Article 1 of 3 next above)
6 tips to get the best price on a new car
before the new models are arriving
by Kiplinger
Click: Kiplinger: Personal Finance News, Investing Advice, Business ...www.kiplinger.com/Leader in personal finance news and business forecasting. Get trusted advice on investing, retirement, taxes, saving, real estate, cars, college, insurance
Late summer, fall time towards the end of the year & the beginning of the new year
dealers are itching to clear space on their lots for the new, next year's cars
So now is your chance to get deal on this year's model
Use these six tips to make sure you get the best price possible
Time Is On Your Side (So Do Your Research)
For any vehicle you’re considering take these steps
(1) go to TrueCar.com to compare the average transaction price in your area with the sticker price;
click: truecar.com - Official TrueCar Sitewww.truecar.com/ See what others paid for their car & get upfront guaranteed savings
(2) Next, head to Edmunds.com, and enter the make, model and trim level to see the dealer invoice price. Click on “Incentives and Rebates” to view current manufacturer offers. That way you’ll know how much money dealers get from the carmaker when they make a sale. click green:
Edmunds.com: New Cars, Used Cars, Car Reviews & Car Priceswww.edmunds.com/Research new and used cars including car prices, view incentives and dealer inventory listings, compare vehicles, get car buying advice and reviews at ...
Skip the Showroom Showdown
Once you’ve taken a test-drive and decided exactly what you want, go home. Contact the Internet managers at several dealers and ask for bids. Let them know you’re shopping around, and get firm offers via e-mail. If you’re a repeat buyer, ask for the “loyalty discount.” If you’re new to the brand, ask for the “conquest discount.” Then take your old car to several dealers and CarMax and sell it to the highest bidder.
Be Prepared to Cross Swords
Salespeople have a host of tactics to boost the car’s price — and their commission. They will try, for example, to focus your attention on the monthly payment; to keep it low, they may push you to extend the loan term or to lease instead of buy. Insist on negotiating the price of the vehicle, whether you’re buying or leasing. If the salesperson asks about your trade-in, steer the conversation back to the new car. Lumping the purchase and the trade-in together means the dealership can give you a lower trade-in value and still look as if it’s giving you a good deal.
Stand Your Ground
If the price is at or near invoice, the dealership is making a profit. Don’t waver on your price if the salesperson leaves the room to “get approval from my manager” only to return and say, “We can’t do it.” Bottom line: Walking away is the best tool in your arsenal. There are nearly identical cars at other dealers.
Let a Pro Do It
Prices in this paragraph below are "about" and from the year 2013
A car-buying service lets you skip the haggling and the stress. Free services, such as those from TrueCar.com and Edmunds.com, offer prices from participating dealers that are guaranteed but may not be the lowest possible. CarBargains, the buying service of the nonprofit Consumers’ Checkbook, charges $200 to hire its professional negotiators to shop for your car at a minimum of five local dealers. Leasing? Check out LeaseWise; for $350, you will get at least five bids.
Get Out of F&I Alive (article 3 of 3 next below has more specific info how to handle the car buying loan
The finance-and-insurance office is where dealers make a chunk of their profit, so keep your wits about you (and prepare to be there for a while). Come with loan preapproval from your bank or credit union; unless there’s a special interest rate from the manufacturer, the bank’s financing may be better. Resist pitches for paint sealant, fabric protection and extended warranties; they aren’t worth the money. Review the contract to make sure extras you didn’t approve weren’t added. Fees for shipping and regional advertising are standard, but document fees are suspect. Never pay a floor-plan fee (the cost to hold inventory at a dealership) or a vehicle-preparation fee for cleaning the car, removing plastic and checking fluids.
Study the article 3 of 3 below - car buying loan specifics
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lease notice: Next after the article 3 of 3 a web link to "How to sell your car"
Article 3 of 3 (Article 2 of 3 next above)
Every car buyer needing financing must read this article & apply the information
Is your car loan a lemon
Avoid letting car dealers put you in a financial clunker
clunker = an old, run-down vehicle or machine, a bad situation or a miserable deal
When driving away from the dealership, a car buyer’s biggest fear used to be ending up with a clunker
But these days, a car loan is as likely to be a lemon as the car itself
Important to-do-list
before arriving to the dealership
(1) Experts say consumers should shop around for loan approval before they arrive at dealerships
(2) Find out what interest rate you’d receive on a car loan from your local banks and credit unions
(3) Cast a wider net for lenders by checking websites like LendingTree.com and Bankrate.com
(4) Contact your insurance company for policy quotes before you arrive at the dealership
Lemon laws
are American state laws that provide a remedy for purchasers of cars in order to compensate for cars that repeatedly fail to meet standards of quality and performance. These cars are called lemons. The federal lemon law (the Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act) protects citizens of all states. .. click: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lemon_law
Click green for further info
The article: Is your car loan a lemon
Nearly 85% of new-car buyers in the second quarter signed up for a loan or lease to fund their purchase, according to data released this week by credit bureau Experian. That’s the highest level since it began tracking the sector in 2006. Car dealers are driving the surge with incentives that include low-interest financing for the most credit-worthy borrowers, but experts caution that shady lending practices remain in the marketplace, including interest rates or monthly payments that end up higher on the loan paperwork than what the lender and borrower verbally agreed to, and pitches for expensive add-ons (like extended warranties and rust protection) that raise payments. “There are still unscrupulous*) dealers out there — guys who are not going to live up to their promises,” says Alec Gutierrez, senior market analyst at Kelley Blue Book. *) unscrupulous = having or showing no moral principles; not honest or fair
While consumers gained new credit card and mortgage protections following the economic downturn, car dealers are largely exempt from those financial reforms. They have access to a pool of lenders including banks and often the car maker’s financing arm. Unlike banks that dole out car loans, most car dealers aren’t within the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s jurisdiction*) (web link at the end of this paragraph).
Experts also caution that borrowers will find less transparency with dealers than with traditional lenders:
For instance, when car dealers approve borrowers for financing, they often raise the interest rate the lender is actually offering and pocket the difference — a practice that does not have to be disclosed to the consumer, says Jack Gillis, spokesman for the Consumer Federation of America, a consumer advocacy group.
*)
Guidance documents > Consumer Financial Protection Bureauwww.consumerfinance.gov/guidance/ Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. .. Depository institutions – Current list of institutions and their affiliates under CFPB jurisdiction.
For their part, car dealers say markups are often made to cover their operating costs and that protections exist. The National Automobile Dealers Association says consumers who become victims of questionable lending practices should contact (1) the click: Federal Trade Commission (which has oversight over this industry) and contact
(2) their state’s attorney general. The association adds that it’s “important to distinguish the limited number of fraudulent transactions from the millions of legitimate” deals that occur each year.
Experts say consumers should shop around for loan approval before they arrive at dealerships.
Gutierrez recommends consumers find out what interest rate you’d receive on a car loan from your
(1) local banks and (2) credit unions.
Borrowers can also cast a wider net for lenders by checking websites like LendingTree.com and Bankrate.com.
They can then compare those loans with the terms the car dealer offers.
The dealer could still come through with the lowest rate —
but
borrowers should look out for the following 3 pitfalls*) before signing on the dotted line:
*) pitfall= a hidden or unsuspected danger or difficulty
(1) Bait and switch:
Even after buyers and dealers agree on the loan’s interest rate, borrowers should review the rate (or monthly payment when applicable) on the paperwork before signing off.
Gutierrez of KBB (= Kelley Blue Book) says (NOTICE: that while the industry has improved in recent years, there are still cases where borrowers find higher rates and monthly payments in writing than what they had agreed to during their discussions with the car dealer.
(2) Yo-yo financing:
Buyers should make sure they’ve completed the loan transaction before driving off the lot. In some cases, dealers will allow borrowers to drive away before financing is completed, only to call them back to the dealership a few days later saying that the deal fell through and placing them in a more expensive loan — a tactic known as yo-yo financing.
The NADA (= National Automobile Dealers Association) says it condemns these “fraudulent transactions” and that they’re limited in number.
(3) Expensive add-ons:
WARNING: Before dealers finalize a car loan, they’ll often push add-on services, including:
(1) extended warranties;
(2) protective coating for a car’s leather interior, and;
(3) supplemental insurance,
These 3 above can cause a borrower’s monthly payment to jump by up to $100, or more, says Gutierrez.
The NADA (= National Automobile Dealers Association) says these products are always optional.
Consumers who think they’ll want such extras should consider shopping for them elsewhere
(for instance, contacting their insurance company for policy quotes) before they arrive at the dealership.
Click green for further info
Source: credit.com
Next below: How to sell your car
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How to sell your car?
If the web link below has expired search the web with the title
Click: 10 Steps to Selling Your Car - Edmunds.com
- www.edmunds.com › Car Tips & Advice › Car Selling
by Philip Reed
... Payment · Incentives & Rebates · Search Inventory · True Cost to Own ...Here are 10 simple steps that will help you turn your used car into cash. ...and selling price so you can list your car at a price that will sell it quickly
The most expensive and most economical states for
owning a car
Georgia is the most expensive and Oregon the cheapest state to operate a car
All 50 states listed - link at the end
Click green for further info
The cost of buying and owning a vehicle can vary widely, and not just because of the car or truck you choose but also according to where you live. And a new study finds that Georgia has become the most expensive state to operate a motor vehicle in – while Oregon is the most affordable.
The gap is substantial, a typical motorist likely to spend twice as much to keep a vehicle running
in the Peach State once factors such as gasoline, insurance, repairs, taxes and fees are added in, found website Bankrate.com.
The results of the new study might come as a surprise, particularly with Georgia landing at the top of the list – above more urban states such as New York, New Jersey and California. Actually, the Golden State California wound up second on the list, at an annual $3,966 in automotive operating costs.
Rounding out the top five were:
• Wyoming, at $3,938 a year;
• Rhode Island, at $3,913; and
• Nevada, at $3,886.
Several factors seem to unite the most expensive states. With the exception of Rhode Island, they’re big and motorists tend to have to drive a lot. They generally lack for mass transit alternatives and they have above-average gas prices and insurance costs. Georgia, in particular, has the highest automobile taxes and fees in the country, notes the new Bankrate.com report. E.g. Connecticut & Arkansas & some other states have a yearly property tax for every car - can add up.
Georgia and California also have some of the highest repair costs in the country, according to a separate study by CarMD.com that was released last June, though Wyoming drivers fared better than average in that category.
One thing that most recent studies agree about is that the cost of ownership is going up at a steady pace – about 2% this year over 2012, according to data analyzed by the AAA. The insurance and travel organization found insurance rates likely to rise by 2.8% for 2013, while its own data predicted a whopping 11.3% jump in maintenance and repair bills.
Those figures are averages and, as with fuel costs, registration fees and other automotive expensives, the numbers are expected to vary widely from state-to-state.
The national average for operating a vehicle is $3,201, according to Bankrate.com, and Oregon lands at the bottom of the list, just $2,204 annually. Residents of the Beaver State benefit from the lack of a state sales tax, low auto insurance costs – and the fact that they drive, on average, 16% fewer miles than the national average.
The next four lowest-cost states are:
• Alaska, at $2,227;
• South Dakota, at $2,343;
• Montana, at $2,660; and
• Indiana, at $2,698.
Results for all 50 states here
Click green for further info
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Every driver needs this information
Speed Traps in America
Across the country, drivers are taking note reporting more than 78,000 speeds traps since 2000
You’re driving down the road and the speed limit says “55” but suddenly it’s “35” for a very short stretch, and there’s a police officer waiting under the sign writing tickets like there’s no tomorrow.
Three examples of close to 80,000 traps:
Along I-71 in Linndale, Ohio the speed drops to 60 for about 14 seconds on the highway and before a court stepped in last winter, the tiny town collected $800,000 a year. Linndale's population: 178
Along I-10, in the middle of Cajun country, tickets from a speed limit change at the bottom of a bridge covered 80 percent of the budget for Henderson, Louisiana, more than two million dollars.
The police chief and deputy deny it, but they’re accused of paying officers kickbacks to write tickets .
We know that speed kills. According to the federal government, nearly 10,000 Americans die every year in speed related accidents. Cedric Alexander, Dekalb, Georgia police chief said they certainly raise revenue here, but says they’re real goal is to slow everyone down.
Across the country, drivers are taking note reporting more than 78,000 speeds traps since 2000.
To fight the City Hall - can you win?
Sometimes yes, but: It saves money and time to slow down and follow the traffic signs.
Comments from the public:
(1) There's a small town in Arkansas, Hardy, where they have a police car with a dummy in it. It works and no one is writing tickets.
(2) The judge knows it too! Fight the ticket, the cop won't always show up in court!
(3) I saw 4 speed traps north of Austin, TX when I drove through a couple months ago.
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10 tips to avoid speeding tickets
The advice in this article certainly will get the results = your ticket will be dismissed (in most cases) - but: does everyone have the time to do all what the article writer is doing?
YES, everyone who is in situation that IF he/she will not get this ticket dismissed in court the result will be a cancelled driving licence and/or a lost job. When someone has been ignoring repeatedly the traffic rules these situations can be the result. For those situations it is advisable you will hire a traffic lawyer who knows how to fight your driving licence to stay in your pocket. Perhaps this time you will learn finally to follow the traffic laws and will no more speed-drive or ignore the red light or anything else giving you a legal challenge.
The techniques in this article are methods for your lawyer. This article gives legal solutions some traffic lawyers do not know, solutions that for sure will save one more time you from losing your driving licence, your income and your home (because with no income - how do you pay your bills?).
In this tab there is another article with less legal details. Decide yourself what fits your purpose.
The most important thing is to be polite when a police stops you, not argue about anything, and say "I am sorry, did not realize I was .....". Often that works and the police may let you go with a warning. Study both articles. Good luck.
STAF, Inc.'s opinion is "always follow the traffic rules - never drive faster than is allowed - never break knowingly the traffic signs".
The article 10 tips to avoid speeding tickets
By Phil Berg | Popular Mechanics
"The motorist is a source of revenue," says Richard Diamond. And it's become his life's obsession to change that.
By day, Diamond is the managing editor at The Washington Times. But by night, he is a relentless advocate for drivers. It started when he was 16 and got a speeding ticket from a California cop hiding in a speed trap. What Diamond considered an unfair tax and nasty constraint on his newfound mobile freedom has grated on him for 26 years. So Diamond launched into years of research on police ticketing strategies, some of it while employed on Capitol Hill, and all disclosed daily on his self-funded website TheNewspaper.com since 2004.
"Ticketing efforts have not gone down one bit," he says. Instead, there is a bewildering new variety of methods such as automated ticket machines with cameras and license-plate readers, doling out tickets for blocking bus lanes during gridlock or idling too long. "Any violation you can dream up, they're working on a device to ticket you. You can get laws passed for anything."
But speeding still makes up about 54 percent of tickets, Diamond says. Factoring the data from 40 states that report speeding revenue, "I estimate that it's $2 billion annually" in the U.S.
Here's some Diamond wisdom to help:
1. "The very first thing is to have situational awareness. If traffic slows, there's a reason," Diamond says.
2. Be ready for anything. There are speed traps from moving and stationary radar, lidar (= a detection system that works on the principle of radar, but uses light from a laser), known-location speed cameras, as well as hidden cameras, VASCAR*) stopwatch calculators, and just plain visual observation. In Vermont, for example, a police officer can simply make a guess of a vehicle's speed and it will stand in court, though that has been outlawed in most places.
*)A VASCAR unit couples a stopwatch with a simple computer. An operator records the moment that a vehicle passes two fixed objects (such as a white circle or square painted on the carriageway) that are a known distance apart. The vehicle's average speed is then calculated by dividing the distance by the time. By applying the mean value theorem, we can deduce that the vehicle's speed must equal its average speed at some time between the measurements.
3. "Keep a low profile—don't call attention to yourself. A minivan in the slow lane is less likely to get a ticket than a red Ferrari."
4. STAF, Inc.'s editors have modified this paragraph
When you are stopped, keep quiet. Put your light on inside the car so the Police sees that you are not dangerous - keep your hands on the steering wheel so he/she sees you do not have a gun. Present your license and registration and insurance card, and that's it. "You don't have to answer [anything] else O—you have to say you're asserting your right to stay silent, or DO NOT SAY: 'Please speak to my lawyer.' Be polite, nice and respectful. Antagonists get the most tickets. There are no warnings for a**holes." The only thing you can say "Officer, I am really sorry, I did not notice my speed - I normally follow all traffic rules.
5. THEN LATER: Fight every ticket. In court, attacks on the legality of a speed-limit sign have been known to work. Attacks on the chain of evidence have worked too. In the Melendez-Diaz v. Massachusetts case of 2009, the Supreme Court ruled that the sixth amendment right to face one's accuser applies to lab tests. In California, courts have interpreted this to mean that photo tickets are not valid unless the technician who analyzed the photo testifies in court. If the police officer does not come to the court, you may immediately. If he/she does not come the second time, most likely your case is dismissed and you win.
6. Now we're getting into serious ticket-fighting territory. "Check for the technical calibration of radar," Diamond says. "Usually radar evidence is admissible, presuming calibration. But in some states, any laser ticket is thrown out automatically because there is no calibration possible."
To do this, check the manufacturer specifications for the device via a FOIA (Freedom of Information Act ) request to the police department that issued the ticket. Ask for a description of how the police department abided by the calibration specs, which usually involves checking a radar gun's frequency with a tuning fork provided by the radar gun manufacturer and sending the unit to the manufacturer to be recalibrated. "It's worth investing the time to get your ticket overturned. I've done it myself in Virginia. First thing to do is pull up the vehicle code."
7. Check the Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices (MUTCD), which you can find here, Diamond says. If the speed-limit signs aren't up to code, you can beat the ticket on a technicality. "Even the font of the sign is specified," he says. And "many places hide [speed] cameras behind signs and bushes. There's even one behind the welcome to d.c. sign."
8. "The judge is not there to find you not guilty. The judge is part of the revenue-collection machine. Give him a reason to find you not guilty," Diamond says.
The best way to do this is to record the conversation you have with the ticketing officer in a manner that the police does not see you doing it - STAF, Inc.'s opinion - put the recorder on before the police is by your window.
If there is a contradiction between the recording and the officer's written report, Diamond says, "his credibility is shot." Just be sure to check your state laws before you do this. For example, Maryland does not allow you to record with a cellphone, Diamond says. There have been arrests in Massachusetts and Illinois as well for recording conversations with police, although the trend is for courts to dismiss these instances.
Get all the data you can. "Ask the officer where he was when he first stopped you, and how long he paced you." Then, Diamond says, photograph the speed-limit sign where you were stopped, the location where you first saw the officer, and the location where the officer says he first saw you. "Pacing is one of the top methods used for tickets, but in Pennsylvania the officer needs to have followed you for 0.3 mile to use pacing," he says. "Often they don't pace that far. They get sloppy a lot because they can."
9. Find a friend in the local police department. "This is the advanced course—knowing the patterns of where police are and when," Diamond says. "For example, the day after New Year's, that morning they're all sleeping. Look for shift patterns."
10. Finally, pressure your legislators. "We need to stop federal incentives for speeding tickets. States are paid for speed enforcement—the government measures this by speeding-ticket quotas," Diamond says. Voter pressure has banned speed and red-light automatic-ticket cameras by petition in 30 cities recently. "And they are liberal cities, conservative cities, rich like Newport Beach, poor cities, big like Cincinnati, small cities—it doesn't matter."
Related: Slide Show 18 Strangest Roadways In The World
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Source: Popular Mechanics
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Just how dangerous is daydreaming while driving?
Daydreaming while driving is more dangerous than texting and driving
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- » 10 Must-Know Tips For Driving After Dark
- » 13 Most Dangerous Car Interiors In History
- » 100 Skills Every Man Should Know
You might think you're a good driver. But you, like all other drivers, tend to daydream behind the wheel. Why? It has to do with the way nature wired your brain.
Because millions of sensations bombard us every second, the brain sorts through them to allow only the most important ones to become conscious—for instance, you don't notice what's in your peripheral vision (= the outer part of the field of vision) unless something moves there. It's just the way the brain evolved to protect it from self-destructing. If it allowed too many sensations to get through, we would be paralyzed by the massive sensory overload. The downside to this is that your mind has a narrow attention span, so it likes to wander—a lot. That beer you're thinking about having when you get home from work could distract you long enough to expose you to danger while behind the wheel. Daydreaming can't be eliminated, only minimized.
Just how dangerous is daydreaming while driving? When the Erie Insurance Group studied 65,000 fatal crashes over a two-year span (2010–11), its researchers found that one in 10 were attributed to driver distraction, and 62 percent were blamed on daydreaming—five times as many as talking or texting on a mobile phone. The study was based on a nationwide database, kept by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, called the Fatality Analysis Reporting System, or FARS, that tracks all vehicle deaths. "The results were disturbing," says Erie senior vice president Doug Smith.
What's sneaky about daydream driving is that you may feel totally aware of your environment but be out of conscious contact with it. You're not really seeing what you're looking at. For example, most of us know the sensation of suddenly snapping to attention during a long stretch of highway or getting home from a drive and not remembering parts of the trip.
While your conscious mind wanders off, your subconscious takes over the wheel. Yes, an emergency can jar you back to full awareness, but your reaction time and sense of perception will suffer when you're not paying full attention.
If you can't eliminate daydream driving, how can you minimize it?
• Keep your eyes moving. Change your gaze every 2 seconds. Any longer and you tend to stare, which induces mind wandering and narrowing of peripheral vision. Tiring? No. The eyes were designed to keep in motion.
• To keep alert, interact with your environs by imagining "what-if" scenarios. What if that oncoming car crosses over? What if that truck ahead suddenly stops? All those what-ifs you're visualizing feed your subconscious with some valuable data to reprogram your brain for your benefit. They may provide you with a better accident-evasion plan than the one you've imagined should a similar event actually happen.
• Chew something. Really. Crunchy foods will keep you alert. Even chewing gum works. One psychology professor advised drivers to chew peanut brittle, calories notwithstanding. Besides the noise made from crunching, he said that searching for the peanuts was oral therapy.
• Try different driving routes when possible. Driving the same long route is boring, and your mind is more prone to wander when it encounters the same repetitive conditions. It's called habituation. Perry Buffington, a medical columnist, says, "simply put, we get used to things, and when we do, they're no longer important to us." Daydreaming results. And you notice fewer things when you're bored, even if you're not daydreaming.
If you want to become more alert behind the wheel, you must first want to. But even with the best intentions, you still have to be on guard. Daydream driving will hit you when you least expect it.
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Source: Popular Mechanics
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Hankook is latest to roll out airless tire concept
By MotorAuthority – Mon, Sep 9, 2013
Hankook has revealed a new airless tire design called i-Flex which makes its debut this week in concept form at the 2013 Frankfurt Auto Show. The i-Flex tire constitutes both the tire and wheel and is similar to previous concepts from Bridgestone as well as America’s own Polaris.
Apart from being puncture proof, the i-Flex tire has many other benefits. It is considerably lighter than conventional tire and wheel combinations and it can also provide a level of shock absorbency through the unique mesh structure. According to Hankook, these two attributes alone contribute to reduced fuel consumptionand improved NVH levels.
However, the benefits don’t end there. The lighter weight means less unsprung mass, aiding handling, and 95 percent of the tire's materials are recyclable. The i-Flex is made from polyurethane synthetics, with the tire manufactured in conjunction with its rim as a single unit. The concept version on display in Frankfurt will measure just 155/590 R14 and be displayed on a Volkswagen up! subcompact.
Hankook hasn’t mentioned production plans but it’s only a matter of time until airless tires start to replace their pneumatic cousins.
Note, Hankook is working on even more advanced tire technology. Working with researchers from the University of Cincinnati, Hankook has developed an eMembrane tire concept that is capable of transforming its profile through internal structure changes in accordance with different driving conditions, such as in a busy city or on a race track.
For instance, when driving at high-speeds, the tire’s tread center extends to generate maximum ground friction through wider ground contact area, aiding grip. Conversely, when driving at low-speeds, the tread is designed to produce minimal road contact area and ground friction, whereby the tire's fuel efficiency is enhanced by reducing rolling resistance. The eMembrane tire is previewed in the video below.
To see the video click: Hankook Is Latest To Roll Out Airless Tire Concept
Motor Authority-Sep 9, 2013
Hankook has revealed a new airless tire design called i-Flex which makes its debut this week in concept form at the 2013 Frankfurt Auto Show.
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New surgical knife can instantly detect cancer
Surgeons may have a new way to smoke out cancer
Date: July, 17, 2013 - LONDON (AP)
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An experimental surgical knife can help surgeons make sure they've removed all the cancerous tissue, doctors reported Wednesday,
July 17, 2013. Surgeons typically use knives that heat tissue as they cut, producing a sharp-smelling smoke. The new knife analyzes the smoke and can instantly signal whether the tissue is cancerous or healthy.
Now surgeons have to send the tissue to a lab and wait for the results.
Dr. Zoltan Takats of Imperial College London suspected the smoke produced during cancer surgery might contain some important cancer clues. So he designed a "smart" knife hooked up to a refrigerator-sized mass spectrometry*) device on wheels that analyzes the smoke from cauterizing tissue. *) Spectroscopy is the study of the interaction between matter and radiated energy
The smoke picked up by the smart knife is compared to a library of smoke "signatures" from cancerous and non-cancerous tissues. Information appears on a monitor: green means the tissue is healthy, red means cancerous and yellow means unidentifiable.
To make sure they've removed the tumor, surgeons now send samples to a laboratory while the patient remains on the operating table. It can take about 30 minutes to get an answer in the best hospitals, but even then doctors cannot be entirely sure, so they often remove a bit more tissue than they think is strictly necessary.
If some cancerous cells remain, patients may need to have another surgery or undergo chemotherapy or radiation treatment.
"(The new knife) looks fabulous," said Dr. Emma King, a head and neck cancer surgeon at Cancer Research U.K., who was not connected to the project. The smoke contains broken-up bits of tumor tissue and "it makes sense to look at it more carefully," she said.
The new knife and its accompanying machines were made for about £250,000 ($380,000) but scientists said the price tag would likely drop if the technology is commercialized.
The most common treatment for cancers involving solid tumors is removing them in surgery. In the U.K., one in five breast cancer patients who have surgery will need further operations to get rid of the tumor entirely.
Scientists tested the new knife at three hospitals between 2010 and 2012. Tissue samples were taken from 302 patients to create a database of which kinds of smoke contained cancers, including those of the brain, breast, colon, liver, lung and stomach.
That was then used to analyze tumors from 91 patients; the smart knife correctly spotted cancer in every case. The study was published Wednesday, July 17, 2013, in the journal Science Translational Medicine. The research was paid for by groups including Imperial College London and the Hungarian government.
At a demonstration in London on Wednesday, 7/17/13, doctors used the new knife — which resembles a fat white pen — to slice into slabs of pig's liver. Within minutes, the room was filled with an acrid-smelling smoke comparable to the fumes that would be produced during surgery on a human patient.
Takats said the knife would eventually be submitted for regulatory approval but that more studies were planned. He added the knife could also be used for other things like identifying tissues with bad blood supply and identifying the types of bacteria present.
Some experts said the technology could help eliminate the guesswork for doctors operating on cancer patients. "Brain cancers are notorious for infiltrating into healthy brain tissue beyond what's visible to the surgeon," said Dr. Len Lichtenfeld, deputy chief medical officer of the American Cancer Society. "If this can definitively tell doctors whether they've removed all the cancerous tissue, it would be very valuable," he said.
Still, Lichtenfeld said more trials were needed to prove the new knife would actually make a significant difference to patients. Early enthusiasm for new technologies hasn't always panned out, he said, citing the recent popularity of robotic surgery as an example.
"It expanded very rapidly but is now hitting some bumps along the road," he said.
Lichtenfeld said it's unclear whether more widespread use of the smart knife will actually help patients live longer and said studies should also look into whether the tool cuts down on patient's surgery times, their blood loss and rate of wound infections.
"This is a fascinating science and we need to adopt any technology that works to save patients," Lichtenfeld said. "But first we have to be sure that it works."
Source:
The study was published Wednesday, July 17, 2013, in the journal Science Translational Medicine
www.imperial.ac.uk
- Mass spectrometry - Wikipedia, the free encyclopediahttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mass_spectrometry
Mass spectrometry (MS) is an analytical technique that produces spectra (singular spectrum) of the masses of the molecules comprising a sample of material.Protein mass spectrometry - Mass spectrum analysis - Tandem mass spectrometry - Mass Spectrometrywww2.chemistry.msu.edu/faculty/.../spectrpy/massspec/masspec1.htm
In order to measure the characteristics of individual molecules, a mass spectrometerconverts them to ions so that they can be moved about and manipulated by ... - the mass spectrometer - how it works - Chemguidewww.chemguide.co.uk/analysis/masspec/howitworks.html
3D-Printed Rocket Engine Part Passes Key NASA Test
Click green for further info Date: July 2013
A 3D-printed rocket engine injector has passed a major NASA test, potentially heralding a new age of propulsion-system manufacturing, space agency officials say.
NASA and Florida-based company Aerojet Rocketdyne put the injector — which was built using 3D printing (also called "additive manufacturing") technology — through a series of hot-fire trials, agency officials announced last week.
"Hot-fire-testing the injector as part of a rocket engine is a significant accomplishment in maturing additive manufacturing for use in rocket engines," Carol Tolbert, manager of the Manufacturing Innovation Project at NASA's Glenn Research Center in Cleveland, Ohio, where the tests were conducted, said in a statement.
Click: 10 Amazing 3D-Printed Objects
"These successful tests let us know that we are ready to move on to demonstrate the feasibility of developing full-size, additively manufactured parts," Tolbert added.
Aerojet Rocketdyne crafted the engine injector using high-powered lasers that liquefied and fused metallic powders into the proper structure.
Click: "View gallery
Click: Task lead Tyler Hickman, in red shirt, and technicians inspect the 3D-printed rocket injector assemb …
Rocket engine injectors typically take a year or more to build. Employing 3D printing technology can reduce this to less than four months while also cutting costs by 70 percent, NASA officials said.
"NASA recognizes that on Earth and potentially in space, additive manufacturing can be game-changing for new mission opportunities, significantly reducing production time and cost by 'printing' tools, engine parts or even entire spacecraft," Michael Gazarik, NASA's associate administrator for space technology in Washington, D.C., said in a statement.
"3D manufacturing offers opportunities to optimize the fit, form and delivery systems of materials that will enable our space missions while directly benefiting American businesses here on Earth," he added.
NASA's interest in 3D printing appears to be strong and growing. For example, the space agency is partnering with California company Made in Space to send a 3D printer to the International Space Station next year.
And NASA recently funded the development of a prototype "3D pizza printer" that could help feed astronauts on long space journeys, such as the 500-day trek to Mars.
3D printing has been used to craft certain rocket parts before, but usually this form of manufacturing is employed to build less critical components of the complex machines, Aerojet Rocketdyne additive manufacturing program manager Jeff Haynes said.
"The injector is the heart of a rocket engine and represents a large portion of the resulting cost of these systems," Haynes said in a statement. "Today, we have the results of a fully additive manufactured rocket injector with a demonstration in a relevant environment."
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Original article on (click: SPACE.com.
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Don’t Track Us
Consumers should have a simple and effective way to opt out of online monitoring
Date: July 2013
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It’s hardly a secret that Amazon, Facebook and Google monitor what their users do online and show them targeted ads based on that data. But many users do not fully appreciate that this is also done by dozens of obscure online advertising networks. These companies place small files known as cookies on the computers and phones of people who visit Web sites that display ads they bought. These cookies allow them to serve up ads for, say, shoes that a consumer looked at on one site even as he moves to other sites. Such tracking is pervasive now, and the data is often put into detailed profiles that can also include information from public records and other sources like cash registers at physical stores.
Privacy advocates and policy makers have long talked about requiring software makers to offer users an easy and effective way toopt out of such stealth monitoring through a setting on their Web browsers. Done right, such a system could be as simple as registering your phone number on the do-not-call list created by the Federal Trade Commission to reduce the scourge of unwanted telemarketing calls.
For the last two years, a group of Internet and advertising businesses and experts has been working on this problem. It is hoping to create a voluntary standard that would be adopted by companies that make Web browsers, the ad networks and Web sites. But advocates for greater privacy and groups representing advertising and marketing companies remain far apart on several important issues, like what constitutes tracking.
One big unresolved issue is what types of information advertising companies would be able to collect under the new standard. Under one proposal, ad networks could still collect data on the kinds of Web sites a user was interested in, but the companies would not be able to easily identify the individual by name and other personal details. Unfortunately, this would create a loophole that could be easily abused, rendering the standard meaningless.
For any do-not-track standard to be effective and credible, it has to be simple and comprehensive. Users who choose not to be tracked should be assured that ad networks are not collecting information about which sites they visit. Online businesses have long argued that do-not-track and other privacy protections would hurt them by reducing advertisers’ ability to target consumers most interested in their products. But there should be ways for companies to advertise their products and services without tracking these people against their will. This month, for example, Twitter said it would send ads to users based on their behavior but would let users opt out of such advertising.
Some makers of Web browsers, like Microsoft, Apple and Mozilla, are responding to consumer demand for greater privacy by building more protections into their software. But ad networks are responding to those protections by finding new ways to monitor people. For example, some networks are using new kinds of tracking cookies that are hard to detect and delete. This arms race benefits no one and leaves consumers more confused and frustrated.
Ultimately, policy makers will have to step in. Voluntary industry standards, if they can be achieved, are a good start, but the best way to ensure privacy is strong federal legislation backed by tough enforcement. European lawmakers are working on a new privacy law with some strong protections and Congress should move in that direction, too.
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Source: NYT
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Project seeks Internet access
globally for all
Date: August 21, 2013
Following efforts by Google Inc., Facebook Inc's Chief Executive Mark Zuckerb has enlisted
Samsung Electronics Co Ltd, Qualcomm Inc., Ericsson, MediaTek Inc., Nokia & Opera Software ASA
for a project aimed at bringing Internet access to people around the world who cannot afford it
The pilot program click: Project Loon, took off from New Zealand's South Island, using solar-powered,
high-altitude balloons that ride the wind about 12.5 miles, or twice as high as airplanes, above the ground
The project, called Internet.org, is the latest move by an Internet company trying to expand Web access globally. Facebook rival Google is hoping technology, including balloons, wireless and fiber connections will expand connectivity.
Internet.org, which was launched on Wednesday, will focus on seeking ways to help the 5 billion people - or two-thirds of the world's population - who do not have Internet access, come online, the company said in a statement.
It added that so far, only 2.7 billion people around the world have Internet access.
The partnership's potential projects will include the development of lower-cost smartphones and the deployment of Internet access in underserved communities as well as working on ways to reduce the amount of data downloads required to run Internet applications, according to Facebook.
But at least initially, the company appeared to have few details on concrete plans.
In an interview with CNN on Wednesday, Zuckerberg said the group had a "rough plan" for achieving its goal. He said the project was not just about making money for Facebook, which has more than 1 billion members and needs to keep expanding to boost revenue.
Zuckerberg noted that the first billion Facebook members "have way more money" than the rest of the world combined.
While many of today's Facebook members use the service just to keep in touch with friends, Zuckerberg said future Internet users may have more lofty needs.
"They're going to use it to decide what kind of governments they want, get access to healthcare for the first time ever, connect with family hundreds of miles away that they haven't seen in decades," he told CNN.
Facebook recently reported stronger-than-expected quarterly results due to an increase in advertising revenue from mobile users.
Other players in the Internet.org project include Ericsson, MediaTek Inc, Nokia and Opera Software ASA.
While the list did not include mobile network operators, Facebook that these companies would play a central role.
In June, Google announced it launched a small network of balloons over the Southern Hemisphere in an experiment it hopes to use to bring reliable Internet access to the world's most remote regions.
The pilot program, Project Loon, took off from New Zealand's South Island, using solar-powered, high-altitude balloons that ride the wind about 12.5 miles, or twice as high as airplanes, above the ground.
- Project Loon - Wikipedia, the free encyclopediaen.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_LoonProject Loon is a research and development project being developed by Google with the mission of providing Internet access to rural and remote areas. History - Technology - Equipment - Reception
Source: Internet news
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What Google's Chromecast Has That All the Other Web-to-TV Devices Don't
Date: July 2013
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Google announced, on July 25, 2013, a new Internet-to-television device called Chromecast, a well-developed area of technology that doesn't really need another gizmo. With Apple TV, Roku and Boxee all providing solutions to turn a regular old HDTV into an Internet-capable TV, you might be thinking that the Chromecast is an also-ran before it's even been released.
Yet Chromecast, as it's called, has the techies all giddy & exciting. A few of them said they already went on over to the Play store and bought one — before Google had even finished up its event. The general upshot of the stick is that it ports the television on your computer or smartphone — like Netflix, or YouTube — to your television. A lot of devices can already do this for you. So what makes this thing any different or better than all the others?
- It's dirt cheap. The stick only costs $35. Roku's similar dongle-type streamer retails for $100. There's a huge mental difference between $100 and $35. It's easy to splurge on something that costs less than an Urban Outfitters shirt. In addition, Netflix users — new and existing — get three months of the streaming service free, essentially paying for most of the stick. (Three months of streaming costs, at minimum $24.)
- It's teeny tiny. Most of these magic TV things come in box form. This is just a stick that goes into an HDMI port. There's also zero set-up. It just plugs in, you hook it up to your Wi-Fi and you tap a small button in compatible apps or the Chrome browser, and like magic it pushes that stuff to your TV.
- It Has More Content Than Meets the Eye. The official Google partnerships don't amount to more than, say, Roku has on its box. The stick officially works with YouTube, Netflix, and Google Play Movies and TV. But there's a secret trick for getting all other web streaming services — like HBO GO (!) — from laptop to computer: Chrome tab projection. Per the demo, any tab open on the Chrome browser will play on the television. So, the HBO GO app might not work, but the desktop version will. Sure a computer connected by HDMI can do that, too. But this is a lot easier, smaller, and does a lot more (and again, no wires). Google has almost made available a software kit that will allow developers to add the functionality to their apps, meaning that, if the Chromecast catches on, you'll be able to beam video from any smartphone or tablet app directly to your television.
- It Works with a Lot of Phones. This works on both Android and iOS, meaning you can swap out phones or tablets or computers with different subscription services, or movies downloaded. It opens up a lot more content, and if you're making the switch from iOS to Android, you aren't stuck with a box that can't stream your smartphone content, like you would be with Apple TV.
- It Turns (Almost) Every TV into a Smart TV. Any television with an HDMI port — so probably not that old clunker you bought on Craigslist — turns into a "smart" TV, with your phone or tablet or laptop as the remote control, allowing you to play videos, control volume, or even turn on the TV.
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Source: Internet news
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The 2 Easy Ways to Make Your PC Run Like New
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One of the most frustrating things in life is a slow computer.
Every few years, we buy an expensive new PC and love how fast it starts up, runs programs, and loads websites. Inevitably though, it starts to slow down until eventually we are pulling our hair out waiting for it to do routine tasks.
Why is this? It turns out the answer is actually quite simple and you don't even need to be "technical" to understand the causes and solutions.
The good news: It's not the computer hardware that's the problem. In most cases, the hardware you have is perfectly capable of being restored to its original glory and kept in fast running condition with minimal effort.
Rather, the problem lies with changes that occur to the PC's software. The two most common causes of slowdown (along with easy solutions) are:
1. The most common problem: registry errors
Every time you (or your kids) load a program, game, or file, your PC's software registry is updated with new instructions needed to operate that item. However, when the item is removed, these instructions usually remain on your PC. Every time you run your computer it tries to execute these instructions but, because the related program can't be found, it causes a registry error. Your PC is doing a lot more work than it should be, and the result is a significantly slower computer.
One of the best ways to manage this is with a neat little tool from Support.com, a Silicon Valley based company. It's called ARO 2013 and it scans, identifies, and fixes registry errors —resulting in a computer that's a lot more like it was when you first bought it. On top of the amazing results it offers, it's so easy to install and use that it was recently awarded a coveted 4.5 star rating (out of 5) by CNET's editorial staff, and has been downloaded more than 30 million times.
You can now get a free working version of the software, which will quickly scan your entire PC and identify all of the registry errors that may be bogging it down. The free version also scans for junk and checks your PC's baseline security status. It will eliminate the first 50 errors for free, and if you have more errors that you want to clean up or want to set the program to run on a regular basis (which is recommended), you can easily upgrade to the full version for just $29.95. After that, registry errors will no longer be a problem.
To get the free version, simply click here.
2. Spyware and viruses
Spyware and viruses are software programs that are loaded on your computer without your knowledge or permission. They have various purposes, including:
- Changing the default search engine in your browser
- Tracking your Web surfing habits and showing you targeted advertising
- Using your email program to send out spam to other email addresses
- Stealing your personal information
The simple rule of thumb to follow is
(1) to never download any free software programs from companies you do not know and trust, especially screen savers, C and the like.
(2) In addition, you should never open any attachment to an email unless you are 100 percent certain you know and trust the sender.
(3) Having a good anti-virus/spyware removal software running at all times will also help.
Follow the above advice, and your PC should stay fast and safe
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New York & any State Drivers:
Do Not Pay Your Next Car Insurance Bill
Until You Read This
This is the rule your car insurance company DOESN'T want you to know!
If you are currently insured, drive less than 50 miles/day and live in New York you are paying too much for your auto insurance. Of course, your auto insurance company is never going to tell you that. They want you to keep renewing your policy every six months at the same high rate. So, how do you get the lowest auto insurance rates?
Here's the rule we mentioned: NEVER buy insurance without comparing all discounts online first! Believe it or not, there ARE auto insurance companies that will give you BIG discounts, but only if you know how to find them! The good news is that you can compare auto insurance rates automatically right here, right now! It’s fast, easy and FREE! Go ahead, try it out.
Enter Your Zip Code Here
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Want to save 30%, 40%, or even a massive 50% on your auto insurance?
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Important info relating to our ailing, poor health ec0logy
Oyster Shells Are an Antacid to the Oceans
Antacid = Preventing or correcting acidity, esp. in the stomach
How does the Chesapeake Bay spell relief?
O-Y-S-T-E-R-S - a new study finds
The Chesapeake Bay is in the U.S. the largest estuary = the tidal mouth of a river, where the tide meets the stream; tide = the alternate rising and falling of the sea, usually twice in each lunar day at a particular place, due to the attraction of the moon. The Chesapeake Bay lies off the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by Maryland and Virginia
Click green for further info
Like ocean waters around the world, the Chesapeake has become more and more acidic as a result of rising levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Now, by studying oyster populations in relation to acidity levels, a team of researchers has concluded that oysters — particularly their shells — can play a significant role in reducing that acidity.
“Oyster shells are made out of calcium carbonate, so they’re sort of like an antacid pill,” said George Waldbusser, an assistant professor of earth, ocean and atmospheric sciences at Oregon State and an author of the study, which appears in the journal Ecology. “In an undisturbed oyster reef, healthy oysters are generating a lot of biodeposits,” a genteel term for excrement, “which helps generate CO2 to help break down those shells, which helps to regenerate the alkalinity back into the environment.”
Since the Industrial Revolution, ocean acidity has increased by about 30 percent, researchers say, and it is on track to double by 2100. Among the dangers of highly acidic waters are damage to fish larvae and corrosion of mollusk shells, which means the oysters in this case are helping themselves. “It creates a positive feedback loop,” Dr. Waldbusser said.
Programs to replenish Chesapeake oyster reefs — mainly to filter out pollution and combat overharvesting — date to the 1960s. But the researchers say larger, older oysters should be introduced at a faster rate to fend off the rising acidity.
Click green for further info
Source: Journal Ecology
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Climate talk shifts from curbing CO2 to adapting
WASHINGTON (AP) — Efforts to curb global warming have quietly shifted as greenhouse gases inexorably rise.
The conversation is no longer solely about how to save the planet by cutting carbon emissions. It's becoming more about how to save ourselves from the warming planet's wild weather.
It was Mayor Michael Bloomberg's announcement last week of an ambitious plan to stave off New York City's rising seas with flood gates, levees and more that brought this transition into full focus.
After years of losing the fight against rising global emissions of heat-trapping gases, governments around the world are emphasizing what a U.N. Foundation scientific report calls "managing the unavoidable."
It's called adaptation and it's about as sexy but as necessary as insurance, experts say.
It's also a message that once was taboo among climate activists such as former Vice President Al Gore.
In his 1992 book "Earth in the Balance," Gore compared talk of adapting to climate change to laziness that would distract from necessary efforts.
But in his 2013 book "The Future," Gore writes bluntly: "I was wrong." He talks about how coping with rising seas and temperatures is just as important as trying to prevent global warming by cutting emissions.
Like Gore, governmental officials across the globe aren't saying everyone should just give up on efforts to reduce pollution. They're saying that as they work on curbing carbon, they also have to deal with a reality that's already here.
In March, President Barack Obama's science advisers sent him a list of recommendations on climate change. No. 1 on the list: "Focus on national preparedness for climate change."
"Whether you believe climate change is real or not is beside the point," New York's Bloomberg said in announcing his $20 billion adaptation plans. "The bottom line is: We can't run the risk."
On Monday, more than three dozen other municipal officials from across the country will go public with a nationwide effort to make their cities more resilient to natural disasters and the effects of man-made global warming.
"It's an insurance policy, which is investing in the future," Mayor Kevin Johnson of Sacramento, Calif., who is chairing the mayors' efforts, said in an interview Friday. "This is public safety. It's the long-term hazards that could impact a community."
Discussions about global warming are happening more often in mayors' offices than in Congress. The Obama administration and local governments are coming up with thousands of eye-glazing pages ofclimate change adaptation plans and talking about zoning, elevation, water system infrastructure, and most of all, risk.
"They can sit up there and not make any policies or changes, but we know we have to," Broward County, Fla., Mayor Kristin Jacobs said. "We know that we're going to be that first line of defense."
University of Michigan professor Rosina Bierbaum is a presidential science adviser who headed the adaptation section of the administration's new National Climate Assessment. "It's quite striking how much is going on at the municipal level," Bierbaum said. "Communities have to operate in real time. Everybody is struggling with a climate that is no longer the climate of the past."
Still, Bierbaum said, "Many of the other developed countries have gone way ahead of us in preparing for climate change. In many ways, the U.S. may be playing catch-up."
Hurricanes, smaller storms and floods have been a harsh teacher for South Florida, Jacobs said.
"Each time you get walloped, you stop and scratch your head ... and learn from it and make change," she said. "It helps if you've been walloped once or twice. I think it's easier to take action when everybody sees" the effect of climate change and are willing to talk about being prepared.
What Bloomberg announced for New York is reasonable for a wealthy city with lots of people and lots of expensive property and infrastructure to protect, said S. Jeffress Williams, a University of Hawaii geophysicist who used to be the expert on sea level rise for the U.S. Geological Survey. But for other coasts in the United States and especially elsewhere in the poorer world, he said, "it's not so easy to adapt."
Rich nations have pledged, but not yet provided, $100 billion a year to help poor nations adapt to global warming and cut their emissions. But the $20 billion cost for New York City's efforts shows the money won't go far in helping poorer cities adapt, said Brandon Wu of the nonprofit ActionAid.
At U.N. climate talks in Germany this past week, Ronald Jumeau, a delegate from the Seychelles, said developing countries have noted the more than $50 billion in relief that U.S. states in the Northeast got for Superstorm Sandy.
That's a large amount "for one storm in three states. At the same time, the Philippines was hit by its 15th storm in the same year," Jumeau said. "It puts things in context."
For poorer cities in the U.S., what makes sense is to buy out property owners, relocate homes and businesses and convert vulnerable sea shores to parks so that when storms hit "it's not a big deal," Williams said. "I think we'll see more and more communities make that decision largely because of the cost involved in trying to adapt to what's coming."
Jacobs, the mayor from South Florida, says that either people will move "or they will rehab their homes so that they can have a higher elevation. Already, in the Keys, you see houses that are up on stilts. So is that where we're going? At some point, we're going to have to start looking at real changes."
It's not just rising seas.
Sacramento has to deal with devastating droughts as well as the threat of flooding. It has a levee system so delicate that only New Orleans has it worse, said Johnson, the California capital's mayor.
The temperature in Sacramento was 110 this past week. After previous heat waves, cities such as Chicago, Philadelphia and Washington, D.C., have come up with cooling centers and green roofs that reduce the urban heat island affect.
Jacobs said cities from Miami to Virginia Beach, Va., are coping with mundane efforts: changes in zoning and building codes, raising the elevation of roads and runways, moving and hardening infrastructure. None of it grabs headlines, but "the sexiness is ... in the results," she said.
For decades, scientists referenced average temperatures when they talked about global warming. Only recently have they focused intensely on extreme and costly weather, encouraged by the insurance industry which has suffered high losses, Bierbaum said.
In 2012, weather disasters — not necessarily all tied to climate change — caused $110 billion in damage to the United States, which was the second highest total since 1980, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said last week.
Now officials are merging efforts by emergency managers to prepare for natural disasters with those of officials focused on climate change. That greatly lessens the political debate about human-caused global warming, said University of Colorado science and disaster policy professor Roger Pielke Jr.
It also makes the issue more local than national or international.
"If you keep the discussion focused on impacts ... I think it's pretty easy to get people from all political persuasions," said Pielke, who often has clashed with environmentalists over global warming. "It's insurance. The good news is that we know insurance is going to pay off again."
Describing these measures as resiliency and changing the way people talk about it make it more palatable than calling it climate change, said Hadi Dowlatabadi, a University of British Columbia climate scientist.
"It's called a no-regrets strategy," Dowlatabadi said. "It's all branding."
All that, experts say, is essentially taking some of the heat out of the global warming debate.
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Associated Press writers Karl A. Ritter in Bonn, Germany, Jennifer Peltz in New York and Tony Winton in Miami contributed to this report.
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Article 1 of 2 (Article 2 just below)
Discovering the Water Planet
“There has long been a belief that the sea, at least, was inviolate*), beyond man’s
ability to change & to despoil. But this belief, unfortunately, has proved to be naive.”
Rachel Carson, “The Sea Around Us”, 1951 - see the info at the end of this article - the link below to her
*) inviolate = free or safe from injury or violation, unharmed - intact
Important science information for everyone in this world
Discovering the Water Planet
Over 70 % of our earth is water - thus, we can call our planed a water planet
By Dr Gerry Goeden - a leading marine ecologist - the link to him at the end of this article
I had the immense pleasure of meeting the lady who changed the world and launched the conservation movement through her books when I was only 16. Rachel Carson had already written “Silent Spring” and “The Sea Around Us” when I was at my most impressionable. My career in marine science was her fault; and each day I thank her.
I have often said to my students that because I couldn’t be an astronaut, I set out to explore “inner-space” and was going to spend my life discovering the water planet. All I needed was some diving gear and a lot of enthusiasm. Travelling there was simple! Had humans evolved on the Moon and decided to settle here they would have called this place “Water” and not “Earth”.
There is about 1.4 billion cubic kilometers of water spread across 70.8 percent of the planet’s surface, and 97.2 percent of that water is ocean. The blood that flows through our veins is little more than seawater and we refer to it as our “life blood” and for good reason. About 70 percent of the oxygen we breathe is produced by the tiny organisms that float in the sea (phytoplankton), and it was their ancestors that were the first life on Earth.
Our climate is driven by ocean currents and recent (2009) studies suggest that these may now change dramatically due to global warming, melting the Arctic, and causing widespread flooding that will drown the cities of a quarter of the world’s population.
Ecologists talk about biodiversity; about the richness of species in a given area. More kinds of living things make a healthier planet. The sea supports an incredible variety of life; an estimated 80 percent of all the known life on Earth. And yet, we spend much more money on outer space research than we do on understanding the “inner-space” just offshore.
Why are we so disinterested in rising sea level when 60 percent of the world’s humans live within 60 kilometers of the ocean? Why do we dump 450 billion cubic meters of poisonous and non-biodegradable waste in the sea each year?
Most of the world’s fisheries are food fisheries supplying roughly 40 percent of the protein consumed by nearly two-thirds of the world’s population. Some 38 million people make all or most of their living from fishing, landing 90–100 million metric tons of fish per year.
Despite huge efforts, these landings have remained about the same since the early 1990s. We keep building more fishing vessels, some capable of landing 350 metric tons per day, but the landings are not increasing. The global fleet is now 250 percent larger than needed to catch what the oceans can sustainably produce and many governments are forced to subsidize uneconomical fisheries to maintain a supply of food for their people.
Our oceans are in crisis! The FAO estimates that 70 percent of commercial fisheries have already collapsed or are now collapsing. The devastation is widespread from huge whales to Peruvian anchovies. Sadly, many of these will never recover and will be lost forever. Top predators like tuna, shark, and swordfish have been reduced to a mere 10 percent of their original numbers and some species are facing probable extinction. I have been told that Malaysian fisheries have removed about 95 percent of their stocks. There is little left.
Each year we kill and discard globally 30 million metric tons of accidentally caught marine life (bycatch) including dolphins, turtles, crabs, and juvenile fish. In Australia’s north, 92 percent of the catch is of no use to fishermen. As we remove these animals from the food-web we drive down biodiversity and strangle the ocean’s ecological processes.
Coral reefs are now the world’s most endangered ecosystem. These tiny underwater “islands of life” are under threat from human activities and especially from acidification. As we burn more and more fossil fuels we add to the growing levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, warm the planet, and change the pH (acidity) of the sea.
The acid threshold for coral is reached when the atmosphere exceeds 350 parts per million (ppm) of CO2. Tragically that happened about 1988 and by October 2012 was 391 ppm. The present levels are higher than any time in the last 800,000 years and probably in the last 20 million years.
Growing acidity in the oceans has a disastrous effect on marine life. It is predicted to fall from pH 8.1 (now) to below pH 7.3 in the year 2300. A long way off? No need to be concerned?
At pH 7.7 we will reach the lethal limit for all shell forming mollusks and reef corals; their shells and skeletons will simply dissolve and they will die. That’s right, coral reefs and marine life with shells will die!
When will this happen? The shocking answer is that scientific studies are all pointing to 2065. Between now and then there will be huge disruptions of the ecological food web as species begin to drop out. From about 2065 on we can expect the rapid and catastrophic collapse of most stocks of marine life. This corresponds with a major scientific research program (Science, Nov 2006) that predicts that all fish stocks worldwide will collapse by 2056. The ocean ecosystem will simply fail.
This situation is now the most pressing environmental issue we face, and as a marine scientist I believe it is the most pressing issue on the planet. I am not alone and have been joined in my concerns by 155 senior marine scientists from 26 countries who recently signed the Monaco Declaration (The Royal Society, July 6, 2009), highlighting the twin threat of growing ocean acidification and global warming.
What astonishing creatures we are! The warning bells have been ringing since Rachel Carson published her wonderful book in 1951. During the last 60 years there have been more scientists alive and doing research than all the scientists that have lived before us. And still we race blindly down the road to the ocean’s destruction and possibly our own.
Gerry is a Malaysian-based marine ecologist, Research Fellow and Advisor to the National University of Malaysia, and marine consultant to the Andaman Resort, Langkawi.
Click green above & below for further info
The Sea Around Us - Wikipedia, the free encyclopediaen.wikipedia.org
wiki/The_Sea_Around_Us
For the documentary film, see The Sea Around Us (film). ... marine biologist Rachel Carson, first published as a whole by Oxford University Press in 1951.
Click green above & below for further info
Dr Gerry Goeden's Swimming With Dolphins drgerrygoeden.blogspot.com/
May 5, 2013 – Gerry is a Malaysian based marine ecologist, Research Fellow and Advisor to the National University of Malaysia, and marine consultant to the ...
Click green for further info
Article source: NYT
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Article 2 of 2
Food Supply Under Assault
as Climate Heats Up
Date: May 2013
There are precedents but they've all been local and people just abandoned those areas and moved on.."What's very sobering*) about the situation today:
This is global and there isn't any other place to go on this spaceship Earth.
Click green for further info
American eaters, let’s talk about the birds and the bees: The U.S. food supply – from chickens injected with arsenic to dying bee colonies – is under unprecedented siege from a blitz of man-made hazards, meaning some of your favorite treats someday may vanish from your plate, experts say.
Warmer and moister air ringing much of the planet – punctuated by droughts in other locales – is threatening the prime ingredients in many daily meals, including the maple syrup on your morning pancakes and the salmon on your evening grill as well as the wine in your glass and the chocolate on your dessert tray, according to four recent studies.
At the same time, an unappetizing bacterial outbreak in Florida citrus droves, largely affecting orange trees, is causing fruit to turn bitter. Elsewhere, unappealing fungi strains are curtailing certain coffee yields and devastating some banana plantations, researchers report.
Now, mix in the atmospheric misfortunes sapping two mainstays of American farming — corn and cows. Heavier than normal spring rains have put the corn crop far behind schedule: Only 28 percent of corn fields have been planted this year compared with 85 percent at this time in 2012, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Meanwhile, drought in the Southeastern plains and a poor hay yield have culled the U.S. cattle and calf herd to its lowest level since 1952, propelling the wholesale price of a USDA cut of choice beef to a new high on May 3 — $201.68 per 100 pounds, eclipsing the old mark of $201.18 from October 2003, the USDA reports.
“We are in the midst of dramatic assault on the security of the food supply,” said Dr. Robert S. Lawrence, director of the Center for a Livable Future, part of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. The group promotes ecological research into the nexus of diet, food production, environment and human health.
The primary culprit of all this menu mayhem is climate change, which is choking off certain crops already weakened by both genetic tinkering and chemically based farming, some experts contend.
Agricultural history is, of course, laced with tales of crop-munching bug swarms and dirt-baking droughts, leading to famous regional famines. Paleontologists have even argued that the hanging gardens of ancient Babylon dried up because people messed with that micro-climate by slashing too many trees, over-expanding farm fields and exhausting the water supply, Lawrence said.
“So there are precedents but they’ve all been local and people just abandoned those areas and moved on,” he added. “What’s very sobering about the situation today: This is global and there isn’t any other place to go on this spaceship Earth. We need to regard all of these (examples) as a very powerful motivator to try to work on the carbon emissions, to start pushing that parts per million of carbon dioxide back down.”
Click: Endangered foods around the world
The world’s collective appetite also is growing as populations rise, leading large, commercial growers and exporters to ship more food internationally – and allowing certain plant-consuming bacteria, fungi and viruses to “hitchhike half way around the world in a day,” public health researcher says.
Last week, the ratio of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere soared to the highest daily average ever recorded by an air monitor station at Mauna Loa in Hawaii — nearly 400 parts per million (ppm), said John Ewald, a spokesman for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association, who called it "an extremely important milestone." When that gauge was installed in 1958, the observatory measured a CO2 concentration of 313 ppm. The number means there were 313 molecules of carbon dioxide in the air for every 1 million molecules of air.
“That warmer and more moist air (caused by the CO2) creates the conditions that certain pathogens thrive on,” Lawrence said. “That’s the dilemma with things like the coffee fungi and some of the problems with citrus.”
The world’s collective appetite also is growing as populations rise, leading large, commercial growers and exporters to ship more food internationally – and allowing certain plant-consuming bacteria, fungi and viruses to “hitchhike half way around the world in a day,” Lawrence added.
Moreover, to help meet the need to feed those extra mouths, industrial agriculture has increasingly turned to “mono-culture” farming to boost harvests. That means using science to alter plants and sewing huge fields – fencepost to fencepost – with single crops.
“For instance, corn plants in the American Midwest are grown closer together and taller than they have been in the past because we’re genetically engineering them to do that,” said Lee Hannah, senior fellow at Conservation International, a global nonprofit that advocates for sustainable policies. “That produces a lot more food. But it also makes that corn more vulnerable to disease, which, if it gets into that mono-culture system, can sweep through it much as a disease will go through a city a lot faster than it does a rural countryside.
“We’re in a situation where the food supply is more vulnerable than it has ever been,” added Hannah, also an adjunct faculty member at the Bren School of Environmental Science & Management at the University of California at Santa Barbara.
Hannah authored a recent study that predicted climate change may shrink California’s wine-growing areas by as much as 70 percent by 2050.
But less wine in our homes could – some conservationists hope – grab the attention of American consumers who can’t otherwise get their heads around shrinking polar ice caps.
“Maybe seeing this impact all this has on our ability to raise the food we depend on will get us to the tipping point of real policy change and real action,” Lawrence said. “I hope so.”
Click green for further info
Source: The Bren School of Environmental Science & Management at the University of California at Santa Barbara.
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Travel Tips
Get an upgrade in the hotel
What to do in the room for your safety
Works for Cruise boats also
Everyone wants an upgrade, but not everyone goes about it in the best way. One top tip is to use social media and
post on a hotel’s Facebook wall about why you’re coming and why you’re excited. “They will see that and they will typically automatically upgrade you,” he says. “Or call the front desk, let them know before you get there that it’s your birthday or anniversary.”
When you get in your room, it’s important to make sure everything’s up to par. There are certain things he will always clean himself. While it's common knowledge that a TV remote rarely gets cleaned, he says an even germier item is the handle of the toilet. “People wash their hands AFTER they use the toilet, so that to me is the most disgusting thing,” he says. "That’s why you use your foot” to flush.
He also offers a word of caution to those who reach for a drink of water. “Never, ever, ever drink out of a glass in a hotel room,” he says, citing the many times he’s seen housekeepers wipe down a room and use the same rag to clean a glass. Use a plastic cup instead.
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Travel Tips
Some cultural differences for successful traveling
E.g., Pushing back in Chinese crowds is normal, so don't get angry over it - push back in a friendly manner
There are innumerable ways that Americans stick out when traveling, to the amusement and annoyance of the locals. Last year’s guide to sticking out was so popular that we’ve come up with some more ways that we embarrass ourselves when overseas.
Pushing back in China
In overpopulated China, people will push you. Grandmas, children, everyone. But it’s not meant as an aggressive act, and it would be a mistake to take offense or push back, especially when you look different from everyone else. Most non-Chinese Americans are conspicuous not only by their race, but by their (bigger) size, so retaliation will not go unnoticed. Either relax your body and let yourself be moved around, as I did on the ferry in Shanghai, or else plant your feet firmly, without hostility. The jostles are rarely energetic enough to cause you physical harm.
Not carrying change
Making change, especially for big bills, is just not a "thing" in many countries. And always have small change on hand for public restrooms in train stations, museums, and archeological sites. In Italian restrooms, once you drop your euro in the slot, for god’s sake step swiftly past the retractable plastic doors. I’ve seen those doors painfully close on many a dumbfounded American.
Getting impatient with the check
Don't get alarmed, annoyed, or impatient when the check isn't brought immediately after you take your last bite.
It's considered impolite in many cultures to bring the bill too quickly. Unlike in America, where restaurants want to turn their tables quickly, in other countries lingering is encouraged or expected.
Eating in
Nothing is more rube-like (= unsophisticated, or unintelligent person)than being too lazy to leave your hotel for a meal. Hotel meals are overpriced, devoid of local color and often of substandard quality. Of course the exceptions are fine restaurants that have achieved a distinct identify, such as the two-Michelin-starred Le Cinq at the Four Seasons George V. And it would be silly to forgo the free, increasingly ample breakfasts available at most European hotels, some of which even offer hot food (it is common to obtain a bed-and-breakfast room rate).
Being a bad complainer
If you get a bad room in a hotel and want to change, make sure you have a specific, concrete complaint and use precise words that the hotel manager "gets." When I was given a room at a fine hotel in Barcelona's tony Eixample neighborhood, and it was small and dark, I wasn't happy. But I knew it would be the noise outside the window, from construction debris being dropped down chutes, that would get me an upgrade. And I knew to avoid emotional language and use a few words that Europeans favor: "unacceptable" and "impossible." And another word that seems to work wonders: "TripAdvisor."
Not greeting the shopkeeper
It's typical in America to walk into a shop and start examining the merchandise. It's an impersonal, corporate mentality. But in homey Greece, for example, there's a good chance that the person minding the store is the actual owner, so it's customary to greet the shopkeeper, and say admiring things about their olive wood crafts.
When in France, know some French
Learning a few phrases in French can be especially helpful. The French, unlike the Italians, don't easily give up their language to English, and they certainly won't converse with you in their native tongue if your French is imperfect. But you'll get less of a sneer if you make an effort.
Visiting Bali without blessings
There are Hindu shrines all over Bali, and experienced travelers will know better than to approach one empty-handed. So come prepared with little offerings; even better to use the tiny local baskets and fill them with flower petals and gifts. The Balinese are too polite to say anything if you fail to offer, but they’ll be very touched if you observe this ubiquitous (=widespread) custom.
Taking notes in China
Also in China, take photos, but not notes (at least with pen & paper). Given the country's history of censorship and restrictions on the press, your note-taking might make people uncomfortable. Writing in public means that you're taking their situation too casually and rubbing your democracy in their faces. This is the only thing I did in Shanghai that caused people to stare. Take notes on your phone instead.
Surfing on the locals’ waves in Hawaii
It’s possible, even likely, to be a rude American in Hawaii (even though it’s the 50thU.S. state). Black socks, fanny packs—it’s a well-worn cliché. And even in laid-back Hawaii, you can get yourself into trouble by trying to surf on a locals’ beach. “Surf rage” is not unheard of. If you’re from the mainland, no matter what ethnicity, you’re “haole” (North American), and if you ride the wrong waves you may end up losing your teeth. Stick toWaikiki and other hotel beaches.
Finding chaos at kiosks
Have at least one credit card with a PIN code. Train kiosks in Europe are the last holdouts: either you need that European "chip" in your credit card (which we don't have), an ATM card or a credit card registered with a cash withdrawal code. In France, with all those labor strikes, there might not be a human to buy a ticket from, and then you’re stuck. Yelling at the kiosk doesn’t seem to work.
Click green for further info
Source: Travel News
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Hostels Gain Popularity With Business Travelers
Pay less - today the Hostel quality can be excellent
Click green for further info
Ferdi van ‘t Wout, a manager for a global electronics manufacturer in the Netherlands, frequently stays in hostels when traveling for work, an option he discovered last year by accident.
“I unexpectedly needed to be in Copenhagen to meet with some colleagues,” he said. “Due to the short notice and some big event happening, it was simply impossible to find a hotel in the city center that was anywhere close to being considered affordable.” So he made a reservation for a private room with a bath at the hostel Generator Copenhagen.
The service, design and public areas for quietly working and relaxing impressed him, so he has returned several times and stayed at a sister property in Hamburg, Germany. Hostels are “good for young businesspeople like me who are ready to plug in anywhere but don’t want to spend all evening alone in the bedroom,” Mr. van ‘t Wout, 30, said.
Hostels, long associated with lone backpackers and groups of students, have recently attracted older adults, families and, now, even business travelers, especially those in their 20s and 30s on tight budgets who are staying at upscale, design-oriented hostels.
Josh Wyatt, a partner at Patron Capital, the private equity firm based in London that owns Generator Hostels, said traffic had been brisk among young business travelers at its hostel in Copenhagen and seven other European properties. At some, nearly 20 percent of the guests during the week are business travelers, especially in off-peak seasons. He attributed that to upgrades in service, accommodations, design and food and beverages, areas where hostels have not traditionally excelled.
Many Generator Hostel guests are starting in their careers and traveling for work but do not have large expense accounts. In 10 years, they might stay at stylish boutique hotels like W and the Standard, but for now they choose upscale hostels rather than budget hotels. Mr. Wyatt said they were drawn by “a great night sleep, a great shower and free Wi-Fi, all in a hip, relaxed setting. If you have to travel and are on a budget, you still want to have fun and want something cool.”
He said a bed in a dorm room at Generator Copenhagen could cost about 20 percent of the price of a room at a typical midrange business hotel nearby and at Generator Barcelona about 10 percent of that midrange hotel price. And private rooms at Generator hostels in those cities can cost as little as half the price of comparable rooms at a three-star hotel, he said.
The company is beginning to market to start-up firms and entry- and junior-level employees. It uses booking sources not typically associated with hostels that compete with budget hotels, listing its properties on global distribution systems used by online booking Web sites.
The hostel industry has grown in recent years because more people are traveling and because of the global economic downturn that pinched travelers’ budgets, according to Stay Wyse, a nonprofit trade association that tracks and researches accommodation trends among young travelers globally.
The hostels, which have been consistently profitable over the years, are also evolving as they move away from the traditional, rustic concept to high design, with enhanced facilities and services, a trend that started around 2004.
An estimated 10 percent of hostel guests are business travelers, a figure that has grown about 1 percent each year since 2009, in part because “the product has significantly increased in quality,” said Laura Daly, association manager for Stay Wyse. “With the investment in facilities, we predict this will grow at a steeper rate year on year.”
Bjorn Hanson, divisional dean of the Preston Robert Tisch Center for Hospitality, Tourism and Sports Management at New York University, said he was not aware of data that tracked business travel stays at hostels, but he said it might be more common outside the United States. He attributed that to several factors: traditional lodging brands offer more budget choices of consistent quality in the United States. And in Europe, where low-cost brands are not as prevalent, hostels “may fill that void,” he said. He also cited “wider acceptance to nontraditional lodging formats.”
Giovanna Gentile, senior public relations executive for HostelBookers.com, a Web site based in London for budget accommodations internationally, said many hostels now offered amenities traditionally associated with hotels: private rooms with bathrooms, swimming pools, conference rooms and gyms.
She said hostels offered many amenities that hotels typically did not provide: entertainment rooms with big-screen television sets, surround-sound cinemas, game rooms, pool tables and self-catering kitchens that “encourage travelers to cook their own food and avoid spending a fortune in restaurants.” Hostels also organize social activities, like movie nights, city tours and other outings.
Driven largely by competition, hostel owners “had to find a way to stand out,” Ms. Gentile said.
The fusion hotel in Prague, for example, is both a hotel and a hostel offering standard private rooms and traditional shared dorm rooms, as well as nontraditional meeting spaces, like the rotating bar and lounge and the playroom, which features colorful, oversize folding sofas attached to the wall. Guests can network or play video games during informal meetings. The idea for the hybrid property was born after the economic crisis. “We have a product to sell to anyone, at anytime,” said Nah-Dja Tien, fusion’s general manager. “We can give business travelers an alternative pricewise, and also an alternative experience” for doing business.
Giuseppe Gentileschi, chief executive of Incoming Talents, a modeling agency and fashion production house with headquarters in Prague, often stays and books employees, clients and models at fusion and other hostels. The trend is for clean, well-managed hostels that offer atmosphere, comfort and upscale design but are not pretentious without spending “huge” amounts of money, he said. “At the beginning, I didn’t even realize that fusion was a hostel.”
David Orr, founder of Hostelz.com, a hostel booking and review site, said: “The key to staying in a hostel as a business traveler is to pick the right hostel. I think in some hostels, business travelers feel out of place,” as he said he discovered on a business trip to Spain when he stayed at a hostel “where guests are known to party all night long.” But over all, the competitive market has driven up standards, he said. “They can’t get away with being grungy,” he said. “In some cities, hostels are nicer than hotels.”
Mr. van ‘t Wout, the electronics company manager, said if you needed frills like minibars and room service, then a hostel might not be a good choice.
“But if you are used to traveling with your mobile office,” he said, and “want to enjoy a drink at bar at the end of the day without feeling awkward about being on your own, then this is a stylish and great value option that’s definitely worth considering.”
“The atmosphere is as open or private as you choose yourself,” he said. “It basically made my business travels a lot more fun again.”
Click green for further info
Source: NYT
_____________________________
Enjoyable way to travel
Riverboat cruising refines
big-ship perks for the world traveler
Visit www.vantagetravel.com
Vantage Travel: Homewww.vantagetravel.com
to see where in the world you can go via riverboat
RESERVATIONS 1.800.322.6677 (- U.S. #)
Travel Free as a Group Leader - Other ways to travel free - see our website
Travel: Homewww.vantagetravel.com
Ocean cruising has its perks. Tropical destinations, all-you-can-eat buffets, water slides, bowling, free booze — it’s a $30 billion dollar business meant to cater to every whim. But sometimes the excessiveness of ocean cruising can overwhelm. What if you want to experience the joys of traveling by sea without thousands of people crammed alongside you? Without paying extra for excursions, or having to adhere to a rigid schedule while visiting increasingly homogenized ports of call?
Riverboat cruising plucks the aspects that make ocean cruising so attractive — the ability to hit multiple destinations without unpacking, the collegial atmosphere on board, an international, knowledgeable staff, a cosmopolitan experience — while being more refined, smaller than their big-white-boat counterparts. As the name implies, riverboat cruising uses smaller vessels that stick mainly to rivers, mostly in Europe but also in Asia and the South Pacific, the Mediterranean and Northern Africa, and even Antarctica.
“Most of our guests are seasoned world travelers for whom the destination is still the main attraction. For them, it’s not about all-night buffets or skating rinks or other novelties you find aboard big cruise ships — it’s about the discovery,” says Kevin Wallace, COO of Vantage Deluxe World Travel, a premiere riverboat cruising company based in Boston. “You unpack once, then sail right into the heart of ports great and small, where sightseeing and intercultural activities are always included.”
With riverboat cruising, you sacrifice water slides for accessibility and a more unique experience. Smaller boats mean you can slip into smaller ports of call — you usually just walk off the boat and into the center of town. But riverboat companies aren’t dumb, nor are they stuffy. They include the perks Americans know and love: full-service cocktail lounges with live entertainment, Internet cafes, excursions, and, yes, even all-you-can-eat breakfast and lunch buffets (as well as a formal sit-down dinner every night).
Wallace is celebrating the launch of their latest addition to their fleet, River Splendor. The new ship, part of a $120 million investment by Vantage, has a busy year ahead: After its March christening in Antwerp, Belgium, it will spend the spring, summer and fall cruising the Rhine, Main and Danube rivers between Amsterdam and the Black Sea as the lead ship on Vantage’s most popular package, the Majestic Rivers of Europe: Castles, Cathedrals and Fairytales (with stops in Vienna, Budapest and the Czech Republic), as well as the Gateway to the Black Sea trip that takes travelers from Budapest along the Danube all the way to the Black Sea resort of Constanta, Romania.
So, with these trips, instead of onboard bowling you’ll just have to enjoy a home-hosted lunch with a family in Croatia instead. In lieu of a Broadway musical at night, you’ll have to settle for an exclusive classical concert at the Kursalon in Vienna.
Sounds like a pretty good trade-off, yes?
Source: Vantage Travel
Click green for further info
Vantage Travel: Homewww.vantagetravel.com/
Worldwide River Voyages · Vantage Worldwide Discoveries Small Ship Journey · Vantage Worldwide Discoveries Land Journeys · Vantage Travel Lifestyle ...
My Portfolio My Portfolio Help - My Portfolio - Forgot your password? - ...
Small Ship Cruises You searched for: Small Ship Cruises + 2013. 2013; 2014 ...
Find A Journey All Journeys. Home > Find a Journey > Vantage Worldwide ...
100% Travel Protection Plan of mind — with Vantage's 100% Travel Protection Plan ...
European River Cruises Worldwide River Voyages. a video about the inaugural voyage of ...
Contact USA Journey. About Vantage. Home>About Vantage> Contact Us...
More results from vantagetravel.com »
================================
Suggested Journeys - click green
French Waterways: Highlights of Burgundy & Provence A Seine River Cruise: Paris & Highlights of Normandy Treasures of France: A Grand River Journey from Normandy to Provence Grand European River Cruise: Rhine Valley to the Black Sea Majestic Rivers of Europe: Castles, Cathedrals & Fairytales Gateway to the Black Sea Imperial Russian Waterways: Moscow & St. Petersburg Switzerland & the Heart of the Rhine & MoselleBest of Africa: South Africa, Botswana, Namibia & Victoria Falls Grand Norwegian Coastal Voyage
And many more worldwide
_____________________________________
Take a Luxury Cruise at a deep discount — up to 80% Off
Vacations To Go
Click green for further info
Savvy travelers know that a cruise is a vacation without equal. With modern cruise lines pumping millions of dollars into their fleets, today’s cruise ships are floating resorts, with well-appointed cabins, multiple restaurants, daytime and nighttime entertainment and kids’ clubs for younger guests. Plus, you get to visit several exciting destinations on one vacation!
A cruise is an amazing experience. But you know what’s even better? Getting that cruise at an incredible discount — up to 80% off!
Is this really possible? It is with a company called Vacations To Go, the world’s largest seller of cruises.
In business since 1984, Vacations To Go offers smart travelers deeply discounted cruises from all the major cruise lines. You can save on every ship and sailing to the world’s most popular destinations. Browse and compare different cruise lines, ships, cabin categories and itineraries. The only difference between what Vacations To Go offers and what other companies offer is the price you pay.
Cruise ships have a certain number of cabins, and the goal is to always sail full. But that just doesn’t always happen on these large, modern cruise ships.
The ship is still going to sail whether all the cabins are filled or not. At a certain point, the cruise line would much rather sell any remaining cabins at a discount than let them stay empty — getting a small amount for a cabin is better than getting nothing at all. However, if the line just lowers the price, customers who already paid a higher fare will not be happy.
This is where Vacations To Go comes in. The company is authorized to offer these unsold cabins to its registered customers, who then get a top-shelf vacation for a fraction of the regular price. Cruise lines like this arrangement because they don’t have to worry about unsold cabins, and sharp-thinking travelers who have registered with Vacations To Go love the exclusive rates (signing up is completely free of charge, by the way).
And don’t think these deals are just for tiny inside cabins. In fact, every level of cabin hits the unsold list; we see balcony cabins and suites go for huge discounts, too. The Vacations To Go website is constantly updated with new markdowns and cut-rate deals. There are also special rates for travelers ages 55 and up, past cruisers, airline employees, military personnel, residents of select states, police officers and other groups. The company promises that you’ll get the lowest rate with its “Best Price & Service” guarantee.
To be informed of the latest news and special offers, you can register for Vacations To Go’s
free cruise newsletter.
And by signing up, you’ll be part of the privileged group that gets access to special unpublished discounts. Before you know it, you’ll be cruising the open sea — with lots of money left over!
To see what Vacations To Go has to offer, click here
Click green for further info
Source: Vacations To Go discount trips
___________________________________________________
The Consummate Traveler:
Essential Travel Documents 101
I recently overheard two colleagues of mine talking about their experiences visiting a certain Eastern bloc country. While one talked about the weather and good food, the other shared a disturbing incident that happened to him.
A few years ago, this male colleague of mine was by himself and exiting a famous American chain restaurant, when someone dressed in a police uniform asked to see his passport. Having locked his passport in the hotel safe, my colleague was then pushed by this “policeman” for cash in order to release him. He had to walk home alone at night because this person took all of the taxi money he had!
This story reminded me of just how important it is to be prepared with certain critical documentation when visiting foreign countries. This is especially true given these challenging times we live in. Here is a quick list to help you be prepared for your next trip:
Photocopy of passport: You should always keep your actual passport locked away to avoid losing it or having it stolen. However, keep a color photocopy of the main page with you at all times. This can give you a better sense of security if you ever get stopped by a “policeman” to show your identification papers.
I would even ask the hotel staff to write in the local language that the original passport is locked in the hotel safe. Many goons posing as government officials may not speak English well enough to understand your explanations.
Cell Phone Photo of Passport: Take a close up photo using your mobile phone of your passport’s main page. In case you ever lose your passport, this is a quick way to have the document in an easy to transmit format. You could also save it onto a memory stick if you are concerned about e-mailing copies of your passport.
Emergency Contact List: While traveling you should always have a document with you, separate from your handbag or backpacks, that has your emergency contact information on it. Keeping it in your pocket is the best location as you could have your bags stolen or you can easily become separated from your bags if an accident happens.
If you are ever in need of help, this will be an important part of your response plan. Make sure you indicate clearly on the document what country you are from and include the country code as part of the telephone number. If a local Good Samaritan wants to help you, they will need to know how to dial out to your country.
Medical conditions and Medication: If you have any chronic or critical illnesses, allergies to bites or medications, and are on a variety of prescription drugs, it is absolutely essential to have a document on your person with this information. If you get hurt or fall ill while sightseeing or traveling (especially if you are alone), this data could save your life when medical attention is needed.
As always, I wish you all the happiest of travels.
__________________________________________________________
Riverboat cruising refines
big-ship perks for the world traveler
Visit www.vantagetravel.com
Vantage Travel: Homewww.vantagetravel.com
to see where in the world you can go via riverboat
RESERVATIONS 1.800.322.6677 (- U.S. #)
Travel Free as a Group Leader - Other ways to travel free - see our website
Travel: Homewww.vantagetravel.com
Ocean cruising has its perks. Tropical destinations, all-you-can-eat buffets, water slides, bowling, free booze — it’s a $30 billion dollar business meant to cater to every whim. But sometimes the excessiveness of ocean cruising can overwhelm. What if you want to experience the joys of traveling by sea without thousands of people crammed alongside you? Without paying extra for excursions, or having to adhere to a rigid schedule while visiting increasingly homogenized ports of call?
Riverboat cruising plucks the aspects that make ocean cruising so attractive — the ability to hit multiple destinations without unpacking, the collegial atmosphere on board, an international, knowledgeable staff, a cosmopolitan experience — while being more refined, smaller than their big-white-boat counterparts. As the name implies, riverboat cruising uses smaller vessels that stick mainly to rivers, mostly in Europe but also in Asia and the South Pacific, the Mediterranean and Northern Africa, and even Antarctica.
“Most of our guests are seasoned world travelers for whom the destination is still the main attraction. For them, it’s not about all-night buffets or skating rinks or other novelties you find aboard big cruise ships — it’s about the discovery,” says Kevin Wallace, COO of Vantage Deluxe World Travel, a premiere riverboat cruising company based in Boston. “You unpack once, then sail right into the heart of ports great and small, where sightseeing and intercultural activities are always included.”
With riverboat cruising, you sacrifice water slides for accessibility and a more unique experience. Smaller boats mean you can slip into smaller ports of call — you usually just walk off the boat and into the center of town. But riverboat companies aren’t dumb, nor are they stuffy. They include the perks Americans know and love: full-service cocktail lounges with live entertainment, Internet cafes, excursions, and, yes, even all-you-can-eat breakfast and lunch buffets (as well as a formal sit-down dinner every night).
Wallace is celebrating the launch of their latest addition to their fleet, River Splendor. The new ship, part of a $120 million investment by Vantage, has a busy year ahead: After its March christening in Antwerp, Belgium, it will spend the spring, summer and fall cruising the Rhine, Main and Danube rivers between Amsterdam and the Black Sea as the lead ship on Vantage’s most popular package, the Majestic Rivers of Europe: Castles, Cathedrals and Fairytales (with stops in Vienna, Budapest and the Czech Republic), as well as the Gateway to the Black Sea trip that takes travelers from Budapest along the Danube all the way to the Black Sea resort of Constanta, Romania.
So, with these trips, instead of onboard bowling you’ll just have to enjoy a home-hosted lunch with a family in Croatia instead. In lieu of a Broadway musical at night, you’ll have to settle for an exclusive classical concert at the Kursalon in Vienna.
Sounds like a pretty good trade-off, yes?
Source: Vantage Travel
Click green for further info
Vantage Travel: Homewww.vantagetravel.com/
Worldwide River Voyages · Vantage Worldwide Discoveries Small Ship Journey · Vantage Worldwide Discoveries Land Journeys · Vantage Travel Lifestyle ...
My Portfolio My Portfolio Help - My Portfolio - Forgot your password? - ...
Small Ship Cruises You searched for: Small Ship Cruises + 2013. 2013; 2014 ...
Find A Journey All Journeys. Home > Find a Journey > Vantage Worldwide ...
100% Travel Protection Plan of mind — with Vantage's 100% Travel Protection Plan ...
European River Cruises Worldwide River Voyages. a video about the inaugural voyage of ...
Contact USA Journey. About Vantage. Home>About Vantage> Contact Us...
More results from vantagetravel.com »
================================
Suggested Journeys - click green
French Waterways: Highlights of Burgundy & Provence A Seine River Cruise: Paris & Highlights of Normandy Treasures of France: A Grand River Journey from Normandy to Provence Grand European River Cruise: Rhine Valley to the Black Sea Majestic Rivers of Europe: Castles, Cathedrals & Fairytales Gateway to the Black Sea Imperial Russian Waterways: Moscow & St. Petersburg Switzerland & the Heart of the Rhine & MoselleBest of Africa: South Africa, Botswana, Namibia & Victoria Falls Grand Norwegian Coastal Voyage
And many more worldwide
_____________________________________
Take a Luxury Cruise at a deep discount — up to 80% Off
Vacations To Go
Click green for further info
Savvy travelers know that a cruise is a vacation without equal. With modern cruise lines pumping millions of dollars into their fleets, today’s cruise ships are floating resorts, with well-appointed cabins, multiple restaurants, daytime and nighttime entertainment and kids’ clubs for younger guests. Plus, you get to visit several exciting destinations on one vacation!
A cruise is an amazing experience. But you know what’s even better? Getting that cruise at an incredible discount — up to 80% off!
Is this really possible? It is with a company called Vacations To Go, the world’s largest seller of cruises.
In business since 1984, Vacations To Go offers smart travelers deeply discounted cruises from all the major cruise lines. You can save on every ship and sailing to the world’s most popular destinations. Browse and compare different cruise lines, ships, cabin categories and itineraries. The only difference between what Vacations To Go offers and what other companies offer is the price you pay.
Cruise ships have a certain number of cabins, and the goal is to always sail full. But that just doesn’t always happen on these large, modern cruise ships.
The ship is still going to sail whether all the cabins are filled or not. At a certain point, the cruise line would much rather sell any remaining cabins at a discount than let them stay empty — getting a small amount for a cabin is better than getting nothing at all. However, if the line just lowers the price, customers who already paid a higher fare will not be happy.
This is where Vacations To Go comes in. The company is authorized to offer these unsold cabins to its registered customers, who then get a top-shelf vacation for a fraction of the regular price. Cruise lines like this arrangement because they don’t have to worry about unsold cabins, and sharp-thinking travelers who have registered with Vacations To Go love the exclusive rates (signing up is completely free of charge, by the way).
And don’t think these deals are just for tiny inside cabins. In fact, every level of cabin hits the unsold list; we see balcony cabins and suites go for huge discounts, too. The Vacations To Go website is constantly updated with new markdowns and cut-rate deals. There are also special rates for travelers ages 55 and up, past cruisers, airline employees, military personnel, residents of select states, police officers and other groups. The company promises that you’ll get the lowest rate with its “Best Price & Service” guarantee.
To be informed of the latest news and special offers, you can register for Vacations To Go’s
free cruise newsletter.
And by signing up, you’ll be part of the privileged group that gets access to special unpublished discounts. Before you know it, you’ll be cruising the open sea — with lots of money left over!
To see what Vacations To Go has to offer, click here
Click green for further info
Source: Vacations To Go discount trips
___________________________________________________
The Consummate Traveler:
Essential Travel Documents 101
I recently overheard two colleagues of mine talking about their experiences visiting a certain Eastern bloc country. While one talked about the weather and good food, the other shared a disturbing incident that happened to him.
A few years ago, this male colleague of mine was by himself and exiting a famous American chain restaurant, when someone dressed in a police uniform asked to see his passport. Having locked his passport in the hotel safe, my colleague was then pushed by this “policeman” for cash in order to release him. He had to walk home alone at night because this person took all of the taxi money he had!
This story reminded me of just how important it is to be prepared with certain critical documentation when visiting foreign countries. This is especially true given these challenging times we live in. Here is a quick list to help you be prepared for your next trip:
Photocopy of passport: You should always keep your actual passport locked away to avoid losing it or having it stolen. However, keep a color photocopy of the main page with you at all times. This can give you a better sense of security if you ever get stopped by a “policeman” to show your identification papers.
I would even ask the hotel staff to write in the local language that the original passport is locked in the hotel safe. Many goons posing as government officials may not speak English well enough to understand your explanations.
Cell Phone Photo of Passport: Take a close up photo using your mobile phone of your passport’s main page. In case you ever lose your passport, this is a quick way to have the document in an easy to transmit format. You could also save it onto a memory stick if you are concerned about e-mailing copies of your passport.
Emergency Contact List: While traveling you should always have a document with you, separate from your handbag or backpacks, that has your emergency contact information on it. Keeping it in your pocket is the best location as you could have your bags stolen or you can easily become separated from your bags if an accident happens.
If you are ever in need of help, this will be an important part of your response plan. Make sure you indicate clearly on the document what country you are from and include the country code as part of the telephone number. If a local Good Samaritan wants to help you, they will need to know how to dial out to your country.
Medical conditions and Medication: If you have any chronic or critical illnesses, allergies to bites or medications, and are on a variety of prescription drugs, it is absolutely essential to have a document on your person with this information. If you get hurt or fall ill while sightseeing or traveling (especially if you are alone), this data could save your life when medical attention is needed.
As always, I wish you all the happiest of travels.
__________________________________________________________
U.S. Passport, Passport Book,
U.S.Passport Card, Visas
How to expedite
____________
Click green for further info
V I S A S - expedited
A Briggs has 18 offices throughout the U.S. and serves all the visa requirements of over 1,100 corporations. It's easy to do and rates start at $70 plus the government fee.
Order Today in 3 easy steps
___________________________________________________________
U.S.Passport Card, Visas
How to expedite
____________
Click green for further info
V I S A S - expedited
- Expedited Visas - Wall Street Journal Customer Choice www.abriggs.com/
Next Day Available. Call Today!
» Map of 42 West 38th Street Suite 503, New York, NY
A Briggs has 18 offices throughout the U.S. and serves all the visa requirements of over 1,100 corporations. It's easy to do and rates start at $70 plus the government fee.
Order Today in 3 easy steps
___________________________________________________________
How to Get Your U.S. Passport in a Hurry
Expedited Service
- Cost, in addition to regular application fees, is $60 per application plus overnight delivery costs.
- Two-way overnight delivery is strongly suggested.
- Please do not submit any prepaid return mailing envelopes or mailing stamps. Newly issued Passport Books are delivered via Priority Mail with Delivery Confirmation, unless you pay for overnight delivery return service at time of application. Overnight delivery service is not available for passport cards, which are delivered via First Class Mail only.
- If you submit Form DS-82 by mail - clearly mark "EXPEDITE" on the outside of the envelope.
- We strongly encourage you to mail your passport application and any personal documents using a traceable delivery method.
- Additionally, in order to protect the contents of your mailing from the elements throughout the delivery process, we encourage you to mail your passport application and any personal documents using a secure means of packaging, such as a Tyvek envelope*) = envelope info below under the title Tyvek Evelopes
- Anyone may request expedited service for any type of application (e.g., first-time applications, renewals, amendments of existing passports, etc.) See:
- Please note, passport applications sent together or at the same time do not necessarily remain together.
- Your passport book and/or your passport card may be mailed separately from your returned citizenship evidence.
Routine Service
- Include your departure date on your application.
for current processing times.
Life or Death Emergencies
- Call The National Passport Information Center Payment Method Passport agency
- Major Credit Card - Visa, MasterCard, American Express, Discover
- Debit/Check cards (not ATM cards)
- Checks, bank drafts, money orders Mail in
- Personal Check or Money Order (Pay to "U.S. Department of State")
- NO CASH
- Please do not submit any prepaid return mailing envelopes or mailing stamps. Newly issued Passport Books are delivered via Priority Mail with Delivery Confirmation, unless you pay for overnight delivery return service at time of application. Overnight delivery service is not available for passport cards, which are delivered via First Class Mail only.
Clerk of Court, Check with the facility for type of payment accepted.
Other Location
______________________________________
U.S. Passport Book - U.S. Password Card
Click green for info
- U.S. Passport Card travel.state.gov/passport/ppt_card/ppt_card_3926.html
PURPOSE. The U.S. Passport Card can be used to enter the United States from Canada, Mexico, the Caribbean, and Bermuda at land border crossings or sea ...US Passport Card Frequently ... - Passport Card Layout - Limited Number of US ... - U.S. Passport Card Frequently Asked Questionstravel.state.gov/passport/ppt_card/ppt_card_3921.html
U.S. Passport Card Frequently Asked Questions. Print; Email. Last Updated March 2011. Show All | Hide All. Show/hide the answer What is the passport card? - [PDF]Passport CARDtravel.state.gov/pdf/ppt_pptCard.pdf
TRAVEL DOCUMENTS FOR U.S. CITIZENS. Apply for one or both, it's your choice. U.S. PASSPORT BOOK. U.S. PASSPORT CARD. Valid for international travel ... - The lowdown on U.S. passport cards | Budget Travel's Blog | Travel ...www.budgettravel.com/blog/the-lowdown-on-us-passport-cards,9990/
New passport cards can be used for land and sea travel between the U.S. and Canada,... you fairly need high definition sound quality into your headphones. - passport book verus passport card - VIP Passportswww.vippassports.com/...Pages/passport_book_verus_passport_car.htm
VIP Passports is here to help! So what is the difference between a passport book and apassport card? Which one should you obtain? What are the advantages ... - Travel Money Card – Carry your Foreign Currency Safely with Cash ...www.cashpassport.com/
Cash Passport Card is a secure and convenient travel money card available in foreign currencies. With convenient airport locations, ordering and collecting your ...
________________________
Tyvek® ENVELOPES
DuPont external sustainability recognition
• Ranked #1 on Business Week’s 2005 list of “Top Green Companies”.
• Recognized as 2006 “Best in Class” for our approach to climate change by the Carbon Disclosure Project,
a coalition of global investors.
• Ranked #1 in the U.S. and #2 globally by Ceres in 2006 for meeting the business challenges associated
with climate change.
• Named to Fast Company magazine’s 2006 “Fast 50” list of people and organizations that will change the world.
DuPont was recognized for the development of products based on non-depletable resources and reduction
of greenhouse gases.
DuPont™ Tyvek® Envelope solutions
for reduced environmental footprint
• Energy-efficient process. Production of polyethylene and transformation of polyethylene into Tyvek®
is done with low energy inputs. In addition, because Tyvek® is naturally white, no additives, coatings or other treatments are required to create its appearance.
• Light weight=low energy requirements. Tyvek®offers a superior strength-to-weight ratio, which requires
less raw material and energy to be used in production as compared to other materials such as Kraft paper, films and laminates.
• Lower packaging weight. Compared with corrugated boxes and polyethylene film bags, DuPont™
Tyvek®envelopes allow for a significant reduction in packaging material weight. This can help lower transportation energy requirements.
• Reusable. Because of its inherent strength and durability, Tyvek®envelopes can be reused several times,
thereby saving on material costs.
• 10% recycled content. The Tyvek® material sold in North America for envelope production contains, on average,
10% post-industrial recycled content, which would otherwise be diverted to the solid waste stream.
• A viable recycling program in place for 20 years. Unlike some competitive synthetics, Tyvek®
can be readily recycled.
Tyvek® envelopes have been collected and recycled through a national program for more than 20 years.
This program provides for the collection of used envelopes (printed, with windows or labels), preparation for recycling, and sale to recyclers. Typical end uses include high-quality synthetic lumber products, corrugated drainage pipes and playground equipment.
• Non-invasive landfill option. If Tyvek® is not recycled, it can be safely landfilled. Tyvek® will not leach into groundwater because it is chemically inert and contains no binders. It also can be burned for energy recovery with essentially no residue. In fact, Tyvek®has higher energy recovery than many other substrates including paper.
DuPont has the experience and expertise to put our science to work in ways that can build in—at the early stages of product development—attributes that help protect or enhance human health, safety and the environment.
Through our science, we work to d0esign products and processes that must pass rigorous criteria for the use of renewable resources, energy, water and materials. We believe this is a direct route to a successful, profitable business that adds value to our customers, their customers, consumers, and the planet.
Click green for further info
Source: U.S. Government sites
______________________________________________________________________
10 hotel secrets from behind the front desk - applies to Cruise Ships also - Cruises Ships are "floating hotels"
Click green for further info
Jacob Tomsky has worked on the front lines of hotels for more than a decade, starting as a lowly valet in New Orleans and ultimately landing at a front desk in New York City. He’s also the author of "Heads in Beds: A Reckless Memoir of Hotels, Hustles, and So-Called Hospitality" and a man with some hospitality secrets to spill.
1. HOTELS ARE RAKING IT IN.The fact that a hotel could fail to be profitable astounds me. Why? The average cost to turn over a room, to keep it operational per day, is between $30 and $40. If you’re paying less than $30 a night at a hotel/motel, I’d wager the cost to flip that room runs close to $5. Which makes me want to take a shower. At home. That $40 turnover cost includes cleaning supplies, electricity and hourly wages for housekeepers, minibar attendants, front desk agents and all other employees needed to operate a room, as well as the cost of laundering the sheets. Everything. Compare that with an average room rate, and you can see why it’s a profitable business.
2. STAYING FOR JUST ONE NIGHT? YOU MIGHT GET “WALKED.”
The term “walking a guest” sends shivers down any manager’s spine. Since the average no-show rate is 10 percent daily, hotels will overbook whenever possible. The sales and reservations departments are encouraged to book the property to 110 percent capacity, in the hope that with cancellations and no-shows they will fill every room. What happens when the numbers game doesn’t play in the hotel’s favor? Someone gets walked. The hotel will now pay for the entire night’s room and tax (plus one phone call — how cute is that?) at a comparable hotel in the area.
A guest is more likely to get walked if:
1. He booked using Expedia, hence he has a deeply discounted rate and is less important.
2. He never stayed here before and may never visit the city again.
3. He’s a one-nighter.
4. And this one is so much more important than all the others: He is acting like a jerk.
3. SMART COMPLAINERS WIN.
Though most complaints should be delivered to the front desk directly, in person or on the phone, keep in mind that most issues will not have been caused by the front desk at all. So briefly outline your problem, offer a solution if you have one, and then ask whom you should speak with to have the problem solved. “Should I speak to a manager about this?” “Should I speak to housekeeping about this?” Those are wonderful and beautiful questions to ask. Most of the time, the front desk will be able to solve the problem immediately or at least act as proxy.
Want to make sure that the agent doesn’t nod, say “certainly,” and not do a damn thing? Get his or her name. Nothing tightens up an employee’s throat like being directly identified. You don’t have to threaten him or her, either, just a nice casual “Thanks for your help. I’ll stop by later to make sure everything has been taken care of. Tommy, right?” Whatever you asked me to do, I am doing it. (Will screaming get you what you want? Well, probably. But it’s not nearly as effective.)
4. THERE’S A BETTER WAY TO CASE A PILLOW.
To put on a pillowcase, the housekeepers throw a solid karate chop right down the middle of the pillow and then shove it in, folded like a bun. This method is preferred to the civilian method of tucking it under your chin and pulling up the pillowcase like a pair of pants because these ladies have no interest in letting 50 pillows a day come into contact with their faces.
5. ENJOY YOUR LEMONY FRESH GLASSES.
You know what cleans the hell out of a mirror, and I’m talking no streaks? Windex? No. Furniture polish. Spray on a thick white base, rub it in, and you’ll be face-to-face with a spotless, streak-free mirror. However, I am not recommending you take this tip and apply it in your own home. Though using furniture polish is quick and effective, over time it causes a waxy buildup that requires a deep scrub.
The housekeepers kept this move behind closed doors along with another dirty secret I didn’t discover until I walked in on ladies with Pledge in one hand and a minibar glass in the other. Keeping those glasses clean-looking was also part of the job. So the next time you put a little tap water into the glass and wonder why it has a pleasant lemon aftertaste, it’s because you just took a shot of Pledge.
6. NEVER PAY FOR THE MINIBAR.
Minibars. Most people are appalled at the prices. However, you don’t have to pay for the items in the minibar. Why not? Minibar charges are, without question, the most disputed charges on any bill. That is because the process for applying those charges is horribly inexact. Keystroke errors, delays in restocking, double stocking, and hundreds of other missteps make minibar charges the most voided item. Even before guests can manage to get through half of the “I never had those items” sentence, I have already removed the charges and am now simply waiting for them to wrap up the overly zealous denial so we can both move on with our lives.
7. BOOK ON A DISCOUNT SITE, GET A DISCOUNT EXPERIENCE.
Reservations made through Internet discount sites are almost always slated for our worst rooms. Does this seem unfair? First of all, we earn the slimmest profit from these reservations. And honestly, those guests didn’t really choose our property based on quality; they chose based on value. We were at the top of a list sorted by price. But the guest behind them in line, the one with a heavy $500 rate, she selected this hotel. When she comes to New York, she goes to our website to see what’s available. Since we have no reason to assume Internet guests will ever book with us again, unless our discount is presented to them, it truly makes business sense to save our best rooms for guests who book of their own volition.
8. BELLMEN HATE YOUR SUITCASE— BUT NOT BECAUSE IT’S HEAVY.
Bernard Sadow: the man all bellmen hate, though they’ve never heard his name. In 1970, he invented the wheeled suitcase, the bane of the bellman’s existence. Before that, the bellman was a necessity, a provider of ease and comfort, a useful member of society. When Sadow sold his first prototype to Macy’s in October 1970, he instigated a catastrophic change in the hospitality environment, causing the once noble species to retreat, rethink, and reemerge as a hustler fighting for survival. Sadow might as well have invented the phrase no bellman wants to hear, the phrase that leaves bills unpaid and ruins Christmas: “No, thanks, I got it.” Or that surprisingly prevalent and ignorant phrase: “I don’t want to bother him.” Don’t want to bother him? The man has a family. No one is being bothered here!
9. FRONT DESK AGENTS CAN ALSO BE AGENTS OF KARMA.
Any arriving guest should receive what are referred to as initial keys, which are programmed to reset the door lock when they are first inserted, deactivating all previous keys. Not until the keys expire or a new initial key enters the lock will the keys fail to work. With a “key bomb,” I cut one single initial key and then start over and cut a second initial key. Either one of them will work when you get to the room, and as long as you keep using the very first key you slipped in, all will be well.
But chances are you’ll pop in the second key at some point, and then the first key you used will be considered invalid. Trace that back to me? Not a chance. Trace that back to the fact that you told your 9-year-old daughter to shut her mouth while harshly ripping off her tiny backpack at check-in? Never.
10. THERE’S ONE SUREFIRE WAY TO GET AN UPGRADE.
Here is one of the top lies that come out of a front desk agent’s mouth: “All the rooms are basically the same, sir.”
Bull. There is always a corner room, a room with a bigger flat screen, a room that because of the building’s layout has a larger bath with two sinks, a room that fits two roll-aways with ease, a room that, though listed as standard, actually has a partial view of the Hudson River. There is always a better room, and when I feel that $20 you slipped me burning in my pocket, I will find it for you. And if there is nothing to be done room-wise, I have a slew of other options: late checkout, free movies, free minibar, room service amenities and more. I will do whatever it takes to deserve the tip and then a little bit more in the hope that you’ll hit me again.
Some people feel nervous about this move. Please don’t. We are authorized to upgrade for special occasions. The special occasion occurring now is that I have a solid $20. That’s special enough for me!
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Travel TIP
Click green to see the article and to see pictures
A Croatian Island's Day in the Sun ... Hvar, an island in the Adriatic Sea off Croatia's Dalmatian coast, .... of the New York edition with the headline: An Island Jewel's Day in the Sun.
The island of HVAR has more sunshine than most other areas - Hollywood movie stars, Royal Family members, other celebrities and wealthy individuals frequent the island of Hvar. Excellent high quality in every aspect.
Click the green below to get more info - or search the article in The New York Times website based on the title
A Croatian Island's Day in the Sun ... Hvar, an island
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Travel Tip
Scandinavia: Finland, Sweden, Norway, Denmark - Summertime the best time
Search Scandinavian trips - high level enjoyment - pure nature
Finnish Tango: The Passion and the Melancholy
By JOHN TAGLIABUE
SEINAJOKI, Finland — Every July, this modest Finnish town, population 59,000, transforms several square blocks downtown into a vast dance hall. Stages are erected, tents are put up, and thousands of Finns — along with Spaniards, Germans and even a smattering of Japanese and North and South Americans — gather to dance for four days to the smoldering rhythms of the tango.
The tango? Finland, the Buenos Aires of the North? What can the Finns, those cool blonds rendered melancholic and morose by the long, lightless winters (or so the cliché has it), understand of Argentina’s passionate national treasure?
And yet they come, in recent years as many as 100,000, starting to dance in the early afternoon, listening to Finnish stars belt out tango tunes, taking part in lessons and contests, and striding, twisting and leaning to the “thump, thump, thump” of the tango beat until the early hours of the morning.
The tango in its Argentine form is brooding and nostalgic. While the Finnish variety is more upbeat, many here say its blending of passion and melancholy perfectly expresses the Finnish soul.
“It’s so powerful, with a lot of emotions and feelings,” said Eija Eerola, an office worker in her 40s, wiping sweat from her brow after a turn on the wood floor of a huge white tent. Dozens of couples — women in shorts, pedal pushers or skirts, and men in baseball caps, fedoras or 10-gallon cowboy hats — danced to the soft strains of an accordion and a violin.
A passionate dancer, who takes to the floor “a couple of times a week” when at home in Helsinki, Ms. Eerola was visiting the tango festival, sleeping in a trailer, for the first time in seven years. What draws the Finns to the tango? “It’s a bit melancholy,” she said. “And that’s the way we are.”
For Monica Wilson, who grew up in a Finnish family in Thunder Bay, Ontario, dancing the tango and being Finnish go together as naturally as ham and eggs — or, well, pickled herring and new potatoes.
Ms. Wilson, 40, a schoolteacher, came to the festival, which ended on Sunday, with her brother and a cousin while on a trip back to the home country. She took some tango lessons and, with her cousin, tried out a few steps under the L-shaped tent, half the size of a football field, called the Pavilion. In Canada, she said, it is the two-step, but in Finland, it is the tango.
Her Finnish-born parents in Canada, she said with a laugh, “danced the tango in the kitchen.”
The festival here was founded about 30 years ago to fan the flames of what appeared to be a dying tradition. The tango had been introduced to Finland a century ago by a Finnish ballet dancer, Toivo Niskanen, who learned his classical steps in St. Petersburg, then the Russian capital. But he became enamored of the tango while visiting Paris.
The tango flourished in Finland to the point of almost becoming the national dance. To this day, about 2,000 tango clubs thrive across a nation of 5.5 million people, and the festival in Seinajoki is one of the largest anywhere. Yet, after World War II, with the arrival of rock ’n’ roll, the tango’s influence began to wane. By the 1980s, the Beatles and the Rolling Stones threatened to drown out “Hernando’s Hideaway,” the tango show tune.
“The tango was not popular anymore, though not forgotten,” said Juha Teuri, 31, the festival’s spokesman, at a local high school that was serving as the event’s headquarters. “At this point, something had to be done, so it started as a tango singing contest, then quickly grew bigger and bigger,” he added, explaining the origins of the festival in the mid-1980s.
The festival is not the only summer tango gathering. A Web site dedicated to Latin dance, festivalsero.com, lists 20 such events in July alone, including the Puerto del Tango in Tallinn, Estonia; Tango Magic in Seattle; and the International Queer Tango Festival, one of a number of increasingly popular gay tango gatherings, in Berlin.
But Seinajoki’s festival stands out, not only for its size but also for its juxtaposition of Scandinavian brooding and Latin passion.
“For us it was a nice surprise,” said Anabel Saldaña, one of Argentina’s leading tango performers and teachers, who was invited this year from Buenos Aires with her partner, Jorge Mendoza, to perform and to teach at the festival. The couple’s nighttime duet on the festival’s main outdoor stage, before a crowd of thousands and amid flaming torches, smoke and lights, was a huge hit.
Finnish tango is not the Argentine variety, Ms. Saldaña said. “But we think it has the same feeling, though with different words and concepts for the experience.”
Mr. Mendoza, who like Ms. Saldaña studied Finnish tango before arriving, agreed. “We don’t say, ‘We have the real tango, or the true tango,’ ” he said. “We are showing them another tango, that it’s nice and cool to tango.”
“Here, the people, they took the tango and they made it their own,” he added.
The difference between the Argentine original and the Finnish offshoot was evident at one of many classes the Argentine dancers gave for festival visitors in the school gymnasium. As eight Finnish couples listened attentively, Ms. Saldaña explained that the tango was “like a puzzle.”
“If you know the pieces,” she said, “you can assemble them in different ways.”
Then she and Mr. Mendoza, hands just off each other’s shoulders, slid around the floor, showing just how the puzzle could be put together. Several couples caught on; others appeared more to be moving furniture than dancing an Argentine tango. Leena Kaura, a retired textile designer, was delighted. “It has that flamenco flair to it,” she said of the Argentine variety.
The organizers worry that the festival is increasingly becoming an affair for middle-aged and older people. To draw a younger crowd, big-name rock musicians — big in Finland, at least — now fill the gaps between tangos. On one sunny afternoon, Antti Tuisku, a kind of Finnish Adam Lambert, sang one of his hits to crowds of fans who waved their arms in a mosh pit, even as older dancers in the Pavilion continued to twirl and bend to a tango beat.
Younger Argentines, who had similarly drifted away from the tango, have returned in droves in recent years, according to Ms. Saldaña. “When I was young, tango was for your grandmother,” she said. “Right now, it’s more popular than ever with young and old.”
Over at the Pavilion, Aarno and Sirpa Ervasti did not miss the mosh pit one bit as they glided around the floor, closely entwined. They have come to the festival every year for the past 10 years. “We’ve been dancing the tango for 43 years,” Ms. Ervasti, 66, said. She, like her husband, Aarno, 70, is a retired elementary-school teacher.
“It’s the quiet, the melancholy, maybe what we get from Russia,” he said. “Our Slavic side.”
“It’s love,” she said. “It’s our way to make love.”
Source: NYT
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The info in the following 3 articles
can save your and your family's lives
Article 1 of 2, Parts A & B How to survive a Plain Crash
Article 2 of 2 How to Survive a Plane Crash, Train Crash and Other Disasters
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This article 1 of 2 has to Parts: Part A & Part B
Surviving a Plain Crash:
Where You Sit Could Be
The Difference Between Life and Death
Article 1 of 2 - PART A
One example from July 7th, 2013 in an Francisco. USA, The harrowing *) Asiana Airlines crash at San Francisco International Airport may incite fear in the minds of the millions of Americans who take to the skies every year, but it also proves that even horrific disasters are survivable.
The San Francisco-bound flight was carrying more than 300 people Saturday when crashed on the runway, tore its tail and burst into flames.
Two 16-year-old female students from China were killed, and 181 people were injured in the crash. The injured were being cared for at several hospitals, and at least 22 were in critical condition.
San Francisco Plane Crash: 2 Killed in Asiana Crash Were Teenage Girls on School Trip from China
While only one in 1.2 million flights end up in an accident, according to the National Transportation Safety Board, there are still precautions passengers can take to prepare for emergency situations.
Experts say where you sit on a plane may prove to be the difference between life and death in a crash.
Professor Ed Galea of the University of Greenwich, who has spent more than 25 years analyzing how humans react in emergencies, advised that the seconds before impact are the most dangerous.
"You are responsible for your life," Galea said. "If you know what you're doing, you've got a better chance of surviving."
One flying rule of thumb? Sit as close to an exit as possible.
Galea studied the seating charts of more than 100 plane crashes and interviewed dozens of survivors. He uncovered that survivors move an average of five rows before safely exiting a burning plane. He also found seats in the rear of a plane were generally safer, as were aisle seats.
The survival rate in U.S. plane crashes from 1983 to 2000 was 95 percent, according to the NTSB. But if the plan does crash, it's important to remember to not panic.
"If you haven't thought about what you might do and prepared, the thing becomes overwhelming and you shut down," Galea said. "You can prepare yourself to react appropriately in emergency situations."
Airborne travelers may also want to remember to take time to brace upon impact.
Click green: View gallery - This frame grab from video provided by KTVU shows smoke rising from … shows smoke rising from … KTVU is SFO TV company If the link has expired use the article title in your search
In an ambitious test undertaken in the name of airline safety, a test crash of a Boeing 727 in the Sonoran Desert last year found that bracing for impact increased a passenger's likelihood of surviving a crash.
Discovery TV had a Boeing 727 equipped with more than a half a million dollars worth of crash test dummies, 38 specialized cameras and sensors, and a crew of incredibly daring pilots. The pilots, who'd donned parachutes, bailed out of a hatch in the back of the aircraft minutes before the huge jetliner careered into the ground in a horrific crash that tore the plane apart.
During the crash, which was a belly flop done nose first, passengers near the front bore the brunt of the impact. Rows one through seven held the "fatal" seats -- seat 7A was catapulted straight out of the plane.
The crash was staged as part of the Discovery Channels "Curiousity Plane Crash," a result of four years of planning and consultations to better understand what happens to passengers when an aircraft goes down.
The test crash also revealed other aspects of plane crashes, such as the tremendous amount of debris that could prove deadly to any passenger sitting upright, and how important it was to be able to get out of the plane fast. Generally, sitting within five rows of an exit gave passengers the best odds.
In addition, remembering a simple mathematic formula -- plus three, minus eight -- can boost your survivability factor in the case of an unexpected plane crash.
Click: Surviving a Plane Crash: 20 Tips From 20/20
If the link has expired search the web with the above link title
Most accidents happen within the first three minutes of takeoff or in the eight minutes before landing, according to Ben Sherwood, author of "The Survivors Club -- The Secrets and Science That could Save Your Life" and president of ABC News.
Sherwood said 80 percent of all plane crashes occur during these 11 in-flight minutes. Instead of picking up a magazine or taking your shoes off, it's important to remain alert.
Sherwood advised to have a plan of action in the case of an unexpected crisis.
"If a plane crashes it's very likely that I'm going to survive it, and if I do the right thing, if I pay attention, if I have a plan, if I act, the chances are even better," Sherwood said.
But passengers should remember that not all flights are bound for peril.
The aviation industry has taken strides to protect passengers in emergency situations. Stronger seats, improved flame retardant plane parts and better firefighting techniques following a crash have contributed to increasing the time for passengers to make a safe escape.
"Riding on a commercial airplane has got about the same amount of risk as riding on an escalator," MIT International Center for Air Transportation Director John Hansman Jr. told ABC News.
The vocabulary info is given for people English as a 2nd language
*) harrowing adjective = distressing, disturbing, alarming, frightening, painful, terrifying, chilling, traumatic, tormenting,heartbreaking, excruciating, agonizing, nerve-racking, heart-rending, gut-wrenching; e.g. harrowing pictures of the children who had been murdered
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Source: KTVU, SFO _______________________
PART B
Asiana says pilot had little experience with 777s
(the aircraft)
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The pilot at the controls of an Asiana plane that crashed landed was guiding a Boeing 777 into the San Francisco airport for the first time, and tried but failed to abort the landing after coming in too slow to set down safely, aviation and airline officials said Sunday.
It was unclear if the pilot's inexperience with the aircraft and airport played a role in Saturday's crash. Officials were investigating whether the airport or plane's equipment could have also malfunctioned.
Also Sunday, San Mateo County Coroner Robert Foucrault said he was investigating whether one of the two teenage passengers killed Saturday actually survived the crash but was run over by a rescue vehicle rushing to aid victims fleeing the burning aircraft. Remarkably, 305 of 307 passengers survived the crash and more than a third didn't even require hospitalization. Only a small number were critically injured.
Deborah Hersman, head of the National Transportation Safety Board, said the slow speed of Flight 214 in the final approach triggered a warning that the jetliner could stall, and an effort was made to abort the landing but the plane crashed barely a second later.
The pilot at the controls of an Asiana plane that crashed landed was guiding a Boeing 777 into the San Francisco airport for the first time, and tried but failed to abort the landing after coming in too slow to set down safely, aviation and airline officials said Sunday.
It was unclear if the pilot's inexperience with the aircraft and airport played a role in Saturday's crash. Officials were investigating whether the airport or plane's equipment could have also malfunctioned.
Also Sunday, San Mateo County Coroner Robert Foucrault said he was investigating whether t one of the two teenage passengers killed Saturday actually survived the crash but was run over by a rescue vehicle rushing to aid victims fleeing the burning aircraft. Remarkably, 305 of 307 passengers survived the crash and more than a third didn't even require hospitalization. Only a small number were critically injured.
Deborah Hersman, head of the National Transportation Safety Board, said the slow speed of Flight 214 in the final approach triggered a warning that the jetliner could stall, and an effort was made to abort the landing but the plane crashed barely a second later.
At a news conference, Hersman disclosed the aircraft was traveling at speeds well below the target landing speed of 137 knots per hour, or 157 mph.
"We're not talking about a few knots," she said.
Hersman described the frantic final seconds of the flight as the pilots struggled to avoid crashing.
Seven seconds before the crash, pilots recognized the need to increase speed, she said, basing her comments on an evaluation of the cockpit voice and flight data recorders that contain hundreds of different types of information on what happened to the plane. Three seconds later, the aircraft's stick shaker -- a piece of safety equipment that warns pilots of an impending stall -- went off. The normal response to a stall warning is to boost speed and Hersman said the throttles were fired and the engines appeared to respond normally.
At 1.5 seconds before impact, there was a call from the crew to abort the landing.
The details confirmed what survivors and other witnesses said they saw: an aircraft that seemed to be flying too slowly just before its tail apparently clipped a seawall at the end of the runway and the nose slammed down.
Pilots normally try to land at the target speed, in this case 137 knots, plus an additional five more knots, said Bob Coffman, an American Airlines captain who has flown 777s. He said the briefing raises an important question: "Why was the plane going so slow?"
The plane's Pratt & Whitney engines were on idle and the pilots were flying under visual flight rules, Hersman said. Under visual flight procedures in the Boeing 777, a wide-body jet, the autopilot would typically have been turned off while the automatic throttle, which regulates speed, would been on until the plane had descended to 500 feet in altitude, Coffman said. At that point, pilots would normally check their airspeed before switching off the autothrottle to continue a "hand fly" approach, he said.
There was no indication in the discussions between the pilots and the air traffic controllers that there were problems with the aircraft.
The airline said Monday in Seoul that the pilot at the controls had little experience flying that type of plane and was landing one for the first time at that airport.
Asiana spokeswoman Lee Hyomin said that Lee Gang-guk, who was at the controls, had nearly 10,000 hours flying other planes but only 43 in the 777, a plane she said he still was getting used to flying. Another pilot on the flight, Lee Jeong-min, had about 12,390 hours of flying experience, including 3,220 hours on the 777, according to the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport in South Korea. Lee was the deputy pilot, tasked with helping Lee Gang-guk get accustomed to the 777, according to Asiana Airlines.
Asiana spokeswoman Lee Hyomin said that Lee Gang-guk was trying to get used to the 777 during Saturday's crash landing. She says the pilot had nearly 10,000 hours flying other planes but had only 43 hours on the 777.
Among the questions investigators are trying to answer was what, if any, role the deactivation of a ground-based landing guidance system due to airport construction played in the crash. Such systems help pilots land, especially at airports like San Francisco where fog can make landing challenging. The conditions Saturday were nearly perfect, with sunny skies and light winds.
The flight originated in Shanghai, China, stopped over in Seoul, South Korea, before making the nearly 11-hour trip to San Francisco. The South Korea-based airline said four South Korean pilots were on board, three of whom were described as "skilled."
Among the travelers were citizens of China, South Korean, the United States, Canada, India, Japan, Vietnam and France. There were at least 70 Chinese students and teachers heading to summer camps, according to Chinese authorities.
Fei Xiong, a Chinese passenger , was traveling to California so she could take her 8-year-old son to Disneyland. The pair was sitting in the back half of the plane. Xiong said her son sensed something was wrong.
"My son told me: `The plane will fall down, it's too close to the sea,"' she said. "I told him: `Baby, it's OK, we'll be fine."'
When the plane hit the ground, oxygen masks dropped down, said Xu Da, a product manager at an Internet company in Hangzhou, China, who was sitting with his wife and teenage son near the back of the plane. When he stood up, he said he could see sparking -- perhaps from exposed electrical wires.
He turned and could see the tail where the galley was torn away, leaving a gaping hole through which they could see the runway. Once on the tarmac, they watched the plane catch fire, and firefighters hose it down.
"I just feel lucky," said Xu, whose family suffered some cuts and have neck and back pain.
In the chaotic moments after the landing, when baggage was tumbling from the overhead bins onto passengers and people all around her were screaming, Wen Zhang grabbed her 4-year-old son, who hit the seat in front of him and broke his leg.
Spotting a hole at the back of the jumbo jet where the bathroom had been, she carried her boy to safety.
"I had no time to be scared," she said.
Authorities immediately closed the airport and rescuers rushed to the scene. A United Airlines pilot radioed the control tower, saying: "We see people ... that need immediate attention. They are alive and walking around."
"Think you said people are just walking outside the airplane right now?" the controller replied.
"Yes," answered the pilot of United Flight 885. "Some people, it looks like, are struggling."
At the crash scene, police officers knives up to crew members inside the burning wreckage so they could cut away passengers' seat belts. Passengers jumped down emergency slides, escaping from billowing smoke that rose high above the bay. Some passengers who escaped doused themselves with water from the bay, presumably to cool burns, authorities said.
By the time the flames were out, much of the top of the fuselage had burned away. The tail section was gone, with pieces of it scattered across the beginning of the runway.
Foucrault, the coroner, said senior San Francisco Fire Department officials notified him and his staff at the crash site on Saturday that one of the 16-year-olds who was kilkled may have been struck on the runaway. Foucrault said an autopsy he expects to be completed by Monday will involve determining whether the girl's death was caused by injuries suffered in the crash or "a secondary incident."
He said he did not get a close enough look at the victims on Saturday to know whether they had external injuries.
Foucrault said one of the bodies was found on the tarmac near where the plane's tail broke off when it slammed into the runway. The other was found on the left side of the plane about 30 feet away from where the jetliner came to rest after it skidded down the runway.
sman disclosed the aircraft was traveling at speeds well below the target landing speed of 137 knots per hour, or 157 mph.
"We're not talking about a few knots," she said.
Hersman described the frantic final seconds of the flight as the pilots struggled to avoid crashing.
Seven seconds before the crash, pilots recognized the need to increase speed, she said, basing her comments on an evaluation of the cockpit voice and flight data recorders that contain hundreds of different types of information on what happened to the plane. Three seconds later, the aircraft's stick shaker -- a piece of safety equipment that warns pilots of an impending stall -- went off. The normal response to a stall warning is to boost speed and Hersman said the throttles were fired and the engines appeared to respond normally.
At 1.5 seconds before impact, there was a call from the crew to abort the landing.
The details confirmed what survivors and other witnesses said they saw: an aircraft that seemed to be flying too slowly just before its tail apparently clipped a seawall at the end of the runway and the nose slammed down.
Pilots normally try to land at the target speed, in this case 137 knots, plus an additional five more knots, said Bob Coffman, an American Airlines captain who has flown 777s. He said the briefing raises an important question: "Why was the plane going so slow?"
The plane's Pratt & Whitney engines were on idle and the pilots were flying under visual flight rules, Hersman said. Under visual flight procedures in the Boeing 777, a wide-body jet, the autopilot would typically have been turned off while the automatic throttle, which regulates speed, would been on until the plane had descended to 500 feet in altitude, Coffman said. At that point, pilots would normally check their airspeed before switching off the autothrottle to continue a "hand fly" approach, he said.
There was no indication in the discussions between the pilots and the air traffic controllers that there were problems with the aircraft.
The airline said Monday in Seoul that the pilot at the controls had little experience flying that type of plane and was landing one for the first time at that airport.
Asiana spokeswoman Lee Hyomin said that Lee Gang-guk, who was at the controls, had nearly 10,000 hours flying other planes but only 43 in the 777, a plane she said he still was getting used to flying. Another pilot on the flight, Lee Jeong-min, had about 12,390 hours of flying experience, including 3,220 hours on the 777, according to the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport in South Korea. Lee was the deputy pilot, tasked with helping Lee Gang-guk get accustomed to the 777, according to Asiana Airlines.
Asiana spokeswoman Lee Hyomin said that Lee Gang-guk was trying to get used to the 777 during Saturday's crash landing. She says the pilot had nearly 10,000 hours flying other planes but had only 43 hours on the 777.
Among the questions investigators are trying to answer was what, if any, role the deactivation of a ground-based landing guidance system due to airport construction played in the crash. Such systems help pilots land, especially at airports like San Francisco where fog can make landing challenging. The conditions Saturday were nearly perfect, with sunny skies and light winds.
The flight originated in Shanghai, China, stopped over in Seoul, South Korea, before making the nearly 11-hour trip to San Francisco. The South Korea-based airline said four South Korean pilots were on board, three of whom were described as "skilled."
Among the travelers were citizens of China, South Korean, the United States, Canada, India, Japan, Vietnam and France. There were at least 70 Chinese students and teachers heading to summer camps, according to Chinese authorities.
Fei Xiong, a Chinese passenger , was traveling to California so she could take her 8-year-old son to Disneyland. The pair was sitting in the back half of the plane. Xiong said her son sensed something was wrong.
"My son told me: `The plane will fall down, it's too close to the sea,"' she said. "I told him: `Baby, it's OK, we'll be fine."'
When the plane hit the ground, oxygen masks dropped down, said Xu Da, a product manager at an Internet company in Hangzhou, China, who was sitting with his wife and teenage son near the back of the plane. When he stood up, he said he could see sparking -- perhaps from exposed electrical wires.
He turned and could see the tail where the galley was torn away, leaving a gaping hole through which they could see the runway. Once on the tarmac, they watched the plane catch fire, and firefighters hose it down.
"I just feel lucky," said Xu, whose family suffered some cuts and have neck and back pain.
In the chaotic moments after the landing, when baggage was tumbling from the overhead bins onto passengers and people all around her were screaming, Wen Zhang grabbed her 4-year-old son, who hit the seat in front of him and broke his leg.
Spotting a hole at the back of the jumbo jet where the bathroom had been, she carried her boy to safety.
"I had no time to be scared," she said.
Authorities immediately closed the airport and rescuers rushed to the scene. A United Airlines pilot radioed the control tower, saying: "We see people ... that need immediate attention. They are alive and walking around."
"Think you said people are just walking outside the airplane right now?" the controller replied.
"Yes," answered the pilot of United Flight 885. "Some people, it looks like, are struggling."
At the crash scene, police officers knives up to crew members inside the burning wreckage so they could cut away passengers' seat belts. Passengers jumped down emergency slides, escaping from billowing smoke that rose high above the bay. Some passengers who escaped doused themselves with water from the bay, presumably to cool burns, authorities said.
By the time the flames were out, much of the top of the fuselage had burned away. The tail section was gone, with pieces of it scattered across the beginning of the runway.
Foucrault, the coroner, said senior San Francisco Fire Department officials notified him and his staff at the crash site on Saturday that one of the 16-year-olds who was kilkled may have been struck on the runaway. Foucrault said an autopsy he expects to be completed by Monday will involve determining whether the girl's death was caused by injuries suffered in the crash or "a secondary incident."
He said he did not get a close enough look at the victims on Saturday to know whether they had external injuries.
Foucrault said one of the bodies was found on the tarmac near where the plane's tail broke off when it slammed into the runway. The other was found on the left side of the plane about 30 feet away from where the jetliner came to rest after it skidded down the runway.
Source:
Source: KTVU, SFO Article 2 of 2 next below
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Article 1 of 2, Parts A + B next above
Survival 101: How to Survive a Plane Crash, Train Crash and Other Disasters
Article 2 of 2
Click green for further info
When disaster strikes without warning, why do some die while others survive? A second can make the difference between life and death.
"You are responsible for your life," said Ed Galea, professor at the Universities of Greenwich, Liverpool and Ulster, who has spent the last 25 years analyzing how humans react in emergencies. "If you know what you're doing, you've got a better chance of surviving."
Galea and his team interviewed 300 people who escaped from the attacks on the Twin Towers on 9/11. They made a startling discovery. When the planes hit, only one in 10 people inside the World Trade Center reacted immediately.
"The majority of people took about a maximum of about eight minutes to react to the building being hit! Eight minutes," he said. "Some people even took longer -- 20 minutes, 30 minutes -- to actually disengage from whatever activity they were involved with to start to physically evacuate."
That's normal human behavior, but it's not the most prudent for survival. Galea walked "Nightline" through his tips to survive disasters -- and strategies to weather a plane crash, train crash or sinking ship.
1. Listen to the alarm.
Galea said the most common response to hearing a fire alarm, or any sort of emergency alarm, is to ignore it. People assume that any alarm is a false alarm, or just a drill.
"People don't want to be, or to appear to be weak or to be silly or to be scared," Galea said. "Peer group pressure actually prevents people from being the first to react. And once you've had one person react, other people are likely to follow."
But when escaping disaster, every second counts.
"People need to learn to react immediately [when] an alarm is sounded," he said.
2. Fear fire. It spreads very fast.
In modern life, our fear of fire has dimmed to a dangerous nonchalance.
"People have lost respect and understanding of fire," Galea said, "The only time people come into contact with fire in modern society is perhaps lighting a barbecue."
When a blaze swept through a British department store in 1979, people could smell the fire, could hear the alarm, but since they'd just bought lunch, they stayed to finish eating. The fire killed 10 people -- most of them in the cafeteria. If you weren't out of that building in 30 seconds, you didn't stand a prayer.
In 2003, 100 people died at a Rhode Island nightclub during a fire sparked by a pyrotechnics. "The fire just engulfed the building at such a high rate of speed -- from then on it turned into a nightmare," one survivor said.
Galea built a computer model of that fire and saw how quickly flames and smoke spread. It only took 90 seconds until the entire dance floor and bar area were covered.
3. Have a plan.
Faced with a threat or disaster, some go into superhuman mode -- they are calm and strong and endeavor to save others and themselves. Some simply freeze. It's the "fight or flight" response.
"If you haven't thought about what you might do and prepared, the thing becomes overwhelming and you shut down," Galea said. "You can prepare yourself to react appropriately in emergency situations."
Whether you're boarding a train, a plane, a cruise ship -- or if you're walking into an unfamiliar building, a hotel perhaps, figure out how you would get out in a hurry.
Once you've checked in, Galea says to find out where the nearest exit is and actually walk the route between your room and that exit, counting the number of doors along the way. That way, if the corridor is filled with smoke, you can actually feel your way to safety.
When Galea checks into a hotel, he asks for a room on the sixth floor or below. Why? Most fire ladders can't extend above about six floors.
And you may think it's overkill, but the professor actually walks the fire escape route, checking that there aren't any obstacles in the way -- no piles of dirty laundry or trays of half-eaten room service food.
His golden rule: you don't want to find out there's a problem with your escape route when the fire's already started and your life's already in danger.
Surviving a Plane Crash: Wait to Inflate
In 1996, a hijacked Ethiopian airliner carrying 175 passengers ran out of fuel and crashed into the Indian Ocean. Ninety people were killed. Many of them drowned because they inflated their lifejackets too soon and got stuck inside the sinking fuselage.
Lesson learned: wait to inflate until you're on the outside.
Despite public perception, around 95 percent of those involved in plane crashes in the U.S. emerge alive.
Galea has interviewed more than 2,000 survivors. Since each crash is different, there's no magic or safest seat, in which passengers are most likely to survive. But statistics suggest sitting within six rows of an emergency exit -- preferably, in an aisle seat -- help your chances.
"An aisle seat because ... it's easier to get on your feet and start heading towards an exit," he said. "And just as you would in a hotel, on a plane count the seats to the emergency exit."
Train Crash: Avoid Front, Rear Cars
Summer 2009, nine people were killed and more than 70 injured when one Washington, D.C. Metro train plowed into the back of another at the peak of evening rush hour. It was one of the darkest days in Washington Metro history.
What can you do when riding a train to increase your chances of survival?
"Whenever I get on a train I will avoid the front and rear cars," Galea said, since they are most likely to be hit or to hit something. "I will take a seat where my back is facing the direction of travel."
If the train crashes, you will be pushed backwards into the seat, not thrown across the car.
"I hate having lots of luggage in the luggage racks above my head. Because in the event of an accident, the luggage is going to come down," he said.
Aboard a Sinking Ship?
Stay Calm
In 1991, Oceanos, a Greek cruise ship, was hit by a massive storm off the coast of South Africa.
"Everybody was so calm, it was the crew that were not," one survivor said. "The crew were jumping ship first. The crew went first, they were actually fighting the passengers."
The panicked crew abandoned ship and left the passengers to fend for themselves. Amazingly, all 571 passengers were eventually rescued. They survived partially because they kept calm and perhaps because they knew what they were doing.
"Ships are very, very confusing environments," Galea said. "You can't see outside. Often you don't even know is forward and aft, let alone if you're on the port or starboard side of the vessel."
Walking your escape routes, making a note of where you are on the boat, is particularly important if you want to escape before it's too late.
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Source: ABC Nightline
By NICK WATT (@nickwattabc)
Dec. 22, 2009
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Jacob Tomsky has worked on the front lines of hotels for more than a decade, starting as a lowly valet in New Orleans and ultimately landing at a front desk in New York City. He’s also the author of "Heads in Beds: A Reckless Memoir of Hotels, Hustles, and So-Called Hospitality" and a man with some hospitality secrets to spill.
1. HOTELS ARE RAKING IT IN.The fact that a hotel could fail to be profitable astounds me. Why? The average cost to turn over a room, to keep it operational per day, is between $30 and $40. If you’re paying less than $30 a night at a hotel/motel, I’d wager the cost to flip that room runs close to $5. Which makes me want to take a shower. At home. That $40 turnover cost includes cleaning supplies, electricity and hourly wages for housekeepers, minibar attendants, front desk agents and all other employees needed to operate a room, as well as the cost of laundering the sheets. Everything. Compare that with an average room rate, and you can see why it’s a profitable business.
2. STAYING FOR JUST ONE NIGHT? YOU MIGHT GET “WALKED.”
The term “walking a guest” sends shivers down any manager’s spine. Since the average no-show rate is 10 percent daily, hotels will overbook whenever possible. The sales and reservations departments are encouraged to book the property to 110 percent capacity, in the hope that with cancellations and no-shows they will fill every room. What happens when the numbers game doesn’t play in the hotel’s favor? Someone gets walked. The hotel will now pay for the entire night’s room and tax (plus one phone call — how cute is that?) at a comparable hotel in the area.
A guest is more likely to get walked if:
1. He booked using Expedia, hence he has a deeply discounted rate and is less important.
2. He never stayed here before and may never visit the city again.
3. He’s a one-nighter.
4. And this one is so much more important than all the others: He is acting like a jerk.
3. SMART COMPLAINERS WIN.
Though most complaints should be delivered to the front desk directly, in person or on the phone, keep in mind that most issues will not have been caused by the front desk at all. So briefly outline your problem, offer a solution if you have one, and then ask whom you should speak with to have the problem solved. “Should I speak to a manager about this?” “Should I speak to housekeeping about this?” Those are wonderful and beautiful questions to ask. Most of the time, the front desk will be able to solve the problem immediately or at least act as proxy.
Want to make sure that the agent doesn’t nod, say “certainly,” and not do a damn thing? Get his or her name. Nothing tightens up an employee’s throat like being directly identified. You don’t have to threaten him or her, either, just a nice casual “Thanks for your help. I’ll stop by later to make sure everything has been taken care of. Tommy, right?” Whatever you asked me to do, I am doing it. (Will screaming get you what you want? Well, probably. But it’s not nearly as effective.)
4. THERE’S A BETTER WAY TO CASE A PILLOW.
To put on a pillowcase, the housekeepers throw a solid karate chop right down the middle of the pillow and then shove it in, folded like a bun. This method is preferred to the civilian method of tucking it under your chin and pulling up the pillowcase like a pair of pants because these ladies have no interest in letting 50 pillows a day come into contact with their faces.
5. ENJOY YOUR LEMONY FRESH GLASSES.
You know what cleans the hell out of a mirror, and I’m talking no streaks? Windex? No. Furniture polish. Spray on a thick white base, rub it in, and you’ll be face-to-face with a spotless, streak-free mirror. However, I am not recommending you take this tip and apply it in your own home. Though using furniture polish is quick and effective, over time it causes a waxy buildup that requires a deep scrub.
The housekeepers kept this move behind closed doors along with another dirty secret I didn’t discover until I walked in on ladies with Pledge in one hand and a minibar glass in the other. Keeping those glasses clean-looking was also part of the job. So the next time you put a little tap water into the glass and wonder why it has a pleasant lemon aftertaste, it’s because you just took a shot of Pledge.
6. NEVER PAY FOR THE MINIBAR.
Minibars. Most people are appalled at the prices. However, you don’t have to pay for the items in the minibar. Why not? Minibar charges are, without question, the most disputed charges on any bill. That is because the process for applying those charges is horribly inexact. Keystroke errors, delays in restocking, double stocking, and hundreds of other missteps make minibar charges the most voided item. Even before guests can manage to get through half of the “I never had those items” sentence, I have already removed the charges and am now simply waiting for them to wrap up the overly zealous denial so we can both move on with our lives.
7. BOOK ON A DISCOUNT SITE, GET A DISCOUNT EXPERIENCE.
Reservations made through Internet discount sites are almost always slated for our worst rooms. Does this seem unfair? First of all, we earn the slimmest profit from these reservations. And honestly, those guests didn’t really choose our property based on quality; they chose based on value. We were at the top of a list sorted by price. But the guest behind them in line, the one with a heavy $500 rate, she selected this hotel. When she comes to New York, she goes to our website to see what’s available. Since we have no reason to assume Internet guests will ever book with us again, unless our discount is presented to them, it truly makes business sense to save our best rooms for guests who book of their own volition.
8. BELLMEN HATE YOUR SUITCASE— BUT NOT BECAUSE IT’S HEAVY.
Bernard Sadow: the man all bellmen hate, though they’ve never heard his name. In 1970, he invented the wheeled suitcase, the bane of the bellman’s existence. Before that, the bellman was a necessity, a provider of ease and comfort, a useful member of society. When Sadow sold his first prototype to Macy’s in October 1970, he instigated a catastrophic change in the hospitality environment, causing the once noble species to retreat, rethink, and reemerge as a hustler fighting for survival. Sadow might as well have invented the phrase no bellman wants to hear, the phrase that leaves bills unpaid and ruins Christmas: “No, thanks, I got it.” Or that surprisingly prevalent and ignorant phrase: “I don’t want to bother him.” Don’t want to bother him? The man has a family. No one is being bothered here!
9. FRONT DESK AGENTS CAN ALSO BE AGENTS OF KARMA.
Any arriving guest should receive what are referred to as initial keys, which are programmed to reset the door lock when they are first inserted, deactivating all previous keys. Not until the keys expire or a new initial key enters the lock will the keys fail to work. With a “key bomb,” I cut one single initial key and then start over and cut a second initial key. Either one of them will work when you get to the room, and as long as you keep using the very first key you slipped in, all will be well.
But chances are you’ll pop in the second key at some point, and then the first key you used will be considered invalid. Trace that back to me? Not a chance. Trace that back to the fact that you told your 9-year-old daughter to shut her mouth while harshly ripping off her tiny backpack at check-in? Never.
10. THERE’S ONE SUREFIRE WAY TO GET AN UPGRADE.
Here is one of the top lies that come out of a front desk agent’s mouth: “All the rooms are basically the same, sir.”
Bull. There is always a corner room, a room with a bigger flat screen, a room that because of the building’s layout has a larger bath with two sinks, a room that fits two roll-aways with ease, a room that, though listed as standard, actually has a partial view of the Hudson River. There is always a better room, and when I feel that $20 you slipped me burning in my pocket, I will find it for you. And if there is nothing to be done room-wise, I have a slew of other options: late checkout, free movies, free minibar, room service amenities and more. I will do whatever it takes to deserve the tip and then a little bit more in the hope that you’ll hit me again.
Some people feel nervous about this move. Please don’t. We are authorized to upgrade for special occasions. The special occasion occurring now is that I have a solid $20. That’s special enough for me!
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Travel TIP
Click green to see the article and to see pictures
A Croatian Island's Day in the Sun ... Hvar, an island in the Adriatic Sea off Croatia's Dalmatian coast, .... of the New York edition with the headline: An Island Jewel's Day in the Sun.
The island of HVAR has more sunshine than most other areas - Hollywood movie stars, Royal Family members, other celebrities and wealthy individuals frequent the island of Hvar. Excellent high quality in every aspect.
Click the green below to get more info - or search the article in The New York Times website based on the title
A Croatian Island's Day in the Sun ... Hvar, an island
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Travel Tip
Scandinavia: Finland, Sweden, Norway, Denmark - Summertime the best time
Search Scandinavian trips - high level enjoyment - pure nature
Finnish Tango: The Passion and the Melancholy
By JOHN TAGLIABUE
SEINAJOKI, Finland — Every July, this modest Finnish town, population 59,000, transforms several square blocks downtown into a vast dance hall. Stages are erected, tents are put up, and thousands of Finns — along with Spaniards, Germans and even a smattering of Japanese and North and South Americans — gather to dance for four days to the smoldering rhythms of the tango.
The tango? Finland, the Buenos Aires of the North? What can the Finns, those cool blonds rendered melancholic and morose by the long, lightless winters (or so the cliché has it), understand of Argentina’s passionate national treasure?
And yet they come, in recent years as many as 100,000, starting to dance in the early afternoon, listening to Finnish stars belt out tango tunes, taking part in lessons and contests, and striding, twisting and leaning to the “thump, thump, thump” of the tango beat until the early hours of the morning.
The tango in its Argentine form is brooding and nostalgic. While the Finnish variety is more upbeat, many here say its blending of passion and melancholy perfectly expresses the Finnish soul.
“It’s so powerful, with a lot of emotions and feelings,” said Eija Eerola, an office worker in her 40s, wiping sweat from her brow after a turn on the wood floor of a huge white tent. Dozens of couples — women in shorts, pedal pushers or skirts, and men in baseball caps, fedoras or 10-gallon cowboy hats — danced to the soft strains of an accordion and a violin.
A passionate dancer, who takes to the floor “a couple of times a week” when at home in Helsinki, Ms. Eerola was visiting the tango festival, sleeping in a trailer, for the first time in seven years. What draws the Finns to the tango? “It’s a bit melancholy,” she said. “And that’s the way we are.”
For Monica Wilson, who grew up in a Finnish family in Thunder Bay, Ontario, dancing the tango and being Finnish go together as naturally as ham and eggs — or, well, pickled herring and new potatoes.
Ms. Wilson, 40, a schoolteacher, came to the festival, which ended on Sunday, with her brother and a cousin while on a trip back to the home country. She took some tango lessons and, with her cousin, tried out a few steps under the L-shaped tent, half the size of a football field, called the Pavilion. In Canada, she said, it is the two-step, but in Finland, it is the tango.
Her Finnish-born parents in Canada, she said with a laugh, “danced the tango in the kitchen.”
The festival here was founded about 30 years ago to fan the flames of what appeared to be a dying tradition. The tango had been introduced to Finland a century ago by a Finnish ballet dancer, Toivo Niskanen, who learned his classical steps in St. Petersburg, then the Russian capital. But he became enamored of the tango while visiting Paris.
The tango flourished in Finland to the point of almost becoming the national dance. To this day, about 2,000 tango clubs thrive across a nation of 5.5 million people, and the festival in Seinajoki is one of the largest anywhere. Yet, after World War II, with the arrival of rock ’n’ roll, the tango’s influence began to wane. By the 1980s, the Beatles and the Rolling Stones threatened to drown out “Hernando’s Hideaway,” the tango show tune.
“The tango was not popular anymore, though not forgotten,” said Juha Teuri, 31, the festival’s spokesman, at a local high school that was serving as the event’s headquarters. “At this point, something had to be done, so it started as a tango singing contest, then quickly grew bigger and bigger,” he added, explaining the origins of the festival in the mid-1980s.
The festival is not the only summer tango gathering. A Web site dedicated to Latin dance, festivalsero.com, lists 20 such events in July alone, including the Puerto del Tango in Tallinn, Estonia; Tango Magic in Seattle; and the International Queer Tango Festival, one of a number of increasingly popular gay tango gatherings, in Berlin.
But Seinajoki’s festival stands out, not only for its size but also for its juxtaposition of Scandinavian brooding and Latin passion.
“For us it was a nice surprise,” said Anabel Saldaña, one of Argentina’s leading tango performers and teachers, who was invited this year from Buenos Aires with her partner, Jorge Mendoza, to perform and to teach at the festival. The couple’s nighttime duet on the festival’s main outdoor stage, before a crowd of thousands and amid flaming torches, smoke and lights, was a huge hit.
Finnish tango is not the Argentine variety, Ms. Saldaña said. “But we think it has the same feeling, though with different words and concepts for the experience.”
Mr. Mendoza, who like Ms. Saldaña studied Finnish tango before arriving, agreed. “We don’t say, ‘We have the real tango, or the true tango,’ ” he said. “We are showing them another tango, that it’s nice and cool to tango.”
“Here, the people, they took the tango and they made it their own,” he added.
The difference between the Argentine original and the Finnish offshoot was evident at one of many classes the Argentine dancers gave for festival visitors in the school gymnasium. As eight Finnish couples listened attentively, Ms. Saldaña explained that the tango was “like a puzzle.”
“If you know the pieces,” she said, “you can assemble them in different ways.”
Then she and Mr. Mendoza, hands just off each other’s shoulders, slid around the floor, showing just how the puzzle could be put together. Several couples caught on; others appeared more to be moving furniture than dancing an Argentine tango. Leena Kaura, a retired textile designer, was delighted. “It has that flamenco flair to it,” she said of the Argentine variety.
The organizers worry that the festival is increasingly becoming an affair for middle-aged and older people. To draw a younger crowd, big-name rock musicians — big in Finland, at least — now fill the gaps between tangos. On one sunny afternoon, Antti Tuisku, a kind of Finnish Adam Lambert, sang one of his hits to crowds of fans who waved their arms in a mosh pit, even as older dancers in the Pavilion continued to twirl and bend to a tango beat.
Younger Argentines, who had similarly drifted away from the tango, have returned in droves in recent years, according to Ms. Saldaña. “When I was young, tango was for your grandmother,” she said. “Right now, it’s more popular than ever with young and old.”
Over at the Pavilion, Aarno and Sirpa Ervasti did not miss the mosh pit one bit as they glided around the floor, closely entwined. They have come to the festival every year for the past 10 years. “We’ve been dancing the tango for 43 years,” Ms. Ervasti, 66, said. She, like her husband, Aarno, 70, is a retired elementary-school teacher.
“It’s the quiet, the melancholy, maybe what we get from Russia,” he said. “Our Slavic side.”
“It’s love,” she said. “It’s our way to make love.”
Source: NYT
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The info in the following 3 articles
can save your and your family's lives
Article 1 of 2, Parts A & B How to survive a Plain Crash
Article 2 of 2 How to Survive a Plane Crash, Train Crash and Other Disasters
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This article 1 of 2 has to Parts: Part A & Part B
Surviving a Plain Crash:
Where You Sit Could Be
The Difference Between Life and Death
Article 1 of 2 - PART A
One example from July 7th, 2013 in an Francisco. USA, The harrowing *) Asiana Airlines crash at San Francisco International Airport may incite fear in the minds of the millions of Americans who take to the skies every year, but it also proves that even horrific disasters are survivable.
The San Francisco-bound flight was carrying more than 300 people Saturday when crashed on the runway, tore its tail and burst into flames.
Two 16-year-old female students from China were killed, and 181 people were injured in the crash. The injured were being cared for at several hospitals, and at least 22 were in critical condition.
San Francisco Plane Crash: 2 Killed in Asiana Crash Were Teenage Girls on School Trip from China
While only one in 1.2 million flights end up in an accident, according to the National Transportation Safety Board, there are still precautions passengers can take to prepare for emergency situations.
Experts say where you sit on a plane may prove to be the difference between life and death in a crash.
Professor Ed Galea of the University of Greenwich, who has spent more than 25 years analyzing how humans react in emergencies, advised that the seconds before impact are the most dangerous.
"You are responsible for your life," Galea said. "If you know what you're doing, you've got a better chance of surviving."
One flying rule of thumb? Sit as close to an exit as possible.
Galea studied the seating charts of more than 100 plane crashes and interviewed dozens of survivors. He uncovered that survivors move an average of five rows before safely exiting a burning plane. He also found seats in the rear of a plane were generally safer, as were aisle seats.
The survival rate in U.S. plane crashes from 1983 to 2000 was 95 percent, according to the NTSB. But if the plan does crash, it's important to remember to not panic.
"If you haven't thought about what you might do and prepared, the thing becomes overwhelming and you shut down," Galea said. "You can prepare yourself to react appropriately in emergency situations."
Airborne travelers may also want to remember to take time to brace upon impact.
Click green: View gallery - This frame grab from video provided by KTVU shows smoke rising from … shows smoke rising from … KTVU is SFO TV company If the link has expired use the article title in your search
In an ambitious test undertaken in the name of airline safety, a test crash of a Boeing 727 in the Sonoran Desert last year found that bracing for impact increased a passenger's likelihood of surviving a crash.
Discovery TV had a Boeing 727 equipped with more than a half a million dollars worth of crash test dummies, 38 specialized cameras and sensors, and a crew of incredibly daring pilots. The pilots, who'd donned parachutes, bailed out of a hatch in the back of the aircraft minutes before the huge jetliner careered into the ground in a horrific crash that tore the plane apart.
During the crash, which was a belly flop done nose first, passengers near the front bore the brunt of the impact. Rows one through seven held the "fatal" seats -- seat 7A was catapulted straight out of the plane.
The crash was staged as part of the Discovery Channels "Curiousity Plane Crash," a result of four years of planning and consultations to better understand what happens to passengers when an aircraft goes down.
The test crash also revealed other aspects of plane crashes, such as the tremendous amount of debris that could prove deadly to any passenger sitting upright, and how important it was to be able to get out of the plane fast. Generally, sitting within five rows of an exit gave passengers the best odds.
In addition, remembering a simple mathematic formula -- plus three, minus eight -- can boost your survivability factor in the case of an unexpected plane crash.
Click: Surviving a Plane Crash: 20 Tips From 20/20
If the link has expired search the web with the above link title
Most accidents happen within the first three minutes of takeoff or in the eight minutes before landing, according to Ben Sherwood, author of "The Survivors Club -- The Secrets and Science That could Save Your Life" and president of ABC News.
Sherwood said 80 percent of all plane crashes occur during these 11 in-flight minutes. Instead of picking up a magazine or taking your shoes off, it's important to remain alert.
Sherwood advised to have a plan of action in the case of an unexpected crisis.
"If a plane crashes it's very likely that I'm going to survive it, and if I do the right thing, if I pay attention, if I have a plan, if I act, the chances are even better," Sherwood said.
But passengers should remember that not all flights are bound for peril.
The aviation industry has taken strides to protect passengers in emergency situations. Stronger seats, improved flame retardant plane parts and better firefighting techniques following a crash have contributed to increasing the time for passengers to make a safe escape.
"Riding on a commercial airplane has got about the same amount of risk as riding on an escalator," MIT International Center for Air Transportation Director John Hansman Jr. told ABC News.
The vocabulary info is given for people English as a 2nd language
*) harrowing adjective = distressing, disturbing, alarming, frightening, painful, terrifying, chilling, traumatic, tormenting,heartbreaking, excruciating, agonizing, nerve-racking, heart-rending, gut-wrenching; e.g. harrowing pictures of the children who had been murdered
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Source: KTVU, SFO _______________________
PART B
Asiana says pilot had little experience with 777s
(the aircraft)
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The pilot at the controls of an Asiana plane that crashed landed was guiding a Boeing 777 into the San Francisco airport for the first time, and tried but failed to abort the landing after coming in too slow to set down safely, aviation and airline officials said Sunday.
It was unclear if the pilot's inexperience with the aircraft and airport played a role in Saturday's crash. Officials were investigating whether the airport or plane's equipment could have also malfunctioned.
Also Sunday, San Mateo County Coroner Robert Foucrault said he was investigating whether one of the two teenage passengers killed Saturday actually survived the crash but was run over by a rescue vehicle rushing to aid victims fleeing the burning aircraft. Remarkably, 305 of 307 passengers survived the crash and more than a third didn't even require hospitalization. Only a small number were critically injured.
Deborah Hersman, head of the National Transportation Safety Board, said the slow speed of Flight 214 in the final approach triggered a warning that the jetliner could stall, and an effort was made to abort the landing but the plane crashed barely a second later.
The pilot at the controls of an Asiana plane that crashed landed was guiding a Boeing 777 into the San Francisco airport for the first time, and tried but failed to abort the landing after coming in too slow to set down safely, aviation and airline officials said Sunday.
It was unclear if the pilot's inexperience with the aircraft and airport played a role in Saturday's crash. Officials were investigating whether the airport or plane's equipment could have also malfunctioned.
Also Sunday, San Mateo County Coroner Robert Foucrault said he was investigating whether t one of the two teenage passengers killed Saturday actually survived the crash but was run over by a rescue vehicle rushing to aid victims fleeing the burning aircraft. Remarkably, 305 of 307 passengers survived the crash and more than a third didn't even require hospitalization. Only a small number were critically injured.
Deborah Hersman, head of the National Transportation Safety Board, said the slow speed of Flight 214 in the final approach triggered a warning that the jetliner could stall, and an effort was made to abort the landing but the plane crashed barely a second later.
At a news conference, Hersman disclosed the aircraft was traveling at speeds well below the target landing speed of 137 knots per hour, or 157 mph.
"We're not talking about a few knots," she said.
Hersman described the frantic final seconds of the flight as the pilots struggled to avoid crashing.
Seven seconds before the crash, pilots recognized the need to increase speed, she said, basing her comments on an evaluation of the cockpit voice and flight data recorders that contain hundreds of different types of information on what happened to the plane. Three seconds later, the aircraft's stick shaker -- a piece of safety equipment that warns pilots of an impending stall -- went off. The normal response to a stall warning is to boost speed and Hersman said the throttles were fired and the engines appeared to respond normally.
At 1.5 seconds before impact, there was a call from the crew to abort the landing.
The details confirmed what survivors and other witnesses said they saw: an aircraft that seemed to be flying too slowly just before its tail apparently clipped a seawall at the end of the runway and the nose slammed down.
Pilots normally try to land at the target speed, in this case 137 knots, plus an additional five more knots, said Bob Coffman, an American Airlines captain who has flown 777s. He said the briefing raises an important question: "Why was the plane going so slow?"
The plane's Pratt & Whitney engines were on idle and the pilots were flying under visual flight rules, Hersman said. Under visual flight procedures in the Boeing 777, a wide-body jet, the autopilot would typically have been turned off while the automatic throttle, which regulates speed, would been on until the plane had descended to 500 feet in altitude, Coffman said. At that point, pilots would normally check their airspeed before switching off the autothrottle to continue a "hand fly" approach, he said.
There was no indication in the discussions between the pilots and the air traffic controllers that there were problems with the aircraft.
The airline said Monday in Seoul that the pilot at the controls had little experience flying that type of plane and was landing one for the first time at that airport.
Asiana spokeswoman Lee Hyomin said that Lee Gang-guk, who was at the controls, had nearly 10,000 hours flying other planes but only 43 in the 777, a plane she said he still was getting used to flying. Another pilot on the flight, Lee Jeong-min, had about 12,390 hours of flying experience, including 3,220 hours on the 777, according to the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport in South Korea. Lee was the deputy pilot, tasked with helping Lee Gang-guk get accustomed to the 777, according to Asiana Airlines.
Asiana spokeswoman Lee Hyomin said that Lee Gang-guk was trying to get used to the 777 during Saturday's crash landing. She says the pilot had nearly 10,000 hours flying other planes but had only 43 hours on the 777.
Among the questions investigators are trying to answer was what, if any, role the deactivation of a ground-based landing guidance system due to airport construction played in the crash. Such systems help pilots land, especially at airports like San Francisco where fog can make landing challenging. The conditions Saturday were nearly perfect, with sunny skies and light winds.
The flight originated in Shanghai, China, stopped over in Seoul, South Korea, before making the nearly 11-hour trip to San Francisco. The South Korea-based airline said four South Korean pilots were on board, three of whom were described as "skilled."
Among the travelers were citizens of China, South Korean, the United States, Canada, India, Japan, Vietnam and France. There were at least 70 Chinese students and teachers heading to summer camps, according to Chinese authorities.
Fei Xiong, a Chinese passenger , was traveling to California so she could take her 8-year-old son to Disneyland. The pair was sitting in the back half of the plane. Xiong said her son sensed something was wrong.
"My son told me: `The plane will fall down, it's too close to the sea,"' she said. "I told him: `Baby, it's OK, we'll be fine."'
When the plane hit the ground, oxygen masks dropped down, said Xu Da, a product manager at an Internet company in Hangzhou, China, who was sitting with his wife and teenage son near the back of the plane. When he stood up, he said he could see sparking -- perhaps from exposed electrical wires.
He turned and could see the tail where the galley was torn away, leaving a gaping hole through which they could see the runway. Once on the tarmac, they watched the plane catch fire, and firefighters hose it down.
"I just feel lucky," said Xu, whose family suffered some cuts and have neck and back pain.
In the chaotic moments after the landing, when baggage was tumbling from the overhead bins onto passengers and people all around her were screaming, Wen Zhang grabbed her 4-year-old son, who hit the seat in front of him and broke his leg.
Spotting a hole at the back of the jumbo jet where the bathroom had been, she carried her boy to safety.
"I had no time to be scared," she said.
Authorities immediately closed the airport and rescuers rushed to the scene. A United Airlines pilot radioed the control tower, saying: "We see people ... that need immediate attention. They are alive and walking around."
"Think you said people are just walking outside the airplane right now?" the controller replied.
"Yes," answered the pilot of United Flight 885. "Some people, it looks like, are struggling."
At the crash scene, police officers knives up to crew members inside the burning wreckage so they could cut away passengers' seat belts. Passengers jumped down emergency slides, escaping from billowing smoke that rose high above the bay. Some passengers who escaped doused themselves with water from the bay, presumably to cool burns, authorities said.
By the time the flames were out, much of the top of the fuselage had burned away. The tail section was gone, with pieces of it scattered across the beginning of the runway.
Foucrault, the coroner, said senior San Francisco Fire Department officials notified him and his staff at the crash site on Saturday that one of the 16-year-olds who was kilkled may have been struck on the runaway. Foucrault said an autopsy he expects to be completed by Monday will involve determining whether the girl's death was caused by injuries suffered in the crash or "a secondary incident."
He said he did not get a close enough look at the victims on Saturday to know whether they had external injuries.
Foucrault said one of the bodies was found on the tarmac near where the plane's tail broke off when it slammed into the runway. The other was found on the left side of the plane about 30 feet away from where the jetliner came to rest after it skidded down the runway.
sman disclosed the aircraft was traveling at speeds well below the target landing speed of 137 knots per hour, or 157 mph.
"We're not talking about a few knots," she said.
Hersman described the frantic final seconds of the flight as the pilots struggled to avoid crashing.
Seven seconds before the crash, pilots recognized the need to increase speed, she said, basing her comments on an evaluation of the cockpit voice and flight data recorders that contain hundreds of different types of information on what happened to the plane. Three seconds later, the aircraft's stick shaker -- a piece of safety equipment that warns pilots of an impending stall -- went off. The normal response to a stall warning is to boost speed and Hersman said the throttles were fired and the engines appeared to respond normally.
At 1.5 seconds before impact, there was a call from the crew to abort the landing.
The details confirmed what survivors and other witnesses said they saw: an aircraft that seemed to be flying too slowly just before its tail apparently clipped a seawall at the end of the runway and the nose slammed down.
Pilots normally try to land at the target speed, in this case 137 knots, plus an additional five more knots, said Bob Coffman, an American Airlines captain who has flown 777s. He said the briefing raises an important question: "Why was the plane going so slow?"
The plane's Pratt & Whitney engines were on idle and the pilots were flying under visual flight rules, Hersman said. Under visual flight procedures in the Boeing 777, a wide-body jet, the autopilot would typically have been turned off while the automatic throttle, which regulates speed, would been on until the plane had descended to 500 feet in altitude, Coffman said. At that point, pilots would normally check their airspeed before switching off the autothrottle to continue a "hand fly" approach, he said.
There was no indication in the discussions between the pilots and the air traffic controllers that there were problems with the aircraft.
The airline said Monday in Seoul that the pilot at the controls had little experience flying that type of plane and was landing one for the first time at that airport.
Asiana spokeswoman Lee Hyomin said that Lee Gang-guk, who was at the controls, had nearly 10,000 hours flying other planes but only 43 in the 777, a plane she said he still was getting used to flying. Another pilot on the flight, Lee Jeong-min, had about 12,390 hours of flying experience, including 3,220 hours on the 777, according to the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport in South Korea. Lee was the deputy pilot, tasked with helping Lee Gang-guk get accustomed to the 777, according to Asiana Airlines.
Asiana spokeswoman Lee Hyomin said that Lee Gang-guk was trying to get used to the 777 during Saturday's crash landing. She says the pilot had nearly 10,000 hours flying other planes but had only 43 hours on the 777.
Among the questions investigators are trying to answer was what, if any, role the deactivation of a ground-based landing guidance system due to airport construction played in the crash. Such systems help pilots land, especially at airports like San Francisco where fog can make landing challenging. The conditions Saturday were nearly perfect, with sunny skies and light winds.
The flight originated in Shanghai, China, stopped over in Seoul, South Korea, before making the nearly 11-hour trip to San Francisco. The South Korea-based airline said four South Korean pilots were on board, three of whom were described as "skilled."
Among the travelers were citizens of China, South Korean, the United States, Canada, India, Japan, Vietnam and France. There were at least 70 Chinese students and teachers heading to summer camps, according to Chinese authorities.
Fei Xiong, a Chinese passenger , was traveling to California so she could take her 8-year-old son to Disneyland. The pair was sitting in the back half of the plane. Xiong said her son sensed something was wrong.
"My son told me: `The plane will fall down, it's too close to the sea,"' she said. "I told him: `Baby, it's OK, we'll be fine."'
When the plane hit the ground, oxygen masks dropped down, said Xu Da, a product manager at an Internet company in Hangzhou, China, who was sitting with his wife and teenage son near the back of the plane. When he stood up, he said he could see sparking -- perhaps from exposed electrical wires.
He turned and could see the tail where the galley was torn away, leaving a gaping hole through which they could see the runway. Once on the tarmac, they watched the plane catch fire, and firefighters hose it down.
"I just feel lucky," said Xu, whose family suffered some cuts and have neck and back pain.
In the chaotic moments after the landing, when baggage was tumbling from the overhead bins onto passengers and people all around her were screaming, Wen Zhang grabbed her 4-year-old son, who hit the seat in front of him and broke his leg.
Spotting a hole at the back of the jumbo jet where the bathroom had been, she carried her boy to safety.
"I had no time to be scared," she said.
Authorities immediately closed the airport and rescuers rushed to the scene. A United Airlines pilot radioed the control tower, saying: "We see people ... that need immediate attention. They are alive and walking around."
"Think you said people are just walking outside the airplane right now?" the controller replied.
"Yes," answered the pilot of United Flight 885. "Some people, it looks like, are struggling."
At the crash scene, police officers knives up to crew members inside the burning wreckage so they could cut away passengers' seat belts. Passengers jumped down emergency slides, escaping from billowing smoke that rose high above the bay. Some passengers who escaped doused themselves with water from the bay, presumably to cool burns, authorities said.
By the time the flames were out, much of the top of the fuselage had burned away. The tail section was gone, with pieces of it scattered across the beginning of the runway.
Foucrault, the coroner, said senior San Francisco Fire Department officials notified him and his staff at the crash site on Saturday that one of the 16-year-olds who was kilkled may have been struck on the runaway. Foucrault said an autopsy he expects to be completed by Monday will involve determining whether the girl's death was caused by injuries suffered in the crash or "a secondary incident."
He said he did not get a close enough look at the victims on Saturday to know whether they had external injuries.
Foucrault said one of the bodies was found on the tarmac near where the plane's tail broke off when it slammed into the runway. The other was found on the left side of the plane about 30 feet away from where the jetliner came to rest after it skidded down the runway.
Source:
Source: KTVU, SFO Article 2 of 2 next below
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Article 1 of 2, Parts A + B next above
Survival 101: How to Survive a Plane Crash, Train Crash and Other Disasters
Article 2 of 2
Click green for further info
When disaster strikes without warning, why do some die while others survive? A second can make the difference between life and death.
"You are responsible for your life," said Ed Galea, professor at the Universities of Greenwich, Liverpool and Ulster, who has spent the last 25 years analyzing how humans react in emergencies. "If you know what you're doing, you've got a better chance of surviving."
Galea and his team interviewed 300 people who escaped from the attacks on the Twin Towers on 9/11. They made a startling discovery. When the planes hit, only one in 10 people inside the World Trade Center reacted immediately.
"The majority of people took about a maximum of about eight minutes to react to the building being hit! Eight minutes," he said. "Some people even took longer -- 20 minutes, 30 minutes -- to actually disengage from whatever activity they were involved with to start to physically evacuate."
That's normal human behavior, but it's not the most prudent for survival. Galea walked "Nightline" through his tips to survive disasters -- and strategies to weather a plane crash, train crash or sinking ship.
1. Listen to the alarm.
Galea said the most common response to hearing a fire alarm, or any sort of emergency alarm, is to ignore it. People assume that any alarm is a false alarm, or just a drill.
"People don't want to be, or to appear to be weak or to be silly or to be scared," Galea said. "Peer group pressure actually prevents people from being the first to react. And once you've had one person react, other people are likely to follow."
But when escaping disaster, every second counts.
"People need to learn to react immediately [when] an alarm is sounded," he said.
2. Fear fire. It spreads very fast.
In modern life, our fear of fire has dimmed to a dangerous nonchalance.
"People have lost respect and understanding of fire," Galea said, "The only time people come into contact with fire in modern society is perhaps lighting a barbecue."
When a blaze swept through a British department store in 1979, people could smell the fire, could hear the alarm, but since they'd just bought lunch, they stayed to finish eating. The fire killed 10 people -- most of them in the cafeteria. If you weren't out of that building in 30 seconds, you didn't stand a prayer.
In 2003, 100 people died at a Rhode Island nightclub during a fire sparked by a pyrotechnics. "The fire just engulfed the building at such a high rate of speed -- from then on it turned into a nightmare," one survivor said.
Galea built a computer model of that fire and saw how quickly flames and smoke spread. It only took 90 seconds until the entire dance floor and bar area were covered.
3. Have a plan.
Faced with a threat or disaster, some go into superhuman mode -- they are calm and strong and endeavor to save others and themselves. Some simply freeze. It's the "fight or flight" response.
"If you haven't thought about what you might do and prepared, the thing becomes overwhelming and you shut down," Galea said. "You can prepare yourself to react appropriately in emergency situations."
Whether you're boarding a train, a plane, a cruise ship -- or if you're walking into an unfamiliar building, a hotel perhaps, figure out how you would get out in a hurry.
Once you've checked in, Galea says to find out where the nearest exit is and actually walk the route between your room and that exit, counting the number of doors along the way. That way, if the corridor is filled with smoke, you can actually feel your way to safety.
When Galea checks into a hotel, he asks for a room on the sixth floor or below. Why? Most fire ladders can't extend above about six floors.
And you may think it's overkill, but the professor actually walks the fire escape route, checking that there aren't any obstacles in the way -- no piles of dirty laundry or trays of half-eaten room service food.
His golden rule: you don't want to find out there's a problem with your escape route when the fire's already started and your life's already in danger.
Surviving a Plane Crash: Wait to Inflate
In 1996, a hijacked Ethiopian airliner carrying 175 passengers ran out of fuel and crashed into the Indian Ocean. Ninety people were killed. Many of them drowned because they inflated their lifejackets too soon and got stuck inside the sinking fuselage.
Lesson learned: wait to inflate until you're on the outside.
Despite public perception, around 95 percent of those involved in plane crashes in the U.S. emerge alive.
Galea has interviewed more than 2,000 survivors. Since each crash is different, there's no magic or safest seat, in which passengers are most likely to survive. But statistics suggest sitting within six rows of an emergency exit -- preferably, in an aisle seat -- help your chances.
"An aisle seat because ... it's easier to get on your feet and start heading towards an exit," he said. "And just as you would in a hotel, on a plane count the seats to the emergency exit."
Train Crash: Avoid Front, Rear Cars
Summer 2009, nine people were killed and more than 70 injured when one Washington, D.C. Metro train plowed into the back of another at the peak of evening rush hour. It was one of the darkest days in Washington Metro history.
What can you do when riding a train to increase your chances of survival?
"Whenever I get on a train I will avoid the front and rear cars," Galea said, since they are most likely to be hit or to hit something. "I will take a seat where my back is facing the direction of travel."
If the train crashes, you will be pushed backwards into the seat, not thrown across the car.
"I hate having lots of luggage in the luggage racks above my head. Because in the event of an accident, the luggage is going to come down," he said.
Aboard a Sinking Ship?
Stay Calm
In 1991, Oceanos, a Greek cruise ship, was hit by a massive storm off the coast of South Africa.
"Everybody was so calm, it was the crew that were not," one survivor said. "The crew were jumping ship first. The crew went first, they were actually fighting the passengers."
The panicked crew abandoned ship and left the passengers to fend for themselves. Amazingly, all 571 passengers were eventually rescued. They survived partially because they kept calm and perhaps because they knew what they were doing.
"Ships are very, very confusing environments," Galea said. "You can't see outside. Often you don't even know is forward and aft, let alone if you're on the port or starboard side of the vessel."
Walking your escape routes, making a note of where you are on the boat, is particularly important if you want to escape before it's too late.
Click green for further info
Source: ABC Nightline
By NICK WATT (@nickwattabc)
Dec. 22, 2009
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Article 1 of 2 Article 2 of 2 nex below
7 Getaways for New Yorkers, No Car Required
Before creating your travel schedule, check out the dates, hours & price information - they may change
NEW YORK—In a city that brims with so much activity that it never sleeps, New Yorkers need to take a break from the bright lights at some point. And there are ways to do it without diminishing your savings.
This summer, Metro-North is offering several discount packages to spots around the Hudson Valley, Connecticut, as well as New York City. Some trips, such as the one to Wave Hill, cost as little as $17.50 round trip.
Wave Hill, is a 28-acre garden oasis that overlooks the Hudson River and Palisades. It’s filled with activities such as family art projects, walks, workshops, beekeeping, yoga, gardening, and cooking demos.
All of the Metro-North packages are pedestrian friendly—no car is needed.
Here are 7 day trips you should know about.
1. Walkway Over the Hudson
If you’re in the area, then you might as well check out the “High Line” of the Hudson Valley.
The walkway was an abandoned railroad bridge that was turned into a pedestrian park in 2009. The bridge provides a panoramic view of the valley.
The 212-foot, tall linear walkway spans 1.28 miles along the Hudson River, making it the world’s longest elevated pedestrian bridge. Not to mention, it would make a delightful place to watch the Fourth of July fireworks.
The walkway is a 20-minute walk from the Poughkeepsie Station on the Hudson Line, or a five-minute taxi ride.
Alternatively, the River Station Restaurant across the street from the Poughkeepsie Station provides a free shuttle to and from the Walkway if you eat there. You also get a 25 percent discount if you show your Metro-North ticket at the restaurant.
The walkway is open seven days a week from 7 a.m. to sunset. Household pets are allowed on the bridge as long as they are on a leash.
2. Kayaking on the Hudson
Both amateurs and pros can rent kayaks from the boathouse on Long Dock Park, which is just steps away from the Metro-North Beacon Station.
The Metro-North kayaking package includes a four-hour kayak and gear rental for the price of two hours.
The boathouse also offers three-hour tours for beginners who are looking for something less intense.
Kayak tour reservations are required, while kayak rental reservations are suggested.
The boathouse also provides stand up paddle boarding lessons and tours for those who want to “walk the river.”
3. Clearwater Festival
Here’s something guilt-free, a festival that raises money to help the environment. Hence the name “Clearwater” for the Hudson.
Clearwater’s Great Hudson River Revival Festival was founded by iconic folk artist Pete Seeger—music is a big part of this festival. The festival runs on the weekend of June 15–16.
Activities include live music, crafts, and food—such as the Juried Crafts Fair, the Artisanal Food & Farm Market, and performances from artists such as Sharon Jones and The Dap Kings, Mavis Staples, and Son Volt.
The Metro-North festival package includes the discount rail and a discount ticket to get into the concert. You can get there from the Hudson Line to Croton-Harmon Station, where a free shuttle takes you to the ticket window of the festival.
4. New Haven, More than a College Tour
Yale offers a free tour of their campus. There are also several free museums nearby—including the distinguished Yale Center for British Art.
There’s also the Canal Quarter Tour— a food tour— that goes from pastries at Koffee, to smoothies at Pure Health Lounge, cupcakes at Katalina’s Kupcakes, traditional Japanese dishes at Kumo Hibachi Steakhouse, to cheese tasting at Caseus, rum and Cuban food at Zafra, wine tasting at Odd Bins Bottle Shop, and beer and Irish food at Anna Liffey’s.
5. Free Shuttle to Hyde Park
A shuttle from the Poughkeepsie station can take you to the library where Franklin D. Roosevelt gave his famous “fire side chats.”
The “Roosevelt Ride” runs seven days a week from May 1–Oct. 31. From the Metro-North station, you can choose whether you would like to go to the Roosevelt Sites or the Vanderbilt Mansion.
The Home of Franklin D. Roosevelt Guided Tour is one hour, and includes admission into the FDR Presidential Library and Museum. It is free for children under 15 years old, and $14 for adults. The ticket is valid for two days.
But the Rose Garden and Roosevelt’s burial site is free and open from sunrise to sunset.
6. The Gothic Lyndhurst
Lyndhurst is a Gothic Revival historical mansion that towers next to the Hudson River in Tarrytown, New York.
Several films—such as “The House of Dark Shadows” (1970) and ABC’s 1990s holiday film “The Halloween That Almost Wasn’t” — have been filmed at this Gothic mansion, whose interior is decorated with French 19th century paintings.
Today, the mansion is available for tour and also provides celebrations, music, and lectures.
You can take a tour of the mansion, with a historical lesson on what the lives of New York politicians and Wall Street giants were like when they lived at Lyndhurst. One of the most notorious residents of Lyndhurst was Jay Gould, also known as the “robber baron.” He lived with his philanthropist daughter Helen Gould, and his other daughter Anna Gould, the future Duchess of Talleyrand who married two aristocrats—“Downton Abbey style.”
Tours are available from 10 a.m.–4 p.m. on a first come first serve basis.
The Rose Day Garden Celebration is coming up on June 2nd. Admission into the garden is free; there will be refreshments and music in the rose garden.
In the afternoon, there will be a lecture on “ The Lehman Brothers of Tarrytown.” The Lehman Brothers had bought three properties that are north of Lyndhurst.
Lecturer Paul Barrett will discuss the Lehmans, their historic homes and gardens, and their involvement with the local Jewish community. Admission for the lecture is free.
There are also sunset jazz events on Thursdays at Lyndhurst.
You can take the Hudson Line to Tarrytown Station. From there, you can take a short taxi ride ($4-$6) to the visitor center.
7. Maple Syrup or Moonshine Weekends at the Farm
From the Wassaic Station, one can take the Dutchess County Farm Fresh Link shuttle to learn about organic farming and compost at the McEnroe Organic Farm on Sept. 14,15, 21, and 22. The 1,000-acre farm has greenhouses, turkeys, and llamas—yes, llamas.
The shuttle will also make several other stops along the Hudson Valley such as Dutch’s Spirits—where bootleggers moonshined during the Prohibition Era. The tours will occur on Sept. 21–22 only.
Dutch’s Spirits was the original New York distillery, where the infamous Dutch Schultz distilled moonshine. You can visit the secret interconnected tunnels, bunkers, and fake chicken coops that once held illegal alcohol.
On Sept. 14–15, there will be a Maple Syrup tour in the same area at the Madava Farms, home to the Crown Maple Farm syrup. Their syrup has been featured in Food & Wine and in the White House for the first time in the Presidential Inaugural Luncheon in 2013.
Source: Internet news
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Article 2 of 2 Article 1 of 2 just above
19 Easy NYC Getaways With and Without a Car
Click green for further info
All New Yorkers love New York City. But as much as I love New York, there are plenty of weekends when I just want to get away. All New Yorkers do — getting out of town is a sport we take seriously. I’ve covered a lot of day trips and weekend getaways on Travelogged. Here’s your guide to easy trips with and without a car for those days when you just have to leave the skyline behind. All 17 of these destinations are perfect for summer and early fall, and most of them are great all year round.
NYC Getaways Without a Car
All of these destinations are easily reachable by train or bus (except for Sandy Hood, NJ, which is reachable by ferry), and once you get there you don’t need a car. Of course, you can drive to these places too.
Here they are, in order from closest to furthest.
Click green in each destination - get the details
1. Locally from Manhattan over the 59th Street Bridge to the LIC side - The LIC Flea & Food brimmed with vendors selling food and other goods to New Yorkers looking for a pleasant outing
Click: The Secret of the LIC Flea & Food Market
LIC Flea & Food, 5-25 46th Ave., Long Island City, (718) 866-8089, www.licflea.com
Open Saturdays and Sundays from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. through the summer.
Public transport: East River Ferry and subway lines 7, E, M, and G. (info June 2013)
2. Sandy Hook, NJ: A 45-minute ferry ride from Manhattan.
3. Cold Spring, NY: A one-hour train ride from Manhattan.
4. Bay Head, NJ: If you drive here with no traffic, you can get here in under an hour-and-a-half. But the train will take you two-and-a-half hours.
5. Philadelphia: The train will deliver you in about two-and-a-half hours.
6. Atlantic City, NJ It’s a two-to-three-hour bus ride from NYC’s Port Authority. Greyhound gives a 4-day window for the return trip - check for the updated info.
7. Providence, RI Approximately a three-and-a-half-hour train ride.
8. Boston A four-hour train ride.
9. Washington, DC A four-hour train ride.
Getaways With a Car
Here are some of the getaways that are close enough to New York that you could go for just the weekend.
Listed in order from closest to the city to farthest away.
These driving times are approximate — you can often expect plenty of traffic.
Click green in each destination - get the details
1. Ridgefield, CT A one-hour-and fifteen drive.
2. The Poconos, PA Less than a two-hour drive.
3. Lakeville, CT At least a two-hour drive.
4. Hawley, PA A two-hour-and-fifteen-minute drive.
5. Finger Lakes Region of NY You’ll arrive in the area within four hours of driving.
6. Manchester, VT A four-hour drive.
7. Portsmouth, NH A five-hour drive.
8. Kennebunkport, ME This is a five-and-a-half-hour drive if you’re lucky.
9. Lyndonville, VT At least a a five-and-a-half-hour drive.
10. Montreal: It’s about a six-hour-and-fifteen-minute drive from NYC to Montreal. The good news is that you’ll have the gorgeous Adirondacks scenery to distract for an hour or two. Remember taking your passport!
Click green for further info
Source: Internet
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TRAVEL TIPS
This country you would enjoy visiting
- its positively different of high style & quality -
An Iceland Saga: Chess, Glaciers, and a Utopian City
Click green to see the Icelandic pictures: The Epoch Times »www.theepochtimes.com/
Iceland epitomizes - (= to be a perfect example of) mental and physical prowess*)
*) = valor - gallantry - valour - bravery - courage - heroism
This island country has existed on earth for millennia, but it was chess master Bobby Fischer who put it on the map, so to speak, in 1972, when he defeated Russian Grandmaster Boris Spassky for the World Chess Championship in the capital city of Reykjavik. He was the first American to win this prestigious title.
It was a victory for the U.S. that matched the extraordinary, winning topography of Iceland’s volcanoes, geothermal springs, rivers, glaciers, and vast treeless terrain.
As a matter of fact, NASA astronauts trained here south of Reykjavik in the mid-1960s for America’s first moon landing. Iceland’s landscape is out of this world.
During the hippie era of the 1960s, Icelandic Airlines was the popular choice to fly to Europe with a refueling stop in Reykjavik.
Touring the CountrysideOn a recent visit there, I drove southeast from Reykjavik with a group of extreme outdoor enthusiasts to climb Hvannadalshnúkur, the country’s highest peak (6,922 feet).
I took the road less traveled, that is, the one less extreme. Instead of hiking the 15 hours up and down, I poked around at sea level nearby Skaftafell National Park, taking in the Skógarfoss waterfalls and walking on a glacier with crampons and a trusty ice-axe.
During the summer months it stays light nearly 24-hours in Iceland.
Glacier walking is my kind of sport—slow and easy. The June day was sunny and crispy; the air was clean and easy to breathe. I was in heaven. The others were in ultra-heaven.
Twenty-five year old guide Agust Gunnlaugsson (you try to say it) said there are no particular skills in walking a glacier, other than keeping your balance on crampons.
“The beauty of the glacier is that it changes all the time. Each day is different—different textures of surface. The black dirt gets washed by the rain and looks clean and beautiful again,” said the young guide who graciously obliged the tourists’ photo opportunity requests.
I couldn’t help but feel small—maybe insignificant—for those three hours, surrounded by the mountains, walking up, down, and sideways over crevices, using the axe for support. The Rockies seem easy pickings in comparison.
The next day we continued eastward to board an amphibious craft for a cruise on the Jökulsárlón lagoon. We motored between icebergs, which break off the Vatnajökull glacier, and drift into the ocean. They were huge.
The temperature had dropped noticeably on the frigid water. Dressed in Polartec fleece wear wear, on loan from Iceland’s venerable sportswear manufacturer 66º North, whose slogan is “Keeping Iceland warm since 1926,” I almost felt overheated!
We then ventured further east along the coast to spend the night in the fishing village of Höfn, Iceland’s “Lobster (actually langoustine) Capital” almost 300 miles from Reykjavik.
There’s basically one ring road around Iceland, and after two days of traveling southeast of Reykjavik, it looked like a journey to the center the earth with its fire and icescapes—here are the largest glaciers outside of the Arctic regions.
Höfn is a major port, home to a large fishing fleet and processing plants. It is also home to the country’s SAR team—well trained Search and Rescue men of the high seas.
A Höfn highlight is the artisans’ store that stocks hundreds of handmade wool sweaters. Fishing and knitting seem part of the Icelanders’ DNA.
Returning towards Reykjavik, we took in a popular sightseeing excursion called the Golden Circle that features the Gullfoss twin waterfalls. They are Iceland’s answer to Yellowstone National Park’s Old Faithful geyser.
We also stopped in at the UNESCO World Heritage archaeological site in Thingvellir National Park, the location of Iceland’s first parliament, called Althing, which dates back to 930 A.D. The stone foundations and remaining walls were once part of an open-air assembly where laws and decisions of the courts were made.
Iceland’s Adopted Chess MasterIn 2005, the Iceland Parliament saved Bobby Fischer from deportation to the United States by voting to issue him a resident’s permit.
“Some Icelanders have a soft spot, almost a proprietary feeling, for Mr. Fischer because it was in Reykjavik that he defeated Mr. Spassky to win the world championship in 1972, in a thrilling match seen as a crucial Cold War showdown,” reported the New York Times that same year.
Parliament voted again for Fischer, granting him Iceland citizenship in March 2005. He made his last move on January 17, 2008, when he “checked out” and died of renal failure at the age of 64.
Outside of Reykjavik in the Laugardaelir village church cemetery, the simple tombstone reads “Robert James Fischer, F. 9. Mars 1943, D. 17. Janúar 2008.”
When I visited, Olof Haraldspottir was watering the flowers at Fischer’s gravesite, just across from her family’s farmhouse. She and her sister are caretakers for the church.
But Fischer lives in the heart of Icelanders.
I stayed in Reykjavik another week at the Hotel Klopp. It was on the same street that Fischer had lived, a few blocks away. And directly below my hotel window, I could look at the bookstore where Fischer took refuge between the aisles of books in the back.
Next to the bookstore was the hair salon where Fischer got his long hair and beard groomed, apparently not very often, according to Vera, who first met Fischer in 1972—only to meet him again 30 years later.
“He had a disheveled appearance. He looked like Leonardo Da Vinci with his long hair and beard. He would only let me use scissors and never a razor,” she told me.
It was Vera’s father Saemi Palsson, a former policeman, who was assigned security duty during the Fischer-Spassky match in 1972. Palsson and Fischer bonded and became close, trusted friends.
After the match, Fischer employed Palsson as his personal assistant and bodyguard, and brought him to the U.S. Palsson returned to Iceland after a few years, and lost contact with Fischer until 2004.
At that time, Fischer was detained in Japan for sanction violations and back taxes by the U.S. Treasury Department, dating back to when he played a rematch with Spassky in Yugoslavia in 1992 and never returned to the U.S. Facing deportation, and in a state of political limbo, Fischer called Palsson for help.
The latter got the ball rolling to eventually win Iceland citizenship for Fischer, who moved to Reykjavik and befriended Palsson and his family again. Friendship knows no bounds.
I frequented Fischer’s hangout, the Kaffe Mocha, Iceland’s first and oldest Italian espresso bar, near my hotel. Here men play chess, read the papers and gesture wildly about world affairs.
ReykjavikIceland’s capital is an easy city to maneuver in, with friendly, fashionable, and upbeat people. English is spoken everywhere, alongside Icelandic, its native tongue, and other Scandinavian languages.
It is like no other city I’ve visited—signs on the sidewalk advertise a special “whale menu,” coiffed women dress to the nines in outerwear-chic, and look you in the eye with a smile; children look happy and laugh.
Could this be the “Truman Show?”
The streets are clean; traffic is non-existent in this city of one hundred twenty thousand people. An abundance of indoor geothermal pools are open to the public; the architecture is avant-garde, with stark colored exteriors. One cannot escape the blue.
Lagoon vast pools before a plane departure.
Art is everywhere—wall murals, store window displays, outdoor sculpture, not to mention in museums by the busy harbor. Here too, is the city’s famous hot-dog stand Bæjarins Beztu Pylsur, operating since 1937. It was a favorite of President Clinton before his bypass surgery.
Reagan and Gorbachev met here in 1986 to thaw out their differences.
The temperature in Reykjavik during the summer feels like a New England fall. It’s invigorating—fueling a walker with a hardy appetite to discover the quirkiness and offbeat beauty of this island city.
Reykjavik is a winner. Fischer made a good move.
For More Information:
www.icelandtouristboard.com
www.66north.is
www.mountainguide.is
Mark Chester is a Cape Cod-based photographer/writer who recently published the book “Twosomes.”. For more information, visit www.markchesterphotography.com
Source: The Epoch Times, July 4, 2013
Click to see the Icelandic pictures: The Epoch Times »www.theepochtimes.com/
____________________ Have a good trip _______________________
7 Getaways for New Yorkers, No Car Required
Before creating your travel schedule, check out the dates, hours & price information - they may change
NEW YORK—In a city that brims with so much activity that it never sleeps, New Yorkers need to take a break from the bright lights at some point. And there are ways to do it without diminishing your savings.
This summer, Metro-North is offering several discount packages to spots around the Hudson Valley, Connecticut, as well as New York City. Some trips, such as the one to Wave Hill, cost as little as $17.50 round trip.
Wave Hill, is a 28-acre garden oasis that overlooks the Hudson River and Palisades. It’s filled with activities such as family art projects, walks, workshops, beekeeping, yoga, gardening, and cooking demos.
All of the Metro-North packages are pedestrian friendly—no car is needed.
Here are 7 day trips you should know about.
1. Walkway Over the Hudson
If you’re in the area, then you might as well check out the “High Line” of the Hudson Valley.
The walkway was an abandoned railroad bridge that was turned into a pedestrian park in 2009. The bridge provides a panoramic view of the valley.
The 212-foot, tall linear walkway spans 1.28 miles along the Hudson River, making it the world’s longest elevated pedestrian bridge. Not to mention, it would make a delightful place to watch the Fourth of July fireworks.
The walkway is a 20-minute walk from the Poughkeepsie Station on the Hudson Line, or a five-minute taxi ride.
Alternatively, the River Station Restaurant across the street from the Poughkeepsie Station provides a free shuttle to and from the Walkway if you eat there. You also get a 25 percent discount if you show your Metro-North ticket at the restaurant.
The walkway is open seven days a week from 7 a.m. to sunset. Household pets are allowed on the bridge as long as they are on a leash.
2. Kayaking on the Hudson
Both amateurs and pros can rent kayaks from the boathouse on Long Dock Park, which is just steps away from the Metro-North Beacon Station.
The Metro-North kayaking package includes a four-hour kayak and gear rental for the price of two hours.
The boathouse also offers three-hour tours for beginners who are looking for something less intense.
Kayak tour reservations are required, while kayak rental reservations are suggested.
The boathouse also provides stand up paddle boarding lessons and tours for those who want to “walk the river.”
3. Clearwater Festival
Here’s something guilt-free, a festival that raises money to help the environment. Hence the name “Clearwater” for the Hudson.
Clearwater’s Great Hudson River Revival Festival was founded by iconic folk artist Pete Seeger—music is a big part of this festival. The festival runs on the weekend of June 15–16.
Activities include live music, crafts, and food—such as the Juried Crafts Fair, the Artisanal Food & Farm Market, and performances from artists such as Sharon Jones and The Dap Kings, Mavis Staples, and Son Volt.
The Metro-North festival package includes the discount rail and a discount ticket to get into the concert. You can get there from the Hudson Line to Croton-Harmon Station, where a free shuttle takes you to the ticket window of the festival.
4. New Haven, More than a College Tour
Yale offers a free tour of their campus. There are also several free museums nearby—including the distinguished Yale Center for British Art.
There’s also the Canal Quarter Tour— a food tour— that goes from pastries at Koffee, to smoothies at Pure Health Lounge, cupcakes at Katalina’s Kupcakes, traditional Japanese dishes at Kumo Hibachi Steakhouse, to cheese tasting at Caseus, rum and Cuban food at Zafra, wine tasting at Odd Bins Bottle Shop, and beer and Irish food at Anna Liffey’s.
5. Free Shuttle to Hyde Park
A shuttle from the Poughkeepsie station can take you to the library where Franklin D. Roosevelt gave his famous “fire side chats.”
The “Roosevelt Ride” runs seven days a week from May 1–Oct. 31. From the Metro-North station, you can choose whether you would like to go to the Roosevelt Sites or the Vanderbilt Mansion.
The Home of Franklin D. Roosevelt Guided Tour is one hour, and includes admission into the FDR Presidential Library and Museum. It is free for children under 15 years old, and $14 for adults. The ticket is valid for two days.
But the Rose Garden and Roosevelt’s burial site is free and open from sunrise to sunset.
6. The Gothic Lyndhurst
Lyndhurst is a Gothic Revival historical mansion that towers next to the Hudson River in Tarrytown, New York.
Several films—such as “The House of Dark Shadows” (1970) and ABC’s 1990s holiday film “The Halloween That Almost Wasn’t” — have been filmed at this Gothic mansion, whose interior is decorated with French 19th century paintings.
Today, the mansion is available for tour and also provides celebrations, music, and lectures.
You can take a tour of the mansion, with a historical lesson on what the lives of New York politicians and Wall Street giants were like when they lived at Lyndhurst. One of the most notorious residents of Lyndhurst was Jay Gould, also known as the “robber baron.” He lived with his philanthropist daughter Helen Gould, and his other daughter Anna Gould, the future Duchess of Talleyrand who married two aristocrats—“Downton Abbey style.”
Tours are available from 10 a.m.–4 p.m. on a first come first serve basis.
The Rose Day Garden Celebration is coming up on June 2nd. Admission into the garden is free; there will be refreshments and music in the rose garden.
In the afternoon, there will be a lecture on “ The Lehman Brothers of Tarrytown.” The Lehman Brothers had bought three properties that are north of Lyndhurst.
Lecturer Paul Barrett will discuss the Lehmans, their historic homes and gardens, and their involvement with the local Jewish community. Admission for the lecture is free.
There are also sunset jazz events on Thursdays at Lyndhurst.
You can take the Hudson Line to Tarrytown Station. From there, you can take a short taxi ride ($4-$6) to the visitor center.
7. Maple Syrup or Moonshine Weekends at the Farm
From the Wassaic Station, one can take the Dutchess County Farm Fresh Link shuttle to learn about organic farming and compost at the McEnroe Organic Farm on Sept. 14,15, 21, and 22. The 1,000-acre farm has greenhouses, turkeys, and llamas—yes, llamas.
The shuttle will also make several other stops along the Hudson Valley such as Dutch’s Spirits—where bootleggers moonshined during the Prohibition Era. The tours will occur on Sept. 21–22 only.
Dutch’s Spirits was the original New York distillery, where the infamous Dutch Schultz distilled moonshine. You can visit the secret interconnected tunnels, bunkers, and fake chicken coops that once held illegal alcohol.
On Sept. 14–15, there will be a Maple Syrup tour in the same area at the Madava Farms, home to the Crown Maple Farm syrup. Their syrup has been featured in Food & Wine and in the White House for the first time in the Presidential Inaugural Luncheon in 2013.
Source: Internet news
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Article 2 of 2 Article 1 of 2 just above
19 Easy NYC Getaways With and Without a Car
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All New Yorkers love New York City. But as much as I love New York, there are plenty of weekends when I just want to get away. All New Yorkers do — getting out of town is a sport we take seriously. I’ve covered a lot of day trips and weekend getaways on Travelogged. Here’s your guide to easy trips with and without a car for those days when you just have to leave the skyline behind. All 17 of these destinations are perfect for summer and early fall, and most of them are great all year round.
NYC Getaways Without a Car
All of these destinations are easily reachable by train or bus (except for Sandy Hood, NJ, which is reachable by ferry), and once you get there you don’t need a car. Of course, you can drive to these places too.
Here they are, in order from closest to furthest.
Click green in each destination - get the details
1. Locally from Manhattan over the 59th Street Bridge to the LIC side - The LIC Flea & Food brimmed with vendors selling food and other goods to New Yorkers looking for a pleasant outing
Click: The Secret of the LIC Flea & Food Market
LIC Flea & Food, 5-25 46th Ave., Long Island City, (718) 866-8089, www.licflea.com
Open Saturdays and Sundays from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. through the summer.
Public transport: East River Ferry and subway lines 7, E, M, and G. (info June 2013)
2. Sandy Hook, NJ: A 45-minute ferry ride from Manhattan.
3. Cold Spring, NY: A one-hour train ride from Manhattan.
4. Bay Head, NJ: If you drive here with no traffic, you can get here in under an hour-and-a-half. But the train will take you two-and-a-half hours.
5. Philadelphia: The train will deliver you in about two-and-a-half hours.
6. Atlantic City, NJ It’s a two-to-three-hour bus ride from NYC’s Port Authority. Greyhound gives a 4-day window for the return trip - check for the updated info.
7. Providence, RI Approximately a three-and-a-half-hour train ride.
8. Boston A four-hour train ride.
9. Washington, DC A four-hour train ride.
Getaways With a Car
Here are some of the getaways that are close enough to New York that you could go for just the weekend.
Listed in order from closest to the city to farthest away.
These driving times are approximate — you can often expect plenty of traffic.
Click green in each destination - get the details
1. Ridgefield, CT A one-hour-and fifteen drive.
2. The Poconos, PA Less than a two-hour drive.
3. Lakeville, CT At least a two-hour drive.
4. Hawley, PA A two-hour-and-fifteen-minute drive.
5. Finger Lakes Region of NY You’ll arrive in the area within four hours of driving.
6. Manchester, VT A four-hour drive.
7. Portsmouth, NH A five-hour drive.
8. Kennebunkport, ME This is a five-and-a-half-hour drive if you’re lucky.
9. Lyndonville, VT At least a a five-and-a-half-hour drive.
10. Montreal: It’s about a six-hour-and-fifteen-minute drive from NYC to Montreal. The good news is that you’ll have the gorgeous Adirondacks scenery to distract for an hour or two. Remember taking your passport!
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Source: Internet
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TRAVEL TIPS
This country you would enjoy visiting
- its positively different of high style & quality -
An Iceland Saga: Chess, Glaciers, and a Utopian City
Click green to see the Icelandic pictures: The Epoch Times »www.theepochtimes.com/
Iceland epitomizes - (= to be a perfect example of) mental and physical prowess*)
*) = valor - gallantry - valour - bravery - courage - heroism
This island country has existed on earth for millennia, but it was chess master Bobby Fischer who put it on the map, so to speak, in 1972, when he defeated Russian Grandmaster Boris Spassky for the World Chess Championship in the capital city of Reykjavik. He was the first American to win this prestigious title.
It was a victory for the U.S. that matched the extraordinary, winning topography of Iceland’s volcanoes, geothermal springs, rivers, glaciers, and vast treeless terrain.
As a matter of fact, NASA astronauts trained here south of Reykjavik in the mid-1960s for America’s first moon landing. Iceland’s landscape is out of this world.
During the hippie era of the 1960s, Icelandic Airlines was the popular choice to fly to Europe with a refueling stop in Reykjavik.
Touring the CountrysideOn a recent visit there, I drove southeast from Reykjavik with a group of extreme outdoor enthusiasts to climb Hvannadalshnúkur, the country’s highest peak (6,922 feet).
I took the road less traveled, that is, the one less extreme. Instead of hiking the 15 hours up and down, I poked around at sea level nearby Skaftafell National Park, taking in the Skógarfoss waterfalls and walking on a glacier with crampons and a trusty ice-axe.
During the summer months it stays light nearly 24-hours in Iceland.
Glacier walking is my kind of sport—slow and easy. The June day was sunny and crispy; the air was clean and easy to breathe. I was in heaven. The others were in ultra-heaven.
Twenty-five year old guide Agust Gunnlaugsson (you try to say it) said there are no particular skills in walking a glacier, other than keeping your balance on crampons.
“The beauty of the glacier is that it changes all the time. Each day is different—different textures of surface. The black dirt gets washed by the rain and looks clean and beautiful again,” said the young guide who graciously obliged the tourists’ photo opportunity requests.
I couldn’t help but feel small—maybe insignificant—for those three hours, surrounded by the mountains, walking up, down, and sideways over crevices, using the axe for support. The Rockies seem easy pickings in comparison.
The next day we continued eastward to board an amphibious craft for a cruise on the Jökulsárlón lagoon. We motored between icebergs, which break off the Vatnajökull glacier, and drift into the ocean. They were huge.
The temperature had dropped noticeably on the frigid water. Dressed in Polartec fleece wear wear, on loan from Iceland’s venerable sportswear manufacturer 66º North, whose slogan is “Keeping Iceland warm since 1926,” I almost felt overheated!
We then ventured further east along the coast to spend the night in the fishing village of Höfn, Iceland’s “Lobster (actually langoustine) Capital” almost 300 miles from Reykjavik.
There’s basically one ring road around Iceland, and after two days of traveling southeast of Reykjavik, it looked like a journey to the center the earth with its fire and icescapes—here are the largest glaciers outside of the Arctic regions.
Höfn is a major port, home to a large fishing fleet and processing plants. It is also home to the country’s SAR team—well trained Search and Rescue men of the high seas.
A Höfn highlight is the artisans’ store that stocks hundreds of handmade wool sweaters. Fishing and knitting seem part of the Icelanders’ DNA.
Returning towards Reykjavik, we took in a popular sightseeing excursion called the Golden Circle that features the Gullfoss twin waterfalls. They are Iceland’s answer to Yellowstone National Park’s Old Faithful geyser.
We also stopped in at the UNESCO World Heritage archaeological site in Thingvellir National Park, the location of Iceland’s first parliament, called Althing, which dates back to 930 A.D. The stone foundations and remaining walls were once part of an open-air assembly where laws and decisions of the courts were made.
Iceland’s Adopted Chess MasterIn 2005, the Iceland Parliament saved Bobby Fischer from deportation to the United States by voting to issue him a resident’s permit.
“Some Icelanders have a soft spot, almost a proprietary feeling, for Mr. Fischer because it was in Reykjavik that he defeated Mr. Spassky to win the world championship in 1972, in a thrilling match seen as a crucial Cold War showdown,” reported the New York Times that same year.
Parliament voted again for Fischer, granting him Iceland citizenship in March 2005. He made his last move on January 17, 2008, when he “checked out” and died of renal failure at the age of 64.
Outside of Reykjavik in the Laugardaelir village church cemetery, the simple tombstone reads “Robert James Fischer, F. 9. Mars 1943, D. 17. Janúar 2008.”
When I visited, Olof Haraldspottir was watering the flowers at Fischer’s gravesite, just across from her family’s farmhouse. She and her sister are caretakers for the church.
But Fischer lives in the heart of Icelanders.
I stayed in Reykjavik another week at the Hotel Klopp. It was on the same street that Fischer had lived, a few blocks away. And directly below my hotel window, I could look at the bookstore where Fischer took refuge between the aisles of books in the back.
Next to the bookstore was the hair salon where Fischer got his long hair and beard groomed, apparently not very often, according to Vera, who first met Fischer in 1972—only to meet him again 30 years later.
“He had a disheveled appearance. He looked like Leonardo Da Vinci with his long hair and beard. He would only let me use scissors and never a razor,” she told me.
It was Vera’s father Saemi Palsson, a former policeman, who was assigned security duty during the Fischer-Spassky match in 1972. Palsson and Fischer bonded and became close, trusted friends.
After the match, Fischer employed Palsson as his personal assistant and bodyguard, and brought him to the U.S. Palsson returned to Iceland after a few years, and lost contact with Fischer until 2004.
At that time, Fischer was detained in Japan for sanction violations and back taxes by the U.S. Treasury Department, dating back to when he played a rematch with Spassky in Yugoslavia in 1992 and never returned to the U.S. Facing deportation, and in a state of political limbo, Fischer called Palsson for help.
The latter got the ball rolling to eventually win Iceland citizenship for Fischer, who moved to Reykjavik and befriended Palsson and his family again. Friendship knows no bounds.
I frequented Fischer’s hangout, the Kaffe Mocha, Iceland’s first and oldest Italian espresso bar, near my hotel. Here men play chess, read the papers and gesture wildly about world affairs.
ReykjavikIceland’s capital is an easy city to maneuver in, with friendly, fashionable, and upbeat people. English is spoken everywhere, alongside Icelandic, its native tongue, and other Scandinavian languages.
It is like no other city I’ve visited—signs on the sidewalk advertise a special “whale menu,” coiffed women dress to the nines in outerwear-chic, and look you in the eye with a smile; children look happy and laugh.
Could this be the “Truman Show?”
The streets are clean; traffic is non-existent in this city of one hundred twenty thousand people. An abundance of indoor geothermal pools are open to the public; the architecture is avant-garde, with stark colored exteriors. One cannot escape the blue.
Lagoon vast pools before a plane departure.
Art is everywhere—wall murals, store window displays, outdoor sculpture, not to mention in museums by the busy harbor. Here too, is the city’s famous hot-dog stand Bæjarins Beztu Pylsur, operating since 1937. It was a favorite of President Clinton before his bypass surgery.
Reagan and Gorbachev met here in 1986 to thaw out their differences.
The temperature in Reykjavik during the summer feels like a New England fall. It’s invigorating—fueling a walker with a hardy appetite to discover the quirkiness and offbeat beauty of this island city.
Reykjavik is a winner. Fischer made a good move.
For More Information:
www.icelandtouristboard.com
www.66north.is
www.mountainguide.is
Mark Chester is a Cape Cod-based photographer/writer who recently published the book “Twosomes.”. For more information, visit www.markchesterphotography.com
Source: The Epoch Times, July 4, 2013
Click to see the Icelandic pictures: The Epoch Times »www.theepochtimes.com/
____________________ Have a good trip _______________________
How to get internet in every room of your house
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The internet is now a pervasive (some folks even say necessary) part of the modern household. Not only do computers, phones, and tablets use the internet, but smart TVs stream huge amounts of content from the web. You can even now enjoy a smart fridge with its own touchscreen and internet connection! Seriously — you can download MP3s, check your email, and organize your photo albums using an internet refrigerator. Give it time and we'll all be rocking smart toilets. The message is clear: The internet's here to stay, and greater access throughout our homes (and even in our cars) is a continuing trend.
Wifi is the most common and obvious solution for getting the internet throughout your entire house. A single router broadcasts a wireless signal that passes through walls, floors, ceilings, and any other obstacles.
Of course, wifi has its own downsides and limitations. An improperly secured network leaves your internet open to nefarious individuals who might violate your privacy. Also, wireless access is not yet as robust as a wired connection for use with online games, where any interruption to the flow of data can spell doom and gloom. Wifi also won't always penetrate thick walls, especially if that wall isn't standard stud-and-drywall construction or there are several walls between your router and the device trying to use its signal.
For those reasons and more, you might prefer an actual cable for providing internet service to your bedrooms, office, and other rooms in your home. You have options besides a simple wifi network for getting the internet into each room.
Run some cable
Your router probably has jacks on the back for a couple of additional ethernet cables. While the cable that came with your computer might only be a few feet long, this type of cable is also available in huge spools. You probably see where this is going — instead of using a wifi connection, you can run the ethernet cable through the walls, floors, and ceilings of your house so that a cable or jack (or two) is available in every room.
Doing this presents a few challenges. First, compared to most houses, the internet is actually relatively young. Home networking just wasn't a home-building concern 10 to 15 years ago, and putting in networking cables and jacks still isn't a universal practice for most home construction. If your home doesn't already include it, setting up internet cable behind walls will take some know-how and elbow grease.
While poking a hole in drywall isn't a terribly difficult task, building and construction codes may regulate where your network cable can be placed; you can't just throw the cable behind some drywall and expect to satisfy code. For example, many jurisdictions require that networking cable must be several inches away from electrical wiring. Running that cable will require drilling holes in your studs so the cable can pass through. You'll also have to avoid any duct work, plumbing, and other obstacles within the walls.
In addition, you'll generally want a wall port (like a power outlet for internet cable) for each room, instead of leaving a cable dangling out into the room. You will also need a hub for all these cables if you're running them to more places than your cable modem has ports, which usually means setting aside a small network nook (or building a LackRack) where your modem and routing equipment can reside. Running network cables throughout your house is pretty straightforward, but it is definitely a serious DIY project and maybe even something you'll want to hire professionals to do.
Powerline networking
If the idea of running network cable through your walls fills you with dread, powerline networking might be more up your alley, since your home probably enjoys electricity in each room already. All those outlets mean your house has a huge system of connected cables for moving electricity around. Powerline networking uses that system for internet communication in addition to its current task. A powerline network won't keep you from using those electrical wires for their normal purpose even while you're using them for network traffic as well.
To set up your network, you'll need a set of powerline networking adapters, which cost around $100 and are available at numerous retailers. You essentially put one adapter in a power outlet to receive the signal coming from your router and put another adapter in the room where you'd like to connect to the internet. The task of setting up a powerline network can get a little more complicated when you do multiple rooms, but the basic practice will stay the same.
The internet coming from powerline adapters can feel a little slower than a standard network, but it's very reliable. The biggest drawback of powerline adapters is their bulky size. The adapter needs to be plugged directly into the wall outlet, since plugging into a power strip can slow down the connection speed, and adding a surge protector to the equation might scrub the data signal altogether. In many outlet-starved homes, the powerline adapters' large size could be a significant inconvenience. It's still probably easier than dragging network cables behind drywall and through studs, though.
Home PNA networking
Powerline networking isn't the only way to avoid putting in new cables or resorting to wifi. You can do something similar with your phone lines and television cables using a method commonly referred to as HomePNA. HomePNA uses your existing phone wires and coaxial cable to stand in for internet cable. Using coax and phone lines is especially handy, since most homes have plenty of cable TV hookups and telephone jacks.
HomePNA isn't much more complicated than powerline networking to setup, though you need to be sure you buy the right adapters. For example, an adapter with ports for your cable television cable's coax connection won't necessarily have a place for a phone jack. As more folks eschew traditional landline phones in favor of cell phones, HomePNA is an attractive way to get a little more life out of all the phone jacks already present in your home.
You have options!
If you're ready to embrace the internet-in-every-room lifestyle, you have options. You could just default to wifi, of course, but that signal might not be strong enough. You can string networking cable throughout the house, make use of some powerline networking, or give your coaxial and telephone lines a new lease on life with HomePNA. Universal internet is definitely here, but getting it into every room doesn't have to be a headache or hassle.
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The internet is now a pervasive (some folks even say necessary) part of the modern household. Not only do computers, phones, and tablets use the internet, but smart TVs stream huge amounts of content from the web. You can even now enjoy a smart fridge with its own touchscreen and internet connection! Seriously — you can download MP3s, check your email, and organize your photo albums using an internet refrigerator. Give it time and we'll all be rocking smart toilets. The message is clear: The internet's here to stay, and greater access throughout our homes (and even in our cars) is a continuing trend.
Wifi is the most common and obvious solution for getting the internet throughout your entire house. A single router broadcasts a wireless signal that passes through walls, floors, ceilings, and any other obstacles.
Of course, wifi has its own downsides and limitations. An improperly secured network leaves your internet open to nefarious individuals who might violate your privacy. Also, wireless access is not yet as robust as a wired connection for use with online games, where any interruption to the flow of data can spell doom and gloom. Wifi also won't always penetrate thick walls, especially if that wall isn't standard stud-and-drywall construction or there are several walls between your router and the device trying to use its signal.
For those reasons and more, you might prefer an actual cable for providing internet service to your bedrooms, office, and other rooms in your home. You have options besides a simple wifi network for getting the internet into each room.
Run some cable
Your router probably has jacks on the back for a couple of additional ethernet cables. While the cable that came with your computer might only be a few feet long, this type of cable is also available in huge spools. You probably see where this is going — instead of using a wifi connection, you can run the ethernet cable through the walls, floors, and ceilings of your house so that a cable or jack (or two) is available in every room.
Doing this presents a few challenges. First, compared to most houses, the internet is actually relatively young. Home networking just wasn't a home-building concern 10 to 15 years ago, and putting in networking cables and jacks still isn't a universal practice for most home construction. If your home doesn't already include it, setting up internet cable behind walls will take some know-how and elbow grease.
While poking a hole in drywall isn't a terribly difficult task, building and construction codes may regulate where your network cable can be placed; you can't just throw the cable behind some drywall and expect to satisfy code. For example, many jurisdictions require that networking cable must be several inches away from electrical wiring. Running that cable will require drilling holes in your studs so the cable can pass through. You'll also have to avoid any duct work, plumbing, and other obstacles within the walls.
In addition, you'll generally want a wall port (like a power outlet for internet cable) for each room, instead of leaving a cable dangling out into the room. You will also need a hub for all these cables if you're running them to more places than your cable modem has ports, which usually means setting aside a small network nook (or building a LackRack) where your modem and routing equipment can reside. Running network cables throughout your house is pretty straightforward, but it is definitely a serious DIY project and maybe even something you'll want to hire professionals to do.
Powerline networking
If the idea of running network cable through your walls fills you with dread, powerline networking might be more up your alley, since your home probably enjoys electricity in each room already. All those outlets mean your house has a huge system of connected cables for moving electricity around. Powerline networking uses that system for internet communication in addition to its current task. A powerline network won't keep you from using those electrical wires for their normal purpose even while you're using them for network traffic as well.
To set up your network, you'll need a set of powerline networking adapters, which cost around $100 and are available at numerous retailers. You essentially put one adapter in a power outlet to receive the signal coming from your router and put another adapter in the room where you'd like to connect to the internet. The task of setting up a powerline network can get a little more complicated when you do multiple rooms, but the basic practice will stay the same.
The internet coming from powerline adapters can feel a little slower than a standard network, but it's very reliable. The biggest drawback of powerline adapters is their bulky size. The adapter needs to be plugged directly into the wall outlet, since plugging into a power strip can slow down the connection speed, and adding a surge protector to the equation might scrub the data signal altogether. In many outlet-starved homes, the powerline adapters' large size could be a significant inconvenience. It's still probably easier than dragging network cables behind drywall and through studs, though.
Home PNA networking
Powerline networking isn't the only way to avoid putting in new cables or resorting to wifi. You can do something similar with your phone lines and television cables using a method commonly referred to as HomePNA. HomePNA uses your existing phone wires and coaxial cable to stand in for internet cable. Using coax and phone lines is especially handy, since most homes have plenty of cable TV hookups and telephone jacks.
HomePNA isn't much more complicated than powerline networking to setup, though you need to be sure you buy the right adapters. For example, an adapter with ports for your cable television cable's coax connection won't necessarily have a place for a phone jack. As more folks eschew traditional landline phones in favor of cell phones, HomePNA is an attractive way to get a little more life out of all the phone jacks already present in your home.
You have options!
If you're ready to embrace the internet-in-every-room lifestyle, you have options. You could just default to wifi, of course, but that signal might not be strong enough. You can string networking cable throughout the house, make use of some powerline networking, or give your coaxial and telephone lines a new lease on life with HomePNA. Universal internet is definitely here, but getting it into every room doesn't have to be a headache or hassle.
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- Your guide to residential broadband bandwidth caps
- Just Show Me: How to connect the Kindle Fire to your wifi network
- What is network-attached storage and when do you need it? _________________________________________________
Is it time to replace your land line with only a cellphone
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- How often do you really use your home phone? It's a question many families are asking in a day and age when budgets are squeezed tighter and everyone seems to have their own mobile phone. It wasn't that long ago when the idea of getting rid of your home's land line phone in favor of going totally cellular was only entertained by college kids and single folks who were never home anyway. Today, it's become a legitimate option for a much larger number of us.
However, before you decide to cut your ties to the phone company (or in many cases, the cable company), there are a few things to take into account.
The 411 on 911
One of the most common problems faced by those hoping to bid farewell to their land lines is the question of safety — not from scammers or prank callers, but in terms of what will happen in an emergency. When you dial 911 on a traditional home phone, your call is routed to a local emergency response center, where the person on the other end of the line instantly receives your current location. They can send the police, fire department, or paramedics to help even if you aren't able to speak.
Dialing 911 on a cellular phone still connects you to a law enforcement agency in your local area. (This is usually still a 911 dispatcher, but in some locations, it might mean you end up talking to the highway patrol's dispatcher instead.) If you're experiencing an emergency and need help, the party who receives the call has to reroute your call to the appropriate first responders and will need you to tell them your location. This is obviously a serious problem if you're injured and can't speak or are in a situation where every second counts. It's for this reason that many law enforcement agencies advise you to always call 911 from a land line whenever possible.
A chilly reception
You're probably used to your cell phone's signal getting sketchy when you drive through areas where reception is weak. In some cases, you may find that your home or apartment is also prone to signal dropouts, even as you move from room to room. In others, certain building materials may limit or prevent cell reception where you live altogether. Even if you get reception by your front door, you might not have the same connectivity further inside.
Cellular coverage is improving all the time, but there may still be some instances where it's just never going to get better, for the reasons we mention here. There could be ways to help mitigate the problem, such as signal-boosting antennas, but they're an investment you need to weigh when deciding if going fully wireless is for the best.
Guilty as (not) charged
Another issue you're likely to run into are those cases when you need to make a call, only to find that your cell phone is dead, so you're left to wait until your charger (assuming it's not lost) provides your mobile phone with enough juice to dial out (check out our tips for getting more battery life out of your phone). Also, if you misplace your phone — they're getting smaller every year — you might miss an important call. This is obviously a fairly minor problem for most people, as you can always leave your phone plugged in (and in one place) while you're at home, but it's worth considering nevertheless (at least until someone comes up with a better charging option).
Jacked up
Before making the call to disconnect your land line, take a moment to make sure that none of the electronic devices in your home need to use it for any reason. Some things — most notably, Digital Video Recorders like TiVo — might use the phone line to call out daily and retrieve data such as program listings. Home security systems rely on a hardwired connection to allow communication to their monitoring centers, too. Many of these services are capable of using your broadband internet connection for these purposes, but the lack of a phone line could still be a deal-breaker if you haven't opted for a high-speed cable or fiber-optic connection.
Cut the cord
If you don't anticipate needing immediate 911 service — but really, who ever knows these things? — and you have solid cell reception at home, dropping your land line can be a great way to save money. If you're not quite ready to take the plunge or are unable to for one of the reasons we've mentioned, there are still ways to save on your phone bills, especially if you don't use your home phone much.
One of the best ways to save is to simply call your service provider and ask to be switched to the least expensive basic rate, or see if the company offers a deal if you bundle phone, cable, and internet services into a single package. In many cases, the total can be less than $20 per month — and that's a small price to pay for some piece of mind.
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Are you or your spouse/partner addicted to technology
Study this brief counseling article
Wife's Affair With Cellphone
Leaves Man Feeling Cheated
Client's question:
My wife and I have been married 17 years. For the most part, our marriage has been great, and I love her very much. Lately, though, I have felt that our sexual and emotional intimacy has been lacking. I spoke to her about it recently and tried to explain how I feel. She has responded, and things are improving.
Still, she spends most of her time on her cellphone checking email, Facebook, Pinterest and watching Netflix. At bedtime, she stays on her phone or laptop until after I have gone to bed. When she comes to bed, she ignores me and goes straight to sleep, even if I have been lying there awake in the dark waiting for her.
Has she fallen in love with her cellphone? Even if we don't have sex all the time, I would just like to be able to talk to her or hold her for a minute before we go to sleep. Any suggestions other than throwing her phone out the window? -- ABANDONED HUSBAND
Therapist's answer:
DEAR ABANDONED: You say your wife has responded and things are hopeful. That means she is at least receptive to working on your marital relationship.
The problems that cellphones cause in relationships is something I am hearing about with increasing frequency. People have become so dependent upon their digital companions that in some cases it's impossible to turn them off because people have become literally addicted.
In cases like this, a competent addiction therapist should be consulted. Of course, like any addiction the sufferer must be willing to admit there is a problem and want to do something about it. I wish there was a 12-step program to which I could refer you, but I was unable to locate one. In the future I'm willing to bet that they'll sprout up like mushrooms.
In case you experience a similar situation - go through this article together, discuss the situation in a friendly manner and if needed, go together to a competent addiction counselor and decide there how to continue.
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with the modern technology for you in your own home anywhere worldwide
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Article 1 of 2 Two articles for the same important topic 2 of 2 just below
Siri creator texting while driving:
“In each case, drivers took about twice as long to react as they did when they weren’t texting,”
Christine Yager, who led the study, told. “Eye contact to the roadway also decreased,
no matter which texting method was used.”
The creator of Apple’s Siri feature for the iPhone is challenging reports over a recent study which found that using Siri, a voice-to-text application, is just as unsafe as texting and driving.
Adam Cheyer, the co-inventor of Siri, said that media reports did not accurately portray the findings of the study, which was carried out by the Texas Transportation Institute at Texas A&M University.
He said that the study’s authors did not test Siri or Vlingo in the hands-free and eyes-free mode.
“I don’t think that there is any evidence that shows that if Siri and other systems are used properly in eyes-free mode, they are ‘just as risky as texting,’” Cheyer, who helped create Siri in 2010, told Xconomy.com.
In the study, researchers asked drivers to drive on a course while holding their Android or iPhone in one hand while behind the wheel, while using Siri.
Cheyer argued that the “eyes-free mode” is crucial. “It assumes you are ‘eyes-busy’ and responds differently,” he said, referring to when a person is using Siri with a Bluetooth headset or speaker.
The study included 43 people who drove along a test course.
“In each case, drivers took about twice as long to react as they did when they weren’t texting,” Christine Yager, who led the study, told the Reuters news agency. “Eye contact to the roadway also decreased, no matter which texting method was used.”
Yager told the news agency that voice-to-text devices took longer than texting because users had to correct errors.
“You’re still using your mind to try to think of what you’re trying to say, and that by proxy causes some driving impairment, and that decreases your response time,” Yag er added.
The American Automobile Association supported the study.
“AAA believes the new voice-to-text study done by the Texas Transportation Institution (TTI) is a step in the right direction. AAA feels that past research confirms what we’ve known for many years that hands-free driving isn’t risk-free driving. Most people understand the risks of distraction and other risky behaviors but refuse to apply what they know to their own behavior,” it said, according to CBS.
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Article 2 of 2
Siri Co-Creator Questions Texas A&M Texting-and-Driving Study
Siri Co-Creator Questions Texas A&M Texting-and-Driving StudyThe co-inventor of Siri has a bone to pick with the media.
A rash of stories last week—reporting on a study released by the Texas A&M Transportation Institute (TTI) in College Station, TX—implied t hat using voice-to-text mobile applications such as Siriand Vlingo while you drive is no safer than texting while driving. But Adam Cheyer, the computer scientist who co-invented Siri and sold it to Apple in 2010, says that’s the wrong conclusion to draw from the study.
Here’s what the Texas A&M researchers actually discovered: when drivers on a closed course were holding an iPhone or Android phone in one hand and interacting with Siri or Vlingo, it took them almost twice as long to respond to outside events. For sending and receiving text messages, voice-to-text applications “do not increase driver safety compared to manual texting,” concluded study author Christine Yager, an associate transportation researcher at TTI’s Center for Transportation Safety.
But that’s not how Siri is designed to be used in a car, Cheyer argues.
“I don’t think that there is any evidence that shows that if Siri and other systems are used properly in eyes-free mode, they are ‘just as risky as texting,’” he says.
The crucial phrase in Cheyer’s quote is “eyes-free mode.” When a driver is using Siri with a Bluetooth headset or speaker—as Apple recommends—the app goes into a special mode that limits interactions to voice only. “It assumes you are ‘eyes-busy’ and responds differently,” says Cheyer, who left Apple in 2012.
Vlingo has a similar mode on Android phones. To properly test whether hands-free use of mobile phones while driving is safer than handheld use, the researchers should have asked subjects to use the smartphones in the eyes-free mode, Cheyer says.
“Of course your driving performance is going to be degraded if you’re reading screens and pushing buttons,” he says; that’s why the engineers behind Siri came up with a separate set of voice prompts that don’t require drivers to look at the screen. If more reporters had read the TTI report, Cheyer says, they might have noticed that the voice-to-text software’s capabilities weren’t getting a full test.
Special pleading from someone who still sees Siri as his baby? Maybe, but a source with connections to Burlington, MA-based Nuance, owner of Vlingo, shared similar concerns about the study. (Neither Apple nor Nuance have commented officially on the TTI findings.)
“My goal is not to knock this particular study,” Cheyer says. “I’m just dismayed that the message being communicated by news media—that ‘Siri is just as risky as texting’—is misleading.”
I contacted Christine Yager at TTI last week to ask what she thought about Cheyer’s points.
“We welcome input from the telecommunications industry and look forward to working together to keep travelers safe,” she replied in an e-mail.
But the study was designed to examine the way drivers actually use smartphones in their cars, she said, not the ideal scenarios suggested by software makers or device manufacturers. “We tested the applications in a way that is consistent with how many drivers typically use them,” Yager said.
Many smartphone owners may not even know that Siri, Vlingo, and similar apps have an eyes-free mode, Yager added. “We examined the product information contained in the packaging for the iPhone 4S, and were not able to find information related to the directed mode use of the device,” she said. “The only somewhat relevant reference said, ‘Consider using a compatible hands-free device with iPhone. Use of a hands-free device may be required in some areas.’”
It’s widely accepted that manual texting and driving are a deadly combination. About18 percent of all vehicle crashes in 2010 involved distracted drivers, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Texting is considered one of the worst forms of distraction, since it usually requires drivers to take their eyes off the road, their hands off the wheel, and their minds off the task of driving.
But voice-to-text apps have the potential to eliminate the visual and manual distraction from texting, if not the cognitive distraction. In Siri, sending a text message is as simple as telling the app something like, “Send a message to Mary: I’m going to be late for dinner.” Vlingo works in much the same way.
Yager’s study is thought to be the first to evaluate the safety of voice-to-text apps as an alternative to fully manual texting.
In the study, 43 drivers navigated a 3.8 mile course along the runways of a former Air Force base that now serves as Texas A&M’s Riverside campus. They were driving a 2009 Ford Explorer equipped to record the drivers’ response times, gaze direction, speed, and lane position.
Yager and her team studied four scenarios: a baseline 30-mph drive with no texting, a drive that included manual texting tasks, a drive using Siri on an iPhone 4S, and a drive using Vlingo on an Android phone. A green LED light was mounted on the Explorer’s dashboard, and drivers were instructed to press a button every time they saw it come on. Their response times served as a measure of their distraction levels.
For the voice-to-text tasks, drivers were using the phones just as they would if they’d been standing on the sidewalk: that is, by holding the smartphone in one hand, activating Siri or Vlingo with a manual button press, speaking a message, proofreading it visually, correcting it if necessary, and sending it with another button press.
It would have been reasonable to expect to find slower response times among the people who were sending texts the old-fashioned way. And in fact, that’s what Yager’s team found—-their responses were delayed by a factor of 1.92.
The more surprising finding was that using Siri and Vlingo didn’t improve the situation much. “When texting using Siri, response times were delayed by a factor of 1.87; and when texting with Vlingo, response times were delayed by a factor of 1.77,” Yager’s report states.
Drivers also tended to slow down when they were texting, and to spend less time watching the forward roadway. The effects were equally severe whether the drivers were texting manually or using the voice-to-text apps.
In the end, Yager concluded that the voice-to-text apps are no less impairing to drivers than manual-entry texting.
And that’s where Cheyer’s objection begins. It’s already well known that reading small text and manipulating virtual buttons on a screen “decreases attention on the road and increases driver distraction-related incidents,” Cheyer says. That’s why 10 states have banned handheld use of mobile phones while driving.
But in eyes-free mode, visual and manual tasks are reduced to a minimum. “The study seems to have misunderstood how Siri was designed to be used,” Cheyer says.
In regular mode—the way Yager’s subjects were using the iPhone—Siri shows a text message on screen for proofreading and confirmation. But when used with a microphone—either on a Bluetooth headset or on the earbud cord that comes with the iPhone—Siri reads back the message using text-to-speech technology.
In car mode, Cheyer says, “Siri is even stricter and will not execute certain commands that would require looking at a screen.” Vlingo also has a hands-free mode in which all text messages and prompts are read aloud using text-to-speech.
It’s possible that this kind of hands-free, eyes-free texting still causes some level of distraction—but that’s not what the TTI study tested, and to find out, more research would have to be done, Cheyer says.
The TTI study shows only that “non-eyes-free voice input is not a significant win over non-eyes-free manual texting,” he says. “This is the message that should be transmitted to people.”
Perhaps the biggest point in defense of Yager’s study design is that it was realistic. Most people who text while driving—whether or not they use a voice-to-text app—are probably holding and looking at their phones while they do it.
But Yager says her team is definitely interested in studying how voice-to-text applications involving a Bluetooth speaker or headset might affect driver behavior. “Understanding the distracted driving issue is an evolving process, and this study is but one step in that process,” she says.
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Brain, Interrupted
Common practice that makes us dumber
yet, it is a common belief that this is more efficient
Reality is the opposite
Technology has given us many gifts, among them dozens of new ways to grab our attention. It’s hard to talk to a friend without your phone buzzing at least once. Odds are high you will check your Twitter feed or Facebook wall while reading this article. Just try to type a memo at work without having an e-mail pop up that ruins your train of thought.
But what constitutes distraction? Does the mere possibility that a phone call or e-mail will soon arrive drain your brain power? And does distraction matter — do interruptions make us dumber? Quite a bit, according to new research by Carnegie Mellon University’s Human-Computer Interaction Lab.
There’s a lot of debate among brain researchers about the impact of gadgets on our brains. Most discussion has focused on the deleterious effect of multitasking. Early results show what most of us know implicitly: if you do two things at once, both efforts suffer.
[More from The New York Times: New Motto for Silicon Valley: First Security, Then Innovation]
In fact, multitasking is a misnomer. In most situations, the person juggling e-mail, text messaging, Facebook and a meeting is really doing something called “rapid toggling between tasks,” and is engaged in constant context switching.
As economics students know, switching involves costs. But how much? When a consumer switches banks, or a company switches suppliers, it’s relatively easy to count the added expense of the hassle of change. When your brain is switching tasks, the cost is harder to quantify.
There have been a few efforts to do so: Gloria Mark of the University of California, Irvine, foundthat a typical office worker gets only 11 minutes between each interruption, while it takes an average of 25 minutes to return to the original task after an interruption. But there has been scant research on the quality of work done during these periods of rapid toggling.
We decided to investigate further, and asked Alessandro Acquisti, a professor of information technology, and the psychologist Eyal Peer at Carnegie Mellon to design an experiment to measure the brain power lost when someone is interrupted.
To simulate the pull of an expected cellphone call or e-mail, we had subjects sit in a lab and perform a standard cognitive skill test. In the experiment, 136 subjects were asked to read a short passage and answer questions about it. There were three groups of subjects; one merely completed the test. The other two were told they “might be contacted for further instructions” at any moment via instant message.
During an initial test, the second and third groups were interrupted twice. Then a second test was administered, but this time, only the second group was interrupted. The third group awaited an interruption that never came. Let’s call the three groups Control, Interrupted and On High Alert.
We expected the Interrupted group to make some mistakes, but the results were truly dismal, especially for those who think of themselves as multitaskers: during this first test, both interrupted groups answered correctly 20 percent less often than members of the control group.
[More from The New York Times: Accessories No Longer Tethered to Apple]
In other words, the distraction of an interruption, combined with the brain drain of preparing for that interruption, made our test takers 20 percent dumber. That’s enough to turn a B-minus student (80 percent) into a failure (62 percent).
But in Part 2 of the experiment, the results were not as bleak. This time, part of the group was told they would be interrupted again, but they were actually left alone to focus on the questions.
Again, the Interrupted group underperformed the control group, but this time they closed the gap significantly, to a respectable 14 percent. Dr. Peer said this suggested that people who experience an interruption, and expect another, can learn to improve how they deal with it.
But among the On High Alert group, there was a twist. Those who were warned of an interruption that never came improved by a whopping 43 percent, and even outperformed the control test takers who were left alone. This unexpected, counterintuitive finding requires further research, but Dr. Peer thinks there’s a simple explanation: participants learned from their experience, and their brains adapted.
Somehow, it seems, they marshaled extra brain power to steel themselves against interruption, or perhaps the potential for interruptions served as a kind of deadline that helped them focus even better.
Clifford Nass, a Stanford sociologist who conducted some of the first tests on multitasking, has said that those who can’t resist the lure of doing two things at once are “suckers for irrelevancy.” There is some evidence that we’re not just suckers for that new text message, or addicted to it; it’s actually robbing us of brain power, too. Tweet about this at your own risk.
What the Carnegie Mellon study shows, however, is that it is possible to train yourself for distractions, even if you don’t know when they’ll hit.
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Source:
Bob Sullivan, a journalist at NBC News, and Hugh Thompson, a computer scientist and entrepreneur, are the authors of “The Plateau Effect: Getting From Stuck to Success.”
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How to use Change.org
See one example article below
Change the wrong in your country or in the world
Change.org is a good place to start
Below one example article
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Oregon Meth House Owners Settle With Freddie Mac
An Oregon family who unknowingly bought a house that was used as a meth lab has settled with Freddie Mac, the seller of the previously foreclosed home, and is working with lawmakers to require disclose whether a home has been tested for contamination.
The Hankins family thought they had a good deal when they bought a foreclosed home in Klamath Falls, less than 20 miles north of the California border. A realtor showed them the home, which was sold through HomeSteps, a listing service for Freddie Mac, the government-sponsored housing organization. They purchased it for $36,500.
Jonathan Hankins, 33, and his wife, Beth, 29, started renovating the home in early June and moved into the two-bedroom 850-square foot home before the end of the month.
After three weeks of living in their home, however, they started having severe headaches. Their son, now 3, also became sick.
"We mostly experienced extreme dry mouth and had mouth sores, making it extremely painful to even drink water," Hankins had said.
The Hankins were not sure why they were sick until neighbors told them they suspected the home may have been a former illegal methamphetamine drug lab.
Freddie Mac recently settled with the Hankins over their home and agreed to review their policies. The Hankins bought another home about 25 miles away from Klamath Falls.
"After speaking to the Hankins and hearing their concerns first hand we were able to work closely together and come to a mutually agreeable resolution," according to a statement by Freddie Mac. "We will continue to review and update our policies to protect our buyers and their confidence in HomeSteps homes."
After neighbors informed the couple about the home's history, the Hankins said they contacted contractors who advised them to have the home tested for meth residue. They bought a kit for $50 and swabbed their home. After submitting their results to a lab, they learned that they had 38 micrograms of methamphetamine residue. The Oregon Health Authority's minimum to require a homeowner to clean up their home is 0.5 micrograms per square foot.
The family contacted Freddie Mac, trying to get answers about why they were not informed about the home's history. The problem is the local authorities did not contact the Oregon Health Authority, as is customary, because there were no recent drug-related enforcement actions related to the home.
The couple started a petition on Change.org to "stop selling former meth labs to unsuspecting buyers," garnering over 212,000 signatures. They delivered the petition to Freddie Mac in October and were on a national media circuit since October, trying to spread awareness about an issue that homes across the country have experienced.
"We're certainly grateful for Change.org and all of our supporters. We don't feel like we would have gotten this far without them. We're also thankful to Freddie Mac to working with us once they were aware of our concerns," Jonathan Hankins said about the settlement.
Freddie Mac said last October that they bought the home in an "as-is" condition, saying they and the listing agent did not have information about the home's history.
"If we had, such information absolutely would have been disclosed," Freddie Mac previously said. "We strongly encourage buyers to inspect homes and to conduct any tests they want to before making a purchase decision."
Freddie Mac said it encourages "home shoppers to see if the addresses of homes that interest them are on the registries state and federal agencies keep of known clandestine meth labs."
The federal registry can be found on the Drug Enforcement Administration's (DEA) National Clandestine Laboratory Register website.
Freddie Mac also said "concerned home shoppers can also check an address with local law enforcement."
The Hankins had said Freddie Mac encouraged them to test the structural integrity of the property. Their home is not on registries because there was no enforcement on the property.
Though the Hankins have settled with Freddie Mac and have moved into their new home, they are continuing to raise awareness about this topic by testifying in front of the Oregon state legislature on Wednesday.
"Our goal is that we will be tireless advocates for future homebuyers so they don't have to face the same nightmare that we have," Jonathan Hankins said.
Republican state representative Gail Whitsett has introduced house bill 3499, which asks for foreclosed or auctioned homes to be tested for methamphetamine or to have a posting on the house that indicates a home has not been tested.
"A lot of people don't think about it," Whitsett said. "If you buy a home, it's not something that comes to the forefront. You don't necessarily think about methamphetamine."
Whitsett said she hopes to standardize methamphetamine testing in the same way that lead and mold testing is required in the state, especially for homes that are not listed by the previous owners.
She said there are over 800 homes scheduled for auction in 30 of Oregon's 36 counties that likely have little or no information about their history.
Only five percent of methamphetamine labs have been discovered by authorities, according to the Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs Control.
Brett Sherry, program coordinator for Oregon Health Authority's Clandestine Drug Lab program, said the number of homes that local authorities refer to him have fallen dramatically since the program started in 1990.
Police refer homes that were illegal labs for any number of drugs, though most are producing methamphetamine.
Sherry said he did not have a record of the Hankins' home.
"It's very possible the property was used for manufacture or meth use," he said. "If someone smokes methamphetamine, that can contaminate the surface with meth residue."
The busiest year was 2001, when the program saw tested 324 labs.
In the past three years, only 10 labs have been referred to the program per year.
So far this year, seven homes have been reported to the program.
There is no single common symptom if someone is sick from methamphetamine residue, Sherry said, but it is wise to get a home tested, if you suspect it is contaminated. Otherwise, a family could be exposed to any number of toxic chemicals, like sodium hydroxide, which is normally used in drain cleaners to dissolve materials.
"The example we typically use is a child crawling on floor," Sherry says. "It's very easy for them to absorb methamphetamine residues."
Source: Internet news
_____________________________________________
Harrison Ford’s leading role
in saving the planet
On the Radar
From Indiana Jones to Han Solo, Harrison Ford has played his share of heroic roles over the course of his career. Now, the actor is back with another hero's mission: saving the planet. But this time, it's not a movie--but real life.
Ford, who sits on the executive board of the nature advocacy group Conservation International, has become an outspoken proponent of conservancy, insisting that he is not just a "a poster boy" for the cause.
"Nature doesn't need people, people need nature, the nature would survive the extinction of the human being and go on just fine, but human culture, human beings cannot survive without nature," Ford tells On the Radar. "We have to understand in value what the services of nature are so that we can understand that degrading them is an irreplaceable resource that no amount of money or human ingenuity can replace."
Peter Seligmann, president of Conservation International, makes the case that protecting natural resources is essential to providing for the world's growing population.
"What's happening around the table is a conversation that's not about let's protect pretty places, but how do we protect essential assets going forward? Because we got a big problem, we got 7 billion people, we're going to 9 billion people in four decades, that's 80 million new people each year," says Seligmann.
This growing demand for food, water, and other natural good can lead to conflict and poverty, which is why the Council on Foreign Relations has partnered with Conservation International. Richard Haass, the president of CFR, says an unstable natural environment is a major international security concern.
"I'm much more worried as I look over the next couple of decades about weak states than strong ones, it's states that that don't have the water, don't have the arable land, don't' have the, uh the energy, and these are states that are vulnerable," Haass says. "We have a tremendous stake in the viability of these other countries around the world and the line I always use is 'the world is not Las Vegas,' what happens there doesn't stay there, it comes here."
To hear more about Harrison Ford's work with Conservation International and the risks posed by natural resource depletion, check out this episode of On the Radar.
ABC's Eric Wray, Alexandra Dukakis, Betsy Klein, Chris Carlson, and Bob Bramson contributed to this episode.
_______________________
in saving the planet
On the Radar
From Indiana Jones to Han Solo, Harrison Ford has played his share of heroic roles over the course of his career. Now, the actor is back with another hero's mission: saving the planet. But this time, it's not a movie--but real life.
Ford, who sits on the executive board of the nature advocacy group Conservation International, has become an outspoken proponent of conservancy, insisting that he is not just a "a poster boy" for the cause.
"Nature doesn't need people, people need nature, the nature would survive the extinction of the human being and go on just fine, but human culture, human beings cannot survive without nature," Ford tells On the Radar. "We have to understand in value what the services of nature are so that we can understand that degrading them is an irreplaceable resource that no amount of money or human ingenuity can replace."
Peter Seligmann, president of Conservation International, makes the case that protecting natural resources is essential to providing for the world's growing population.
"What's happening around the table is a conversation that's not about let's protect pretty places, but how do we protect essential assets going forward? Because we got a big problem, we got 7 billion people, we're going to 9 billion people in four decades, that's 80 million new people each year," says Seligmann.
This growing demand for food, water, and other natural good can lead to conflict and poverty, which is why the Council on Foreign Relations has partnered with Conservation International. Richard Haass, the president of CFR, says an unstable natural environment is a major international security concern.
"I'm much more worried as I look over the next couple of decades about weak states than strong ones, it's states that that don't have the water, don't have the arable land, don't' have the, uh the energy, and these are states that are vulnerable," Haass says. "We have a tremendous stake in the viability of these other countries around the world and the line I always use is 'the world is not Las Vegas,' what happens there doesn't stay there, it comes here."
To hear more about Harrison Ford's work with Conservation International and the risks posed by natural resource depletion, check out this episode of On the Radar.
ABC's Eric Wray, Alexandra Dukakis, Betsy Klein, Chris Carlson, and Bob Bramson contributed to this episode.
_______________________
Article 1 of 2
World’s Greenest Office Building Unveiled
Opened on April 22, 2013
Creating human environments that have the characteristics of natural ecosystems
Denis Hayes, president, Bullitt Foundation - the developer
“We didn’t develop any new technologies for this” - “We just combined existing technologies in a very, very, very efficient way.”
Article 2 of 2 next below has a slideshow of the building & additional information
First study this article 1 of 2
Click green for further info
WASHINGTON (State), Seattle — Denis Hayes earned the name “father of the environmental movement” when he was national coordinator for the first Earth Day in San Francisco, April 22, 1970.
Hayes raised the bar again Monday, April 22, 2013, the 43rd Earth Day, by unveiling what is expected to be the world’s greenest office building, in Seattle.
“Once somebody proves something is possible, it becomes thinkable,” says Hayes, who is now president of the Bullitt Foundation, a group dedicated to protecting and restoring the environment of America’s Pacific Northwest.
“It is a building across the line that has tried to make gigantic strides toward a built environment that is healthy for human beings,” he said in a phone interview.
Six stories and 50,000 square feet in floor space, The Bullitt Center is destined to be the world’s greenest building, using only as much water as it collects and as much energy that it can generate.
All waste is managed within the complex itself, including sewage, which is recycled into fertilizer through a six-story composting system. High ceilings, windows, and blinds facilitate natural light and ventilation, while sensors in the building monitor light, temperature, air consistency and flow, automatically adjusting blinds and windows accordingly.
Floor plans ensure that no one’s desk is more than 30 feet from a window and an “irresistible” glass-cased staircase maximizes the view looking over Seattle to be more appealing and accessible, an elevator available but hidden from view. A garage for cars is not included but one for bicycles is.
Living Building Challenge
The center has been designed to meet the stringent sustainability standards of the Living Buildings Challenge, including zero net water, waste, and energy among the 20 specific imperatives formulated by the International Living Building Institute.
Included is the requirement that heavy building materials like concrete and steel come from within 300 miles of the site, and that materials are free of the red-listed toxic chemicals commonly used in construction—all 362 of them!
Certification as a Living Building requires the center prove itself capable of maintaining the standards for over a year. If successful, it will be the largest building in the United States to be certified under the Living Buildings Challenge.
The Bullitt Center has also been described as the world’s greenest office building. Hayes says this may not be an “unfair characteristic” although difficult to verify. Other green buildings tend to focus on one or two areas of sustainability, but the Bullitt Center endeavors to be “as healthy and as efficient as possible,” he said. “What is unique about this building is that it is not doing one thing but it is rather doing everything simultaneously.”
Reducing Carbon Emissions
Buildings in the United States account for nearly 40 percent of the nation’s total carbon dioxide emissions and consume roughly 70 percent of the nation’s energy, according to a 2009 report from the U.S Department of Energy. Urban runoff too is the sixth leading source of impairment in rivers, ninth in lakes, and fifth in estuaries, the report said.
“If you took just the office buildings in the United States today and reduced their energy consumption by half, you would be saving twice as much energy every year as America imports from the Middle East,” Hayes said on PBS, “These are big things.”
As with Earth Day, which is now celebrated in 192 countries, Hayes hopes to raise awareness of the human impact on the environment. The pursuit of sustainable buildings is in keeping with his early vision of “creating human environments that have the characteristics of natural ecosystems,” he said.
In that respect detail is paramount in the center’s design. A range of renewable initiatives helps to balance energy output with consumption. There are 26 geothermal wells to heat water and a 56,000-gallon cistern in the basement to capture rain. A hydraulic system running under concrete floors, heats the building with warm water in the winter, and cools it in summer.
A flat but angled roof, which extends out from the top of the building, is laden with solar panels; the building is expected to generate 242,000 kilowatt hours per year. Leftover electricity is directed to the grid and sold to Seattle City Light, and on gray winter days can be bought back as needed.
“There isn’t much sunlight here but now we are proving you can power a six story building with sunbeams,” Hayes said.
The Bullitt Foundation has leased half of the sixth floor for its new headquarters. It has already leased approximately 80 percent of the space in Capitol Hill’s Pike/Pine neighborhood. Other tenants include the International Living Future Institute and the University of Washington Integrated Design Lab.
The center cost a hefty $18.5 million to build, but Hayes says for what he has in mind, it is worth it.
“By proving what you can do in terms of making a building that is really healthy for the people that are inside it, that imposes no cost at all on its neighbors, I think suddenly it opens new opportunities and people begin to think ‘ok if they did that what can we do,” he said.
__________________
Study also the Article 2 of 2 just below
Here several info links relating to this important new building
Tags: Denis Hayes Earth Day green energy spacetechnology United States
Additional search links below for the Bullitt Foundation
Searches related to bullitt foundation building
bullitt foundation cascadia center
bullitt foundation living building
bullitt center
cascadia center for sustainable design and construction
bullit foundation building
Our fragile Earth
It’s alive! Inside the world’s greenest building
Click green above for further info
____________________________________________________________________
World’s Greenest Office Building Unveiled
Opened on April 22, 2013
Creating human environments that have the characteristics of natural ecosystems
Denis Hayes, president, Bullitt Foundation - the developer
“We didn’t develop any new technologies for this” - “We just combined existing technologies in a very, very, very efficient way.”
Article 2 of 2 next below has a slideshow of the building & additional information
First study this article 1 of 2
Click green for further info
WASHINGTON (State), Seattle — Denis Hayes earned the name “father of the environmental movement” when he was national coordinator for the first Earth Day in San Francisco, April 22, 1970.
Hayes raised the bar again Monday, April 22, 2013, the 43rd Earth Day, by unveiling what is expected to be the world’s greenest office building, in Seattle.
“Once somebody proves something is possible, it becomes thinkable,” says Hayes, who is now president of the Bullitt Foundation, a group dedicated to protecting and restoring the environment of America’s Pacific Northwest.
“It is a building across the line that has tried to make gigantic strides toward a built environment that is healthy for human beings,” he said in a phone interview.
Six stories and 50,000 square feet in floor space, The Bullitt Center is destined to be the world’s greenest building, using only as much water as it collects and as much energy that it can generate.
All waste is managed within the complex itself, including sewage, which is recycled into fertilizer through a six-story composting system. High ceilings, windows, and blinds facilitate natural light and ventilation, while sensors in the building monitor light, temperature, air consistency and flow, automatically adjusting blinds and windows accordingly.
Floor plans ensure that no one’s desk is more than 30 feet from a window and an “irresistible” glass-cased staircase maximizes the view looking over Seattle to be more appealing and accessible, an elevator available but hidden from view. A garage for cars is not included but one for bicycles is.
Living Building Challenge
The center has been designed to meet the stringent sustainability standards of the Living Buildings Challenge, including zero net water, waste, and energy among the 20 specific imperatives formulated by the International Living Building Institute.
Included is the requirement that heavy building materials like concrete and steel come from within 300 miles of the site, and that materials are free of the red-listed toxic chemicals commonly used in construction—all 362 of them!
Certification as a Living Building requires the center prove itself capable of maintaining the standards for over a year. If successful, it will be the largest building in the United States to be certified under the Living Buildings Challenge.
The Bullitt Center has also been described as the world’s greenest office building. Hayes says this may not be an “unfair characteristic” although difficult to verify. Other green buildings tend to focus on one or two areas of sustainability, but the Bullitt Center endeavors to be “as healthy and as efficient as possible,” he said. “What is unique about this building is that it is not doing one thing but it is rather doing everything simultaneously.”
Reducing Carbon Emissions
Buildings in the United States account for nearly 40 percent of the nation’s total carbon dioxide emissions and consume roughly 70 percent of the nation’s energy, according to a 2009 report from the U.S Department of Energy. Urban runoff too is the sixth leading source of impairment in rivers, ninth in lakes, and fifth in estuaries, the report said.
“If you took just the office buildings in the United States today and reduced their energy consumption by half, you would be saving twice as much energy every year as America imports from the Middle East,” Hayes said on PBS, “These are big things.”
As with Earth Day, which is now celebrated in 192 countries, Hayes hopes to raise awareness of the human impact on the environment. The pursuit of sustainable buildings is in keeping with his early vision of “creating human environments that have the characteristics of natural ecosystems,” he said.
In that respect detail is paramount in the center’s design. A range of renewable initiatives helps to balance energy output with consumption. There are 26 geothermal wells to heat water and a 56,000-gallon cistern in the basement to capture rain. A hydraulic system running under concrete floors, heats the building with warm water in the winter, and cools it in summer.
A flat but angled roof, which extends out from the top of the building, is laden with solar panels; the building is expected to generate 242,000 kilowatt hours per year. Leftover electricity is directed to the grid and sold to Seattle City Light, and on gray winter days can be bought back as needed.
“There isn’t much sunlight here but now we are proving you can power a six story building with sunbeams,” Hayes said.
The Bullitt Foundation has leased half of the sixth floor for its new headquarters. It has already leased approximately 80 percent of the space in Capitol Hill’s Pike/Pine neighborhood. Other tenants include the International Living Future Institute and the University of Washington Integrated Design Lab.
The center cost a hefty $18.5 million to build, but Hayes says for what he has in mind, it is worth it.
“By proving what you can do in terms of making a building that is really healthy for the people that are inside it, that imposes no cost at all on its neighbors, I think suddenly it opens new opportunities and people begin to think ‘ok if they did that what can we do,” he said.
__________________
Study also the Article 2 of 2 just below
Here several info links relating to this important new building
Tags: Denis Hayes Earth Day green energy spacetechnology United States
Additional search links below for the Bullitt Foundation
- The Bullitt Foundation Announces Plans for the Cascadia Center for ...bullitt.org › News
The Bullitt Foundation is spearheading a visionary effort to develop the Cascadia ...The Center will be one of the nation's first mid-rise commercial buildings to ... - News — The Bullitt Foundation bullitt.org/news
King 5 News Interviews Denis Hayes on "The Most Energy Efficient Building in the World" - Video. Bullitt Foundation President Denis Hayes was interviewed on ... - The Greenest Commercial Building in the World — The Bullitt Centerbullittcenter.org/
- The Greenest Commercial Building in the World. Also available in ... Denis Hayes on why performance matters and motivations behind the Bullitt Center ...The Building - Blog - Team - Living Building Challenge
- The Bullitt Foundation Vision — The Bullitt Centerbullittcenter.org › Team
- By Denis Hayes, President, The Bullitt Foundation · The Living Building Challenge is a bold, new certification program that tests green buildings against the most ...
- Bullitt Foundation's new green building | Video | The Seattle Times
video.seattletimes.com/.../bullitt-foundations-new-gree...Jul 19, 2012
Construction has started on the Bullitt Center, which will be one of the world's greenest and most energy ...
More videos for bullitt foundation building » - News for bullitt foundation building
EnergyBoom - Bullitt Foundation opens new building in Seattle that redefines environmentally-friendly
- Public Radio International PRI - 2 days ago
The Bullitt Foundation, a Seattle-based nonprofit focused on improving the environment in the Pacific Northwest, has taken on a new endeavor.
- This Building Is Supergreen. Will It Be Copied?
NPR - 5 days ago
- Public Radio International PRI - 2 days ago
- Images for bullitt foundation building - Report ima
- Bullitt Foundation opens the doors to sustainable building, with ...
www.bizjournals.com/.../bullitt-foundation-opens-the-doors-to.h...
by Valerie Bauman - in 50 Google+ circles
5 days ago – The Bullitt Foundation's long-awaited Bullitt Center opened its doors today. - Miller Hull - Bullitt Center - Miller Hull Partnershipwww.millerhull.com/html/nonresidential/Bullitt.htm
- Living Proof - Building the Bullitt Center - by Point 32 ... The new headquarters of the environmentally-oriented Bullitt Foundation, the six-story, 50,000 sf Bullitt ...
- Miller Hull - Bullitt Center - Miller Hull Partnershipwww.millerhull.com/html/inprogress/bullittcenter.htm
The mixed-use building will serve as the future headquarters of the Bullitt Foundationas well as provide office and commercial space for leaders in the green ... - The Self-Sufficient Office Building - The New York Times www.nytimes.com/.../seattles-bullitt-center-aims-to-be-energy-self-sufficien...
Oct 4, 2011 – Denis Hayes, left, of the Bullitt Foundation and Chris Rogers, the Bullitt Center's developer. The building, the $30 million Bullitt Center at 1501 ...
- Foundation House 1 (866) 538 3132
www.basements.com/FoundationRepair
Foundation Repairs & Waterproofing. Serving Mid-Atlantic For 45 Years!
Searches related to bullitt foundation building
bullitt foundation cascadia center
bullitt foundation living building
bullitt center
cascadia center for sustainable design and construction
bullit foundation building
Our fragile Earth
It’s alive! Inside the world’s greenest building
Click green above for further info
____________________________________________________________________
America’s Most Polluted Cities
Posted: April, 2013
There’s no doubt that great strides have been made in air pollution. Awareness, stricter legislation and improved technology have all contributed to improved air, land and water conditions. In fact, the nation’s air quality is much cleaner than it was in some of the worst-affected areas, according to a recent report by the American Lung Association. Air emissions that contribute to pollutants have fallen since 1970 thanks to the Clean Air Act.
Despite the improvements, 4 in 10 Americans live where pollution levels are often dangerous to breath. Since the ALA began studying particle pollution, almost all of the most polluted cities have consistently remained among the worst.
Pittsburgh has been one of the 10 most polluted cities since 2004. The cities of Bakersfield and Merced, in California, are the most polluted cities in the U.S. this year and have been among the 25 most polluted since at least 2004. They are among many California cities, including Los Angeles, that have struggled with pollution for some time.
The ALA’s 2013 “State of the Air” report measures cities based on low-lying ozone pollution, as well as both short- and long-term particle pollution. These particles, just 1/30th the diameter of a human hair, are capable of getting past our bodily defenses and cause physical harm, particularly to those who already suffer from pulmonary diseases, the very young and the elderly. The report measures both the total accumulated particle pollution over the course of a year, as well as the number of days that the air pollution hit unhealthily high levels. Based on the average levels of long-term pollution measured by the report between 2009 and 2011, these are the most polluted cities in the country.
Eight of the 10 most polluted cities are located in California and are either on the coast or in the San Joaquin Valley. Conditions that make pollution in the valley worse are extremely heavy traffic, which accounts for as much at 89% of all pollution in the valley, and high levels of agriculture in the area.
Janice Nolen, the ALA’s assistant vice president for national policy, noted that the San Joaquin valley has had major agricultural growth in recent years. Agriculture creates pollution in a variety of ways, from the actual tending of the crops to the vehicles that bring supplies in and food out. A review of Census data shows that agriculture, fishing and forestry represent more than 10% of the economy in many of the highly polluted metro areas, compared to just the roughly 2% of all jobs nationwide.
The Los Angeles port is also a major source of pollution, with the diesel exhaust from the oceangoing ships generating significant particle pollution.While part of the high pollution levels in these cities comes from local sources, Nolen noted that much of it also comes from being downwind from cities that are even larger producers of pollution.
In the case of the California cities, it is their proximity to Los Angeles. “California has historically had the biggest challenge in its cities. Part of that is the sources, and part of it is the geography — pollution that might blow somewhere else gets captured in the valleys.”
A review of the pollution levels in these California cities shows that while they remain among the worst in the country for both particle and ozone pollution, they have been improving markedly in recent years. Los Angeles, for example, has reduced its number of unhealthy particle pollution days by more than 50% since 2000.
This improvement reflects the state’s efforts to deal with the problem, Nolen explained. “California has really been, in many ways, leading the nation, because they recognized they had the worst problems.” When the Clean Air Act was signed into law in 1970 the state was given additional resources and authority to be “more aggressive,” said Nolan.
One of the problems the state has focused on is car emissions. “Cars in California have been required to be much cleaner, and some of those standards have been adopted in other parts of the country,” she said. The state is also trying to cut down on other sources of pollution like wood burning.
The only two metro areas on this list that aren’t located in California are Cincinnati and Pittsburgh. Much of the pollution problems in these areas are due to substantial industrial presence. Nolen mentioned that much of the pollution in Pittsburgh is due to the U.S. Steel Plant. The coal industry’s presence in Cincinnati is also a major factor in pollution as big companies such as Duke Energy operate plants in the region.
Based on average long-term particle pollution figures collected by the ALA between 2009 and 2011, 24/7 Wall St. identified the 10 most polluted cities in the country. Merced’s year-round particle pollution ranked as the worst in the nation, in a tie with the Bakersfield-Delano metro area. We also reviewed ozone pollution and short-term particle pollution, which the ALA measured as the number of days between 2009 and 2011 where pollution levels were deemed unhealthy. For each of these metropolitan areas, the ALA noted the population and the number of people in the area with health problems that high pollution can exacerbate, such as asthma and cardiovascular disease.
These are America’s most polluted cities.
10. Cincinnati-Middletown-Wilmington, Ohio-Ky.-Ind.
> Year-round particle pollution rank: 10th worst
> Unhealthy ozone pollution rank: 14th worst
> Residents with asthma: 215,984
> Population: 2,179,965
The greater Cincinnati area is one of the most polluted areas in the country outside of California. Only 13 other metropolitan areas averaged more days with dangerously high ozone levels. However, to the city’s credit, the number of days with high ozone levels in the area fell by more than half between the 1996-1998 measurement period to the 2009-2011 one. Much of the greater Cincinnati area is in Ohio, which was the second worst state for air pollution in the nation, according to a 2012 study from the National Resources Defense Council. Cincinnati is also on the Ohio River, which had more toxic releases than any other river in 2010, according to
9. El Centro, Calif.
> Year-round particle pollution rank: 9th worst
> Unhealthy ozone pollution rank: 10th worst
> Residents with asthma: 14,253
> Population: 177,057
In the last year, the El Centro metro area had 49 days where the ozone level was unhealthy for sensitive populations. In addition, the ALA gave the metropolitan area a failing grade for particle pollution. El Centro’s population of about 177,000 people includes many residents who suffer from conditions that can be exacerbated by pollution. Much of El Centro’s air pollution has to do with vehicle emissions, and the city has made efforts to address the problem by recently converting several city streets into pedestrian malls. Fortunately, the number high ozone days has fallen from an average of more than 80 annually in 1996-1998 to less than 20 in 2009-2011.
8. Pittsburgh-New Castle, Penn.
> Year-round particle pollution rank: 8th worst
> Unhealthy ozone pollution rank: 24th worst
> Residents with asthma: 224,567
> Population: 2,450,281
Since the ALA began measuring particle pollution in 2004, Pittsburgh has been among the 10 cities with the highest levels of particle pollution. In the most recent study, it was seventh worst overall for short-term particle pollution, and eighth worst for long-term pollution. Nolen explained that one of the major sources of continuing particle pollution in the area is the U.S. Steel Plant. Pittsburgh is also downwind from many coal-fired power plants in the midwest. This also has a major impact on the region’s particle pollution levels. As a major city, Nolen added, heavy traffic also contributes to high pollution levels. An estimated 28% of the region’s 2.45 million residents suffer from cardiovascular disease, with high pollution levels putting them at risk of further exacerbating their condition.
7. Visalia-Porterville, Calif.
> Year-round particle pollution rank: 7th worst
> Unhealthy ozone pollution rank: 2nd worst
> Residents with asthma: 35,957
> Population: 449,253
The Visalia metro area registered an average of 234 days a year of ozone air quality that was considered unhealthy for sensitive populations between 2009-2011. In addition, in 19 days the ozone air quality was considered unhealthy for everyone. According to the ALA, particle pollution in Kings County, the only county in the Visalia area , has doubled in the last six years. Out of roughly 450,000 residents 36,000 have asthma, and the poor air quality may be causing them significant problems. In addition, more than 86,000 people in the area suffer from cardiovascular disease.
6. Modesto, Calif.
> Year-round particle pollution rank: 6th worst
> Unhealthy ozone pollution rank: 13th worst
> Residents with asthma: 41,791
> Population: 518,522
Modesto is one of several cities among the nation’s worst for air pollution located within the Central Valley in California. The valley has high pollution levels due to both its unique geography and its massive agricultural industry. The Modesto Convention & Visitors Bureau reported that agriculture represented over one-third of all jobs in the area and was among the nation’s leading producers of milk, almonds and poultry. The metro area received failing grades for the number of high ozone days it had, the number of high particle pollution days, and the annual average levels of particle pollution. Additionally, while the number of high ozone days has declined in recent years, the number of days where particle pollution is especially high has risen dramatically — there were 16.2 more such days in the most recent measurement than there were in the 2000-2002 period.
5. Los Angeles-Long Beach-Riverside, Calif.
> Year-round particle pollution rank: 5th worst
> Unhealthy ozone pollution rank: 1st worst
> Residents with asthma: 1,464,217
> Population: 18,081,569
The greater Los Angeles area is home to more than 18 million people, more than twice the combined population of all nine other metro areas on this list. With many, if not most, residents driving regularly — the area is among the worst for traffic congestion — air quality in the greater Los Angeles area has suffered. Almost 4 million residents of the greater metro area suffer from cardiovascular disease — the symptoms of which can be made-worse by exposure to high levels of air pollution. No other area in the country had more high ozone days than Los Angeles, which was the only city that averaged over 100 such days per year between 2009 and 2011. According to the Los Angeles Daily News, the South Coast Air Quality Management District, which oversees air quality in the greater Los Angeles area, is working to reduce emissions from older diesel vehicles and is pitching an emission-free system for moving cargo containers at local ports.
4. Hanford-Corcoran, Calif.
> Year-round particle pollution rank: 4th worst
> Unhealthy ozone pollution rank: 5th worst
> Residents with asthma: 12,388
> Population: 153,765
Although the Hanford metropolitan area is less than 1% the size of the Los Angeles area, the pollution problem is even bigger. From 2009 to 2011, Hanford area had 98 days on average per year where ozone pollution was considered unhealthy for sensitive populations, and seven additional days where it was considered unhealthy altogether. Similarly, there were 89 days where particle pollution was considered unhealthy for sensitive populations, and an additional 21 days where it was considered downright unhealthy. The Hanford area is in the San Joaquin Valley, which generally suffers from very poor air quality. It is also next to Bakersfield and Hanford, the worst and third-worst metros in terms of air pollution. Of the area’s population of nearly 154,000 people, more than 12,000 have asthma, the symptoms of which are exacerbated by high pollution levels.
3. Fresno-Madera, Calif.
> Year-round particle pollution rank: 3rd worst
> Unhealthy ozone pollution rank: 4th worst
> Residents with asthma: 88,136
> Population: 1,095,829
In addition to being ranked as the third-worst place in America for year-round particle pollution in 2009-2011, the greater Fresno area ranked among the worst for the number of individual days where particle pollution was especially high, as well as the number of days with elevated ozone levels. Just over 1 million people live in the greater Fresno-Madera area, and more than 224,000 of them suffer from some sort of cardiovascular disease, the symptoms of which can be aggravated by pollution. Some of the area’s pollution troubles may be due to the high numbers of commuters. The area’s population rose 15.7% between 2000 and 2010.
2. Merced, Calif.
> Year-round particle pollution rank: worst (tied for first)
> Unhealthy ozone pollution rank: 11th worst
> Residents with asthma: 20,837
> Population: 259,898
Merced’s year-round particle pollution ranked as the worst in the nation, in a tie with the Bakersfield-Delano metro area. While the metro area did not rank as poorly for the number of days with especially unhealthy particle pollution, the figure has been on the rise in recent years. In response to the figures released by the ALA, Merced mayor Stan Thurston defended the city to the Merced Sun Star, claiming that much of the pollution actually comes from the San Francisco Bay Area. According to the San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control District, an estimated 27% of emissions measured in Merced county originated in either the San Francisco Bay Area or Sacramento area.
1. Bakersfield-Delano, Calif.
> Year-round particle pollution rank: worst (tied for first)
> Unhealthy ozone pollution rank: 3th worst
> Residents with asthma: 68,419
> Population: 851,710
Along with Merced, no city had more of a problem with pollution than the Bakersfield metropolitan area. The ozone air quality was considered unhealthy for sensitive populations an average of 199 days per year from 2009 to 2011, while it was considered flat-out unhealthy in another 24. Fortunately, the average number of unhealthy days in the last two years dropped 44% since 1996-1998, despite the fact that population grew 41% in just the last decade. The area has resorted to unusually high-tech solutions to combat pollution. Earlier this year, NASA flew aircrafts over the area equipped with scientific tools to experiment with ways to better measure air quality.
________________________________________
States with the Most Gun Violence
April 15, 2013 by Samuel Weigley
Following the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in December, a heated debate has raged over gun laws in the country. Supporters of gun control measures argue that more gun control is necessary to keep guns out of the hands of violent criminals. Opponents argue that stricter gun control laws will not solve violent crime problems and may even make law-abiding citizens easier targets by making guns harder to buy legally.
Each state has different sets of gun ownership laws. According to the Center for American Progress, a progressive think tank that supports gun control, there appears to be a strong relationship between the strength of gun laws in the state and the amount of gun violence. In some states, gun violence exceeds the rest of the country by a wide margin. In Louisiana, between 2001 and 2010, there were 18.9 gun deaths for every 100,000 people, more than six times the rate in Hawaii, the state with the lowest violence. Based on the Center for American Progress report, 24/7 Wall St. reviewed the 10 states with the most gun violence.
The states on this list with higher gun violence tend to have much less stringent gun laws than other states with less violence like New Jersey, Connecticut and Hawaii. For instance, none of the states on with the highest gun violence require permits for handgun purchases. In the 10 states with the lowest gun violence, seven have this requirement, including all six states with the lowest levels of gun violence. The Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence gave seven of the 10 states an F for their gun control policies, with the remaining three receiving a D or D–.
Even as President Obama and leaders in states such as New York and Connecticut have pushed for tighter gun control following high-profile mass shootings in the past couple of years, these states have moved in the opposite direction.
For instance, Louisiana voters last month approved a constitutional amendment requiring a very high standard for gun control legislation to be enacted in the state. Louisiana has the highest rate of gun violence in the country. Alabama Senators voted earlier this month to allow gun owners to keep firearms locked in their car while at work regardless of their employer’s opinion.
Of course, not everyone agrees with the Center for American Progress. In states with looser gun laws, homicides could be higher since more people are able to use a gun to defend themselves, argues David Kopel, research director for the conservative think tank Independence Institute. He estimates that anywhere between 7% and 12% of homicides consist of self-defense, in addition to countless cases where law-abiding gun owners serve as a deterrent.
The Center for American Progress “only look at the harm of guns and refuse to take into account any deterrent or self-defense effect of firearms,” Kopel said in an interview.
Chelsea Parsons, associate director of crime and firearms policy at the Center and a co-author of this report, responded by saying the report measures all gun violence and not just homicides. “The numbers speak for themselves,” she said. She added that the fact that the states with fewer gun restrictions tend to have more gun deaths and injuries “is likely more than a coincidence.”
But stricter gun control laws alone may not solve these states’ gun violence problems. All but one state on this list had property crime rates in 2011 that were in the top half of all states. Seven of the states on this list are among the top 10 in terms of property crime, including all the top four states. The high rates of property crimes, which generally do not involve the use of firearms, indicate a more complex crime problem in these states.
Based on data provided by the Center for American Progress, 24/7 Wall St. analyzed the 10 states with the most gun violence. These rankings were based on 10 different criteria, including 2010 firearm homicide deaths per 100,000 people and 2011 firearm-related aggravated assaults. Calculated by the Center, the average rank among all states for each criteria was used to determine the ranking. We also considered data from the FBI’s Uniform Crime Report, such as a state’s crime rate per 100,000 people and property crime rates, as well as the crime rates for large metropolitan areas. Gun laws by state were compiled by the NRA’s Institute for Legislative Action and various news outlets. All data are for the most recent available years.
These are the 10 states with the most gun violence.
10. Georgia
> Firearm homicide deaths per 100,000: 4.57 (9th highest)
> Firearm aggravated assaults per 100,000: 58.64 (13th highest)
> Violent crime rate per 100,000: 373.2 (21st highest)
> Need permit to purchase handgun: No
> Governor: Nathan Deal (R)
In 2010, there were 4.57 firearm homicides for every 100,000 Georgia residents, the ninth highest rate of all states. Between 2001 and 2010, 1.78 women were killed by gun violence annually for every 100,000 residents, more than all but four other states.The state has very permissive gun laws. In 2011, the state scored just an 8 out of 100 in the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence’s scorecard. According to the Center for American Progress, the state’s poor guns laws allow for a high level of illegal gun exporting. There were 28.3 guns used in a crime exported from the state for every 100,000 residents, the 10th highest of all states. Meanwhile, 27.6% of crime guns were purchased in the past two years, the seventh highest of all states.
9. Arkansas
> Firearm homicide deaths per 100,000: 4.53 (10th highest)
> Firearm aggravated assaults per 100,000: 100.56 (3rd highest)
> Violent crime rate per 100,000: 480.9 (10th highest)
> Need permit to purchase handgun: No
> Governor: Mike Beebe (D)
Between 2001 and 2010, there were an average of 15.32 total firearm deaths per year — including homicides, suicides and accidents — in Arkansas for every 100,000 residents, the ninth highest of all states. Moreover, the state was one of just three to have more than 100 firearm-related aggravated assaults for every 100,000 residents in 2011. The state’s largest metropolitan area, Little Rock, had the seventh highest violent crime rate of all metropolitan areas. The state’s crime problem was broader than gun use. There were 3,754 property crimes per 100,000 residents in 2011, higher than any state except for South Carolina. The Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence awarded the state an F for its gun control laws.
Also Read: Click: The Cities Where Violent Crime is Soaring
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8. Missouri
> Firearm homicide deaths per 100,000: 5.59 (4th highest)
> Firearm aggravated assaults per 100,000: 88.90 (5th highest)
> Violent crime rate per 100,000: 447.4 (12th highest)
> Need permit to purchase handgun: No
> Governor: Jay Nixon (D)
There were 5.6 homicide deaths by firearms for every 100,000 Missouri residents in 2010, more than all but three other states. There were also 88.9 aggravated assaults with a firearm per 100,000 residents that year, more than all but four other states. Nearly 76% of murders in 2011 were committed with a firearm, higher than all but two other states. The Republican-dominated legislature has spent more time focusing on expanding gun rights rather than curbing them. One Missouri lawmaker, Rep. Mike Leara, recently introduced a bill that would make it a felony for anyone to propose legislation that “further restricts the right of an individual to bear arms, as set forth under the second amendment of the Constitution of the United States.”
7. New Mexico
> Firearm homicide deaths per 100,000: 3.69 (18th highest)
> Firearm aggravated assaults per 100,000: 87.26 (6th highest)
> Violent crime rate per 100,000: 567.5 (4th highest)
> Need permit to purchase handgun: No
> Governor: Susana Martinez (R)
Gun safety is a particular problem among children in New Mexico. Between 2001 and 2010, 3.12 children per 100,000 residents were killed annually by a firearm, higher than all but three other states. Moreover, there were more than 87 aggravated assaults with a firearm for every 100,000 residents, the sixth highest rate of all states. The state’s largest metropolitan area, Albuquerque, had one of the highest violent crime rates in the nation, with 662 violent crimes for every 100,000 people. New Mexico received an F from The Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence for its gun control and safety laws. However, unlike most states on this list, New Mexico legislators may be moving toward imposing tighter gun restrictions. In February, the New Mexico House of Representatives passed a bill to tighten background checks at gun shows, although the Senate did not vote on the measure by the end of the legislative session.
6. South Carolina
> Firearm homicide deaths per 100,000: 4.95 (7th highest)
> Firearm aggravated assaults per 100,000: 127.88 (2nd highest)
> Violent crime rate per 100,000: 571.9 (3rd highest)
> Need permit to purchase handgun: No
> Governor: Nikki R. Haley (R)
Between 2001 and 2010, nearly two women per every 100,000 residents were killed in a gun homicide in South Carolina, more than all but three other states. In 2011, there were 128 aggravated assaults with a firearm for every 100,000 residents, a higher rate than all states except for Tennessee. That year, South Carolina had 571.9 violent crimes for every 100,000 residents, higher than all but two other states. This included 6.8 murders and 438.4 aggravated assaults, the third and fourth highest rates in the United States, respectively. The state scored a D– from the Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence for its gun control and safety laws. According to the Center for American Progress, the state’s weak gun laws result in the state having one of the highest rates of illegal gun trafficking.
5. Mississippi
> Firearm homicide deaths per 100,000: 6.91 (2nd highest)
> Firearm aggravated assaults per 100,000: 51.69 (19th highest)
> Violent crime rate per 100,000: 269.8 (18th highest)
> Need permit to purchase handgun: No
> Governor: Phil Bryant (R)
Mississippi scores at or near the bottom of all states in several criteria used to measure gun violence. In 2009, more than 50 guns were exported from Mississippi for every 100,000 residents and were used in a violent crime in other states, more than any other state and more than three times the average among all states. There were 6.91 firearm homicides per 100,000 residents in 2010, higher than all states except for Louisiana. In addition, there was an annual average of 2.5 homicides of women involving a firearm, also more than all states except for Louisiana. The state scored an F from the Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence for failing to require a background check when guns are transferred between private parties, or to regulate gun dealers effectively.
Click: Also Read: The Cities Where Americans Don’t Feel Safe
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4. Arizona
> Firearm homicide deaths per 100,000: 4.24 (13th highest)
> Firearm aggravated assaults per 100,000: 57.36 (16th highest)
> Violent crime rate per 100,000: 405.9 (19th highest)
> Need permit to purchase handgun: No
> Governor: Jan Brewer (R)
Arizona ranked in the top 10 states for firearm deaths between 2001 and 2010, along with homicide deaths of women and deaths of children 17 and under in those years. In addition, 30% of guns used in a crime within the state were sold less than two years before the crime was committed, indicating a high likelihood of illegal gun trafficking. This was a higher percentage than all states except for Missouri. In March, Guns & Ammo magazine ranked the state as “The Best State for Gun Owners,” noting the state is one of just a few that do not require a license to carry a concealed firearm. Also, concealed carriers are not required to notify law enforcement of their weapon except during “lawful traffic or criminal investigation, arrest or detention or an investigatory stop by a law enforcement officer.”
3. Alabama
> Firearm homicide deaths per 100,000: 5.92 (3rd highest)
> Firearm aggravated assaults per 100,000: 40.50 (23rd highest)
> Violent crime rate per 100,000: 420.1 (16th highest)
> Need permit to purchase handgun: No
> Governor: Robert Bentley (R)
In Alabama, there were 16.36 deaths due to firearms in 2010 for every 100,000 residents, more than all but three other states. That year, there were 5.92 firearm homicides for every 100,000 people, higher than all but two other states. The state also ranked within the top 10 for homicides of women with a firearm, firearm deaths of children and law enforcement killings, all within a 10-year time frame. Recently, the Alabama Senate voted to ease gun restrictions. The legislation, if signed into law, would allow residents to keep guns locked inside their vehicles at work without fear of pushback by their employer. The legislation also would allow people to carry a visible pistol without being charged with disorderly conduct.
2. Alaska
> Firearm homicide deaths per 100,000: 4.22 (14th highest)
> Firearm aggravated assaults per 100,000: 80.47 (9th highest)
> Violent crime rate per 100,000: 606.5 (2nd highest)
> Need permit to purchase handgun: No
> Governor: Sean Parnell (R)
In 2010, there were more than 20 gun deaths for every 100,000 residents in Alaska, more than any other state in the country. That year, the state had more 15 suicide deaths with a firearm per 100,000 residents, also more than any other state in the country. Between 2001 and 2010, there were nearly six firearm deaths among children 17 years old or younger per 100,000 children, also the most in the country. In February, Alaska’s House of Representatives passed a law that would exempt the state from new federal gun laws. Any federal agent who attempts to enforce the law could be charged with a felony. Despite its passage, the bill is considered unconstitutional since federal law is superior to state law.
1. Louisiana
> Firearm homicide deaths per 100,000: 9.53 (the highest)
> Firearm aggravated assaults per 100,000: 99.51 (4th highest)
> Violent crime rate per 100,000: 555.3 (7th highest)
> Need permit to purchase handgun: No
> Governor: Bobby Jindal (R)
No state had a bigger problem with gun violence than Louisiana. Between 2001 and 2010, there were 18.9 firearm deaths — which includes suicides and accidents — annually for every 100,000 residents, more than any other state. In 2010, there were 9.53 homicides involving a firearm for every 100,000 residents, by far the highest rate in the country. In November 2012, nearly three-fourths of Louisiana voters approved a state constitutional amendment that placed a very strict standard on determining whether individual gun rights can be limited. Since the amendment was passed, a host of legal challenges have been filed against the state’s gun restrictions, including a challenge of the ban on felons to own firearms. The state received an F for its gun laws from the Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence. Among the reasons for the poor grade are the fact that the state does not require a waiting period for gun purchases or prohibit the sales of assault weapons or high-caliber rifles.
Also Read: CLICK (if link expired, search web with the title)
America’s Most Content (and Miserable) Cities
April 15, 2013 by Samuel Weigley
Following the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in December, a heated debate has raged over gun laws in the country. Supporters of gun control measures argue that more gun control is necessary to keep guns out of the hands of violent criminals. Opponents argue that stricter gun control laws will not solve violent crime problems and may even make law-abiding citizens easier targets by making guns harder to buy legally.
Each state has different sets of gun ownership laws. According to the Center for American Progress, a progressive think tank that supports gun control, there appears to be a strong relationship between the strength of gun laws in the state and the amount of gun violence. In some states, gun violence exceeds the rest of the country by a wide margin. In Louisiana, between 2001 and 2010, there were 18.9 gun deaths for every 100,000 people, more than six times the rate in Hawaii, the state with the lowest violence. Based on the Center for American Progress report, 24/7 Wall St. reviewed the 10 states with the most gun violence.
The states on this list with higher gun violence tend to have much less stringent gun laws than other states with less violence like New Jersey, Connecticut and Hawaii. For instance, none of the states on with the highest gun violence require permits for handgun purchases. In the 10 states with the lowest gun violence, seven have this requirement, including all six states with the lowest levels of gun violence. The Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence gave seven of the 10 states an F for their gun control policies, with the remaining three receiving a D or D–.
Even as President Obama and leaders in states such as New York and Connecticut have pushed for tighter gun control following high-profile mass shootings in the past couple of years, these states have moved in the opposite direction.
For instance, Louisiana voters last month approved a constitutional amendment requiring a very high standard for gun control legislation to be enacted in the state. Louisiana has the highest rate of gun violence in the country. Alabama Senators voted earlier this month to allow gun owners to keep firearms locked in their car while at work regardless of their employer’s opinion.
Of course, not everyone agrees with the Center for American Progress. In states with looser gun laws, homicides could be higher since more people are able to use a gun to defend themselves, argues David Kopel, research director for the conservative think tank Independence Institute. He estimates that anywhere between 7% and 12% of homicides consist of self-defense, in addition to countless cases where law-abiding gun owners serve as a deterrent.
The Center for American Progress “only look at the harm of guns and refuse to take into account any deterrent or self-defense effect of firearms,” Kopel said in an interview.
Chelsea Parsons, associate director of crime and firearms policy at the Center and a co-author of this report, responded by saying the report measures all gun violence and not just homicides. “The numbers speak for themselves,” she said. She added that the fact that the states with fewer gun restrictions tend to have more gun deaths and injuries “is likely more than a coincidence.”
But stricter gun control laws alone may not solve these states’ gun violence problems. All but one state on this list had property crime rates in 2011 that were in the top half of all states. Seven of the states on this list are among the top 10 in terms of property crime, including all the top four states. The high rates of property crimes, which generally do not involve the use of firearms, indicate a more complex crime problem in these states.
Based on data provided by the Center for American Progress, 24/7 Wall St. analyzed the 10 states with the most gun violence. These rankings were based on 10 different criteria, including 2010 firearm homicide deaths per 100,000 people and 2011 firearm-related aggravated assaults. Calculated by the Center, the average rank among all states for each criteria was used to determine the ranking. We also considered data from the FBI’s Uniform Crime Report, such as a state’s crime rate per 100,000 people and property crime rates, as well as the crime rates for large metropolitan areas. Gun laws by state were compiled by the NRA’s Institute for Legislative Action and various news outlets. All data are for the most recent available years.
These are the 10 states with the most gun violence.
10. Georgia
> Firearm homicide deaths per 100,000: 4.57 (9th highest)
> Firearm aggravated assaults per 100,000: 58.64 (13th highest)
> Violent crime rate per 100,000: 373.2 (21st highest)
> Need permit to purchase handgun: No
> Governor: Nathan Deal (R)
In 2010, there were 4.57 firearm homicides for every 100,000 Georgia residents, the ninth highest rate of all states. Between 2001 and 2010, 1.78 women were killed by gun violence annually for every 100,000 residents, more than all but four other states.The state has very permissive gun laws. In 2011, the state scored just an 8 out of 100 in the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence’s scorecard. According to the Center for American Progress, the state’s poor guns laws allow for a high level of illegal gun exporting. There were 28.3 guns used in a crime exported from the state for every 100,000 residents, the 10th highest of all states. Meanwhile, 27.6% of crime guns were purchased in the past two years, the seventh highest of all states.
9. Arkansas
> Firearm homicide deaths per 100,000: 4.53 (10th highest)
> Firearm aggravated assaults per 100,000: 100.56 (3rd highest)
> Violent crime rate per 100,000: 480.9 (10th highest)
> Need permit to purchase handgun: No
> Governor: Mike Beebe (D)
Between 2001 and 2010, there were an average of 15.32 total firearm deaths per year — including homicides, suicides and accidents — in Arkansas for every 100,000 residents, the ninth highest of all states. Moreover, the state was one of just three to have more than 100 firearm-related aggravated assaults for every 100,000 residents in 2011. The state’s largest metropolitan area, Little Rock, had the seventh highest violent crime rate of all metropolitan areas. The state’s crime problem was broader than gun use. There were 3,754 property crimes per 100,000 residents in 2011, higher than any state except for South Carolina. The Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence awarded the state an F for its gun control laws.
Also Read: Click: The Cities Where Violent Crime is Soaring
(if link expired, search web with the title)
8. Missouri
> Firearm homicide deaths per 100,000: 5.59 (4th highest)
> Firearm aggravated assaults per 100,000: 88.90 (5th highest)
> Violent crime rate per 100,000: 447.4 (12th highest)
> Need permit to purchase handgun: No
> Governor: Jay Nixon (D)
There were 5.6 homicide deaths by firearms for every 100,000 Missouri residents in 2010, more than all but three other states. There were also 88.9 aggravated assaults with a firearm per 100,000 residents that year, more than all but four other states. Nearly 76% of murders in 2011 were committed with a firearm, higher than all but two other states. The Republican-dominated legislature has spent more time focusing on expanding gun rights rather than curbing them. One Missouri lawmaker, Rep. Mike Leara, recently introduced a bill that would make it a felony for anyone to propose legislation that “further restricts the right of an individual to bear arms, as set forth under the second amendment of the Constitution of the United States.”
7. New Mexico
> Firearm homicide deaths per 100,000: 3.69 (18th highest)
> Firearm aggravated assaults per 100,000: 87.26 (6th highest)
> Violent crime rate per 100,000: 567.5 (4th highest)
> Need permit to purchase handgun: No
> Governor: Susana Martinez (R)
Gun safety is a particular problem among children in New Mexico. Between 2001 and 2010, 3.12 children per 100,000 residents were killed annually by a firearm, higher than all but three other states. Moreover, there were more than 87 aggravated assaults with a firearm for every 100,000 residents, the sixth highest rate of all states. The state’s largest metropolitan area, Albuquerque, had one of the highest violent crime rates in the nation, with 662 violent crimes for every 100,000 people. New Mexico received an F from The Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence for its gun control and safety laws. However, unlike most states on this list, New Mexico legislators may be moving toward imposing tighter gun restrictions. In February, the New Mexico House of Representatives passed a bill to tighten background checks at gun shows, although the Senate did not vote on the measure by the end of the legislative session.
6. South Carolina
> Firearm homicide deaths per 100,000: 4.95 (7th highest)
> Firearm aggravated assaults per 100,000: 127.88 (2nd highest)
> Violent crime rate per 100,000: 571.9 (3rd highest)
> Need permit to purchase handgun: No
> Governor: Nikki R. Haley (R)
Between 2001 and 2010, nearly two women per every 100,000 residents were killed in a gun homicide in South Carolina, more than all but three other states. In 2011, there were 128 aggravated assaults with a firearm for every 100,000 residents, a higher rate than all states except for Tennessee. That year, South Carolina had 571.9 violent crimes for every 100,000 residents, higher than all but two other states. This included 6.8 murders and 438.4 aggravated assaults, the third and fourth highest rates in the United States, respectively. The state scored a D– from the Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence for its gun control and safety laws. According to the Center for American Progress, the state’s weak gun laws result in the state having one of the highest rates of illegal gun trafficking.
5. Mississippi
> Firearm homicide deaths per 100,000: 6.91 (2nd highest)
> Firearm aggravated assaults per 100,000: 51.69 (19th highest)
> Violent crime rate per 100,000: 269.8 (18th highest)
> Need permit to purchase handgun: No
> Governor: Phil Bryant (R)
Mississippi scores at or near the bottom of all states in several criteria used to measure gun violence. In 2009, more than 50 guns were exported from Mississippi for every 100,000 residents and were used in a violent crime in other states, more than any other state and more than three times the average among all states. There were 6.91 firearm homicides per 100,000 residents in 2010, higher than all states except for Louisiana. In addition, there was an annual average of 2.5 homicides of women involving a firearm, also more than all states except for Louisiana. The state scored an F from the Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence for failing to require a background check when guns are transferred between private parties, or to regulate gun dealers effectively.
Click: Also Read: The Cities Where Americans Don’t Feel Safe
(if link expired, search web with the title)
4. Arizona
> Firearm homicide deaths per 100,000: 4.24 (13th highest)
> Firearm aggravated assaults per 100,000: 57.36 (16th highest)
> Violent crime rate per 100,000: 405.9 (19th highest)
> Need permit to purchase handgun: No
> Governor: Jan Brewer (R)
Arizona ranked in the top 10 states for firearm deaths between 2001 and 2010, along with homicide deaths of women and deaths of children 17 and under in those years. In addition, 30% of guns used in a crime within the state were sold less than two years before the crime was committed, indicating a high likelihood of illegal gun trafficking. This was a higher percentage than all states except for Missouri. In March, Guns & Ammo magazine ranked the state as “The Best State for Gun Owners,” noting the state is one of just a few that do not require a license to carry a concealed firearm. Also, concealed carriers are not required to notify law enforcement of their weapon except during “lawful traffic or criminal investigation, arrest or detention or an investigatory stop by a law enforcement officer.”
3. Alabama
> Firearm homicide deaths per 100,000: 5.92 (3rd highest)
> Firearm aggravated assaults per 100,000: 40.50 (23rd highest)
> Violent crime rate per 100,000: 420.1 (16th highest)
> Need permit to purchase handgun: No
> Governor: Robert Bentley (R)
In Alabama, there were 16.36 deaths due to firearms in 2010 for every 100,000 residents, more than all but three other states. That year, there were 5.92 firearm homicides for every 100,000 people, higher than all but two other states. The state also ranked within the top 10 for homicides of women with a firearm, firearm deaths of children and law enforcement killings, all within a 10-year time frame. Recently, the Alabama Senate voted to ease gun restrictions. The legislation, if signed into law, would allow residents to keep guns locked inside their vehicles at work without fear of pushback by their employer. The legislation also would allow people to carry a visible pistol without being charged with disorderly conduct.
2. Alaska
> Firearm homicide deaths per 100,000: 4.22 (14th highest)
> Firearm aggravated assaults per 100,000: 80.47 (9th highest)
> Violent crime rate per 100,000: 606.5 (2nd highest)
> Need permit to purchase handgun: No
> Governor: Sean Parnell (R)
In 2010, there were more than 20 gun deaths for every 100,000 residents in Alaska, more than any other state in the country. That year, the state had more 15 suicide deaths with a firearm per 100,000 residents, also more than any other state in the country. Between 2001 and 2010, there were nearly six firearm deaths among children 17 years old or younger per 100,000 children, also the most in the country. In February, Alaska’s House of Representatives passed a law that would exempt the state from new federal gun laws. Any federal agent who attempts to enforce the law could be charged with a felony. Despite its passage, the bill is considered unconstitutional since federal law is superior to state law.
1. Louisiana
> Firearm homicide deaths per 100,000: 9.53 (the highest)
> Firearm aggravated assaults per 100,000: 99.51 (4th highest)
> Violent crime rate per 100,000: 555.3 (7th highest)
> Need permit to purchase handgun: No
> Governor: Bobby Jindal (R)
No state had a bigger problem with gun violence than Louisiana. Between 2001 and 2010, there were 18.9 firearm deaths — which includes suicides and accidents — annually for every 100,000 residents, more than any other state. In 2010, there were 9.53 homicides involving a firearm for every 100,000 residents, by far the highest rate in the country. In November 2012, nearly three-fourths of Louisiana voters approved a state constitutional amendment that placed a very strict standard on determining whether individual gun rights can be limited. Since the amendment was passed, a host of legal challenges have been filed against the state’s gun restrictions, including a challenge of the ban on felons to own firearms. The state received an F for its gun laws from the Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence. Among the reasons for the poor grade are the fact that the state does not require a waiting period for gun purchases or prohibit the sales of assault weapons or high-caliber rifles.
Also Read: CLICK (if link expired, search web with the title)
America’s Most Content (and Miserable) Cities
How Japan's 'flammable ice' breakthrough
could revolutionize the energy industry
Date: March 2013
Click green for further info
The country may have found the successor to fracking.
On Tuesday, Japan became the first country to ever successfullyextract natural gas from underwater deposits of methane hydrate, a frozen gas sometimes referred to as "flammable ice." The breakthrough could be a boon to the energy-poor nation, which imports almost all of its energy. And if the technology provescommercially viable, it could benefit other countries — including Canada, the U.S., Norway, and China — that are also seeking to exploit methane hydrate deposits.
Japan has reportedly spent hundreds of millions of dollars in pursuit of flammable ice, a Holy Grail that could satisfy the country's future energy demands as Japan weans itself off nuclear power in the aftermath of the leak at the Fukushima Daichii plant. Japanese officials are virtually giddy at the prospect. "Japan could finally have an energy source to call its own," proclaimed Takami Kawamoto, a spokesperson for the Japan Oil, Gas, & Metal National Corp. (Jogmec), the government-run company that is leading the effort.
According to The New York Times, "Methane hydrate is a sherbet-like substance that can form whenmethane gas is trapped in ice below the seabed or underground." Jogmec says there are at least 1.1 trillion cubic meters of the stuff in the trough where it is currently drilling, just off the Pacific Coast. If Japan can perfect its extraction technique, the area would provide the country with enough natural gas to last 11 years. Japan's waters reportedly contain a total of 7 trillion cubic meters of flammable ice, which would supply the country with natural gas for many, many decades to come.
How does the drilling process work exactly? "Japan used depressurization to turn methane hydrate to methane gas," says Reuters, "a process thought by the government to be more effective than using the hot water circulation method the country had tested successfully in 2002."
The technology, however, is still in its infant stage. At the moment, it's far too expensive to be sustainable, though Japan hopes to have a commercially viable model in place by 2019. Furthermore, flammable ice remains something of a mystery, which could result in technical glitches and setbacks in the future. "We are studying many things that are not yet known about methane hydrate,"according to Kawamoto.
Still, Japanese officials point to the U.S.'s recent natural gas boom as evidence that technologically complex drilling processes can result in an energy bonanza. The U.S.'s production of natural gas has skyrocketed due to hydraulic fracturing — or fracking — of shale rock, an intensive process that has become widespread in recent years.
Fracking remains a controversial technique, with environmentalists claiming that it could do significant damage to the environment. So far, scientists know little about the impact flammable gas extraction could have on the environment.
Click green for further info
____________________________________________________________
could revolutionize the energy industry
Date: March 2013
Click green for further info
The country may have found the successor to fracking.
On Tuesday, Japan became the first country to ever successfullyextract natural gas from underwater deposits of methane hydrate, a frozen gas sometimes referred to as "flammable ice." The breakthrough could be a boon to the energy-poor nation, which imports almost all of its energy. And if the technology provescommercially viable, it could benefit other countries — including Canada, the U.S., Norway, and China — that are also seeking to exploit methane hydrate deposits.
Japan has reportedly spent hundreds of millions of dollars in pursuit of flammable ice, a Holy Grail that could satisfy the country's future energy demands as Japan weans itself off nuclear power in the aftermath of the leak at the Fukushima Daichii plant. Japanese officials are virtually giddy at the prospect. "Japan could finally have an energy source to call its own," proclaimed Takami Kawamoto, a spokesperson for the Japan Oil, Gas, & Metal National Corp. (Jogmec), the government-run company that is leading the effort.
According to The New York Times, "Methane hydrate is a sherbet-like substance that can form whenmethane gas is trapped in ice below the seabed or underground." Jogmec says there are at least 1.1 trillion cubic meters of the stuff in the trough where it is currently drilling, just off the Pacific Coast. If Japan can perfect its extraction technique, the area would provide the country with enough natural gas to last 11 years. Japan's waters reportedly contain a total of 7 trillion cubic meters of flammable ice, which would supply the country with natural gas for many, many decades to come.
How does the drilling process work exactly? "Japan used depressurization to turn methane hydrate to methane gas," says Reuters, "a process thought by the government to be more effective than using the hot water circulation method the country had tested successfully in 2002."
The technology, however, is still in its infant stage. At the moment, it's far too expensive to be sustainable, though Japan hopes to have a commercially viable model in place by 2019. Furthermore, flammable ice remains something of a mystery, which could result in technical glitches and setbacks in the future. "We are studying many things that are not yet known about methane hydrate,"according to Kawamoto.
Still, Japanese officials point to the U.S.'s recent natural gas boom as evidence that technologically complex drilling processes can result in an energy bonanza. The U.S.'s production of natural gas has skyrocketed due to hydraulic fracturing — or fracking — of shale rock, an intensive process that has become widespread in recent years.
Fracking remains a controversial technique, with environmentalists claiming that it could do significant damage to the environment. So far, scientists know little about the impact flammable gas extraction could have on the environment.
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Important info to avoid serious problems - this can happen anywhere in the world
“Stray voltage” can occur in your house, apartment, office, on the street, in the nature close to the power line and in many other places
_______
Woman Shocked in Shower by Stray Voltage
Wins $4 Million Lawsuit. Are You at Risk, Too?
Click green for further info
A California woman who sustained repeated electrical shocks while showering won a $4 million lawsuit against her power company Wednesday.
Danger on the Homefront: 4 Ways Your Home Can Kill You
The ruling against Southern California Edison was a long-awaited end to the saga of Simona Wilson, 34, a single mother of three boys who has suffered from major medical problems as a result of “stray voltage” from a nearby substation, according to reporting in the Easy Reader News of Hermosa Beach, CA.
The power company, which said in a statement it found the verdict “inconsistent with the totality of the evidence presented at trial,” now faces two more lawsuits from residents of the same Redondo Beach neighborhood (which she has since fled). And the details of Wilson’s case alone are enough to seriously jolt anyone who has ever taken a shower.
For Wilson, her saga began in 2011, when she began to experience nausea, exhaustion and numbness in her limbs after replacing a curiously elevated shower with one built right onto the floor. Turned out her showerhead was electrified, and every time she touched it to make an adjustment, a low level of current ran through her body—the result of what’s known as stray voltage.
“It’s a phenomenon where an electrical current flows on paths not intended for it to flow on,” Oram Miller, a certified building biology environmental consultant who inspected Wilson’s property, told.
So now we have to worry about electric shocks every time we're shaving our legs? Not so much, according to Miller. “This is a situation that is quite rare, and the vast majority of people don’t suffer from it,” he said. The case’s takeaway, he added, could be that people become curious about the hazards of electromagnetic fields in the home in general, which are always present due to wiring, and which can disrupt sleep cycles and cause other environmental issues.
J. Derald Morgan, an electric forensic specialist and expert witness based in Missouri also told that cases like Wilson’s were “not very common.” He added that people often incorrectly describe electrical hazards—such as the case in 2004 in which a New York City woman died from electrocution after stepping on a metal plate embedded in the asphalt of her street—as stray voltage. “That is not stray voltage,” he said. “It’s deteriorated wire.”
Still, Wilson seems to not be alone in her electrified-shower plight.
In September 2012, a Pound Ridge, NY, couple filed a lawsuit against local utility company NYSEG because, they claimed, their multi-million dollar home, which is next to a substation, was filled with shocks.
“There’s times I go to my sink and there’s a little water on the rim. I might put my arm down on it — whoa!” Millie Mendelson told the New York Post, adding that she only wears rubber-soled shoes in the house. “I don’t feel comfortable taking a shower,” she said. Her husband Harold added, “The lights go on and off in the house all the time. Appliances burn out. My wife and I both have neurological issues.”
NYSEG said the couple’s claims “are false” and insists there’s no stray voltage at all. But the Post found records showing NYSEG has known of the problem for two decades and has tried to fix it by installing voltage blockers near the Mendelsons’ home. The lawsuit, according to Westchester court records, is pending.
Meanwhile, Wilson is cautiously optimistic about her case, which the power company has indicated it may appeal. “It’s a victory," Wilson told Easy Reader News, adding, "they can’t keep putting it under the carpet, like they have been doing.”
Related: click green
5 Health Dangers in Your Home
5 Dangers in Your Laundry Room
Study Highlights Hidden Dangers in Everyday Products—Even the "Green" Ones
Click green for further info - if the link has expired, search the web with the title
____________________________________________
Important info to avoid serious problems - this can happen anywhere in the world
“Stray voltage” can occur in your house, apartment, office, on the street, in the nature close to the power line and in many other places
_______
Woman Shocked in Shower by Stray Voltage
Wins $4 Million Lawsuit. Are You at Risk, Too?
Click green for further info
A California woman who sustained repeated electrical shocks while showering won a $4 million lawsuit against her power company Wednesday.
Danger on the Homefront: 4 Ways Your Home Can Kill You
The ruling against Southern California Edison was a long-awaited end to the saga of Simona Wilson, 34, a single mother of three boys who has suffered from major medical problems as a result of “stray voltage” from a nearby substation, according to reporting in the Easy Reader News of Hermosa Beach, CA.
The power company, which said in a statement it found the verdict “inconsistent with the totality of the evidence presented at trial,” now faces two more lawsuits from residents of the same Redondo Beach neighborhood (which she has since fled). And the details of Wilson’s case alone are enough to seriously jolt anyone who has ever taken a shower.
For Wilson, her saga began in 2011, when she began to experience nausea, exhaustion and numbness in her limbs after replacing a curiously elevated shower with one built right onto the floor. Turned out her showerhead was electrified, and every time she touched it to make an adjustment, a low level of current ran through her body—the result of what’s known as stray voltage.
“It’s a phenomenon where an electrical current flows on paths not intended for it to flow on,” Oram Miller, a certified building biology environmental consultant who inspected Wilson’s property, told.
So now we have to worry about electric shocks every time we're shaving our legs? Not so much, according to Miller. “This is a situation that is quite rare, and the vast majority of people don’t suffer from it,” he said. The case’s takeaway, he added, could be that people become curious about the hazards of electromagnetic fields in the home in general, which are always present due to wiring, and which can disrupt sleep cycles and cause other environmental issues.
J. Derald Morgan, an electric forensic specialist and expert witness based in Missouri also told that cases like Wilson’s were “not very common.” He added that people often incorrectly describe electrical hazards—such as the case in 2004 in which a New York City woman died from electrocution after stepping on a metal plate embedded in the asphalt of her street—as stray voltage. “That is not stray voltage,” he said. “It’s deteriorated wire.”
Still, Wilson seems to not be alone in her electrified-shower plight.
In September 2012, a Pound Ridge, NY, couple filed a lawsuit against local utility company NYSEG because, they claimed, their multi-million dollar home, which is next to a substation, was filled with shocks.
“There’s times I go to my sink and there’s a little water on the rim. I might put my arm down on it — whoa!” Millie Mendelson told the New York Post, adding that she only wears rubber-soled shoes in the house. “I don’t feel comfortable taking a shower,” she said. Her husband Harold added, “The lights go on and off in the house all the time. Appliances burn out. My wife and I both have neurological issues.”
NYSEG said the couple’s claims “are false” and insists there’s no stray voltage at all. But the Post found records showing NYSEG has known of the problem for two decades and has tried to fix it by installing voltage blockers near the Mendelsons’ home. The lawsuit, according to Westchester court records, is pending.
Meanwhile, Wilson is cautiously optimistic about her case, which the power company has indicated it may appeal. “It’s a victory," Wilson told Easy Reader News, adding, "they can’t keep putting it under the carpet, like they have been doing.”
Related: click green
5 Health Dangers in Your Home
5 Dangers in Your Laundry Room
Study Highlights Hidden Dangers in Everyday Products—Even the "Green" Ones
Click green for further info - if the link has expired, search the web with the title
____________________________________________
‘The Ghost of Gun Control’
The story of Sarah Winchester, heiress to the Winchester rifle fortune
By DREW CHRISTIE
For years now I have been fascinated by the story of Sarah Winchester, heiress to the Winchester rifle fortune.
In the late 19th century, after early death claimed her family members one by one, she became convinced that her family was cursed, haunted by the ghosts of those killed by the Winchester repeating rifle. Sarah decided that she had to move out West and begin building a house, which would confuse and trap the ghosts that were haunting her and her family name. She settled in San Jose, Calif., and once construction on her home began, it continued until her death in 1922.
The architectural oddities in the home are many: stairs and doors going nowhere, windows looking back in on the house, like an M.C. Escher drawing come to life. All of these features were added to confound the ghosts of gun violence that, she believed, continuously lurked the corridors of her home.
I can’t help thinking of Sarah and her house each time there is a mass shooting or when Senate gun-control legislation fails, as it did last week. America has had, at various times in our history, common-sense regulations and controls on firearms, from the 1790s through the Wild West era and up until the assault weapons ban expired in 2004. Until the current Republicans acknowledge this, we will all continue living in Sarah’s haunted house.
Source:
Drew Christie is an animator, filmmaker and illustrator who lives in Seattle. His previous Op-Docs are “Hi! I’m a Nutria,” “Allergy to Originality,” “A Thanksgiving Eel” and “Drones for America!”
Click green for further info
______________________________________________________________________
The story of Sarah Winchester, heiress to the Winchester rifle fortune
By DREW CHRISTIE
For years now I have been fascinated by the story of Sarah Winchester, heiress to the Winchester rifle fortune.
In the late 19th century, after early death claimed her family members one by one, she became convinced that her family was cursed, haunted by the ghosts of those killed by the Winchester repeating rifle. Sarah decided that she had to move out West and begin building a house, which would confuse and trap the ghosts that were haunting her and her family name. She settled in San Jose, Calif., and once construction on her home began, it continued until her death in 1922.
The architectural oddities in the home are many: stairs and doors going nowhere, windows looking back in on the house, like an M.C. Escher drawing come to life. All of these features were added to confound the ghosts of gun violence that, she believed, continuously lurked the corridors of her home.
I can’t help thinking of Sarah and her house each time there is a mass shooting or when Senate gun-control legislation fails, as it did last week. America has had, at various times in our history, common-sense regulations and controls on firearms, from the 1790s through the Wild West era and up until the assault weapons ban expired in 2004. Until the current Republicans acknowledge this, we will all continue living in Sarah’s haunted house.
Source:
Drew Christie is an animator, filmmaker and illustrator who lives in Seattle. His previous Op-Docs are “Hi! I’m a Nutria,” “Allergy to Originality,” “A Thanksgiving Eel” and “Drones for America!”
Click green for further info
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7 alternatives to landlines
Click green for further info
If you're reading this, chances are you've thought about cancelling your landline.
After all, why incur the extra monthly expense when your friends and family call you on your mobile phone anyway? Or perhaps you prefer to chat via email, text or instant messenger?
In some countries, landlines are already passé, and the U.S. is inching towards that trend, too (mobile phone use first overtook landlines in this country back in 2004).
And so here we take a look at more than a half-dozen landline alternatives to save you cash.
Mobile phones
Many are ditching their landline in favor of a mobile phone. Perhaps this isn't an ideal scenario when there's a large family at home who needs to make or accept a call (and you're out with the only phone), but it can make sense, and saves cents, for younger, on-the-go types. And with the new carrier competition there are some pretty aggressive wireless rates these days, including unlimited calls and data, for less than the cost of a landline at home in some cases -- especially when you add up the extra features like Caller ID, voicemail, and so on.
Bluetooth cordless phones
Bluetooth-enabled cordless phones can turn your cell phone or smartphone into a home phone. Panasonic, Uniden and Good Call, for example, have Bluetooth-enabled cordless phones that wirelessly connect with your mobile phone when you walk in the door. Then, when a call comes in, your cordless phone will ring. You can also make outgoing calls, too, of course. You can use your mobile phone with an existing landline service, but many people have cancelled their home phone account in favor of being reached with just one number.
Skype
Not only can you make free calls around the world using popular instant messaging software, such asSkype, but these programs support video calling, too. As long as you have a webcam, which you can pick up for as low as $10, you can make video calls to other people using the same software -- plus some cross-platform support is available, too, including Yahoo! Messenger. Use text, voice or video to chat, exchange files or have fun with special effects that make it look like you're in a different location or wearing silly apparel.
MagicJack, Ooma
(1) Those who use it swear by it. MagicJack is a pocket-sized product that turns your computer into an inexpensive landline alternative. YMax Corp.'s $40 device -- promoted on one of those "As Seen on TV" infomercials -- is inserted into an available USB port on your PC and then you plug in a regular telephone jack into the other end and talk via VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) technology. MagicJack Plus ($70) can be used without a computer. For $20/year you've got unlimited calls to the U.S. and Canada and all incoming calls are free. Porting your existing number costs $20, and then $10 a year after that.
(2) The similar Ooma Telo systemoffers even better audio quality and additional features and services.
UMA
Most people are unaware of Unlicensed Mobile Access (UMA), a technology that allows a mobile phone to use your home’s Wi-Fi network -- and you can talk all you like for free as it won't count towards your monthly minutes. Ask your carrier if it offers it. Mobile phones seamlessly switch from a cellular connection to your wireless network, and vice-versa. T-Mobile has something similar to UMA called Bobsled direct Wi-Fi calling, and operates on the same principle: using your mobile phone via your wireless network to make free calls in the U.S..
Apps
Smartphone apps -- such as Free Calls with MagicJack, Google Talk, NetTalk, Talkatone, Line2 and Viber – all let you make free phone calls to anyone in the U.S. and Canada, including to landlines and mobile phones (some require you to sign up to use a service, like Viber, while others don’t, including the MagicJack app). It even works with the iPod touch. iPhone’s Facebook app and BlackBerry Messenger (BBM) on BlackBerry devices also have options to chat for free via Wi-Fi with others. Audio quality can be spotty for all of these apps and services, however.
ACN = American Communications Network
Endorsed by Donald Trump, the ACN digital phone and service lets you make unlimited calls in the U.S. and Canada and some international markets -- including a video phone called Iris that lets you see who you're talking to in its 7-inch screen. Essentially, ACN uses VoIP (Voice or Internet Protocol) technology that uses your high speed Internet connection instead of a phone line, plus you can keep your phone number, choose another area code and manage your account online. Price for the video phone is $30/month for unlimited calls – including landlines in 70 countries. Be forewarned, however, ACN is also a multilevel marketing (MLM) company, so you might be pitched to sell or buy products from your friends.
ACN Inc. - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ACN_Inc.
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Click green for further info
If you're reading this, chances are you've thought about cancelling your landline.
After all, why incur the extra monthly expense when your friends and family call you on your mobile phone anyway? Or perhaps you prefer to chat via email, text or instant messenger?
In some countries, landlines are already passé, and the U.S. is inching towards that trend, too (mobile phone use first overtook landlines in this country back in 2004).
And so here we take a look at more than a half-dozen landline alternatives to save you cash.
Mobile phones
Many are ditching their landline in favor of a mobile phone. Perhaps this isn't an ideal scenario when there's a large family at home who needs to make or accept a call (and you're out with the only phone), but it can make sense, and saves cents, for younger, on-the-go types. And with the new carrier competition there are some pretty aggressive wireless rates these days, including unlimited calls and data, for less than the cost of a landline at home in some cases -- especially when you add up the extra features like Caller ID, voicemail, and so on.
Bluetooth cordless phones
Bluetooth-enabled cordless phones can turn your cell phone or smartphone into a home phone. Panasonic, Uniden and Good Call, for example, have Bluetooth-enabled cordless phones that wirelessly connect with your mobile phone when you walk in the door. Then, when a call comes in, your cordless phone will ring. You can also make outgoing calls, too, of course. You can use your mobile phone with an existing landline service, but many people have cancelled their home phone account in favor of being reached with just one number.
Skype
Not only can you make free calls around the world using popular instant messaging software, such asSkype, but these programs support video calling, too. As long as you have a webcam, which you can pick up for as low as $10, you can make video calls to other people using the same software -- plus some cross-platform support is available, too, including Yahoo! Messenger. Use text, voice or video to chat, exchange files or have fun with special effects that make it look like you're in a different location or wearing silly apparel.
MagicJack, Ooma
(1) Those who use it swear by it. MagicJack is a pocket-sized product that turns your computer into an inexpensive landline alternative. YMax Corp.'s $40 device -- promoted on one of those "As Seen on TV" infomercials -- is inserted into an available USB port on your PC and then you plug in a regular telephone jack into the other end and talk via VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) technology. MagicJack Plus ($70) can be used without a computer. For $20/year you've got unlimited calls to the U.S. and Canada and all incoming calls are free. Porting your existing number costs $20, and then $10 a year after that.
(2) The similar Ooma Telo systemoffers even better audio quality and additional features and services.
UMA
Most people are unaware of Unlicensed Mobile Access (UMA), a technology that allows a mobile phone to use your home’s Wi-Fi network -- and you can talk all you like for free as it won't count towards your monthly minutes. Ask your carrier if it offers it. Mobile phones seamlessly switch from a cellular connection to your wireless network, and vice-versa. T-Mobile has something similar to UMA called Bobsled direct Wi-Fi calling, and operates on the same principle: using your mobile phone via your wireless network to make free calls in the U.S..
Apps
Smartphone apps -- such as Free Calls with MagicJack, Google Talk, NetTalk, Talkatone, Line2 and Viber – all let you make free phone calls to anyone in the U.S. and Canada, including to landlines and mobile phones (some require you to sign up to use a service, like Viber, while others don’t, including the MagicJack app). It even works with the iPod touch. iPhone’s Facebook app and BlackBerry Messenger (BBM) on BlackBerry devices also have options to chat for free via Wi-Fi with others. Audio quality can be spotty for all of these apps and services, however.
ACN = American Communications Network
Endorsed by Donald Trump, the ACN digital phone and service lets you make unlimited calls in the U.S. and Canada and some international markets -- including a video phone called Iris that lets you see who you're talking to in its 7-inch screen. Essentially, ACN uses VoIP (Voice or Internet Protocol) technology that uses your high speed Internet connection instead of a phone line, plus you can keep your phone number, choose another area code and manage your account online. Price for the video phone is $30/month for unlimited calls – including landlines in 70 countries. Be forewarned, however, ACN is also a multilevel marketing (MLM) company, so you might be pitched to sell or buy products from your friends.
ACN Inc. - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ACN_Inc.
___________________________________________________
Home repair
Save up to 10% just by plugging leaks
If the bathroom fixtures in your home were made before 1995, then you are flushing money down the toilet. By switching to a WaterSense toilet and repairing or replacing leaky plumbing fixtures and sprinkler systems, you can save 10,000 gallons of water per year and as much as 10 percent on your utility bill. That's the message of the just-ended Fix a Leak Week, an annual reminder from the Environmental Protection Agency to be more miserly with your water.
"Easy-to-fix household leaks waste more than one trillion gallons of water annually nationwide, which is equal to the amount of water used by more than 11 million homes," says Nancy Stoner, the EPA's Acting Administrator for the Office of Water.
As a rule of thumb, if winter water usage for a family of four exceeds 12,000 gallons per month, it's likely that the home has a leak problem. Here are some (click: easy tips from the EPA:
• Check your water meter before and after a two-hour period when no water is being used. If the meter changes at all, you probably have a leak.
• Identify toilet leaks by placing a drop of food coloring in the toilet tank. If any color shows up in the bowl after 15 minutes, you have a leak. (Be sure to flush immediately after the experiment to avoid staining the tank.)
• Examine faucet gaskets and pipe fittings for any water on the outside of the pipe to check for surface leaks.
• Check your garden hose for leaks at its connection to the spigot. If it leaks while you run your hose, replace the nylon or rubber hose washer and ensure a tight connection to the spigot using pipe tape and a wrench.
By law, all toilets made since 1995 must use no more than 1.6 gallons per flush but toilets that meet the EPA's WaterSense requirements use just 1.28 gallons per flush or less, on average. The two CR Best Buys in Consumer Reports' toilet Ratings are WaterSense models that cost only $100—the Aquasource AT1203-00 sold at Lowe's and the Glacier Bay Dual Flush N2316 sold at the Home Depot. Our top-scoring model was the American Standard Champion 4 2002.014, which costs $300.
Of the 11 toilets recommended in Consumer Reports' latest toilet tests, five are WaterSense models that use only 1.28 gallons per flush, yet performed comparably with top-scoring toilets that use 1.4 to 1.6 gallons per flush in our tough, solid-waste tests.
Click green for further info
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How To Get More Google Traffic to Your Website
Google traffic accounts for 50% or more of most websites total traffic, so getting more Google traffic is a great way to boost your site’s overall traffic. If you have accepted Google's paid ad plan for your website you can earn more money with more traffic. But how do you get more Google traffic? Here are a few simple ways.
More Content, More Traffic
The easiest way for most sites to get more Google traffic is to post more content. Every piece of unique content you post is something someone may search for, so you’re almost assured more Google traffic.
But don’t take “more content, more traffic” to the extreme some sites do when they post computer-generated or spun content which no real person would ever read. These sites almost all rely on scam business models which steal money from advertisers.
Google and advertisers are continually working to develop technology which detects low-quality content so that it doesn’t get indexed in Google nor is it advertised upon by Adsense.
What you want for your site is more high-quality content like the content you already have. If you add just one page to your site every week day, you’ll have 250 new pages after one year all drawing increased Google traffic to your site.
More Links, More Traffic
Google uses link popularity less and less these days, but the number of incoming links to your site still matters. What Google wants to see these days are natural-looking incoming links from other sites in your niche. I follow my link building tutorial for the best results.
These links are easy to get if you do publish high-quality content. The other people in your niche will be looking at your site and they’ll probably naturally link back to your site when they see something interesting.
But if you have a new site or you want to speed up the link building process, you can “gently” build new incoming links by reaching out to the other people in your niche. You can offer to guest post for them; you can send them a short—very short—weekly press release listing your newest articles; or you can simply start linking to their site frequently on your blog and hope they start linking back to you. (I find this last technique surprisingly effective.)
But remember to avoid anything which Google might consider paid linking. Google’s severe penalties include burying your pages and entirely delisting them, so you can take a huge hit in Google traffic.
More Keywords, More Website Traffic
If you write in a very narrow niche, you might unintentionally write about just a few different keywords. But Google doesn’t usually display more than two pages from the same site in its search results, so having too many pages with the same keywords means you’re competing against yourself.
Instead of going in depth on a single topic, consider writing for breadth across a larger topic. For example, instead of writing about every detail of how to grow tomatoes at home, write about how to grow all sorts of different vegetables at home.
Quick Tip: To dominate the search engines for a similar keyword you can promote on other sites. For example if you see a YouTube video ranking in the top 10, produce your own, SEO the YouTube video and then see what happens. I also do this if I cannot get my own page to rank, I use other methods like this to steer people to my site.
SEO = Always = More Google Traffic
If you use SEO techniques for your website, you will know that SEO definitely increases your sites Google traffic. After all, SEO helps the search engines and the humans find your content and that is our goal. I use a few of the best SEO Plugins around. They include SEOPressor, the Free WPSEO by Yoast, and Keyword Winner.
Please watch the video below showing what the SEOPressor can do:
Rank Higher, Get More Google Traffic
I’ve saved this last technique for last because everyone else seems to emphasize it—but it may not be as important as you think.
Ranking higher on Google will undoubtedly get you more traffic. Many SEO experts have run experiments which show that the first few results on Google get 50–75% of all the Google traffic. Some people take that to mean that you should do everything you can to rank higher on Google.
But if everyone is trying to rank higher on Google, then everyone is competing against each other. Worse, they’re all using the same SEO techniques, so nobody has a real competitive advantage.
I do suggest you try to rank higher on Google—and the techniques suggested by ethical SEO experts are the techniques to use—but don’t spend all your time trying to rank higher. Instead, create more content, gather more backlinks, and target more keywords as your primary ways of attracting more Google traffic.
How To Get More Traffic Of The Right Kind
What you want is more traffic containing customers. I harp on about this all the time. To get this traffic, the first thing you must do is figure out who your customers are in general and what appeals to them.
I recommend that you spend some time trying to increase the conversion rate on your pages with your existing traffic. See if you can get more ad clicks, more affiliate or product sales, or more mailing list subscriptions per 1,000 visitors. Knowing what sells will tell you a lot about your customers.
Then take what you know about your customers and try to attract more Google traffic containing your customers. For example, if your research indicates your ideal customer uses Apple products, start putting pages on your site about Apple products and Apple news to get the right kind of more Google website traffic.
More Social articles from Business 2 Community:
- 11 Rules of Twitter Etiquette You Need to Know
- 5 Metrics Every Beginning SEO Pro Needs to Know About
- SEO vs. PPC: When Should You Invest In Each
- 15 Social Media Strategy Blogs You Should Be Reading
- 5 Ways To Get The Most From The Oscars With Social Media And Your Second Screen ________________________________________________________________________________
What happens when you take Google Glass
into the men's restroom?
Click green for further info
AMSTERDAM -- Wearing Google Glass may not raise any eyebrows in certain benign situations: taking photos of your kids with Glass, for example, seems like a perfectly acceptable use, as does capturing your point-of-view while mountain biking, or skateboarding, or skydiving.
But what happens when you walk into a public restroom wearing Google's futuristic head-mounted gadget? Are you in danger of getting cracked in the skull?
Absolutely not, according to prominent tech blogger Robert Scoble.
Speaking at The Next Web Europe Conference here in Amsterdam, Scoble -- who is one of the first owners of the Google Glass Explorer Edition, made for developers and early backers -- described his initial experiences with Glass in public restrooms in an informal chat with fellow technologist Andrew Keen.
Scoble explained to a befuddled Keen that he had been wearing Glass non-stop all week; that he had walked into 20 men's restrooms wearing the device on his head; and that not once had anyone raised a stink, stared at him askew, or punched him in his nose.
In fact, Scoble continued, while he at first he was a bit apprehensive about it, after a while he didn't even remember that he was wearing Glass into the loo, in the same way you might forget you're wearing a hat, or a pair of eyeglasses, so much it had become a natural part of his daily wardrobe.
It's true that, in person, Google Glass does not look as strange or freakish as many have predicted it would; it looks no weirder, in fact, than some of the more daring ocular fashions that have emerged from certain trendy neighborhoods in Brooklyn. If the owner isn't calling attention to his or her Glass, it would take you a moment to process that a Glass-wearer is in the room, unless you are looking for the device on foreheads around you.
It is also true, however, that some sort of Glass-related brawl feels inevitable. Scoble told the conference crowd that Glass is not always recording, as some might assume; that you either have to instruct Glass to begin recording with a voice command or by manipulating a touchpad on the side of the device. That may have assuaged the privacy fears of a tech-obsessed crowd, but the bloke at the pub sporting a biker's jacket and a dog collar is less likely to stand in rapt attention as you explain the mechanics of what he assumes is snapping photos of his urinal activity.
As more and more units of Glass ship out -- Google will ship thousands of Glass Explorer pairs over the following few weeks -- the patience and technological literacy of bathroom-goers the world over will be tested. As will the patience of denizens of other unsavory places: Scoble announced that he was headed to Amsterdam's Red Light District later in the evening, and that anyone in the crowd was welcome to follow him and his Glass.
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Source: Internet
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Good ideas for any entrepreneur & for any company
3 Rules for Managing Negative Online Comments
There are other rules also - your own - you must handle your business responses as you see best
Below are some ideas - see how they fit your purposes or combine as you see best
One good, old rule is: The customer is always right - politeness towards the customer is # 1, asking politely "I/we are very sorry to hear you experienced these XYZ... - let's see what we can do together to solve this best to your best, etc.
Click green for further info
As always has been, the customers believe they are entitled to excellent customer service, anywhere, anytime. Brands can thank social media in part for public complaints you might not see. Social media provides customers with a public forum to lodge their complaints very conveniently in front of a very large audience. In fact, according to the Global Web Index, about 50% of customers now follow brands in order to access some form of customer service via social channels. It’s no surprise then that more and more brands are improving their image by providing customer support via social. But what sort of plan should you have in place to contend with negative comments when they arise?
There is no shortage of advice here: There are 5 tips for dealing with negative Facebook comments. Or if you want even more, you can easily find 8 ways to deal with negative comments in online communities. Can we go higher still? Social Media Today published an article that outlines the 12 principles for responding to negative online comments. For ease-of-reference, here they are:
Be polite # 1
You need 4 or as you wish
The ethic of Reciprocity.
The first six principles above should be self-evident to any customer-service, marketing or PR professional. They have to do with the most basic customer-service tenet. You can distill these six principles down into a singular recitation of the (click green for info for golden rule) Golden Rule: treat your customers as you would treat yourself.
Be Opportunistic.
Turn your negative-comment lemon into lemon-aid. This includes knowing your top social influencers and addressing them appropriately (#7 above). It also means that you can turn a negative comment into a positive experience by following up with your disgruntled customer to ensure they got the answer they needed and that their problem was resolved (#8). Lastly, deepen the relationship to add value. Offer more information than they asked for, ask them for additional feedback, or tell them about new products/services (#9).
Manage the Conversation.
Be a judicious moderator. If someone steps out of line, take appropriate actions. It is, after all, your community (#10). Your page’s comments are your brand’s content. See how far you can go with this by listening to how the Atlantic Monthly’s Ta-Nehisi Coates moderates comments. Bottom line: if it’s not appropriate, you are empowered to remove it. But before you remove a nasty comment, ask yourself this: Will customers perceive us as being surreptitious if I remove this comment? (#11, #12). Always think of your customers first. If removing a comment would be more helpful to your brand than to your customers, you should probably leave it be.
But what about blatantly (= in an unsubtle & unashamed manner) false accusations? Should you defend yourself? If those accusations begin to negatively impact relationships with other customers, it’s probably a good idea to stick up for yourself. Southwest Airlines pulled some punches with their own video response to some unruly and outspoken customers. It was authentic and addressed their customers concerns. It was also aggressive, but it worked in putting out the fire of worry among their broader customer base.
What do you think? Are there other principles you use when dealing with negative comments online?
More Business articles from Business 2 Community:
Click green title below for further info
3 Rules for Managing Negative Online Comments
There are other rules also - your own - you must handle your business responses as you see best
Below are some ideas - see how they fit your purposes or combine as you see best
One good, old rule is: The customer is always right - politeness towards the customer is # 1, asking politely "I/we are very sorry to hear you experienced these XYZ... - let's see what we can do together to solve this best to your best, etc.
Click green for further info
As always has been, the customers believe they are entitled to excellent customer service, anywhere, anytime. Brands can thank social media in part for public complaints you might not see. Social media provides customers with a public forum to lodge their complaints very conveniently in front of a very large audience. In fact, according to the Global Web Index, about 50% of customers now follow brands in order to access some form of customer service via social channels. It’s no surprise then that more and more brands are improving their image by providing customer support via social. But what sort of plan should you have in place to contend with negative comments when they arise?
There is no shortage of advice here: There are 5 tips for dealing with negative Facebook comments. Or if you want even more, you can easily find 8 ways to deal with negative comments in online communities. Can we go higher still? Social Media Today published an article that outlines the 12 principles for responding to negative online comments. For ease-of-reference, here they are:
Be polite # 1
- Move fast
- Be accurate
- Be flexible
- Be transparent
- Be sincere
- Be human
- Be focused
- Follow-up
- Add value
- Take control
- Avoid fights
- Don’t Censor Be polite to the last drop
You need 4 or as you wish
The ethic of Reciprocity.
The first six principles above should be self-evident to any customer-service, marketing or PR professional. They have to do with the most basic customer-service tenet. You can distill these six principles down into a singular recitation of the (click green for info for golden rule) Golden Rule: treat your customers as you would treat yourself.
Be Opportunistic.
Turn your negative-comment lemon into lemon-aid. This includes knowing your top social influencers and addressing them appropriately (#7 above). It also means that you can turn a negative comment into a positive experience by following up with your disgruntled customer to ensure they got the answer they needed and that their problem was resolved (#8). Lastly, deepen the relationship to add value. Offer more information than they asked for, ask them for additional feedback, or tell them about new products/services (#9).
Manage the Conversation.
Be a judicious moderator. If someone steps out of line, take appropriate actions. It is, after all, your community (#10). Your page’s comments are your brand’s content. See how far you can go with this by listening to how the Atlantic Monthly’s Ta-Nehisi Coates moderates comments. Bottom line: if it’s not appropriate, you are empowered to remove it. But before you remove a nasty comment, ask yourself this: Will customers perceive us as being surreptitious if I remove this comment? (#11, #12). Always think of your customers first. If removing a comment would be more helpful to your brand than to your customers, you should probably leave it be.
But what about blatantly (= in an unsubtle & unashamed manner) false accusations? Should you defend yourself? If those accusations begin to negatively impact relationships with other customers, it’s probably a good idea to stick up for yourself. Southwest Airlines pulled some punches with their own video response to some unruly and outspoken customers. It was authentic and addressed their customers concerns. It was also aggressive, but it worked in putting out the fire of worry among their broader customer base.
What do you think? Are there other principles you use when dealing with negative comments online?
More Business articles from Business 2 Community:
Click green title below for further info
- 5 Pro Tips for Successful Marketing Strategies withTout
- When Lead Generation Feels Like Buying Collectiblse
- The Difference Between Likers and Listeners
- 7 Email Marketing Ideas You Can Use Right Now
- 16 Case Studies Prove ROI of Mobile Marketing ________________________________________________________________
Keeping an Eye on Online Test-Takers
Date: March 2013
Click green for further info
MILLIONS of students worldwide have signed up in the last year for MOOCs, short for massive open online courses — those free, Web-based classes available to one and all and taught by professors at Harvard, Duke, M.I.T. and other universities.
But when those students take the final exam in calculus or genetics, how will their professors know that the test-takers on their distant laptops are doing their own work, and not asking Mr. Google for help?
The issue of online cheating concerns many educators, particularly as more students take MOOCs for college credit, and not just for personal enrichment. Already, five classes from Coursera, a major MOOC provider, offer the possibility of credit, and many more are expected.
One option is for students to travel to regional testing centers at exam time. But reaching such centers is next to impossible for many students, whether working adults who can’t take time off to travel, or others in far-flung places who can’t afford the trip.
But now eavesdropping technologies worthy of the C.I.A. can remotely track every mouse click and keystroke of test-taking students. Squads of eagle-eyed humans at computers can monitor faraway students via webcams, screen sharing and high-speed Internet connections, checking out their photo IDs, signatures and even their typing styles to be sure the test-taker is the student who registered for the class.
The developing technology for remote proctoring may end up being as good — or even better — than the live proctoring at bricks-and-mortar universities, said Douglas H. Fisher, a computer science and computer engineering professor at Vanderbilt University who was co-chairman of a recent workshop that included MOOC-related topics. “Having a camera watch you, and software keep track of your mouse clicks, that does smack of Big Brother,” he said. “But it doesn’t seem any worse than an instructor at the front constantly looking at you, and it may even be more efficient.”
Employees at ProctorU, a company that offers remote proctoring, watch test-takers by using screen sharing and webcam feeds at offices in Alabama and California. ProctorU recently signed an agreement to proctor new credit-bearing MOOCs from Coursera, including one in genetics and evolution offered at Duke and one in single-variable calculus at the University of Pennsylvania.
MOOC students who want to obtain credit will be charged a remote-proctoring fee of $60 to $90, depending on the class, said Dr. Andrew Ng, co-founder of Coursera, based in Mountain View, Calif.
Other remote proctoring services offer different solutions. At Software Secure in Newton, Mass., test-takers are recorded by camera and then, later, three proctors independently watch a faster-speed video of each student.
Compared with services where proctors are monitoring students in real time, this combination of recording first and viewing later “gives greater latitude for the institution to adjust the timing of exams to whenever they want,” said Allison Sands, Software Secure’s director of marketing. The cost is now $15 per exam.
Employees at ProctorU say they are well-versed in the sometimes ingenious tactics used to dodge testing rules. “We’ve seen it all,” said Matt Jaeh, vice president for operations. “After you’ve sat there a while watching people, the patterns of behavior for normal people versus the people trying to sneak in a cellphone to look up information are very clear.”
Each proctor can monitor up to six students at a time, watching three side-by-side camera feeds on each of two screens. If a student’s eyes start to wander, the proctor gives a warning via videoconferencing software, just as a classroom monitor might tell students to keep their eyes on their own papers. For an overwhelming majority of people, that warning suffices, said Jarrod Morgan, a co-founder.
With the system in place, “cheating usually isn’t a problem,” he said. But if it does occur, ProctorU follows the rules of the institution giving the exam. “Some schools ask us to cut off the exam on the spot if there’s a suspicious incident,” he said; others ask that the exam be continued and the incident reported.
Beyond the issue of proctoring, MOOCs are also addressing the problem of making sure that credit-seeking test-takers are the same students who enrolled in the course. In that effort, Coursera is offering a separate service, called Signature Track and costing $30 to $99, that confirms students’ identity by matching webcam photographs as well as pictures of acceptable photo IDs.
Students also type a short phrase, which is analyzed by a software program. It takes note of the typing rhythm and other characteristics, like how long the keys are pressed down. Then, when a student submits homework or takes a test, the algorithm compares a bit of new typing with the original sample. (And if you’ve broken your arm, there’s always your photo ID.)
Online classes are hardly new, but earlier courses typically didn’t have to handle exam proctoring on the scale required for vast MOOCs. The University of Florida in Gainesville, for example, has long offered many programs for students studying far from the campus, with some monitoring done by ProctorU, said W. Andrew McCollough, associate provost for teaching and technology.
Now the school has set up its first MOOC, on human nutrition (enrollment 47,000), and is working on four others, all through Coursera. The question of proctoring is being debated, he said, as faculty members worry about academic integrity amid the growth of open, online classes. “They don’t want any fooling around,” he said. “But as we get more experience and evidence, the faculty are getting familiar with ways technology can replicate a classroom experience.”
Source: NYT
_______________________________________________________
March 7, 2013
It’s About the Work, Not the Office
Date: March, 2013
About Yahoo
to eliminate telecommuting
Yahoo CEO says: "The New Policy was & is meant to raise morale - and it did raise it fast & keeps climing."
Click green for further info
This article is about the 2013 decision by Marissa Mayer, the chief executive of Yahoo,
to eliminate telecommuting for all workers brings her company back in line with most of
corporate America, where working from home is more illusion than reality
THE click: recent decision by Marissa Mayer, the chief executive of Yahoo, to eliminate telecommuting for all workers brings her company back in line with most of corporate America, where working from home is more illusion than reality. Although many — some estimate most — American jobs could successfully be performed at home, only roughly 16 percent of American employees actually telecommute in any given year. And that figure is reached only by using a very generous definition of telecommuting — working from home at least one hour per week.
The idea behind the Yahoo announcement, as well as a more limited announcement from Best Buy this week that will add restrictions to its telecommuting policy, was that bringing workers back to the office would lead to greater collaboration and innovation. This is despite numerous studies showing that telecommuting workers are more productive than those working on-site.
Yet a work force culture based on long hours at the office with little regard for family or community does not inevitably lead to strong productivity or innovation. Two outdated ideas seem to underlie the Yahoo decision: first, that tech companies can still operate like the small groups of 20-something engineers that founded them; and second, the most old-fashioned of all, that companies get the most out of their employees by limiting their autonomy.
Consider the reality of telecommuting in the United States: most of the telecommuting hours put in by managers and professionals occur after they have worked at least 40 hours at the office. For them, working from home means checking e-mail, returning calls and writing reports during evenings, weekends and vacations.
I suspect Yahoo is not keen on eradicating that type of telecommuting, which increases work hours and squeezes ever greater productivity from workers. Its change was aimed at eliminating the type of telecommuting that substitutes for time spent at the office and that gives employees the opportunity to avoid long commutes and design their work hours around family or community obligations.
Why are companies so leery of this type of flexibility? Managers are tempted to use “face time” in the office as the de facto measurement of commitment and productivity. They are often suspicious about employees who work out of sight, believing they will shirk or drift if not under constant supervision. As a result, telecommuting is often viewed as a perk to be handed out after employees have proved their worth.
But another important reason may be the difficulty of developing reliable metrics to measure the performances of employees who work at home, especially when they are involved in team projects. We tend to attribute quality work to those we see all the time and with whom we discuss work performance and accomplishments.
This belief may be especially strong at tech companies, whose heady early days of creative innovation suggested that living at the office with your young peers produced the fastest results. What we tend to forget is that many unsuccessful tech companies also started that way, and that even the successful ones eventually had to grow beyond the boundaries of a group of friends pulling all-nighters of inventive exploration, getting a new platform or search architecture to work.
After all, Yahoo now has 14,000 employees — it’s hard to imagine that all of them have a mission to innovate and create new processes and products. These are customer service representatives, technical repair workers. Does Yahoo really want them creatively innovating, going off script with untested solutions?
Regardless, employees, creative or not, get older, marry, bear children, watch their parents grow infirm, and want lives outside the workplace. And despite companies’ best efforts to replace family and simulate home life by providing cafeterias, game rooms and concierge services for dry cleaning, most people eventually learn the hard way that companies will not care for you when times are hard; they will cut your pay or forgo your 401(k) match in economic downturns, and will dispose of you when you become ill or disabled. As Robert Frost reminds us, home is the place where they have to take you in. Work is not that place.
In the last week, I have heard a number of claims that research supports the idea that workers on-site are more innovative than those who work from home. I remain skeptical. The notion that impromptu conversations with colleagues in the cafeteria are the core of innovation seems a bit simplistic; in my experience, they are just as likely to produce talk of better jobs at competing firms or last night’s “American Idol” winner. Besides, much of this “research” simply shows that workers who collaborate with others in loose networks generate better ideas. It doesn’t suggest that the best way to create new products and services is by isolating your employees in the silo of a single location.
It is no coincidence that some of the most successful engines of innovation in our economy are our great research universities. Yet I have never seen a single university administrator try to corral faculty members into more face time at the office. Instead, researchers are encouraged to travel to conferences to meet with peers and find out the latest developments in their fields, and to use technology to maintain contact with a web of associates around the globe who can be mustered on demand for consultation and support.
To give one small example, two of my colleagues, at Cornell University, a demographer and geographer, recently came up with the idea for a study to improve the retention of women working in science while chatting during their children’s after-school swim lessons. Even within Cornell, stuck in their respective units, they might never have met. The logic that insists that the best new ideas come from staying within one’s company walls as long as possible sounds like a return to the corporate groupthink of an earlier era.
Were there other ways to foster collaboration within Yahoo? Of course. Ms. Mayer could have insisted on core work hours or days for all employees, when everyone works on-site. Or Yahoo could have developed collaborative work spaces off-site, closer to the neighborhoods where telecommuting employees live, to provide them with opportunities to connect to others doing similar work. Large screens to Skype in telecommuting team members for daily or weekly meetings could be a routine part of every group space. Above all, managers could focus on a results-oriented system of evaluation for all employees, telecommuting or not. This sends the message that outcomes are more important than location or hours on the job.
If the Dilbertization of Yahoo actually improves innovation, I’ll change my tune. But companies like Yahoo will not get more out of their employees by watching them like hawks and monitoring their every move. Nor can they recreate the dynamism of their founding moment by trying to return to a perpetual organizational adolescence. The 37-year-old Ms. Mayer, new mother, may have yet to learn that.
Source:
NYT & Jennifer Glass - she is a professor of sociology and senior researcher in the Population Research Center at the University of Texas, Austin.
______________________________________________________________
Looks matter. If someone tells you
that looks don’t matter, he’s wrong
Looks matter in all - in humans, in products & services - in everything
Why Looks Matter
You don’t need to look like Brad Pitt or Beyonce to be successful, but you do have to put your best foot forward at all times. You tell the world what to think of you based on how you present yourself.
Your family and closest friends may look past your appearance. However, employers and individuals you meet throughout your career will subconsciously make judgments about your character, your personality, your intelligence, and your overall value as a human being based on what they see when they look at you. It might not be fair, but it’s a reality.
You might not like the analogy, but you need to see yourself as a product that you are marketing and selling 24-7-365. Looking your best is not about being phony or artificial; it’s just about taking pride in your presentation.
Here’s a quick analogy to demonstrate the power of appearances and marketing. A typical bottle of water sells for $1 or so at the store. However, there is a “luxury” brand of water that has been endorsed by Jaimee Foxx and other celebrities. It’s called Bling H20, and it has crystals embedded into the outside of each bottle. What does Bling H20 sell for?
$40 per bottle!
I’ve never drank Bling H20, but I bet that it does not taste 40 times better than Poland Spring or Aquafina. Why does it sell for 40 times more? Because it looks a lot better.
People pay more for products that appear to be of higher quality. Similarly, employers pay more for candidates and employees who appear to be of higher quality.
Salary negotiation doesn’t just happen when an employer makes you a job offer or when an employer brings you in for an annual performance review. Salary negotiation begins the moment you come in contact with an employer, and it never ends.
Want to negotiate a higher salary and be paid what you are truly worth throughout your career? Then, make sure you look your absolute best at all times on paper, online, and in-person.
Pete Leibman is the Author of the new book titled “I Got My Dream Job and So Can You” (AMACOM, 2012). His career advice has been featured on Fox, CBS, and CNN, and he is a popular Keynote Speaker at career events for students and recent grads and at conferences for people who work with college students and recent grads.
More Business articles from Business 2 Community:
that looks don’t matter, he’s wrong
Looks matter in all - in humans, in products & services - in everything
Why Looks Matter
You don’t need to look like Brad Pitt or Beyonce to be successful, but you do have to put your best foot forward at all times. You tell the world what to think of you based on how you present yourself.
Your family and closest friends may look past your appearance. However, employers and individuals you meet throughout your career will subconsciously make judgments about your character, your personality, your intelligence, and your overall value as a human being based on what they see when they look at you. It might not be fair, but it’s a reality.
You might not like the analogy, but you need to see yourself as a product that you are marketing and selling 24-7-365. Looking your best is not about being phony or artificial; it’s just about taking pride in your presentation.
Here’s a quick analogy to demonstrate the power of appearances and marketing. A typical bottle of water sells for $1 or so at the store. However, there is a “luxury” brand of water that has been endorsed by Jaimee Foxx and other celebrities. It’s called Bling H20, and it has crystals embedded into the outside of each bottle. What does Bling H20 sell for?
$40 per bottle!
I’ve never drank Bling H20, but I bet that it does not taste 40 times better than Poland Spring or Aquafina. Why does it sell for 40 times more? Because it looks a lot better.
People pay more for products that appear to be of higher quality. Similarly, employers pay more for candidates and employees who appear to be of higher quality.
Salary negotiation doesn’t just happen when an employer makes you a job offer or when an employer brings you in for an annual performance review. Salary negotiation begins the moment you come in contact with an employer, and it never ends.
Want to negotiate a higher salary and be paid what you are truly worth throughout your career? Then, make sure you look your absolute best at all times on paper, online, and in-person.
Pete Leibman is the Author of the new book titled “I Got My Dream Job and So Can You” (AMACOM, 2012). His career advice has been featured on Fox, CBS, and CNN, and he is a popular Keynote Speaker at career events for students and recent grads and at conferences for people who work with college students and recent grads.
More Business articles from Business 2 Community:
- 5 Pro Tips for Successful Marketing Strategies with Tout
- When Lead Generation Feels Like Buying Collectibles
- The Difference Between Likers and Listeners
- 7 Email Marketing Ideas You Can Use Right Now!
- 16 Case Studies Prove ROI of Mobile Marketing (roi = return on investment) - (click) Return On Investment (ROI) Definition | Investopedia _______________________________________________________________________________
This is a must-to-read article
Why We Love Beautiful Things
Click green for further info
GREAT design, the management expert Gary Hamel once said, is like Justice Potter Stewart’s famous definition of pornography — you know it when you see it. You want it, too: brain scan studies reveal that the sight of an attractive product can trigger the part of the motor cerebellum that governs hand movement. Instinctively, we reach out for attractive things; beauty literally moves us.
Yet, while we are drawn to good design, as Mr. Hamel points out, we’re not quite sure why.
This is starting to change. A revolution in the science of design is already under way, and most people, including designers, aren’t even aware of it.
Take color. Last year, German researchers found that just glancing at shades of green can boost creativity and motivation. It’s not hard to guess why: we associate verdant colors with food-bearing vegetation — hues that promise nourishment.
This could partly explain why window views of landscapes, research shows, can speed patient recovery in hospitals, aid learning in classrooms and spur productivity in the workplace. In studies of call centers, for example, workers who could see the outdoorscompleted tasks 6 to 7 percent more efficiently than those who couldn’t, generating an annual savings of nearly $3,000 per employee.
In some cases the same effect can happen with a photographic or even painted mural, whether or not it looks like an actual view of the outdoors. Corporations invest heavily to understand what incentivizes employees, and it turns out that a little color and a mural could do the trick.
Simple geometry is leading to similar revelations. For more than 2,000 years, philosophers, mathematicians and artists have marveled at the unique properties of the “golden rectangle”: subtract a square from a golden rectangle, and what remains is another golden rectangle, and so on and so on — an infinite spiral. These so-called magical proportions (about 5 by 8) are common in the shapes of books, television sets and credit cards, and they provide the underlying structure for some of the most beloved designs in history: the facades of the Parthenon and Notre Dame, the face of the “Mona Lisa,” the Stradivarius violin and the original iPod.
Experiments going back to the 19th century repeatedly show that people invariably prefer images in these proportions, but no one has known why.
Then, in 2009, a Duke University professor demonstrated that our eyes can scan an image fastest when its shape is a golden rectangle. For instance, it’s the ideal layout of a paragraph of text, the one most conducive to reading and retention. This simple shape speeds up our ability to perceive the world, and without realizing it, we employ it wherever we can.
Certain patterns also have universal appeal. Natural fractals — irregular, self-similar geometry — occur virtually everywhere in nature: in coastlines and riverways, in snowflakes and leaf veins, even in our own lungs. In recent years, physicists have found that people invariably prefer a certain mathematical density of fractals — not too thick, not too sparse. The theory is that this particular pattern echoes the shapes of trees, specifically the acacia, on the African savanna, the place stored in our genetic memory from the cradle of the human race. To paraphrase one biologist, beauty is in the genes of the beholder — home is where the genome is.
LIFE magazine named Jackson Pollock “the greatest living painter in the United States” in 1949, when he was creating canvases now known to conform to the optimal fractal density (about 1.3 on a scale of 1 to 2 from void to solid). Could Pollock’s late paintings result from his lifelong effort to excavate an image buried in all of our brains?
We respond so dramatically to this pattern that it can reduce stress levels by as much as 60 percent — just by being in our field of vision. One researcher has calculated that since Americans spend $300 billion a year dealing with stress-related illness, the economic benefits of these shapes, widely applied, could be in the billions.
It should come as no surprise that good design, often in very subtle ways, can have such dramatic effects. After all, bad design works the other way: poorly designed computers can injure your wrists, awkward chairs can strain your back and over-bright lighting and computer screens can fatigue your eyes.
We think of great design as art, not science, a mysterious gift from the gods, not something that results just from diligent and informed study. But if every designer understood more about the mathematics of attraction, the mechanics of affection, all design — from houses to cellphones to offices and cars — could both look good and be good for you.
Click green for further info
Source: YT & Lance Hosey, the chief sustainability officer at the architecture firm RTKL, is the author of “The Shape of Green: Aesthetics, Ecology, and Design.”
______________________________________________________________
Why We Love Beautiful Things
Click green for further info
GREAT design, the management expert Gary Hamel once said, is like Justice Potter Stewart’s famous definition of pornography — you know it when you see it. You want it, too: brain scan studies reveal that the sight of an attractive product can trigger the part of the motor cerebellum that governs hand movement. Instinctively, we reach out for attractive things; beauty literally moves us.
Yet, while we are drawn to good design, as Mr. Hamel points out, we’re not quite sure why.
This is starting to change. A revolution in the science of design is already under way, and most people, including designers, aren’t even aware of it.
Take color. Last year, German researchers found that just glancing at shades of green can boost creativity and motivation. It’s not hard to guess why: we associate verdant colors with food-bearing vegetation — hues that promise nourishment.
This could partly explain why window views of landscapes, research shows, can speed patient recovery in hospitals, aid learning in classrooms and spur productivity in the workplace. In studies of call centers, for example, workers who could see the outdoorscompleted tasks 6 to 7 percent more efficiently than those who couldn’t, generating an annual savings of nearly $3,000 per employee.
In some cases the same effect can happen with a photographic or even painted mural, whether or not it looks like an actual view of the outdoors. Corporations invest heavily to understand what incentivizes employees, and it turns out that a little color and a mural could do the trick.
Simple geometry is leading to similar revelations. For more than 2,000 years, philosophers, mathematicians and artists have marveled at the unique properties of the “golden rectangle”: subtract a square from a golden rectangle, and what remains is another golden rectangle, and so on and so on — an infinite spiral. These so-called magical proportions (about 5 by 8) are common in the shapes of books, television sets and credit cards, and they provide the underlying structure for some of the most beloved designs in history: the facades of the Parthenon and Notre Dame, the face of the “Mona Lisa,” the Stradivarius violin and the original iPod.
Experiments going back to the 19th century repeatedly show that people invariably prefer images in these proportions, but no one has known why.
Then, in 2009, a Duke University professor demonstrated that our eyes can scan an image fastest when its shape is a golden rectangle. For instance, it’s the ideal layout of a paragraph of text, the one most conducive to reading and retention. This simple shape speeds up our ability to perceive the world, and without realizing it, we employ it wherever we can.
Certain patterns also have universal appeal. Natural fractals — irregular, self-similar geometry — occur virtually everywhere in nature: in coastlines and riverways, in snowflakes and leaf veins, even in our own lungs. In recent years, physicists have found that people invariably prefer a certain mathematical density of fractals — not too thick, not too sparse. The theory is that this particular pattern echoes the shapes of trees, specifically the acacia, on the African savanna, the place stored in our genetic memory from the cradle of the human race. To paraphrase one biologist, beauty is in the genes of the beholder — home is where the genome is.
LIFE magazine named Jackson Pollock “the greatest living painter in the United States” in 1949, when he was creating canvases now known to conform to the optimal fractal density (about 1.3 on a scale of 1 to 2 from void to solid). Could Pollock’s late paintings result from his lifelong effort to excavate an image buried in all of our brains?
We respond so dramatically to this pattern that it can reduce stress levels by as much as 60 percent — just by being in our field of vision. One researcher has calculated that since Americans spend $300 billion a year dealing with stress-related illness, the economic benefits of these shapes, widely applied, could be in the billions.
It should come as no surprise that good design, often in very subtle ways, can have such dramatic effects. After all, bad design works the other way: poorly designed computers can injure your wrists, awkward chairs can strain your back and over-bright lighting and computer screens can fatigue your eyes.
We think of great design as art, not science, a mysterious gift from the gods, not something that results just from diligent and informed study. But if every designer understood more about the mathematics of attraction, the mechanics of affection, all design — from houses to cellphones to offices and cars — could both look good and be good for you.
Click green for further info
Source: YT & Lance Hosey, the chief sustainability officer at the architecture firm RTKL, is the author of “The Shape of Green: Aesthetics, Ecology, and Design.”
______________________________________________________________
Smarter travel
Top Apps for Traveling Abroad
for Business, Vacation, or Studying
Article 1 of 2
(Article 2 just next below)
Valuable information
- will save plenty in your expenses - no roaming international calls, etc., all you need -
Tech info date: February 2013 - will be kept updated
Travel - Spring is the most popular semester for study abroad, according to GoAbroad.com. And the number of students in study abroad programs has never been higher. And while having a few semesters of language classes under your belt is a great start, living in a new country can take some adjusting. From getting around to figuring out expenses in local currency to contacting family and friends at home, there are more than a few scenarios that'll be new to you and possibly require some assistance from your smartphone.
SEE ALSO: 5 College Classes You'll Wish You Could Take
AccuWeather and Weatherbug: If you're traveling in between cities and countries on the weekends, you'll want to dress for the weather. AccuWeather and Weatherbug are both free apps for iOS and Android. AccuWeather uses a map to let you know the weather when you're abroad. On the map within the app, an orange exclamation point will appear over a location that's expecting snow, ice, rain, wind, or the probability of thunderstorms. With Weatherbug, you can save locations in the app and quickly tap to get the weather.
Vonage Mobile and Viber: Since international fees can get super steep, you'll want to download one or both of these free apps. Make sure both people communicating have downloaded the apps, that way calls, texts and roaming charges won't apply. With the Vonage app, you can purchase calling minutes through iTunes, that way you can also call someone who doesn't have the app and roaming charges won't apply.
Convert Any Unit Free: This app converts tons of measurements, like centigrade to fahrenheit, plus a wide variety of currencies. There's also a lot of technical measurements you likely won't need, like frequencies and energies, but at least you'll know that, whatever you need to convert, this app has it. There's both a paid version of the app that costs $2.99, and contains bookmarks and a calculator, and a free version of the app. Both are available in the App Store.
Highlight: This is a great app no matter where in the world you are, but if you're a student traveling abroad it's especially convenient. Highlight is a great way to meet new people: The app will let you know if friends, or people it thinks you might be able to make friends with, are nearby. You sign into the app using your Facebook account and are able to message people privately through the app.
SEE ALSO: How Mobile Tech Is Changing Travel
Currency Banknotes: This app for iOS offers both a free and 99 cent version, but for just a buck the paid app is better. There are a lot of currency convertingapps available, but this one stands out because you can actually see an image of what each bill in a selected currency should look like, in addition to being able to calculate the exchange rate. Tipping Tips is also handy in figuring out tipping protocol throughout 108 international regions. And while we're on the topic of money, BillPin is an app that makes splitting bills and storing payment information simple. The free app helps track expenses and the amounts you and your friends owe each other.
iTranslate: Need to converse with a waitress or hotel manager and forgot how to say a word or phrase? This free app can translate more than 60 languages and also includes a dictionary.
CouchSurfing Travel cheap on the weekends and during breaks with this app. CouchSurfing connects you with people who have at least a couch, but maybe even a bedroom, to let you sleep on for the night as you travel. Common courtesy suggests you buy them a beer. The app is available for free in the App Store and Google Play.
SupperKing: This app could potentially be great for travelers who want to meet new people and mingle with locals. With SupperKing, users basically crash private dinner parties. You can eat home cooked food and meet people in a comfortable setting: their homes.
The Pill: This is a great app for female travelers. The app reminds you to take your birth control pill at a time you set. It adjusts to local time and also works when the app isn't running and when it's in airplane mode. The free app is available for iOS. There is a similar app for Android called Contraceptive Pill that lets you set reminders for various cycles of pills (from 21 to 28 days) and won't remind you on your days off.
Find free Wi-Fi (really)
Paying for Wi-Fi access is a traveler's pet peeve, especially when stuck in an airport on an infinite layover. Never be left analog again: This handy Lifehacker article, "The Definitive Guide to Finding Free Wi-Fi," (Find WI-FI article is below after the article 2 of 2) rounds up a number of ways to locate a hot spot free of charge. (Caveat emptor*): Some are of questionable legality.) Our favorite (above-board) tip is to download a program such as NetStumbler, which goes above and beyond your computer's built-in Wi-Fi detector by locating "hidden" Wi-Fi networks your PC might have missed. If you're on a Bluetooth-enabled Mac, iStumbler will provide the same service. Smartphone users can get apps like JiWire's Free Wi-Fi Finder, whose directory tracks the exact location of nearly 150,000 free networks worldwide.
If all else fails, find the inevitable Starbucks. Many locations offer free Wi-Fi (and you can usually perch right outside the entrance and secure a connection).
*) Caveat emptor is Latin for "Let the buyer beware" (from caveat, "may he beware", the subjunctive of cavere, "to beware" + emptor, "buyer").
Source: Internet
____________________________________________________________
Article 2 of 2 (Article 1 of 2 just next above)
Smarter Travel
10 valuable tricks
These not-so-well-known tips make travel a little bit easier
Unusual travel tricks that really work
From (1) making the elevator go directly to your floor, (2) to fixing a broken zipper
or
(3) beat airport lines - legally & (4) some more
Click green for further info
Expedite your elevator trip
Travel - Here is a trick that pizza deliverymen have supposedly been using for years: If you want to upgrade your elevator to VIP status, simply press the desired floor number and the "door close" buttons simultaneously for several seconds. The elevator will override other requests and skip all other floors, whisking you away to your destination and making you feel like a big shot in no time.
While elevator manufacturers claim that this may not work on all models, a quick bit of scientific "research" in a condo building's elevator proved that it does—much to the chagrin*) of my neighbors.*) chagrin = annoyance
Beat airport lines - legally
Ask a serious traveler about the best way to spend $100, and odds are you'll hear "Global Entry Card".
Originally designed to speed Americans through immigration and customs (you use a special kiosk and bypass hour-long lines), the Global Entry program, which costs $100 for five (5) years, now qualifies its members for TSA*) PreCheck,
currently available in about 30 participating airports. Passengers selected for "expedited screening" through the PrecCheck program breeze through a special dedicated screening lane. That means shoes, light jacket and belt stay on, no need to drag out your laptop, and brings major time savings.
"Ninety percent of us fly through the largest U.S. airports" says Ben Mutzabaugh in February 2012 in the Sky editor for U.S. Today, If time is money and happiness equals ROI (= return of investment), this is gold."
*) Transportation Security Administration www.tsa.gov - Charged with providing effective and efficient security for passenger and freight transportation in the United States. Mission, press releases, employment,..
Cancel for free
Charged with providing effective and efficient security for passenger and freight transportation in the United States. Mission, press releases, employment, ..
This is a no-brainer, but it's something that many travelers don't think to do. If you missed the cancellation window for your hotel, restaurant, or car booking but can still change the reservation date free of charge, move your reservation back by several weeks or months. Then call back to cancel with a different representative. Sneaky? Sure. But it works, and you'll never get stuck with a lousy cancellation fee again.
Some reservation services, like OpenTable, allow the representative to see the "history" of the booking, but many pressed-for-time agents won't bother to check.
Defend your legroom
We've already tackled the etiquette of reclining one's airplane seat, and about 32 percent of our readers said that it was their right to tilt at will. For those passengers sitting behind the reclining ones, we have some solutions to defend your legroom from encroachment*). The first is the controversial Knee Defender ($19.95), a pocket-sized plastic device that locks onto your tray table and prevents the seat in front of you from reclining. It won't win you any friends, but it is approved by the FAA for use.
The second solution? Just ask. I've had good luck with politely asking the flyer in front of me if they would refrain from reclining while I ate or used my laptop.*) encroachment = invasion - inroad - infringement
Fix a broken suitcase zipper
It's happened to everyone: Your suitcase zips just fine when you leave, but upon packing for your return trip, it fails to close. Rather than replace your luggage, consider these quick zipper hacks. If the zipper appears to be stuck, rub Vaseline, lip balm, or bar soap on the teeth to get it moving. Zipper teeth no longer staying closed? Usually a single tooth is bent out of shape. Feel along the length of the zipper until you find the one that sticks out, and then a quick adjustment with pliers will do the trick. And if the zipper handle has snapped off from the slider completely, replace it by looping a souvenir keychain through the slider, creating a makeshift zipper pull. (An eye-catching keychain will also help you identify your bag on the luggage carousel.)
Find free Wi-Fi (really)
Paying for Wi-Fi access is a traveler's pet peeve, especially when stuck in an airport on an infinite layover. Never be left analog again: This handy Lifehacker article, "The Definitive Guide to Finding Free Wi-Fi," rounds up a number of ways to locate a hot spot free of charge. (Caveat emptor: Some are of questionable legality.) Our favorite (above-board) tip is to download a program such as NetStumbler, which goes above and beyond your computer's built-in Wi-Fi detector by locating "hidden" Wi-Fi networks your PC might have missed. If you're on a Bluetooth-enabled Mac, iStumbler will provide the same service. Smartphone users can get apps like JiWire's Free Wi-Fi Finder, whose directory tracks the exact location of nearly 150,000 free networks worldwide.
If all else fails, find the inevitable Starbucks. Many locations offer free Wi-Fi (and you can usually perch right outside the entrance and secure a connection).
Ask for a free phone charger
Just landed, only to realize you forgot to pack your phone charger? Don't run out to replace it just yet. We’ve recently discovered that the most common item left behind in hotels is the phone charger. So before you buy another, check with the hotel's front desk for a spare.
And if you forgot your copy of "Fifty Shades of Grey," don't steel yourself for disappointment. Budget chain Travelodge reports that they recovered 7,000-some left-behind copies last year, making it the most popular book abandoned in hotel rooms … although whether you want to request it from the lost and found is up to you.
Check international airline websites for deals
When booking international flights, don't forget to compare fares with those on the airline's foreign-language website. If the airline is running a sale in a different regional market, you may be able to score sizeable savings on your overseas flight.
For example, a recent search on Polish airline LOT's English-language website found a March flight from New York to Warsaw priced at $968.75, but the Polish-language website (with help from Google Chrome's translation feature) turned up fares from 2,641.01 PLN (around $849.64)—for the exact same flight. If your credit card has a low international-transaction fee, the savings could be well worth it.
Avoid commission fees … with coffee
Starbucks addicts, rejoice! SmarterTravel Editor Caroline Costello shares a clever way to avoid having to pay a commission fee to convert that last bit of foreign cash to US dollars at the end of a vacation. First, pick up a free reloadable Starbucks Card before your international trip. Then, Costello says, "If you have leftover money in the local currency when you’re on your way home, use it to reload your card at the Starbucks location in your international airport." The money you'll save on commission fees might just cover that triple-shot-no-foam-cinnamon-soy-mocha-frappuccino with extra extra sprinkles.
Smart self-defense hacks
We've recommended the use of a dummy wallet before, but it bears repeating. Purchase a second wallet or money clip to carry while traveling. "Pad the wallet with some small bills and make it look more real by slipping in one or two of those sample credit cards you get with offers in the mail," recommends SmarterTravel Senior Editor Christine Sarkis. "In the scary and unlikely case of an actual mugging, it also gives you something to throw and run, buying you time to escape with your safety and your actual wallet."
And if you're concerned about safety but don't own pepper spray (or are in a destination where pepper spray is illegal), we have two words: Aqua Net. Anyone who has ever accidentally sprayed an aerosol hairspray in a confined space knows that it's just as painfully effective as pepper spray. Carry a small bottle in your purse if you're traveling alone or are in a questionable area; if the bottle is less than 3.4 ounces, you can even pack it in a carry-on bag.
Click green for further info
_______________________________________
========================================================================================================================================================== Hostels Gain Popularity With Business Travelers
Tight Travel Budget - Try a Hostel - they can be of excellent quality today
Ferdi van ‘t Wout, a manager for a global electronics manufacturer in the Netherlands, frequently stays in hostels when traveling for work, an option he discovered last year by accident.
“I unexpectedly needed to be in Copenhagen to meet with some colleagues,” he said. “Due to the short notice and some big event happening, it was simply impossible to find a hotel in the city center that was anywhere close to being considered affordable.” So he made a reservation for a private room with a bath at the hostel Generator Copenhagen.
The service, design and public areas for quietly working and relaxing impressed him, so he has returned several times and stayed at a sister property in Hamburg, Germany. Hostels are “good for young businesspeople like me who are ready to plug in anywhere but don’t want to spend all evening alone in the bedroom,” Mr. van ‘t Wout, 30, said.
Hostels, long associated with lone backpackers and groups of students, have recently attracted older adults, families and, now, even business travelers, especially those in their 20s and 30s on tight budgets who are staying at upscale, design-oriented hostels.
Josh Wyatt, a partner at Patron Capital, the private equity firm based in London that owns Generator Hostels, said traffic had been brisk among young business travelers at its hostel in Copenhagen and seven other European properties. At some, nearly 20 percent of the guests during the week are business travelers, especially in off-peak seasons. He attributed that to upgrades in service, accommodations, design and food and beverages, areas where hostels have not traditionally excelled.
Many Generator Hostel guests are starting in their careers and traveling for work but do not have large expense accounts. In 10 years, they might stay at stylish boutique hotels like W and the Standard, but for now they choose upscale hostels rather than budget hotels. Mr. Wyatt said they were drawn by “a great night sleep, a great shower and free Wi-Fi, all in a hip, relaxed setting. If you have to travel and are on a budget, you still want to have fun and want something cool.”
He said a bed in a dorm room at Generator Copenhagen could cost about 20 percent of the price of a room at a typical midrange business hotel nearby and at Generator Barcelona about 10 percent of that midrange hotel price. And private rooms at Generator hostels in those cities can cost as little as half the price of comparable rooms at a three-star hotel, he said.
The company is beginning to market to start-up firms and entry- and junior-level employees. It uses booking sources not typically associated with hostels that compete with budget hotels, listing its properties on global distribution systems used by online booking Web sites.
The hostel industry has grown in recent years because more people are traveling and because of the global economic downturn that pinched travelers’ budgets, according to Stay Wyse, a nonprofit trade association that tracks and researches accommodation trends among young travelers globally.
The hostels, which have been consistently profitable over the years, are also evolving as they move away from the traditional, rustic concept to high design, with enhanced facilities and services, a trend that started around 2004.
An estimated 10 percent of hostel guests are business travelers, a figure that has grown about 1 percent each year since 2009, in part because “the product has significantly increased in quality,” said Laura Daly, association manager for Stay Wyse. “With the investment in facilities, we predict this will grow at a steeper rate year on year.”
Bjorn Hanson, divisional dean of the Preston Robert Tisch Center for Hospitality, Tourism and Sports Management at New York University, said he was not aware of data that tracked business travel stays at hostels, but he said it might be more common outside the United States. He attributed that to several factors: traditional lodging brands offer more budget choices of consistent quality in the United States. And in Europe, where low-cost brands are not as prevalent, hostels “may fill that void,” he said. He also cited “wider acceptance to nontraditional lodging formats.”
Giovanna Gentile, senior public relations executive for HostelBookers.com, a Web site based in London for budget accommodations internationally, said many hostels now offered amenities traditionally associated with hotels: private rooms with bathrooms, swimming pools, conference rooms and gyms.
She said hostels offered many amenities that hotels typically did not provide: entertainment rooms with big-screen television sets, surround-sound cinemas, game rooms, pool tables and self-catering kitchens that “encourage travelers to cook their own food and avoid spending a fortune in restaurants.” Hostels also organize social activities, like movie nights, city tours and other outings.
Driven largely by competition, hostel owners “had to find a way to stand out,” Ms. Gentile said.
The fusion hotel in Prague, for example, is both a hotel and a hostel offering standard private rooms and traditional shared dorm rooms, as well as nontraditional meeting spaces, like the rotating bar and lounge and the playroom, which features colorful, oversize folding sofas attached to the wall. Guests can network or play video games during informal meetings. The idea for the hybrid property was born after the economic crisis. “We have a product to sell to anyone, at anytime,” said Nah-Dja Tien, fusion’s general manager. “We can give business travelers an alternative pricewise, and also an alternative experience” for doing business.
Giuseppe Gentileschi, chief executive of Incoming Talents, a modeling agency and fashion production house with headquarters in Prague, often stays and books employees, clients and models at fusion and other hostels. The trend is for clean, well-managed hostels that offer atmosphere, comfort and upscale design but are not pretentious without spending “huge” amounts of money, he said. “At the beginning, I didn’t even realize that fusion was a hostel.”
David Orr, founder of Hostelz.com, a hostel booking and review site, said: “The key to staying in a hostel as a business traveler is to pick the right hostel. I think in some hostels, business travelers feel out of place,” as he said he discovered on a business trip to Spain when he stayed at a hostel “where guests are known to party all night long.” But over all, the competitive market has driven up standards, he said. “They can’t get away with being grungy,” he said. “In some cities, hostels are nicer than hotels.”
Mr. van ‘t Wout, the electronics company manager, said if you needed frills like minibars and room service, then a hostel might not be a good choice.
“But if you are used to traveling with your mobile office,” he said, and “want to enjoy a drink at bar at the end of the day without feeling awkward about being on your own, then this is a stylish and great value option that’s definitely worth considering.”
“The atmosphere is as open or private as you choose yourself,” he said. “It basically made my business travels a lot more fun again.”
Click green for further info
Source: NYT
__________________________________________
Smarter Travel
10 valuable tricks
These not-so-well-known tips make travel a little bit easier
Unusual travel tricks that really work
From (1) making the elevator go directly to your floor, (2) to fixing a broken zipper
or
(3) beat airport lines - legally & (4) some more
Click green for further info
Expedite your elevator trip
Travel - Here is a trick that pizza deliverymen have supposedly been using for years: If you want to upgrade your elevator to VIP status, simply press the desired floor number and the "door close" buttons simultaneously for several seconds. The elevator will override other requests and skip all other floors, whisking you away to your destination and making you feel like a big shot in no time.
While elevator manufacturers claim that this may not work on all models, a quick bit of scientific "research" in a condo building's elevator proved that it does—much to the chagrin*) of my neighbors.*) chagrin = annoyance
Beat airport lines - legally
Ask a serious traveler about the best way to spend $100, and odds are you'll hear "Global Entry Card".
Originally designed to speed Americans through immigration and customs (you use a special kiosk and bypass hour-long lines), the Global Entry program, which costs $100 for five (5) years, now qualifies its members for TSA*) PreCheck,
currently available in about 30 participating airports. Passengers selected for "expedited screening" through the PrecCheck program breeze through a special dedicated screening lane. That means shoes, light jacket and belt stay on, no need to drag out your laptop, and brings major time savings.
"Ninety percent of us fly through the largest U.S. airports" says Ben Mutzabaugh in February 2012 in the Sky editor for U.S. Today, If time is money and happiness equals ROI (= return of investment), this is gold."
*) Transportation Security Administration www.tsa.gov - Charged with providing effective and efficient security for passenger and freight transportation in the United States. Mission, press releases, employment,..
Cancel for free
Charged with providing effective and efficient security for passenger and freight transportation in the United States. Mission, press releases, employment, ..
This is a no-brainer, but it's something that many travelers don't think to do. If you missed the cancellation window for your hotel, restaurant, or car booking but can still change the reservation date free of charge, move your reservation back by several weeks or months. Then call back to cancel with a different representative. Sneaky? Sure. But it works, and you'll never get stuck with a lousy cancellation fee again.
Some reservation services, like OpenTable, allow the representative to see the "history" of the booking, but many pressed-for-time agents won't bother to check.
Defend your legroom
We've already tackled the etiquette of reclining one's airplane seat, and about 32 percent of our readers said that it was their right to tilt at will. For those passengers sitting behind the reclining ones, we have some solutions to defend your legroom from encroachment*). The first is the controversial Knee Defender ($19.95), a pocket-sized plastic device that locks onto your tray table and prevents the seat in front of you from reclining. It won't win you any friends, but it is approved by the FAA for use.
The second solution? Just ask. I've had good luck with politely asking the flyer in front of me if they would refrain from reclining while I ate or used my laptop.*) encroachment = invasion - inroad - infringement
Fix a broken suitcase zipper
It's happened to everyone: Your suitcase zips just fine when you leave, but upon packing for your return trip, it fails to close. Rather than replace your luggage, consider these quick zipper hacks. If the zipper appears to be stuck, rub Vaseline, lip balm, or bar soap on the teeth to get it moving. Zipper teeth no longer staying closed? Usually a single tooth is bent out of shape. Feel along the length of the zipper until you find the one that sticks out, and then a quick adjustment with pliers will do the trick. And if the zipper handle has snapped off from the slider completely, replace it by looping a souvenir keychain through the slider, creating a makeshift zipper pull. (An eye-catching keychain will also help you identify your bag on the luggage carousel.)
Find free Wi-Fi (really)
Paying for Wi-Fi access is a traveler's pet peeve, especially when stuck in an airport on an infinite layover. Never be left analog again: This handy Lifehacker article, "The Definitive Guide to Finding Free Wi-Fi," rounds up a number of ways to locate a hot spot free of charge. (Caveat emptor: Some are of questionable legality.) Our favorite (above-board) tip is to download a program such as NetStumbler, which goes above and beyond your computer's built-in Wi-Fi detector by locating "hidden" Wi-Fi networks your PC might have missed. If you're on a Bluetooth-enabled Mac, iStumbler will provide the same service. Smartphone users can get apps like JiWire's Free Wi-Fi Finder, whose directory tracks the exact location of nearly 150,000 free networks worldwide.
If all else fails, find the inevitable Starbucks. Many locations offer free Wi-Fi (and you can usually perch right outside the entrance and secure a connection).
Ask for a free phone charger
Just landed, only to realize you forgot to pack your phone charger? Don't run out to replace it just yet. We’ve recently discovered that the most common item left behind in hotels is the phone charger. So before you buy another, check with the hotel's front desk for a spare.
And if you forgot your copy of "Fifty Shades of Grey," don't steel yourself for disappointment. Budget chain Travelodge reports that they recovered 7,000-some left-behind copies last year, making it the most popular book abandoned in hotel rooms … although whether you want to request it from the lost and found is up to you.
Check international airline websites for deals
When booking international flights, don't forget to compare fares with those on the airline's foreign-language website. If the airline is running a sale in a different regional market, you may be able to score sizeable savings on your overseas flight.
For example, a recent search on Polish airline LOT's English-language website found a March flight from New York to Warsaw priced at $968.75, but the Polish-language website (with help from Google Chrome's translation feature) turned up fares from 2,641.01 PLN (around $849.64)—for the exact same flight. If your credit card has a low international-transaction fee, the savings could be well worth it.
Avoid commission fees … with coffee
Starbucks addicts, rejoice! SmarterTravel Editor Caroline Costello shares a clever way to avoid having to pay a commission fee to convert that last bit of foreign cash to US dollars at the end of a vacation. First, pick up a free reloadable Starbucks Card before your international trip. Then, Costello says, "If you have leftover money in the local currency when you’re on your way home, use it to reload your card at the Starbucks location in your international airport." The money you'll save on commission fees might just cover that triple-shot-no-foam-cinnamon-soy-mocha-frappuccino with extra extra sprinkles.
Smart self-defense hacks
We've recommended the use of a dummy wallet before, but it bears repeating. Purchase a second wallet or money clip to carry while traveling. "Pad the wallet with some small bills and make it look more real by slipping in one or two of those sample credit cards you get with offers in the mail," recommends SmarterTravel Senior Editor Christine Sarkis. "In the scary and unlikely case of an actual mugging, it also gives you something to throw and run, buying you time to escape with your safety and your actual wallet."
And if you're concerned about safety but don't own pepper spray (or are in a destination where pepper spray is illegal), we have two words: Aqua Net. Anyone who has ever accidentally sprayed an aerosol hairspray in a confined space knows that it's just as painfully effective as pepper spray. Carry a small bottle in your purse if you're traveling alone or are in a questionable area; if the bottle is less than 3.4 ounces, you can even pack it in a carry-on bag.
Click green for further info
_______________________________________
========================================================================================================================================================== Hostels Gain Popularity With Business Travelers
Tight Travel Budget - Try a Hostel - they can be of excellent quality today
Ferdi van ‘t Wout, a manager for a global electronics manufacturer in the Netherlands, frequently stays in hostels when traveling for work, an option he discovered last year by accident.
“I unexpectedly needed to be in Copenhagen to meet with some colleagues,” he said. “Due to the short notice and some big event happening, it was simply impossible to find a hotel in the city center that was anywhere close to being considered affordable.” So he made a reservation for a private room with a bath at the hostel Generator Copenhagen.
The service, design and public areas for quietly working and relaxing impressed him, so he has returned several times and stayed at a sister property in Hamburg, Germany. Hostels are “good for young businesspeople like me who are ready to plug in anywhere but don’t want to spend all evening alone in the bedroom,” Mr. van ‘t Wout, 30, said.
Hostels, long associated with lone backpackers and groups of students, have recently attracted older adults, families and, now, even business travelers, especially those in their 20s and 30s on tight budgets who are staying at upscale, design-oriented hostels.
Josh Wyatt, a partner at Patron Capital, the private equity firm based in London that owns Generator Hostels, said traffic had been brisk among young business travelers at its hostel in Copenhagen and seven other European properties. At some, nearly 20 percent of the guests during the week are business travelers, especially in off-peak seasons. He attributed that to upgrades in service, accommodations, design and food and beverages, areas where hostels have not traditionally excelled.
Many Generator Hostel guests are starting in their careers and traveling for work but do not have large expense accounts. In 10 years, they might stay at stylish boutique hotels like W and the Standard, but for now they choose upscale hostels rather than budget hotels. Mr. Wyatt said they were drawn by “a great night sleep, a great shower and free Wi-Fi, all in a hip, relaxed setting. If you have to travel and are on a budget, you still want to have fun and want something cool.”
He said a bed in a dorm room at Generator Copenhagen could cost about 20 percent of the price of a room at a typical midrange business hotel nearby and at Generator Barcelona about 10 percent of that midrange hotel price. And private rooms at Generator hostels in those cities can cost as little as half the price of comparable rooms at a three-star hotel, he said.
The company is beginning to market to start-up firms and entry- and junior-level employees. It uses booking sources not typically associated with hostels that compete with budget hotels, listing its properties on global distribution systems used by online booking Web sites.
The hostel industry has grown in recent years because more people are traveling and because of the global economic downturn that pinched travelers’ budgets, according to Stay Wyse, a nonprofit trade association that tracks and researches accommodation trends among young travelers globally.
The hostels, which have been consistently profitable over the years, are also evolving as they move away from the traditional, rustic concept to high design, with enhanced facilities and services, a trend that started around 2004.
An estimated 10 percent of hostel guests are business travelers, a figure that has grown about 1 percent each year since 2009, in part because “the product has significantly increased in quality,” said Laura Daly, association manager for Stay Wyse. “With the investment in facilities, we predict this will grow at a steeper rate year on year.”
Bjorn Hanson, divisional dean of the Preston Robert Tisch Center for Hospitality, Tourism and Sports Management at New York University, said he was not aware of data that tracked business travel stays at hostels, but he said it might be more common outside the United States. He attributed that to several factors: traditional lodging brands offer more budget choices of consistent quality in the United States. And in Europe, where low-cost brands are not as prevalent, hostels “may fill that void,” he said. He also cited “wider acceptance to nontraditional lodging formats.”
Giovanna Gentile, senior public relations executive for HostelBookers.com, a Web site based in London for budget accommodations internationally, said many hostels now offered amenities traditionally associated with hotels: private rooms with bathrooms, swimming pools, conference rooms and gyms.
She said hostels offered many amenities that hotels typically did not provide: entertainment rooms with big-screen television sets, surround-sound cinemas, game rooms, pool tables and self-catering kitchens that “encourage travelers to cook their own food and avoid spending a fortune in restaurants.” Hostels also organize social activities, like movie nights, city tours and other outings.
Driven largely by competition, hostel owners “had to find a way to stand out,” Ms. Gentile said.
The fusion hotel in Prague, for example, is both a hotel and a hostel offering standard private rooms and traditional shared dorm rooms, as well as nontraditional meeting spaces, like the rotating bar and lounge and the playroom, which features colorful, oversize folding sofas attached to the wall. Guests can network or play video games during informal meetings. The idea for the hybrid property was born after the economic crisis. “We have a product to sell to anyone, at anytime,” said Nah-Dja Tien, fusion’s general manager. “We can give business travelers an alternative pricewise, and also an alternative experience” for doing business.
Giuseppe Gentileschi, chief executive of Incoming Talents, a modeling agency and fashion production house with headquarters in Prague, often stays and books employees, clients and models at fusion and other hostels. The trend is for clean, well-managed hostels that offer atmosphere, comfort and upscale design but are not pretentious without spending “huge” amounts of money, he said. “At the beginning, I didn’t even realize that fusion was a hostel.”
David Orr, founder of Hostelz.com, a hostel booking and review site, said: “The key to staying in a hostel as a business traveler is to pick the right hostel. I think in some hostels, business travelers feel out of place,” as he said he discovered on a business trip to Spain when he stayed at a hostel “where guests are known to party all night long.” But over all, the competitive market has driven up standards, he said. “They can’t get away with being grungy,” he said. “In some cities, hostels are nicer than hotels.”
Mr. van ‘t Wout, the electronics company manager, said if you needed frills like minibars and room service, then a hostel might not be a good choice.
“But if you are used to traveling with your mobile office,” he said, and “want to enjoy a drink at bar at the end of the day without feeling awkward about being on your own, then this is a stylish and great value option that’s definitely worth considering.”
“The atmosphere is as open or private as you choose yourself,” he said. “It basically made my business travels a lot more fun again.”
Click green for further info
Source: NYT
__________________________________________
Free things on planes you may not know you could get
From shrinking seats to ever-dwindling in-flight amenities, the airline industry really earns its tightfisted reputation. But if you know what to ask for, you'll find that in-flight offerings are not quite as stingy as they seem. We asked author and former flight attendant Beth Blair for her tips on the free extras and services only available to those who know to ask.
So next time you're hit with a headache onboard or have a thirst that's going to take more than a glorified Dixie cup of soda to quench, know you can ask for—and most likely receive—a little onboard assistance.
Sanitizing Wipes
The stream of passengers passing through planes each day turns tray tables, armrests, and entertainment-system buttons into germ factories. If you'd like to clean your area before settling in, ask a flight attendant for a few sanitizing wipes; they often have them on hand, though it's not something most passengers know they can ask for.
The Whole Can
When you factor in the pile of ice that flight attendants load into those little plastic airline cups, you'll find you're not getting much liquid on each pass of the beverage cart. If you've got a thirst that's going to take more than a few tablespoons of soda to quench, consider politely asking your flight attendant for the whole can. Blair says that most of the time, they're happy to oblige. And if they can't—for instance, because the plane is low on cans or isn't getting restocked in the next city—flight attendants will still usually offer to simply come by again to refill your cup.
Wing Pins for Kids
Most airlines have cut free food and snacks for adults and kids, but many still offer little fliers wing pins to commemorate their flight. According to Blair, "The pilots usually don't have them though; it's the flight attendants who have them stashed somewhere in the cabin." Can you ask for a pin even if you don't have kids in tow? We don't know, but if you've tried, leave a comment below letting us know how it went!
Basic Medicines and Bandages
Whether it's for a headache from takeoff or lingering airport heartburn, many flights are stocked with basic medications such as painkillers and antacids. Blair says that, most of the time, flight attendants also have bandages on hand for minor cuts and that "if you're hurt, flight attendants are experts at making ice packs for injuries (either out of plastic bags or sick sacks)." Knowing this makes us wish flight attendants got merit badges.
Note: Some airlines may not allow their flight attendants to dispense over-the-counter medications.
But if you need one, it never hurts to ask.
Water-Bottle Refills
As long as onboard supplies allow it, flight attendants are usually willing to refill your empty bottle of water for you. Blair says, "Most flight attendants are very generous with beverages." Since passengers who carry their own water bottles will have had to empty them before going through security at the airport, this added service can come in extra handy for the hydration-conscious.
Click green for further info
Source: Internet use
___________________________________
From shrinking seats to ever-dwindling in-flight amenities, the airline industry really earns its tightfisted reputation. But if you know what to ask for, you'll find that in-flight offerings are not quite as stingy as they seem. We asked author and former flight attendant Beth Blair for her tips on the free extras and services only available to those who know to ask.
So next time you're hit with a headache onboard or have a thirst that's going to take more than a glorified Dixie cup of soda to quench, know you can ask for—and most likely receive—a little onboard assistance.
Sanitizing Wipes
The stream of passengers passing through planes each day turns tray tables, armrests, and entertainment-system buttons into germ factories. If you'd like to clean your area before settling in, ask a flight attendant for a few sanitizing wipes; they often have them on hand, though it's not something most passengers know they can ask for.
The Whole Can
When you factor in the pile of ice that flight attendants load into those little plastic airline cups, you'll find you're not getting much liquid on each pass of the beverage cart. If you've got a thirst that's going to take more than a few tablespoons of soda to quench, consider politely asking your flight attendant for the whole can. Blair says that most of the time, they're happy to oblige. And if they can't—for instance, because the plane is low on cans or isn't getting restocked in the next city—flight attendants will still usually offer to simply come by again to refill your cup.
Wing Pins for Kids
Most airlines have cut free food and snacks for adults and kids, but many still offer little fliers wing pins to commemorate their flight. According to Blair, "The pilots usually don't have them though; it's the flight attendants who have them stashed somewhere in the cabin." Can you ask for a pin even if you don't have kids in tow? We don't know, but if you've tried, leave a comment below letting us know how it went!
Basic Medicines and Bandages
Whether it's for a headache from takeoff or lingering airport heartburn, many flights are stocked with basic medications such as painkillers and antacids. Blair says that, most of the time, flight attendants also have bandages on hand for minor cuts and that "if you're hurt, flight attendants are experts at making ice packs for injuries (either out of plastic bags or sick sacks)." Knowing this makes us wish flight attendants got merit badges.
Note: Some airlines may not allow their flight attendants to dispense over-the-counter medications.
But if you need one, it never hurts to ask.
Water-Bottle Refills
As long as onboard supplies allow it, flight attendants are usually willing to refill your empty bottle of water for you. Blair says, "Most flight attendants are very generous with beverages." Since passengers who carry their own water bottles will have had to empty them before going through security at the airport, this added service can come in extra handy for the hydration-conscious.
Click green for further info
Source: Internet use
___________________________________
Where in the world is it safe to travel?
Click green title below - links to a colored map - if the link has expired search the web with the title
News for yahoo. Where in the world is it safe to travel?
Reports of brutal rapes of foreign tourists in India and Brazil in recent months have rocked the international travel industry.
Click all green for further info
According to data cited by The Atlantic, visitors to India have dropped 25 percent since December's fatal gang-rape of a young woman on a bus in the capital of New Delhi, and 35 percent among female travelers. And that data was compiled before March 16, when a Swiss woman who was touring the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh by bicycle with her husband was gang-raped by a group of eight men.
In Madhya Pradesh, there are nine reported rapes every day, according to the Washington Post.
In Brazil, where an American tourist was raped by three men over the course of six hours on Monday, reports of rapes there have risen 150 percent since 2009, The Atlantic reported.
Not surprisingly, Brazil and India are among the most dangerous places to travel, according to an interactive map produced by Canada's Department of Foreign Affairs.
But they're not the most dangerous: North Korea, Syria, Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, Mali, Niger, Sudan, South Sudan, Central African Republic and Somalia are where would-be tourists are warned to "avoid all travel."
For other countries, like Libya, visitors are cautioned to "avoid non-essential travel."
The color-coded danger map also includes region- and time-specific warnings. In Pakistan, tourists are told to avoid:
- areas reporting military or militant activity;
- all border areas, except the Wagha official border crossing point;
- Kashmir region, including Azad Kashmir;
- the province of Baluchistan, including the city of Quetta;
- the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, including Swat, the city of Peshawar and the Khyber Pass;
- and the Federally Administered Tribal Areas.
In Mexico, those "required to travel to Monterrey, in the state of Nuevo León, should avoid movement after dark and stay within the suburb of San Pedro Garza García."
So where, exactly, is it safe to travel? Australia, Botswana, Canada, Chile, most of Europe, Greenland, Iceland, New Zealand, Malaysia, South Korea, the United States and Uruguay, according to the agency.
"No matter where in the world you intend to travel," the department's website advises, "make sure you check the travel advice and advisories page twice: once when you are planning your trip, and again shortly before you leave. ... The decision to travel is the sole responsibility of the individual."
Source: Internet
___________________________________________
==========================================================================================================================================================
Safe to know
7 Things to Never Eat or Drink While Traveling
Click green for further info
Eating the kinds of bizarre foods TV omnivore Andrew Zimmern puts in his mouth each week was once the hapless lot - never the intent - of 19th century adventurers like SirRichard Burton, who while trekking from Zanzibar into the Congo would have given anything for some good British beef andYorkshire pudding.
Traveler's illnesses will lay low, even kill, guys who count themselves manly if they gulp down stinky tofu in Taipei or maggots in the Yucatan.Ernest Hemingway would have shot anyone on safari who suggested he drink the blood of awater buffalo. It's bad enough just dealing with unwashed lettuce in a salad in Madrid, much less shrimp pulled up from the putrid rivers of Phnom Penh. And you can just as easily come down with Delhi Belly in Mumbai as you can Montezuma's Revenge in Mexico City.
You're never going to escape it entirely, not on the Champs Élysées or the Via Veneto, though you can take precautions by watching out for certain foods that have a greater chance of bringing you to your knees talking to Ralph on the big white phone.
The basic problem is that if you grew up in the U.S., no matter how healthy your are, you haven't developed defenses against all exotic bacteria. And the stress of travel, the different schedules and missed routines can decrease your immune system so that you're ripe to pick up bacteria from something as innocent-looking as a stalk of celery. Even a cold, uncooked soup like gazpacho can mean trouble. And because it's impossible to know what the animal you intend to eat was eating before it got to you, odd species like snake and rats are not to be trifled with.
RELATED: What You'll Learn Traveling the World and Hitchhiking With Saddam Hussein's Tribe
The next problem is how the food was handled, even in the finest restaurants. Hell, 67 out of 78 people dining at Noma in Copenhagen, considered by some the best restaurant in the world, got food poisoning in one night. But the odds stacked against really mount in street foods, when running water is rarely available.
Processed foods out of China and Thailand have become so problematic - sometimes what the package says, like beef, isn't even what's inside - that many Chinese markets and restaurants in America refuse to buy ingredients from Asia and proclaim that on their menus.
Still, there are specific foods that are in varying degrees risky. Here are a few I (mostly) stay away from in foreign countries. Manly man that I am, I can live without ever eating Mexican monkey's brains or Malaysian ants. And probably live longer.
SHELLFISH
However proud an Osaka sushi chef is of the pristine quality of his raw seafood, shellfish, which are bottom feeders, pick up a lot of nasty bacteria, and if uncooked, they can easily be transferred to you. Cooking should kill most of them off, and the fish used for sashimi is pretty safe. But eating raw oysters or mussels anywhere can be hazardous. I know: I ate a bad oyster in New Orleans and was never so sick in my life. Oyster-causing hepatitis can be a killer that destroys your liver (and thereby your ability to drink alcohol). You can also get a tapeworm from eating contaminated raw meat.
Game
Next time you enjoy a nice haunch of venison at a restaurant in the U.S., rest assured it came - by law - from an inspected game farm. Wild game, even trout from crystalline Alaskan rivers, may contain badass bacteria, and before you eat what you kill in the wild, you'd better be damn sure the animal was healthy. If you do see "wild game" on a menu, then it was most probably venison or grouse that was shot in Scotland and approved for sale by a game inspector. One of the best, most reliable sources for wild game is D'Artagnan Foods, which imports inspected foods including Scottish pheasant, redlegged partridge, grouse and wood pigeon.
PRODUCE
Every guidebook to a foreign country stresses not eating unwashed, uncooked vegetables and fruits. And too many people have done so anyway at their peril and ended up sick as a dog from salmonella, cyclospora, campylobacter, and more. You can wash and scrub and peel raw fruits and vegetables and remove the outer bacteria, but that won't kill what's inside. Boiling and cooking is more advisable. And watch out for desserts, too, that may have raw fruit in or around them. Order a nice slice of apple pie instead.
PORK
Some Americans still harbor an irrational fear about eating pork that has not been cooked to shoe leather supposedly to kill off the trichinosis larvae. The fact is, there are fewer than a dozen reported cases of trichinosis in the U.S. each year, and all of them come from eating wild game, including a wild hog. Hog production in the U.S. is extremely hygienic, so cooking your pig till pink is just fine. But in the rest of the world, particularly in developing countries, such hygiene is not standard practice, so only eat pork there that has been thoroughly cooked through to 160 degrees F.
EGGS
Bet you didn't know that half of all egg-related illnesses, mainly salmonella, are picked up in restaurants, including in the U.S. The problem is in the chicken that lays them, not the shell itself, though this should be thoroughly washed, something that cannot be counted on abroad, where a freshly laid egg is cherished. That means no Caesar salads abroad and no steak tartar with a raw egg in it. Forget the raw steak too.
WATER
It used to be a rubric when traveling abroad not to drink the water, even in Europe. But this has largely become irrelevant if you're staying in a city like Paris, Stockholm, or Tokyo, where the better hotels filter their water. Nevertheless, unless you ask, you won't know that, and even brushing your teeth with contaminated water is going to be bad news. Bottled water is crucial when traveling, and the more familiar the label on the bottle, the better off you'll be. Drinking from a fountain is very stupid. A friend of mine recently spent three weeks in spasmodic pain just because he caught a wave of river water in his mouth while sailing through Bangkok.
SPIT
If you're taking a pleasant cruise down the Amazon with a reputable outfitter, you probably don't need to be told about chicha. But just in case you are invited by some local tribesmen anywhere in the Amazon Basin to knock back a tot of chicha, do anything to avoid it. Chicha comes in many forms, but it always involves saliva. In some cases the cassava root is chewed by the tribeswomen and the juice spat into a bowl that is left to ferment into alcohol. The honor of drinking chicha is one that may follow you home for the next several months. Fortunately I have not been so honored; unfortunately, I do not know the etiquette for turning down the chief's offer to take a swig. Maybe tell him your doctor put you on antibiotics and said you can't drink alcohol.
More from Esquire:
75 Books Every Man Should Read
Brutally Frank Relationship Advice from a 98-Year-Old Woman
Click green for further info
Source: Esquire
_______________________
Click green title below - links to a colored map - if the link has expired search the web with the title
News for yahoo. Where in the world is it safe to travel?
Reports of brutal rapes of foreign tourists in India and Brazil in recent months have rocked the international travel industry.
Click all green for further info
According to data cited by The Atlantic, visitors to India have dropped 25 percent since December's fatal gang-rape of a young woman on a bus in the capital of New Delhi, and 35 percent among female travelers. And that data was compiled before March 16, when a Swiss woman who was touring the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh by bicycle with her husband was gang-raped by a group of eight men.
In Madhya Pradesh, there are nine reported rapes every day, according to the Washington Post.
In Brazil, where an American tourist was raped by three men over the course of six hours on Monday, reports of rapes there have risen 150 percent since 2009, The Atlantic reported.
Not surprisingly, Brazil and India are among the most dangerous places to travel, according to an interactive map produced by Canada's Department of Foreign Affairs.
But they're not the most dangerous: North Korea, Syria, Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, Mali, Niger, Sudan, South Sudan, Central African Republic and Somalia are where would-be tourists are warned to "avoid all travel."
For other countries, like Libya, visitors are cautioned to "avoid non-essential travel."
The color-coded danger map also includes region- and time-specific warnings. In Pakistan, tourists are told to avoid:
- areas reporting military or militant activity;
- all border areas, except the Wagha official border crossing point;
- Kashmir region, including Azad Kashmir;
- the province of Baluchistan, including the city of Quetta;
- the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, including Swat, the city of Peshawar and the Khyber Pass;
- and the Federally Administered Tribal Areas.
In Mexico, those "required to travel to Monterrey, in the state of Nuevo León, should avoid movement after dark and stay within the suburb of San Pedro Garza García."
So where, exactly, is it safe to travel? Australia, Botswana, Canada, Chile, most of Europe, Greenland, Iceland, New Zealand, Malaysia, South Korea, the United States and Uruguay, according to the agency.
"No matter where in the world you intend to travel," the department's website advises, "make sure you check the travel advice and advisories page twice: once when you are planning your trip, and again shortly before you leave. ... The decision to travel is the sole responsibility of the individual."
Source: Internet
___________________________________________
==========================================================================================================================================================
Safe to know
7 Things to Never Eat or Drink While Traveling
Click green for further info
Eating the kinds of bizarre foods TV omnivore Andrew Zimmern puts in his mouth each week was once the hapless lot - never the intent - of 19th century adventurers like SirRichard Burton, who while trekking from Zanzibar into the Congo would have given anything for some good British beef andYorkshire pudding.
Traveler's illnesses will lay low, even kill, guys who count themselves manly if they gulp down stinky tofu in Taipei or maggots in the Yucatan.Ernest Hemingway would have shot anyone on safari who suggested he drink the blood of awater buffalo. It's bad enough just dealing with unwashed lettuce in a salad in Madrid, much less shrimp pulled up from the putrid rivers of Phnom Penh. And you can just as easily come down with Delhi Belly in Mumbai as you can Montezuma's Revenge in Mexico City.
You're never going to escape it entirely, not on the Champs Élysées or the Via Veneto, though you can take precautions by watching out for certain foods that have a greater chance of bringing you to your knees talking to Ralph on the big white phone.
The basic problem is that if you grew up in the U.S., no matter how healthy your are, you haven't developed defenses against all exotic bacteria. And the stress of travel, the different schedules and missed routines can decrease your immune system so that you're ripe to pick up bacteria from something as innocent-looking as a stalk of celery. Even a cold, uncooked soup like gazpacho can mean trouble. And because it's impossible to know what the animal you intend to eat was eating before it got to you, odd species like snake and rats are not to be trifled with.
RELATED: What You'll Learn Traveling the World and Hitchhiking With Saddam Hussein's Tribe
The next problem is how the food was handled, even in the finest restaurants. Hell, 67 out of 78 people dining at Noma in Copenhagen, considered by some the best restaurant in the world, got food poisoning in one night. But the odds stacked against really mount in street foods, when running water is rarely available.
Processed foods out of China and Thailand have become so problematic - sometimes what the package says, like beef, isn't even what's inside - that many Chinese markets and restaurants in America refuse to buy ingredients from Asia and proclaim that on their menus.
Still, there are specific foods that are in varying degrees risky. Here are a few I (mostly) stay away from in foreign countries. Manly man that I am, I can live without ever eating Mexican monkey's brains or Malaysian ants. And probably live longer.
SHELLFISH
However proud an Osaka sushi chef is of the pristine quality of his raw seafood, shellfish, which are bottom feeders, pick up a lot of nasty bacteria, and if uncooked, they can easily be transferred to you. Cooking should kill most of them off, and the fish used for sashimi is pretty safe. But eating raw oysters or mussels anywhere can be hazardous. I know: I ate a bad oyster in New Orleans and was never so sick in my life. Oyster-causing hepatitis can be a killer that destroys your liver (and thereby your ability to drink alcohol). You can also get a tapeworm from eating contaminated raw meat.
Game
Next time you enjoy a nice haunch of venison at a restaurant in the U.S., rest assured it came - by law - from an inspected game farm. Wild game, even trout from crystalline Alaskan rivers, may contain badass bacteria, and before you eat what you kill in the wild, you'd better be damn sure the animal was healthy. If you do see "wild game" on a menu, then it was most probably venison or grouse that was shot in Scotland and approved for sale by a game inspector. One of the best, most reliable sources for wild game is D'Artagnan Foods, which imports inspected foods including Scottish pheasant, redlegged partridge, grouse and wood pigeon.
PRODUCE
Every guidebook to a foreign country stresses not eating unwashed, uncooked vegetables and fruits. And too many people have done so anyway at their peril and ended up sick as a dog from salmonella, cyclospora, campylobacter, and more. You can wash and scrub and peel raw fruits and vegetables and remove the outer bacteria, but that won't kill what's inside. Boiling and cooking is more advisable. And watch out for desserts, too, that may have raw fruit in or around them. Order a nice slice of apple pie instead.
PORK
Some Americans still harbor an irrational fear about eating pork that has not been cooked to shoe leather supposedly to kill off the trichinosis larvae. The fact is, there are fewer than a dozen reported cases of trichinosis in the U.S. each year, and all of them come from eating wild game, including a wild hog. Hog production in the U.S. is extremely hygienic, so cooking your pig till pink is just fine. But in the rest of the world, particularly in developing countries, such hygiene is not standard practice, so only eat pork there that has been thoroughly cooked through to 160 degrees F.
EGGS
Bet you didn't know that half of all egg-related illnesses, mainly salmonella, are picked up in restaurants, including in the U.S. The problem is in the chicken that lays them, not the shell itself, though this should be thoroughly washed, something that cannot be counted on abroad, where a freshly laid egg is cherished. That means no Caesar salads abroad and no steak tartar with a raw egg in it. Forget the raw steak too.
WATER
It used to be a rubric when traveling abroad not to drink the water, even in Europe. But this has largely become irrelevant if you're staying in a city like Paris, Stockholm, or Tokyo, where the better hotels filter their water. Nevertheless, unless you ask, you won't know that, and even brushing your teeth with contaminated water is going to be bad news. Bottled water is crucial when traveling, and the more familiar the label on the bottle, the better off you'll be. Drinking from a fountain is very stupid. A friend of mine recently spent three weeks in spasmodic pain just because he caught a wave of river water in his mouth while sailing through Bangkok.
SPIT
If you're taking a pleasant cruise down the Amazon with a reputable outfitter, you probably don't need to be told about chicha. But just in case you are invited by some local tribesmen anywhere in the Amazon Basin to knock back a tot of chicha, do anything to avoid it. Chicha comes in many forms, but it always involves saliva. In some cases the cassava root is chewed by the tribeswomen and the juice spat into a bowl that is left to ferment into alcohol. The honor of drinking chicha is one that may follow you home for the next several months. Fortunately I have not been so honored; unfortunately, I do not know the etiquette for turning down the chief's offer to take a swig. Maybe tell him your doctor put you on antibiotics and said you can't drink alcohol.
More from Esquire:
75 Books Every Man Should Read
Brutally Frank Relationship Advice from a 98-Year-Old Woman
Click green for further info
Source: Esquire
_______________________
Samoan airline defends charging by passenger weight
Date: March, 2013
A Samoan airline that says it is
the world’s first carrier to charge passengers by their weight rather than per seat
has defended the plan as the fairest way to fly, in some cases actually ending up cheaper than conventional tickets.
Samoa Air, which opened in 2012, asks passengers to declare their personal weight during booking, which is then charged per kilogram (2.2 lb) at a rate dependent on flight length. The customers will also be weighed at the check-in counter.
“The industry has this concept that all people throughout the world are the same size,” Samoa Air CEO Chris Langton told Reuters. “Aeroplanes always run on weight, irrespective of seats.”
“There is no doubt in my mind that this is the concept of the future. This is the fairest way of you travelling with your family, or yourself.”
Though the airline instituted the plan last November, it caught attention last week when the carrier began international flights to neighboring American Samoa and coincided with the publication of a report by a Norwegian economist suggesting that airlines should charge obese passengers more.
The Pacific Islands contain some of the world’s most prevalent countries for obesity, many ranking in the top 10, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). Samoa is ranked number four, with 59.6 percent of the population considered obese, said the most recent 2008 WHO report.
According to Samoa Air’s latest schedule, the airline charges up to WS$1.32 ($0.57) per kg for domestic flights and WS$2.40 ($1.03) per kg for its only international flight toAmerican Samoa, around 250 miles. A 150 kg person flying one-way internationally would be charged $154.50.
Children under 12 are charged 75 percent of the adult rate, with fares also based on weight. Any overweight baggage is calculated at the same rate as the passenger’s personal weight.
The plan could actually prove cheaper in some cases, such as for families travelling with small children, and Langton said customer feedback has mainly been “amazingly positive”.
“When the initial shock has worn off, there’s been nothing but support,” said Langton. “People who are up around 200 kg recognize…they’re paying (for) 200 kg, so they deserve to get 200 kg of comfort,” he added.
(click green for further info)
Samoa (i/səˈmoʊ.ə/; Samoan: Sāmoa, IPA: [ˌsaːˈmoa]), officially the Independent State of Samoa (Samoan: Malo Sa'oloto Tuto'atasi o Sāmoa), formerly known as Western Samoa, is a country encompassing the western part of the Samoan Islands in the South Pacific Ocean. It became independent from New Zealand in 1962. The two main islands of Samoa are Upolu and one of the biggest islands in Polynesia, Savai'i. The capital city, Apia, and Faleolo International Airport are situated on the island of Upolu.
Samoa was admitted to the United Nations on 15 December 1976.[6] The entire island group, inclusive of American Samoa, was called “Navigators Islands” by European explorers before the 20th century because of the Samoans' seafaring skills.[7]
Additional links to Samoa info (click green for further info)
Date: March, 2013
A Samoan airline that says it is
the world’s first carrier to charge passengers by their weight rather than per seat
has defended the plan as the fairest way to fly, in some cases actually ending up cheaper than conventional tickets.
Samoa Air, which opened in 2012, asks passengers to declare their personal weight during booking, which is then charged per kilogram (2.2 lb) at a rate dependent on flight length. The customers will also be weighed at the check-in counter.
“The industry has this concept that all people throughout the world are the same size,” Samoa Air CEO Chris Langton told Reuters. “Aeroplanes always run on weight, irrespective of seats.”
“There is no doubt in my mind that this is the concept of the future. This is the fairest way of you travelling with your family, or yourself.”
Though the airline instituted the plan last November, it caught attention last week when the carrier began international flights to neighboring American Samoa and coincided with the publication of a report by a Norwegian economist suggesting that airlines should charge obese passengers more.
The Pacific Islands contain some of the world’s most prevalent countries for obesity, many ranking in the top 10, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). Samoa is ranked number four, with 59.6 percent of the population considered obese, said the most recent 2008 WHO report.
According to Samoa Air’s latest schedule, the airline charges up to WS$1.32 ($0.57) per kg for domestic flights and WS$2.40 ($1.03) per kg for its only international flight toAmerican Samoa, around 250 miles. A 150 kg person flying one-way internationally would be charged $154.50.
Children under 12 are charged 75 percent of the adult rate, with fares also based on weight. Any overweight baggage is calculated at the same rate as the passenger’s personal weight.
The plan could actually prove cheaper in some cases, such as for families travelling with small children, and Langton said customer feedback has mainly been “amazingly positive”.
“When the initial shock has worn off, there’s been nothing but support,” said Langton. “People who are up around 200 kg recognize…they’re paying (for) 200 kg, so they deserve to get 200 kg of comfort,” he added.
(click green for further info)
Samoa (i/səˈmoʊ.ə/; Samoan: Sāmoa, IPA: [ˌsaːˈmoa]), officially the Independent State of Samoa (Samoan: Malo Sa'oloto Tuto'atasi o Sāmoa), formerly known as Western Samoa, is a country encompassing the western part of the Samoan Islands in the South Pacific Ocean. It became independent from New Zealand in 1962. The two main islands of Samoa are Upolu and one of the biggest islands in Polynesia, Savai'i. The capital city, Apia, and Faleolo International Airport are situated on the island of Upolu.
Samoa was admitted to the United Nations on 15 December 1976.[6] The entire island group, inclusive of American Samoa, was called “Navigators Islands” by European explorers before the 20th century because of the Samoans' seafaring skills.[7]
Additional links to Samoa info (click green for further info)
- Government of Samoa - Official Website www.govt.ws/
The official web site of the Government of the Independent State of Samoa. Find information about the country and its government, news and FAQ. - Samoa - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samoa
Samoa was admitted to the United Nations on 15 December 1976. The entire island group, inclusive of American Samoa, was called “Navigators Islands” by ...
Samoans - Samoan Islands - American Samoa - History of Samoa - News for Samoa Heavy passengers to pay more on Samoa Air _______________________________________________________________________________
11 Things You Can Take on a Plane
Interesting details, beneficial to know, helpful information
Next below new information relating to a new policy:
U.S. Relaxes Air Travel Carry-On Prohibitions
The new rules take effect April 25, 2013
The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) has an extraordinary amount of power: they can root through personal belongings, force people to take off their shoes, and act all suspicious around any sort of liquid. But the TSA doesn't ban everything. Here is a list of things will make it through the security inspection.
1. Delta will make special accommodations for flying Christmas trees. Of course, you’ll also have to make room in your luggage for the massive amount of judgment your fellow travelers will heap on you for dragging an evergreen into an airport.
2. Cremated remains are permitted as both carry-on and checked items, but an agent has to be able to sift through them.
3. Parachutes and personal life jackets (although almost all airlines already provide them) are allowed on commercial flights, which could be a nice comfort for a pteromerhanophbic - that’s someone who is afraid of flying - it is estimated to affect up to a quarter of the population.
Click green: Pteromerhanophobia / Fear of Flying / Fear of flight
www.anxiety-phobia.com/14-pteromerhanophobia-fear-of-flying-fea...
Pteromerhanophobia / Fear of Flying / Fear of flight - There are many people who fears boarding ...
This is also very common phobia experienced by many people - estimated to affect up to a quarter of the population
There are many people who fears boarding ...
4. If you see mysterious vapors coming out of someone’s carry-on bag, don’t panic. It could just be dry ice. While not a
preferred method of preservation, dry ice is allowed in carry-on bags in quantities of 5.5 pounds or less.
5. Crafters, rejoice! Knitting needles and needlepoint are permitted in carry-on bags, so long as cutters with a blade are left behind.
6. Animal trophies are considered fragile, but acceptable items to carry on a plane. Delta is even willing to transport any antlers you might have with you for a fee.
7. Although they were banned from commercial flights in the United States in 2005, common lighters have been permitted on flights since 2007. In 2006, over 11 million were surrendered at airport security.
8. In the United Kingdom, toy weapons are banned from flights, but in the United States only “realistic looking replicas” are prohibited.
9. Although corkscrews are banned from carry-on bags in Canada, there are no restrictions on them in the United States.
10. Although restrictions may vary on different airlines, the TSA = The Transportation Security Administration
doesn’t put limitations on how much bone marrow you can carry on a plane. Same goes for transplant organs.
11. You can carry needles and syringes on a plane, but you have to have clearly labeled, prescribed medicine to accompany them.
______________________________________________________
Interesting details, beneficial to know, helpful information
Next below new information relating to a new policy:
U.S. Relaxes Air Travel Carry-On Prohibitions
The new rules take effect April 25, 2013
The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) has an extraordinary amount of power: they can root through personal belongings, force people to take off their shoes, and act all suspicious around any sort of liquid. But the TSA doesn't ban everything. Here is a list of things will make it through the security inspection.
1. Delta will make special accommodations for flying Christmas trees. Of course, you’ll also have to make room in your luggage for the massive amount of judgment your fellow travelers will heap on you for dragging an evergreen into an airport.
2. Cremated remains are permitted as both carry-on and checked items, but an agent has to be able to sift through them.
3. Parachutes and personal life jackets (although almost all airlines already provide them) are allowed on commercial flights, which could be a nice comfort for a pteromerhanophbic - that’s someone who is afraid of flying - it is estimated to affect up to a quarter of the population.
Click green: Pteromerhanophobia / Fear of Flying / Fear of flight
www.anxiety-phobia.com/14-pteromerhanophobia-fear-of-flying-fea...
Pteromerhanophobia / Fear of Flying / Fear of flight - There are many people who fears boarding ...
This is also very common phobia experienced by many people - estimated to affect up to a quarter of the population
There are many people who fears boarding ...
4. If you see mysterious vapors coming out of someone’s carry-on bag, don’t panic. It could just be dry ice. While not a
preferred method of preservation, dry ice is allowed in carry-on bags in quantities of 5.5 pounds or less.
5. Crafters, rejoice! Knitting needles and needlepoint are permitted in carry-on bags, so long as cutters with a blade are left behind.
6. Animal trophies are considered fragile, but acceptable items to carry on a plane. Delta is even willing to transport any antlers you might have with you for a fee.
7. Although they were banned from commercial flights in the United States in 2005, common lighters have been permitted on flights since 2007. In 2006, over 11 million were surrendered at airport security.
8. In the United Kingdom, toy weapons are banned from flights, but in the United States only “realistic looking replicas” are prohibited.
9. Although corkscrews are banned from carry-on bags in Canada, there are no restrictions on them in the United States.
10. Although restrictions may vary on different airlines, the TSA = The Transportation Security Administration
doesn’t put limitations on how much bone marrow you can carry on a plane. Same goes for transplant organs.
11. You can carry needles and syringes on a plane, but you have to have clearly labeled, prescribed medicine to accompany them.
______________________________________________________
U.S. Relaxes Air Travel Carry-On Prohibitions
The new rules take effect April 25, 2013
See also the article just next above: important info
The U.S. Senator Charles E. Schumer (NY, D) has complained about some details (e.g. small knives, etc.)
being allowed to the plane and says "if the TSA is not correcting this, he will use the legislation to change it.
March 5, 2013
U.S. Relaxes Air Travel Carry-On Prohibitions
By JAD MOUAWADThe Transportation Security Administration said on Tuesday that it would allow airplane passengers to bring pocketknives, golf clubs and other sports items aboard in carry-on bags, loosening some of the restrictions created after the Sept. 11 terror attacks.
The agency said the new rules, which align with international standards, would allow its security agents to “better focus their efforts on finding higher-threat items such as explosives.” Box cutters and razor blades are still prohibited in carry-on bags.
Passengers will be permitted to carry pocketknives with blades shorter than 2.36 inches long and 0.5 inches wide. Knives with a locking or fixed blade, or those with a molded grip, will still be prohibited.
The new rules will also allow passengers to bring on board previously banned sports equipment like lacrosse and hockey sticks, pool cues and ski poles, as well as no more than two golf clubs. Novelty and toy baseball bats measuring less than 24 inches, or weighing less than 24 ounces, will be permitted as well.
The new policy was announced by John S. Pistole, the agency’s administrator, at an international aviation safety conference held in Brooklyn. Mr. Pistole has sought to move the T.S.A. from a one-size-fits-all model to a more tailored approach that focuses on threats and risks. The agency introduced new programs, for instance, that allow some frequent fliers to go through special safety lines at designated airports if they have been cleared in advance.
The changes, however, attracted sharp criticism from flight attendant unions. The Flight Attendants Union Coalition, which represents five labor groups and 90,000 people, said the decision was “poor and shortsighted.”
Stacy K. Martin, president of the Southwest Airlines flight attendants’ union, Transport Workers Union Local 556, said that while a small knife posed little threat to pilots locked in the cockpit, the new policy created unnecessary risks for cabin crew. “This policy was designed to make the lives of T.S.A. staff easier, but not make flights safer,” she said in a statement.
The new rules take effect April 25, 2013
______________________________________________
See below next: Dictionary of Phobia
________
The new rules take effect April 25, 2013
See also the article just next above: important info
The U.S. Senator Charles E. Schumer (NY, D) has complained about some details (e.g. small knives, etc.)
being allowed to the plane and says "if the TSA is not correcting this, he will use the legislation to change it.
March 5, 2013
U.S. Relaxes Air Travel Carry-On Prohibitions
By JAD MOUAWADThe Transportation Security Administration said on Tuesday that it would allow airplane passengers to bring pocketknives, golf clubs and other sports items aboard in carry-on bags, loosening some of the restrictions created after the Sept. 11 terror attacks.
The agency said the new rules, which align with international standards, would allow its security agents to “better focus their efforts on finding higher-threat items such as explosives.” Box cutters and razor blades are still prohibited in carry-on bags.
Passengers will be permitted to carry pocketknives with blades shorter than 2.36 inches long and 0.5 inches wide. Knives with a locking or fixed blade, or those with a molded grip, will still be prohibited.
The new rules will also allow passengers to bring on board previously banned sports equipment like lacrosse and hockey sticks, pool cues and ski poles, as well as no more than two golf clubs. Novelty and toy baseball bats measuring less than 24 inches, or weighing less than 24 ounces, will be permitted as well.
The new policy was announced by John S. Pistole, the agency’s administrator, at an international aviation safety conference held in Brooklyn. Mr. Pistole has sought to move the T.S.A. from a one-size-fits-all model to a more tailored approach that focuses on threats and risks. The agency introduced new programs, for instance, that allow some frequent fliers to go through special safety lines at designated airports if they have been cleared in advance.
The changes, however, attracted sharp criticism from flight attendant unions. The Flight Attendants Union Coalition, which represents five labor groups and 90,000 people, said the decision was “poor and shortsighted.”
Stacy K. Martin, president of the Southwest Airlines flight attendants’ union, Transport Workers Union Local 556, said that while a small knife posed little threat to pilots locked in the cockpit, the new policy created unnecessary risks for cabin crew. “This policy was designed to make the lives of T.S.A. staff easier, but not make flights safer,” she said in a statement.
The new rules take effect April 25, 2013
______________________________________________
See below next: Dictionary of Phobia
________
Dictionary of Phobia INDEX
(1) Below the phobias starting with the letter A
(2) Click any letter to get a phobia starting with that particular letter.
(3) Click the phobia title to get the description & other details for that phobia
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
Ablutophobia
Acarophobia
Acerophobia
Acheronophobia
Achluophobia
Acousticophobia
Acrophobia
Aeroacrophobia
Aeronausiphobia
Aerophobia
Agliophobia
Agoraphobia
Agraphobia
Agrizoophobia
Agyrophobia
Aichmophobia
Ailurophobia
Albuminurophob...Alektorophobia
Algophobia
Alliumphobia
Allodoxaphobia
Amathophobia
Amaxophobia
Ambulophobia
Amnesiphobia
Amychophobia
Anablephobia
Anatidaephobia
Ancraophobia
Androphobia
Anginophobia
Anglophobia
Angrophobia
Ankylophobia
Anthophobia
Anthrophobia
Anthropophobia
Antlophobia
Anuptaphobia
Apeirophobia
Aphenphosmphob...Apiphobia
Apotemnophobia
Arachibutyroph...Arachneophobia
Arithmophobia
_________________________________________________________
(1) Below the phobias starting with the letter A
(2) Click any letter to get a phobia starting with that particular letter.
(3) Click the phobia title to get the description & other details for that phobia
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
Ablutophobia
Acarophobia
Acerophobia
Acheronophobia
Achluophobia
Acousticophobia
Acrophobia
Aeroacrophobia
Aeronausiphobia
Aerophobia
Agliophobia
Agoraphobia
Agraphobia
Agrizoophobia
Agyrophobia
Aichmophobia
Ailurophobia
Albuminurophob...Alektorophobia
Algophobia
Alliumphobia
Allodoxaphobia
Amathophobia
Amaxophobia
Ambulophobia
Amnesiphobia
Amychophobia
Anablephobia
Anatidaephobia
Ancraophobia
Androphobia
Anginophobia
Anglophobia
Angrophobia
Ankylophobia
Anthophobia
Anthrophobia
Anthropophobia
Antlophobia
Anuptaphobia
Apeirophobia
Aphenphosmphob...Apiphobia
Apotemnophobia
Arachibutyroph...Arachneophobia
Arithmophobia
_________________________________________________________
Helpful info for a more enjoyable flight
10 Important "secrets"
of flight attendants
A seasoned flight attendant for a major carrier dishes 10 workplace secrets
Source: Heather Poole has worked for a major carrier for more than 15 years and is the author of
Click green Cruising Attitude: Tales of Crashpads, Crew Drama, and Crazy Passengers at 35,000 Feet
1. If the plane door is open, we're not getting paid
You know all that preflight time where we're cramming bags into overhead bins? None of that shows up in our paychecks. Flight attendants get paid for "flight hours only." Translation: The clock doesn't start until the craft pushes away from the gate. Flight delays, cancellations, and layovers affect us just as much as they do passengers — maybe even more. Airlines aren't completely heartless, though. From the time we sign in at the airport until the plane slides back into the gate at our home base, we get an expense allowance of $1.50 an hour. It's not much, but it helps pay the rent.
2. Landing this gig is tough
Competition is fierce: When Delta announced 1,000 openings in 2010, it received over 100,000 applications. Even Harvard's acceptance rate isn't that low! All that competition means that most applicants who score interviews have college degrees — I know doctors and lawyers who've made the career switch. But you don't need a law degree to get your foot in the jetway door. Being able to speak a second language greatly improves your chances. So does having customer service experience (especially in fine dining) or having worked for another airline, a sign that you can handle the lifestyle. The 4 percent who do get a callback interview really need to weigh the pros and cons of the job. As we like to say, flight attendants must be willing to cut their hair and go anywhere. And if you can't survive on $18,000 a year, most new hires' salary, don't even think about applying.
3. We can be too tall or too short to fly
During Pan Am's heyday in the 1960s, there were strict requirements for stewardesses: They had to be at least 5-foot-2, weigh no more than 130 pounds, and retire by age 32. They couldn't be married or have children, either. As a result, most women averaged just 18 months on the job. In the 1970s, the organization Stewardesses for Women's Rights forced airlines to change their ways. The mandatory retirement age was the first thing to go. By the 1980s, the marriage restriction was gone as well.
SEE MORE: How America wasted $8 billion rebuilding Iraq
These days, as long as flight attendants can do the job and pass a yearly training program, we can keep flying. As for weight restrictions, most of those disappeared in the 1990s. Today, the rules are about safety: Flight attendants who can't sit in the jump seat without an extended seat belt or can't fit through the emergency exit window cannot fly. The same goes for height requirements: We have to be tall enough to grab equipment from the overhead bins, but not so tall that we're hitting our heads on the ceiling. Today, that typically means between 5-foot-3 and 6-foot-1, depending on the aircraft.
4. We can be fired for bizarre reasons
Newly hired flight attendants are placed on strict probation for their first six months. I know one new hire who lost her job for wearing her uniform sweater tied around her waist. Another newbie got canned for pretending to be a full-fledged attendant so she could fly home for free. (Travel benefits don't kick in until we're off probation.) But the most surprising violation is flying while ill: If we call in sick, we aren't allowed to fly, even as a passenger on another airline. It's grounds for immediate dismissal.
SEE MORE: 5 towns that have considered making gun ownership mandatory
5. Diet Coke is our nemesis!
Of all the drinks we serve, Diet Coke takes the most time to pour — the fizz takes forever to settle at 35,000 feet. In the time it takes me to pour a single cup of Diet Coke, I can serve three passengers a different beverage. So even though giving cans to first-class passengers is a big no-no, you'll occasionally spy 12 ounces of silver trimmed in red sitting up there.
6. If you try to sneak a dead body onto a plane, we will notice
You may have heard the story of a Miami passenger who tried to board a flight with his dead mother inside a garment bag. Why would someone do such a thing? Because it's expensive to transport human bodies! Prices vary by destination, but delivering a body on a flight can cost up to $5,000. Commercial carriers transport bodies across the country every day, and because the funeral directors who arrange these flights are offered air miles for their loyalty, they're not always concerned about finding the lowest fare.
SEE MORE: The death of the American pun
Thankfully, I've never had someone sneak a deceased passenger on board, but my roommate did. She knew the man was dead the moment she saw him looking gray and slumped over in a wheelchair, even though his wife and daughter assured her he was just battling the flu. Midway through the flight, the plane had to make an unscheduled landing when it became apparent that no amount of Nyquil was going to revive him.
No one officially dies in-flight unless there's a doctor on board to make the pronouncement. On these very rare occasions, the crew will do everything possible to manage the situation with sensitivity and respect. Unfortunately, most flights are full, so it's not always possible to move an "incapacitated" passenger to an empty row of seats. Singapore Airlines is the most prepared. Its planes feature a "corpse cupboard," a compartment for storing a dead body if the situation arises.
7. We'll also notice if you try to join the Mile High Club
It's usually the long line of people waiting to use the bathroom that gives you away, and nine times out of 10, it's a passenger who asks the flight attendants to intervene. Strictly speaking, it's not against the law to join the Mile High Club. But it is against the law to disobey crew member commands. If we ask you to stop doing whatever it is you're doing, by all means, stop! Otherwise, you're going to have a very awkward conversation when you meet your cell mate.
8. We're the first line of defense against human trafficking
When I started flying, I never dreamed I'd be working with the police, but it's become an important part of the job. This new role started with Sandra Fiorini, an American Airlines flight attendant who testified to Congress about an 18-year-old male passenger carrying a newborn with its umbilical cord still attached. No mother in sight, just one bottle of milk and two diapers stuck in his pocket for the six-hour flight. When Fiorini reported her suspicions to the authorities, she got no response.
In 2007, Fiorini met Deborah Sigmund, founder of the organization Innocents at Risk, and they began working together to train airline employees on what to spot and who to call. In 2011, this translated into hundreds of flight attendants from different airlines volunteering to help police at the Super Bowl, a hotbed for trafficking prostitutes.
9. Seniority means shorter skirts
Our tenure on the job doesn't just determine which routes we fly and which days we get to take off; it also affects the hierarchy in our crashpad, an apartment shared by as many as 20 flight attendants. Seniority is the difference between top or lower bunk, what floor your bed is on, and just how far away your room is from noisy areas such as doors or stairwells.
Seniority even determines the length of our skirts — we can't hem them above a certain length until we're off probation. Afterward, it's OK to shorten the hem and show a little leg. Some of the friskier pilots take advantage of the long hems; they know that new hires tend to be more flattered by their advances than senior flight attendants. (One senior flight attendant I know intentionally left her skirt long just to keep these guys interested!)
10. You've never experienced extreme turbulence
More than 2 million people fly in the United States each day, and yet since 1980, only three people have died as a direct result of turbulence. Of those fatalities, two passengers weren't wearing their safety belts. During that same time period, the Federal Aviation Administration recorded just over 300 serious injuries from turbulence, and more than two-thirds of the victims were flight attendants. What do these numbers mean? As long as your seat belt is on, you're more likely to be injured by falling luggage than by choppy air.
Interestingly, on some airlines, a flight attendant's injuries in flight can't be officially classified as an on-duty injury unless it happens during what's known as "extreme turbulence" — where the captain loses control of the plane or the craft sustains structural damage. In both of those cases, the aircraft must be grounded and inspected. Because no one wants to ground a plane, captains are very hesitant to hand out the "extreme turbulence" label. A friend of mine who works closely with airline management said he's never seen a pilot label rough air as "extreme turbulence." So the next time you're nervous about some mid-flight bumps, just take a deep breath and remind yourself, "This isn't extreme!"
Source: Heather Poole has worked for a major carrier for more than 15 years and is the author of
Click green: Cruising Attitude: Tales of Crashpads, Crew Drama, and Crazy Passengers at 35,000 Feet.
_____________________________________________________
==========================================================================================================================================================Secret Tips for Cheap Travel Off the Beaten Path
This article has several excellent links for free traveling round the world -read the article they are in the text
This article was published in The Epoch Times - Search their website with the title to see the pictures (referred to below)
STAF, Inc. endorses click: The Epoch Times
Warning: These travel tips are not for people scared of new experiences; worried about the possibility that something could go wrong (a possibility I like to call, “adventure”); shy to meet friendly strangers; opposed to leaving their comfort zones.
I traveled mostly for free across several countries in Europe, through much of New Zealand, and parts of Australia using these means. I spent some money on food, but it was minimal, and the main cost was transportation. The experience was cheap, but priceless.
Couch SurfingDoes the thought of contacting a stranger and sleeping in his or her home sound crazy and scary to you?
Actually, it’s not so bad, and quite rewarding.
Couchsurfing.org has security measures in place to give users information about the hosts who offer sleeping arrangements in locations all over the world via the website.
For example, you can choose to stay with only hosts who have been verified, meaning the hosts have registered their addresses with the website by paying to have unique codes sent by mail to them, which they then use to confirm their locations.
Also, hosts cannot remove negative reviews on their pages. So, the Couchsurfing.org community keeps tabs on users to help other users make choices that will lead to safe and positive experiences.
The website states: “The vast majority of Couchsurfing experiences are not only safe, but outright life changing.”
I have to agree.
The view just outside my Couchsurfing host’s home in Lucerne, Switzerland. (Tara MacIsaac/Epoch Times)
This article was published in The Epoch Times - Search their website with the title to see the pictures (referred to below)
STAF, Inc. endorses click: The Epoch Times
The benefits, good experiences:
By staying with locals, I was able to see regions through their eyes—to experience my destinations in a way most tourists can’t. My hosts could tell me where to go and what to do way better than any travel guide.
For example, a few years ago in Lucerne, Switzerland, my host, Thomas, took me to a little pub built by his friends in a small town nearby. He told me the cheapest way to get to the hikes I wanted to do while taking in some bonus sights along the way.
He made me the best Indian food I’ve ever eaten—that record stands to this day.
He had traveled in Asia, where he learned his cooking skills, and where he benefited from the hospitality of Couchsurfing hosts.
Which brings me to the next argument in favor of Couchsurfing: the people you meet are generally interesting folk with long travel histories, great stories, big hearts, and a keen desire to get to know others.
Couchsurfing also promotes, in my view, a lost trust between strangers. As a Couchsurfer, I learned to let go of the idea that all strangers who offer something for nothing should be feared.
One of my Couchsurfing hosts in Dublin, Ireland. (Tara MacIsaac/Epoch Times)
The downside:
My first experience was not ideal, but I chalk it up as one of the adventures one must encounter when leaving the comfort zone.
My friend and I stayed with a man in Prague, Czech Republic. From what I could tell by his online profile, he had a dry sense of humor, which is usually a characteristic I enjoy.
That sense of humor was more biting and derogatory than dry in person. The quarters were more cramped than I’d pictured from the description. We had to come home earlier than we wanted, because he had to get up for work in the morning—we had a curfew.
But, it was kind of a funny adventure. We got lost coming home, because we used a mobile landmark (a food truck) to remember where his building was, and we didn’t realize that every building in the old Communist-era block looked exactly alike until we had to try to distinguish the one we were looking for.
In another negative experience, my hosts in Dublin, Ireland, would not respond to my calls when I arrived. I later learned that one of them had lost his phone. I spent the day drinking Guinness in a pub on the street they lived on—incidentally, the street was named “Tara,” which is my name and which I thought boded well. I spent the night in a hostel for 30 Euro ($40) and connected with them the next day.
They weren’t exactly my kind of people, but one of the guys was really nice and took me to view some beautiful cliffs outside the city.
Help ExchangeMany lovely people all over the world are willing to give you room and board for a few hours of work a day. I wouldn’t even call it work—I would call it learning new skills.
I used a website called Help Exchange, www.helpx.net. For a fee of about $30, I got a membership and connected with the people I came to think of as my German grandparents, among other wonderful friends.
I pictured Axel and Angelica as a young, hip couple working on their small-scale organic farm in northwestern Germany. They turned out to be a fantastic couple in their 60s who reminded me a lot of my grandparents back in Canada.
Angelica’s maternal warmth, aprons, and mannerisms reminded me of my grandmother. Axel played Scottish tunes on the fiddle—a skill my grandfather in the Celtic region of eastern Canada shares. It was, nonetheless, a very German experience.
Andrew Mills (R), a British helper at the farm, Axel Viebrock (C), and Angelika Berns (L). (Tara MacIsaac/Epoch Times)
In my free time, I rode a bicycle all through the countryside. In the middle of a farmer’s field I visited a Stone Age grave site. A large slab of stone is propped up on two other stones, shaded by a few surrounding trees. It was a peaceful site that had maintained its sanctity over thousands of years, tucked away in a little corner of rural Germany without any signs or tourists snapping photographs (well, aside from myself).
Stone Age burial site in Grossenhain, Germany. (Tara MacIsaac/Epoch Times)
I adjusted to the German tradition of Abendsbrot (an evening meal consisting of homemade bread, wurst, and some condiments, rather than the full meal I usually have for dinner). I learned way more German than I had in the four previous months in Berlin.
The centuries-old home was made in the Fachwerk style: blocks are separated by wooden beams and numbered, so the homes could be taken apart and reassembled elsewhere as needed. It also had an old, straw roof.
I had my own little guesthouse with a ceramic oven for heat and an idyllic view.
I would work for a few hours a day, helping weed the vegetable garden or with other farm tasks. I learned how to wrap potatoes in left-over sheep’s wool before planting them in the spring, so if a frost hits, they aren’t affected. I learned how to graft apple trees to grow multiple types of apples on the same tree.
I spent a couple of weeks there and I didn’t spend a penny. My food was provided, and Axel and Angelica even gave me a bit of cash to take a little trip into town (though this is an extra and shouldn’t be expected from hosts).
They took me around to see some of the local sites, and we enjoyed many meals and evening chats together.
Axel Viebrock and Angelika Berns’s home in Grossenhain, Germany. (Tara MacIsaac/Epoch Times)
That was just one of multiple, wonderful experiences I had with Help Exchange. Not all arrangements are on farms—I also did some babysitting for a few hours a day in a small town by the name of Bailingup in Australia.
My accommodation was unique—a very comfortable set up in a teepee. The town was interesting—it was the site of a semi-famous Hippie commune in the ’60s, and some of the original members still lived there. The commune had been self-sufficient, but fell apart as the pseudo-religious leadership structure became extreme and members left en mass.
Inside my teepee in Bailingup, Western Australia. (Tara MacIsaac/Epoch Times)
Help Exchange opportunities aren’t only found in small towns, but also in some big cities around the world. These experiences were tailored to my interests, but a wide range of settings and experiences are possible.
Willing Workers on Organic Farms (WWOOF) is another program, similar to Help Exchange, that focuses solely on organic farming opportunities.
Bring a TentIf you’re traveling at the right time of year, in the right climate, and in the right country, strapping a tent on your back and pitching it where you please as you wander the land can be an extremely liberating experience.
I carried a camping pack with a tent, some base layer clothing for warmth, a few light-weight food items, and a light-weight sleeping bag, and wandered wherever my whims or fate took me in New Zealand.
My tent pitched in the Tongariro National Park in New Zealand. (Tara MacIsaac/Epoch Times)
I spent most nights on hiking trails that either allowed tents or had cheap or free cabins. Sometimes I met kind locals who offered their lawns or a room in their homes. I also spent a night in a circus trailer at an artists’ commune near Abel Tasman on the northern tip of New Zealand’s South Island. I raked gravel on the paths into patterns each morning to earn my keep. That’s what happens when you talk to strangers.
In Japan and Sweden, this kind of travel is officially sanctioned. These countries allow people to pitch tents on private property without the owners’ permission, with some restrictions.
The key to traveling this way is to be prepared for accepting the setbacks and hardships along with the great joys; have some back-up, emergency plans; keep friends and family informed of your whereabouts and plans; and keep an open mind.
The Epoch Times does not endorse the methods of travel or the websites listed in this article. The views expressed are those of the writer alone and do not represent the Epoch Times. Travelers following this advice do so at their own risk.
Click green for further info
Source: The Epoch Times
This article was published in The Epoch Times - Search their website with the title to see the pictures (referred to below)
STAF, Inc. endorses click: The Epoch Times
_____________________________________________
10 Important "secrets"
of flight attendants
A seasoned flight attendant for a major carrier dishes 10 workplace secrets
Source: Heather Poole has worked for a major carrier for more than 15 years and is the author of
Click green Cruising Attitude: Tales of Crashpads, Crew Drama, and Crazy Passengers at 35,000 Feet
1. If the plane door is open, we're not getting paid
You know all that preflight time where we're cramming bags into overhead bins? None of that shows up in our paychecks. Flight attendants get paid for "flight hours only." Translation: The clock doesn't start until the craft pushes away from the gate. Flight delays, cancellations, and layovers affect us just as much as they do passengers — maybe even more. Airlines aren't completely heartless, though. From the time we sign in at the airport until the plane slides back into the gate at our home base, we get an expense allowance of $1.50 an hour. It's not much, but it helps pay the rent.
2. Landing this gig is tough
Competition is fierce: When Delta announced 1,000 openings in 2010, it received over 100,000 applications. Even Harvard's acceptance rate isn't that low! All that competition means that most applicants who score interviews have college degrees — I know doctors and lawyers who've made the career switch. But you don't need a law degree to get your foot in the jetway door. Being able to speak a second language greatly improves your chances. So does having customer service experience (especially in fine dining) or having worked for another airline, a sign that you can handle the lifestyle. The 4 percent who do get a callback interview really need to weigh the pros and cons of the job. As we like to say, flight attendants must be willing to cut their hair and go anywhere. And if you can't survive on $18,000 a year, most new hires' salary, don't even think about applying.
3. We can be too tall or too short to fly
During Pan Am's heyday in the 1960s, there were strict requirements for stewardesses: They had to be at least 5-foot-2, weigh no more than 130 pounds, and retire by age 32. They couldn't be married or have children, either. As a result, most women averaged just 18 months on the job. In the 1970s, the organization Stewardesses for Women's Rights forced airlines to change their ways. The mandatory retirement age was the first thing to go. By the 1980s, the marriage restriction was gone as well.
SEE MORE: How America wasted $8 billion rebuilding Iraq
These days, as long as flight attendants can do the job and pass a yearly training program, we can keep flying. As for weight restrictions, most of those disappeared in the 1990s. Today, the rules are about safety: Flight attendants who can't sit in the jump seat without an extended seat belt or can't fit through the emergency exit window cannot fly. The same goes for height requirements: We have to be tall enough to grab equipment from the overhead bins, but not so tall that we're hitting our heads on the ceiling. Today, that typically means between 5-foot-3 and 6-foot-1, depending on the aircraft.
4. We can be fired for bizarre reasons
Newly hired flight attendants are placed on strict probation for their first six months. I know one new hire who lost her job for wearing her uniform sweater tied around her waist. Another newbie got canned for pretending to be a full-fledged attendant so she could fly home for free. (Travel benefits don't kick in until we're off probation.) But the most surprising violation is flying while ill: If we call in sick, we aren't allowed to fly, even as a passenger on another airline. It's grounds for immediate dismissal.
SEE MORE: 5 towns that have considered making gun ownership mandatory
5. Diet Coke is our nemesis!
Of all the drinks we serve, Diet Coke takes the most time to pour — the fizz takes forever to settle at 35,000 feet. In the time it takes me to pour a single cup of Diet Coke, I can serve three passengers a different beverage. So even though giving cans to first-class passengers is a big no-no, you'll occasionally spy 12 ounces of silver trimmed in red sitting up there.
6. If you try to sneak a dead body onto a plane, we will notice
You may have heard the story of a Miami passenger who tried to board a flight with his dead mother inside a garment bag. Why would someone do such a thing? Because it's expensive to transport human bodies! Prices vary by destination, but delivering a body on a flight can cost up to $5,000. Commercial carriers transport bodies across the country every day, and because the funeral directors who arrange these flights are offered air miles for their loyalty, they're not always concerned about finding the lowest fare.
SEE MORE: The death of the American pun
Thankfully, I've never had someone sneak a deceased passenger on board, but my roommate did. She knew the man was dead the moment she saw him looking gray and slumped over in a wheelchair, even though his wife and daughter assured her he was just battling the flu. Midway through the flight, the plane had to make an unscheduled landing when it became apparent that no amount of Nyquil was going to revive him.
No one officially dies in-flight unless there's a doctor on board to make the pronouncement. On these very rare occasions, the crew will do everything possible to manage the situation with sensitivity and respect. Unfortunately, most flights are full, so it's not always possible to move an "incapacitated" passenger to an empty row of seats. Singapore Airlines is the most prepared. Its planes feature a "corpse cupboard," a compartment for storing a dead body if the situation arises.
7. We'll also notice if you try to join the Mile High Club
It's usually the long line of people waiting to use the bathroom that gives you away, and nine times out of 10, it's a passenger who asks the flight attendants to intervene. Strictly speaking, it's not against the law to join the Mile High Club. But it is against the law to disobey crew member commands. If we ask you to stop doing whatever it is you're doing, by all means, stop! Otherwise, you're going to have a very awkward conversation when you meet your cell mate.
8. We're the first line of defense against human trafficking
When I started flying, I never dreamed I'd be working with the police, but it's become an important part of the job. This new role started with Sandra Fiorini, an American Airlines flight attendant who testified to Congress about an 18-year-old male passenger carrying a newborn with its umbilical cord still attached. No mother in sight, just one bottle of milk and two diapers stuck in his pocket for the six-hour flight. When Fiorini reported her suspicions to the authorities, she got no response.
In 2007, Fiorini met Deborah Sigmund, founder of the organization Innocents at Risk, and they began working together to train airline employees on what to spot and who to call. In 2011, this translated into hundreds of flight attendants from different airlines volunteering to help police at the Super Bowl, a hotbed for trafficking prostitutes.
9. Seniority means shorter skirts
Our tenure on the job doesn't just determine which routes we fly and which days we get to take off; it also affects the hierarchy in our crashpad, an apartment shared by as many as 20 flight attendants. Seniority is the difference between top or lower bunk, what floor your bed is on, and just how far away your room is from noisy areas such as doors or stairwells.
Seniority even determines the length of our skirts — we can't hem them above a certain length until we're off probation. Afterward, it's OK to shorten the hem and show a little leg. Some of the friskier pilots take advantage of the long hems; they know that new hires tend to be more flattered by their advances than senior flight attendants. (One senior flight attendant I know intentionally left her skirt long just to keep these guys interested!)
10. You've never experienced extreme turbulence
More than 2 million people fly in the United States each day, and yet since 1980, only three people have died as a direct result of turbulence. Of those fatalities, two passengers weren't wearing their safety belts. During that same time period, the Federal Aviation Administration recorded just over 300 serious injuries from turbulence, and more than two-thirds of the victims were flight attendants. What do these numbers mean? As long as your seat belt is on, you're more likely to be injured by falling luggage than by choppy air.
Interestingly, on some airlines, a flight attendant's injuries in flight can't be officially classified as an on-duty injury unless it happens during what's known as "extreme turbulence" — where the captain loses control of the plane or the craft sustains structural damage. In both of those cases, the aircraft must be grounded and inspected. Because no one wants to ground a plane, captains are very hesitant to hand out the "extreme turbulence" label. A friend of mine who works closely with airline management said he's never seen a pilot label rough air as "extreme turbulence." So the next time you're nervous about some mid-flight bumps, just take a deep breath and remind yourself, "This isn't extreme!"
Source: Heather Poole has worked for a major carrier for more than 15 years and is the author of
Click green: Cruising Attitude: Tales of Crashpads, Crew Drama, and Crazy Passengers at 35,000 Feet.
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==========================================================================================================================================================Secret Tips for Cheap Travel Off the Beaten Path
This article has several excellent links for free traveling round the world -read the article they are in the text
This article was published in The Epoch Times - Search their website with the title to see the pictures (referred to below)
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Warning: These travel tips are not for people scared of new experiences; worried about the possibility that something could go wrong (a possibility I like to call, “adventure”); shy to meet friendly strangers; opposed to leaving their comfort zones.
I traveled mostly for free across several countries in Europe, through much of New Zealand, and parts of Australia using these means. I spent some money on food, but it was minimal, and the main cost was transportation. The experience was cheap, but priceless.
Couch SurfingDoes the thought of contacting a stranger and sleeping in his or her home sound crazy and scary to you?
Actually, it’s not so bad, and quite rewarding.
Couchsurfing.org has security measures in place to give users information about the hosts who offer sleeping arrangements in locations all over the world via the website.
For example, you can choose to stay with only hosts who have been verified, meaning the hosts have registered their addresses with the website by paying to have unique codes sent by mail to them, which they then use to confirm their locations.
Also, hosts cannot remove negative reviews on their pages. So, the Couchsurfing.org community keeps tabs on users to help other users make choices that will lead to safe and positive experiences.
The website states: “The vast majority of Couchsurfing experiences are not only safe, but outright life changing.”
I have to agree.
The view just outside my Couchsurfing host’s home in Lucerne, Switzerland. (Tara MacIsaac/Epoch Times)
This article was published in The Epoch Times - Search their website with the title to see the pictures (referred to below)
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The benefits, good experiences:
By staying with locals, I was able to see regions through their eyes—to experience my destinations in a way most tourists can’t. My hosts could tell me where to go and what to do way better than any travel guide.
For example, a few years ago in Lucerne, Switzerland, my host, Thomas, took me to a little pub built by his friends in a small town nearby. He told me the cheapest way to get to the hikes I wanted to do while taking in some bonus sights along the way.
He made me the best Indian food I’ve ever eaten—that record stands to this day.
He had traveled in Asia, where he learned his cooking skills, and where he benefited from the hospitality of Couchsurfing hosts.
Which brings me to the next argument in favor of Couchsurfing: the people you meet are generally interesting folk with long travel histories, great stories, big hearts, and a keen desire to get to know others.
Couchsurfing also promotes, in my view, a lost trust between strangers. As a Couchsurfer, I learned to let go of the idea that all strangers who offer something for nothing should be feared.
One of my Couchsurfing hosts in Dublin, Ireland. (Tara MacIsaac/Epoch Times)
The downside:
My first experience was not ideal, but I chalk it up as one of the adventures one must encounter when leaving the comfort zone.
My friend and I stayed with a man in Prague, Czech Republic. From what I could tell by his online profile, he had a dry sense of humor, which is usually a characteristic I enjoy.
That sense of humor was more biting and derogatory than dry in person. The quarters were more cramped than I’d pictured from the description. We had to come home earlier than we wanted, because he had to get up for work in the morning—we had a curfew.
But, it was kind of a funny adventure. We got lost coming home, because we used a mobile landmark (a food truck) to remember where his building was, and we didn’t realize that every building in the old Communist-era block looked exactly alike until we had to try to distinguish the one we were looking for.
In another negative experience, my hosts in Dublin, Ireland, would not respond to my calls when I arrived. I later learned that one of them had lost his phone. I spent the day drinking Guinness in a pub on the street they lived on—incidentally, the street was named “Tara,” which is my name and which I thought boded well. I spent the night in a hostel for 30 Euro ($40) and connected with them the next day.
They weren’t exactly my kind of people, but one of the guys was really nice and took me to view some beautiful cliffs outside the city.
Help ExchangeMany lovely people all over the world are willing to give you room and board for a few hours of work a day. I wouldn’t even call it work—I would call it learning new skills.
I used a website called Help Exchange, www.helpx.net. For a fee of about $30, I got a membership and connected with the people I came to think of as my German grandparents, among other wonderful friends.
I pictured Axel and Angelica as a young, hip couple working on their small-scale organic farm in northwestern Germany. They turned out to be a fantastic couple in their 60s who reminded me a lot of my grandparents back in Canada.
Angelica’s maternal warmth, aprons, and mannerisms reminded me of my grandmother. Axel played Scottish tunes on the fiddle—a skill my grandfather in the Celtic region of eastern Canada shares. It was, nonetheless, a very German experience.
Andrew Mills (R), a British helper at the farm, Axel Viebrock (C), and Angelika Berns (L). (Tara MacIsaac/Epoch Times)
In my free time, I rode a bicycle all through the countryside. In the middle of a farmer’s field I visited a Stone Age grave site. A large slab of stone is propped up on two other stones, shaded by a few surrounding trees. It was a peaceful site that had maintained its sanctity over thousands of years, tucked away in a little corner of rural Germany without any signs or tourists snapping photographs (well, aside from myself).
Stone Age burial site in Grossenhain, Germany. (Tara MacIsaac/Epoch Times)
I adjusted to the German tradition of Abendsbrot (an evening meal consisting of homemade bread, wurst, and some condiments, rather than the full meal I usually have for dinner). I learned way more German than I had in the four previous months in Berlin.
The centuries-old home was made in the Fachwerk style: blocks are separated by wooden beams and numbered, so the homes could be taken apart and reassembled elsewhere as needed. It also had an old, straw roof.
I had my own little guesthouse with a ceramic oven for heat and an idyllic view.
I would work for a few hours a day, helping weed the vegetable garden or with other farm tasks. I learned how to wrap potatoes in left-over sheep’s wool before planting them in the spring, so if a frost hits, they aren’t affected. I learned how to graft apple trees to grow multiple types of apples on the same tree.
I spent a couple of weeks there and I didn’t spend a penny. My food was provided, and Axel and Angelica even gave me a bit of cash to take a little trip into town (though this is an extra and shouldn’t be expected from hosts).
They took me around to see some of the local sites, and we enjoyed many meals and evening chats together.
Axel Viebrock and Angelika Berns’s home in Grossenhain, Germany. (Tara MacIsaac/Epoch Times)
That was just one of multiple, wonderful experiences I had with Help Exchange. Not all arrangements are on farms—I also did some babysitting for a few hours a day in a small town by the name of Bailingup in Australia.
My accommodation was unique—a very comfortable set up in a teepee. The town was interesting—it was the site of a semi-famous Hippie commune in the ’60s, and some of the original members still lived there. The commune had been self-sufficient, but fell apart as the pseudo-religious leadership structure became extreme and members left en mass.
Inside my teepee in Bailingup, Western Australia. (Tara MacIsaac/Epoch Times)
Help Exchange opportunities aren’t only found in small towns, but also in some big cities around the world. These experiences were tailored to my interests, but a wide range of settings and experiences are possible.
Willing Workers on Organic Farms (WWOOF) is another program, similar to Help Exchange, that focuses solely on organic farming opportunities.
Bring a TentIf you’re traveling at the right time of year, in the right climate, and in the right country, strapping a tent on your back and pitching it where you please as you wander the land can be an extremely liberating experience.
I carried a camping pack with a tent, some base layer clothing for warmth, a few light-weight food items, and a light-weight sleeping bag, and wandered wherever my whims or fate took me in New Zealand.
My tent pitched in the Tongariro National Park in New Zealand. (Tara MacIsaac/Epoch Times)
I spent most nights on hiking trails that either allowed tents or had cheap or free cabins. Sometimes I met kind locals who offered their lawns or a room in their homes. I also spent a night in a circus trailer at an artists’ commune near Abel Tasman on the northern tip of New Zealand’s South Island. I raked gravel on the paths into patterns each morning to earn my keep. That’s what happens when you talk to strangers.
In Japan and Sweden, this kind of travel is officially sanctioned. These countries allow people to pitch tents on private property without the owners’ permission, with some restrictions.
The key to traveling this way is to be prepared for accepting the setbacks and hardships along with the great joys; have some back-up, emergency plans; keep friends and family informed of your whereabouts and plans; and keep an open mind.
The Epoch Times does not endorse the methods of travel or the websites listed in this article. The views expressed are those of the writer alone and do not represent the Epoch Times. Travelers following this advice do so at their own risk.
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Source: The Epoch Times
This article was published in The Epoch Times - Search their website with the title to see the pictures (referred to below)
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_____________________________________________
The Definitive Guide to Finding Free Wi-Fi
Abroad & in The U.S.
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You're out and about with your laptop and you're in need of some fast internet connectivity. Here are some tried and true ways to find and get free Wi-Fi.
Easy: The Most Likely Places You'll Find Free Wi-FiYou can find some free Wi-Fi love at the local public library, Barnes and Noble, McDonald's, the airport, university campus, independent coffee shop, or hotel lobby. Notall airports or hotels or even campuses offer free Wi-Fi though, so give the destination a ring before you hoof it over there only to be disappointed. (For example, the San Diego airport offers free Wi-Fi as does JetBlue's T5 in New York's JFK, but many other airports are pay-for access only. On the UCSD campus you used to need a password to log on; now guests can get free access.)
If you're in a residential area, a little war-driving with the right equipment can turn up an open "linksys" hotspot. Rather than breaking open your conspicuous laptop, use your Wi-Fi-enabled smartphone or a Wi-Fi scanner keychain to scan and detect networks. (See the smartphone apps for finding open networks below.) The serious nerd can even outfit him or herself in a Wi-Fi scanning t-shirt, hat, or pair of sneakers.(Thanks, adrian_rich!)
Medium: Employ Wi-Fi Scanner Apps and Look-up ToolsSometimes the built-in scanner on your smartphone or laptop can be too slow or won't give you all the information you want about area networks. Here are some free apps and tools for scanning and finding free Wi-Fi networks.
Windows
When Windows' built-in Wi-Fi network detector isn't cutting it, download the free NetStumbler to get a detailed listing of available networks listed by channel, signal strength, and security type, including "hidden" SSID's your PC might not detect otherwise.
Previously-mentioned free Windows appWeFi offers a community-generated database of free hotspots for searching. It does an okay job of finding hotspots, but beware of optional crapware in the installation process. (Just say no.)
Mac
On the Mac, iStumbler is the free scanner application of choice. iStumbler offers an informative table of nearby hotspots, including their names, security mechanism, channel, signal and noise percentages, and MAC addresses. iStumbler hasn't been updated in a long time, and it didn't work as well as it used to on Leopard on my Snow Leopard installation. For a pay-for alternative to iStumbler, check out AirRadar ($16/license, free trial available).
Smartphones: iPhone, BlackBerry, Windows Mobile, Android
Your Wi-Fi enabled smartphone can scan for nearby networks using its built-in antenna, but a few apps let you search near your location or another location, too.
On the iPhone, I got the best results from JiWire's Free Wi-Fi Finder, which searches areas by zip code or your current location. (You can also use the mobile JiWire webapp at iphone.jiwire.com.) Other iPhone Wi-Fi scanner apps include WifiTrack ($1) and WiFiFoFum ($3).
On Windows Mobile, WiFiFoFum is available, and as Kevin pointed out, the WeFi app is also available for Android.
Webapps
Installable applications aside, if you've got a smartphone with internet access, several webapps will search an area to help you find a Wi-Fi hotspot for your laptop, including:
Bookmark those in your mobile browser for future reference.
Desperation Level: HighDesperate times call for desperate measures. If your search for Wi-Fi is fruitless—or turning up only security walls—you've still got a few options.
First, you can turn your smartphone into a router by tethering to its connection. This isn't going to give you the fast connection that most public Wi-Fi hotspots will, but it will get your laptop online. Here's one method for enabling tethering on your iPhone 3.0; here's how to turn a Palm Pre into a tethered Wi-Fi router. Android owners, the PdaNet app tethers your device to your laptop. In fact, PdaNet is a popular tethering app that works on Windows Mobile, BlackBerry,Palm OS, and iPhone—though you'll need to jailbreak your iPhone to get it working.
Finally, from the "don't be a jerk" files, if you absolutely have to, you can force your way onto a WEP-secured wireless network. Here's how to crack a Wi-Fi network's WEP password with Backtrack. Just because you can doesn't mean you should, of course—be prudent about hopping someone else's virtual gate.
What's your favorite method, app, or search engine for finding free Wi-Fi? Let us know in the comments.
Gina Trapani, Lifehacker's founding editor, wishes you a neighborhood blanketed in free Wi-Fi. Her weekly feature, Smarterware, appears every Wednesday on Lifehacker. Subscribe to the Smarterware tag feed to get new installments in your newsreader.
Click green for further info
__________________________
Abroad & in The U.S.
click green for further info
You're out and about with your laptop and you're in need of some fast internet connectivity. Here are some tried and true ways to find and get free Wi-Fi.
Easy: The Most Likely Places You'll Find Free Wi-FiYou can find some free Wi-Fi love at the local public library, Barnes and Noble, McDonald's, the airport, university campus, independent coffee shop, or hotel lobby. Notall airports or hotels or even campuses offer free Wi-Fi though, so give the destination a ring before you hoof it over there only to be disappointed. (For example, the San Diego airport offers free Wi-Fi as does JetBlue's T5 in New York's JFK, but many other airports are pay-for access only. On the UCSD campus you used to need a password to log on; now guests can get free access.)
If you're in a residential area, a little war-driving with the right equipment can turn up an open "linksys" hotspot. Rather than breaking open your conspicuous laptop, use your Wi-Fi-enabled smartphone or a Wi-Fi scanner keychain to scan and detect networks. (See the smartphone apps for finding open networks below.) The serious nerd can even outfit him or herself in a Wi-Fi scanning t-shirt, hat, or pair of sneakers.(Thanks, adrian_rich!)
Medium: Employ Wi-Fi Scanner Apps and Look-up ToolsSometimes the built-in scanner on your smartphone or laptop can be too slow or won't give you all the information you want about area networks. Here are some free apps and tools for scanning and finding free Wi-Fi networks.
Windows
When Windows' built-in Wi-Fi network detector isn't cutting it, download the free NetStumbler to get a detailed listing of available networks listed by channel, signal strength, and security type, including "hidden" SSID's your PC might not detect otherwise.
Previously-mentioned free Windows appWeFi offers a community-generated database of free hotspots for searching. It does an okay job of finding hotspots, but beware of optional crapware in the installation process. (Just say no.)
Mac
On the Mac, iStumbler is the free scanner application of choice. iStumbler offers an informative table of nearby hotspots, including their names, security mechanism, channel, signal and noise percentages, and MAC addresses. iStumbler hasn't been updated in a long time, and it didn't work as well as it used to on Leopard on my Snow Leopard installation. For a pay-for alternative to iStumbler, check out AirRadar ($16/license, free trial available).
Smartphones: iPhone, BlackBerry, Windows Mobile, Android
Your Wi-Fi enabled smartphone can scan for nearby networks using its built-in antenna, but a few apps let you search near your location or another location, too.
On the iPhone, I got the best results from JiWire's Free Wi-Fi Finder, which searches areas by zip code or your current location. (You can also use the mobile JiWire webapp at iphone.jiwire.com.) Other iPhone Wi-Fi scanner apps include WifiTrack ($1) and WiFiFoFum ($3).
On Windows Mobile, WiFiFoFum is available, and as Kevin pointed out, the WeFi app is also available for Android.
Webapps
Installable applications aside, if you've got a smartphone with internet access, several webapps will search an area to help you find a Wi-Fi hotspot for your laptop, including:
Bookmark those in your mobile browser for future reference.
Desperation Level: HighDesperate times call for desperate measures. If your search for Wi-Fi is fruitless—or turning up only security walls—you've still got a few options.
First, you can turn your smartphone into a router by tethering to its connection. This isn't going to give you the fast connection that most public Wi-Fi hotspots will, but it will get your laptop online. Here's one method for enabling tethering on your iPhone 3.0; here's how to turn a Palm Pre into a tethered Wi-Fi router. Android owners, the PdaNet app tethers your device to your laptop. In fact, PdaNet is a popular tethering app that works on Windows Mobile, BlackBerry,Palm OS, and iPhone—though you'll need to jailbreak your iPhone to get it working.
Finally, from the "don't be a jerk" files, if you absolutely have to, you can force your way onto a WEP-secured wireless network. Here's how to crack a Wi-Fi network's WEP password with Backtrack. Just because you can doesn't mean you should, of course—be prudent about hopping someone else's virtual gate.
What's your favorite method, app, or search engine for finding free Wi-Fi? Let us know in the comments.
Gina Trapani, Lifehacker's founding editor, wishes you a neighborhood blanketed in free Wi-Fi. Her weekly feature, Smarterware, appears every Wednesday on Lifehacker. Subscribe to the Smarterware tag feed to get new installments in your newsreader.
Click green for further info
__________________________
Tuberculosis kills at least 1.34 million people each year worldwide
Now the disease, once curable with antibiotics, is becoming resistant to multiple drugs.
Quit Smoking - STAF, Inc. will help. Double-guarantee: (1) with one-time fee (2) a lifetime result guarantee.
The best deal you or anyone can find. No one else anywhere dares giving a similar guarantee. See the full list of 10
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In addition to multitudes of killer-sicknesses smoking and tobacco use increases the risk of TB - Tuberculosis.
According to WHO, more than 20 percent of TB cases globally are attributable to smoking.
Tuberculosis is in every country - anyone can get infected anywhere.
______________________________________
Keep your health while traveling to risky areas
- important health information -
New challenges with the super-mosquitoes
Click green for further info
Here’s some news that will surely make you want to strap on your backpack and head out to the woods: the insect repellent DEET is likely losing its ability to fend off mosquitoes.
According to laboratory research by the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, mosquitoes that were initially repelled by DEET later began to ignore the presence of the chemical entirely when feeding on human flesh.
DEET was created by the U.S. military in 1946, and has been widely used in popular insect repellents for more than 50 years. The EPA estimates that each year over one-third of Americans are exposed to DEET.
But evidence has been building that mosquitoes can develop resistance to repellents and insecticides. Scientists in London wanted to figure out just how quickly that process occurs for the Aedes aegypti,a species of mosquito that can spread yellow fever and dengue, a potentially deadly illness that infects between 50 and 100 million people around the world each year.
The researchers presented test mosquitoes with a delicious human arm covered in DEET. At first, mosquitoes were repelled and didn’t land to feed.
Several hours later, the mosquitoes were exposed to the arm again. This time, despite the DEET, many of them began to “probe” the arm for blood.
“They may have adapted to DEET, possibly by associating it with the presence of a host arm, and were able to ‘overcome’ the natural repellent effect,” the authors wrote in their paper, which was published Feb. 18, 2013 in the journal PLOS ONE.
To figure out why this was occurring, the researchers attached receptors to the antennae of the mosquitoes, and found that the mosquitoes were no longer as sensitive to DEET after a span of just three hours.
“There is something about being exposed to the chemical that first time that changes their olfactory system—changes their sense of smell—and their ability to smell DEET, which makes it less effective,” Dr. James Logan, of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, told the BBC.
The researchers recommended that alternatives to DEET be developed. In the future, they plan to study how quickly DEET wears off on other species of mosquitoes, like the ones that transmit malaria, another serious and sometimes fatal disease that affects 216 people around the world each year.
In the past, the use of DEET has been a critical component of government recommendations for reducing the risk of contracting mosquito-borne illnesses. The EPA has written that despite its potency, DEET does not prevent a health concern to the U.S. public when sprayed in recommended doses. The agency has admitted that DEET is slightly toxic to fish and birds, and can be found in drinking water in some parts of the country.
Other researchers are exploring different strategies for mosquito control—like genetically engineering mosquitoes to be resistant to disease. This comes at a time when the potential impacts of viral-carrying mosquitos are set to multiply. The World Health Organization has said that climate change will likely make some mosquito populations even more dangerous, when warming temperatures make viruses like malaria and dengue more aggressive.
“Our current strategies, like insecticides and repellents, are losing their effectiveness,” says Michael Riehle, associate professor of entomology at the University of Arizona, in his interview with TakePart. “The idea is to release genetically-engineered mosquitoes that are resistant to deadly viruses like malaria into the wild to replace the wild mosquito population.”
Riehle says scientists are making progress on creating a mechanism of replacing infectious mosquitoes with non-infectious counterparts. “To replace them, you have to give non-infectious mosquitoes some sort of genetic advantage,” he said. And therein lies the challenge.
As Loz Blain of Gizmag has pointed out, genetically engineering mosquitoes raises a number of “ethical and environmental quandaries.” It could cause some species of mosquitoes to go extinct, for instance, or bring about irreparable damage to certain food webs. Some argue that these effects pale in comparison to the urgent need to save lives and eradicate diseases like malaria.
Critics have warned that genetically-engineered mosquitoes should undergo rigorous testing along with public consultation about the dangers of introducing engineered mosquitoes into the wild before any GE mosquitoes take flight.
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Click:• Are We Prepared to Accept the Risks of a Four-Degree Warming?
Source: The journal PLOS ONE, February, 2013
___________________________
Click green below & study further:
- The Insect Repellent DEET | Pesticides | US EPA - EPA = United States Environmental Protection Agency
The Insect Repellent DEET | Pesticides | US EPA
www.epa.gov › Pesticides › Fact Sheets › Specific Chemicals www.epa.gov › Pesticides › Fact Sheets › Specific Chemicals
This page discusses EPA's actions concerning DEET, as well as tips on how to use DEET products safely. - click green below
DEET - Home
www.deet.com/
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Don't let frequent flier miles die with you
NEW YORK (Reuters) - My uncle and I were different in many ways, but we shared a love of travel. After he died last March, I learned he had bequeathed me the one thing I would really appreciate - more than 100,000 frequent flyer miles.
The question was: Would the airlines let me use them?
Yes, but it wasn't simple. Calls and follow-up calls to customer service representatives, and faxing necessary documents, took at least an hour for each of his four accounts.
Every year, U.S. travelers rack up as many as 3 trillion frequent flyer miles, according to Randy Petersen, editor of InsideFlyer magazine. As loyalty programs proliferate for airlines, hotels and credit cards, so do the challenges - and rewards - for heirs who inherit these so-called digital assets.
Most travel and credit-card programs allow customers to will their hard-earned points. While the process takes time, the points transferred have given me enough miles to redeem for several domestic flights, plus some magazine subscriptions.
"The value of the assets has reached a point where family members of the deceased feel it's worth spending time to chase down," says Dennis Delaney, a partner at law firm Hemenway & Barnes LLP in Boston, who specializes in estate planning.
Hemenway & Barnes recently exchanged about 1.7 million American Express Co Membership Rewards points held by a deceased client's estate for almost $10,000 in AmEx gift cards. Those cards will be distributed to heirs.
"If you don't do anything, (the value of the points) is going to be lost," says InsideFlyer's Petersen. "But when you're actually able to use them, it's a pretty good feeling."
Here's how to bequeath or inherit loyalty program award points.
CAN'T TAKE THEM WITH YOU
The average U.S. household has signed up for 18 programs, a 2011 survey by LoyaltyOne research firm Colloquy shows. On average, households earned about $622 a year of points and miles, according to a 2011 joint study by Colloquy and reward program technology firm Swift Exchange.
Those who wish to leave hard-earned points to heirs should first decide whether they should be included in a will. Adding it ensures that all possible assets are identified, but may raise legal costs in either crafting the document or executing it. It can also bring unwelcome scrutiny.
"When you put it in the will, you are inviting a taxing authority to ask questions," says Joseph Scorese, an estate planning attorney at Harwood Lloyd LLC in Hackensack, NJ, adding that an inquiry could slow distributions, particularly if the points expired or were used before death.
Still, naming an heir can head off family conflicts, and help executors find and distribute points.
Wells Fargo Private Bank's Estate Services group began including questions about loyalty programs on its estate planning checklist several years ago.
"It would be wonderful if we could administer an estate where the will or trust actually mentioned the miles," said Michael Wernersback, a regional fiduciary manager at Wells Fargo's Estate Services division in Bay St. Louis, Mississippi.
Most experts say it's best to list award programs in a separate document instead of a will. Wills should be "more user friendly and shorter," says Delaney.
However they are documented, include the account number and email address associated with it.
HOOPS FOR HEIRS
A thicket of rules and regulations makes point transfers complex. In my case, the airlines required a copy of my uncle's death certificate and a letter from the executor.
Non-airline loyalty programs appear to have even more restrictions, based on calls made to these companies.
The Marriott Rewards program for Marriott International Inc hotel chain, for example, only allows spouses or domestic partners to inherit points. American Express Co's credit card rewards program requires a call from an executor before it agrees to send a package of required forms. Hilton HHonors points earned from Hilton Worldwide's hotel brands expire after a year of inactivity.
Before you make your first call, have copies of the death certificate, the deceased's loyalty program account numbers, address and email details ready. Be sure you have your own account, into which the awards can be transferred.
While you may not need the will, you'll need a statement from the executor naming a beneficiary, say representatives of loyalty programs at airlines, hotels and credit card companies.
If first you hear "no," try and try again.
"You have to push and go to higher-ups," says Delaney, whose firm's requests to transfer the 1.7 million AmEx points were initially denied.
TAX IMPLICATIONS
The IRS has not issued guidance specifically on airline, hotel or credit card points, saying in an emailed statement that "your gross estate includes the value of all property you own partially or outright at the time of death."
Law firm Hemenway & Barnes will list the $10,000 in gift cards as an asset of the estate.
But it is notoriously difficult to value other kinds of loyalty points. Their value fluctuates depending on whether they are used for hotel stays, gift cards, flights or goods.
Should you just skip the "formalities" of reporting the death and use the miles to, ahem, fly under the radar? Indeed, it's possible to log on as your relative if you have their details, though many loyalty programs prohibit the practice.
InsideFlyer's Petersen, who says he has about 17 million miles combined in his airline and hotel accounts, has not included those miles in his estate planning.
Instead, "my lovely bride knows where I keep this little (list) and I want her to treat her girl pals to a trip to Cabo."
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Elite Status on Airlines Loses Some of Its Appeal
Date: March 2013
Travelers with elite status in an airline’s frequent-flier program used to be rewarded with perks unavailable to the masses, like access to better seats, priority boarding and faster security lines.
But as carriers have begun selling these services to anyone willing to pay a fee, or offering them to customers who carry an airline-branded credit card, the status is losing some of its appeal — at least for frequent fliers on the lower end of the elite spectrum.
“I’ve definitely noticed an erosion in benefits since I became elite,” said Bill Wilkes, a Delta SkyMiles Gold member, the second-lowest rank in Delta’s four tiers of elites. “Pretty much anyone who gets approved for a SkyMiles credit card can get priority boarding and a free checked bag.”
Mr. Wilkes, who works for a Major League Baseball team, noticed on a recent Delta flight from Baltimore to Sarasota, Fla., that more than half the passengers lined up when priority boarding was announced.
He estimates that he gets a complimentary upgrade — arguably the most important benefit of elite status — on only 15 to 20 percent of his domestic flights, compared with 40 to 50 percent several years ago.
That shift can be attributed partly to the growing ranks of elites on any one airline, because of mergers like Delta’s with Northwest, as well as more ways to earn elite status through credit card spending, not just flying.
Program rules vary by airline, but travelers typically have to accumulate 25,000 miles in a year to become a bottom-tier elite, 50,000 miles for the middle tier and 75,000 to 125,000 miles for the top tiers. Most people have to requalify each year, and miles earned from credit card spending increasingly count toward the minimum required.
For instance, customers approved for Delta’s Reserve card from American Express can earn 10,000 elite qualifying miles after their first purchase. (There is a $450 annual fee.)
US Airways even sells access to its “preferred” status: a traveler who is short 1,500 miles to qualify for a particular elite tier can pay a $249 fee to close that gap. Prices vary depending on the mileage needed, but can run as high as $3,999 for 100,000 preferred miles.
While airlines do not disclose how many people are in each elite tier, Henry Harteveldt, a travel analyst at the consulting firm Hudson Crossing, said about 3 to 4 percent of a carrier’s frequent-flier members had elite status. Delta and United each have 90 million frequent fliers, and American has 69 million, which means anywhere from two million to four million elites a program (though the number may be higher).
“When you think about the scale of these programs, it’s an enormous volume and, of course, these people travel more often,” Mr. Harteveldt said. “When you’re on a hub-to-hub flight like United from Chicago to San Francisco, elites can sometimes make up between a third and half of the plane.”
There are some signs that carriers recognize this issue. Delta recently announced that starting next year, passengers can qualify for elite status based on miles earned (or segments flown) and by spending at least $2,500 on Delta tickets, not including taxes or optional fees. The spending requirement is waived for those who charge $25,000 a year using a Delta credit card.
“I expect other airlines are going to take steps to thin out their elite ranks by instituting similar spending requirements,” Mr. Harteveldt said. “The people who fly the most and spend the most will receive the benefits they value more often.”
But airlines also value the revenue they earn from selling some benefits to nonelite travelers, a growing practice as the industry seeks to maintain its profits.
For $10 a flight, JetBlue passengers can buy access to priority security lines typically reserved for elite and premium cabin passengers. American sells priority boarding for $18 round trip, as well as a “Choice Essential” package for $68 that includes priority boarding, a checked bag and a change fee waiver on a domestic round-trip ticket. Even Southwest, known for its “bags fly free” motto, recently began selling an early boarding option for $40 a flight.
Priority boarding and a free checked bag are also some of the benefits that come with carrying credit cards from United, American and Delta. United adds to the mix two complimentary passes to its airport lounges.
“If you hold the airline’s credit card, you pretty much have the same perks as the 25,000-mile elite flyer, except the upgrades,” said Steve Cox, an elite member in Delta’s top tier. “But people with lower status are usually not getting upgraded anyway.”
Still, Mr. Cox said he appreciated the extra customer service he received, which includes a dedicated phone number that elites can call and priority rebooking when a flight is changed or canceled. That came in handy when he and his wife were rebooked on different flights returning from Dublin to San Francisco, and he sent a message to Delta asking for help.
“Within 20 minutes, someone called my cellphone and then personally worked with me and forced open award seats so we could fly together,” Mr. Cox said. “If you don’t have elite status, you’re not going to get that — you probably wouldn’t even get a response from them.”
By switching from United to Delta, he said, he faces less competition for upgrades and shorter lines when flying out of San Francisco, a United hub. Although that often means a connecting flight, it is one way elites are maneuvering to maintain the benefits they value.
“The best thing you can do is choose less popular routes and, if necessary, buy a slightly more expensive ticket,” said Scott Mackenzie, who managed to earn top-tier elite status on United while pursuing a Ph.D. in neurobiology. (If two elites in the same tier are vying for an upgrade, the one with the more expensive ticket gets the better seat.)
Mr. Mackenzie, a travel blogger who has posted a detailed comparison of the airlines’ elite benefits at hackmytrip.com, also suggests avoiding nonstop flights and peak travel times to improve chances of an upgrade.
“I don’t travel on Monday mornings on routes like Seattle to New York,” he said. “Anything you can do to lower the competition helps.”
Source: NYT
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United Airlines Announces New Fees for Faster Boarding, Bags
Date: March 7, 2013
Airline Fees Hit Bags, Pets and Leg Room
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Bags delivered to your door? Streaming a movie? Early boarding? There's an airline fee for that.
United Airlines will deliver your bags to your door or hotel room. It's $30 for the first bag, $40 for the second and $50 for up to eight pieces of luggage. The program was introduced earlier this year and recently expanded to 36 airports. The bag delivery service follows a similar move by American Airlines last year.
It's one of several new fees United is rolling out nationwide. Last week, the airline announced it would allow customers a faster trip through check-in and security. The cost: $9
Airlines Collect Record $1.7B in Baggage Fees
Airlines charge more to ask to have the child sitting next to the parent.
"If you want that privilege you've got it now, and at the same time though, it's going to cost you more than what you could've done if you did it yourself," said Tom Parsons, CEO of BestFares.com.
Southwest Airlines, famous for its "Bags Fly Free" tag line, recently added an early boarding fee. The airline is also charging -- $5 -- if you want to stream movies on your laptop.
RELATED: Southwest Adds Early Boarding Fee
"All these new amenities will add money to their bottom line," said Parsons.
It adds as much as $6 billion per year for the major U.S. carriers for everything from bag fees, to change fees, to pet fees, to snack boxes to fees for extra leg room.
Airlines say that without the fees, they'd lose money. The fees, they say, allow them to keep base fares low. Airlines for America, an industry trade group, says when adjusted for inflation, the average round-trip domestic airfare has actually dropped 15 percent since 2000.
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Airlines that charge the most in fees
Date: February 2013
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To stay profitable in the current market, many airlines have raised or added fees in the past several years. Airfarewatchdog.com surveyed the fees of 14 major domestic airlines charge, finding 14 different extra charges. Some fees—such as charging for changing a flight, for checked bags, and even for blankets and pillows—have been met with outrage by travelers. 24/7 Wall St. reviewed Airfarewatchdog.com’s survey ’s survey to identify the air carriers with the worst fees and ranked all the carriers, best to worst. These are the 10 airlines with the highest fees:
10. Virgin America
Total additional fees: $447 - First checked bag: $20 - Book by phone: $20 - Unaccompanied minors: $75 — $100 (nonstop only)
Virgin America, an airline that began service in the U.S. just over five years ago, has a mixed record with fees. Each checked bag costs passengers just $25, which amounts to significantly less than most airlines for passengers with many bags. It is also among just a few airlines that doesn’t charge customers to book a flight in-person. Yet its fees are high in other instances. In order to gain access to more legroom in the airplane’s main cabin, fliers will have to cough up a minimum of $39 and up to $129, more than any other airline offering such a service. Although the company’s frequent flier program is based on dollars spent rather than miles accrued, it is only on the base fare without the extra fees.
9. AirTran
Total additional fees: $460 - First checked bag: $25 - Book by phone: $15 -Unaccompanied minors: $50 (nonstop or direct only)
Southwest Airlines LUV -1.02% , the parent company of AirTran, announced that it will be raising several AirTran fees in 2013, but didn’t specify which yet. Even before these increases Airtran’s fee structure was not as generous as the parent company’s flagship brand. For instance, although Southwest doesn’t charge any change fees, AirTran charges $75 to change a flight in advance and $25 if it is a same-day flight change. While Southwest doesn’t charge booking fees, AirTran charges $15 for booking over the phone. And unlike Southwest’s “bags fly free” policy, AirTran charges $25 for the first checked bag and $35 for the second.
8. JetBlue
Total additional fees: $525 - First checked bag: $0 - Book by phone: $20 - Unaccompanied minors: $100 (nonstop only)
JetBlue JBLU -2.10% is considered a low-cost carrier that competes with airlines such as AirTran, Spirit and Southwest. Along with Southwest, JetBlue is the only other airline that does not charge a fee for the first checked bag. However, the company charges $40 for the second bag, more than any other airline in the U.S. except for Spirit. Fortunately for larger passengers, the armrests are 17.8” apart compared with the standard 17”. However, those who cannot fit between the seats have to purchase a second seat with no refunds even if the flight is not full. This differs from most airlines where a refund is usually granted if a flight had extra seats.
7. Air Canada
Total additional fees: $545 - First checked bag: $25 - Book by phone: $0 - Unaccompanied minors: $100 (nonstop only) - For flights between the U.S. and Canada, all of the extra fees could cost Air Canada travelers at least an $545 in addition to base fare. The airline charges a $150 fee in order to change a flight in advance, among the highest rates of all airlines. Although the $25 and $35 charged for the first and second checked bag are about average for all airlines, the $100 fee charged for each additional bag, while not the highest, is higher than most airlines. However, there are bright spots. The airline does not charge any fee to book a flight, one of the few airlines that do not.
6. Spirit
Total additional fees: $646 - First checked bag: $30-$100 - Book by phone: $11-$19/direction - Unaccompanied minors: $100 (nonstop or direct only)
Although Spirit SAVE -3.20% is considered a low-cost airline, the company gets a hefty share of its money by charging its customers for extras. Spirit caused a commotion when it decided to charge fees for carry-on bags. The company argued that the carry-on fees would be offset by lower base fares, Spirit considers a bag to be overweight if it is over 40 lbs., rather than the typical 50 lbs. Fortunately for travelers, a bag between 41 lbs. and 50 lbs. costs just $25 extra while bags between 51 lbs. and 70 lbs. cost an extra $50, considerably lower than most overweight baggage fees. The first checked bag costs a minimum of $30, while the second checked bag costs a minimum of $40, both the highest of all airlines.
5. United
Total additional fees: $666 - First checked bag: $25 - Book by phone: $25 - Unaccompanied minors: $99
United UAL -0.93% is one of just three airlines, along with American and US Airways, that charges $75 when a frequent flier wants to redeem points for a ticket within 21 days of departure. Like most airlines, if a customer isn’t able to fit in a seat, he or she has to purchase an additional ticket. Unlike most airlines, however, United will not refund customers for the price of the additional seat if the flight has extra space. Like the other major carriers in the U.S., the company has improved its performance by merging with another company. United merged with Continental Airlines in May 2010, forming United Continental Holdings. It is the largest airline in the world by available seat kilometers, which is the number of available seats times the number of kilometers flown by the airline.
4. Delta
Total additional fees: $754 - First checked bag: $25 - Book by phone: $20-$35 - Unaccompanied minors: $100
Delta DAL 0.00% is one of just four airlines that charges additional fees of more than $700. There is a $150 fee in order to change a flight in advance, tied for the highest among all airlines. In order to check a third bag, passengers must cough up $125, among the highest of all airlines. It gets worse. All additional bags after that cost $200 each, more than any other airline. Delta merged with Northwest Airlines back in 2008. The airline is currently the second largest in the world in terms of available seat kilometers.
3. Hawaiian
Total additional fees: $766 - First checked bag: $25 mainland/$17 interisland - Book by phone: $25 mainland, $15 interisland - Unaccompanied minors: $100 mainland/$35 interisland
The costs of the additional fees for Hawaiian Airlines are very different depending on whether a person is flying interisland or between the islands and the U.S. mainland. For instance, there is only a $30 change fee for people flying interisland, but there is a $150 change fee for those flying between the islands and the mainland. For unaccompanied minors, the cost is just $35 interisland. But for an unaccompanied minor going to or from the mainland, that cost is $100
2. US Airways
Total additional fees: $795 - First checked bag: $25 - Book by phone: $25 - Unaccompanied minors: $100 (nonstop only)
US Airways LCC +0.15% , which recently announced a merger deal with American Airlines (No. 1 on this list), charges its customers nearly $800 in additional costs. While it charges just $25 for the first checked bag and $35 for the second checked bag, in line with most other major airlines, it charges $125 for each additional bag, more than any other airline except for Delta and American. The airline is one of the few that offers blankets and pillows, although the charge is $7.
1. American Airlines
Total additional fees: $842 - First checked bag: $25 - Book by phone: $25 - Unaccompanied minors: $100 (nonstop or direct)
American Airlines AAMRQ -2.72% has more additional fees than any other domestic carrier. Checking a third bag costs $150, more than any other airline. Checking oversize bags costs $200, also more than any other airline. These high fees haven’t resulted in strong financial performance for AMR, the airline’s parent company. It isn’t clear how the merger agreement with US Airways will affect fees; the new airline will retain the American name and brand, and remain based in its Fort Worth, Texas.
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Airlines Charging the Highest Fees
The U.S. airline industry had one of the more turbulent decades in its history. In the past few years, the majority of the country’s largest carriers have merged with a competitor or gone into bankruptcy, some of them multiple times.
In order to stay profitable in the current market, many airlines have raised or added fees in the past several years. Airfarewatchdog.com surveyed the fees of 14 major domestic airlines charge, finding 14 different extra charges. Some fees — such as charging for changing a flight, for checked bags, and even for blankets and pillows — have been met with outrage by travelers. 24/7 Wall St. reviewed Airfarewatchdog.com’s survey to identify the air carriers with the worst fees and ranked all the carriers, best to worst.
14. Alaska (NYSE: ALK)
> Total additional fees: $331
> First checked bag: $20
> Book by phone: $15
> Unaccompanied minors: $20 (nonstop or direct) / $50 (connecting)
Alaska Airlines charges the least amount of fees among the major domestic airlines. It charges just $20 for passengers’ first and second bags, lower than many of its peers. Fees on overweight bags (up to 100 lbs) or oversized (up to 80 in.) are just $50, online with well-recognized, low-cost airlines such as Southwest and Jetblue. Despite low baggage fees, the airline is exceptionally profitable. In 2010, 24/7 Wall St. referred to Alaska Airlines as “the industry jewel.” Over the last five years, parent company Alaska Air Group, Inc.’s stock price has risen over 245%. In JD Power’s 2012 North America AirlineSatisfaction Survey, Alaska ranked as the top traditional airline.
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13. Southwest (NYSE: LUV)
> Total additional fees: $360
> First checked bag: $0
> Book by phone: $0
> Unaccompanied minors: $50 (nonstop or direct only)
Southwest Airlines has earned a reputation as an airline without the ancillary charges of some of the larger carriers in the U.S. It is the only airline on this list that allows domestic passengers to check two bags for free, a fact that is touted by the company’s motto of “bags fly free.” Southwest is also the only major U.S. carrier not to charge any fees to change a flight, and is one of just three major airlines not to charge a booking fee. Despite all of this, the airline has announced that it is raising certain fees in 2013 in order to raise an additional $1.1 billion in revenue. The airline raised the fees on the third checked bag and overweight bags, among others.
12. Allegiant (NASDAQ: ALGT)
> Total additional fees: $383
> First checked bag: $15-$75/segment
> Book by phone: $10
> Unaccompanied minors: N/A
Allegiant Air’s additional fees are relatively low because it doesn’t offer several amenities that other airlines do, including the escorting of unaccompanied minors and pillows and blankets. However, Allegiant is one of just two airlines, along with Spirit Airlines, to charge for carry-on bags. These fees can range anywhere from $10 to $75 per flight. In addition, Allegiant is one of two airlines that considers bags over 40 lbs to be overweight, compared to the standard 50 lbs for most airlines.
11. Frontier
> Total additional fees: $431
> First checked bag: $20
> Book by phone: $0
> Unaccompanied minors: $50 – $100 (nonstop only)
Although Frontier Airlines is one of 11 airlines with total additional fees of more than $400, customers get a relatively good deal on several extras compared to most airlines. Frontier is one of just three airlines that doesn’t charge customers for booking tickets over the phone or in person. In addition, Frontier charges just $20 for the both the first and second checked bag, both lower than the majority of large U.S. airlines. Even the $50 cost for checking additional bags is significantly lower than most airlines.
These days, U.S. carriers operate in a hyper-competitive market. Travel sites such as Travelocity, Orbitz, and Kayak have forced U.S. Air, American Airlines, and United to lower their fares. In fact, the fares have gone down so much that the carriers are losing money on many of their flights.
In an interview with 24/7 Wall St., Airfarewatchdog.com founder George Hobica explained that it is the sustained pressure on airlines to keep their fares low that has caused their declining profitability and forced them to levy increased fees. Adjusted for inflation, he explained, airfares are lower today than they were 20 years ago. Even with the extra fees, he added, the amount of money per passenger the airlines make remains well below what they made more than a decade ago.
The airlines with the greatest financial difficulties also tend to charge higher fees in order to help them stay afloat. American Airlines, which has by our calculation the highest fees, lost more than $1.1 billion in operating revenue in 2011, leading up to its second bankruptcy. The airlines that charge the lowest fees, like Southwest, and Alaska, remain profitable.
The main difference between Airlines such as Southwest and Alaska are able to remain profitable and consequently charge lower fees, while others such as U.S. Air, United, and American cannot is age, said Hobica. The low-fee airlines are younger, with younger fleets, which cost less money to maintain. Also, they have younger employees who do not need to be paid as much as legacy employees at older airlines. This is one of the key reasons, Hobica explained, “U.S. airlines are behind the eight-ball: they have labor rules [and] they can’t fire these people.”
A review of the airlines with the highest fees shows that most had among the worst customer service ratings. American and United, which had among the five-highest fees, also had the worst customer service rating from the American Customer Satisfaction Index. Southwest, which had among the lowest fees, scored as one of the best on the ACSI.
Hobica explained this makes sense considering the history of these larger, older airlines. “Some of the newer airlines, like JetBlue and Virgin America — their employees have not been battered as much as some of the mainline carriers like American, United, and Delta. A lot of these employees lost their pensions and have been mistreated by the management, and so they’re more jaded,” he said.
Using Airfarewatchdog.com’s report on the type of fees each of the 14 major U.S. domestic carriers charges, 24/7 Wall St. totaled the amount a passenger would pay if he or she paid at least the minimum fee in each of the 14 fee categories. These categories include fees for additional checked bags, overweight bags, food and drink, flight change fees, and booking fees. In addition to the fee data from Airfarewatchdog.com, we considered airline operating profit and revenue, as collected by the Bureau of Transportation Statistics. We also reviewed customer satisfaction scores for many of these airlines, which we obtained from the American Customer Satisfaction Index.
10. Virgin America
> Total additional fees: $447
> First checked bag: $25
> Book by phone: $20
> Unaccompanied minors: $75 – $100 (nonstop only)
Virgin America, an airline that began service in the U.S. just over five years ago, has a mixed record with fees. Each checked bag costs passengers just $25, which amounts to significantly less than most airlines for passengers with many bags. It is also among just a few airlines that doesn’t charge customers to book a flight in-person. Yet its fees are high in other instances. In order to gain access to more legroom in the airplane’s main cabin, flyers will have to cough up a minimum of $39 and up to $129, more than any other airline offering such a service. Although the company’s frequent flyer program is based on dollars spent rather than miles accrued, it is only on the base fare without the extra fees.
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9. Airtran
> Total additional fees: $460
> First checked bag: $25
> Book by phone: $15
> Unaccompanied minors: $50 (nonstop or direct only)
Southwest Airlines, the parent company of Airtran, announced that it will be raising several Airtran fees in 2013, but didn’t specify which yet. Even before these increases Airtran’s fee structure was not as generous as the parent company’s flagship brand. For instance, although Southwest doesn’t charge any change fees, Airtran charges $75 to change a flight in advance and $25 if it is a same-day flight change. While Southwest doesn’t charge booking fees, Airtran charges $15 for booking over the phone. And unlike Southwest’s “bags fly free” policy, Airtran charges $25 for the first checked bag and $35 for the second.
8. JetBlue (NASDAQ: JBLU)
> Total additional fees: $525
> First checked bag: $0
> Book by phone: $20
> Unaccompanied minors: $100 (nonstop only)
JetBlue is considered a low-cost carrier that competes with airlines such as Airtran, Spirit and Southwest. Along with Southwest, JetBlue is the only other airline that does not charge a fee for the first checked bag. However, the company charges $40 for the second bag, more than any other airline in the U.S. except for Spirit. Fortunately for larger passengers, the armrests are 17.8” apart compared to the standard 17”. However, those who cannot fit between the seats have to purchase a second seat with no refunds even if the flight is not full. This differs from most airlines where a refund is usually granted if a flight had extra seats.
7. Air Canada
> Total additional fees: $545
> First checked bag: $25
> Book by phone: $0
> Unaccompanied minors: $100 (nonstop only)
For flights between the U.S. and Canada, all of the extra fees could cost Air Canada travelers at least an $545 in addition to base fare. The airline charges a $150 fee in order to change a flight in advance, among the highest rates of all airlines. Although the $25 and $35 charged for the first and second checked bag are about average for all airlines, the $100 fee charged for each additional bag, while not the highest, is higher than most airlines. However, there are bright spots. The airline does not charge any fee to book a flight, one of the few airlines that do not.
6. Spirit (NASDAQ: SAVE)
> Total additional fees: $646
> First checked bag: $30-$100
> Book by phone: $11-$19/direction
> Unaccompanied minors: $100 (nonstop or direct only)
Although Spirit is considered a low-cost airline, the company gets a hefty share of its money by charging its customers for extras. Spirit caused a commotion when it decided to charge fees for carry-on bags. The company argued that the carry-on fees would be offset by lower base fares, Spirit considers a bag to be overweight if it is over 40 lbs rather than the typical 50 lbs. Fortunately for travelers, a bag between 41 lbs and 50 lbs costs just $25 extra while bags between 51 lbs and 70 lbs cost an extra $50, considerably lower than most overweight baggage fees. The first checked bag costs a minimum of $30, while the second checked bag costs a minimum of $40, both the highest of all airlines.
5. United (NYSE: UAL)
> Total additional fees: $666
> First checked bag: $25
> Book by phone: $25
> Unaccompanied minors: $99
United is one of just three airlines, along with American and US Airways, that charges $75 when a frequent flyer wants to redeem points for a ticket within 21 days of departure. Like most airlines, if a customer isn’t able to fit in a seat, he or she has to purchase an additional ticket. Unlike most airlines, however, United will not refund customers for the price of the additional seat if the flight has extra space. Like the other major carriers in the U.S., the company has improved its performance by merging with another company. United merged with Continental Airlines in May 2010, forming United Continental Holdings. It is the largest airline in the world by available seat kilometers, which is the number of available seats times the number of kilometers flown by the airline.
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4. Delta (NYSE: DAL)
> Total additional fees: $754
> First checked bag: $25
> Book by phone: $20-$35
> Unaccompanied minors: $100
Delta is one of just four airlines that charges additional fees of more than $700. There is a $150 fee in order to change a flight in advance, tied for the highest among all airlines. In order to check a third bag, passengers must cough up $125, among the highest of all airlines. It gets worse. All additional bags after that cost $200 each, more than any other airline. Delta merged with Northwest Airlines back in 2008. The airline is currently the second largest in the world in terms of available seat kilometers.
3. Hawaiian
> Total additional fees: $766
> First checked bag: $25 mainland/$17 interisland
> Book by phone: $25 mainland, $15 interisland
> Unaccompanied minors: $100 mainland/$35 interisland
The costs of the additional fees for Hawaiian Airlines are very different depending on whether a person is flying interisland or between the islands and the U.S. mainland. For instance, there is only a $30 change fee for people flying interisland, but there is a $150 change fee for those flying between the islands and the mainland. For unaccompanied minors, the cost is just $35 interisland. But for an unaccompanied minor going to or from the mainland, that cost is $100.
2. US Airways (NYSE: LCC)
> Total additional fees: $795
> First checked bag: $25
> Book by phone: $25
> Unaccompanied minors: $100 (nonstop only)
US Airways charges its customers nearly $800 in additional costs. While it charges just $25 for the first checked bag and $35 for the second checked bag, in line with most other major airlines, it charges $125 for each additional bag, more than any other airline except for Delta and American. The airline is one of the few that offers blankets and pillows, although the charge is $7. While US Airways reported strong earnings recently, there has been much speculation it would merge with American Airlines soon. The merger would create a larger airline that help the two carriers compete with larger rivals.
1. American
> Total additional fees: $842
> First checked bag: $25
> Book by phone: $25
> Unaccompanied minors: $100 (nonstop or direct)
American Airlines has more additional fees than any other domestic carrier. Checking a third bag costs $150, more than any other airline. Checking oversized bags costs $200, also more than any other airline. These high fees haven’t resulted in strong financial performance for AMR, the airline’s parent company. The company reported a loss of $1.9 billion in 2012 and almost $2 billion the year before. AMR filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in November 2011 in order to restructure its high costs. The company’s leadership has repeatedly argued that expenses must be cut in order to remain competitive with other large carriers.
__________
Read more: (click each green or search the web with the title)
Airlines, Special Report, Air Canada customer fees, American customer fees, Delta customer fees, Hawaiian Airlines customer fees, JetBlue customer fees, Southwest Air customer fees, Spirit Air customer fees, US Air customer fees, ALGT, ALK, DAL, featured, JBLU, LCC, LUV, SAVE, UAL
________
Read more: Airlines Charging the Highest Fees - 24/7 Wall St. http://247wallst.com/2013/02/05/airlines-charging-the-highest-fees/#ixzz2MIYIf5nw
___________
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Read more: Airlines Charging the Highest Fees - 24/7 Wall St. http://247wallst.com/2013/02/05/airlines-charging-the-highest-fees/#ixzz2MISMeY4S
Source: (1) Marketwatch, (2) WSJ
_________________________________________________
Date: February 2013
Click green for further info
To stay profitable in the current market, many airlines have raised or added fees in the past several years. Airfarewatchdog.com surveyed the fees of 14 major domestic airlines charge, finding 14 different extra charges. Some fees—such as charging for changing a flight, for checked bags, and even for blankets and pillows—have been met with outrage by travelers. 24/7 Wall St. reviewed Airfarewatchdog.com’s survey ’s survey to identify the air carriers with the worst fees and ranked all the carriers, best to worst. These are the 10 airlines with the highest fees:
10. Virgin America
Total additional fees: $447 - First checked bag: $20 - Book by phone: $20 - Unaccompanied minors: $75 — $100 (nonstop only)
Virgin America, an airline that began service in the U.S. just over five years ago, has a mixed record with fees. Each checked bag costs passengers just $25, which amounts to significantly less than most airlines for passengers with many bags. It is also among just a few airlines that doesn’t charge customers to book a flight in-person. Yet its fees are high in other instances. In order to gain access to more legroom in the airplane’s main cabin, fliers will have to cough up a minimum of $39 and up to $129, more than any other airline offering such a service. Although the company’s frequent flier program is based on dollars spent rather than miles accrued, it is only on the base fare without the extra fees.
9. AirTran
Total additional fees: $460 - First checked bag: $25 - Book by phone: $15 -Unaccompanied minors: $50 (nonstop or direct only)
Southwest Airlines LUV -1.02% , the parent company of AirTran, announced that it will be raising several AirTran fees in 2013, but didn’t specify which yet. Even before these increases Airtran’s fee structure was not as generous as the parent company’s flagship brand. For instance, although Southwest doesn’t charge any change fees, AirTran charges $75 to change a flight in advance and $25 if it is a same-day flight change. While Southwest doesn’t charge booking fees, AirTran charges $15 for booking over the phone. And unlike Southwest’s “bags fly free” policy, AirTran charges $25 for the first checked bag and $35 for the second.
8. JetBlue
Total additional fees: $525 - First checked bag: $0 - Book by phone: $20 - Unaccompanied minors: $100 (nonstop only)
JetBlue JBLU -2.10% is considered a low-cost carrier that competes with airlines such as AirTran, Spirit and Southwest. Along with Southwest, JetBlue is the only other airline that does not charge a fee for the first checked bag. However, the company charges $40 for the second bag, more than any other airline in the U.S. except for Spirit. Fortunately for larger passengers, the armrests are 17.8” apart compared with the standard 17”. However, those who cannot fit between the seats have to purchase a second seat with no refunds even if the flight is not full. This differs from most airlines where a refund is usually granted if a flight had extra seats.
7. Air Canada
Total additional fees: $545 - First checked bag: $25 - Book by phone: $0 - Unaccompanied minors: $100 (nonstop only) - For flights between the U.S. and Canada, all of the extra fees could cost Air Canada travelers at least an $545 in addition to base fare. The airline charges a $150 fee in order to change a flight in advance, among the highest rates of all airlines. Although the $25 and $35 charged for the first and second checked bag are about average for all airlines, the $100 fee charged for each additional bag, while not the highest, is higher than most airlines. However, there are bright spots. The airline does not charge any fee to book a flight, one of the few airlines that do not.
6. Spirit
Total additional fees: $646 - First checked bag: $30-$100 - Book by phone: $11-$19/direction - Unaccompanied minors: $100 (nonstop or direct only)
Although Spirit SAVE -3.20% is considered a low-cost airline, the company gets a hefty share of its money by charging its customers for extras. Spirit caused a commotion when it decided to charge fees for carry-on bags. The company argued that the carry-on fees would be offset by lower base fares, Spirit considers a bag to be overweight if it is over 40 lbs., rather than the typical 50 lbs. Fortunately for travelers, a bag between 41 lbs. and 50 lbs. costs just $25 extra while bags between 51 lbs. and 70 lbs. cost an extra $50, considerably lower than most overweight baggage fees. The first checked bag costs a minimum of $30, while the second checked bag costs a minimum of $40, both the highest of all airlines.
5. United
Total additional fees: $666 - First checked bag: $25 - Book by phone: $25 - Unaccompanied minors: $99
United UAL -0.93% is one of just three airlines, along with American and US Airways, that charges $75 when a frequent flier wants to redeem points for a ticket within 21 days of departure. Like most airlines, if a customer isn’t able to fit in a seat, he or she has to purchase an additional ticket. Unlike most airlines, however, United will not refund customers for the price of the additional seat if the flight has extra space. Like the other major carriers in the U.S., the company has improved its performance by merging with another company. United merged with Continental Airlines in May 2010, forming United Continental Holdings. It is the largest airline in the world by available seat kilometers, which is the number of available seats times the number of kilometers flown by the airline.
4. Delta
Total additional fees: $754 - First checked bag: $25 - Book by phone: $20-$35 - Unaccompanied minors: $100
Delta DAL 0.00% is one of just four airlines that charges additional fees of more than $700. There is a $150 fee in order to change a flight in advance, tied for the highest among all airlines. In order to check a third bag, passengers must cough up $125, among the highest of all airlines. It gets worse. All additional bags after that cost $200 each, more than any other airline. Delta merged with Northwest Airlines back in 2008. The airline is currently the second largest in the world in terms of available seat kilometers.
3. Hawaiian
Total additional fees: $766 - First checked bag: $25 mainland/$17 interisland - Book by phone: $25 mainland, $15 interisland - Unaccompanied minors: $100 mainland/$35 interisland
The costs of the additional fees for Hawaiian Airlines are very different depending on whether a person is flying interisland or between the islands and the U.S. mainland. For instance, there is only a $30 change fee for people flying interisland, but there is a $150 change fee for those flying between the islands and the mainland. For unaccompanied minors, the cost is just $35 interisland. But for an unaccompanied minor going to or from the mainland, that cost is $100
2. US Airways
Total additional fees: $795 - First checked bag: $25 - Book by phone: $25 - Unaccompanied minors: $100 (nonstop only)
US Airways LCC +0.15% , which recently announced a merger deal with American Airlines (No. 1 on this list), charges its customers nearly $800 in additional costs. While it charges just $25 for the first checked bag and $35 for the second checked bag, in line with most other major airlines, it charges $125 for each additional bag, more than any other airline except for Delta and American. The airline is one of the few that offers blankets and pillows, although the charge is $7.
1. American Airlines
Total additional fees: $842 - First checked bag: $25 - Book by phone: $25 - Unaccompanied minors: $100 (nonstop or direct)
American Airlines AAMRQ -2.72% has more additional fees than any other domestic carrier. Checking a third bag costs $150, more than any other airline. Checking oversize bags costs $200, also more than any other airline. These high fees haven’t resulted in strong financial performance for AMR, the airline’s parent company. It isn’t clear how the merger agreement with US Airways will affect fees; the new airline will retain the American name and brand, and remain based in its Fort Worth, Texas.
___________
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Read more: Airlines Charging the Highest Fees - 24/7 Wall St. http://247wallst.com/2013/02/05/airlines-charging-the-highest-fees/#ixzz2MIYIf5nw
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Read the full story from 24/7 Wall St.
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Below is the full text
Airlines Charging the Highest Fees
The U.S. airline industry had one of the more turbulent decades in its history. In the past few years, the majority of the country’s largest carriers have merged with a competitor or gone into bankruptcy, some of them multiple times.
In order to stay profitable in the current market, many airlines have raised or added fees in the past several years. Airfarewatchdog.com surveyed the fees of 14 major domestic airlines charge, finding 14 different extra charges. Some fees — such as charging for changing a flight, for checked bags, and even for blankets and pillows — have been met with outrage by travelers. 24/7 Wall St. reviewed Airfarewatchdog.com’s survey to identify the air carriers with the worst fees and ranked all the carriers, best to worst.
14. Alaska (NYSE: ALK)
> Total additional fees: $331
> First checked bag: $20
> Book by phone: $15
> Unaccompanied minors: $20 (nonstop or direct) / $50 (connecting)
Alaska Airlines charges the least amount of fees among the major domestic airlines. It charges just $20 for passengers’ first and second bags, lower than many of its peers. Fees on overweight bags (up to 100 lbs) or oversized (up to 80 in.) are just $50, online with well-recognized, low-cost airlines such as Southwest and Jetblue. Despite low baggage fees, the airline is exceptionally profitable. In 2010, 24/7 Wall St. referred to Alaska Airlines as “the industry jewel.” Over the last five years, parent company Alaska Air Group, Inc.’s stock price has risen over 245%. In JD Power’s 2012 North America AirlineSatisfaction Survey, Alaska ranked as the top traditional airline.
Also Read: The Biggest Car Recalls Of All Time
13. Southwest (NYSE: LUV)
> Total additional fees: $360
> First checked bag: $0
> Book by phone: $0
> Unaccompanied minors: $50 (nonstop or direct only)
Southwest Airlines has earned a reputation as an airline without the ancillary charges of some of the larger carriers in the U.S. It is the only airline on this list that allows domestic passengers to check two bags for free, a fact that is touted by the company’s motto of “bags fly free.” Southwest is also the only major U.S. carrier not to charge any fees to change a flight, and is one of just three major airlines not to charge a booking fee. Despite all of this, the airline has announced that it is raising certain fees in 2013 in order to raise an additional $1.1 billion in revenue. The airline raised the fees on the third checked bag and overweight bags, among others.
12. Allegiant (NASDAQ: ALGT)
> Total additional fees: $383
> First checked bag: $15-$75/segment
> Book by phone: $10
> Unaccompanied minors: N/A
Allegiant Air’s additional fees are relatively low because it doesn’t offer several amenities that other airlines do, including the escorting of unaccompanied minors and pillows and blankets. However, Allegiant is one of just two airlines, along with Spirit Airlines, to charge for carry-on bags. These fees can range anywhere from $10 to $75 per flight. In addition, Allegiant is one of two airlines that considers bags over 40 lbs to be overweight, compared to the standard 50 lbs for most airlines.
11. Frontier
> Total additional fees: $431
> First checked bag: $20
> Book by phone: $0
> Unaccompanied minors: $50 – $100 (nonstop only)
Although Frontier Airlines is one of 11 airlines with total additional fees of more than $400, customers get a relatively good deal on several extras compared to most airlines. Frontier is one of just three airlines that doesn’t charge customers for booking tickets over the phone or in person. In addition, Frontier charges just $20 for the both the first and second checked bag, both lower than the majority of large U.S. airlines. Even the $50 cost for checking additional bags is significantly lower than most airlines.
These days, U.S. carriers operate in a hyper-competitive market. Travel sites such as Travelocity, Orbitz, and Kayak have forced U.S. Air, American Airlines, and United to lower their fares. In fact, the fares have gone down so much that the carriers are losing money on many of their flights.
In an interview with 24/7 Wall St., Airfarewatchdog.com founder George Hobica explained that it is the sustained pressure on airlines to keep their fares low that has caused their declining profitability and forced them to levy increased fees. Adjusted for inflation, he explained, airfares are lower today than they were 20 years ago. Even with the extra fees, he added, the amount of money per passenger the airlines make remains well below what they made more than a decade ago.
The airlines with the greatest financial difficulties also tend to charge higher fees in order to help them stay afloat. American Airlines, which has by our calculation the highest fees, lost more than $1.1 billion in operating revenue in 2011, leading up to its second bankruptcy. The airlines that charge the lowest fees, like Southwest, and Alaska, remain profitable.
The main difference between Airlines such as Southwest and Alaska are able to remain profitable and consequently charge lower fees, while others such as U.S. Air, United, and American cannot is age, said Hobica. The low-fee airlines are younger, with younger fleets, which cost less money to maintain. Also, they have younger employees who do not need to be paid as much as legacy employees at older airlines. This is one of the key reasons, Hobica explained, “U.S. airlines are behind the eight-ball: they have labor rules [and] they can’t fire these people.”
A review of the airlines with the highest fees shows that most had among the worst customer service ratings. American and United, which had among the five-highest fees, also had the worst customer service rating from the American Customer Satisfaction Index. Southwest, which had among the lowest fees, scored as one of the best on the ACSI.
Hobica explained this makes sense considering the history of these larger, older airlines. “Some of the newer airlines, like JetBlue and Virgin America — their employees have not been battered as much as some of the mainline carriers like American, United, and Delta. A lot of these employees lost their pensions and have been mistreated by the management, and so they’re more jaded,” he said.
Using Airfarewatchdog.com’s report on the type of fees each of the 14 major U.S. domestic carriers charges, 24/7 Wall St. totaled the amount a passenger would pay if he or she paid at least the minimum fee in each of the 14 fee categories. These categories include fees for additional checked bags, overweight bags, food and drink, flight change fees, and booking fees. In addition to the fee data from Airfarewatchdog.com, we considered airline operating profit and revenue, as collected by the Bureau of Transportation Statistics. We also reviewed customer satisfaction scores for many of these airlines, which we obtained from the American Customer Satisfaction Index.
10. Virgin America
> Total additional fees: $447
> First checked bag: $25
> Book by phone: $20
> Unaccompanied minors: $75 – $100 (nonstop only)
Virgin America, an airline that began service in the U.S. just over five years ago, has a mixed record with fees. Each checked bag costs passengers just $25, which amounts to significantly less than most airlines for passengers with many bags. It is also among just a few airlines that doesn’t charge customers to book a flight in-person. Yet its fees are high in other instances. In order to gain access to more legroom in the airplane’s main cabin, flyers will have to cough up a minimum of $39 and up to $129, more than any other airline offering such a service. Although the company’s frequent flyer program is based on dollars spent rather than miles accrued, it is only on the base fare without the extra fees.
Also Read: States with the Best and Worst School Systems
9. Airtran
> Total additional fees: $460
> First checked bag: $25
> Book by phone: $15
> Unaccompanied minors: $50 (nonstop or direct only)
Southwest Airlines, the parent company of Airtran, announced that it will be raising several Airtran fees in 2013, but didn’t specify which yet. Even before these increases Airtran’s fee structure was not as generous as the parent company’s flagship brand. For instance, although Southwest doesn’t charge any change fees, Airtran charges $75 to change a flight in advance and $25 if it is a same-day flight change. While Southwest doesn’t charge booking fees, Airtran charges $15 for booking over the phone. And unlike Southwest’s “bags fly free” policy, Airtran charges $25 for the first checked bag and $35 for the second.
8. JetBlue (NASDAQ: JBLU)
> Total additional fees: $525
> First checked bag: $0
> Book by phone: $20
> Unaccompanied minors: $100 (nonstop only)
JetBlue is considered a low-cost carrier that competes with airlines such as Airtran, Spirit and Southwest. Along with Southwest, JetBlue is the only other airline that does not charge a fee for the first checked bag. However, the company charges $40 for the second bag, more than any other airline in the U.S. except for Spirit. Fortunately for larger passengers, the armrests are 17.8” apart compared to the standard 17”. However, those who cannot fit between the seats have to purchase a second seat with no refunds even if the flight is not full. This differs from most airlines where a refund is usually granted if a flight had extra seats.
7. Air Canada
> Total additional fees: $545
> First checked bag: $25
> Book by phone: $0
> Unaccompanied minors: $100 (nonstop only)
For flights between the U.S. and Canada, all of the extra fees could cost Air Canada travelers at least an $545 in addition to base fare. The airline charges a $150 fee in order to change a flight in advance, among the highest rates of all airlines. Although the $25 and $35 charged for the first and second checked bag are about average for all airlines, the $100 fee charged for each additional bag, while not the highest, is higher than most airlines. However, there are bright spots. The airline does not charge any fee to book a flight, one of the few airlines that do not.
6. Spirit (NASDAQ: SAVE)
> Total additional fees: $646
> First checked bag: $30-$100
> Book by phone: $11-$19/direction
> Unaccompanied minors: $100 (nonstop or direct only)
Although Spirit is considered a low-cost airline, the company gets a hefty share of its money by charging its customers for extras. Spirit caused a commotion when it decided to charge fees for carry-on bags. The company argued that the carry-on fees would be offset by lower base fares, Spirit considers a bag to be overweight if it is over 40 lbs rather than the typical 50 lbs. Fortunately for travelers, a bag between 41 lbs and 50 lbs costs just $25 extra while bags between 51 lbs and 70 lbs cost an extra $50, considerably lower than most overweight baggage fees. The first checked bag costs a minimum of $30, while the second checked bag costs a minimum of $40, both the highest of all airlines.
5. United (NYSE: UAL)
> Total additional fees: $666
> First checked bag: $25
> Book by phone: $25
> Unaccompanied minors: $99
United is one of just three airlines, along with American and US Airways, that charges $75 when a frequent flyer wants to redeem points for a ticket within 21 days of departure. Like most airlines, if a customer isn’t able to fit in a seat, he or she has to purchase an additional ticket. Unlike most airlines, however, United will not refund customers for the price of the additional seat if the flight has extra space. Like the other major carriers in the U.S., the company has improved its performance by merging with another company. United merged with Continental Airlines in May 2010, forming United Continental Holdings. It is the largest airline in the world by available seat kilometers, which is the number of available seats times the number of kilometers flown by the airline.
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4. Delta (NYSE: DAL)
> Total additional fees: $754
> First checked bag: $25
> Book by phone: $20-$35
> Unaccompanied minors: $100
Delta is one of just four airlines that charges additional fees of more than $700. There is a $150 fee in order to change a flight in advance, tied for the highest among all airlines. In order to check a third bag, passengers must cough up $125, among the highest of all airlines. It gets worse. All additional bags after that cost $200 each, more than any other airline. Delta merged with Northwest Airlines back in 2008. The airline is currently the second largest in the world in terms of available seat kilometers.
3. Hawaiian
> Total additional fees: $766
> First checked bag: $25 mainland/$17 interisland
> Book by phone: $25 mainland, $15 interisland
> Unaccompanied minors: $100 mainland/$35 interisland
The costs of the additional fees for Hawaiian Airlines are very different depending on whether a person is flying interisland or between the islands and the U.S. mainland. For instance, there is only a $30 change fee for people flying interisland, but there is a $150 change fee for those flying between the islands and the mainland. For unaccompanied minors, the cost is just $35 interisland. But for an unaccompanied minor going to or from the mainland, that cost is $100.
2. US Airways (NYSE: LCC)
> Total additional fees: $795
> First checked bag: $25
> Book by phone: $25
> Unaccompanied minors: $100 (nonstop only)
US Airways charges its customers nearly $800 in additional costs. While it charges just $25 for the first checked bag and $35 for the second checked bag, in line with most other major airlines, it charges $125 for each additional bag, more than any other airline except for Delta and American. The airline is one of the few that offers blankets and pillows, although the charge is $7. While US Airways reported strong earnings recently, there has been much speculation it would merge with American Airlines soon. The merger would create a larger airline that help the two carriers compete with larger rivals.
1. American
> Total additional fees: $842
> First checked bag: $25
> Book by phone: $25
> Unaccompanied minors: $100 (nonstop or direct)
American Airlines has more additional fees than any other domestic carrier. Checking a third bag costs $150, more than any other airline. Checking oversized bags costs $200, also more than any other airline. These high fees haven’t resulted in strong financial performance for AMR, the airline’s parent company. The company reported a loss of $1.9 billion in 2012 and almost $2 billion the year before. AMR filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in November 2011 in order to restructure its high costs. The company’s leadership has repeatedly argued that expenses must be cut in order to remain competitive with other large carriers.
__________
Read more: (click each green or search the web with the title)
Airlines, Special Report, Air Canada customer fees, American customer fees, Delta customer fees, Hawaiian Airlines customer fees, JetBlue customer fees, Southwest Air customer fees, Spirit Air customer fees, US Air customer fees, ALGT, ALK, DAL, featured, JBLU, LCC, LUV, SAVE, UAL
________
Read more: Airlines Charging the Highest Fees - 24/7 Wall St. http://247wallst.com/2013/02/05/airlines-charging-the-highest-fees/#ixzz2MIYIf5nw
___________
Also Read: America’s Most Innovative Cities
Click the green title above to connect or (if the link has expired) search the we with that title
Read more: Airlines Charging the Highest Fees - 24/7 Wall St. http://247wallst.com/2013/02/05/airlines-charging-the-highest-fees/#ixzz2MISMeY4S
Source: (1) Marketwatch, (2) WSJ
_________________________________________________
Interesting new plan - future?
Would You Pay to Kiss Postal Mail Goodbye?
Click green for further info
A new service called Outbox promises to come to your house, collect your physical mail, and scan it so you can read it online via computer, iPad or smartphone. Clever, but worth paying for?
The start-up already has over 600 customers in Austin, Texas and is now testing the service in San Francisco, with hopes of a much larger geographic expansion in the future. The Outbox subscription fee is $5 a month.
Outbox’s “unpostmen” will collect mail from a P.O. Box, but amazingly they’ll also come to your physical address and remove mail from your mail box, or if you have a door or garage slot, they provide a special box they can access.
That mail is delivered to a secure warehouse where the physical paper is digitized and then sent to your email inbox. Once scans of physical mail start arriving in your email inbox, you can flag items as junk mail and tell Outbox you don’t want to receive mail from that sender again. Outbox will also alert you to new items they think qualify as junk. The site’s marketing explanation says “think of Outbox as a mail filter: we'll deliver only the mail items you want or need.”
If Outbox picks up a physical item that you want, for example a package, a check, or a birthday card, they will send a notification of that item and you can flag it for return delivery to your residence.
But does paying someone $60 a year to pick up mail from your own mailbox make ANY sense? I mean, I like lying on the couch as much as the next person, but I go by the mail box every day!
Okay, there are a few compelling arguments for Outbox: the afore-mentioned junk mail filtering, the digitization of items that can be organized and accessed anywhere, and a special case where you travel a lot or have a second home. And remember, there was a time when we said who’d ever give up their landline telephones so maybe digital snail mail is the future, and I just can’t see it.
But I have to think hard about the supposed time saving benefits: does tossing an ad circular take more time than deleting an email? Is asking to have your birthday cards returned to you worth the hassle? And if there’s more than one person in your household, do you forward items to other recipients?
There are other services that digitize your mail:
Still, the founders of Outbox see the US Postal Service and its customers as a target ripe for disruption. Plus, the company has some serious investors, including Peter Thiel co-founder of Pay-Pal, who have given the company 2.2 million dollars to get the service up and running.
Click green for further info
________________________________________
Would You Pay to Kiss Postal Mail Goodbye?
Click green for further info
A new service called Outbox promises to come to your house, collect your physical mail, and scan it so you can read it online via computer, iPad or smartphone. Clever, but worth paying for?
The start-up already has over 600 customers in Austin, Texas and is now testing the service in San Francisco, with hopes of a much larger geographic expansion in the future. The Outbox subscription fee is $5 a month.
Outbox’s “unpostmen” will collect mail from a P.O. Box, but amazingly they’ll also come to your physical address and remove mail from your mail box, or if you have a door or garage slot, they provide a special box they can access.
That mail is delivered to a secure warehouse where the physical paper is digitized and then sent to your email inbox. Once scans of physical mail start arriving in your email inbox, you can flag items as junk mail and tell Outbox you don’t want to receive mail from that sender again. Outbox will also alert you to new items they think qualify as junk. The site’s marketing explanation says “think of Outbox as a mail filter: we'll deliver only the mail items you want or need.”
If Outbox picks up a physical item that you want, for example a package, a check, or a birthday card, they will send a notification of that item and you can flag it for return delivery to your residence.
But does paying someone $60 a year to pick up mail from your own mailbox make ANY sense? I mean, I like lying on the couch as much as the next person, but I go by the mail box every day!
Okay, there are a few compelling arguments for Outbox: the afore-mentioned junk mail filtering, the digitization of items that can be organized and accessed anywhere, and a special case where you travel a lot or have a second home. And remember, there was a time when we said who’d ever give up their landline telephones so maybe digital snail mail is the future, and I just can’t see it.
But I have to think hard about the supposed time saving benefits: does tossing an ad circular take more time than deleting an email? Is asking to have your birthday cards returned to you worth the hassle? And if there’s more than one person in your household, do you forward items to other recipients?
There are other services that digitize your mail:
- Earth Class Mail starts at $20 a month. You redirect your mail to their address: either with a change of address for merchants or a forwarding request with the Post Office. Then they scan and send you an email of the mail.
- Zumbox only accepts mail from merchants who will go paperless. This service organizes all that on a secure personal site and they offer all this for free, with the catch that they will send you ads from “verified marketers.”
- Paytrust charges $10 a month to gather all your bills in a central remote location and alert you. This service is tied to your checking account, and they will make payments for you as well.
Still, the founders of Outbox see the US Postal Service and its customers as a target ripe for disruption. Plus, the company has some serious investors, including Peter Thiel co-founder of Pay-Pal, who have given the company 2.2 million dollars to get the service up and running.
Click green for further info
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Some Victims of Online Hacking Edge Into the Light
Date: 2/20/2013
Hackers have hit thousands of American corporations in the last few years, but few companies ever publicly admit it. Most treat online attacks as a dirty secret best kept from customers, shareholders and competitors, lest the disclosure sink their stock price and tarnish them as hapless.
Rarely have companies broken that silence, usually when the attack is reported by someone else. But in the last few weeks more companies have stepped forward. Twitter, Facebook and Apple have all announced that they were attacked by sophisticated cybercriminals. The New York Times revealed its experience with hackers in a front-page article last month.
The admissions reflect the new way some companies are calculating the risks and benefits of going public. While companies once feared shareholder lawsuits and the ire of the Chinese government, some can’t help noticing that those that make the disclosures are lauded, as Google was, for their bravery. Some fear the embarrassment of being unable to fend off hackers who may still be in high school.
But as hacking revelations become more common, the threat of looking foolish fades and more companies are seizing the opportunity to take the leap in a crowd.
“There is a ‘hide in the noise’ effect right now,” said Alan Paller, director of research at the SANS Institute, a nonprofit security research and education organization. “This is a particularly good time to get out the fact that you got hacked, because if you are one of many, it discounts the starkness of the announcement.”
In 2010, when Google alerted some users of Gmail — political activists, mostly — that it appeared Chinese hackers were trying to read their mail, such disclosures were a rarity. In its announcement, Google said that it was one of many — two dozen — companies that had been targeted by the same group. Google said it was making the announcement, in part, to encourage other companies to open up about the problem.
But of that group, only Intel and Adobe Systems reluctantly stepped forward, and neither provided much detail.
Twitter admitted that it had been hacked this month. Facebook and Apple followed suit two weeks later. Within hours after The Times published its account, The Wall Street Journal chimed in with a report that it, too, had been attacked by what it believed to be Chinese hackers. The Washington Post followed.
Not everyone took advantage of the cover. Bloomberg, for example, has repeatedly denied that its systems were also breached by Chinese hackers, despite several sources that confirmed that its computers were infected with malware.
Computer security experts estimate that more than a thousand companies have been attacked recently. In 2011, security researchers at McAfee unearthed a vast online espionage campaign, called Operation Shady Rat, that found more than 70 organizations had been hit over a five-year period, many in the United States.
“I am convinced that every company in every conceivable industry with significant size and valuable intellectual property and trade secrets has been compromised (or will be shortly) with the great majority of the victims rarely discovering the intrusion or its impact,” Dmitri Alperovitch, then McAfee’s vice president for threat research, wrote in his findings.
“In fact,” said Mr. Alperovitch, now the chief technology officer at Crowdstrike, a security start-up, “I divide the entire set of Fortune Global 2000 firms into two categories: those that know they’ve been compromised and those that don’t yet know.”
Of that group, there are still few admissions. A majority of companies that have at one time or another been the subject of news reports of online attacks refuse to confirm them. The list includes the International Olympic Committee, Exxon Mobil, Baker Hughes, Royal Dutch Shell, BP, ConocoPhillips, Chesapeake Energy, the British energy giant BG Group, the steel maker ArcelorMittal and Coca-Cola.
Like Google, some companies have stepped forward in the interest of increasing awareness and improving security within their respective industries, often to little avail. In 2009, Heartland Payment Systems, a major payment processing company, took the unusual step of disclosing a major data breach on its systems that potentially exposed millions of credit and debit card customers to fraud. It did so against the advice of its lawyers.
“Until then, most people tried to sweep breaches under the rug,” said Steve Elefant, then Heartland’s chief information officer. “We wanted to make sure that it didn’t happen to us again and didn’t want to sit back while the bad guys tried to pick us off one by one.”
Heartland helped set up the Payments Processors Information Sharing Council to share information about security threats and breaches within the industry. Again, the company’s lawyers thought it was a bad idea. “But we felt it was important.”
The effort did not stop its other members from sweeping their own breaches under the rug. Last year, Global Payments, a major payment processor, did not disclose that it had been the victim of two major breaches that potentially affected millions of accounts, until the attacks were reported by a well-known security blogger. Even then, it did not offer details that other companies could use to fortify their systems. Last week, President Obama signed an executive order that encouraged increased information-sharing about online threats between the government and private companies. But compliance with the order is voluntary, a weakened alternative to an online security bill that stalled in Congress last year after the Chamber of Commerce, a lobbying group that itself was hacked, led an effort to block it, saying that the regulations would be too burdensome.
In Washington several senior administration officials presented a new strategy for protecting American intellectual property by urging firms to step forward when attacked.
“There has been a reluctance by companies to come forward because of the concern about the impact on their shareholders or others,” said Lanny A. Breuer, the assistant attorney general in charge of the criminal division of the Justice Department.
In October 2011, the Securities and Exchange Commission issued a new guidance that specifically outlined how publicly traded companies should disclose online attacks, but few disclosures have come because of it.
“Quite frankly, since then, there hasn’t been an abundance of reporting on cyberevents despite the fact that they are clearly happening,” said Jacob Olcott, a specialist in online risks who managed a Senate investigation into the disclosure practices.
The best hope, Mr. Olcott said, is that as investors start paying more attention to the threats, they will demand that companies disclose them. “I wouldn’t hold my breath,” Mr. Elefant said. “There are an awful lot of lawyers out there trying to keep companies from exposing that these breaches are happening. And they are happening.”
Source: NYT
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Date: 2/20/2013
Hackers have hit thousands of American corporations in the last few years, but few companies ever publicly admit it. Most treat online attacks as a dirty secret best kept from customers, shareholders and competitors, lest the disclosure sink their stock price and tarnish them as hapless.
Rarely have companies broken that silence, usually when the attack is reported by someone else. But in the last few weeks more companies have stepped forward. Twitter, Facebook and Apple have all announced that they were attacked by sophisticated cybercriminals. The New York Times revealed its experience with hackers in a front-page article last month.
The admissions reflect the new way some companies are calculating the risks and benefits of going public. While companies once feared shareholder lawsuits and the ire of the Chinese government, some can’t help noticing that those that make the disclosures are lauded, as Google was, for their bravery. Some fear the embarrassment of being unable to fend off hackers who may still be in high school.
But as hacking revelations become more common, the threat of looking foolish fades and more companies are seizing the opportunity to take the leap in a crowd.
“There is a ‘hide in the noise’ effect right now,” said Alan Paller, director of research at the SANS Institute, a nonprofit security research and education organization. “This is a particularly good time to get out the fact that you got hacked, because if you are one of many, it discounts the starkness of the announcement.”
In 2010, when Google alerted some users of Gmail — political activists, mostly — that it appeared Chinese hackers were trying to read their mail, such disclosures were a rarity. In its announcement, Google said that it was one of many — two dozen — companies that had been targeted by the same group. Google said it was making the announcement, in part, to encourage other companies to open up about the problem.
But of that group, only Intel and Adobe Systems reluctantly stepped forward, and neither provided much detail.
Twitter admitted that it had been hacked this month. Facebook and Apple followed suit two weeks later. Within hours after The Times published its account, The Wall Street Journal chimed in with a report that it, too, had been attacked by what it believed to be Chinese hackers. The Washington Post followed.
Not everyone took advantage of the cover. Bloomberg, for example, has repeatedly denied that its systems were also breached by Chinese hackers, despite several sources that confirmed that its computers were infected with malware.
Computer security experts estimate that more than a thousand companies have been attacked recently. In 2011, security researchers at McAfee unearthed a vast online espionage campaign, called Operation Shady Rat, that found more than 70 organizations had been hit over a five-year period, many in the United States.
“I am convinced that every company in every conceivable industry with significant size and valuable intellectual property and trade secrets has been compromised (or will be shortly) with the great majority of the victims rarely discovering the intrusion or its impact,” Dmitri Alperovitch, then McAfee’s vice president for threat research, wrote in his findings.
“In fact,” said Mr. Alperovitch, now the chief technology officer at Crowdstrike, a security start-up, “I divide the entire set of Fortune Global 2000 firms into two categories: those that know they’ve been compromised and those that don’t yet know.”
Of that group, there are still few admissions. A majority of companies that have at one time or another been the subject of news reports of online attacks refuse to confirm them. The list includes the International Olympic Committee, Exxon Mobil, Baker Hughes, Royal Dutch Shell, BP, ConocoPhillips, Chesapeake Energy, the British energy giant BG Group, the steel maker ArcelorMittal and Coca-Cola.
Like Google, some companies have stepped forward in the interest of increasing awareness and improving security within their respective industries, often to little avail. In 2009, Heartland Payment Systems, a major payment processing company, took the unusual step of disclosing a major data breach on its systems that potentially exposed millions of credit and debit card customers to fraud. It did so against the advice of its lawyers.
“Until then, most people tried to sweep breaches under the rug,” said Steve Elefant, then Heartland’s chief information officer. “We wanted to make sure that it didn’t happen to us again and didn’t want to sit back while the bad guys tried to pick us off one by one.”
Heartland helped set up the Payments Processors Information Sharing Council to share information about security threats and breaches within the industry. Again, the company’s lawyers thought it was a bad idea. “But we felt it was important.”
The effort did not stop its other members from sweeping their own breaches under the rug. Last year, Global Payments, a major payment processor, did not disclose that it had been the victim of two major breaches that potentially affected millions of accounts, until the attacks were reported by a well-known security blogger. Even then, it did not offer details that other companies could use to fortify their systems. Last week, President Obama signed an executive order that encouraged increased information-sharing about online threats between the government and private companies. But compliance with the order is voluntary, a weakened alternative to an online security bill that stalled in Congress last year after the Chamber of Commerce, a lobbying group that itself was hacked, led an effort to block it, saying that the regulations would be too burdensome.
In Washington several senior administration officials presented a new strategy for protecting American intellectual property by urging firms to step forward when attacked.
“There has been a reluctance by companies to come forward because of the concern about the impact on their shareholders or others,” said Lanny A. Breuer, the assistant attorney general in charge of the criminal division of the Justice Department.
In October 2011, the Securities and Exchange Commission issued a new guidance that specifically outlined how publicly traded companies should disclose online attacks, but few disclosures have come because of it.
“Quite frankly, since then, there hasn’t been an abundance of reporting on cyberevents despite the fact that they are clearly happening,” said Jacob Olcott, a specialist in online risks who managed a Senate investigation into the disclosure practices.
The best hope, Mr. Olcott said, is that as investors start paying more attention to the threats, they will demand that companies disclose them. “I wouldn’t hold my breath,” Mr. Elefant said. “There are an awful lot of lawyers out there trying to keep companies from exposing that these breaches are happening. And they are happening.”
Source: NYT
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When E-Mail Turns From Delight to Deluge
Date: February, 2013
Those days are long gone. Now, when I examine my various e-mail accounts, my main emotion is dread.
Deluge, a severe flood.
One morning last week, I sat at my desk and stared at my Gmail in-box; 40,000 unread e-mails stared back. (That big number is a function of my life as a writer, and of having five different accounts, work and personal.) Feeling unusually invigorated, I attacked the mountain, trashing subscription newsletters and social networking alerts en masse. I typed brief confirmations for various meetings, sent long-overdue R.S.V.P.’s and replied to a few friends who had sent warm notes of hello. In an hour, I worked my way through roughly 100 e-mails.
Satisfied by a morning well spent, I left for an early lunch. But when I returned to my desk an hour later, it was as if I’d never deleted a thing. There were dozens of new messages, each waiting to be tackled.
Frustrated, I closed my e-mail and couldn’t bring myself to return to it for the rest of the day.
It wasn’t always like this. E-mail was once a great tool for communication, one that was less intrusive than the telephone and faster than the Postal Service. Now, even when it works as designed, it’s a virtual nightmare — and, occasionally, an actual one. I’ve had many a stress dream about missing important notes from my boss.
Where have we gone wrong?
Part of it has to do with how stagnant the format of e-mail has remained, while the rest of communication and social networking has surged light years ahead, says Susan Etlinger, an analyst at the Altimeter Group, who studies how people use and interact with technology and the Internet. E-mail is largely arranged along a linear timeline, with little thought given to context and topic.
“It’s become another timeline or feed,” she says. “It goes by and then it’s done. The current model of e-mail feels obsolete.”
She also says that while most e-mail providers are trying to block spammers and phishers from bombarding people, they have barely begun to tackle the problem of social spam — a plague of unnecessary and unwanted e-mail that includes alerts from social networks like LinkedIn, Twitter and Tumblr.
“The spam problem has mostly been fixed, at least, in terms of what is legitimately supposed to be spam,” she said. “It’s the unwanted e-mails that are so horrifying.”
These frustrations seem universal. And they are not going away anytime soon, particularly given the news that the post office is planning to drop the delivery of certain mail on Saturdays. Our dependence on e-mail is only growing. Indeed, Pingdom, a Web site that monitors Internet use, published a report in January saying that there are 2.2 billion e-mail users worldwide, and that global e-mail traffic has reached 144 billion messages a day.
Some preliminary answers to this digital quandary are emerging.
Google offered its version of a solution with Priority in-box, a feature that tries to automatically identify urgent messages. And Apple recently introduced a “V.I.P.” tag that will push a notification to the user when an e-mail arrives from a previously designated important person. These help, but they are not enough on their own.
Even using both systems, I still resort to keeping an eye on my in-box through the day and jotting down a list — on paper — of people to write back at the end of the day or before bed. It’s archaic at best, and I rarely get to everyone before the day is out.
Of course, there is a regimented, minimalist approach to clearing out in-boxes each day — otherwise known as In-Box Zero — but that requires a level of constant attention and maintenance beyond the scope of my time and patience.
I was starting to consider e-mail bankruptcy — ditching my account and signing up for a new one — until I heard about a new option in the e-mail wars, an iOS app called Mailbox, which promises to change how we manage our mail.
Mailbox, in a way, harks back to an older, simpler system in which you checked your mail — the paper kind — and sorted it as soon as you received it. You read the most pressing letters first, tossed away the junk and set aside pieces of mail that could be dealt with later. The app does much the same thing, by letting users sort their in-box into three neat columns, in a much sleeker and prettier interface than the basic mail clients available for the iPhone or most Android phones.
“Checking e-mail is like performing triage,” says Gentry Underwood, the chief executive and co-founder of Mailbox. “You’re just figuring out what needs addressing at that moment. Anything else falls below the fold.”
The application, which began slowly admitting users on Thursday, isn’t a perfect fix. There is no sorting mechanism to identify urgent notes, and users must work their way through their in-box line by line to sort messages, so it is easy to fall behind. And who knows how long this service will be around — most e-mail start-ups struggle to reel in enough users to compete with Apple, Google and Microsoft. Turning a free e-mail service into a long-term sustainable business is not easy.
Traditional e-mail is only part of the mass of electronic communication that needs constant attention. Many of us face a slowly creeping multitude of in-boxes — including Twitter, Facebook, SMS, Skype, online dating services, LinkedIn and Snapchat.
It’s possible that no technical fix will ever be enough. No amount of clever sorting software or folders will stop overzealous e-mailers who insist on hitting “reply-all” on group messages or on nagging you when they haven’t heard a response after a day or two.
JOSHUA LYMAN, a technology consultant and blogger who recently received a master’s degree in information systems at Brigham Young University, says the main problem with e-mail is a social and cultural one. (Mr. Lyman is not nearly as combative as the fictional character with the same name on “The West Wing” on television.) Etiquette and expectations need to be established, much as telephone etiquette evolved until there was common understanding about not calling too late at night or during dinner.
“It’s not the quantity of e-mails that get us into trouble,” Mr. Lyman says. “It’s the ones that require us to slow down, find the file, compose a great e-mail back. Humans only have a certain level of information processing. We get overloaded.”
Which, he says, is a beacon of hope. We can fix this problem, he contends; we just need to take charge of it. For example, we might try to keep work e-mails brief, taking inspiration from Twitter’s 140-character limit. And we might find better ways to collaborate, so that organizing an outing or lunch doesn’t rely on 10 back-and-forth exchanges.
“We’ve taught people how to use the Internet over the last two decades,” Mr. Lyman says. “It comes down to just that, figuring out how to interact with e-mail so we don’t have as much of an issue with it.”
Source: NYT
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Google Glasess With Computers Can Do Amazing Things Except Look Chic
Google Searches for Style
Date: February 20, 2013
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People wearing Google’s glasses are transported to a strange new world in which the Internet is always in their line of sight. But for people looking at the people wearing those glasses, the view is even stranger — someone wearing a computer processor, a battery and a tiny screen on her face.
As Google and other companies begin to build wearable technology like glasses and watches, an industry not known for its fashion sense is facing a new challenge — how to be stylish. Design has always been important to technology, with products like Apple’s becoming fashion statements, but designing hardware that people will wear like jewelry is an entirely different task.
In a sign of how acute the challenge is for Google, the company is negotiating with Warby Parker, an e-commerce start-up company that sells trendy eyeglasses, to help it design more fashionable frames, according to two people briefed on the negotiations who were not authorized to speak publicly because the partnership has not been made official. Google and Warby Parker declined to comment.
They join other companies that are grappling with these design challenges, including big companies like Apple, Nike and Jawbone and smaller ones like Pebble, MetaWatch and Misfit Wearables.
Jawbone’s health-tracking wristband, Up, for instance, was designed by Yves Behar, the company’s chief creative officer and a well-known designer who has worked with fashion and furniture companies. Apple, which is said to be making a smart watch, has assigned some of its top designers to make curved glass that is comfortable and aesthetically appealing.
On Wednesday, 2/19/13, Google began accepting applications to choose a small group of people to buy an early version of the glasses, called Google Glass. It hopes to sell Glass to the broader public this year, according to two people briefed on the plans.
The frames do not have lenses, though Google is experimenting with adding sunglass or prescription lenses in some versions. They have a tiny screen that appears much bigger from the wearer’s perspective than it does on the frame. Glass wearers can take pictures or record video without using their hands, send the images to friends or post them online, see walking directions, search the Web by voice command and view language translations.
The glasses reach the Internet through Wi-Fi or Bluetooth, which connects to the wireless service on a user’s cellphone. The glasses respond when a user speaks, touches the frame or moves the head.
For Google, the glasses are a major step toward its dream of what is known as ubiquitous computing — the idea that computers and the Internet will be accessible anywhere and we can ask them to do things without lifting a finger.
The glasses will eventually incorporate several Google products, which could become more useful when they are in front of a user’s eyes rather than on a phone or a computer screen.
For instance, the latest version of the glasses can provide walking and hiking directions from Google Maps, alerts from Google Now about a coming meeting or a traffic jam, and video chats from Google Hangouts.
In a video released on Wednesday, Google offered ideas about what to do with the glasses. A ballerina could record and stream live video behind the scenes and onstage; a tourist in Thailand could ask Google to translate the word “delicious” while eating noodles on a boat; or a family could video chat over a long distance with a relative on her birthday.
Other seemingly far-fetched uses are not far off. The glasses could be used to play an augmented reality game in which the real world was annotated with virtual information. Google has such a smartphone app, called Ingress. Users could photograph an object or building and the glasses could identify it, something that is already possible using Google on phones and computers.
Though Google warns of technical bumps as people use the glasses, it has already solved many of the technical challenges. The biggest obstacle now is getting people to use them.
Though Google employees have been spotted wearing them in the San Francisco Bay Area, they receive strange looks, for example, from abartender who made fun of his Glass-wearing patrons.
Privacy advocates worry about a day when people wearing glasses could use facial recognition to identify strangers on the street or surreptitiously record and broadcast conversations. On a more mundane level, rude behavior like checking e-mail during conversations would become much easier to hide.
“Changing behavior is much more challenging than changing technology,” said Olof Schybergson, founder and chief executive of Fjord, a design company that has helped clients build wearable devices.
Then there is that fashion hurdle. The frames now look like wire wraparound glasses with hardware along one side.
“If you look at other wearable pieces of functional technology, there’s a reason they’re not ubiquitous. There’s a reason we all make fun of someone wearing a Bluetooth or a BlackBerry holster,” said Daniella Yacobovsky, co-founder of BaubleBar, an online jewelry retailer. “Is it useful? Of course it is. Do I look like a tool? Yeah. I’m not going to wear it.”
Google’s design team has made Glass’s look and comfort a priority, according to a person briefed on the company’s design process. Designers first made it in black, thinking it would flatter everyone, but they added colors because black frames can look heavy on a fair person. The glasses, which 18 months ago weighed eight pounds, are now lighter than a typical pair of sunglasses. Engineers have worked to shrink the components so wearers look less like cyborgs.
In addition to considering partnering with Warby Parker, Google is doing other things to recruit the fashion-savvy, particularly women. It could open retail stores where people can try on the glasses, according to news reports. At Fashion Week last year, models wore colored versions on the runway for Diane von Furstenberg, and the designer made a behind-the-scenes video wearing the glasses.
Google is showing women wearing the glasses in many of its public relations photos. Several members of the Glass team who speak publicly are women.
But the excitement about Glass so far has come from software developers for whom the glasses are the ultimate status symbol. Other than Google employees, they are the only ones who have been permitted to wear them for more than a few minutes.
Next, Google says it is looking for “bold, creative individuals” who want to try the glasses. People who want to apply have until Wednesday to write a post on Google Plus or Twitter telling what they would do with the glasses. Posts must be 50 words or fewer and contain the hashtag #ifihadglass. Those chosen by Google’s judges must pay $1,500 for the glasses and attend an event to pick up the glasses in New York, San Francisco or Los Angeles.
“The big question is, Why on earth would you put something like this on your head?” Babak Parviz, the leader of the Google Glass team, said in a previous interview. “If you do things that are very useful, it becomes fashionable.”
Source: NYT
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Forget Typing, Google Says
Search Is Going to Be Like 'Star Trek'
Date: March 2013
In the future, the experience of searching the web is going to be like something out of "Star Trek." Or at least, that's what Google's vision is.
"The destiny of search is to become that 'Star Trek' computer and that's what we are building," Google's Search Head Amit Singhalsaid at SXSW*) Interactive this morning. Singhal shared that computers will know what people want and users won't have to type their queries into a small box on a clean white page. *) = south by southwest
"You can walk up to a computer and say, hey, computer," Singhal explained.
Of course, that is dependent on other technologies, including improved voice control, touch and sensory tech, he said. Singhal told ABC News something similar a few months ago.
RELATED: SXSW in Photos: Lines, Cats and More Craziness from Austin
Google's already started showing that sort of capability with its (click: Glass*). One of the main ways of controlling the glasses, which project digital information over your eyes, is through voice. *) See t he article just above
"OK, Glass. Google Jellyfish," a woman says to her glasses in a teaser video released last month. The results appear right in front of her eyes.
On Saturday, Google showed off what it calls "Talking Sneakers," shoes the company says will motivate you to move more. While Google says they won't be bringing them to market, the shoes pair with a phone and out of the speaker in the top of the shoe they speak to you.
"These are some of the best times in search," Singhal said. "All the technology is coming together: speak recognition, knowledge graph, natural language understanding - there are new devices coming out, so when you marry all this, tomorrow is looking bright."
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With PlayStation 4, Sony Aims for Return to Glory
Date: February 20, 2013
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For the Sony Corporation, a tech industry also-ran, the moment of reckoning is here.
The first three generations of PlayStation sold more than 300 million units, pioneered a new style of serious video games and produced hefty profits. PlayStation 4, introduced by Sony Wednesday evening, is a bold bid to recapture those long-ago glory days.
The first new PlayStation in seven years was promoted by Sony as being like a “supercharged PC.” It has a souped-up eight-core processor to juggle more complex tasks simultaneously, enhanced graphics, the ability to play games even as they are being downloaded, and a new controller designed in tandem with a stereo camera that can sense the depth of the environment in front of it.
All of that should make for more compelling play for the hard-core gamers at the heart of the PlayStation market. The blood effects in Killzone: Shadow Fall, shown to a preview audience of 1,200 at the Hammerstein at Manhattan Center Wednesday night, looked chillingly real.
The console itself was never shown during the two-hour presentation. No release date was given, although before the Christmas holidays is a good possibility. No price was mentioned.
With PlayStation 4, serious games are about to become much more social. A player can broadcast his game play in real time, and his friend can peek into his game and hop in to help. Also, players will now be able to upload recordings of themselves playing and send them to their friends.
These and other new features cannot hide the fact that PlayStation 4 is still a console, a way of playing games on compact discs that was cool when cellphones were not smart.
Much of the excitement in video games has shifted to the Web and mobile devices, which are cheap, easy and fast. Nintendo’s new Wii, introduced in November, has been a disappointment. Microsoft’s Xbox, the third major console, is racing to become a home entertainment center as fast as it can.
“Today marks a moment of truth and a bold step forward for PlayStation,” Andrew House, chief executive of Sony Computer Entertainment, told the crowd. He said the new device “represents a significant shift of thinking of PlayStation as merely a box or console to thinking as a leading authority on play.”
But the new PlayStation will have a difficult time, like the character in Killzone who was shooting at the people in the helicopter while hanging from the helicopter. Sales of consoles from all makers peaked in 2008, when about 55 million units were sold, according to the research firm I.D.C. By last year, that was down to 34 million.
For 2014, Lewis Ward, I.D.C.’s research manager for video games, forecast a recovery to about 44.5 million.
“From peak to peak, we’ll be down about 10 million,” he said. “There was attrition to alternative gaming platforms like tablets, but the trough was exacerbated by the 2008-9 recession. It did not permit as many people to buy who under normal economic conditions would have bought a console.”
That was reflected in Sony’s miserable financial results. The company has lost money for the last three years, hampered not only by slower console sales but also by a range of unexciting electronic products, a strong yen and the 2011 tsunami that struck Japan.
Analysts have made dire remarks about the one-time powerhouse’s viability. But Sony seems to have bottomed out, helped by a yen that has now weakened. Sony executives said this month that they expected a profit in 2013.
Sony’s new chief executive, Kazuo Hirai, has a longtime personal connection to the PlayStation franchise and is making it one of the core elements of a more tightly focused company. Mr. Hirai became known for some of his more confident statements about the PlayStation, particularly a 2006 swipe at Microsoft: “The next generation doesn’t start until we say it does.”
These days, the next generation is playing games on the Web. Console makers typically sell their consoles for a loss and generate profit through sales of games. In 2012, American consumers spent $14.8 billion on game content, including computer and video games, down from $16.34 billion in the previous year, according to the NPD Group, a research firm.
Instead of buying traditional games, which typically cost $50 or more, many consumers are being drawn to the cheaper, sometimes free games available for their smartphones and tablets, analysts say.
PlayStation 4 games can be streamed to the PlayStation Vita, Sony’s portable game device, among other features.
“The architecture is like a PC in many ways, but supercharged to bring out its full potential as a gaming platform,” said Mark Cerny, Sony’s lead system architect.
James L. McQuivey, a Forrester analyst, said that for the PlayStation 4 to succeed, Sony needed to think beyond games. The console will have to provide other types of content and services, like video conferencing, third-party apps and a TV service to create a deeper, long-term relationship with the customer.
By comparison, Apple, the world’s leading consumer electronics maker, does not just sell hardware. It also has a universe of digital content including apps, music, movies and e-books to make people come back for more Apple gear every year. Apple generally takes an enviable 30 percent cut of all media it sells. Microsoft, Google and Amazon are making similar moves to create such a product array.
“Then and only then can Sony hope to learn enough about its users to overcome its own bias toward preferring to design products in response to engineering principles rather than customer needs,” Mr. McQuivey said.
Study this Typo Cost article
The loss can happen to anyone any time
A Typo Cost This Woman a Fortune
How a typo cost one woman $40,000
Sally Donaldson recalls the sickening moment she realized
she'd lost two years' pay
Why she can't fix it
It was a small mistake but one that cost British hairdresser and mother of two "Sally Donaldson" thousands of dollars.
More on Yahoo! Bank Security Group Warns of Website Attacks
According to The Guardian, in October 2012, Donaldson (not her real name) experienced a sickening, gut-wrenching moment when she discovered that over the course of two years, each time she had transferred her monthly paycheck of $1,500 from her HSBC account to the joint one she shares with her husband at Nationwide building society, she had accidentally been placing the money in a total stranger's account. After two years, the amount she had transferred was roughly $40,000.
More on Yahoo! Shine: 12 Money Mistakes Almost Everyone Makes
"It wasn't until October 2012 that I discovered the £1,000 was not showing on our joint account's monthly statement. Having moved over to paperless statements in 2010, I had been checking that my wages were leaving my business account held with HSBC at the end of every month. However, to my horror, I now saw they had never arrived in our joint Nationwide account. Scrolling back, the last time my wage appeared on our statement was May 2010," says Donaldson in The Guardian. "I frantically checked my numbers for the bill payment scheme I had set up with HSBC and could see that, on setting it up, I was one digit out … the money has been going to another Nationwide account holder for the past two years, amounting to £26,650!"
"The payment was set up clearly to my name, my sort code but with one account number digit being incorrect…..Phone calls to Nationwide that night, many tears and numerous subsequent calls and letters, have left us with just £1,000 returned and a complete blank of information from Nationwide," she says.
It may be difficult for Donaldson to get her money back. According to The Guardian, the recipient refuses to return the money and the bank cannot reveal his or her identity due to data protection rules. What's more, British law dictates that when money goes into the wrong hands, it can be withdrawn without gaining permission first for up to six years after it's wrongfully transferred. But in Donaldson's case, the recipient had withdrawn the money through ATMs so there is nothing they can do. Shine attempted to contact Nationwide for comment but emails were not returned.
"People have become so dependent on technology that they've developed a blind trust in computers," says Manisha Thakor, CEO of MoneyZen Wealth Management. "But technology isn't perfect; when you consider the sheer volume of transfers that banks make every day, it's actually very easy for an error to occur. People have a personal responsibility to take ownership of their finances." Here's how to avoid making a similar mistake:
Communicate: It seems unlikely that Donaldson, who was supporting herself on a hairdresser's salary, could overlook the fact that her family's bank account wasn't as flush as it was supposed to be but according to Thakor, many couples don't communicate enough about finances. "What's most troubling about this story is that it occurred between a husband and wife," says Thakor. "It was a very personal transaction and would have been easy for Donaldson to check in with her husband and ask if he received the funds." Yes, a simple, "Hey did you get that huge money transfer I sent you?" over dinner could have prevented the problem from escalating. Even if one person is better at managing money—which is so often the case between couples— staying in the loop about bill paying and money transfers is crucial.
Read in reverse: When you're double checking the number you typed in, read it again but this time backwards. "By reading from the last number to the first, you'll avoid scanning on autopilot," says Thakor. "This process forces your brain to stay alert while you read so you're more likely to catch typos."
Keep a paper trail: No doubt mailed statements can often seem like pesky junk mail but having physical proof of all your transactions is hugely important, especially if you're not the one at fault. "You may have typed the wrong account number but what if you didn't?" says Thakor. "Even if the bank made the mistake, you'd have no proof of innocence if you don't have it on paper." If you don't want to opt for mailed statements, take a screen shot of what you typed in and print it out for your files.
More
Money Mistakes That Could Ruin Your Finances
Top 5 Money Mistakes Moms Make
Money Mistakes Couples Make
Related links
The loss can happen to anyone any time
A Typo Cost This Woman a Fortune
How a typo cost one woman $40,000
Sally Donaldson recalls the sickening moment she realized
she'd lost two years' pay
Why she can't fix it
It was a small mistake but one that cost British hairdresser and mother of two "Sally Donaldson" thousands of dollars.
More on Yahoo! Bank Security Group Warns of Website Attacks
According to The Guardian, in October 2012, Donaldson (not her real name) experienced a sickening, gut-wrenching moment when she discovered that over the course of two years, each time she had transferred her monthly paycheck of $1,500 from her HSBC account to the joint one she shares with her husband at Nationwide building society, she had accidentally been placing the money in a total stranger's account. After two years, the amount she had transferred was roughly $40,000.
More on Yahoo! Shine: 12 Money Mistakes Almost Everyone Makes
"It wasn't until October 2012 that I discovered the £1,000 was not showing on our joint account's monthly statement. Having moved over to paperless statements in 2010, I had been checking that my wages were leaving my business account held with HSBC at the end of every month. However, to my horror, I now saw they had never arrived in our joint Nationwide account. Scrolling back, the last time my wage appeared on our statement was May 2010," says Donaldson in The Guardian. "I frantically checked my numbers for the bill payment scheme I had set up with HSBC and could see that, on setting it up, I was one digit out … the money has been going to another Nationwide account holder for the past two years, amounting to £26,650!"
"The payment was set up clearly to my name, my sort code but with one account number digit being incorrect…..Phone calls to Nationwide that night, many tears and numerous subsequent calls and letters, have left us with just £1,000 returned and a complete blank of information from Nationwide," she says.
It may be difficult for Donaldson to get her money back. According to The Guardian, the recipient refuses to return the money and the bank cannot reveal his or her identity due to data protection rules. What's more, British law dictates that when money goes into the wrong hands, it can be withdrawn without gaining permission first for up to six years after it's wrongfully transferred. But in Donaldson's case, the recipient had withdrawn the money through ATMs so there is nothing they can do. Shine attempted to contact Nationwide for comment but emails were not returned.
"People have become so dependent on technology that they've developed a blind trust in computers," says Manisha Thakor, CEO of MoneyZen Wealth Management. "But technology isn't perfect; when you consider the sheer volume of transfers that banks make every day, it's actually very easy for an error to occur. People have a personal responsibility to take ownership of their finances." Here's how to avoid making a similar mistake:
Communicate: It seems unlikely that Donaldson, who was supporting herself on a hairdresser's salary, could overlook the fact that her family's bank account wasn't as flush as it was supposed to be but according to Thakor, many couples don't communicate enough about finances. "What's most troubling about this story is that it occurred between a husband and wife," says Thakor. "It was a very personal transaction and would have been easy for Donaldson to check in with her husband and ask if he received the funds." Yes, a simple, "Hey did you get that huge money transfer I sent you?" over dinner could have prevented the problem from escalating. Even if one person is better at managing money—which is so often the case between couples— staying in the loop about bill paying and money transfers is crucial.
Read in reverse: When you're double checking the number you typed in, read it again but this time backwards. "By reading from the last number to the first, you'll avoid scanning on autopilot," says Thakor. "This process forces your brain to stay alert while you read so you're more likely to catch typos."
Keep a paper trail: No doubt mailed statements can often seem like pesky junk mail but having physical proof of all your transactions is hugely important, especially if you're not the one at fault. "You may have typed the wrong account number but what if you didn't?" says Thakor. "Even if the bank made the mistake, you'd have no proof of innocence if you don't have it on paper." If you don't want to opt for mailed statements, take a screen shot of what you typed in and print it out for your files.
More
Money Mistakes That Could Ruin Your Finances
Top 5 Money Mistakes Moms Make
Money Mistakes Couples Make
Related links
- World's priciest cities
- College savings plan myths ______________________________________________________________
If You’re Collecting Our Data, You Ought to Protect It
Date: February , 2013
Click green for further info
LAST summer, employees at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration received an in-house newsletter illustrated with mock front pages of USA Today and The Washington Post and seemingly hyperbolic headlines like: “NASA Laptop Stolen, Potential Compromise of 10,000 Employees’ Private Information!”
The catastrophizing turned out to be prescient.
On Halloween, just a few months after the newsletter went out, a laptop used by an employee at NASA headquarters in Washington was stolen from a parked car. Subsequently, NASA sent letters to about 10,000 current and former employees and contractors, warning them that the laptop had not been encrypted. The letter explained that confidential details — like employees’ names, birth dates, Social Security numbers and, in some cases, personal information from background checks — may have been compromised.
When Robert M. Nelson, a solar systems scientist who recently retired after 34 years at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, part of NASA, received the letter, he felt vindicated. Several years earlier, he and 27 other civilian scientists at the lab sued the agency to try to stop it from conducting open-ended background checks of researchers like them who worked on nonmilitary space projects.
“You’d think an agent of NASA would be a little more careful,” Dr. Nelson says. “Why does NASA need personal data unrelated to our work and then treat it in such a cavalier way that it is stolen from a car unencrypted?”
NASA has since notified an additional 30,000 people whose personal information may have been on the stolen laptop, says Robert Jacobs, a NASA spokesman. He declined to provide the job title of the person who left the laptop in the car. But he said that there had been no indication of identity theft and that the agency has encrypted practically all of its 38,000 laptops.
By now, reports of lost or stolen business devices are so common that many people open data-breach notices from their banks, insurers, medical institutions, schools and state agencies with something like resignation. In fact, negligence by employees and contractors has been a more common cause of corporate data breaches in the United States than malicious attacks, according to a study of 2011 done by the Ponemon Institute, a research center on data security, and financed by Symantec, a data security company. Institutions, companies and government agencies often devote more resources to collecting information about employees and consumers than to protecting it, security specialists say.
“This is an unfortunate but perfectly cautionary tale of not only how we should look more carefully at protecting data after it is collected,” says Lee Tien, a senior staff lawyer at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a digital rights group in San Francisco, “but also how the data is to be safeguarded before we collect it to make sure it isn’t used improperly or disclosed accidentally.”
Dr. Nelson and his colleagues at the Jet Propulsion Lab, which is operated for NASA by the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, didn’t set out to become crusaders for workplace data privacy and security. Initially, they wanted only to challenge NASA’s background checks, arguing that civilian scientists had a right to keep their romantic, psychiatric and other intimate information private from the government. Besides, they contended, the space agency would not be able to safeguard the information.
The scientists took their case all the way to the Supreme Court, only to lose. In 2011, the justices unanimously ruled that NASA had legitimate reasons to look into personal issues, like whether an employee had received drug counseling. A federal law called the Privacy Act of 1974, which restricts how government agencies share a person’s data, the justices said, should protect the information obtained in background checks.
“They were clearly wrong,” says Marc Rotenberg, executive director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center, an advocacy group in Washington that filed a friend-of-the-court-brief in the case. “Exactly the problem people anticipated came to pass.”
Privacy advocates say that one obstacle to improving workplace information security is a lack of consequences for employees who compromise personal data. In 2009, for example, the Government Accountability Office issued a report, titled “NASA Needs to Remedy Vulnerabilities in Key Networks,” which urged the agency to institute whole-disk encryption for all of its laptops. Unlike simple computer login passwords — which can often be guessed or bypassed to get to readable files — disk encryption scrambles files so they can’t be read without the correct key.
NASA eventually required the Jet Propulsion Laboratory to encrypt its laptops. But at the time of the Halloween theft, not all laptops at agency headquarters itself had been encrypted. Susan Landau, a Guggenheim fellow in cyber security, privacy and public policy, says companies and agencies are unlikely to improve data security without the threat of penalty.
“What are the personal consequences for employees who allow data breaches to happen?” Ms. Landau asks. “Until people lose their jobs, nothing is going to change.”
Mr. Jacobs declined to comment about whether NASA had disciplined the employee who left the laptop in the car, saying the issue was “covered by privacy.”
DR. NELSON did not emerge from his data rights battle unscathed. Caltech issued disciplinary citations to five employees of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, including Dr. Nelson, who had used their nasa.gov e-mail addresses to send messages to thousands of colleagues about the Supreme Court decision. An employee who commits a second offense after receiving such a warning could be fired, Dr. Nelson says.
Lawren B. Markle, a spokesman for Caltech, says the employees used government resources, paid for by taxpayers, “to spam thousands of individuals, government officials and agencies, other businesses, and colleges and universities” with their political views.
“As a federal contractor,” Mr. Markle wrote in an e-mail, “we cannot allow the government resources entrusted to us to be used in this manner and particularly not to lobby for political positions.”
He added that a second warning would not automatically lead to dismissal. “The outcome would depend on the severity of the conduct and the history of the employee’s service,” he said.
The five employees have filed cases with the National Labor Relations Board, saying that they were unfairly disciplined because the e-mails were work-related.
“In the short time since the Supreme Court decision, tens of thousands of people have had their data compromised,” Dr. Nelson says. “For warning about what would eventually become true, we received disciplinary citations.”
An administrative judge is to rule on the matter in the coming months, but a Los Angeles office of the labor relations agency found merit in the scientists’ cases, concluding that Caltech unlawfully issued disciplinary warnings for the e-mails, says Mori Rubin, the regional director of the office. Her office also concluded that Caltech had disciplined the scientists for practices that other employees routinely undertook without penalty.
Source: NYT
______________________________________________
Age of the 3-D Printed Gun Magazine
3-D printed magazines could change gun control
Click green for further info
Tech-savvy gun enthusiasts could easily find a way around any new curbs on firearms: If they want something, print it.
A Texas law student who used a 3-D printer to fashion a plastic magazine and then posted his ensuing trip to the firing range online got more than 280,000 views on YouTube - but then his leased 3-D printer was confiscated by a jittery manufacturer.
3-D printers are often used to make consumer items like jewelry and hearing aids, and also help reduce waste in manufacturing, according to Alyssa Reichental of 3D Systems Corporation, which manufactures 3-D printers for sale worldwide.
President Obama cited the innovative power of 3-D printing during his State of the Union speech last week, saying it would "revolutionize the way we make almost everything." A 3-D printer is a bit like a conventional printer, but instead of using ink on paper, it deposits layers of resin or other material that will harden to make a three-dimensional object
But a larger portion of his speech was devoted to his desire to enact new firearm restrictions. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D., Calif., proposed legislation in January that would ban the manufacture, sale, possession or transfer of any ammunition magazines that hold more than 10 bullets. That would presumably include home-manufactured magazines made with 3-D printers.
University of Texas law student Cody Wilson says he opposes any such restrictions. He's the activist who put up the YouTube video last month that showed him firing a Colt M-16 with a 30-round plastic magazine made by a 3-D printer.
Government actions on gun control are merely symbolic, according to Wilson.
"We hope to make the issue relevant," Wilson said. Government leaders "act like passing a law will keep magazines off the street but we want to show them that magazines will always be on the street."
Wilson runs an organization called Defense Distributed, which aims to spread information on how to create printable guns.
Wilson's actions have prompted some printing companies, like the major 3-D printing company Stratasys, to take action. Stratasys said it believes Wilson used its property for "illegal purposes."
The company leased a machine to Wilson last year but later confiscated it after learning what Wilson planned to do with it, according to a report in The Washington Post. Another company, MakerBot, also removed gun designs of downloadable blueprints it maintains for 3-D printer users, according to the report.
The printers are intended to be used to create consumer goods like Invisalign, according to 3-D Systems Chief Marketing Officer Cathy Lewis. She said 3-D printing is already becoming commonplace in communities across America.
"3-D printing ought to be used for educational purposes," said 3D Systems Chief Marketing Officer Cathy Lewis. "There is no way to deny access to a product that we make affordable and easy to use, but we make sure we are not assisting in products that could be printed or used for illicit or non-authorized purposes."
Click green for further info
_______________________________________________________________________
3-D printed magazines could change gun control
Click green for further info
Tech-savvy gun enthusiasts could easily find a way around any new curbs on firearms: If they want something, print it.
A Texas law student who used a 3-D printer to fashion a plastic magazine and then posted his ensuing trip to the firing range online got more than 280,000 views on YouTube - but then his leased 3-D printer was confiscated by a jittery manufacturer.
3-D printers are often used to make consumer items like jewelry and hearing aids, and also help reduce waste in manufacturing, according to Alyssa Reichental of 3D Systems Corporation, which manufactures 3-D printers for sale worldwide.
President Obama cited the innovative power of 3-D printing during his State of the Union speech last week, saying it would "revolutionize the way we make almost everything." A 3-D printer is a bit like a conventional printer, but instead of using ink on paper, it deposits layers of resin or other material that will harden to make a three-dimensional object
But a larger portion of his speech was devoted to his desire to enact new firearm restrictions. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D., Calif., proposed legislation in January that would ban the manufacture, sale, possession or transfer of any ammunition magazines that hold more than 10 bullets. That would presumably include home-manufactured magazines made with 3-D printers.
University of Texas law student Cody Wilson says he opposes any such restrictions. He's the activist who put up the YouTube video last month that showed him firing a Colt M-16 with a 30-round plastic magazine made by a 3-D printer.
Government actions on gun control are merely symbolic, according to Wilson.
"We hope to make the issue relevant," Wilson said. Government leaders "act like passing a law will keep magazines off the street but we want to show them that magazines will always be on the street."
Wilson runs an organization called Defense Distributed, which aims to spread information on how to create printable guns.
Wilson's actions have prompted some printing companies, like the major 3-D printing company Stratasys, to take action. Stratasys said it believes Wilson used its property for "illegal purposes."
The company leased a machine to Wilson last year but later confiscated it after learning what Wilson planned to do with it, according to a report in The Washington Post. Another company, MakerBot, also removed gun designs of downloadable blueprints it maintains for 3-D printer users, according to the report.
The printers are intended to be used to create consumer goods like Invisalign, according to 3-D Systems Chief Marketing Officer Cathy Lewis. She said 3-D printing is already becoming commonplace in communities across America.
"3-D printing ought to be used for educational purposes," said 3D Systems Chief Marketing Officer Cathy Lewis. "There is no way to deny access to a product that we make affordable and easy to use, but we make sure we are not assisting in products that could be printed or used for illicit or non-authorized purposes."
Click green for further info
_______________________________________________________________________
Solar industry grapples with hazardous wastes
Date 2/11/2013
Associated Press
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Homeowners on the hunt for sparkling solar panels are lured by ads filled with images of pristine landscapes and bright sunshine, and words about the technology's benefits for the environment — and the wallet.
What customers may not know is that there's a dirtier side.
While solar is a far less polluting energy source than coal or natural gas, many panel makers are nevertheless grappling with a hazardous waste problem. Fueled partly by billions in government incentives, the industry is creating millions of solar panels each year and, in the process, millions of pounds of polluted sludge and contaminated water.
To dispose of the material, the companies must transport it by truck or rail far from their own plants to waste facilities hundreds and, in some cases, thousands of miles away.
The fossil fuels used to transport that waste, experts say, is not typically considered in calculating solar's carbon footprint, giving scientists and consumers who use the measurement to gauge a product's impact on global warming the impression that solar is cleaner than it is.
After installing a solar panel, "it would take one to three months of generating electricity to pay off the energy invested in driving those hazardous waste emissions out of state," said Dustin Mulvaney, a San Jose State University environmental studies professor who conducts carbon footprint analyses of solar, biofuel and natural gas production.
The waste from manufacturing has raised concerns within the industry, which fears that the problem, if left unchecked, could undermine solar's green image at a time when companies are facing stiff competition from each other and from low-cost panel manufacturers from China and elsewhere.
"We want to take the lessons learned from electronics and semiconductor industries (about pollution) and get ahead of some of these problems," said John Smirnow, vice president for trade and competitiveness at the nearly 500-member Solar Energy Industries Association.
The increase in solar hazardous waste is directly related to the industry's fast growth over the past five years — even with solar business moving to China rapidly, the U.S. was a net exporter of solar products by $2 billion in 2010, the last year of data available. The nation was even a net exporter to China.
New companies often send hazardous waste out of their plants because they have not yet invested in on-site treatment equipment, which allows them to recycle some waste.
Nowhere is the waste issue more evident than in California, where landmark regulations approved in the 1970s require industrial plants like solar panel makers to report the amount of hazardous materials they produce, and where they send it. California leads the consumer solar market in the U.S. — which doubled overall both in 2010 and 2011.
The Associated Press compiled a list of 41 solar makers in the state, which included the top companies based on market data, and startups. In response to an AP records request, the California Department of Toxic Substances Control provided data that showed 17 of them reported waste, while the remaining did not.
The same level of federal data does not exist.
The state records show the 17 companies, which had 44 manufacturing facilities in California, produced 46.5 million pounds of sludge and contaminated water from 2007 through the first half of 2011. Roughly 97 percent of it was taken to hazardous waste facilities throughout the state, but more than 1.4 million pounds were transported to nine other states: Arkansas, Minnesota, Nebraska, Rhode Island, Nevada, Washington, Utah, New Mexico and Arizona.
Several solar energy experts said they have not calculated the industry's total waste and were surprised at what the records showed.
Solyndra, the now-defunct solar company that received $535 million in guaranteed federal loans, reported producing about 12.5 million pounds of hazardous waste, much of it carcinogenic cadmium-contaminated water, which was sent to waste facilities from 2007 through mid-2011.
Before the company went bankrupt, leading to increased scrutiny of the solar industry and political fallout for President Barack Obama's administration, Solyndra said it created 100 megawatts-worth of solar panels, enough to power 100,000 homes.
The records also show several other Silicon Valley solar facilities created millions of pounds of toxic waste without selling a single solar panel, while they were developing their technology or fine-tuning their production.
While much of the waste produced is considered toxic, there was no evidence it has harmed human health.
The vast majority of solar companies that generated hazardous waste in California have not been cited for waste-related pollution violations, although three had minor violations on file.
In many cases, a toxic sludge is created when metals and other toxins are removed from water used in the manufacturing process. If a company doesn't have its own treatment equipment, then it will send contaminated water to be stored at an approved dump.
According to scientists who conduct so-called "life cycle analysis" for solar, the transport of waste is not currently being factored into the carbon footprint score, which measures the amount of greenhouse gases produced when making a product.
Life cycle analysts add up all the global warming pollution that goes into making a certain product — from the mining needed for components to the exhaust from diesel trucks used to transport waste and materials. Not factoring the hazardous waste transport into solar's carbon footprint is an obvious oversight, analysts said.
"The greenhouse gas emissions associated with transporting this waste is not insignificant," Mulvaney said.
Mulvaney noted that shipping, for example, 6.2 million pounds of waste by heavy-duty tractor-trailer from Fremont, Calif., in the San Francisco Bay area, to a site 1,800 miles away could add 5 percent to a particular product's carbon footprint.
Such scores are important because they provide transparency to government and consumers into just how environmentally sustainable specific products are and lay out a choice between one company's technology and another's.
The roughly 20-year life of a solar panel still makes it some of the cleanest energy technology currently available. Producing solar is still significantly cleaner than fossil fuels. Energy derived from natural gas and coal-fired power plants, for example, creates more than 10 times more hazardous waste than the same energy created by a solar panel, according to Mulvaney.
The U.S. solar industry said it is reporting its waste, and sending it to approved storage facilities — thus keeping it out of the nation's air and water. A coal-fired power plant, in contrast, sends mercury, cadmium and other toxins directly into the air, which pollutes water and land around the facility.
"Having this stuff go to ... hazardous waste sites, that's what you want to have happen," said Adam Browning, executive director of the Vote Solar Initiative, a solar advocacy group.
Environmental advocates say the solar industry needs greater transparency, which is getting more complicated as manufacturing moves from the U.S. and Europe to less regulated places such as China and Malaysia.
The Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition, a watchdog group created in 1982 in response to severe environmental problems associated with the valley's electronics industry, is now trying to keep the solar industry from making similar mistakes through a voluntary waste reporting "scorecard." So far, only 14 of 114 companies contacted have replied. Those 14 were larger firms that comprised 51-percent of the solar market share.
"We find the overall industry response rate to our request for environmental information to be pretty dismal for an industry that is considered 'green,'" the group's executive director, Sheila Davis, said in an email.
While there are no specific industry standards, Smirnow, head of the solar industry association, is spearheading a voluntary program of environmental responsibility. So far, only seven of the group's nearly 81 manufacturers have signed the pledge.
"We want (our program) to be more demanding, but this is a young industry and right now manufacturing companies are focused on survival," he said.
Source: Associated news
__________________________________________________
Date 2/11/2013
Associated Press
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Homeowners on the hunt for sparkling solar panels are lured by ads filled with images of pristine landscapes and bright sunshine, and words about the technology's benefits for the environment — and the wallet.
What customers may not know is that there's a dirtier side.
While solar is a far less polluting energy source than coal or natural gas, many panel makers are nevertheless grappling with a hazardous waste problem. Fueled partly by billions in government incentives, the industry is creating millions of solar panels each year and, in the process, millions of pounds of polluted sludge and contaminated water.
To dispose of the material, the companies must transport it by truck or rail far from their own plants to waste facilities hundreds and, in some cases, thousands of miles away.
The fossil fuels used to transport that waste, experts say, is not typically considered in calculating solar's carbon footprint, giving scientists and consumers who use the measurement to gauge a product's impact on global warming the impression that solar is cleaner than it is.
After installing a solar panel, "it would take one to three months of generating electricity to pay off the energy invested in driving those hazardous waste emissions out of state," said Dustin Mulvaney, a San Jose State University environmental studies professor who conducts carbon footprint analyses of solar, biofuel and natural gas production.
The waste from manufacturing has raised concerns within the industry, which fears that the problem, if left unchecked, could undermine solar's green image at a time when companies are facing stiff competition from each other and from low-cost panel manufacturers from China and elsewhere.
"We want to take the lessons learned from electronics and semiconductor industries (about pollution) and get ahead of some of these problems," said John Smirnow, vice president for trade and competitiveness at the nearly 500-member Solar Energy Industries Association.
The increase in solar hazardous waste is directly related to the industry's fast growth over the past five years — even with solar business moving to China rapidly, the U.S. was a net exporter of solar products by $2 billion in 2010, the last year of data available. The nation was even a net exporter to China.
New companies often send hazardous waste out of their plants because they have not yet invested in on-site treatment equipment, which allows them to recycle some waste.
Nowhere is the waste issue more evident than in California, where landmark regulations approved in the 1970s require industrial plants like solar panel makers to report the amount of hazardous materials they produce, and where they send it. California leads the consumer solar market in the U.S. — which doubled overall both in 2010 and 2011.
The Associated Press compiled a list of 41 solar makers in the state, which included the top companies based on market data, and startups. In response to an AP records request, the California Department of Toxic Substances Control provided data that showed 17 of them reported waste, while the remaining did not.
The same level of federal data does not exist.
The state records show the 17 companies, which had 44 manufacturing facilities in California, produced 46.5 million pounds of sludge and contaminated water from 2007 through the first half of 2011. Roughly 97 percent of it was taken to hazardous waste facilities throughout the state, but more than 1.4 million pounds were transported to nine other states: Arkansas, Minnesota, Nebraska, Rhode Island, Nevada, Washington, Utah, New Mexico and Arizona.
Several solar energy experts said they have not calculated the industry's total waste and were surprised at what the records showed.
Solyndra, the now-defunct solar company that received $535 million in guaranteed federal loans, reported producing about 12.5 million pounds of hazardous waste, much of it carcinogenic cadmium-contaminated water, which was sent to waste facilities from 2007 through mid-2011.
Before the company went bankrupt, leading to increased scrutiny of the solar industry and political fallout for President Barack Obama's administration, Solyndra said it created 100 megawatts-worth of solar panels, enough to power 100,000 homes.
The records also show several other Silicon Valley solar facilities created millions of pounds of toxic waste without selling a single solar panel, while they were developing their technology or fine-tuning their production.
While much of the waste produced is considered toxic, there was no evidence it has harmed human health.
The vast majority of solar companies that generated hazardous waste in California have not been cited for waste-related pollution violations, although three had minor violations on file.
In many cases, a toxic sludge is created when metals and other toxins are removed from water used in the manufacturing process. If a company doesn't have its own treatment equipment, then it will send contaminated water to be stored at an approved dump.
According to scientists who conduct so-called "life cycle analysis" for solar, the transport of waste is not currently being factored into the carbon footprint score, which measures the amount of greenhouse gases produced when making a product.
Life cycle analysts add up all the global warming pollution that goes into making a certain product — from the mining needed for components to the exhaust from diesel trucks used to transport waste and materials. Not factoring the hazardous waste transport into solar's carbon footprint is an obvious oversight, analysts said.
"The greenhouse gas emissions associated with transporting this waste is not insignificant," Mulvaney said.
Mulvaney noted that shipping, for example, 6.2 million pounds of waste by heavy-duty tractor-trailer from Fremont, Calif., in the San Francisco Bay area, to a site 1,800 miles away could add 5 percent to a particular product's carbon footprint.
Such scores are important because they provide transparency to government and consumers into just how environmentally sustainable specific products are and lay out a choice between one company's technology and another's.
The roughly 20-year life of a solar panel still makes it some of the cleanest energy technology currently available. Producing solar is still significantly cleaner than fossil fuels. Energy derived from natural gas and coal-fired power plants, for example, creates more than 10 times more hazardous waste than the same energy created by a solar panel, according to Mulvaney.
The U.S. solar industry said it is reporting its waste, and sending it to approved storage facilities — thus keeping it out of the nation's air and water. A coal-fired power plant, in contrast, sends mercury, cadmium and other toxins directly into the air, which pollutes water and land around the facility.
"Having this stuff go to ... hazardous waste sites, that's what you want to have happen," said Adam Browning, executive director of the Vote Solar Initiative, a solar advocacy group.
Environmental advocates say the solar industry needs greater transparency, which is getting more complicated as manufacturing moves from the U.S. and Europe to less regulated places such as China and Malaysia.
The Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition, a watchdog group created in 1982 in response to severe environmental problems associated with the valley's electronics industry, is now trying to keep the solar industry from making similar mistakes through a voluntary waste reporting "scorecard." So far, only 14 of 114 companies contacted have replied. Those 14 were larger firms that comprised 51-percent of the solar market share.
"We find the overall industry response rate to our request for environmental information to be pretty dismal for an industry that is considered 'green,'" the group's executive director, Sheila Davis, said in an email.
While there are no specific industry standards, Smirnow, head of the solar industry association, is spearheading a voluntary program of environmental responsibility. So far, only seven of the group's nearly 81 manufacturers have signed the pledge.
"We want (our program) to be more demanding, but this is a young industry and right now manufacturing companies are focused on survival," he said.
Source: Associated news
__________________________________________________
Russia asks: How do you stop
space objects hitting Earth?
By Timothy Heritage and Gabriela Baczynska and Michael Shields | Reuters
MOSCOW/VIENNA (Reuters) - What can man do to prevent Earth being hit by meteorites and asteroids?
Russia has found, to its cost, that it has no answers. But U.S. and European experts may be able to help with a few ideas that at first glance seem straight out of science fiction, including smashing spacecraft into asteroids, using the sun's rays to vaporize them, or blasting them with nuclear bombs.
That should come as some relief to the many worried Russians who want something done immediately, even though scientists say the explosion of a meteor over central Russia on Friday was a once-in-a-lifetime event.
"We must create a system to detect objects that threaten Earth and neutralize them," Dmitry Rogozin, a first deputy prime minister in charge of the defense industry, wrote on Twitter.
For all their nuclear missiles, he said that neither the United States nor Russia could shoot down such meteors. Even President Vladimir Putin held up his hands, saying no country was able to protect against such events.
But there is hope for Russia as it looks for a solution. Last week's near miss from an asteroid half the size of a football field, the same day as the meteor explosion, has heightened awareness of the dangers Earth faces.
At a conference in Vienna on Monday, scientists said it was time for man to do more to spot objects hurtling towards the planet and to counter their threat.
LASER BEAMS AND GRAVITY TRACTORS
The European Union-funded NEO Shield consortium, whose aim is to investigate the best ways to deal with an object hurtling towards Earth, outlined some of its ideas in Vienna.
These included creating a "kinetic impactor" to fire a huge spacecraft into an asteroid to alter its path; another was making a "gravity tractor" by parking a big spacecraft near an object and using thrusters to lead it away by using the weak gravitational force as a cosmic tow-rope.
Exploding a nuclear device on or near an asteroid would be a method of last resort, it said.
A U.N. "action team" for dealing with near-Earth objects (NEOs) proposed setting up an International Asteroid Warning Network, plus advisory groups on mounting space missions to handle threats and planning for an impact disaster.
Timothy Spahr, director of the Minor Planet Center (MPC) at the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory which collects asteroid data, called for "rapid all-sky search capacity" using a space-based infrared survey to detect objects much faster than now.
The U.S. and European space agencies, NASA and ESA, warned that man should also prepare for impacts that are unavoidable - such as having procedures in place for wide-scale evacuations.
Detlef Koschny, responsible for near-earth object activity at the ESA's Space Situational Awareness program, said separately that it was now possible to determine possible impact zones with just a few hours' notice.
He cited the example of an object that hit the Sudan desert in 2008. It was spotted only 20 hours before it hit and the initial estimated impact zone of 2,000 km was narrowed down to an area of the desert within a few hours.
"In a similar case in the future, civil authorities would be able to tell the population in the narrowed-down area to stay away from windows, glass or other structures and stay indoors," he said in emailed comments to Reuters.
ESA experts in Darmstadt, Germany, plan to set up a survey to monitor the night sky using automated telescopes capable of spotting objects before they enter the atmosphere, he added.
"NOT OUT OF STAR TREK"
In California, scientists are working on a system to harness the power of the sun and convert it into laser beams that can destroy, evaporate or change the course of asteroids.
"This system is not some far-out idea from Star Trek," said Gary B. Hughes, a researcher and professor from California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo.
"All the components of this system pretty much exist today. Maybe not quite at the scale that we'd need - scaling up would be the challenge - but the basic elements are all there and ready to go."
A University of Hawaii team of astronomers is also developing a system with small telescopes called ATLAS that would identify dangerous asteroids before their final plunge to Earth.
The team predicts the system will offer a one-week warning for a 50-yard (45-metre) diameter asteroid known as a "city killer" and three weeks for a 150 yard (137 meter)-diameter "county killer."
"That's enough time to evacuate the area of people, take measures to protect buildings and other infrastructure, and be alert to a tsunami danger generated by ocean impacts," said astronomer John Tonry.
Russian experts said, however, that constructing an early warning system would hardly be worth the money as such events are so rare - the last known meteorite strike on such a scale in Russia was reported in 1908.
One Russian expert estimated the cost of such a system would be $2 billion. Others put it higher.
"Also, spotting is one thing, but preventing impact is yet another thing," Igor Marinin, editor of a space journal published by Russian space agency Roscosmos, told Reuters.
Referring to the injury toll of almost 1,200 after Friday's meteor explosion, most of them cut by glass, he said: "Compared to the number of victims of car accidents or cancer every year, this affected relatively few people."
Back in Russia, some people are simply trusting in fate.
Konstantin Tsybko, a legislator from the city of Chelyabinsk in the Ural mountain region, said on Monday: "Chelyabinsk residents may feel safe because nothing like this will happen in the next few hundred years."
"This is the first town in the history of our civilization to come under a space attack, survive this attack, and survive it successfully," he said.
(Additional reporting by Victoria Bryan in Frankfurt, Irene Klotz in Miami and Sonia Elks in Moscow; Writing by Michael Shields and Timothy Heritage; Editing by Jason Webb)
_____________________________________________________________
space objects hitting Earth?
By Timothy Heritage and Gabriela Baczynska and Michael Shields | Reuters
MOSCOW/VIENNA (Reuters) - What can man do to prevent Earth being hit by meteorites and asteroids?
Russia has found, to its cost, that it has no answers. But U.S. and European experts may be able to help with a few ideas that at first glance seem straight out of science fiction, including smashing spacecraft into asteroids, using the sun's rays to vaporize them, or blasting them with nuclear bombs.
That should come as some relief to the many worried Russians who want something done immediately, even though scientists say the explosion of a meteor over central Russia on Friday was a once-in-a-lifetime event.
"We must create a system to detect objects that threaten Earth and neutralize them," Dmitry Rogozin, a first deputy prime minister in charge of the defense industry, wrote on Twitter.
For all their nuclear missiles, he said that neither the United States nor Russia could shoot down such meteors. Even President Vladimir Putin held up his hands, saying no country was able to protect against such events.
But there is hope for Russia as it looks for a solution. Last week's near miss from an asteroid half the size of a football field, the same day as the meteor explosion, has heightened awareness of the dangers Earth faces.
At a conference in Vienna on Monday, scientists said it was time for man to do more to spot objects hurtling towards the planet and to counter their threat.
LASER BEAMS AND GRAVITY TRACTORS
The European Union-funded NEO Shield consortium, whose aim is to investigate the best ways to deal with an object hurtling towards Earth, outlined some of its ideas in Vienna.
These included creating a "kinetic impactor" to fire a huge spacecraft into an asteroid to alter its path; another was making a "gravity tractor" by parking a big spacecraft near an object and using thrusters to lead it away by using the weak gravitational force as a cosmic tow-rope.
Exploding a nuclear device on or near an asteroid would be a method of last resort, it said.
A U.N. "action team" for dealing with near-Earth objects (NEOs) proposed setting up an International Asteroid Warning Network, plus advisory groups on mounting space missions to handle threats and planning for an impact disaster.
Timothy Spahr, director of the Minor Planet Center (MPC) at the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory which collects asteroid data, called for "rapid all-sky search capacity" using a space-based infrared survey to detect objects much faster than now.
The U.S. and European space agencies, NASA and ESA, warned that man should also prepare for impacts that are unavoidable - such as having procedures in place for wide-scale evacuations.
Detlef Koschny, responsible for near-earth object activity at the ESA's Space Situational Awareness program, said separately that it was now possible to determine possible impact zones with just a few hours' notice.
He cited the example of an object that hit the Sudan desert in 2008. It was spotted only 20 hours before it hit and the initial estimated impact zone of 2,000 km was narrowed down to an area of the desert within a few hours.
"In a similar case in the future, civil authorities would be able to tell the population in the narrowed-down area to stay away from windows, glass or other structures and stay indoors," he said in emailed comments to Reuters.
ESA experts in Darmstadt, Germany, plan to set up a survey to monitor the night sky using automated telescopes capable of spotting objects before they enter the atmosphere, he added.
"NOT OUT OF STAR TREK"
In California, scientists are working on a system to harness the power of the sun and convert it into laser beams that can destroy, evaporate or change the course of asteroids.
"This system is not some far-out idea from Star Trek," said Gary B. Hughes, a researcher and professor from California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo.
"All the components of this system pretty much exist today. Maybe not quite at the scale that we'd need - scaling up would be the challenge - but the basic elements are all there and ready to go."
A University of Hawaii team of astronomers is also developing a system with small telescopes called ATLAS that would identify dangerous asteroids before their final plunge to Earth.
The team predicts the system will offer a one-week warning for a 50-yard (45-metre) diameter asteroid known as a "city killer" and three weeks for a 150 yard (137 meter)-diameter "county killer."
"That's enough time to evacuate the area of people, take measures to protect buildings and other infrastructure, and be alert to a tsunami danger generated by ocean impacts," said astronomer John Tonry.
Russian experts said, however, that constructing an early warning system would hardly be worth the money as such events are so rare - the last known meteorite strike on such a scale in Russia was reported in 1908.
One Russian expert estimated the cost of such a system would be $2 billion. Others put it higher.
"Also, spotting is one thing, but preventing impact is yet another thing," Igor Marinin, editor of a space journal published by Russian space agency Roscosmos, told Reuters.
Referring to the injury toll of almost 1,200 after Friday's meteor explosion, most of them cut by glass, he said: "Compared to the number of victims of car accidents or cancer every year, this affected relatively few people."
Back in Russia, some people are simply trusting in fate.
Konstantin Tsybko, a legislator from the city of Chelyabinsk in the Ural mountain region, said on Monday: "Chelyabinsk residents may feel safe because nothing like this will happen in the next few hundred years."
"This is the first town in the history of our civilization to come under a space attack, survive this attack, and survive it successfully," he said.
(Additional reporting by Victoria Bryan in Frankfurt, Irene Klotz in Miami and Sonia Elks in Moscow; Writing by Michael Shields and Timothy Heritage; Editing by Jason Webb)
_____________________________________________________________
Is the below title statement scientifically proven - study this interesting article
and the added article links at the end - then decide yourself
Web search the words & definitions you do not know
Higgs Boson Particle May Spell Doom For the Universe
Date: February 2013
Higgs boson - Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Higgs_boson
A subatomic particle discovered last year that may be the long-sought Higgs boson might doom our universe to an unfortunate end, researchers say.
The mass of the particle, which was uncovered at the world's largest particle accelerator — the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) in Geneva — is a key ingredient in a calculation that portends the future of space and time.
"This calculation tells you that many tens of billions of years from now there'll be a catastrophe," Joseph Lykken, a theoretical physicist at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory in Batavia, Ill., said Monday (Feb. 18) here at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
"It may be the universe we live in is inherently unstable, and at some point billions of years from now it's all going to get wiped out," added Lykken, a collaborator on one of the LHC's experiments. [Gallery: Search for the Higgs Boson]
The Higgs boson particle is a manifestation of an energy field pervading the universe called the Higgs field, which is thought to explain why particles have mass. After searching for decades for proof that this field and particle existed, physicists at the LHC announced in July 2012 that they'd discovered a new particle whose properties strongly suggest it is the Higgs boson.
To confirm the particle's identity for sure, more data are needed. But many scientists say they're betting it's the Higgs.
"This discovery to me was personally astounding," said I. Joseph Kroll, a University of Pennsylvania physicist who also works at the LHC. "To me, the Higgs was sort of, it might be there, it might not. The fact that it's there is really a tremendous accomplishment."
And finding the Higgs, if it's truly been found, not only confirms the theory about how particles get mass, but it allows scientists to make new calculations that weren't possible before the particle's properties were known.
For example, the mass of the new particle is about 126 billion electron volts, or about 126 times the mass of the proton. If that particle really is the Higgs, its mass turns out to be just about what's needed to make the universe fundamentally unstable, in a way that would cause it to end catastrophically in the far future.
That's because the Higgs field is thought to be everywhere, so it affects the vacuum of empty space-time in the universe.
"The mass of the Higgs is related to how stable the vacuum is," explained Christopher Hill, a theoretical physicist at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory. "It's right along the critical line. That could either be a cosmic coincidence, or it could be that there's some physics that's causing that. That's something new, which we didn't know before."
Strikingly, if the Higgs mass were just a few percent different, the universe wouldn't be doomed, the scientists said.
But even if the universe is in for an unfortunate end, there is at least one reason for consolation.
"You won't actually see it, because it will come at you at the speed of light," Lykken said. "So in that sense don't worry."
- (click) Top 10 Ways to Destroy Earth Not So Easy Destroying the Earth is harder than you may have been led to believe. You've seen the action movies where the bad guy threatens to destroy the Earth. You've heard people on the news claiming that the next nuclear war or cutting down rainforests or persisting in releasing hideous quantities of pollution into the atmosphere threatens to end the world. The Earth was built to last. It is a 4,550,000,000-year-old, 5,973,600,000,000,000,000,000-tonne ball of iron. It has taken more devastating asteroid hits in its lifetime than you've had hot dinners, and lo, it still orbits merrily.
- (click) The Universe: Big Bang to Now in 10 Easy Steps (click) Top 5 Implications of Finding the Higgs Boson
- ____________________________________________________________________________
Mainstream Websites More Likely to Harbor Malware
Date: February 2013
Click green for further info
Despite the common belief that "sketchy" Internet sites are more likely to host malware than their mainstream counterparts, the reverse may be true.
Internet users are 21 times more likely to become infected by visiting a legitimate online shopping site than by visiting a site used for illegal file-sharing, according to Cisco's *) latest annual security report.
"Web malware encounters occur everywhere people visit on the Internet — including the most legitimate of websites that they visit frequently, even for business purposes," Mary Landesman, Cisco senior security researcher, said in the report.
*) Cisco Systems, Inc. is an American multinational corporation headquartered in San Jose, California, United States, that designs, manufactures, and sells networking equipment.
"Business and industry sites are one of the top three categories visited when a malware encounter occurred."
That ad could come from anywhere
The problem isn't in the sites themselves; it's in the ads.
At first glance, Web pages appear to be nice neat little bundles of information. But in most cases, when you load a webpage, that page makes "calls" to third-party servers that host images, video content and advertisements that are syndicated to thousands of public-facing websites.
Examples are YouTube videos embedded into WordPress or Tumblr blogs, or banner ads displayed across the top of a page.
The information is collated and formatted to appear cohesive, but is often really comprised of information called in from many different sources.
So when criminals successfully attack an ad network, their malware becomes syndicated and sent to all the places those ads go — from Target and ToysRUs.com to eBay and Amazon.
Widest possible reach
That makes perverse sense. The more popular a site, or the more family-friendly an ad, the bigger the pool of potential malware victims is.
Ad networks that target niche interests, or simply have fewer scruples, are less attractive to cybercriminals. That makes sites that host illegal movie and TV streams and pirated software perhaps safer than a site that sells legitimate DVDs.
That goes counter to the conventional wisdom, which holds that fringe websites featuring pirated wares, shock photos and pornography are more likely to host malware than mainstream sites.
"Our data reveals the truth of this outdated notion, as Web malware encounters are typically not the by-product of 'bad' sites in today’s threat landscape," the report added. "Dangers are often hidden in plain sight through exploit laden online ads."
The report also noted that despite a sharp uptick in the amount of malware aimed at Android devices, Android malware still accounts for less than one-half of 1 percent of all malicious software. Most infected mobile devices are jailbroken and/or contain apps from unofficial app markets.
Malicious scripts, such as infected iFrames, make up the vast majority — 83 percent — of all Web-based malware vectors, the study found. Ten percent of all attacks hit their targets twice with a follow-up virus, worm or data-stealing Trojan.
Source:
This story was provided by TechNewsDaily, a sister site to LiveScience.
Date: February 2013 for the following links:
Click green for further info
Are you paying too much for your Internet, cable, and phone services?
Don't be afraid to do your homework and negotiate
when it comes to finding the best deal on digital services
Tired of paying too much for your Internet, cable, and phone services? Before you make another payment, evaluate your service needs and shop around to compare prices.
According to Mindy Spatt - communications director for The Utility Reform Network (TURN), a California-based consumer advocacy organization - be diligent when doing business with Internet, cable, and phone service providers in order to get the best possible rates.
And don't forget to "read the contract and read that bill every month," says Spatt.
[Click to get quotes from multiple digital living service providers.]
Want to learn more about how you could save on your digital services? Check out these tips that could help you find the best rates.
Tip #1 - Shop Around
The song "Shop Around" by The Miracles and Bill Smokey Robinson was a big hit in 1960, but its hook still rings true today when applying it to telecommunications services: You better shop around.
"If you have access to the Internet, the best way to shop is online, where most of the special promotions and rebates can be found," according to "To Bundle or Not to Bundle - Cable TV, Internet, and Phone," a letter response on the TURN website.
"Print out the different offers and compare them. But remember! Deals change all the time, and the deal you find one day may be gone the next," warns TURN.
Spatt echoes her organization's advice for shopping around, adding it's important to sharpen your eye for detail when looking at potential deals. In fact, prices in advertising materials could be different (radically, in some cases) than costs listed on the finished contract.
"It's definitely good to read the fine print," Spatt says. "Be aware there is a lot of bait and switch going on. The price you sign up for might not be the price you pay forever. Are the taxes and fees part of the advertised price? The customer needs to look at the contracts, not the advertising materials."
[Shop around for quotes from local providers now.]
And to help extend the deal, simply pop the question: "Don't hesitate to call the companies to ask more specific questions," according to TURN. "For example, 'How long will this special rate last?'"
Tip #2 - Bundle Your Digital Services
Bundling isn't just something you do with the clothes you wear on cold days. It could work as a cost-saving option when you roll two or more of your digital services into one service plan, depending on the customer.
Just note, "The customer has to make a decision based on their own usage," Spatt says. "Bundling isn't right for everybody."
[Find the best digital services bundle for you. Click to compare rates now.]
If you are considering bundling, Spatt suggests looking into bundling options only after you have gauged that it's more expensive to pay for services individually.
You'll also want to question your usage habits to see if you need all that a bundle has to offer:
But while shopping around, keep TURN's additional warnings in mind: "Some bundles have extra fees and charges or that really great deal expires sooner than you think!"
Tip #3 - Negotiate, Negotiate, Negotiate
Don't be afraid to haggle with carriers in an effort to get a fair price.
"The customer should always try to get the best possible deal," Spatt says. "Don't take the first thing that's offered. You have to ask if there is a lower price service, a cheaper way to do this. When you have done your homework, you know what your options are."
For example, if the carrier won't go lower than that initial offer, an effective bargaining chip might be mentioning the rates offered by a competitor.
"You might find that Company A offers you a price, and you might say, 'Company B told me they would offer me a better price,'" Spatt says. "You might find that Company A may come up with a better price. In theory, this is how a competitive market works."
On the other hand, if you find your current providers' prices feel a bit too steep, TURN suggests asking whether they will make you a special offer to stay with them.
Tip #4 - Don't Buy More Than You Need
What could be worse than paying too much for your digital services? Paying too much for digital services you don't need.
For example, if you have an all-you-can-talk long distance package, do you really need to pay more if you rarely make long-distance calls from your landline?
"Paying for services that you don't need is a waste of money," according to TURN.
[Click to compare rates from multiple providers now.]
To help avoid overbuying, TURN suggests asking these types of questions regarding your usage of your Internet, cable, and phone services:
Tip #5 - Don't Sign a Long-Term Contract
Don't want to commit to one service provider over the long haul? Reconsider signing a long-term contract.
"As a rule, avoid contracts if possible because they limit your ability to switch providers or negotiate rates," according to the May 2011 Consumer Reports article "The Benefits of Bundling and Bargaining."
This means that after the honeymoon period ends and the provider's services no longer meet your needs, you could be tied to a company for much longer than you intended.
"Some companies will lock in a monthly price for two years, but if you try to break the contract, you'll have to pay a fee," says TURN. "Make sure you get price protection before agreeing to a long-term contract."
But if a long-term contract is your only option, it can't hurt to ask whether your provider could reduce the contract's length.
Tip #6 - Ask for Discounts
Don't be bashful when it comes to seeking out discounts. If you don't ask for them, you probably won't know whether an Internet, cable, or phone service provider has pricing offers hiding in their back pockets.
And it also helps if you have already scoped out offers from the American Auto Association (AAA), as well as student or professional discounts.
"Customers need to stand up for themselves," Spatt says. "They need to be informed so that they know what they can expect for a price. That will put them in the best bargaining position."
Even if you successfully hit up a provider for a discount, that doesn't end your duties as a consumer.
"Make sure to ask what your first bill will look like," according to TURN. "Some companies charge you for two months when you first sign up, or you may be charged installation or activation fees for some of the plan's components."
Click the green for further info
Source: Internet
____________________________________________________________
Don't be afraid to do your homework and negotiate
when it comes to finding the best deal on digital services
Tired of paying too much for your Internet, cable, and phone services? Before you make another payment, evaluate your service needs and shop around to compare prices.
According to Mindy Spatt - communications director for The Utility Reform Network (TURN), a California-based consumer advocacy organization - be diligent when doing business with Internet, cable, and phone service providers in order to get the best possible rates.
And don't forget to "read the contract and read that bill every month," says Spatt.
[Click to get quotes from multiple digital living service providers.]
Want to learn more about how you could save on your digital services? Check out these tips that could help you find the best rates.
Tip #1 - Shop Around
The song "Shop Around" by The Miracles and Bill Smokey Robinson was a big hit in 1960, but its hook still rings true today when applying it to telecommunications services: You better shop around.
"If you have access to the Internet, the best way to shop is online, where most of the special promotions and rebates can be found," according to "To Bundle or Not to Bundle - Cable TV, Internet, and Phone," a letter response on the TURN website.
"Print out the different offers and compare them. But remember! Deals change all the time, and the deal you find one day may be gone the next," warns TURN.
Spatt echoes her organization's advice for shopping around, adding it's important to sharpen your eye for detail when looking at potential deals. In fact, prices in advertising materials could be different (radically, in some cases) than costs listed on the finished contract.
"It's definitely good to read the fine print," Spatt says. "Be aware there is a lot of bait and switch going on. The price you sign up for might not be the price you pay forever. Are the taxes and fees part of the advertised price? The customer needs to look at the contracts, not the advertising materials."
[Shop around for quotes from local providers now.]
And to help extend the deal, simply pop the question: "Don't hesitate to call the companies to ask more specific questions," according to TURN. "For example, 'How long will this special rate last?'"
Tip #2 - Bundle Your Digital Services
Bundling isn't just something you do with the clothes you wear on cold days. It could work as a cost-saving option when you roll two or more of your digital services into one service plan, depending on the customer.
Just note, "The customer has to make a decision based on their own usage," Spatt says. "Bundling isn't right for everybody."
[Find the best digital services bundle for you. Click to compare rates now.]
If you are considering bundling, Spatt suggests looking into bundling options only after you have gauged that it's more expensive to pay for services individually.
You'll also want to question your usage habits to see if you need all that a bundle has to offer:
- Do you only want basic phone service?
- Can you live without cable?
- Do you plan on using your cell phone for long-distance calls?
- How much Internet service do you really require?
But while shopping around, keep TURN's additional warnings in mind: "Some bundles have extra fees and charges or that really great deal expires sooner than you think!"
Tip #3 - Negotiate, Negotiate, Negotiate
Don't be afraid to haggle with carriers in an effort to get a fair price.
"The customer should always try to get the best possible deal," Spatt says. "Don't take the first thing that's offered. You have to ask if there is a lower price service, a cheaper way to do this. When you have done your homework, you know what your options are."
For example, if the carrier won't go lower than that initial offer, an effective bargaining chip might be mentioning the rates offered by a competitor.
"You might find that Company A offers you a price, and you might say, 'Company B told me they would offer me a better price,'" Spatt says. "You might find that Company A may come up with a better price. In theory, this is how a competitive market works."
On the other hand, if you find your current providers' prices feel a bit too steep, TURN suggests asking whether they will make you a special offer to stay with them.
Tip #4 - Don't Buy More Than You Need
What could be worse than paying too much for your digital services? Paying too much for digital services you don't need.
For example, if you have an all-you-can-talk long distance package, do you really need to pay more if you rarely make long-distance calls from your landline?
"Paying for services that you don't need is a waste of money," according to TURN.
[Click to compare rates from multiple providers now.]
To help avoid overbuying, TURN suggests asking these types of questions regarding your usage of your Internet, cable, and phone services:
- Are most of your phone calls local? Or do you often call family and friends outside the United States?
- Do you use the Internet only for e-mail? Or do you enjoy watching online videos and downloading pictures?
- How many cable channels do you want to watch?
Tip #5 - Don't Sign a Long-Term Contract
Don't want to commit to one service provider over the long haul? Reconsider signing a long-term contract.
"As a rule, avoid contracts if possible because they limit your ability to switch providers or negotiate rates," according to the May 2011 Consumer Reports article "The Benefits of Bundling and Bargaining."
This means that after the honeymoon period ends and the provider's services no longer meet your needs, you could be tied to a company for much longer than you intended.
"Some companies will lock in a monthly price for two years, but if you try to break the contract, you'll have to pay a fee," says TURN. "Make sure you get price protection before agreeing to a long-term contract."
But if a long-term contract is your only option, it can't hurt to ask whether your provider could reduce the contract's length.
Tip #6 - Ask for Discounts
Don't be bashful when it comes to seeking out discounts. If you don't ask for them, you probably won't know whether an Internet, cable, or phone service provider has pricing offers hiding in their back pockets.
And it also helps if you have already scoped out offers from the American Auto Association (AAA), as well as student or professional discounts.
"Customers need to stand up for themselves," Spatt says. "They need to be informed so that they know what they can expect for a price. That will put them in the best bargaining position."
Even if you successfully hit up a provider for a discount, that doesn't end your duties as a consumer.
"Make sure to ask what your first bill will look like," according to TURN. "Some companies charge you for two months when you first sign up, or you may be charged installation or activation fees for some of the plan's components."
Click the green for further info
Source: Internet
____________________________________________________________
The sneaky brilliance of Google+:
People are using it without even realizing it
You may not visit Google+ every day and check status updates obsessively as you do with Facebook(FB) or Twitter, but that doesn’t mean you aren’t using Google’s (GOOG) social network.
Forbes‘ David Thier writes that the brilliant thing about Google+ from a revenue-generating perspective is that “as long as you’re signed into Google services or properties, you’re passively using Google+, and the site collects data either way.” This means searches you conduct on Google Maps, YouTube or the Google Play store are all little data points that are collected by Google+ and are used to improve micro-targeting for advertisements.
You may not think this is necessarily a good thing, of course, but it is certainly a clever move on Google’s part.
Click green for further info
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People are using it without even realizing it
You may not visit Google+ every day and check status updates obsessively as you do with Facebook(FB) or Twitter, but that doesn’t mean you aren’t using Google’s (GOOG) social network.
Forbes‘ David Thier writes that the brilliant thing about Google+ from a revenue-generating perspective is that “as long as you’re signed into Google services or properties, you’re passively using Google+, and the site collects data either way.” This means searches you conduct on Google Maps, YouTube or the Google Play store are all little data points that are collected by Google+ and are used to improve micro-targeting for advertisements.
You may not think this is necessarily a good thing, of course, but it is certainly a clever move on Google’s part.
Click green for further info
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New Device Delivers Needle-Free Injections
New 'shots' are totally painless
Click green for further info
An amazing new technology eliminates the painful and scary part of getting shots or injections: the hypodermic needle. A laser-based system propels microscopic jets of drugs through the skin, making the injection as painless as a puff of air, according to a new paper published in the journal Optics Letters.
Also called a “liquid needle,” the laser injector releases pulses of fluid, each lasting only 250 millionths of a second, through a nozzle slightly larger than the diameter of a human hair. The researchers report that getting shots with a liquid needle “will be completely pain-free” for shallow injections, and that their method delivers precise doses of medication to the targeted area, without any tissue damage.
While this might sound like science fiction, a similar device, PharmaJet’s STRATIS needle-free injector, was FDA-cleared in 2012 to deliver vaccines or drugs through the skin or intramuscularly. Approved for use by both healthcare providers and patients who self-inject prescribed medications, such as diabetics, the needle-free injector could transform medical and dental care, particularly for the more than 20 million Americans who suffer from needle phobia.
To find out more about this remarkable breakthrough, I talked to Raed Rahman, DO, medical director of pain management at Cancer Treatment Centers of America.
Prevent Needle Phobia in Kids: Learn How and Take The Pledge
What Do Needle-Free Injections Feel Like?“Instead of the piercing pain of a needle, you may feel a slight pinch or pressure as the fluid passes through the skin,” says Dr. Rahman. “This is a promising advance, particularly for patients who have needle phobia or those who need to self-inject medications.”
As I reported recently, up to 21 percent of Americans are terrified of needles and, for 10 percent, the phobia is so extreme that they may faint at the sight of a needle or experience dramatic drops in blood pressure. “In my practice, I’ve even a patient’s friends or family get light-headed or pass out if they’re in the room during a needle procedure,” adds Dr. Rahman.
Shots and injections are particularly traumatic for kids, notes Dr. Rahman. “Parents have to spend time preparing the child for the injection—or in some cases, such as with a kid with diabetes, give the injection themselves—then they may be spending 30 minutes hugging and consoling the kid because he’s scared and hurt.”
Free Storybook App Helps Kids Overcome Fear of Needles
How Do Liquid Needles Work?There are several ways to propel drugs or vaccines through the skin without a hypodermic needle. Current methods include the following technologies:
- Magnets. MIT researchers have developed a jet injector that uses a Lorentz-force actuator that propels fluid at close to the speed of sound. The actuator is a tiny, powerful magnet surrounded by a coil of wire attached to a piston inside the drug vial. When current is applied, magnetic force propels a stream of medication through a nozzle as wide as a mosquito’s stinger.
- Springs. PharmaJet’s STRATIS device uses a spring to activate a single-use high-velocity mechanical plunger, which expels medication at a speed of 550 feet per second. The injection only takes one-third of a second.
- Laser-powered. This type of injector has two chambers separated by a thin, elastic membrane. One contains water that acts as the “driving” fluid; the other holds the drug. Each laser pulse, lasting just milliseconds, creates a bubble in the water that creates pressure on the drug-filled chamber, causing the medication to squirt out.
- Vibrating powder. An even newer method being tested at MIT involves applying powdered medication to the skin, then programming the magnet-based device to vibrate at a speed that converts the powder to a fluidized form that can pass through skin like a liquid.
Less Painful and Potentially SaferNot only do needle-free devices take the ouch out of injections (which is a big deal, since millions of americans suffer from needle phobia), but they may also be safer for healthcare workers, points our Dr. Rahman. In the US alone, there are more than 800,000 needle-stick injuries, putting doctors and nurses at risk for catching blood-borne diseases like AIDS and hepatitis.
In one survey by the American Nurses Association, about two-thirds of the nurses polled said they’d been injured by a needle at least once, and of this group, 74 percent reported being stuck by a contaminated needle, potentially putting their health at risk.
In addition, needle-free injections could save money, given that American medical facilities spend up an estimated $2 billion a year for testing and treatment of needle-stick injuries and disposing of used needles in hazardous medical waste containers for “sharps.”
Take The Drama Out of Doctor's Visits
Source:
the journal Optics Letters
Click green for further info
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For what reason did the STAF, Inc.'s editors place this information in the tab of "technology" (it is also in tab: services, in sub-tab "Successology")
Because: because this is info about our hardware (= our body) and how it functions
___
Interesting & important information
Aches and Pains: You Can Thank Evolution for Them
For what reason is this article spaced in tab: technoogy. Because is this article is about your and mine and evebody'ss
Click green for further info
BOSTON — Bad backs, dangerous childbirths, sore feet and wisdom teeth pains are among the many ailments humans face from evolution, researchers say.
In an evolutionary sense, humans are by far the most successful primates on the planet, with a world population close to 7 billion. Humanity owes this success to a number of well-known adaptations, such as large, complex brains and walking upright on two feet. However, there are downsides to these advances as well.
"We're dealing with the scars of human evolution," anthropologist Alan Mann at Princeton University told.
For instance, while walking upright freed up our hands for tool use, a key factor in human success, the resulting stresses from gravity on the human spine may have led to unique back pains.
"We're the only mammals that spontaneously fracture vertebra," anthropologist and anatomist Bruce Latimer at Case Western Reserve University told.
Latimer and other scientists detailed their findings on human evolution on Feb. 15/2013 at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
Achy backs
To underscore the challenges the human spine faces because of humanity's upright posture, Latimer compared the spine to a tower of 24 cups and saucers, with each cup representing a vertebra in the spine and each saucer one of the disks between each vertebra. [10 Wacky Facts About Humans]
"Then take a book like a dictionary and put it on top. This is the head. If you are really careful, you can balance it — otherwise there's a lot of porcelain on the ground," Latimer said. "Then imagine taking this and putting in all the curves that you naturally have in the spine. I could give you all the duct tape in the world, and you still couldn't possibly balance it."
As the spine developed curves to keep balanced while upright, it can become stressed at certain points. This can result in conditions such as lordosis*), or swayed backs*); kyphosis*), a rounded upper back or hunch back; and scoliosis*),
a sideway curve in the spine*). - *) = see info at the end of this article
In addition, the spine also suffers from how people walk — one foot forward at a time with the opposite side arm swinging in step.
"This creates a twisting motion that, after millions of twists over time, the discs between the vertebrae begin to wear out and break down, resulting in herniated discs," Latimer explained.
Evolving from four-footed to two-footed walking has also resulted in a host of foot problems, such as flat feet and bunions. Fossil evidence suggests that humans have suffered foot problems such as high-ankle sprains as far back as 3.5 million years ago, not just because of more recent, sedentary lifestyles.
"The fossil record is revealing that a lot of the foot problems we have now can be traced back to our past," functional morphologist Jeremy DeSilva at Boston University told.
Pain in the teeth
The dramatic boost in brain size that helps set humans apart the most from the rest of the animal kingdom also has led to problems many now experience with wisdom teeth, the third set of molars that get their name from the fact that they erupt as people approach the end of adolescence. [10 Odd Facts About the Human Brain]
"Our brains expanded to more than triple of our ancestors. As a result, the architecture of the brain case has changed," Mann said.
This often leaves wisdom teeth no room to grow, causing them to erupt in painful ways.
"Evolution doesn't produce perfection," Mann said.
The problems that wisdom teeth can pose likely explain why genetic mutations that prevent their development have spread in human populations.
"The population with the highest frequency of missing third molars are the Inuit in the Arctic of North America, where it's as high as 44 percent," Mann said. Intriguingly, the only human population that apparently always had wisdom teeth in adulthood were the Neanderthals, he added.
Designing a human body
The evolution of upright walking has also made childbirth much riskier for humans than any other primate.
"If you want to look for examples of how we're not the result of intelligent design, you don't have to go far — just look at the complicated, uncomfortable way we have babies,"anthropologist Karen Rosenberg at the University of Delaware told Li.
The complex societies that humans have developed now help women survive childbirth.
"We mitigate*) these problems with midwives, obstetricians, attendants of any sort in the childbirth process," Rosenberg said
*) mitigate = Make less severe, serious, or painful: "he wanted to mitigate misery in the world" - Lessen the gravity of (an offense or mistake) - Synonyms: palliate - alleviate - allay - relieve - ease - soothe
"If an engineer were given the task to design the human body, he or she would never have done it the way humans have evolved," Latimer said. "Unfortunately, we can't go back to walking on four feet. We've undergone too much evolutionary change for that — and it is not the answer to our problems."
Because: because this is info about our hardware (= our body) and how it functions
___
Interesting & important information
Aches and Pains: You Can Thank Evolution for Them
For what reason is this article spaced in tab: technoogy. Because is this article is about your and mine and evebody'ss
Click green for further info
BOSTON — Bad backs, dangerous childbirths, sore feet and wisdom teeth pains are among the many ailments humans face from evolution, researchers say.
In an evolutionary sense, humans are by far the most successful primates on the planet, with a world population close to 7 billion. Humanity owes this success to a number of well-known adaptations, such as large, complex brains and walking upright on two feet. However, there are downsides to these advances as well.
"We're dealing with the scars of human evolution," anthropologist Alan Mann at Princeton University told.
For instance, while walking upright freed up our hands for tool use, a key factor in human success, the resulting stresses from gravity on the human spine may have led to unique back pains.
"We're the only mammals that spontaneously fracture vertebra," anthropologist and anatomist Bruce Latimer at Case Western Reserve University told.
Latimer and other scientists detailed their findings on human evolution on Feb. 15/2013 at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
Achy backs
To underscore the challenges the human spine faces because of humanity's upright posture, Latimer compared the spine to a tower of 24 cups and saucers, with each cup representing a vertebra in the spine and each saucer one of the disks between each vertebra. [10 Wacky Facts About Humans]
"Then take a book like a dictionary and put it on top. This is the head. If you are really careful, you can balance it — otherwise there's a lot of porcelain on the ground," Latimer said. "Then imagine taking this and putting in all the curves that you naturally have in the spine. I could give you all the duct tape in the world, and you still couldn't possibly balance it."
As the spine developed curves to keep balanced while upright, it can become stressed at certain points. This can result in conditions such as lordosis*), or swayed backs*); kyphosis*), a rounded upper back or hunch back; and scoliosis*),
a sideway curve in the spine*). - *) = see info at the end of this article
In addition, the spine also suffers from how people walk — one foot forward at a time with the opposite side arm swinging in step.
"This creates a twisting motion that, after millions of twists over time, the discs between the vertebrae begin to wear out and break down, resulting in herniated discs," Latimer explained.
Evolving from four-footed to two-footed walking has also resulted in a host of foot problems, such as flat feet and bunions. Fossil evidence suggests that humans have suffered foot problems such as high-ankle sprains as far back as 3.5 million years ago, not just because of more recent, sedentary lifestyles.
"The fossil record is revealing that a lot of the foot problems we have now can be traced back to our past," functional morphologist Jeremy DeSilva at Boston University told.
Pain in the teeth
The dramatic boost in brain size that helps set humans apart the most from the rest of the animal kingdom also has led to problems many now experience with wisdom teeth, the third set of molars that get their name from the fact that they erupt as people approach the end of adolescence. [10 Odd Facts About the Human Brain]
"Our brains expanded to more than triple of our ancestors. As a result, the architecture of the brain case has changed," Mann said.
This often leaves wisdom teeth no room to grow, causing them to erupt in painful ways.
"Evolution doesn't produce perfection," Mann said.
The problems that wisdom teeth can pose likely explain why genetic mutations that prevent their development have spread in human populations.
"The population with the highest frequency of missing third molars are the Inuit in the Arctic of North America, where it's as high as 44 percent," Mann said. Intriguingly, the only human population that apparently always had wisdom teeth in adulthood were the Neanderthals, he added.
Designing a human body
The evolution of upright walking has also made childbirth much riskier for humans than any other primate.
"If you want to look for examples of how we're not the result of intelligent design, you don't have to go far — just look at the complicated, uncomfortable way we have babies,"anthropologist Karen Rosenberg at the University of Delaware told Li.
The complex societies that humans have developed now help women survive childbirth.
"We mitigate*) these problems with midwives, obstetricians, attendants of any sort in the childbirth process," Rosenberg said
*) mitigate = Make less severe, serious, or painful: "he wanted to mitigate misery in the world" - Lessen the gravity of (an offense or mistake) - Synonyms: palliate - alleviate - allay - relieve - ease - soothe
"If an engineer were given the task to design the human body, he or she would never have done it the way humans have evolved," Latimer said. "Unfortunately, we can't go back to walking on four feet. We've undergone too much evolutionary change for that — and it is not the answer to our problems."
- The 9 Most Bizarre Medical Conditions
- Image Gallery: Our Closest Human Ancestor
- Know Your Roots? Human Evolution Quiz
- Source: the American Association for the Advancement of Science Click green for further info Click green below for furthe info in Wikipedia
- *) lordosis - (1) Excessive inward curvature of the spine, (2) a posture assumed by some female mammals during mating, in which the back is arched downward
More info - Wikipedia - Dictionary.com - Answers.com - Merriam-Webster
Lordosis - Wikipedia, the free encyclopediaen.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lordosis
Lordosis. Lordosis is the inward curvature of a portion of the lumbar and cervical vertebral .... Lordosis - MedlinePlus definition · Lordosis - SpineUniverse ...Cause - Treatment - In animals - Other - *) swayed backs - Excessive lordotic curvature is also called hyperlordosis, hollow back, saddle back, and swayback. Common causes of excessive lordosis include tight low back muscles, excessive visceral fat, and pregnancy.
- *) kyphosis - Excessive outward curvature of the spine, causing hunching of the back.
- *) scoliosis - Abnormal lateral curvature of the spine.
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When Is the Optimal Time to Book a Flight?
To get the lowest price, book domestic flights this number of days in advance, a new study says
Don't book too early
Click green for further info
Bargain-conscious travelers have been trying to answer the question for years and are still stymied: How far in advance do you have to book to get the best airfare?
According to new research by CheapAir.com based on the travel site's review of 560 million airfares, the optimal time to book a domestic flight is 49 days in advance. If you're flying overseas, you should book almost three months -- 81 days, to be precise -- before you travel.
Too much planning for you? Don't worry. While the average domestic flight was the cheapest 49 days out, it didn't start to rise dramatically in price until about two weeks before the departure date. But if you wait until the day or two before you want to travel, get ready for some serious pocketbook pain. Domestic flights that would normally cost less than $400 jump to about $625.
Notably, it's also bad for your pocketbook to book too far in advance, according to CheapAir. People who booked 210 days before the flight ended up paying an average of $475 for a domestic ticket. There are exceptions and caveats, however. If you're booking for a high-traffic time, like Thanksgiving, it can make sense to book well in advance. The optimal time to buy a flight for Thanksgiving weekend in 2012, for instance, was 96 days in advance.
If you're taking an international flight, by contrast, you might score a real bargain by being spontaneous. For example, the best price CheapAir found for a Los Angeles-to-Tokyo flight was when the traveler booked one day before the flight.
Other factoids of note: Booking a flight on a Tuesday or Wednesday is not likely to save any money. But flying on a Tuesday or Wednesday will.
And, of course, while this study focuses on average ticket prices, there are a lot of one-time deals that can make booking at any given time either a bargain or a bust. CheapAir tries to deal with the frustrations of variable airline pricing by offering a customer payback program. If you book a flight through the site and find that your specific itinerary has dropped in price, it offers you up to a $100 credit for another flight. And what if another airline offers a better deal in the meantime? Unless you're traveling on one of the rare airlines, such as Southwest, that will allow you to change your ticket without penalty, you're out of luck.
MORE FROM
- Beware airline fee follies
- How to stomp out pesky travel fees
- 25 weirdest job interview questions of 2012
Click green for further info
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Could Eye-Tracking Replace Your Mouse?
What if you could dramatically speed up your computing
by moving your cursor exclusively with your eyes?
A company called Tobii is transforming
the way we interact with our screen
By using your eyes instead of your mouse, you can select what you’re looking at almost instantaneously. Not only does this speed up a tremendous number of computing tasks, but it has the potential to reduce repetitive stress injuries.
But Does It Really Work?
Seeing is believing. So I had to test it for myself. I have to admit I was a skeptic. Most gesture and touch controls I’ve tried in the past at the Consumer Electronics Show have been a little clunky. So I was thinking that something as sophisticated as gaze recognition wouldn’t work very well. Boy, was I wrong. After a one-time calibration that took all of 10 seconds, I started looking around the screen. I expected the cursor to go crazy as I scanned from side to side, but the cursor never moved. Instead, as Tobii CEO and Co-Founder Henrik Eskilsson explained to me, the eye-tracking only registers when you hit a function key on the keyboard that they had outfitted with a blue-sticker. As soon as I found a program I wanted to open, I looked at it on the screen and then hit the blue button.
Boom - the application opened. No mouse, just eye-controlled. As I zipped around the computer, I very quickly figured it out: look, blue button. Find an icon, stare at it, hit the blue button. Hit the Windows key on the keyboard to go back to the Windows 8 Home screen of tiles, look for something new, hit the blue button. You get the idea.
Navigating the operating system was pretty easy, so then I dug into a web page. Look at a link, hit the blue button, and the link opens. What surprised me was when I read a long article of text, my gaze didn’t move the page or the cursor at all until I was on the line of text lowest on the page. Just as I was about to reach for the mouse to scroll down, the web page automatically scrolled. “How’d it know to do that?” I asked. Henrik explained that the tracker knows you are reading from the motion of your eyes; as your gaze nears the lower edge of the page, it is set to automatically scroll.
I used the calculator and added all by gaze: look at 7, hit the blue button; look at the + sign, hit the blue button, look at 8 hit the blue button, look at the = hit the blue button, and then I see 15 in the result field. It sounds laborious, but it’s much faster than mousing through the numbers. It actually felt like keyboard shortcuts where you don’t have to memorize the correct shortcut keys. You just look at what you want and keep hitting the same blue button.
Broad Applications
Tobii’s eye-tracking technology was initially designed as a research tool and as an assistive communication device for those with disabilities. Someone without the ability to speak, for example, could communicate by looking at sounds or words on a screen. Now the company is venturing into broad consumer applications. The first generation product that I tried, the Tobii Rex, works only with Windows 8 machines and costs about $1000 for a USB add-on. But as with most new technologies, costs are sure to come down quickly with mass adoption – and I see the potential.
I tried a variety of computing tasks, reading e-mail, mapping, using a calculator, gaming – blowing up Asteroids without a mouse or keyboard – and was impressed by all. Plus, companies like Haier are licensing Tobii’s underlying technology and developing prototype eye-tracking TV controls. Good news, couch potatoes: soon, you won’t even have to move your hands to change the channel.
Predictions
I see a lot of demos, but this one is the real deal. I predict that eye-tracking technology will be baked into the computers we see rolled out at the next Consumer Electronics Show in 2014.
Check back for more CES coverage or like us on Facebook to get the must-see consumer tech developments delivered to your newsfeed.
____________________________________
What if you could dramatically speed up your computing
by moving your cursor exclusively with your eyes?
A company called Tobii is transforming
the way we interact with our screen
By using your eyes instead of your mouse, you can select what you’re looking at almost instantaneously. Not only does this speed up a tremendous number of computing tasks, but it has the potential to reduce repetitive stress injuries.
But Does It Really Work?
Seeing is believing. So I had to test it for myself. I have to admit I was a skeptic. Most gesture and touch controls I’ve tried in the past at the Consumer Electronics Show have been a little clunky. So I was thinking that something as sophisticated as gaze recognition wouldn’t work very well. Boy, was I wrong. After a one-time calibration that took all of 10 seconds, I started looking around the screen. I expected the cursor to go crazy as I scanned from side to side, but the cursor never moved. Instead, as Tobii CEO and Co-Founder Henrik Eskilsson explained to me, the eye-tracking only registers when you hit a function key on the keyboard that they had outfitted with a blue-sticker. As soon as I found a program I wanted to open, I looked at it on the screen and then hit the blue button.
Boom - the application opened. No mouse, just eye-controlled. As I zipped around the computer, I very quickly figured it out: look, blue button. Find an icon, stare at it, hit the blue button. Hit the Windows key on the keyboard to go back to the Windows 8 Home screen of tiles, look for something new, hit the blue button. You get the idea.
Navigating the operating system was pretty easy, so then I dug into a web page. Look at a link, hit the blue button, and the link opens. What surprised me was when I read a long article of text, my gaze didn’t move the page or the cursor at all until I was on the line of text lowest on the page. Just as I was about to reach for the mouse to scroll down, the web page automatically scrolled. “How’d it know to do that?” I asked. Henrik explained that the tracker knows you are reading from the motion of your eyes; as your gaze nears the lower edge of the page, it is set to automatically scroll.
I used the calculator and added all by gaze: look at 7, hit the blue button; look at the + sign, hit the blue button, look at 8 hit the blue button, look at the = hit the blue button, and then I see 15 in the result field. It sounds laborious, but it’s much faster than mousing through the numbers. It actually felt like keyboard shortcuts where you don’t have to memorize the correct shortcut keys. You just look at what you want and keep hitting the same blue button.
Broad Applications
Tobii’s eye-tracking technology was initially designed as a research tool and as an assistive communication device for those with disabilities. Someone without the ability to speak, for example, could communicate by looking at sounds or words on a screen. Now the company is venturing into broad consumer applications. The first generation product that I tried, the Tobii Rex, works only with Windows 8 machines and costs about $1000 for a USB add-on. But as with most new technologies, costs are sure to come down quickly with mass adoption – and I see the potential.
I tried a variety of computing tasks, reading e-mail, mapping, using a calculator, gaming – blowing up Asteroids without a mouse or keyboard – and was impressed by all. Plus, companies like Haier are licensing Tobii’s underlying technology and developing prototype eye-tracking TV controls. Good news, couch potatoes: soon, you won’t even have to move your hands to change the channel.
Predictions
I see a lot of demos, but this one is the real deal. I predict that eye-tracking technology will be baked into the computers we see rolled out at the next Consumer Electronics Show in 2014.
Check back for more CES coverage or like us on Facebook to get the must-see consumer tech developments delivered to your newsfeed.
____________________________________
The comments & article below gives you info of how to broaden your business
Kim Hyun-suk, a Samsung executive vice president, says of mobile devices and TV,
“We get most of our ideas from the market”
STAF, Inc.'s comment: Quote from the above 2 lines: “We get most of our ideas from the market” is the key here.
That is the same as copying ideas & solutions. Nothing wrong with it, except you can easily end in costly court fights. However, there is a wise business advice for any field, for any product or any service: Study what is on the market. Select a service or a product you like that is close your interests. Then make it better at least 10 % (or more), put on the market and sell. Making it better includes: better functioning, cheaper price, easier in use, higher service, etc. better.
The public will experience your product as new (perhaps the court will not), when your product is 10 % or more different than the other products. This is how most new products come to the market anyway. This means: there is an endless source for marketable products or services for you when you improve the old product in any manner 10 % or more.
That 10 % positive difference in your product or service will make you the income you want. In marketing use all marketing channels, digital, e, and old-fashioned methods - and as much as possible, add: human service - that always sells.
Samsung Emerges as a Potent Rival
to Apple’s Cool
- for the first time in years, it's hearing footsteps -
Click green for further info
The maker of iPhones, iPads and iPods has never faced a challenger able to make a truly popular and profitable smartphone or tablet — not Dell, not Hewlett-Packard, not Nokia, not BlackBerry — until Samsung Electronics.
The South Korean manufacturer’s Galaxy S III smartphone is the first device to run neck and neck with Apple’s iPhone
in sales. Armed with other Galaxy phones and tablets, Samsung has emerged as a potent challenger to Apple, the top consumer electronics maker. The two companies are the only ones turning profits in the highly competitive mobile phone industry, with Apple taking 72 percent of the earnings and Samsung the rest.
Yet these two rivals, who have battled in the marketplace and in the courts worldwide, could not be more different. Samsung Electronics, a major part of South Korea’s expansive Samsung Group, makes computer chips and flat-panel displays as well as a wide range of consumer products including refrigerators, washers and dryers, cameras, vacuum cleaners, PCs, printers and TVs.
Where Apple stakes its success on creating new markets and dominating them, as it did with the iPhone and iPad, Samsung invests heavily in studying existing markets and innovating inside them.
“We get most of our ideas from the market,” said Kim Hyun-suk, an executive vice president at Samsung, in a conversation about the future of mobile devices and television. “The market is a driver, so we don’t intend to drive the market in a certain direction,” he said.
That’s in stark contrast to the philosophy of Apple’s founder Steven P. Jobs, who rejected the notion of relying on market research. He memorably said that consumers don’t know what they want.
Nearly everything at Samsung, from the way it does research to its manufacturing, is unlike Apple. It taunts Apple in its cheeky advertisements while Apple stays above the fray.
And the Korean manufacturer may even be putting some pressure on Apple’s world-class designers. Before Apple released the iPhone 5, which had a larger screen than earlier models, Samsung had already been selling phones with even bigger displays, like the 5.3-inch screen Galaxy Note, a smartphone so wide that gadget blogs call it a phablet.
Samsung outspends Apple on research and development: $10.5 billion, or 5.7 percent of revenue, compared with $3.4 billion, or 2.2 percent. (Samsung Electronics is slightly bigger than Apple in terms of revenue — $183.5 billion compared with $156.5 billion — but Apple is larger in terms of stock market value.)
Samsung has 60,000 staff members working in 34 research centers across the globe, including, Russia, Britain, India, Japan, Israel, China and Silicon Valley. It polls consumers and buys third-party research reports, but it also embeds employees in countries to study trends or merely to find inspiration for ideas.
Designers of the Galaxy S III say they drew inspiration from trips to Cambodia and Helsinki, a Salvador Dalí art exhibit and even a balloon ride in an African forest. (It employs 1,000 designers with different backgrounds like psychology, sociology, economy management and engineering.)
“The research process is unimaginable,” said Donghoon Chang, an executive vice president of Samsung who leads the company’s design efforts. “We go through all avenues to make sure we read the trends correctly.” He says that when the company researches markets for any particular product, it is also looking at trends in fashion, automobiles and interior design.
Hangil Song, a Samsung product designer, described a visit to the Marina Bay Sands resort in Singapore, where he said he was amazed by the views of the sky, the cityscape and the water. He wanted to create an effect where water was overflowing from the screen. As a result, taps and swipes on the Galaxy S III’s phone screen create a unique ripple effect.
The genesis of the wide Galaxy Note phone reflects that same kind of consumer research. From focus groups and surveys, Samsung found that many respondents wanted a device that was good for handwriting, drawing and sharing notes. Asian-language speakers, in particular, found it easier to write characters on a device using a pen than typing. Those insights led to the Note, a smartphone that comes with a digital pen.
In courts, jury members have said some of Samsung’s research appears to comes closer to copying. Apple sued Samsung in Federal District Court last year for patent infringement and won a $1 billion judgment. One of the most explosive pieces of evidence was a detailed report breaking down each hardware and software feature of the iPhone and how each compared to Samsung phone features. Samsung is fighting the decision in court.
Samsung says studying the market helps it build confidence for the wireless carriers that its mobile devices will sell well. That, in turn, persuades the carriers to aggressively sell Samsung phones and tablets. “That’s kind of the secret sauce,” said Kevin Packingham, chief product officer of Samsung. (Samsung also spends heavily on advertising globally. It outspends Apple and Microsoft.)
Daniel Hesse, Sprint’s chief executive, called Samsung a “terrific partner” because of its willingness to work with the carriers on the creation of phones. For carriers, that could be a refreshing alternative to working with Apple, which completely controls the design of its iPhone’s hardware and software. “They work with the carriers, they want to hear from you what you want, they don’t tell you what it’s going to be. It’s very two-way,” Mr. Hesse said.
Samsung differs in one other important way. It remains a manufacturer, while Apple contracts out the assembly of its devices. Horace H. Dediu, a mobile industry analyst at Asymco, said that historically, it built its business around producing and selling components to other manufacturers, including Apple, Sony and Hewlett-Packard. While Samsung had been making and selling consumer electronics in Korea and developing markets for decades, these relationships taught it a lot about competing with — and beating — the biggest names in the industry. .
By working with so many companies, it gets insight into how to plan investments for successful products. And it can use the same resources to build its own products, Mr. Dediu said. This is why Samsung has long had a reputation of being a “fast follower.”
Apple has been one of Samsung’s largest customers. Samsung’s flash memory processors, graphic chips, solid-state drives and display parts have appeared in Apple’s iPhones, iPads and iPod Touch devices and MacBooks. But for some of its latest mobile products, Apple has been seeking other vendors like Toshiba, Elpida and Sharp to use their components instead.
Having worked closely with Apple and other companies for years, Samsung, which dedicated $21 billion last year — almost twice as much as Apple — for capital expenditures, can easily get a sense of how to plan production and distribution of a successful phone, Mr. Dediu said.
The next battle between Apple and Samsung is expected to be in TVs and wearable computers. Despite being labeled a fast follower, Samsung doesn’t appear to be waiting for Apple to make the first move in smarter TVs. Samsung is offering a box that people can buy to upgrade the speed and software of their Samsung TV, similar to the way they would get software upgrades for their phones.
This year, most of the televisions it is selling are Internet-connected and can run apps that help customers find what to watch. That’s something similar to what Apple watchers have been predicting for years from the Cupertino, Calif., company.
Mr. Dediu said that Samsung had made no serious investment in the “cloud,” where content is stored on remote servers and pulled from people’s devices over the Internet. The cloud could play a more crucial role as mobile products shift away from big screens toward wearable devices, like glasses and wrist devices, he said.
But then, the one thing Samsung may have trouble learning is how exactly Apple is going to swerve next.
Click Stalled Out on Tesla’s Electric Highway
Source: NYT, D ate; 2/10/13
_________________________________________________________________
Kim Hyun-suk, a Samsung executive vice president, says of mobile devices and TV,
“We get most of our ideas from the market”
STAF, Inc.'s comment: Quote from the above 2 lines: “We get most of our ideas from the market” is the key here.
That is the same as copying ideas & solutions. Nothing wrong with it, except you can easily end in costly court fights. However, there is a wise business advice for any field, for any product or any service: Study what is on the market. Select a service or a product you like that is close your interests. Then make it better at least 10 % (or more), put on the market and sell. Making it better includes: better functioning, cheaper price, easier in use, higher service, etc. better.
The public will experience your product as new (perhaps the court will not), when your product is 10 % or more different than the other products. This is how most new products come to the market anyway. This means: there is an endless source for marketable products or services for you when you improve the old product in any manner 10 % or more.
That 10 % positive difference in your product or service will make you the income you want. In marketing use all marketing channels, digital, e, and old-fashioned methods - and as much as possible, add: human service - that always sells.
Samsung Emerges as a Potent Rival
to Apple’s Cool
- for the first time in years, it's hearing footsteps -
Click green for further info
The maker of iPhones, iPads and iPods has never faced a challenger able to make a truly popular and profitable smartphone or tablet — not Dell, not Hewlett-Packard, not Nokia, not BlackBerry — until Samsung Electronics.
The South Korean manufacturer’s Galaxy S III smartphone is the first device to run neck and neck with Apple’s iPhone
in sales. Armed with other Galaxy phones and tablets, Samsung has emerged as a potent challenger to Apple, the top consumer electronics maker. The two companies are the only ones turning profits in the highly competitive mobile phone industry, with Apple taking 72 percent of the earnings and Samsung the rest.
Yet these two rivals, who have battled in the marketplace and in the courts worldwide, could not be more different. Samsung Electronics, a major part of South Korea’s expansive Samsung Group, makes computer chips and flat-panel displays as well as a wide range of consumer products including refrigerators, washers and dryers, cameras, vacuum cleaners, PCs, printers and TVs.
Where Apple stakes its success on creating new markets and dominating them, as it did with the iPhone and iPad, Samsung invests heavily in studying existing markets and innovating inside them.
“We get most of our ideas from the market,” said Kim Hyun-suk, an executive vice president at Samsung, in a conversation about the future of mobile devices and television. “The market is a driver, so we don’t intend to drive the market in a certain direction,” he said.
That’s in stark contrast to the philosophy of Apple’s founder Steven P. Jobs, who rejected the notion of relying on market research. He memorably said that consumers don’t know what they want.
Nearly everything at Samsung, from the way it does research to its manufacturing, is unlike Apple. It taunts Apple in its cheeky advertisements while Apple stays above the fray.
And the Korean manufacturer may even be putting some pressure on Apple’s world-class designers. Before Apple released the iPhone 5, which had a larger screen than earlier models, Samsung had already been selling phones with even bigger displays, like the 5.3-inch screen Galaxy Note, a smartphone so wide that gadget blogs call it a phablet.
Samsung outspends Apple on research and development: $10.5 billion, or 5.7 percent of revenue, compared with $3.4 billion, or 2.2 percent. (Samsung Electronics is slightly bigger than Apple in terms of revenue — $183.5 billion compared with $156.5 billion — but Apple is larger in terms of stock market value.)
Samsung has 60,000 staff members working in 34 research centers across the globe, including, Russia, Britain, India, Japan, Israel, China and Silicon Valley. It polls consumers and buys third-party research reports, but it also embeds employees in countries to study trends or merely to find inspiration for ideas.
Designers of the Galaxy S III say they drew inspiration from trips to Cambodia and Helsinki, a Salvador Dalí art exhibit and even a balloon ride in an African forest. (It employs 1,000 designers with different backgrounds like psychology, sociology, economy management and engineering.)
“The research process is unimaginable,” said Donghoon Chang, an executive vice president of Samsung who leads the company’s design efforts. “We go through all avenues to make sure we read the trends correctly.” He says that when the company researches markets for any particular product, it is also looking at trends in fashion, automobiles and interior design.
Hangil Song, a Samsung product designer, described a visit to the Marina Bay Sands resort in Singapore, where he said he was amazed by the views of the sky, the cityscape and the water. He wanted to create an effect where water was overflowing from the screen. As a result, taps and swipes on the Galaxy S III’s phone screen create a unique ripple effect.
The genesis of the wide Galaxy Note phone reflects that same kind of consumer research. From focus groups and surveys, Samsung found that many respondents wanted a device that was good for handwriting, drawing and sharing notes. Asian-language speakers, in particular, found it easier to write characters on a device using a pen than typing. Those insights led to the Note, a smartphone that comes with a digital pen.
In courts, jury members have said some of Samsung’s research appears to comes closer to copying. Apple sued Samsung in Federal District Court last year for patent infringement and won a $1 billion judgment. One of the most explosive pieces of evidence was a detailed report breaking down each hardware and software feature of the iPhone and how each compared to Samsung phone features. Samsung is fighting the decision in court.
Samsung says studying the market helps it build confidence for the wireless carriers that its mobile devices will sell well. That, in turn, persuades the carriers to aggressively sell Samsung phones and tablets. “That’s kind of the secret sauce,” said Kevin Packingham, chief product officer of Samsung. (Samsung also spends heavily on advertising globally. It outspends Apple and Microsoft.)
Daniel Hesse, Sprint’s chief executive, called Samsung a “terrific partner” because of its willingness to work with the carriers on the creation of phones. For carriers, that could be a refreshing alternative to working with Apple, which completely controls the design of its iPhone’s hardware and software. “They work with the carriers, they want to hear from you what you want, they don’t tell you what it’s going to be. It’s very two-way,” Mr. Hesse said.
Samsung differs in one other important way. It remains a manufacturer, while Apple contracts out the assembly of its devices. Horace H. Dediu, a mobile industry analyst at Asymco, said that historically, it built its business around producing and selling components to other manufacturers, including Apple, Sony and Hewlett-Packard. While Samsung had been making and selling consumer electronics in Korea and developing markets for decades, these relationships taught it a lot about competing with — and beating — the biggest names in the industry. .
By working with so many companies, it gets insight into how to plan investments for successful products. And it can use the same resources to build its own products, Mr. Dediu said. This is why Samsung has long had a reputation of being a “fast follower.”
Apple has been one of Samsung’s largest customers. Samsung’s flash memory processors, graphic chips, solid-state drives and display parts have appeared in Apple’s iPhones, iPads and iPod Touch devices and MacBooks. But for some of its latest mobile products, Apple has been seeking other vendors like Toshiba, Elpida and Sharp to use their components instead.
Having worked closely with Apple and other companies for years, Samsung, which dedicated $21 billion last year — almost twice as much as Apple — for capital expenditures, can easily get a sense of how to plan production and distribution of a successful phone, Mr. Dediu said.
The next battle between Apple and Samsung is expected to be in TVs and wearable computers. Despite being labeled a fast follower, Samsung doesn’t appear to be waiting for Apple to make the first move in smarter TVs. Samsung is offering a box that people can buy to upgrade the speed and software of their Samsung TV, similar to the way they would get software upgrades for their phones.
This year, most of the televisions it is selling are Internet-connected and can run apps that help customers find what to watch. That’s something similar to what Apple watchers have been predicting for years from the Cupertino, Calif., company.
Mr. Dediu said that Samsung had made no serious investment in the “cloud,” where content is stored on remote servers and pulled from people’s devices over the Internet. The cloud could play a more crucial role as mobile products shift away from big screens toward wearable devices, like glasses and wrist devices, he said.
But then, the one thing Samsung may have trouble learning is how exactly Apple is going to swerve next.
Click Stalled Out on Tesla’s Electric Highway
Source: NYT, D ate; 2/10/13
_________________________________________________________________
T-Mobile’s CEO
trashes AT&T’s ‘crap’ service,
analyzes mobile porn consumption
Date: January 2013
Click green for further info
When you’re CEO of America’s No.4 wireless carrier, you can afford to be a little colorful. PerPCMag, T-Mobile CEO John Legere decided to bring some much-needed spice to the Consumer Electronics Show this week by speaking candidly about his company’s rivals and the state of the mobile industry as a whole. Legere said that AT&T’s (T) mobile data service in New York is “crap” before backtracking and saying that he didn’t mean to ”say the network’s crap, it’s just not as good as ours.”
[More from BGR: ‘Apple is done’ and Surface tablet is cool, according to teens]
On Verizon (VZ), Legere praised the company’s “beautiful network” and said that it deserves credit for “the way they covered those dust bowl states with LTE.” However, Legere also dinged Verizon for its decision to go with shared data plans and questioned whether such plans would be economically feasible for both users and carriers going forward.
[More from BGR: Is BlackBerry back? Strong early BlackBerry 10 demand could signal RIM comeback]
“Shared data plans are a thing of the past,” he said. “A 10-gigabyte, 5-device shared data plan, when Joe Schmoe Junior starts to watch porn on his phone, isn’t going to work.”
And finally, Legere defended his company’s decision to ditch smartphone subsidies all together and suggested that people who believe smartphone subsidies save them money are just suckers.
“You are not getting a $99 phone,” he said. “Anyone who thinks they are, come with me into the back.
While you’re handcuffed, they go into your pockets and they take your money.”
Source: This article was originally published on BGR.com
For your private use, only
Can be used for educational purposes
trashes AT&T’s ‘crap’ service,
analyzes mobile porn consumption
Date: January 2013
Click green for further info
When you’re CEO of America’s No.4 wireless carrier, you can afford to be a little colorful. PerPCMag, T-Mobile CEO John Legere decided to bring some much-needed spice to the Consumer Electronics Show this week by speaking candidly about his company’s rivals and the state of the mobile industry as a whole. Legere said that AT&T’s (T) mobile data service in New York is “crap” before backtracking and saying that he didn’t mean to ”say the network’s crap, it’s just not as good as ours.”
[More from BGR: ‘Apple is done’ and Surface tablet is cool, according to teens]
On Verizon (VZ), Legere praised the company’s “beautiful network” and said that it deserves credit for “the way they covered those dust bowl states with LTE.” However, Legere also dinged Verizon for its decision to go with shared data plans and questioned whether such plans would be economically feasible for both users and carriers going forward.
[More from BGR: Is BlackBerry back? Strong early BlackBerry 10 demand could signal RIM comeback]
“Shared data plans are a thing of the past,” he said. “A 10-gigabyte, 5-device shared data plan, when Joe Schmoe Junior starts to watch porn on his phone, isn’t going to work.”
And finally, Legere defended his company’s decision to ditch smartphone subsidies all together and suggested that people who believe smartphone subsidies save them money are just suckers.
“You are not getting a $99 phone,” he said. “Anyone who thinks they are, come with me into the back.
While you’re handcuffed, they go into your pockets and they take your money.”
Source: This article was originally published on BGR.com
For your private use, only
Can be used for educational purposes
- _______________________________________________________
Cracking Your PIN Code: Easy as 1-2-3-4
Yahoo! editors have selected this article as a favorite of the year
It first appeared on Yahoo! Finance in September and was one of the most popular stories of the month. Readers joked about people who use the most common PIN codes, and shared how they came up with their own. "My pin number is my post office box number from my time in the Air Force 30 years ago on a base that no longer exists," wrote user Nick. "Feel free to hack that."
Click green for further info
If you lost your ATM card on the street, how easy would it be for someone to correctly guess your PIN and proceed to clean out your savings account? Quite easy, according to data scientist Nick Berry, founder of Data Genetics, a Seattle technology consultancy.
Berry analyzed passwords from previously released and exposed tables and security breaches, filtering the results to just those that were exactly four digits long [0-9]. There are 10,000 possible combinations that the digits 0-9 can be arranged into to form a four-digit code. Berry analyzed those to find which are the least and most predictable. He speculates that, if users select a four-digit password for an online account or other web site, it's not a stretch to use the same number for their four-digit bank PIN codes.
What he found, he says, was a "staggering lack of imagination" when it comes to selecting passwords. Nearly 11% of the 3.4 million four-digit passwords he analyzed were 1234. The second most popular PIN in is 1111 (6% of passwords), followed by 0000 (2%).
Last year SplashData compiled a
click green list of the most common numerical and word-based passwords
and found that "password" and "123456" topped the list
Berry says a whopping 26.83% of all passwords could be guessed by attempting just 20 combinations of four-digit numbers (see first table). "It's amazing how predictable people are," he says.
We don't like hard-to-remember numbers and "no one thinks their wallet will get stolen," Berry says.
Days, Months, Years
Many of the commonly used passwords are, of course, dates: birthdays, anniversaries, year of birth, etc. Indeed, using a year, starting with 19__, helps people remember their code, but it also increases its predictability, Berry says. His analysis shows that every single 19__ combination be found in the top 20% of the dataset.
"People use years, date of birth — it's a monumentally stupid thing to do because, if you lose your wallet, your driver's license is in there. If someone finds it, they've got the date of birth on there. At least use a parent's date of birth [as a password]," says Berry.
Somewhat intriguing was #22 on the most common password list: 2580. It seems random, but if you look at a telephone keypad (or ATM keypad), you'll see those numbers are straight down the middle — yet another sign that we're uncreative and lazy password makers.
The Least Predictable Password
The least-used PIN is 8068, Berry found, with just 25 occurrences in the 3.4 million set, which equates to 0.000744%. (See the second table for the least popular passwords.) Why this set of numbers? Berry guesses, "It's not a repeating pattern, it's not a birthday, it's not the year Columbus discovered America, it's not 1776." At a certain point, these numbers at the bottom of the list are all kind of "the lowest of the low, they're all noise," he says.
A few other interesting tidbits from Berry:
-The most popular PIN code (1234) is used more than the lowest 4,200 codes combined.
- People have even less imagination in choosing five-digit passwords — 28% use 12345.
- The fourth most popular seven-digit password is 8675309, inspired by the Tommy Tutone song.
-People love using couplets for their PINs: 4545, 1313, etc. And for some reason, they don't like using pairs of numbers that have larger numerical gaps between them. Combinations like 45 and 67 occur much more frequently than 29 and 37.
- The 17th most common 10-digit password is 3141592654 (for those of you who are not math nerds, those are the first digits of Pi).
Click green for further info
________________________________________________
Hidden Powers of Your Mouse
Useful mouse tricks you never knew about
Even if you click daily, you probably don't use commands like Alt + left-click
Click green for further info
Related linksYou use your mouse for just about everything: you drag, you drop, you highlight, you scroll. But even if you click your mouse a thousand times a day, I bet I've got a few secret mouse tricks you've never heard of.
Click Tricks
You surely know that double clicking highlights a word, and you might even know that triple clicking highlights a paragraph. But have you ever wanted to select a column of text in a Word document, without getting all the text to the left and right of it? Here's how you can: Hold down the alt and left mouse button (on a Mac, option-left mouse), and drag the cursor over the section you want to select. The coolest thing about this trick is that the text you are selecting does not even need to be formatted as a column for this to work.
[Related: 8 Microsoft Word Shortcuts You Probably Don't Know]
Scroll Tricks
Most mice have a scroll wheel. Sure, it takes you up and down on a page, but in combination with other keys, it can do much more:
- Scroll sideways: In many versions of Excel, holding down the shift key while scrolling will take you sideways. That's super helpful in a big spreadsheet.
- Scroll wheel as back button: In most web browsers, if you hold the shift key while using the scroll wheel, it works like the back button: You can fly through all the sites you've recently visited. (Some mice have side buttons that work like back and forward buttons in your browser, too.)
- Scroll to zoom: Holding ctrl and scrolling lets you zoom in or out of the page you're viewing. Ctrl-scroll up zooms you in; ctrl-scroll down zooms you back out. On a Mac, this trick will zoom in and out your whole screen, not just the document you're in.
While most of the tricks I've listed so far work in either Windows or Mac OS, here are a few that are specific to Windows machines:
- To maximize a window: drag the title bar to the top.
- To minimize all windows except the active window: "Shake" the title bar. Then if you want to restore all the windows you just minimized with this shortcut, just click again on the title bar of the window in view.
- To view two windows in a 50-50 split: Drag the title bar of one document to the left edge of your screen, then drag a second document to the right edge; they will snap into position in a nifty side-by-side view.
Suppose you want to walk away from your hyper-secure work computer for a few minutes and not have to re-log in when you get back. Sure, you could change the sleep settings, but this idea is much more clever: Set your mouse on top of your analog watch or a clock. The mouse tracks the second hand's movement and it tricks your computer into thinking you're still busy working. Of course, there are valid security reasons for NOT using this trick, but I still think it's cool that it works.
Did we miss your favorite mouse trick? Like us on Facebook, and share your secret there.
[Related: How to Speed Up Your Internet Browsing]
Click green for further info
This article is for your private use, only
Can be used for educational purposes
________________________________________________________
CARS - CARS - CARS
CARS
CARS - CARS - CARS ___________________
CARS
CARS - CARS - CARS ___________________
Five things to know about gas mileage to save you money
2014 models
To save yourself money, compare the real-world results for cars you're considering to their EPA ratings on both Fuelly and the "Our Users' Average MPG" link for each model on the EPA's FuelEconomy.gov site.
Fuel economy link at the end of this article
Click green for further info
Gas mileage has gotten far more important in new-car choices over the last 10 years, and that's not likely to change. But not everyone really understands automobile efficiency--or how to maximize their mileage--and which tactics will really save them money.
Here's our cheat sheet (= list of facts) (STAF Inc. gives vocabulary info to speakers of English as a 2nd language) = a piece of paper bearing written notes intended to aid one's memory, typically one used surreptitiously (= secretly) for cheating in an examination.
1) Your driving style matters (and so does your highway speed).
You know how they say "Your mileage may vary"? The way you drive is one of the major variants.
If you want to save money on gas, drive as if there's an egg between your foot and the accelerator pedal: Accelerate gently and smoothly, and look several cars ahead so that if you're going to need to slow down, you can lift off and let your car coast up to a light or stop sign.
Man clocks fastest speeding offence in UK historyMan clocks fastest speeding offence in UK history
Any time you have to brake, you've wasted more gas than if your car rolls up to the stop sign and ends up stopping right at the line of its own accord.
Stay safe and be very mindful of surrounding traffic when you drive this way, though--there are a whole lot of impatient, aggressive drivers out there.
Once you nail the smooth driving, focus on your highway speed. The energy required to push a car through air resistance rises almost exponentially above about 45 mph--so going from 60 to 75 mph costs you a lot more than the "same" 15-mph increase from 45 to 60 mph.
Try driving the speed limit on highways for a week--instead of 12 mph over--and see how much gas money you'll save. You may be surprised. Just remember: Do it in the right-hand lane, not the fast lane!
2) Improving a low number saves more gas (and money) than improving a high number.
It saves way more gas money to improve a car from 10 to 20 miles per gallon than it does to go from 33 to 50 mpg.
But most Americans surveyed think the opposite is true; they get gas mileage exactly backwards.
While a 50-mpg Toyota Prius hybrid will give you great bragging rights, if you move up from a 33-mpg compact car, you're only saving 1 gallon every 100 miles.
If you can replace your old 10-mpg truck with a new 20-mpg pickup, you'll save 10 gallons every 100 miles. You do the math on that one.
3) Any new car gets better gas mileage than the same car 10 years ago.
After years of stagnation, new corporate average fuel-economy regulations came into effect a few years ago.
For the next 11 years, the average gas mileage of new vehicles sold in the U.S. must rise each year--to an average of 54.5 mpg in 2025, which translates to about 42 mpg on the window sticker.
That's well below what the current 2013 Toyota Prius achieves, never mind the more efficient model coming in 2015, but it applies across all vehicles--including those pickup trucks.
And it's working, too: The average gas mileage of new cars sold has never been higher.
Take the mid-size Chevrolet Malibu sedan, for instance.
In 2004, the best combined gas-mileage rating for any model of Malibu was 25 mpg. Now, the highest-rated 2014 Chevrolet Malibu gets 29 mpg--with or without the Eco mild-hybrid option.
And gas-mileage ratings for pretty much all new vehicles will continue to go slightly higher every year for the next decade.
That means that every new car you buy in the future will be more fuel-efficient than a similar car today (not to mention safer and most likely with more standard features).
(4) EPA ratings and real-world results are two different things.
Your mileage may vary, and it usually does. But the differences between EPA-rated gas mileage and real-world results varies a lot across manufacturers.
Comparing real-world mileage for Ford, Honda, and Toyota cars, we found Honda to do better than its EPA combined ratings, Toyota to be slightly lower--and Ford to be significantly worse in its latest 2013 hybrids and EcoBoost models.
To save yourself money, compare the real-world results for cars you're considering to their EPA ratings on both Fuelly and the "Our Users' Average MPG" link for each model on the EPA's FuelEconomy.gov site.
If a car you're thinking of buying is delivering real-world mileage that's 20 percent lower than its EPA combined rating, that's another 25 percent added to your fuel costs each year.
At 15,000 miles a year, if a car is rated at 30 mpg combined but only gets 24 mpg (using $4-per-gallon gasoline), that's an extra $1,000 you'll pay every two years.
5) Plug-in electric cars are much, much cheaper to run per mile.
Do you know what you pay per kilowatt-hour? Most people don't, but the U.S. average is around 12 cents.
Most plug-in electric cars get 3 to 4 miles per kWh, depending on speed and driving style, when they're running all-electric.
So driving 100 miles on grid electricity might cost you around $4--whereas in a 25-mpg car using $4-per-gallon gasoline, that would cost you $16.
See the advantage?
Sure, plug-in cars are pricier today--but they're way cheaper to run. Do the math for yourself, and see if you could save enough gasoline to offset the higher price.
It doesn't work for many people today, but it does for some--especially if they have workplace charging as well as overnight charging at home.
Electric cars are also nicer to drive, most owners say.
The costs of electric cars will fall over the next decade and beyond, meaning that you should at least consider an electric alternative each time you buy a new car.
Click: Fuel Economywww.fueleconomy.gov/www.fueleconomy.gov - the official government source for fuel economy ... About EPARatings ... Advertise its fuel economy with our Used Car Label tool.
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Article Source: click: High Gear Mediawww.highgearmedia.com/
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Article 1 of 2 (Article 2 of 2 next below)
The Most Egregious States For Speeding Tickets In The US
egregious = outstandingly bad; shocking; outrageous
Click green for further info
I’ve lived in Massachusetts for most of my life. I racked up a handful of minor traffic violations here over the last 25 years, but when I moved to Vermont, I seemed to be getting popped for violations once every couple of months. It was a combination of driving more during odd hours, and a lot of cops with nothing better to do. Those factors influence what state you’re likely to get a ticket in, too, and how expensive it’s likely to be.
Most Expensive First Offense: (Tie) Georgia, Illinois, North Carolina, Nevada and New Hampshire
These five states all hold drivers liable for a fine of up to $1,000 for a first offense. The fine is up to a judge’s discretion and can be based on how many miles per hour you’re ticketed over the designated speed limit, or if you were caught speeding in a work or a school zone, both of which tend to double a fine. In addition to the fine, you can spend up to a year in jail. Granted, speeding in a work zone is bad for everyone concerned, but a few moments of inattention resulting in a $1,000 fine? What’s the first offense for a weapons violation in those states?
Most Expensive State to Fight a Ticket: Massachusetts
Back in 2005, Vincent Gillespie got a $15 parking ticket in Northampton, Massachusetts, a bucolic community in the Connecticut River Valley in Central Massachusetts. In order to fight the ticket, Gillespie had to pay $319.90 in filing fees with the Hampshire County Superior Court, which was non-refundable whether he won his case or not. His case went to the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial court, where Gillespie’s lawyers argued that the fees effectively negated his constitutional right to due process. In its ruling, the SJC noted that the plaintiffs hadn’t met the burden of proof that the laws weren’t in keeping with the state constitution, and that the fee system serves the purpose of discouraging “the filing of nonmeritorious appeals,” thus conserving scarce judicial resources.
Click: Study Shows That Police Are Scanning Our License Plates, Keeping Records
Sneakiest Speed Traps in America: Vermont
Mt. Tabor is a one-horse dot on Route 7a in western Vermont that doesn’t even have a traffic light. What it does have is a speed limit sign that drops to 40 mph, and you will get rung up by its zealous constable, a guy who drives a Camaro and gets paid by the number of tickets he writes. And he’s not alone. One constable in the village of Island Pond made national news by writing 1,100 tickets, with fines totaling $100,000 – a tenth of the entire revenue of the town that year.
Most Unmarked State Police Cars: Connecticut
In all my years driving in New England, I’ve never seen a fully marked Connecticut State Police car. That’s because only one is assigned to every troop. Apparently, they’re white with yellow and blue markings. Most Connecticut State Police cars are silver, with a pushbar up front and a low-profile lightbar on the roof, which carries the only “State Police” marking on the car. Connecticut’s also been notorious for using Camaros, Mustangs, Grand Nationals and other non-traditional cars as unmarked patrol cars on the state’s highways.
Most Tickets Written: Washington, DC
Ohio residents will be surprised that it’s Washington, DC (yeah, not technically a “state,” but whatever) that writes the mostspeeding tickets. With just over half a million residents, DC’s Finest writes more than 430,000 tickets a year. It beats out the next state in the top ten – Wyoming – by a factor of ten. Save your money. Visit some other place.
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Source: By Craig Fitzgerald | Boldride (Article 2 of 2 next below)
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Article 2 of 2 (Article 1 of 2 next above)
Foreword
HOW TO AVOID A SPEEDING TICKET
by Dr. Christian von Christophers, Ph.D. , N.D., STAF, Inc. CEO
I apologize if this "preaching" feels naive - but: too many of us make these life-destroying mistakes.
The best policy for all of us is to decide that we will not take wrong, illegal actions leading to a ruined life.
This article is placed here to remind that the best policy is always to be honest and tell only the truth to the police officer when you are stopped because you have been speeding. Based on research, honesty is the best way to avoid a ticket, save money and avoid points to your driving licence. When telling the truth the officer will feel, see and, based on his/her experience, recognize your true remorse & honesty - that is the best way to positively influence any human being and with a good chance getting away from a ticket just by a warning.
Telling lies leads no where but to additional misery. The story below will show it to you.
AND: (1) never drive when you have been drinking or are otherwise under influence of any substance,
(2) never drive an unregistered car, (3) never drive without a valid insurance and (4) never drive without a valid driving licence. Those lead you to be arrested and may put you behind the prison bars with a criminal record.
____________
First a few comments from the public showing (1) the best way and then the article will show (2) the worst way.
Avoid ruining your life - a criminal record can affect your employment and other good life options
____________
Five opinions from the public (then below the opinions the article)
(1) What is wrong with people. I've gotten pulled over 3 times in the last 4 years. Each time I told the officer exactly the truth - as well in regards to speeding. Each time I was released with a warning. No tickets, no hassles, no chop breaking. Just honest truth.
(2) I got stopped last month doing 85ish in a 65. I live in CA and CHP does not like speeders very much. I also happened to be on my R1(sportbike) and the CHP does not like them either. I was in uniform on my way to work. Alot of military use their service as a "get out of jail free" deal to avoid tickets. I produced all of the information the officer requested and when he asked if I knew why I was pulled over, I told him "Yes sir. I was speeding and I am sorry." He asked if I was in an hurry and I told him no that I just was not paying attention to my speed. I was left off with a warning. He informed me that my honesty was what prompted his decision. I OWNED my mistake and took responsibility for my actions. I was raised that way, old fashioned. I am also 34, so not some grumpy old man who complains about the youth of the nation. I just hate liars and "it is not my fault" excuses.
(3) Good to see a story where the police officer isn't being bagged on. Can't believe someone would use a lie like that, but then again in today's society, it isn't very surprising.
(4) Some people are disgusting and have no shame. Good for the officer and glad he didn't get suspended or something for doing his job and the right thing.
(5) This 5th opinion is a JOKE - not a way to go
The top 20 things not to say to a cop when he pulls you over.
20. I can't reach my license unless you hold my beer.
19. Sorry officer, I didn't realize my radar detector wasn't plugged in.
18. Aren't you the guy from the village people?
17. Hey, you must have been doing 125 to keep up with me, good job.
16. I thought you had to be in relatively good physical shape to be a police officer.
15. I was going to be a cop, but I decided to finish high school instead.
14. Bad cop. No donut.
13. You're not going to check the trunk, are you?
12. Gee, that gut sure doesn't inspire confidence.
11. Didn't I see you get your butt kicked on Cops?
10. Is it true that people become cops because they are too dumb to work at McDonalds?
9. I pay your salary
8. So uh, you on the take or what?
7. Gee officer, that's terrific. The last officer only gave me a warning.
6. Do you know why you pulled me over? Okay, just so one of us does.
5. I was trying to keep up with traffic. Yes, I know there are no other cars around, that's how far they are ahead of me.
4. What do you mean have I been drinking? You are the trained specialist.
3. Well, when I reached down to pick up my bag of crack, my gun fell off of my lap and got lodged between the brake and the gas pedal, forcing me to speed out of control.
2. Hey, is that a 9mm? That's nothing compared to this 44 magnum.
1. Hey, can you give me another one of those full cavity searches?
This 5th & the last opinion is a JOKE - not a way to go
The article
Cop 'Upset'
By Speeding Woman's Dying Dad Lie, Arrests Her
A New Hampshire cop was so miffed when he discovered an "emotional" woman had lied to him about speeding in her car to get to her dying father that he later went to the woman's house and arrested her for driving with a suspended registration.
"I'm pretty used to people trying to bend the truth to get out of speeding citations, but this woman preyed on my emotions as a human being," Christopher J. Cummings, the state trooper who made the arrest, told ABC News today.
"She told me her father had stage four cancer, that he was breathing only six breaths a minute, and that she was trying to make it to the hospital before he passed," Cummings said.
Cummings pulled over Carley Williams, 28, of Nashua, N.H., on Friday night for speeding, he said.
"I was parked along the turnpike with my radar unit when I saw the vehicle travelling 82 mph in a 65 mph zone," Cummings said. "I took her driver's license and asked a question that I ask everyone I pull over. I asked if there was an emergency."
That is when Williams told her elaborate lie, the trooper said.
"There was a good act that went along with it," Cummings said. "She seemed pretty emotional. It made me believe that this person was legitimately telling me the truth."
After taking down Williams' information, Cummings returned her license and allowed her to go on, but not before he asked for the name of her father and the hospital.
"She was cooperative. I told her to please slow down and allowed her to continue," Cummings said.
Still, Cummings felt the need to verify Williams' story.
"I called the hospital where Williams told me her father was a patient and asked if he was there. They told me he wasn't."
Surprised, Cummings decided to conduct an online search of Williams' name along with her father's name.
"That is when I found her father's obituary on a funeral home website. He died in 2008," he said.
"I was upset," Cummings said, "For someone to lie about their deceased father just to get out of a speeding ticket was pretty upsetting to me as a person."
After further investigation, Cummings discovered that Williams had allegedly been driving with a suspended car registration. He could not tell ABC News why her registration was suspended.
"Driving with a suspended registration is a misdemeanor in New Hampshire," Cummings said. "For that reason she had to be arrested."
"This wasn't personal, it was a matter of law. The violation happened in my presence, so I made the arrest," he said.
On Sunday, Cummings went to Williams' home in Nashua and he brought a copy of her father's obituary.
"She came out of her house, looking bewildered, and I told her I wanted her to explain something," Cummings said. "She looked at the obituary I had and immediately said it wasn't for her father but that it was for her uncle."
Cummings arrested Williams for driving with a suspended registration and brought her into the Nashua police department.
"That's where she ultimately confessed," he said.
Williams, who was released from jail Sunday, did not respond to repeated requests for comment. It is unclear if she has an attorney.
Source: Internet news
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2014 models
To save yourself money, compare the real-world results for cars you're considering to their EPA ratings on both Fuelly and the "Our Users' Average MPG" link for each model on the EPA's FuelEconomy.gov site.
Fuel economy link at the end of this article
Click green for further info
Gas mileage has gotten far more important in new-car choices over the last 10 years, and that's not likely to change. But not everyone really understands automobile efficiency--or how to maximize their mileage--and which tactics will really save them money.
Here's our cheat sheet (= list of facts) (STAF Inc. gives vocabulary info to speakers of English as a 2nd language) = a piece of paper bearing written notes intended to aid one's memory, typically one used surreptitiously (= secretly) for cheating in an examination.
1) Your driving style matters (and so does your highway speed).
You know how they say "Your mileage may vary"? The way you drive is one of the major variants.
If you want to save money on gas, drive as if there's an egg between your foot and the accelerator pedal: Accelerate gently and smoothly, and look several cars ahead so that if you're going to need to slow down, you can lift off and let your car coast up to a light or stop sign.
Man clocks fastest speeding offence in UK historyMan clocks fastest speeding offence in UK history
Any time you have to brake, you've wasted more gas than if your car rolls up to the stop sign and ends up stopping right at the line of its own accord.
Stay safe and be very mindful of surrounding traffic when you drive this way, though--there are a whole lot of impatient, aggressive drivers out there.
Once you nail the smooth driving, focus on your highway speed. The energy required to push a car through air resistance rises almost exponentially above about 45 mph--so going from 60 to 75 mph costs you a lot more than the "same" 15-mph increase from 45 to 60 mph.
Try driving the speed limit on highways for a week--instead of 12 mph over--and see how much gas money you'll save. You may be surprised. Just remember: Do it in the right-hand lane, not the fast lane!
2) Improving a low number saves more gas (and money) than improving a high number.
It saves way more gas money to improve a car from 10 to 20 miles per gallon than it does to go from 33 to 50 mpg.
But most Americans surveyed think the opposite is true; they get gas mileage exactly backwards.
While a 50-mpg Toyota Prius hybrid will give you great bragging rights, if you move up from a 33-mpg compact car, you're only saving 1 gallon every 100 miles.
If you can replace your old 10-mpg truck with a new 20-mpg pickup, you'll save 10 gallons every 100 miles. You do the math on that one.
3) Any new car gets better gas mileage than the same car 10 years ago.
After years of stagnation, new corporate average fuel-economy regulations came into effect a few years ago.
For the next 11 years, the average gas mileage of new vehicles sold in the U.S. must rise each year--to an average of 54.5 mpg in 2025, which translates to about 42 mpg on the window sticker.
That's well below what the current 2013 Toyota Prius achieves, never mind the more efficient model coming in 2015, but it applies across all vehicles--including those pickup trucks.
And it's working, too: The average gas mileage of new cars sold has never been higher.
Take the mid-size Chevrolet Malibu sedan, for instance.
In 2004, the best combined gas-mileage rating for any model of Malibu was 25 mpg. Now, the highest-rated 2014 Chevrolet Malibu gets 29 mpg--with or without the Eco mild-hybrid option.
And gas-mileage ratings for pretty much all new vehicles will continue to go slightly higher every year for the next decade.
That means that every new car you buy in the future will be more fuel-efficient than a similar car today (not to mention safer and most likely with more standard features).
(4) EPA ratings and real-world results are two different things.
Your mileage may vary, and it usually does. But the differences between EPA-rated gas mileage and real-world results varies a lot across manufacturers.
Comparing real-world mileage for Ford, Honda, and Toyota cars, we found Honda to do better than its EPA combined ratings, Toyota to be slightly lower--and Ford to be significantly worse in its latest 2013 hybrids and EcoBoost models.
To save yourself money, compare the real-world results for cars you're considering to their EPA ratings on both Fuelly and the "Our Users' Average MPG" link for each model on the EPA's FuelEconomy.gov site.
If a car you're thinking of buying is delivering real-world mileage that's 20 percent lower than its EPA combined rating, that's another 25 percent added to your fuel costs each year.
At 15,000 miles a year, if a car is rated at 30 mpg combined but only gets 24 mpg (using $4-per-gallon gasoline), that's an extra $1,000 you'll pay every two years.
5) Plug-in electric cars are much, much cheaper to run per mile.
Do you know what you pay per kilowatt-hour? Most people don't, but the U.S. average is around 12 cents.
Most plug-in electric cars get 3 to 4 miles per kWh, depending on speed and driving style, when they're running all-electric.
So driving 100 miles on grid electricity might cost you around $4--whereas in a 25-mpg car using $4-per-gallon gasoline, that would cost you $16.
See the advantage?
Sure, plug-in cars are pricier today--but they're way cheaper to run. Do the math for yourself, and see if you could save enough gasoline to offset the higher price.
It doesn't work for many people today, but it does for some--especially if they have workplace charging as well as overnight charging at home.
Electric cars are also nicer to drive, most owners say.
The costs of electric cars will fall over the next decade and beyond, meaning that you should at least consider an electric alternative each time you buy a new car.
Click: Fuel Economywww.fueleconomy.gov/www.fueleconomy.gov - the official government source for fuel economy ... About EPARatings ... Advertise its fuel economy with our Used Car Label tool.
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Article Source: click: High Gear Mediawww.highgearmedia.com/
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Article 1 of 2 (Article 2 of 2 next below)
The Most Egregious States For Speeding Tickets In The US
egregious = outstandingly bad; shocking; outrageous
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I’ve lived in Massachusetts for most of my life. I racked up a handful of minor traffic violations here over the last 25 years, but when I moved to Vermont, I seemed to be getting popped for violations once every couple of months. It was a combination of driving more during odd hours, and a lot of cops with nothing better to do. Those factors influence what state you’re likely to get a ticket in, too, and how expensive it’s likely to be.
Most Expensive First Offense: (Tie) Georgia, Illinois, North Carolina, Nevada and New Hampshire
These five states all hold drivers liable for a fine of up to $1,000 for a first offense. The fine is up to a judge’s discretion and can be based on how many miles per hour you’re ticketed over the designated speed limit, or if you were caught speeding in a work or a school zone, both of which tend to double a fine. In addition to the fine, you can spend up to a year in jail. Granted, speeding in a work zone is bad for everyone concerned, but a few moments of inattention resulting in a $1,000 fine? What’s the first offense for a weapons violation in those states?
Most Expensive State to Fight a Ticket: Massachusetts
Back in 2005, Vincent Gillespie got a $15 parking ticket in Northampton, Massachusetts, a bucolic community in the Connecticut River Valley in Central Massachusetts. In order to fight the ticket, Gillespie had to pay $319.90 in filing fees with the Hampshire County Superior Court, which was non-refundable whether he won his case or not. His case went to the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial court, where Gillespie’s lawyers argued that the fees effectively negated his constitutional right to due process. In its ruling, the SJC noted that the plaintiffs hadn’t met the burden of proof that the laws weren’t in keeping with the state constitution, and that the fee system serves the purpose of discouraging “the filing of nonmeritorious appeals,” thus conserving scarce judicial resources.
Click: Study Shows That Police Are Scanning Our License Plates, Keeping Records
Sneakiest Speed Traps in America: Vermont
Mt. Tabor is a one-horse dot on Route 7a in western Vermont that doesn’t even have a traffic light. What it does have is a speed limit sign that drops to 40 mph, and you will get rung up by its zealous constable, a guy who drives a Camaro and gets paid by the number of tickets he writes. And he’s not alone. One constable in the village of Island Pond made national news by writing 1,100 tickets, with fines totaling $100,000 – a tenth of the entire revenue of the town that year.
Most Unmarked State Police Cars: Connecticut
In all my years driving in New England, I’ve never seen a fully marked Connecticut State Police car. That’s because only one is assigned to every troop. Apparently, they’re white with yellow and blue markings. Most Connecticut State Police cars are silver, with a pushbar up front and a low-profile lightbar on the roof, which carries the only “State Police” marking on the car. Connecticut’s also been notorious for using Camaros, Mustangs, Grand Nationals and other non-traditional cars as unmarked patrol cars on the state’s highways.
Most Tickets Written: Washington, DC
Ohio residents will be surprised that it’s Washington, DC (yeah, not technically a “state,” but whatever) that writes the mostspeeding tickets. With just over half a million residents, DC’s Finest writes more than 430,000 tickets a year. It beats out the next state in the top ten – Wyoming – by a factor of ten. Save your money. Visit some other place.
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Source: By Craig Fitzgerald | Boldride (Article 2 of 2 next below)
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Article 2 of 2 (Article 1 of 2 next above)
Foreword
HOW TO AVOID A SPEEDING TICKET
by Dr. Christian von Christophers, Ph.D. , N.D., STAF, Inc. CEO
I apologize if this "preaching" feels naive - but: too many of us make these life-destroying mistakes.
The best policy for all of us is to decide that we will not take wrong, illegal actions leading to a ruined life.
This article is placed here to remind that the best policy is always to be honest and tell only the truth to the police officer when you are stopped because you have been speeding. Based on research, honesty is the best way to avoid a ticket, save money and avoid points to your driving licence. When telling the truth the officer will feel, see and, based on his/her experience, recognize your true remorse & honesty - that is the best way to positively influence any human being and with a good chance getting away from a ticket just by a warning.
Telling lies leads no where but to additional misery. The story below will show it to you.
AND: (1) never drive when you have been drinking or are otherwise under influence of any substance,
(2) never drive an unregistered car, (3) never drive without a valid insurance and (4) never drive without a valid driving licence. Those lead you to be arrested and may put you behind the prison bars with a criminal record.
____________
First a few comments from the public showing (1) the best way and then the article will show (2) the worst way.
Avoid ruining your life - a criminal record can affect your employment and other good life options
____________
Five opinions from the public (then below the opinions the article)
(1) What is wrong with people. I've gotten pulled over 3 times in the last 4 years. Each time I told the officer exactly the truth - as well in regards to speeding. Each time I was released with a warning. No tickets, no hassles, no chop breaking. Just honest truth.
(2) I got stopped last month doing 85ish in a 65. I live in CA and CHP does not like speeders very much. I also happened to be on my R1(sportbike) and the CHP does not like them either. I was in uniform on my way to work. Alot of military use their service as a "get out of jail free" deal to avoid tickets. I produced all of the information the officer requested and when he asked if I knew why I was pulled over, I told him "Yes sir. I was speeding and I am sorry." He asked if I was in an hurry and I told him no that I just was not paying attention to my speed. I was left off with a warning. He informed me that my honesty was what prompted his decision. I OWNED my mistake and took responsibility for my actions. I was raised that way, old fashioned. I am also 34, so not some grumpy old man who complains about the youth of the nation. I just hate liars and "it is not my fault" excuses.
(3) Good to see a story where the police officer isn't being bagged on. Can't believe someone would use a lie like that, but then again in today's society, it isn't very surprising.
(4) Some people are disgusting and have no shame. Good for the officer and glad he didn't get suspended or something for doing his job and the right thing.
(5) This 5th opinion is a JOKE - not a way to go
The top 20 things not to say to a cop when he pulls you over.
20. I can't reach my license unless you hold my beer.
19. Sorry officer, I didn't realize my radar detector wasn't plugged in.
18. Aren't you the guy from the village people?
17. Hey, you must have been doing 125 to keep up with me, good job.
16. I thought you had to be in relatively good physical shape to be a police officer.
15. I was going to be a cop, but I decided to finish high school instead.
14. Bad cop. No donut.
13. You're not going to check the trunk, are you?
12. Gee, that gut sure doesn't inspire confidence.
11. Didn't I see you get your butt kicked on Cops?
10. Is it true that people become cops because they are too dumb to work at McDonalds?
9. I pay your salary
8. So uh, you on the take or what?
7. Gee officer, that's terrific. The last officer only gave me a warning.
6. Do you know why you pulled me over? Okay, just so one of us does.
5. I was trying to keep up with traffic. Yes, I know there are no other cars around, that's how far they are ahead of me.
4. What do you mean have I been drinking? You are the trained specialist.
3. Well, when I reached down to pick up my bag of crack, my gun fell off of my lap and got lodged between the brake and the gas pedal, forcing me to speed out of control.
2. Hey, is that a 9mm? That's nothing compared to this 44 magnum.
1. Hey, can you give me another one of those full cavity searches?
This 5th & the last opinion is a JOKE - not a way to go
The article
Cop 'Upset'
By Speeding Woman's Dying Dad Lie, Arrests Her
A New Hampshire cop was so miffed when he discovered an "emotional" woman had lied to him about speeding in her car to get to her dying father that he later went to the woman's house and arrested her for driving with a suspended registration.
"I'm pretty used to people trying to bend the truth to get out of speeding citations, but this woman preyed on my emotions as a human being," Christopher J. Cummings, the state trooper who made the arrest, told ABC News today.
"She told me her father had stage four cancer, that he was breathing only six breaths a minute, and that she was trying to make it to the hospital before he passed," Cummings said.
Cummings pulled over Carley Williams, 28, of Nashua, N.H., on Friday night for speeding, he said.
"I was parked along the turnpike with my radar unit when I saw the vehicle travelling 82 mph in a 65 mph zone," Cummings said. "I took her driver's license and asked a question that I ask everyone I pull over. I asked if there was an emergency."
That is when Williams told her elaborate lie, the trooper said.
"There was a good act that went along with it," Cummings said. "She seemed pretty emotional. It made me believe that this person was legitimately telling me the truth."
After taking down Williams' information, Cummings returned her license and allowed her to go on, but not before he asked for the name of her father and the hospital.
"She was cooperative. I told her to please slow down and allowed her to continue," Cummings said.
Still, Cummings felt the need to verify Williams' story.
"I called the hospital where Williams told me her father was a patient and asked if he was there. They told me he wasn't."
Surprised, Cummings decided to conduct an online search of Williams' name along with her father's name.
"That is when I found her father's obituary on a funeral home website. He died in 2008," he said.
"I was upset," Cummings said, "For someone to lie about their deceased father just to get out of a speeding ticket was pretty upsetting to me as a person."
After further investigation, Cummings discovered that Williams had allegedly been driving with a suspended car registration. He could not tell ABC News why her registration was suspended.
"Driving with a suspended registration is a misdemeanor in New Hampshire," Cummings said. "For that reason she had to be arrested."
"This wasn't personal, it was a matter of law. The violation happened in my presence, so I made the arrest," he said.
On Sunday, Cummings went to Williams' home in Nashua and he brought a copy of her father's obituary.
"She came out of her house, looking bewildered, and I told her I wanted her to explain something," Cummings said. "She looked at the obituary I had and immediately said it wasn't for her father but that it was for her uncle."
Cummings arrested Williams for driving with a suspended registration and brought her into the Nashua police department.
"That's where she ultimately confessed," he said.
Williams, who was released from jail Sunday, did not respond to repeated requests for comment. It is unclear if she has an attorney.
Source: Internet news
____________________________________________
Apply this: a-must-to-know info
5 Things Car Dealers
Won't Tell You
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Whether you are shopping for a new car or a used one, you know how overwhelming the process can be. No matter how much research you’ve done, or how hard you’ve bargained, you may still second guess yourself, wondering if you struck the best deal.
Here are five things dealers may not tell you that can save you money on your next car purchase.
Invoice Price Isn’t Our Bottom Line
Most of us know that the sticker price is just a starting point for negotiations. And we may even know to research the invoice price. But most of us don’t realize that even when we buy a car “at invoice” the dealer has plenty of other ways to make a small profit. One of those ways is something called the “dealer holdback.”
Click all green below and carefully study the link info - important information in all links relating to successful car buying
According to Edmunds.com, an amount called a “holdback” is 2-3% of either the MSRP or the invoice. After the car is sold, the manufacturer pays this amount to the dealer, hence the name “dealer holdback.” On a $20,000 car, a 2% holdback would be $400. To help buyers understand what car buyers are actually paying for the vehicles they are considering, Edmunds.com offers a tool called (Click: True Market Value, or TMV.
Ummm, There’s Been An Accident…
Shopping for a used car? Your car dealer may be just as reluctant as your teenager to mention that the car’s been in an accident. “When it comes to accidents, it’s don’t ask, don’t tell,” warns Michael J. Sacks, automotive consumer advocate and director of communications for 1 800 LEMON LAW. “A dealer is not going to come out and say a car has been in an accident. You must ask. If you don’t and you find out later, how can you prove the car was misrepresented?” His firm offers a free (Click: “Lemon Dodger Worksheet” for buyers.
In addition to asking specifically about accidents, you can check a vehicle’s history through Carfax. “While a Carfax report does not guarantee a problem-free used vehicle, it does help to reduce the risk. Never buy a used car without reviewing its history,” insists LeeAnn Shattuck, Chief Car Chick with Women’s Automotive Solutions.
Low Monthly Payments Are Our Friend, Not Yours
Yes, most of us know that just focusing on the monthly payment, rather than the overall cost of the car, is a mistake. But that’s not stopping us from taking out loans of five years or longer. Experian reports that the average loan term for a new vehicle jumped to an all-time high of 65 months in the last quarter of 2012, up from 63 months in the last quarter of 2011.
The minute you start talking monthly payments with a dealer you’re in trouble, warns Shattuck.
“If you tell the dealer, ‘I can afford $300 a month,’ all they have to do is play with the loan term and get you the payment you want without getting you a good deal on the car.”
The longer your car loan, the more likely you are to be “upside down” on your loan, owing more than the vehicle is worth. That’s especially risky if you drive a lot of miles since the high mileage will also cause the car to depreciate more quickly. “The more miles you drive per year the shorter your loan term should be,” she insists. In addition, interest rates for 60- to 72-month loans tend to be higher. A higher rate combined with a longer term can add up to thousands of dollars by the time the car is paid off.
Your Credit Score Is Different Than Ours
If you’ve checked your credit reports and scores before you started auto shopping (smart move) you may be surprised to learn that the credit score the dealer sees is different than the one you have obtained. Credit.com’s credit scoring expert Barry Paperno explains:
While the typical FICO score predicts the likelihood of any account on a consumer’s credit report going delinquent, auto dealers often use the “auto score” version of the FICO formula to predict the chances of an auto loan — not just any account — incurring late payments. To do this, the FICO auto scoring formula gives slightly more weight to auto loan-specific information on the credit report, such as auto loan payment history. The result is often a higher auto score than standard FICO for a consumer with positive auto loan history (all things on the credit report being equal), and a lower auto score if there is negative, or a lack of, auto loan history.
Of course, you still want to check your credit reports and scores before you need to finance a vehicle. Ideally, you should check them at least a month before to allow time to fix mistakes you may find on your credit reports. In addition, though, you’ll want to shop for a car loan before you set foot in the dealership. If the dealer knows you have already lined up financing, they can’t charge you a higher rate on a loan because your credit “isn’t good enough.” All they can try to do is match or beat the rate on the loan you’ve already lined up.
It Doesn’t Have to Be That Difficult
Dread haggling? Don’t make it harder than it has to be. “The actual process of negotiating a price for a new vehicle is a lot simpler than most people realize,” writes Mike Rabkin, a professional car shopper, in his online guide that walks car shoppers through the process. “It’s all about who you talk to and how knowledgeable you appear.” One strategy, he says, is to bypass the sales person and go straight to the decision maker. That person could go by different names, depending on the dealer: sales manager, general sales manager, fleet manager, Internet manager, etc.
“Whatever you do,” says Rabkin, “make sure you get competing quotes from at least four dealers. To know a good price, you have to know what a bad price is,” he says. “Competition is what makes them more competitive. Even if you don’t plan to shop at other dealers, you have to let them know you are shopping around.”
Other experts agree. “You can buy a car with minimal haggling by calling and speaking to the fleet manager directly,”says Blair Natasi, PR director for MyRedToy.com, an online reverse auction service for car shoppers.
Or find a dealer that is transparent with customers.”The world of car buying is constantly changing and some dealers are finding that less pressure and more transparency helps their sales and earns them enthusiastic customers,” says Edmunds.com Sr. Consumer Advice Editor Phil Reed. “These enlightened dealers realize that many shoppers are well informed and they accept this and are willing to expedite the sales process accordingly. (They understand) how important customer satisfaction is for repeat sales.”
How do you find a straight-shooting dealer? Reed suggests: ”You should try to learn as much as possible about a dealership before you give them your business. There is always the BBB to consult. We have dealer ratings and reviews on our site . You can always type the name of the dealership and ‘reviews’ into Google and you will get reviews from a variety of sources. Word of mouth from friends and family is also quite valuable, and it’s not uncommon for friends to refer you to a specific sales person. It’s important, however, to do all of your research on the price of a car, because a referral doesn’t mean you have an inside deal.”
And if you’re still not comfortable negotiating for the best price, you can hire a professional like Shattuck or Rabkin. The car I previously owned was purchased with the help of a professional car shopper and I was confident I got a good deal. I was able to pay it off early and drive it for a long time. My past car I purchased on my own, with help from my hubby, and while I think we did OK, I do wonder if we could have done better.
Click all green above and carefully study the link info - important information in all links relating to successful car buying
Click: The First Thing to Do Before Buying a Car
Source: credit.com
______________________________________________________________
Notice:
Below several additional articles important to study &
apply for your most successful car buying
______________________________
5 Things Car Dealers
Won't Tell You
Click green for further info
Whether you are shopping for a new car or a used one, you know how overwhelming the process can be. No matter how much research you’ve done, or how hard you’ve bargained, you may still second guess yourself, wondering if you struck the best deal.
Here are five things dealers may not tell you that can save you money on your next car purchase.
Invoice Price Isn’t Our Bottom Line
Most of us know that the sticker price is just a starting point for negotiations. And we may even know to research the invoice price. But most of us don’t realize that even when we buy a car “at invoice” the dealer has plenty of other ways to make a small profit. One of those ways is something called the “dealer holdback.”
Click all green below and carefully study the link info - important information in all links relating to successful car buying
According to Edmunds.com, an amount called a “holdback” is 2-3% of either the MSRP or the invoice. After the car is sold, the manufacturer pays this amount to the dealer, hence the name “dealer holdback.” On a $20,000 car, a 2% holdback would be $400. To help buyers understand what car buyers are actually paying for the vehicles they are considering, Edmunds.com offers a tool called (Click: True Market Value, or TMV.
Ummm, There’s Been An Accident…
Shopping for a used car? Your car dealer may be just as reluctant as your teenager to mention that the car’s been in an accident. “When it comes to accidents, it’s don’t ask, don’t tell,” warns Michael J. Sacks, automotive consumer advocate and director of communications for 1 800 LEMON LAW. “A dealer is not going to come out and say a car has been in an accident. You must ask. If you don’t and you find out later, how can you prove the car was misrepresented?” His firm offers a free (Click: “Lemon Dodger Worksheet” for buyers.
In addition to asking specifically about accidents, you can check a vehicle’s history through Carfax. “While a Carfax report does not guarantee a problem-free used vehicle, it does help to reduce the risk. Never buy a used car without reviewing its history,” insists LeeAnn Shattuck, Chief Car Chick with Women’s Automotive Solutions.
Low Monthly Payments Are Our Friend, Not Yours
Yes, most of us know that just focusing on the monthly payment, rather than the overall cost of the car, is a mistake. But that’s not stopping us from taking out loans of five years or longer. Experian reports that the average loan term for a new vehicle jumped to an all-time high of 65 months in the last quarter of 2012, up from 63 months in the last quarter of 2011.
The minute you start talking monthly payments with a dealer you’re in trouble, warns Shattuck.
“If you tell the dealer, ‘I can afford $300 a month,’ all they have to do is play with the loan term and get you the payment you want without getting you a good deal on the car.”
The longer your car loan, the more likely you are to be “upside down” on your loan, owing more than the vehicle is worth. That’s especially risky if you drive a lot of miles since the high mileage will also cause the car to depreciate more quickly. “The more miles you drive per year the shorter your loan term should be,” she insists. In addition, interest rates for 60- to 72-month loans tend to be higher. A higher rate combined with a longer term can add up to thousands of dollars by the time the car is paid off.
Your Credit Score Is Different Than Ours
If you’ve checked your credit reports and scores before you started auto shopping (smart move) you may be surprised to learn that the credit score the dealer sees is different than the one you have obtained. Credit.com’s credit scoring expert Barry Paperno explains:
While the typical FICO score predicts the likelihood of any account on a consumer’s credit report going delinquent, auto dealers often use the “auto score” version of the FICO formula to predict the chances of an auto loan — not just any account — incurring late payments. To do this, the FICO auto scoring formula gives slightly more weight to auto loan-specific information on the credit report, such as auto loan payment history. The result is often a higher auto score than standard FICO for a consumer with positive auto loan history (all things on the credit report being equal), and a lower auto score if there is negative, or a lack of, auto loan history.
Of course, you still want to check your credit reports and scores before you need to finance a vehicle. Ideally, you should check them at least a month before to allow time to fix mistakes you may find on your credit reports. In addition, though, you’ll want to shop for a car loan before you set foot in the dealership. If the dealer knows you have already lined up financing, they can’t charge you a higher rate on a loan because your credit “isn’t good enough.” All they can try to do is match or beat the rate on the loan you’ve already lined up.
It Doesn’t Have to Be That Difficult
Dread haggling? Don’t make it harder than it has to be. “The actual process of negotiating a price for a new vehicle is a lot simpler than most people realize,” writes Mike Rabkin, a professional car shopper, in his online guide that walks car shoppers through the process. “It’s all about who you talk to and how knowledgeable you appear.” One strategy, he says, is to bypass the sales person and go straight to the decision maker. That person could go by different names, depending on the dealer: sales manager, general sales manager, fleet manager, Internet manager, etc.
“Whatever you do,” says Rabkin, “make sure you get competing quotes from at least four dealers. To know a good price, you have to know what a bad price is,” he says. “Competition is what makes them more competitive. Even if you don’t plan to shop at other dealers, you have to let them know you are shopping around.”
Other experts agree. “You can buy a car with minimal haggling by calling and speaking to the fleet manager directly,”says Blair Natasi, PR director for MyRedToy.com, an online reverse auction service for car shoppers.
Or find a dealer that is transparent with customers.”The world of car buying is constantly changing and some dealers are finding that less pressure and more transparency helps their sales and earns them enthusiastic customers,” says Edmunds.com Sr. Consumer Advice Editor Phil Reed. “These enlightened dealers realize that many shoppers are well informed and they accept this and are willing to expedite the sales process accordingly. (They understand) how important customer satisfaction is for repeat sales.”
How do you find a straight-shooting dealer? Reed suggests: ”You should try to learn as much as possible about a dealership before you give them your business. There is always the BBB to consult. We have dealer ratings and reviews on our site . You can always type the name of the dealership and ‘reviews’ into Google and you will get reviews from a variety of sources. Word of mouth from friends and family is also quite valuable, and it’s not uncommon for friends to refer you to a specific sales person. It’s important, however, to do all of your research on the price of a car, because a referral doesn’t mean you have an inside deal.”
And if you’re still not comfortable negotiating for the best price, you can hire a professional like Shattuck or Rabkin. The car I previously owned was purchased with the help of a professional car shopper and I was confident I got a good deal. I was able to pay it off early and drive it for a long time. My past car I purchased on my own, with help from my hubby, and while I think we did OK, I do wonder if we could have done better.
Click all green above and carefully study the link info - important information in all links relating to successful car buying
Click: The First Thing to Do Before Buying a Car
Source: credit.com
______________________________________________________________
Notice:
Below several additional articles important to study &
apply for your most successful car buying
______________________________
You need to study this well
4 Myths About Leasing A New Car
Published March 11, 2012
Many people don’t ever consider leasing a car, even when it would actually make financial sense for them to do so.
This is primarily because of the negative press car leasing has endured over the years. However, some of the bad press surrounding car leasing is unwarranted. Here are four myths about car leasing that might cause you to change your mind the next time you are in the market for a new car.
You Can’t Negotiate On The Price Of The Car - False. Many prospective lessees assume that because they are not buying the car, they cannot negotiate on the price of the car. This is a mistake. In fact, the total amount of the monthly lease payment will depend in part on the sale price of the car. Therefore, if you are considering a car lease, you should fight hard to get the lowest sale price on the leased vehicle.
It is important to note that the car leasing business has its own terminology for the value of a leased car. Instead of calling the price of the leased vehicle the “sale price”, car dealerships call it the capitalized cost. You will want to do your best to get the capitalized cost as low as possible. Use the invoice price of the car as a good benchmark. Getting close to or below the invoice price should be your goal for the capitalized cost.
Don’t focus on directly lowering the monthly lease payment. Dealers have sneaky ways of lowering monthly payments without lowering the total amount you will have to pay over the life of the lease. Instead, focus on reducing the capitalized cost value. This will lower your monthly lease payment and lower the total amount you will pay for the lease.
Leasing Is More Expensive Than Buying - Maybe. If you buy a new car with cash or you plan on driving the purchased car long after your car loan is paid off, then buying a car will probably be cheaper than leasing. However, if you want to drive a new car every few years or you don’t expect to keep a car until it is fully paid off, a lease might be the cheaper option.
Consider this example. Let’s say that you buy a new car by taking out a five year auto loan. After two years, you decide that you want a new car and you want it now. Unless you can pay off the balance of your five year loan, you will likely have to do a trade in with the dealer that you buy the new car from. If the value of your current car is worth less than the remaining balance of your five year loan, you will have to increase the size of your new car loan to pay off the remaining balance on your old car loan after the trade in. Even if your car is worth more than the value of your loan, don’t assume that the dealer will give you the full value of your car for the trade in.
If you had leased the original car for two years instead of buying it, you could have turned in your old car and leased the new car that you wanted without having to deal with a trade in. As long as you didn’t turn in the leased car early or go way over your mileage limits, there is a decent chance that you would have saved money by leasing.
Breaking A Lease Will Crush You Financially If you want to get out of your lease early, the dealer will likely make you pay additional lease payments and will charge you an enormous lease cancellation fee. However, you can avoid these fees by getting someone to take over your lease.
There are several companies, such as Swapalease, that specialize in connecting lease holders with people looking to take over leases. Just make sure that there are no clauses in your lease contract that prohibit or penalize lease transfers.
If You Drive A Lot, A Lease Isn’t For You It is true that most leases have maximum annual mile limits that are relatively ungenerous. For example, it is not unusual to be restricted to 10,000 miles per year before charges for extra miles kick in. This can be problematic if you have a long commute to work every day. However, there are two things to note here. First, you can likely negotiate a higher annual mile limit for an increased monthly lease payment. Second, it makes sense that you should pay more for putting additional miles on the car. For example, if you wanted to sell your used car, all things equal, you would receive a higher price for having fewer miles on the car. Therefore, it is not necessarily unreasonable for the dealer to charge more for extra miles. If you can negotiate a higher annual mileage limit, it still may be a better move to lease.
Keep these myths in mind the next time you are on the market for a new car. You might be surprised to find out that a lease could be, perhaps, the best financial move you can make.
Sources
4 Myths About Leasing A New Car
Published March 11, 2012
Many people don’t ever consider leasing a car, even when it would actually make financial sense for them to do so.
This is primarily because of the negative press car leasing has endured over the years. However, some of the bad press surrounding car leasing is unwarranted. Here are four myths about car leasing that might cause you to change your mind the next time you are in the market for a new car.
You Can’t Negotiate On The Price Of The Car - False. Many prospective lessees assume that because they are not buying the car, they cannot negotiate on the price of the car. This is a mistake. In fact, the total amount of the monthly lease payment will depend in part on the sale price of the car. Therefore, if you are considering a car lease, you should fight hard to get the lowest sale price on the leased vehicle.
It is important to note that the car leasing business has its own terminology for the value of a leased car. Instead of calling the price of the leased vehicle the “sale price”, car dealerships call it the capitalized cost. You will want to do your best to get the capitalized cost as low as possible. Use the invoice price of the car as a good benchmark. Getting close to or below the invoice price should be your goal for the capitalized cost.
Don’t focus on directly lowering the monthly lease payment. Dealers have sneaky ways of lowering monthly payments without lowering the total amount you will have to pay over the life of the lease. Instead, focus on reducing the capitalized cost value. This will lower your monthly lease payment and lower the total amount you will pay for the lease.
Leasing Is More Expensive Than Buying - Maybe. If you buy a new car with cash or you plan on driving the purchased car long after your car loan is paid off, then buying a car will probably be cheaper than leasing. However, if you want to drive a new car every few years or you don’t expect to keep a car until it is fully paid off, a lease might be the cheaper option.
Consider this example. Let’s say that you buy a new car by taking out a five year auto loan. After two years, you decide that you want a new car and you want it now. Unless you can pay off the balance of your five year loan, you will likely have to do a trade in with the dealer that you buy the new car from. If the value of your current car is worth less than the remaining balance of your five year loan, you will have to increase the size of your new car loan to pay off the remaining balance on your old car loan after the trade in. Even if your car is worth more than the value of your loan, don’t assume that the dealer will give you the full value of your car for the trade in.
If you had leased the original car for two years instead of buying it, you could have turned in your old car and leased the new car that you wanted without having to deal with a trade in. As long as you didn’t turn in the leased car early or go way over your mileage limits, there is a decent chance that you would have saved money by leasing.
Breaking A Lease Will Crush You Financially If you want to get out of your lease early, the dealer will likely make you pay additional lease payments and will charge you an enormous lease cancellation fee. However, you can avoid these fees by getting someone to take over your lease.
There are several companies, such as Swapalease, that specialize in connecting lease holders with people looking to take over leases. Just make sure that there are no clauses in your lease contract that prohibit or penalize lease transfers.
If You Drive A Lot, A Lease Isn’t For You It is true that most leases have maximum annual mile limits that are relatively ungenerous. For example, it is not unusual to be restricted to 10,000 miles per year before charges for extra miles kick in. This can be problematic if you have a long commute to work every day. However, there are two things to note here. First, you can likely negotiate a higher annual mile limit for an increased monthly lease payment. Second, it makes sense that you should pay more for putting additional miles on the car. For example, if you wanted to sell your used car, all things equal, you would receive a higher price for having fewer miles on the car. Therefore, it is not necessarily unreasonable for the dealer to charge more for extra miles. If you can negotiate a higher annual mileage limit, it still may be a better move to lease.
Keep these myths in mind the next time you are on the market for a new car. You might be surprised to find out that a lease could be, perhaps, the best financial move you can make.
Sources
- Kiplinger.com ______________________________________________________________________________
Should You Trade In Your Car or Sell It Yourself?
For many car owners looking to sell their vehicle, a dealership is their first and last stop. But experts say those who are determined, patient and willing to take initiative can get a better offer by bypassing the dealership and selling their own automobile.
While selling a used car on your own can prove profitable, it can also be challenging. Here are tips from the pros on how to determine your car's retail value, highlight its best features and lock in a prospective buyer:
Pinpoint your asking price. Start with a website like KelleyBlueBook.com to get a rough estimate of how much your car is worth. Plug in as many details as possible, such as a built-in navigation system, CD player, premium sound and leather upholstery, since they may increase the value of your vehicle. The website will then estimate your car's private party value (a price KBB projects you can get in a sale from consumer to consumer). David Weliver, a former car salesman and publisher of the Money Under 30 blog, says although KBB puts a specific dollar value on a car's worth, it's best to use the calculation to figure out a range for the vehicle's retail value rather than making it your asking price.
To narrow down the range, compare your car to other vehicles of the same year and model with similar mileage. Check out websites such as AutoTrader.com, Craigslist.org and eBay.com/motors, which host thousands of advertisements for used cars from private parties. It can also help to get quotes from several local dealerships.
[Read Avoid These Car-Dealership Sales Tricks.]
Adam Goldfein, host of the TV show "AutoScoop" on CW69 in Atlanta, says sellers should generally stay within 5 percent of what they think is a fair asking price. Setting the price too high can make buyers automatically disregard your advertisement, while pricing the car too low can raise a red flag. "If everyone is selling your Honda model for $20,000 and you're asking for $16,000, I'd be skeptical," Goldfein says.
Take the time for a tune-up. Simply giving the car a wash and hanging a new air freshener won't cut it. Fixing low-maintenance items like worn brake pads, weathered tires and rusted rotors requires little time and shows buyers you take good care of the car. "People want ready-to-drive cars," Weliver says, "not something they have to take to the shop."
Joe Wiesenfelder, executive editor of cars.com, recommends removing all personal items, including political bumper stickers. "Do you want to sell to someone who has the same political views as you, or do you just want to sell the car?" Wiesenfelder says. Some decals can be hard to remove without damaging the paint, so it may be worth paying for a professional detailing, which starts around $100 and includes cleaning, waxing and polishing of both the interior and exterior.
It's also crucial to take your vehicle to a mechanic to make sure there are no major problems. Many consumers will want to have the car inspected anyway, so taking the initiative can save time and establish trust with the buyer. Present the buyer a copy of the mechanic's summary and, if possible, your vehicle's history report.
[Read: Is Your Car Worth Repairing?]
If you choose to commission repairs, pay close attention to the driver-side door, window and handle, as people see those parts before they take a test drive, says Phil Reed, senior consumer advice editor at Edmunds.com. While at the shop, you can ask your mechanic for recommendations on buyers; he or she may know if any customers are in the market for a used car. Some mechanics may even decide to buy the car from you, Wiesenfelder says, since they can fix it and then try to "flip it" for a profit.
Promote effectively. Consider advertising on AutoTrader, CraigsList and eBayMotors (the sites useful for preliminary research). Goldfein offers these recommendations on how to take high-quality photographs for your listing:
-- Make sure nothing in the background matches the color of your car.
-- Take photos in the early morning or late afternoon to get the best natural light.
-- For transparency, snap photos of the odometer, engine and tires.
-- If you're photographing on an asphalt surface, hose the blacktop down; this washes away dirt and mud, and the reflection will make your car shine.
For added exposure, consider leaving your car in a well-lit, public place (with good traffic) and taping an advertisement to the windshield. Weliver says to use large type and include your asking price, contact information and perhaps a URL to the car's online advertisement, so interested passersby have somewhere to go for more information.
Keep the ad's car description short, since prospective buyers tend to cycle through listings quickly and a big block of text may make them glance past your car. Of course, you should highlight the car's best features, but it can also be beneficial to disclose any problems with the car that could be a potential deal-breaker. For instance, if the trunk has a large dent, Wiesenfelder suggests mentioning it in the description and showing a photo of it, so buyers will see that you're transparent. You should also be upfront if you smoke regularly in the car. And if your car is old or somewhat beaten up, "Call it 'reliable, affordable transportation,'" Goldfein says.
[See 50 Smart Money Moves.]
To make your advertisement stand out, you can go a step further and use a smartphone to tape a video guiding the prospective buyer around the car, then upload it to Youtube and include the link in the description.
Proceed with caution. Goldfein advises against showing the car to prospective buyers at your home. Instead, he says it's best to meet at a public, centralized area (like a mall parking lot) during business hours to ensure you're not alone and your home address remains private. If an interested buyer would like a test drive, ride along as a passenger and have a pre-determined route so you know where you're going at all times, Goldfein says.
Seal the bargain. When emphasizing the car's finest features, avoid over-sharing. "You may like that the car has a tight steering wheel, but someone else may have experienced that before and they don't like it," Weliver says. "It's OK to stay neutral sometimes."
When it comes time to negotiate, be flexible; sometimes you have to be willing to lower the purchase price to come to an agreement. Still, Weliver says it's important to determine ahead of time the lowest offer you will accept. "Know what your walk-away point is," he says.
Once you've settled on the terms--and have been paid in cash or with a cashier's check (Reed of Edmunds.com says other forms of payment pose risks)--the closing is simple. Fill out a bill of sale (you can find a template at DMV.org), sign over the title and say goodbye to your old set of wheels.
For many car owners looking to sell their vehicle, a dealership is their first and last stop. But experts say those who are determined, patient and willing to take initiative can get a better offer by bypassing the dealership and selling their own automobile.
While selling a used car on your own can prove profitable, it can also be challenging. Here are tips from the pros on how to determine your car's retail value, highlight its best features and lock in a prospective buyer:
Pinpoint your asking price. Start with a website like KelleyBlueBook.com to get a rough estimate of how much your car is worth. Plug in as many details as possible, such as a built-in navigation system, CD player, premium sound and leather upholstery, since they may increase the value of your vehicle. The website will then estimate your car's private party value (a price KBB projects you can get in a sale from consumer to consumer). David Weliver, a former car salesman and publisher of the Money Under 30 blog, says although KBB puts a specific dollar value on a car's worth, it's best to use the calculation to figure out a range for the vehicle's retail value rather than making it your asking price.
To narrow down the range, compare your car to other vehicles of the same year and model with similar mileage. Check out websites such as AutoTrader.com, Craigslist.org and eBay.com/motors, which host thousands of advertisements for used cars from private parties. It can also help to get quotes from several local dealerships.
[Read Avoid These Car-Dealership Sales Tricks.]
Adam Goldfein, host of the TV show "AutoScoop" on CW69 in Atlanta, says sellers should generally stay within 5 percent of what they think is a fair asking price. Setting the price too high can make buyers automatically disregard your advertisement, while pricing the car too low can raise a red flag. "If everyone is selling your Honda model for $20,000 and you're asking for $16,000, I'd be skeptical," Goldfein says.
Take the time for a tune-up. Simply giving the car a wash and hanging a new air freshener won't cut it. Fixing low-maintenance items like worn brake pads, weathered tires and rusted rotors requires little time and shows buyers you take good care of the car. "People want ready-to-drive cars," Weliver says, "not something they have to take to the shop."
Joe Wiesenfelder, executive editor of cars.com, recommends removing all personal items, including political bumper stickers. "Do you want to sell to someone who has the same political views as you, or do you just want to sell the car?" Wiesenfelder says. Some decals can be hard to remove without damaging the paint, so it may be worth paying for a professional detailing, which starts around $100 and includes cleaning, waxing and polishing of both the interior and exterior.
It's also crucial to take your vehicle to a mechanic to make sure there are no major problems. Many consumers will want to have the car inspected anyway, so taking the initiative can save time and establish trust with the buyer. Present the buyer a copy of the mechanic's summary and, if possible, your vehicle's history report.
[Read: Is Your Car Worth Repairing?]
If you choose to commission repairs, pay close attention to the driver-side door, window and handle, as people see those parts before they take a test drive, says Phil Reed, senior consumer advice editor at Edmunds.com. While at the shop, you can ask your mechanic for recommendations on buyers; he or she may know if any customers are in the market for a used car. Some mechanics may even decide to buy the car from you, Wiesenfelder says, since they can fix it and then try to "flip it" for a profit.
Promote effectively. Consider advertising on AutoTrader, CraigsList and eBayMotors (the sites useful for preliminary research). Goldfein offers these recommendations on how to take high-quality photographs for your listing:
-- Make sure nothing in the background matches the color of your car.
-- Take photos in the early morning or late afternoon to get the best natural light.
-- For transparency, snap photos of the odometer, engine and tires.
-- If you're photographing on an asphalt surface, hose the blacktop down; this washes away dirt and mud, and the reflection will make your car shine.
For added exposure, consider leaving your car in a well-lit, public place (with good traffic) and taping an advertisement to the windshield. Weliver says to use large type and include your asking price, contact information and perhaps a URL to the car's online advertisement, so interested passersby have somewhere to go for more information.
Keep the ad's car description short, since prospective buyers tend to cycle through listings quickly and a big block of text may make them glance past your car. Of course, you should highlight the car's best features, but it can also be beneficial to disclose any problems with the car that could be a potential deal-breaker. For instance, if the trunk has a large dent, Wiesenfelder suggests mentioning it in the description and showing a photo of it, so buyers will see that you're transparent. You should also be upfront if you smoke regularly in the car. And if your car is old or somewhat beaten up, "Call it 'reliable, affordable transportation,'" Goldfein says.
[See 50 Smart Money Moves.]
To make your advertisement stand out, you can go a step further and use a smartphone to tape a video guiding the prospective buyer around the car, then upload it to Youtube and include the link in the description.
Proceed with caution. Goldfein advises against showing the car to prospective buyers at your home. Instead, he says it's best to meet at a public, centralized area (like a mall parking lot) during business hours to ensure you're not alone and your home address remains private. If an interested buyer would like a test drive, ride along as a passenger and have a pre-determined route so you know where you're going at all times, Goldfein says.
Seal the bargain. When emphasizing the car's finest features, avoid over-sharing. "You may like that the car has a tight steering wheel, but someone else may have experienced that before and they don't like it," Weliver says. "It's OK to stay neutral sometimes."
When it comes time to negotiate, be flexible; sometimes you have to be willing to lower the purchase price to come to an agreement. Still, Weliver says it's important to determine ahead of time the lowest offer you will accept. "Know what your walk-away point is," he says.
Once you've settled on the terms--and have been paid in cash or with a cashier's check (Reed of Edmunds.com says other forms of payment pose risks)--the closing is simple. Fill out a bill of sale (you can find a template at DMV.org), sign over the title and say goodbye to your old set of wheels.
Toyota Settles Faulty Accelerator Lawsuit
Click the topic - if the link has expired, search the web with the title
Date: March 2013
______________
Click the topic - if the link has expired, search the web with the title
Date: March 2013
______________
April 5, 2013
New safety technology is coming
As Workload Overwhelms, Cars Are Set to Intervene
Date: March 2013
"This the near future - the time frame would be three to five years”
Meanwhile, keep your family alive by keeping your attention on driving,
not in other activities
Heading south on Route 34 toward Jersey Shore beaches on a summer weekend, drivers confront a daunting array of highway quirks, not limited to jughandle intersections and baffling exit signs.
The simple act of turning left on Allaire Road in Wall Township, for example, is confounded by a traffic circle, where an attempt to head east casts the driver into a ballet of choosing the proper lane, looking for the exit and maintaining a high alert in the crush of beach-seeking vehicles.
Now imagine that during this encounter a low-tire warning flashes on the dashboard. Next, a chime alerts the driver that a text message — maybe important — has landed. Then the cellphone rings.
The overload of inputs, perhaps amplified by foul weather or a demanding toddler, presents a real challenge to the driver — and a danger to all road users. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration estimates that distraction and inattention contribute to 20 to 30 percent of reported crashes.
Much as regulators and automakers have rushed to deal with the flood of distractions that invade the automobile — GPS displays, Internet radio, e-mail and even Facebook apps — there is a growing effort by engineers to build cars that gauge the difficulty of situations and recognize a driver in distress. Then the car would react, delaying all but the most urgent alerts, sending phone calls to voicemail and freeing the driver to focus on the task.
The study of driver workload management — some would point to the irony in this reaction to a situation partly created by automakers themselves — is progressing alongside the efforts of the planners who dream up new generations of infotainment features. A foundation of workload study is the Yerkes-Dodson Law, a theory developed in the early 20th century that plots workload and performance on a bell curve.
There can be trouble at either end — an inattentive, underworked driver may be as much a risk as an overworked driver who cannot handle the combined sensory inputs and driving chores. In the middle is the ideal, a driver functioning at optimum level.
Systems that detect driver drowsiness, like the Mercedes-Benz Attention Assist feature, can prompt a driver to be more alert, but driver overload is harder to manage. N.H.T.S.A. has issued voluntary accessory-design guidelines in an effort to reduce distraction, but given consumers’ hunger for gadgets, managing those distractions to reduce workload may prove a better solution.
As safety groups press for restrictions on phone conversations and messaging in the car, the urgency to find a solution will only increase, experts say. Studies of driver workload have a long history, but a milestone came in 2003 when the John A. Volpe National Transportation Systems Center, a unit of the Transportation Department — in conjunction with Delphi, the giant parts supplier, Ford Motor and several universities — began a research project to quantify distractions and driving situations as a way to generate workload estimates.
Paul A. Green, a University of Michigan research professor, said in a telephone interview that the Volpe study stimulated research. Today, automakers and universities are developing technologies that will let them measure the level of driver stress and the response to the pressure. That data could be used by a management system that would delay calls, alerts, text messages and warning lights at the times when the driver’s workload was peaking and the stress level was high.
Because many cars are equipped with advanced electronics — radar, sensors and cameras developed to enable features like smart cruise control and lane-departure warning — some of the equipment needed to gauge workload is already in vehicles. Sensors that determine speed, throttle position, steering wheel angle and transmission gear selection, and even weather conditions, can be adapted to see traffic on the road and monitor driving situations.
Jeff Greenberg, a Ford senior technical leader, said in an interview that his research team had built models that predicted workload based on information from data points relative to time. The model takes into account that when steering and throttle position are constant for an extended time and outside sensors show moderate traffic, workload will be minimal. But if over just a few seconds the accelerator is pressed, traffic becomes heavy and the wheel is turned, the system determines that the driver has encountered a changing situation and workload is increasing.
Those elements describe the driving situation. But what about the driver?
That is where biometrics — devices that measure how well the driver is managing workload — come into play. A simulator built by Ford to demonstrate biometric tools uses sensors in the steering wheel, like those on exercise machines, to monitor heart rate. Sweaty palms are detected by gauging skin conductivity. Probes aimed at the driver’s face measure skin temperature, and a sensor in the seat belt can tell when the driver is breathing hard.
Mr. Greenberg said that by combining biometric data with an analysis of the driving situation, workload could be very accurately gauged and distractions could be delayed until things were on an even keel.
Some automakers have not embraced biometrics as a practical way of measuring driver stress. Jim Foley, senior principal engineer at Toyota’s research center in Ann Arbor, Mich., said in a phone interview that although work on biometrics started in the 1970s and continued, there were problems in applying the technology to production vehicles. He added that measuring anything through the steering wheel did not work if the driver was wearing gloves and that getting a reliable signal for all drivers was challenging.
Bryan Reimer, a scientist engaged in driver workload studies at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, disagreed. “Some researchers believe biometrics work in the laboratory only,” he said in a phone interview. “Others, including myself, believe firmly they can be used in the car.”
He added that heart rate could be measured through the seat as well as through the steering wheel. “We are doing a considerable amount of work using biometrics in conjunction with other visual information, such as eye tracking and vehicle telemetry, to provide a holistic view of the demands the driver is under,” he said.
Honda and Ohio State University are collaborating on a driver workload study. They have built a simulator on a platform that mimics vehicle motion while driving scenarios are projected on a wraparound screen and driver performance is charted. Biometric sensors measure blood pressure, heart rate, eye movement, respiration, blink rates, skin conductivity and, by means of functional near-infrared technology, brain activity.
“We’re trying to get a better understanding of how the driver thinks about the system while driving the vehicle,” said Steven Feit, Honda’s chief engineer for infotainment research. “We don’t want to just lock out features, but we want to make them available at the right time. We’re trying to do a balanced approach between controlling the environment and optimizing the operation of infotainment features.”
Janet Weisenberger, director of the Ohio State University simulation laboratory, said that this research could be applicable to the development of semiautonomous vehicles. “In the long term, you want to know things about the driver so systems could be best matched to a driver’s capabilities.”
The semiautonomous car that can assist the driver in difficult situations is an obvious next step beyond using workload detection to manage distraction. If the automobile can gauge workload, it can lend a hand when necessary.
Most luxury cars are available with collision avoidance systems and intelligent cruise control, and, as workload measurement technology is refined, other aids will become possible. For example, if sensors see that snow is obscuring the road and biometrics indicate driver stress, the vehicle could project lane lines on the windshield. But there might be limits to how much control automakers would want to wrest from the driver: leaving the driver with little to do could be problematic.
“Lost in the debate around autonomous technology,” Mr. Reimer of M.I.T. said, “is that these features pull workload away from the driver and can result in under arousal. The traditional cause of that is driver fatigue, but semiautonomous features may be driving us in that direction.”
How soon might we see a system that combines biometrics and telemetry to manage workload? Alan Hall, a Ford spokesman, said in e-mail,
“We have not explicitly stated when you could see the workload detection system in a car, but as a project in the research phase, the earliest time frame would be three to five years.”
Ford, of course, may not be first to market with workload management. “All automakers are working at different levels in this area,” Mr. Reimer said. “And there’s a knowledge that first to market wins.”
Click for another article: Diesel Efficiency With a Solar Enhancement
Source: NYT
________________________________________________________
Buy Your Next Car Without Breaking the Bank
Buying a car or truck can be one of the biggest purchases you'll ever make, so getting the best deal you can is extremely important to keep your finances healthy. But with the challenges of haggling on price, trade-in value, and financing, it can be hard to know how much your budget can handle.
In the following video, Motley Fool investment-planning editor Lauren Kuczala talks with longtime Fool contributor and personal finance expert Dan Caplinger about how to plan for a new car purchase. Dan points out that the key first step is to figure out how much you can afford, considering all the expenses of vehicle ownership. Then, use the incentives and financing options that major car companies offer to their fullest, considering not just monthly payments but also total costs over the the lifespan of your vehicle. Dan and Lauren also discuss the pros and cons of buying new or used cars in the current market.
Buy Your Next Car Without Breaking the Bank Motley-by Dan Caplinger
Buying a car or truck can be one of the biggest purchases (in addition to a house) you'll ever make, so getting the best deal you can is extremely important to keep your ...
The above link (green will connect to a video where the var buying topic is discussed - in case the link is not connecting,
search the web with the article title just above (with Motley -by Dan Caplinger) - if you do not find study the other links on the internet
__________________________________________________
Buying a car or truck can be one of the biggest purchases you'll ever make, so getting the best deal you can is extremely important to keep your finances healthy. But with the challenges of haggling on price, trade-in value, and financing, it can be hard to know how much your budget can handle.
In the following video, Motley Fool investment-planning editor Lauren Kuczala talks with longtime Fool contributor and personal finance expert Dan Caplinger about how to plan for a new car purchase. Dan points out that the key first step is to figure out how much you can afford, considering all the expenses of vehicle ownership. Then, use the incentives and financing options that major car companies offer to their fullest, considering not just monthly payments but also total costs over the the lifespan of your vehicle. Dan and Lauren also discuss the pros and cons of buying new or used cars in the current market.
Buy Your Next Car Without Breaking the Bank Motley-by Dan Caplinger
Buying a car or truck can be one of the biggest purchases (in addition to a house) you'll ever make, so getting the best deal you can is extremely important to keep your ...
The above link (green will connect to a video where the var buying topic is discussed - in case the link is not connecting,
search the web with the article title just above (with Motley -by Dan Caplinger) - if you do not find study the other links on the internet
__________________________________________________
Good info - study & apply
Ask the Car Chasers: Oil & gas myths
(1) These include: how do you really know when to change your car's oil?
(2) Is paying extra at the pump for premium gas a rip off, or is it really worth it?
We posed these questions to Jeff Allen, Flat 12 Gallery owner and the star of CNBC Prime's "The Car Chasers."
He gave some interesting answers that might go against what your manufacturer is telling you.
When is it Time for an Oil Change?
When it comes to oil changes, common knowledge likely varies according to the decade in which you grew up.
"When I was growing up, I was always taught that you changed your oil every 3,000 miles, right, or every three months, whichever came first. I think that was a little too frequent," said Allen.
"As the cars got newer and more sophisticated, you see it go to 5,000 miles," he added. "Now, we have cars out there that they're saying you don't have to change your oil until every 15,000 miles. I think that's too long."
Allen says a simple rule to follow is to change your car's oil – no matter how new or old - every 5,000 miles.
But, if your car runs on synthetic oil, change it every 10,000 miles.
New oil starts out as a golden color. As it's reused by your car's engine, it gets darker and darker until it will eventually turn into "a black goo" if not changed.
So a simple way to keep your car running smoothly is to keep the oil clean.
Simple things like
(1) changing your car's oil and
(2) rotating its tires can keep a car running for a very long time, Allen said.
Is Premium Gasoline Worth It?
With prices rising steadily for some time now, gas has remained a hot topic for most consumers. Now more than ever, you might be wondering – is paying extra at the pump for premium gasoline worth it?
Allen thinks it is. He says he uses high-grade gas in all of his cars.
He recommends that you read your owner's manual to see what type of gas the manufacturer requires.
If your car calls for the higher octane gas, then you should use it all the time.
If not, a good rule of thumb to follow is to fill up your car's tank with premium gas at least once a month.
Doing so will help "flush out" your car's system, to rid it of any deposits that could potentially be left behind by the lower grade gas.
"Let [the premium gas] go in and cleanse out the motor a little bit more. It burns slower, it burns hotter. And it gives [your car] an extra little pep or performance," Allen said. "It's like giving it a B12 shot in the gas tank."
Source: Tune into The Car Chasers on CNBC Prime Tuesday at 10pET/PT.
____________________________________________________________
See the next material below relating to gas prices
Ask the Car Chasers: Oil & gas myths
(1) These include: how do you really know when to change your car's oil?
(2) Is paying extra at the pump for premium gas a rip off, or is it really worth it?
We posed these questions to Jeff Allen, Flat 12 Gallery owner and the star of CNBC Prime's "The Car Chasers."
He gave some interesting answers that might go against what your manufacturer is telling you.
When is it Time for an Oil Change?
When it comes to oil changes, common knowledge likely varies according to the decade in which you grew up.
"When I was growing up, I was always taught that you changed your oil every 3,000 miles, right, or every three months, whichever came first. I think that was a little too frequent," said Allen.
"As the cars got newer and more sophisticated, you see it go to 5,000 miles," he added. "Now, we have cars out there that they're saying you don't have to change your oil until every 15,000 miles. I think that's too long."
Allen says a simple rule to follow is to change your car's oil – no matter how new or old - every 5,000 miles.
But, if your car runs on synthetic oil, change it every 10,000 miles.
New oil starts out as a golden color. As it's reused by your car's engine, it gets darker and darker until it will eventually turn into "a black goo" if not changed.
So a simple way to keep your car running smoothly is to keep the oil clean.
Simple things like
(1) changing your car's oil and
(2) rotating its tires can keep a car running for a very long time, Allen said.
Is Premium Gasoline Worth It?
With prices rising steadily for some time now, gas has remained a hot topic for most consumers. Now more than ever, you might be wondering – is paying extra at the pump for premium gasoline worth it?
Allen thinks it is. He says he uses high-grade gas in all of his cars.
He recommends that you read your owner's manual to see what type of gas the manufacturer requires.
If your car calls for the higher octane gas, then you should use it all the time.
If not, a good rule of thumb to follow is to fill up your car's tank with premium gas at least once a month.
Doing so will help "flush out" your car's system, to rid it of any deposits that could potentially be left behind by the lower grade gas.
"Let [the premium gas] go in and cleanse out the motor a little bit more. It burns slower, it burns hotter. And it gives [your car] an extra little pep or performance," Allen said. "It's like giving it a B12 shot in the gas tank."
Source: Tune into The Car Chasers on CNBC Prime Tuesday at 10pET/PT.
____________________________________________________________
See the next material below relating to gas prices
Click any of the below links to see
the gasoline tax info and other related information
the gasoline tax info and other related information
- State Gasoline Tax Rates, 2009-2013 | Tax Foundation
taxfoundation.org/article/state-gasoline-tax-rates-2009-2013
Mar 21, 2013 – Rising Gasoline Prices Benefit a Few States. Tax Foundation Fiscal Fact No. 264. Introduction. Every day, news headlines highlight the rising ...
5 states with the cheapest gas - Business on NBCNews.com
www.nbcnews.com/business/5-states-cheapest-gas-1C7529218
These taxes can vary significantly from state to state, affecting regional prices. It's not surprising then to find that the states with the lowest gas prices tend to have ...
The 7 States With the Lowest Gasoline Taxes - Sport Balla
www.sportballa.com/2013/04/.../gasoline-states-7-taxes-lowest
The 7 States With the Lowest Gasoline Taxes. Source: Motley Fool, Apr 21 2013, 6:50am CDT. The price of gasoline is constantly on people's minds. The prices ...
Fuel taxes in the United States - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fuel_taxes_in_the_United_States
Jump to References: References. ^ http://www.eia.gov/petroleum/marketing/monthly/pdf/enote.pdf U.S. Energy Information Administration/Petroleum Marketing ...
Motor Fuel Taxes
www.api.org › Oil & Natural Gas Overview › Industry Economics
API collects motor fuel tax information for all 50 states and compiles a report and ... Oil& Natural Gas Overview. Motor Fuel Taxes. State Gasoline Tax Reports ...
State Gas Taxes Head Higher (Here are the states with highest ...
www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3004107/posts
Apr 4, 2013 – Gas taxes also have mostly stayed constant in nominal terms, even as the cost of road ... Any state taxes raise the cost for strapped consumers. .... Even if I am very low while driving around Gastonia, NC I only get a few dollares worth to last ....7 posted on April 4, 2013 at 9:06:34 AM PDT by SoCal Pubbie ... Click green for further info _______________________________________________________________________________
Most expensive (and cheapest) states
for car repairs
Click green for further info
A bumper crop of parts-and-labor cost increases has made the Garden State the most expensive state when it comes to having your car fixed. With an average total diagnostics-and-repair bill of $392.99, New Jersey ascended to No. 1 in 2012 from No. 10 a year earlier on CarMD.com Corp.'s annual state-by-state ranking of car-repair costs, the California-based consumer-information provider announced today.
New Jersey was in good company, though; the repair-cost trend in 2012 generally moved from west to east while associated expenses nationwide headed north, as motorists' attention to their check-engine lights went south. Whereas the western U.S. accounted for all five of the top states with the highest repair costs in 2011, Eastern states including New Jersey, North Carolina and Maryland, as well as the District of Columbia, dominated the top five in 2012, with California being the lone West Coast representative. Overall, repair costs across the nation related to vehicles' check-engine lights averaged $367.84, a 10% increase; the Northeast saw the greatest increase among regions, at nearly 11.6%, while the West rose just more than 6.5%. CarMD cited vehicle owners' procrastination in having repairs made, particularly catalytic converters, as a major reason for the increases as delayed repairs become more expensive as problems worsen.
CarMD gleaned its state-by-state ranking from an analysis of more than 161,000 check-engine-related repairs made on model-year 1996-2012 vehicles in 2012. "In 2012, we saw a dramatic shift in the top five most expensive states for average car repairs, as many drivers along the East Coast incurred rising auto-repair costs, while they simultaneously contended with Hurricane Sandy's aftermath," CarMD said in a statement. "Car owners in many states also continued to put off small repairs, contributing to cumulative failures with increased repair costs."
CarMD says Hurricane Sandy is the reason why New Jersey car owners doubled the number of trips they made to the service station, initially for flood damage but later for unrelated problems discovered during those trips that led to repairs previously put off. As a result, New Jersey drivers saw a nearly 21% increase in labor rates and an 8.2% increase in parts costs. They also paid more for catalytic converter replacement at $1,112.48; catalytic converter repairs were the second most common reason the check-engine light came on in three of the five states with the highest repair costs, CarMD reported.
Other key findings:
• The most affordable state for auto repair is Vermont, the only Northeastern state to enjoy a decline in average costs in 2012.
• The District of Columbia saw the largest overall increase in repair costs, up 20%, as time-consuming procedures costing more than $1,000 overtook quick fixes with smaller price tags.
• Wyoming had the greatest drop in average repair costs, at 17%, in part attributed to fewer catalytic converter replacements.
• Vermont also had the lowest average labor cost, at $115.90, though still more than a $25 increase from 2011; Colorado's $150.75 was the highest average labor cost.
• New Jersey motorists paid the most for parts on average ($256.28) while Vermont again enjoyed the national low of $153.82.
Click green for further info
Source: cars.com
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The First Thing to Do Before Buying a Car
To (1) save money, to (2) get the best deal and (3) the car best for your needs:
Shop for an auto loan before you set foot in a dealership
& other important info below
Click green for further info
IMPORTANT - APPLY THIS INFORMATION (1) to get the best deal & the best car and (3) save money
A friend tells: a year and a half ago, I bought my first brand-new car. Until then, I’d always bought used. But people are holding on to their cars longer and prices for used cars in good shape with low mileage had risen. As a result, buying new made more sense.
So before I headed out to start my car-buying experience, I had a slew of options for my first step:
Whether you’re buying a new or used car, as long as you plan to finance it, you’ll want to make sure you don’t overlook this crucial step in the car-buying process. And I am not just saying that as a credit expert. Car-buying expert Phil Reed, who has bought at least one car every two months for most of the 12+ years he has worked at Edmunds.com, warned in a recent interview that prospective buyers who don’t take this extra step may pay far more for a car loan than they need to:
IMPORTANT - APPLY THIS INFORMATION
So what happens is they go directly to the dealership without checking their credit scores — which is not a good thing to do — and their attitude is “get me done.” In fact, that’s sort of a slogan that some car salespeople use; this (customer’s attitude) was just “get me done.” And that means that the borrower almost feels that the dealer is doing them a favor by giving them a loan. If they had taken time to check their credit, they might have found that they were in a stronger position. However, what happens is the dealership will go ahead and possibly offer them a loan that’s 2% to 5% higher than it could be… But even two percentage points on a $25,000 loan is going to mean nearly $1,000 to $2,000 more over the term of the loan.
CFPB - The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (links at the end of this article) is also concerned that some buyers are steered into more expensive auto loans. It recently announced that it will be clamping down on potentially “unlawful discriminatory pricing” in auto loans. Its focus is “dealer markups” — where dealers charge more than the rate the lender is offering in order to make more money — which they say can add significantly to the cost of a loan.
When it comes to car loans, we’re talking big bucks: the CFPB says that there was approximately $783 billion in outstanding auto loan debt in 2012 and that auto loans are the third largest source of debt after mortgages and student loans.
Why Does the Dealer’s Score Look Different?
If you do check your credit scores before you start shopping for auto financing, you will probably find that the number the dealer or financial institution sees is different than the number you see. That doesn’t mean your free credit score is wrong. It’s different because there are many credit scores out there, and the credit scores used by the auto industry are usually customized to help them predict how likely the borrower is to pay that type of loan on time.
So when you do check your credit scores, be sure to focus on where you fall in comparison to other consumers, and what areas of your credit are strong — and what might need some work. For example, if you get your free Credit Report Card from Credit.com and earn an “A” in all the factors that make up your credit score, you know you should likely be getting a great rate on your auto loan. But even if some areas rate a “B” or “C” you may still be able to snag a good deal.
Once you know where your credit stands, you can shop for an auto loan before you set foot in a dealership. When you find the car or truck you have to buy, you can take the financing you have already lined up, or let the dealer make you a better offer. Either way you can enjoy your new vehicle knowing that, at least as far as financing goes, you got the best deal possible.
Click green for further info
Source: Internet
____________________________________________
To (1) save money, to (2) get the best deal and (3) the car best for your needs:
Shop for an auto loan before you set foot in a dealership
& other important info below
Click green for further info
IMPORTANT - APPLY THIS INFORMATION (1) to get the best deal & the best car and (3) save money
A friend tells: a year and a half ago, I bought my first brand-new car. Until then, I’d always bought used. But people are holding on to their cars longer and prices for used cars in good shape with low mileage had risen. As a result, buying new made more sense.
So before I headed out to start my car-buying experience, I had a slew of options for my first step:
- Calculate car payments for various loan amounts to figure out what I could afford;
- Use Kelly Blue Book to estimate the value of my trade-in; or
- Scour reviews on Edmunds.com and Consumer Reports to identify the best cars based on reliability and price.
Whether you’re buying a new or used car, as long as you plan to finance it, you’ll want to make sure you don’t overlook this crucial step in the car-buying process. And I am not just saying that as a credit expert. Car-buying expert Phil Reed, who has bought at least one car every two months for most of the 12+ years he has worked at Edmunds.com, warned in a recent interview that prospective buyers who don’t take this extra step may pay far more for a car loan than they need to:
IMPORTANT - APPLY THIS INFORMATION
So what happens is they go directly to the dealership without checking their credit scores — which is not a good thing to do — and their attitude is “get me done.” In fact, that’s sort of a slogan that some car salespeople use; this (customer’s attitude) was just “get me done.” And that means that the borrower almost feels that the dealer is doing them a favor by giving them a loan. If they had taken time to check their credit, they might have found that they were in a stronger position. However, what happens is the dealership will go ahead and possibly offer them a loan that’s 2% to 5% higher than it could be… But even two percentage points on a $25,000 loan is going to mean nearly $1,000 to $2,000 more over the term of the loan.
CFPB - The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (links at the end of this article) is also concerned that some buyers are steered into more expensive auto loans. It recently announced that it will be clamping down on potentially “unlawful discriminatory pricing” in auto loans. Its focus is “dealer markups” — where dealers charge more than the rate the lender is offering in order to make more money — which they say can add significantly to the cost of a loan.
When it comes to car loans, we’re talking big bucks: the CFPB says that there was approximately $783 billion in outstanding auto loan debt in 2012 and that auto loans are the third largest source of debt after mortgages and student loans.
Why Does the Dealer’s Score Look Different?
If you do check your credit scores before you start shopping for auto financing, you will probably find that the number the dealer or financial institution sees is different than the number you see. That doesn’t mean your free credit score is wrong. It’s different because there are many credit scores out there, and the credit scores used by the auto industry are usually customized to help them predict how likely the borrower is to pay that type of loan on time.
So when you do check your credit scores, be sure to focus on where you fall in comparison to other consumers, and what areas of your credit are strong — and what might need some work. For example, if you get your free Credit Report Card from Credit.com and earn an “A” in all the factors that make up your credit score, you know you should likely be getting a great rate on your auto loan. But even if some areas rate a “B” or “C” you may still be able to snag a good deal.
Once you know where your credit stands, you can shop for an auto loan before you set foot in a dealership. When you find the car or truck you have to buy, you can take the financing you have already lined up, or let the dealer make you a better offer. Either way you can enjoy your new vehicle knowing that, at least as far as financing goes, you got the best deal possible.
- CFPB > Consumer Financial Protection Bureau
www.consumerfinance.gov/
Our vision is a consumer finance market place that works for American consumers, responsible providers, and the economy as a whole.
Jobs - Regulations - Submit a complaint - Contact us - About us > Consumer Financial Protection Bureau
www.consumerfinance.gov/the-bureau/
About us. Our mission is to make markets for consumer financial products and services work for Americans — whether they are applying for a mortgage, ... - Submit a complaint > Consumer Financial Protection Bureau
www.consumerfinance.gov/complaint/
Once you submit a complaint. 1. Complaint submitted. You submit a complaint about an issue you have with a company about a consumer financial product or ... - Consumer Financial Protection Bureau - Wikipedia, the free ...
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Consumer_Financial_Protection_Bureau
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) is the federal agency that holds primary responsibility for regulating consumer protection with regards to ...
Function - History - List of Directors of the CFPB - Notes
Click green for further info
Source: Internet
____________________________________________
Want a Car That Gets 117 mpg?
See also the next article below:
Volkswagen reveals the XL1, a 261-mpg Beetle for the 22nd century
Click green for further info
Tell us if you share this frustration. You pull into a gas station, hand over your life savings, fill the tank and - and for what? With gas in the United States averaging $3.31 per gallon this week and the average car getting about 27 mpg in regular driving, you'll just have to hand your life savings over again when you refill next week.
Some gas-electric hybrids can do better than 50 mpg, but not a lot of people own them. Though you spend less on gas, you generally spend more up front on the price of the car. Their batteries are heavy and expensive.
But what if someone offered you a car that could get up to 117 mpg in city driving? A car that would cost about $1,500 less than typical hybrids? It need not look like some pod from a Lady Gagaconcert. When it's not running on gasoline, it uses … the air. There would be a sturdy tank of compressed air in the floor or trunk, recharged by the engine or the brakes.
Peugeot Citroen, the French automaker, has now shown off a prototype for such a system and claims on its website (in French) that it could start selling air-hybrid cars in Europe by 2016. The company, according to European news reports, says that on local streets, the cars would mostly run on compressed air, cutting gasoline use - and costs - by as much as 80 percent. The technology would start in existing subcompact models, the company said, but soon expand to include vehicles of all sizes.
" We are not talking about weird and wacky machines," a company spokesman was quoted as saying. "These are going to be in everyday cars."
Peugeot Citroen says it took on "the challenge of creating an environmentally friendly vehicle," and expects it would also save its customers money. It got some backing from the French government, which, like the U.S. government, is pushing automakers to get better fuel efficiency.
But will it be viable? Peugeot and Citroen, which joined forces in the 1970s, both pulled out of the U.S. market decades ago, and have been losing market share in Europe. It's important for them to look innovative.
So are they on to something big? Or is it just one more concept car that you will never see on the road?
Click green for further info
____________________________________________________________________
See also the next article below: Volkswagen reveals the XL1, a 261-mpg Beetle for the 22nd century
_______________________
See also the next article below:
Volkswagen reveals the XL1, a 261-mpg Beetle for the 22nd century
Click green for further info
Tell us if you share this frustration. You pull into a gas station, hand over your life savings, fill the tank and - and for what? With gas in the United States averaging $3.31 per gallon this week and the average car getting about 27 mpg in regular driving, you'll just have to hand your life savings over again when you refill next week.
Some gas-electric hybrids can do better than 50 mpg, but not a lot of people own them. Though you spend less on gas, you generally spend more up front on the price of the car. Their batteries are heavy and expensive.
But what if someone offered you a car that could get up to 117 mpg in city driving? A car that would cost about $1,500 less than typical hybrids? It need not look like some pod from a Lady Gagaconcert. When it's not running on gasoline, it uses … the air. There would be a sturdy tank of compressed air in the floor or trunk, recharged by the engine or the brakes.
Peugeot Citroen, the French automaker, has now shown off a prototype for such a system and claims on its website (in French) that it could start selling air-hybrid cars in Europe by 2016. The company, according to European news reports, says that on local streets, the cars would mostly run on compressed air, cutting gasoline use - and costs - by as much as 80 percent. The technology would start in existing subcompact models, the company said, but soon expand to include vehicles of all sizes.
" We are not talking about weird and wacky machines," a company spokesman was quoted as saying. "These are going to be in everyday cars."
Peugeot Citroen says it took on "the challenge of creating an environmentally friendly vehicle," and expects it would also save its customers money. It got some backing from the French government, which, like the U.S. government, is pushing automakers to get better fuel efficiency.
But will it be viable? Peugeot and Citroen, which joined forces in the 1970s, both pulled out of the U.S. market decades ago, and have been losing market share in Europe. It's important for them to look innovative.
So are they on to something big? Or is it just one more concept car that you will never see on the road?
Click green for further info
____________________________________________________________________
See also the next article below: Volkswagen reveals the XL1, a 261-mpg Beetle for the 22nd century
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Volkswagen reveals the XL1,
a 261-mpg Beetle for the 22nd century
Eleven years ago, the head of Volkswagen popped out of a capsule-shaped vehicle barely able to hold two people and announced his ambition to construct the most efficient car the world has ever seen. Today, VW revealed the production version of that car known as the XL1, which it vows will travel 261 mpg on a gallon of diesel fuel. It's an amazing engineering feat, a Beetle reborn for the 22nd century — but the world may not be ready for it.
Saving energy in an automobile usually requires running a smaller engine, cutting weight and reducing aerodynamic drag to a minimum, and in the XL1, VW pushes all three steps to their modern limits. Power comes from a two-cylinder, 0.8-liter diesel — essentially half of VW's standard 1.6-liter four-cylinder diesel plant — mounted in the rear of the XL1, linked to a 7-speed transmission, a 5.5 kWh lithium-ion battery and electric motor. The two-seat body of the XL1 has a 0.189 coefficient of drag (a Toyota Prius has a 0.25 Cd) and it weighs just 1,752 lbs., about half of a typical American midsize sedan.
That combination allows the XL1 to travel 31 miles on electricity alone, and over 310 miles on a tank of fuel, for what VW claims is a mileage rating of 261 mpg (or 313 mpg by European standards) — better than any other gas, diesel or electric-powered vehicle. That's twice as efficient as the most miserly car for sale in the United States, the Scion iQ electric — which can only travel 38 miles on a full charge.
To build the XL1, Volkswagen also had to use engineering extremes usually not found outside a racetrack. The body of the XL1 will be made from carbon fiber, although using a process VW claims will be far cheaper than those applied by supercar builders such as Ferrari and Lamborghini. The XL1 will be assembled by hand in a special section of VW's Osnabrueck factory in Germany. And to ensure the safety of the passengers in case the XL1 rolls over, the scissor doors can be blasted open with explosive bolts.
But that efficiency comes with a few sacrifices, with speed first among them. Together, the electric motor and engine produce 68 hp and 103 lb-ft of torque. VW says that's enough to launch the XL1 to 62 mph in 12.7 seconds — although it suggests not doing so. Top speed is limited to 99 mph. And the two seat interior of the XL1 has to look stylish, because there's nothing behind the seats; the XL1 will offer a limited amount of space under the hood. To save weight further, only a cutout of the windows roll down, like the old Subaru SVX.
Given the combination of exotic materials, engineering costs and low-speed, hand-built production, there's no way the XL1 will make a profit for VW. It exists only due to the will of VW Chairman Ferdinand Piech — grandson of Ferdinand Porsche, the designer of the original Beetle — who has pushed VW to refine the idea of the XL1 for more than a decade. For all that VW revealed today, it didn't announce prices, and that's the one bit of data that will determine whether the XL1 makes sense as anything other than a corporate science project.
Source: Yahoo news
________________________________________________________
a 261-mpg Beetle for the 22nd century
Eleven years ago, the head of Volkswagen popped out of a capsule-shaped vehicle barely able to hold two people and announced his ambition to construct the most efficient car the world has ever seen. Today, VW revealed the production version of that car known as the XL1, which it vows will travel 261 mpg on a gallon of diesel fuel. It's an amazing engineering feat, a Beetle reborn for the 22nd century — but the world may not be ready for it.
Saving energy in an automobile usually requires running a smaller engine, cutting weight and reducing aerodynamic drag to a minimum, and in the XL1, VW pushes all three steps to their modern limits. Power comes from a two-cylinder, 0.8-liter diesel — essentially half of VW's standard 1.6-liter four-cylinder diesel plant — mounted in the rear of the XL1, linked to a 7-speed transmission, a 5.5 kWh lithium-ion battery and electric motor. The two-seat body of the XL1 has a 0.189 coefficient of drag (a Toyota Prius has a 0.25 Cd) and it weighs just 1,752 lbs., about half of a typical American midsize sedan.
That combination allows the XL1 to travel 31 miles on electricity alone, and over 310 miles on a tank of fuel, for what VW claims is a mileage rating of 261 mpg (or 313 mpg by European standards) — better than any other gas, diesel or electric-powered vehicle. That's twice as efficient as the most miserly car for sale in the United States, the Scion iQ electric — which can only travel 38 miles on a full charge.
To build the XL1, Volkswagen also had to use engineering extremes usually not found outside a racetrack. The body of the XL1 will be made from carbon fiber, although using a process VW claims will be far cheaper than those applied by supercar builders such as Ferrari and Lamborghini. The XL1 will be assembled by hand in a special section of VW's Osnabrueck factory in Germany. And to ensure the safety of the passengers in case the XL1 rolls over, the scissor doors can be blasted open with explosive bolts.
But that efficiency comes with a few sacrifices, with speed first among them. Together, the electric motor and engine produce 68 hp and 103 lb-ft of torque. VW says that's enough to launch the XL1 to 62 mph in 12.7 seconds — although it suggests not doing so. Top speed is limited to 99 mph. And the two seat interior of the XL1 has to look stylish, because there's nothing behind the seats; the XL1 will offer a limited amount of space under the hood. To save weight further, only a cutout of the windows roll down, like the old Subaru SVX.
Given the combination of exotic materials, engineering costs and low-speed, hand-built production, there's no way the XL1 will make a profit for VW. It exists only due to the will of VW Chairman Ferdinand Piech — grandson of Ferdinand Porsche, the designer of the original Beetle — who has pushed VW to refine the idea of the XL1 for more than a decade. For all that VW revealed today, it didn't announce prices, and that's the one bit of data that will determine whether the XL1 makes sense as anything other than a corporate science project.
Source: Yahoo news
________________________________________________________
Article 1 of 2
2014 Chevrolet Camaro Z/28: the legend returns with more than 500 hp
Date: March 2013
By Alex Lloyd | Motoramic
As an automaker,
when you ignite reactions of ecstatic cheers during an auto show reveal,
you know you’ve done something right.
In the case of Chevy at the New York auto show, they took it a few steps further. The crowd on hand, those on social media, and enthusiasts everywhere erupted in rejoice as General Motors sneakily unveiled the 2014 Camaro Z/28. The most iconic model in Camaro history returns.
We do know the 2014 Chevy Camaro Z/28 marks as the best, and most surprising, machine
at the New York 2013 Auto Show. I’m sure the Ford stand gasped even louder than we did
First introduced in 1967, the original Z/28 featured no automatic transmission or air conditioning. It was a track-ready machine and it held those attributes to heart. Unlike the ’67 Z/28, the 2014 version does not intend to compete in a specific race series, but it still holds true to the original’s core beliefs.
On-track, the 2014 Z/28 promises to be exceptional; lapping three seconds faster per lap than the incredibly proficient Camaro ZL1. Sticking with the numerical three, this speed increase derives from three key areas: chassis modifications improve cornering g to 1.05; carbon-ceramic Brembo brakes offer additional stopping power, and a 300-lb weight reduction over the ZL1 drastically improves handling. The weight shedding stems from lightweight wheels all the way to thinner rear-window glass. Even air conditioning is an option. Naturally, as with the Z/28 of old, a 6-speed manual transmission is all you get, and frankly, we wouldn’t have it any other way.
From a design standpoint, the refreshed Camaro, with its narrow grill, squared off back fenders and boxy rear end, adds to the cartoonish appearance customers are accustomed .To me, the revamped Camaro looks too gimmicky, but those modifications – mixed with additional aggression – work wonders on the Z/28. From being underwhelmed with the base 2014 Camaro, I became one of the many desperately thrashing for my phone to steal the first Flickr pic.
The power plant utilized on the Z/28 marks the motor first introduced on the Corvette Z06. The 7.0-liter V-8 produces at least 500 hp and 470 lb. ft. of torque – an 80-hp decrease over the 6.2-liter ZL1. What matters, however, is that the Z/28’s engine offers a significant weight reduction, making the slight horsepower deficit immaterial.
The interior will feel familiar for Camaro lovers, with subtle aspects trimmed to save mass. The tiny rear seats remain, but eliminate the seat-back pass through as well as using high-density foam in place of rigid structural elements. All but one speaker has been removed in the quest for reducing the pound figure; one remains purely so as the seat belt warning signal can sound if you forget to buckle up.
“Our goal,” said Al Oppenheiser, Camaro chief engineer, “was to make the fastest road-racing Camaro possible that was still street legal. The Z/28 will be too track-focused for most drivers, but offers road-racers one of the most capable track cars ever offered from an automaker.”
That’s a bold statement, but having spent hours hustling the incredibly capable ZL1 on track, I’m not going to pass judgment just yet. With improved lap-times of around three seconds, that statement might be on the money. We don’t yet know prices or speed statistics, but what we do know marks the 2014 Chevy Camaro Z/28 as the best, and most surprising, machine at the New York Auto Show. I’m sure the Ford stand gasped even louder than we did.
Click green for further info
_________________________________________
2014 Chevrolet Camaro Z/28: the legend returns with more than 500 hp
Date: March 2013
By Alex Lloyd | Motoramic
As an automaker,
when you ignite reactions of ecstatic cheers during an auto show reveal,
you know you’ve done something right.
In the case of Chevy at the New York auto show, they took it a few steps further. The crowd on hand, those on social media, and enthusiasts everywhere erupted in rejoice as General Motors sneakily unveiled the 2014 Camaro Z/28. The most iconic model in Camaro history returns.
We do know the 2014 Chevy Camaro Z/28 marks as the best, and most surprising, machine
at the New York 2013 Auto Show. I’m sure the Ford stand gasped even louder than we did
First introduced in 1967, the original Z/28 featured no automatic transmission or air conditioning. It was a track-ready machine and it held those attributes to heart. Unlike the ’67 Z/28, the 2014 version does not intend to compete in a specific race series, but it still holds true to the original’s core beliefs.
On-track, the 2014 Z/28 promises to be exceptional; lapping three seconds faster per lap than the incredibly proficient Camaro ZL1. Sticking with the numerical three, this speed increase derives from three key areas: chassis modifications improve cornering g to 1.05; carbon-ceramic Brembo brakes offer additional stopping power, and a 300-lb weight reduction over the ZL1 drastically improves handling. The weight shedding stems from lightweight wheels all the way to thinner rear-window glass. Even air conditioning is an option. Naturally, as with the Z/28 of old, a 6-speed manual transmission is all you get, and frankly, we wouldn’t have it any other way.
From a design standpoint, the refreshed Camaro, with its narrow grill, squared off back fenders and boxy rear end, adds to the cartoonish appearance customers are accustomed .To me, the revamped Camaro looks too gimmicky, but those modifications – mixed with additional aggression – work wonders on the Z/28. From being underwhelmed with the base 2014 Camaro, I became one of the many desperately thrashing for my phone to steal the first Flickr pic.
The power plant utilized on the Z/28 marks the motor first introduced on the Corvette Z06. The 7.0-liter V-8 produces at least 500 hp and 470 lb. ft. of torque – an 80-hp decrease over the 6.2-liter ZL1. What matters, however, is that the Z/28’s engine offers a significant weight reduction, making the slight horsepower deficit immaterial.
The interior will feel familiar for Camaro lovers, with subtle aspects trimmed to save mass. The tiny rear seats remain, but eliminate the seat-back pass through as well as using high-density foam in place of rigid structural elements. All but one speaker has been removed in the quest for reducing the pound figure; one remains purely so as the seat belt warning signal can sound if you forget to buckle up.
“Our goal,” said Al Oppenheiser, Camaro chief engineer, “was to make the fastest road-racing Camaro possible that was still street legal. The Z/28 will be too track-focused for most drivers, but offers road-racers one of the most capable track cars ever offered from an automaker.”
That’s a bold statement, but having spent hours hustling the incredibly capable ZL1 on track, I’m not going to pass judgment just yet. With improved lap-times of around three seconds, that statement might be on the money. We don’t yet know prices or speed statistics, but what we do know marks the 2014 Chevy Camaro Z/28 as the best, and most surprising, machine at the New York Auto Show. I’m sure the Ford stand gasped even louder than we did.
Click green for further info
_________________________________________
Article 2 of 2
All-new 2014 Cadillac CTS sedan treads lightly, brings a 420-hp stick
Date: March 2013
Click green for further info
If there's one car that's shown what General Motors could accomplish throughout its downfall and comeback, it's the Cadillac CTS. A favorite of enthusiasts and Consumer Reports alike — which dubbed it the best domestic-built car — the CTS made Cadillac a player among buyers who had previously only considered German or Japanese cars. Late this year, GM will launch this, the third generation of the CTS, with a goal of building a car that ranks among the world's best — a target that's closer that you may think.
Based on a lengthened version of the ATS chassis, the CTS manages to grow in dimensions while shedding weight, a unique trick among portly 21st-century cars. And as with the CTS, Cadillac makes no excuses for comparing itself to the competition, noting that the CTS comes in about 200 lbs. lighter in base trim than a BMW 528i, the sales leader among luxury midsize sedans in the United States.
The original CTS launched the "art and science" design of Cadillacs, evoking the skin of a stealth fighter. The new CTS plays more conservative in most dimensions — especially in a side view — but has enough details to avoid confusion with the ATS from a distance. The front has grown more agressive, with a wider grille and multiple hood strakes launching toward the windshield, which has been lowered for an angrier stance.
But the major changes in the CTS lie under the sheetmetal. As with the ATS, the base models come with a turbocharged 2-liter, four-cylinder engine and six-speed automatic, good in the CTS for 272 hp. The 3.6-liter V-6 volume engine gets a slight power boost to 321 hp; more notably, it's tied to GM's first eight-speed automatic, a choice that should improve the CTS' fuel economy without sacrificing much in performance. At the top of the range now lies a twin-turbo version of the 3.6 that churns 420 hp in a special CTS Vsport model — more than the V-8 versions of the BMW and Mercedes classmates. A true CTS-V successor that would wrestle the AMGs and M6s lies at least a year away; Cadillac will also continue building the striking coupe and wagon versions of the current model through 2014.
GM has been known in past eras for attempting to sell dated technology as luxury, but the 2014 CTS offers more performance gadgetry than any other GM vehicle save the new Corvette Stingray. The magnetic ride shocks once reserved for the CTS-V now come as an option on even base models; the LED lights are standard, and the car boasts a 50-50 front-rear weight balance. And like all up-to-date modern luxury cars, the Cadillac can parallel park itself.
Inside, the CTS gets a freshened interior with real wood accents and the controversial CUE entertainment/heating system, the black-and-chrome panel with 8-inch touchscreen that's far better than Ford's SYNC but still not as intuitive to use while in motion as the German knob controls.
CTS sales fell in 2012, even as the rest of the market grew, as buyers shunned the aging model in favor of the new ATS. Cadillac also fights a reputation for dealmaking that BMW and Mercedes don't share, even though the German firms turned up the wick in their own sales battles. At the level of cars that can cost $60,000 or more, value often depends on residuals and lease calculations, a gambit on how much a car will be worth after a few years of driving. Winning that gambit requires building a car that can maintain its attractiveness — not just in the United States, but in China as well, where Cadillac spearheads GM's future expansion plans. If Cadillac can deliver on the promise the new CTS portends, that future looks brighter than ever.
Click green for further info
_______________________________________
All-new 2014 Cadillac CTS sedan treads lightly, brings a 420-hp stick
Date: March 2013
Click green for further info
If there's one car that's shown what General Motors could accomplish throughout its downfall and comeback, it's the Cadillac CTS. A favorite of enthusiasts and Consumer Reports alike — which dubbed it the best domestic-built car — the CTS made Cadillac a player among buyers who had previously only considered German or Japanese cars. Late this year, GM will launch this, the third generation of the CTS, with a goal of building a car that ranks among the world's best — a target that's closer that you may think.
Based on a lengthened version of the ATS chassis, the CTS manages to grow in dimensions while shedding weight, a unique trick among portly 21st-century cars. And as with the CTS, Cadillac makes no excuses for comparing itself to the competition, noting that the CTS comes in about 200 lbs. lighter in base trim than a BMW 528i, the sales leader among luxury midsize sedans in the United States.
The original CTS launched the "art and science" design of Cadillacs, evoking the skin of a stealth fighter. The new CTS plays more conservative in most dimensions — especially in a side view — but has enough details to avoid confusion with the ATS from a distance. The front has grown more agressive, with a wider grille and multiple hood strakes launching toward the windshield, which has been lowered for an angrier stance.
But the major changes in the CTS lie under the sheetmetal. As with the ATS, the base models come with a turbocharged 2-liter, four-cylinder engine and six-speed automatic, good in the CTS for 272 hp. The 3.6-liter V-6 volume engine gets a slight power boost to 321 hp; more notably, it's tied to GM's first eight-speed automatic, a choice that should improve the CTS' fuel economy without sacrificing much in performance. At the top of the range now lies a twin-turbo version of the 3.6 that churns 420 hp in a special CTS Vsport model — more than the V-8 versions of the BMW and Mercedes classmates. A true CTS-V successor that would wrestle the AMGs and M6s lies at least a year away; Cadillac will also continue building the striking coupe and wagon versions of the current model through 2014.
GM has been known in past eras for attempting to sell dated technology as luxury, but the 2014 CTS offers more performance gadgetry than any other GM vehicle save the new Corvette Stingray. The magnetic ride shocks once reserved for the CTS-V now come as an option on even base models; the LED lights are standard, and the car boasts a 50-50 front-rear weight balance. And like all up-to-date modern luxury cars, the Cadillac can parallel park itself.
Inside, the CTS gets a freshened interior with real wood accents and the controversial CUE entertainment/heating system, the black-and-chrome panel with 8-inch touchscreen that's far better than Ford's SYNC but still not as intuitive to use while in motion as the German knob controls.
CTS sales fell in 2012, even as the rest of the market grew, as buyers shunned the aging model in favor of the new ATS. Cadillac also fights a reputation for dealmaking that BMW and Mercedes don't share, even though the German firms turned up the wick in their own sales battles. At the level of cars that can cost $60,000 or more, value often depends on residuals and lease calculations, a gambit on how much a car will be worth after a few years of driving. Winning that gambit requires building a car that can maintain its attractiveness — not just in the United States, but in China as well, where Cadillac spearheads GM's future expansion plans. If Cadillac can deliver on the promise the new CTS portends, that future looks brighter than ever.
Click green for further info
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How to Make Your Car Last 200,000 Miles - and Beyond
By Katie LaBarre
U.S.News & World Report LP
Wed, Jun 27, 2012
Click green for further info
Last October, the odometer in Joe LoCicero's 1990 Honda Accord rolled past the 1 million-mile mark. He's a damage claims inspector who reportedly drives his Accord about 62,500 miles every year. Honda not only gave "Million Mile Joe" a new Accord, but organized a parade in his home town in Maine in honor of the milestone.
Not many of us will own a car long enough to drive it a million miles, since most of us drive our cars about 15,000 miles per year, according to AAA. But experts agree that basic maintenance can help you stretch your car to 200,000 miles and beyond.
[Related: 5 money-saving DIY tips for car owners]
Read Your Owner's Manual - and Follow it
Joe Malizia Sr., owner of Bel Air Fast Lube in Maryland, says the best thing you can do is read your owner's manual as soon as you bring your new car home, and find out what your car's maintenance schedule is, since keeping up with the recommended maintenance schedule can prolong your car's life significantly. It may seem like a hassle to have to visit your mechanic every few months, and some may lament the higher price of the premium gas that's recommended for their car. But following those simple directions can prevent unnecessary problems that will wear your car out prematurely.
John Lawlor, technical advisor at NPR's Car Talk, agrees, saying "the least-read book in the world is the owner's manual." He adds that not only is maintaining your oil and fluids important, but keeping your tires properly inflated to the owner's manual's specs is another important factor to keeping your car on the road. Though making regular visits to the mechanic for normal maintenance may seem like the expenses will add up quickly, you'll most often be saving yourself lots of money in expensive repairs down the road. Like Lawlor says, "It is the cheapskate who spends the most."
Get Personal With Your Car
Unless you're a gearhead, you probably won't know how to change your spark plugs, or what makes your electronic stability control system kick in. But knowing basics like how to check your oil level and paying attention to your car when something feels wrong could save you a big repair bill down the road, say both Malizia and Lawlor.
[Related: 14 Things You Should Always Buy Used]
Malizia also says that it's very important to pay attention to your warning lights. Your vehicle's monitoring systems are there for a reason, and it's better to nip a problem in the bud rather than to let it escalate to catastrophic proportions that could keep you from reaching that 200,000-mile mark.
Lawlor says that one of the most important things you can do is keep your car clean. The paint on today's cars can be damaged by simple things like bird droppings, acid rain or sap. Always having a coat of wax on your car will prevent the paint from being damaged, which can keep the metal from rusting. Additionally, Lawlor says you should make sure you keep your interior clean. Dirt on your seats or dash can act like sandpaper, grinding into the surface every time you touch it.
Find a Mechanic You Can Trust
One of the best ways to ensure that your car is well taken-care of for the long haul is to find a mechanic you trust, Malizia says. We've all heard horror stories about garages charging unsuspecting customers for fictional "blinker fluid" problems, or going in to fix one problem and finding 15 more. But most technicians are honest and up-front, and building a relationship with a mechanic you trust will help you as you push your car past that 200,000-mile mark.
[Related: Debunking Fuel-Economy Myths]
Lawlor suggests taking later-model cars to the dealership, especially if they're under warranty. The more recent the car's model year, the more complex it's likely to be, and dealership technicians undergo specific training so they know your car like the back of their hand. While the dealership is likely worth the money for newer models, Lawlor says that you'll be better off taking cars that are more than 10 years old to your local mom-and-pop repair shop. They'll know the basics of your car well enough to perform maintenance like changing the brake pads, but most won't charge you as much as a dealership might.
No matter how you take care of your car, accidents are bound to happen and mechanical failures may be beyond your control. Properly maintaining your car will keep it on the road longer and will get you a higher price when it's time to sell it or trade it in. Take it from Joe Malizia: The highest-mileage car he's seen in his shop is his own 1993 Ford Taurus SHO, which is still going strong after 19 years and 238,000 miles.
More From US News & World Report
By Katie LaBarre
U.S.News & World Report LP
Wed, Jun 27, 2012
Click green for further info
Last October, the odometer in Joe LoCicero's 1990 Honda Accord rolled past the 1 million-mile mark. He's a damage claims inspector who reportedly drives his Accord about 62,500 miles every year. Honda not only gave "Million Mile Joe" a new Accord, but organized a parade in his home town in Maine in honor of the milestone.
Not many of us will own a car long enough to drive it a million miles, since most of us drive our cars about 15,000 miles per year, according to AAA. But experts agree that basic maintenance can help you stretch your car to 200,000 miles and beyond.
[Related: 5 money-saving DIY tips for car owners]
Read Your Owner's Manual - and Follow it
Joe Malizia Sr., owner of Bel Air Fast Lube in Maryland, says the best thing you can do is read your owner's manual as soon as you bring your new car home, and find out what your car's maintenance schedule is, since keeping up with the recommended maintenance schedule can prolong your car's life significantly. It may seem like a hassle to have to visit your mechanic every few months, and some may lament the higher price of the premium gas that's recommended for their car. But following those simple directions can prevent unnecessary problems that will wear your car out prematurely.
John Lawlor, technical advisor at NPR's Car Talk, agrees, saying "the least-read book in the world is the owner's manual." He adds that not only is maintaining your oil and fluids important, but keeping your tires properly inflated to the owner's manual's specs is another important factor to keeping your car on the road. Though making regular visits to the mechanic for normal maintenance may seem like the expenses will add up quickly, you'll most often be saving yourself lots of money in expensive repairs down the road. Like Lawlor says, "It is the cheapskate who spends the most."
Get Personal With Your Car
Unless you're a gearhead, you probably won't know how to change your spark plugs, or what makes your electronic stability control system kick in. But knowing basics like how to check your oil level and paying attention to your car when something feels wrong could save you a big repair bill down the road, say both Malizia and Lawlor.
[Related: 14 Things You Should Always Buy Used]
Malizia also says that it's very important to pay attention to your warning lights. Your vehicle's monitoring systems are there for a reason, and it's better to nip a problem in the bud rather than to let it escalate to catastrophic proportions that could keep you from reaching that 200,000-mile mark.
Lawlor says that one of the most important things you can do is keep your car clean. The paint on today's cars can be damaged by simple things like bird droppings, acid rain or sap. Always having a coat of wax on your car will prevent the paint from being damaged, which can keep the metal from rusting. Additionally, Lawlor says you should make sure you keep your interior clean. Dirt on your seats or dash can act like sandpaper, grinding into the surface every time you touch it.
Find a Mechanic You Can Trust
One of the best ways to ensure that your car is well taken-care of for the long haul is to find a mechanic you trust, Malizia says. We've all heard horror stories about garages charging unsuspecting customers for fictional "blinker fluid" problems, or going in to fix one problem and finding 15 more. But most technicians are honest and up-front, and building a relationship with a mechanic you trust will help you as you push your car past that 200,000-mile mark.
[Related: Debunking Fuel-Economy Myths]
Lawlor suggests taking later-model cars to the dealership, especially if they're under warranty. The more recent the car's model year, the more complex it's likely to be, and dealership technicians undergo specific training so they know your car like the back of their hand. While the dealership is likely worth the money for newer models, Lawlor says that you'll be better off taking cars that are more than 10 years old to your local mom-and-pop repair shop. They'll know the basics of your car well enough to perform maintenance like changing the brake pads, but most won't charge you as much as a dealership might.
No matter how you take care of your car, accidents are bound to happen and mechanical failures may be beyond your control. Properly maintaining your car will keep it on the road longer and will get you a higher price when it's time to sell it or trade it in. Take it from Joe Malizia: The highest-mileage car he's seen in his shop is his own 1993 Ford Taurus SHO, which is still going strong after 19 years and 238,000 miles.
More From US News & World Report
- U.S. News Car Rankings
- Best Cars for the Money
- Best Cars for Families
- Click green for further info _________________________
5 Vehicles
You Want to Drive in a Rainstorm
Building cars for slick surfaces
PORTLAND, Ore. (The Street) --Basing a car-buying decision around a weather-related variable such as rain may not be the wisest decision, but as spring stretches toward summer it'll seem far more sound with each passing squall.
According to the Department of Transportation's Federal Highway Administration, wet roads account for roughly 1.13 million crashes each year, 75% of all weather-related crashes and 18% of vehicle crashes overall. That number shrinks only somewhat to 707,000 crashes, or 47% of weather-related crashes and 11% of all crashes, when you narrow wet-pavement incidents down to just rain.
Still, those crashes in rainy conditions injure more than 330,000 people each year and kill 3,300. That's roughly 50% of all weather-related injuries and deaths. To put that into perspective, that makes rain more dangerous to U.S. drivers than snow, ice and fog combined.
Even if you make it through the worst rainstorms unscathed, they're more than enough to affect your commute severely. Light rain reduces traffic flow 2% to 13% percent in light rain, while heavier rain slows things down 6% to 17%. If you live in the Pacific Northwest, where rain is a much an absolute truth as the sun rising and setting, or in Florida or along the Gulf Coast where even storms just passing through can wreak havoc, everybody else's spring showers are just your standard nightmare.
Despite what sunny, coastal car commercials may lead you to believe, automakers are well aware of wet weather woes and have made tweaks such as rain-sensing wipers and bigger features such as all-wheel drive part of their arsenal. We spoke with Jack Nerad, executive editorial director at Kelley Blue Book and got his take on which automobiles are best built to survive multiple outings on slick roads. With his help and a bit of digging on our own, we came up with five vehicles that can help you drive straight through those spring downpours:
Subaru Legacy
MSRP: $20,295
As Nerad points out, standard all-wheel drive makes just about any Subaru a great rain ride.
The Legacy gets a leg up for being the standard sedan-style utilitarian-mobile that U.S. commuters love, which makes it a bit of rarity among the larger all-wheel-drive crossovers on this list. Combined with a stability control system that maintains traction by distributing steering and braking controls evenly and a brake assist feature that provides more stopping power in emergency situations, that all-wheel-drive gives the Legacy a better grip on the road than its midsized competition. In weather for which stopping and skidding are key concerns, the sturdy Legacy's nimble braking and suspension have you covered.
Acura MDX
MSRP: $43.280
So begins the parade of big, honking, all-wheel-drive crossovers.
The MDX draws eyes with its 300-horsepower V6 engine and seven-passenger seating, but it's the Super Handling All-Wheel-Drive that keeps power distributed to the wheels that need it the most and makes the MDX a monster on slick roads. An optional Active Damper System lets drivers adjust shock absorbers to sharpen handling, while an optional Collision Mitigation Braking System warns drivers when they need to apply more pressure to the brakes. It's Honda's (HMC) pricey luxury brand, so you're paying more for climate control, GPS, navigation and speakers than you are for safety, but the vehicle's overall stability is the sweetest perk of the bunch.
Ford (F) Explorer
MSRP: $29,100
Tons of cargo capacity, room for seven and a variety of road-grabbing suspension features? That's basically a rainy day school bus and grocery getter.
Its available Terrain Management System allows for a more aggressive throttle and less sensitive stability control in the mud, throws maximum torque to the wheels in sand and minimizes wheel slippage in the rain. The accompanying Intelligent Four-Wheel-Drive also includes Hill Descent Control to keep your car at a steady speed on steep grades and Curve Control that automatically slows the car on wet pavement when it senses you're going too fast. On top of all of that, the standard AdvanceTrac with Roll Stability Control uses gyroscopic sensors that detect wheel slippage and rolling motion to prevent catastrophic skids in wet weather.
Range Rover Evoque
MSRP: $42,040
Considering it was built to ford streams, the Evoque compact luxury crossover is undeterred by a little drizzle.
The Evoque comes standard with Range Rover's Terrain Response system that shifts power and stability when the driver chooses conditions including rain, mud and sand. The system's stability control, traction control and Hill Start and Descent Assist keep it moving forward in the most adverse conditions and keep it from losing balance with the blacktop gets too slick. Again, this is a luxury model, so your cash is going more toward the leather interior, aluminum finish, speakers and touchscreen communications and entertainment system, but the Range Rover is built primarily for the elements. With all that stability control, you're in good hands.
Volvo S60
MSRP: $31,900
The Swedish may know just a little bit about building cars for slick surfaces. Snow is Volvo's most hated foe and accounts for many of the safety features and stability options on its automobiles.
Even the S60 sports sedan comes equipped with all wheel drive to go with a powerful 250-horsepower engine. Options such as Adaptive Cruise controls that warns drivers about their following distance, a collision warning system that detects pedestrians and brakes automatically, a sensor that lets drivers know when they've drifted out of a lane and City Safety to help drivers brake automatically in stop-and-go traffic all also come in handy during a downpour.
Don't let that sporty exterior fool you: The S60 is just as safe as its boxier Volvo predecessors.
Source: The Street
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You Want to Drive in a Rainstorm
Building cars for slick surfaces
PORTLAND, Ore. (The Street) --Basing a car-buying decision around a weather-related variable such as rain may not be the wisest decision, but as spring stretches toward summer it'll seem far more sound with each passing squall.
According to the Department of Transportation's Federal Highway Administration, wet roads account for roughly 1.13 million crashes each year, 75% of all weather-related crashes and 18% of vehicle crashes overall. That number shrinks only somewhat to 707,000 crashes, or 47% of weather-related crashes and 11% of all crashes, when you narrow wet-pavement incidents down to just rain.
Still, those crashes in rainy conditions injure more than 330,000 people each year and kill 3,300. That's roughly 50% of all weather-related injuries and deaths. To put that into perspective, that makes rain more dangerous to U.S. drivers than snow, ice and fog combined.
Even if you make it through the worst rainstorms unscathed, they're more than enough to affect your commute severely. Light rain reduces traffic flow 2% to 13% percent in light rain, while heavier rain slows things down 6% to 17%. If you live in the Pacific Northwest, where rain is a much an absolute truth as the sun rising and setting, or in Florida or along the Gulf Coast where even storms just passing through can wreak havoc, everybody else's spring showers are just your standard nightmare.
Despite what sunny, coastal car commercials may lead you to believe, automakers are well aware of wet weather woes and have made tweaks such as rain-sensing wipers and bigger features such as all-wheel drive part of their arsenal. We spoke with Jack Nerad, executive editorial director at Kelley Blue Book and got his take on which automobiles are best built to survive multiple outings on slick roads. With his help and a bit of digging on our own, we came up with five vehicles that can help you drive straight through those spring downpours:
Subaru Legacy
MSRP: $20,295
As Nerad points out, standard all-wheel drive makes just about any Subaru a great rain ride.
The Legacy gets a leg up for being the standard sedan-style utilitarian-mobile that U.S. commuters love, which makes it a bit of rarity among the larger all-wheel-drive crossovers on this list. Combined with a stability control system that maintains traction by distributing steering and braking controls evenly and a brake assist feature that provides more stopping power in emergency situations, that all-wheel-drive gives the Legacy a better grip on the road than its midsized competition. In weather for which stopping and skidding are key concerns, the sturdy Legacy's nimble braking and suspension have you covered.
Acura MDX
MSRP: $43.280
So begins the parade of big, honking, all-wheel-drive crossovers.
The MDX draws eyes with its 300-horsepower V6 engine and seven-passenger seating, but it's the Super Handling All-Wheel-Drive that keeps power distributed to the wheels that need it the most and makes the MDX a monster on slick roads. An optional Active Damper System lets drivers adjust shock absorbers to sharpen handling, while an optional Collision Mitigation Braking System warns drivers when they need to apply more pressure to the brakes. It's Honda's (HMC) pricey luxury brand, so you're paying more for climate control, GPS, navigation and speakers than you are for safety, but the vehicle's overall stability is the sweetest perk of the bunch.
Ford (F) Explorer
MSRP: $29,100
Tons of cargo capacity, room for seven and a variety of road-grabbing suspension features? That's basically a rainy day school bus and grocery getter.
Its available Terrain Management System allows for a more aggressive throttle and less sensitive stability control in the mud, throws maximum torque to the wheels in sand and minimizes wheel slippage in the rain. The accompanying Intelligent Four-Wheel-Drive also includes Hill Descent Control to keep your car at a steady speed on steep grades and Curve Control that automatically slows the car on wet pavement when it senses you're going too fast. On top of all of that, the standard AdvanceTrac with Roll Stability Control uses gyroscopic sensors that detect wheel slippage and rolling motion to prevent catastrophic skids in wet weather.
Range Rover Evoque
MSRP: $42,040
Considering it was built to ford streams, the Evoque compact luxury crossover is undeterred by a little drizzle.
The Evoque comes standard with Range Rover's Terrain Response system that shifts power and stability when the driver chooses conditions including rain, mud and sand. The system's stability control, traction control and Hill Start and Descent Assist keep it moving forward in the most adverse conditions and keep it from losing balance with the blacktop gets too slick. Again, this is a luxury model, so your cash is going more toward the leather interior, aluminum finish, speakers and touchscreen communications and entertainment system, but the Range Rover is built primarily for the elements. With all that stability control, you're in good hands.
Volvo S60
MSRP: $31,900
The Swedish may know just a little bit about building cars for slick surfaces. Snow is Volvo's most hated foe and accounts for many of the safety features and stability options on its automobiles.
Even the S60 sports sedan comes equipped with all wheel drive to go with a powerful 250-horsepower engine. Options such as Adaptive Cruise controls that warns drivers about their following distance, a collision warning system that detects pedestrians and brakes automatically, a sensor that lets drivers know when they've drifted out of a lane and City Safety to help drivers brake automatically in stop-and-go traffic all also come in handy during a downpour.
Don't let that sporty exterior fool you: The S60 is just as safe as its boxier Volvo predecessors.
Source: The Street
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Volvo designs world’s first
cyclist-saving automatic brakes
Date: March: 2013
In cities around the world, bicyclists and motorists have an uneasy relationship, what with more vehicles powered by pedals and fossil fuels taking up the same space.
In the United States, about 52,000 cyclists a year are injured in crashes,
with 612 dying in 2010 according to federal statistics
In an attempt to give cyclists a fighting chance, Volvo will soon fit a system to new models that scans the road ahead for cyclists — and automatically slams the brakes if the car's about to strike one.
Based on a technology Volvo has built into cars since 2010 designed to prevent pedestrian accidents, Volvo's system includes a radar unit behind the car's grille, a camera in front of the interior rear-view mirror and central processors. The radar signals the speed and location of the obstacles ahead, while the camera identifies potential cyclists, and both keep an electronic eye on moving objects. If both sensors believe the car is closing in on the cyclist too quickly, they will flash a warning light and pulses the brakes up to full power without the driver's input.
Volvo says it will add the cyclist-spotting tech to all of its models by mid-May 2013.
It's part of a larger safety campaign by the Swedish-Chinese automaker, which has a goal of ending fatal accidents in or around Volvos by 2020. Such automatic systems have been rare and somewhat lukewarmly received to date, and how well the technology works in every situation remains untested. But if Volvo's advances prove successful, a few grateful cyclists might even switch from two wheels to four.
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cyclist-saving automatic brakes
Date: March: 2013
In cities around the world, bicyclists and motorists have an uneasy relationship, what with more vehicles powered by pedals and fossil fuels taking up the same space.
In the United States, about 52,000 cyclists a year are injured in crashes,
with 612 dying in 2010 according to federal statistics
In an attempt to give cyclists a fighting chance, Volvo will soon fit a system to new models that scans the road ahead for cyclists — and automatically slams the brakes if the car's about to strike one.
Based on a technology Volvo has built into cars since 2010 designed to prevent pedestrian accidents, Volvo's system includes a radar unit behind the car's grille, a camera in front of the interior rear-view mirror and central processors. The radar signals the speed and location of the obstacles ahead, while the camera identifies potential cyclists, and both keep an electronic eye on moving objects. If both sensors believe the car is closing in on the cyclist too quickly, they will flash a warning light and pulses the brakes up to full power without the driver's input.
Volvo says it will add the cyclist-spotting tech to all of its models by mid-May 2013.
It's part of a larger safety campaign by the Swedish-Chinese automaker, which has a goal of ending fatal accidents in or around Volvos by 2020. Such automatic systems have been rare and somewhat lukewarmly received to date, and how well the technology works in every situation remains untested. But if Volvo's advances prove successful, a few grateful cyclists might even switch from two wheels to four.
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New Cars Increasingly Out of Reach for Many Americans
Date: February, 2013
Looking to buy a new car, truck or crossover?
You may find it more difficult to stretch the household budget than you expected, according to a new study
that finds median-income families in only one major U.S. city
actually can afford the typical new vehicle
The typical new vehicle is now more expensive than ever, averaging $30,500 in 2012, according to TrueCar.com data, and heading up again as makers curb the incentives that helped make their products more affordable during the recession when they were desperate for sales.
According to the 2013 Car Affordability Study by Interest.com, only in Washington could the typical household swing the payments, the median income there running $86,680 a year. At the other extreme, Tampa, Fla., was at the bottom of the 25 large cities included in the study, with a median household income of $43,832.
The study looked at a variety of household expenses, such as food and housing, and when it comes to purchasing a new vehicle, it considered more than just the basic purchase price, down payment and monthly note, factoring in such essentials as taxes and insurance.
More From CNBC: The Detroit Auto Show's Hottest Cars click green
Bottom line? A buyer in the capital can purchase a car with a sticker price of $31,940, slightly more than the new vehicle average for the 2013 model year and about what it would cost for a mid-range Ford Fusion sedan or a stripped-down BMW X1 crossover. The buyer in Tampa? They'll just barely cover the cost of a basic Kia Rio, with $14,516 to spend.
"If you live in New York City or San Francisco, you're probably going to have to pay a lot for housing, but you don't have to pay a lot for a car," said Mike Sante, the managing editor of Interest.com, a financial decision-making website.
Affordability has been a matter of growing concern for the auto industry in recent years as prices have continued to move upward. Even the most basic of today's cars are generally loaded with features that were once found on high-line models a few decades back - if they were available at all - such as air conditioning, power windows, airbags and electronic stability control, as well as digital infotainment systems. They also have to meet ever tougher federal safety, emissions and mileage standards that have added thousands to the typical price tag.
More From CNBC: Must-Have Super Car: $1.6 Million and Not Yet Legal click green
"The average compact car of today has the features of a midsize model somebody might be trading in - but it may be just as expensive," said David Sargent, director of automotive operations for J.D. Power and Associates.
That is one reason why many buyers have been downsizing in recent years, said Bill Fay, general manager of Toyota, though he added that "there is still a lot of affordability in the marketplace."
Perhaps, but industry planners have come to recognize that they are targeting a much smaller segment of the American public than in decades past. That's one reason why most manufacturers are offering more downsized models.
They also are working with their dealers to offer certified pre-owned programs where buyers can stretch their budget by purchasing a two- or three-year-old vehicle that has gone through an extensive inspection and, if necessary, repairs and replacements. Such vehicles may cost slightly more than a conventional used model but usually include a like-new warranty.
( More From CNBC: 10 Cars That You Will Never Drive ) click green
While the typical new vehicle will likely nudge up this year, Interest.com editor Sante stressed that car costs are one of the most controllable parts of a household's budget. "You're better off driving something more affordable and saving or investing the difference."
If the typical new car costs $30,550, with an average monthly payment of $550, the five cities most able to meet - or come close - are:
1) Washington
Average Household Income: $86,680
Affordable Purchase Price: $31,940
Maximum monthly payment: $628
2) San Francisco
Average Household Income: $71,975
Affordable Purchase Price: $26,786
Maximum monthly payment: $537
3) Boston
Average Household Income: $69.455
Affordable Purchase Price: $26,025
Maximum monthly payment: $507
4) Baltimore
Average Household Income: $65,463
Affordable Purchase Price: $24,079
Maximum monthly payment: $468
5) Minneapolis
Average Household Income: $63,352
Affordable Purchase Price: $24,042
Maximum monthly payment: $470
At the other end of the scale, those five cities least able to handle a car payment are:
21) Phoenix
Average Household Income: $50,058
Affordable Purchase Price: $17,243
Maximum monthly payment: $348
22) San Antonio
Average Household Income: $48,699
Affordable Purchase Price: $17,137
Maximum monthly payment: $334
23) Detroit
Average Household Income: $48,968
Affordable Purchase Price: $17,093
Maximum monthly payment: $332
24) Miami
Average Household Income: $45,407
Affordable Purchase Price: $15,188
Maximum monthly payment: $295
25) Tampa
Average Household Income: $43,832
Affordable Purchase Price: $14,516
Maximum monthly payment: $282
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- US economy showing strength as spending cuts loom Source: Internet ______________________
This article shows all being possible
Woman gets ticket for driving 2 mph under speed limit
Click green for further info
A Maryland woman has gotten a very unusual speeding ticket for driving a mere two miles under the speed limit on Interstate 95.
Local NBC affiliate News4 reports that the woman, who asked to keep her name anonymous, was driving 63 miles per hour in a 65-mph zone. Police say the reason they ticketed her was that she was driving in the left lane reserved for speedier commuters.
"[I was] really shocked," she told the station. "I thought, 'Oh my God, you've got to be kidding me.'"
Of course, commuters who get annoyed by someone hogging the right lane might salute the move.
However, the woman noted the area was experiencing heavy winds at the time and she was only driving under the speed limit as a safety precaution. She also claimed to have never been ticketed before.
"Sometimes when it's dangerous, you have to do what you can to stay safe," she said.
She has one ally on her side: the local branch of AAA.
"The reason [the ticket] is silly is because it's sending the wrong message," said John Townsend of AAA Mid-Atlantic. "And that is, 'We will tolerate you driving at more than the speed limit, but it you drive below the speed limit, then you're penalized for that.'"
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Digital Proof of Car Insurance
More States Weigh Digital Car Insurance Cards
I was stopped a while back by a police officer because the registration sticker on my car's license plate had expired. After digging my dog-eared insurance card out of my wallet, I realized that it was out of date, too. My policy was current, but I hadn't put the new card into my wallet when it was mailed to me.
The officer cited me for driving without proof of insurance. The charge was later dropped, when it became clear that I did, in fact, have the appropriate coverage. It would have been handy if I had an app on my smartphone that would let me display my insurance card electronically, just as I can show a boarding pass on my phone to get on an airplane.
As it turns out, many states are changing their laws to allow just that.
Seven states now permit the use of such digital proof of insurance, although details vary, according to the Property Casualty Insurers Association of America, a trade group. Alabama, Arizona, California, Idaho, Louisiana and Minnesota allow their use at traffic stops, and at the time of vehicle registration; Colorado allows their use while registering a car and is considering legislation this year that would expand their use to traffic stops.
Meanwhile, at least 21 more state legislatures are currently considering measures to allow use of the cards: Arkansas, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Maine, Michigan, Missouri, Mississippi, Ohio, Oregon, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Texas, Utah, Washington, Wisconsin and Wyoming. Wyoming's measure has already cleared the Wyoming State Senate, the association says.
Alex Hageli, director of personal lines policy for the association, said use of electronic identification cards is more convenient for consumers, and can help reduce time spent by courts addressing tickets issued simply because drivers forgot to put the card in their wallets. But until states change their laws and regulations, insurers must still mail out paper cards. "Now is the time to make a small change in the law so insurers and consumers can take advantage of technology and avoid those annoying fix-it tickets," he said in a statement.
The association supports "flexible" rules allowing use of the digital cards as an option for insurers and consumers.
As more states prepare to allow the digital cards, insurers are adding identification cards to their existing smartphone apps, which allow consumers to conduct various insurance-related tasks. State Farm, for instance, offers digital identification cards via its "Pocket Agent" app (although a caveat warns that the card may not meet requirements in all states), and Geico also offers "digital ID cards" via its mobile app.
Would you use a digital insurance card, if your state allows it?
Source: NYT
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Car-Sharing Services Grow, and Expand Options
Date: January, 2013
Click green for further info
As more companies and even nonprofits enter the fast-growing business of car sharing, they are offering consumers new ways to customize their short-term rentals for convenience, reliability and cost.
Take the expanding Car2go service from Daimler, the German luxury-car maker. It rents only two-seat Smart cars, charges customers by the minute instead of the hour, and allows for one-way rentals and free street parking.
That appealed to Austin Fossey, who turned to Car2go when his pregnant wife, Brooke, went into labor at 2 a.m. on Thanksgiving morning. He pulled up the Car2go app on his cellphone and reserved a tiny Smart car parked near the couple’s home in Washington. Car2go was exactly what they needed — a one-way drive to the hospital, at 38 cents a minute, with free parking on city streets and no requirement to return the vehicle.
“We wanted to just drop the car off and not have to worry about it,” Ms. Fossey, 31, said in a recent interview as she held her newborn son, Ethan.
Car2go is one of about two dozen car-sharing services in the United States, and its one-way vehicle rentals are the latest wrinkle in the growing industry.
Providers range from small, nonprofit organizations to big corporations like Hertz, a longtime leader in the car rental industry, and Daimler, which started Car2go five years ago in Germany and now operates 1,800 vehicles in six American cities.
New players are also getting in, including Avis Budget Group, another stalwart in the traditional rental business, which earlier this monthagreed to buy the vehicle-sharing company Zipcar for $491 million.
They are all drawn by the rising popularity of car sharing. Last year, about 800,000 people belonged to car-sharing services in the United States, a 44 percent increase from 2011, according to Susan Shaheen, co-director of the Transportation Sustainability Research Center at the University of California, Berkeley.
With most of the services, customers pay a small annual fee to join, then make reservations over the Web or with a smartphone app. They typically unlock the car by swiping a special laminated card across a sensor on the windshield, and rates are usually by the hour.
Amid all the competition, the rental providers are trying to differentiate themselves.
Zipcar, for example, has long tried to portray itself as part of a young, hip lifestyle, calling its members Zipsters and promoting itself through a Twitter hashtag, #thatswhereiroll. It promotes its vast number of rental locations, including many on university campuses, and its blend of ordinary and prestige cars, from Ford Escape S.U.V.’s to Mini Cooper convertibles.
Enterprise CarShare, which last year absorbed a Zipcar competitor called Mint, builds on Enterprise’s strong tradition of catering to businesses while offering customers the chance to try out newer technologies like Nissan’s all-electric Leaf.
And nonprofit groups are adding their own specialized services to the industry, like City CarShare in San Francisco, which in 2008 created the first wheelchair-accessible car-share vehicle. Called AccessMobile, the program offers minivans that accommodate two people using wheelchairs along with three other passengers and a driver. Ms. Shaheen said variety was a key part of the industry’s growth, like “going to the chocolate shop and having access to 15 types of different chocolate.”
Car2go’s chief executive, Nicholas Cole, said Daimler used the latest technology to provide cars almost instantly to members. For a $35 registration fee, Car2go members can locate and reserve a blue-and-white Smart microcar within 15 minutes. Members pay only a per-minute fee for the rental, and can park free in legal parking spaces in Washington and other participating cities. Car2go also lets members leave the car nearly anywhere in the city it is rented in.
By comparison, Zipcar members pay an hourly or daily rate that typically winds up being cheaper than Car2go’s rates, but they have to return the rented vehicle to the same parking lot where they picked it up. (BMW’s DriveNow service in San Francisco also allows one-way rentals.)
“Our members are not required to tell us how long they’re going to drive or where they’re going, as long as they bring it back to the whole area,” Mr. Cole said.
One of Car2go’s big selling points is free parking. In Washington, for example, Car2go paid $2,890 per vehicle to the District of Columbia for free use of metered spaces. In some cities, including Miami, the company also rents spaces in parking garages.
New York is among the cities under consideration for expansion, said Katie Stafford, a Car2go spokeswoman. “In New York, parking is going to be different than in other cities,” she said. “But we would come to an agreement that would make sense for us and the city.”
While some automakers have struck supply partnerships with car-sharing services, as Ford Motor Company did with Zipcar in 2011, it’s less clear why a car-sharing service makes financial sense for Daimler to operate directly.
Daimler, the German maker of Mercedes-Benz luxury cars and Freightliner trucks, said Car2go emerged from a business innovation group within the company that was looking at the future of transportation within cities. The service, which Daimler says has reached the break-even point in three cities, was begun in Europe and now has about 275,000 members worldwide.
“There’s a trend in general for people wanting to pay for what they use,” said Mr. Cole of Car2go. “It’s like the success in iTunes, where people choose to buy a few songs instead of the whole album.” The need for cheap, convenient mobility is fueling the growth of car sharing around the world, said Ms. Shaheen of the University of California, Berkeley. She said that recent statistics showed 1.7 million car-sharing members in 27 countries, not including so-called peer-to-peer services that allow drivers to rent vehicles directly from individual car owners.
So far, big corporations and smaller organizations coexist comfortably because of the growing demand for car sharing in urban areas.
The arrival of companies like Daimler and Avis in the market “isn’t putting anybody out of business,” said Wilson Wood, head of theCarSharing Association, which represents 19 smaller providers, like City CarShare.
A menu of mobility options works for some consumers, like Michelle Fox, a 27-year-old executive of a technology company in Washington. Ms. Fox recently sold her Toyota S.U.V. because of the cost of car payments, insurance and parking.
Instead, she uses a combination of Car2go, a bicycle-sharing network and the Uber call-a-limo service.
Last month, Ms. Fox used a Car2go Smart car to attend a friend’s birthday party in the busy Adams Morgan entertainment district in Washington. Since Smart cars measure less than nine feet long, “you can just squeeze Car2go in,” she said. After parking in a tight space on the street, she noticed someone watching her. It turned out to be another Car2go member who was looking for an available vehicle. “This puppy is not going to be here when I get back,” Ms. Fox said with a laugh.
Click green for further info
Stephanie Steinberg reported from Washington and Bill Vlasic from Detroit.
Source: NYT
_____________________________________________________________________
Mom's tragic mistake took daughter's life
Judy Neiman is working to prevent more deaths like that of 9-year-old Sydnee
Car safety rules delayed
Related links
More stories
Delays litter long road to vehicle rearview rules
Source:
Associated Press
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — In the private hell of a mother's grief, the sounds come back to Judy Neiman. The SUV door slamming. The slight bump as she backed up in the bank parking lot. The emergency room doctor's sobs as he said her 9-year-old daughter Sydnee, who previously had survived four open heart surgeries, would not make it this time.
Her own cries of: How could I have missed seeing her?
The 53-year-old woman has sentenced herself to go on living in the awful stillness of her West Richland, Wash., home, where she makes a plea for what she wants since she can't have Sydnee back: More steps taken by the government and automakers to help prevent parents from accidentally killing their children, as she did a year ago this month.
"They have to do something, because I've read about it happening to other people. I read about it and I said, 'I would die if it happens to me,'" Neiman says. "Then it did happen to me."
There is, in fact, a law in place that calls for new manufacturing requirements to improve the visibility behind passenger vehicles to help prevent such fatal backing crashes, which the government estimates kill some 228 people every year — 110 of them children age 10 and under — and injures another 17,000.
Congress passed the measure with strong bipartisan backing, and Republican President George W. Bush signed it in 2008.
But almost five years later, the standards have yet to be mandated because of delays by the U.S. Department of Transportation, which faced a Feb. 28, 2011, deadline to issue the new guidelines for car manufacturers. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood has pushed back that deadline three times — promising this past February that the rules would be issued by the end of 2012.
With still no action, safety advocates and anguished parents such as Neiman are asking: What's taking so long to remedy a problem recognized by government regulators and automakers for decades now?
"In a way, it's a death sentence, and for no good reason," said former Public Citizen president Joan Claybrook, who once directed the federal agency responsible for developing the rules.
The proposed regulations call for expanding the field of view for cars, vans, SUVs and pickup trucks so that drivers can see directly behind their vehicles when in reverse — requiring, in most cases, rearview cameras and video displays as standard equipment.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, charged with completing the new standards, declined requests to discuss the delays. Spokeswoman Karen Aldana said the agency would not comment while the rulemaking process was ongoing but was on track to meet LaHood's latest cutoff date. In a letter to lawmakers in February, LaHood said his agency needed more time for "research and data analysis" to "ensure that the final rule is appropriate and the underlying analysis is robust."
This 2010 photo shows Sydnee Neiman on a family trip. She died after her mother accidentally backed over her while …Others insist the issue is money, and reluctance to put any additional financial burdens on an industry crippled by the economic crisis. Development of the new safety standards came even as the Obama administration was pumping billions of dollars into the industry as part of its bailout package.
"They don't want to look at anything that will cost more money for the automobile industry," said Packy Campbell, a former Republican state lawmaker from New Hampshire who lobbied for the law.
NHTSA has estimated that making rear cameras standard on every car would add $58 to $88 to the price of vehicles already equipped with dashboard display screens and $159 to $203 for those without them.
The Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers, a lobbying group that represents automakers, puts the total cost to the industry at about $2 billion a year. The organization endorsed the 2008 law after a series of compromises. But last December, eight days after Sydnee Neiman's death, its leader met with White House budget officials to propose a less expensive alternative: reserving cameras for vehicles with extra-large blind zones and outfitting the rest with curved, wide-angle exterior mirrors.
The alliance declined comment, but earlier this year the group's vice president, Gloria Bergquist, told The Associated Press that it urged the government to explore more options as a way to reduce the costs passed on to consumers.
"There are a variety of tools that could be used," she said, adding that automakers also were concerned that the cumulative effect of federal safety regulations is driving up the average price of a new car, now about $25,000.
Industry analysts also question whether cameras are needed on smaller, entry-level class cars with better rearview visibility.
"It may just be a couple hundred dollars, but it can grow pretty significantly if you are talking about ... an inexpensive car that was not originally conceived to have all these electronics and was only going to have a simple car stereo," said Roger Lanctot, an automotive technology specialist.
Before the delays, all new passenger vehicles were to carry cameras and video displays by September 2014. The industry has now asked for two more years after the final rules are published to reach full compliance.
Despite its resistance, the industry on its own has been installing rearview cameras, a feature first popularized two decades ago in Japan and standard on nearly 70 percent of new cars produced there this year. In the United States, 44 percent of 2012 models came with rear cameras standard, and 27 percent had them as options, according to the automotive research firm Edmunds.
Nine in 10 new cars had console screens available, according to market research firm iSuppli, which would put the price of adding a camera on the low end of the NHTSA's estimates.
These backing crashes are hardly a new phenomenon. Emergency room doctors, the National Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the NHTSA have produced dozens of papers on the problem since the 1980s.
Researchers at the University of California, Irvine, started looking into the issue in the 1990s after noticing toddlers showing up in hospital databases of injured child pedestrians. They found that many of those children had been killed or hurt by vehicles backing out of home driveways.
In 1993, the NHTSA sponsored several studies that noted the disproportionate effect of backup accidents on child victims. One report explored sensors and cameras as possible solutions, noting the accidents "involve slow closing speeds and, thus, may be preventable." Still another 1993 report estimated that 100 to 200 pedestrians are killed each year from backing crashes, most of them children.
Three years later, Dee Norton, a reporter at The Seattle Times, petitioned the NHTSA to require improved mirrors on smaller commercial trucks and vans after his 3-year-old grandson was killed by a diaper delivery truck that backed over him.
The NHTSA started looking into technology as a solution, but in one proposal — issued in November 2000 — it noted that sensors, cameras and monitors were still expensive and promised to later reevaluate the feasibility of such emerging technologies.
Adding to the scrutiny was the advocacy work of a child safety group called KidsandCars.org, which in 2002 started trying to persuade federal regulators to take on the problem. After the groups' president, Janette Fennell, brought the issue to the attention of Consumer Reports, the magazine started measuring "blind zones" to determine how far away a toddler-sized traffic cone had to be before a driver looking though the rear window, rearview mirror and side mirrors could see it.
The research found an overall trend of worsening rear visibility — due in part to designs favoring small windows and high trunk lines, said Tom Mutchler, the magazine's automotive engineer.
"Cameras are basically the only technology that is going to let you see something right behind the bumper," he said.
With a growing body of research, better statistics and inaction by regulators, advocates such as KidsandCars.org's Fennell and Sally Greenberg, then with Consumers Union, turned to Congress for a solution.
In 2003, U.S. Rep. Peter King, R-New York, introduced the Cameron Gulbransen Kids and Cars Safety Act, named for a 2-year-old Long Island boy whose pediatrician father backed over him in their driveway. Five years later, it finally became law.
While no one doubts that cameras could help reduce deaths, they aren't regarded as a perfect solution either.
One recent study by a researcher at Oregon State University found that only one in five drivers used a rearview camera when it was available, but 88 percent of those who did avoided striking a child-sized decoy.
In its proposed rule, the NHTSA estimated that rearview video systems could substantially reduce fatal backing crashes — by at least 95 a year — and result in at least 7,000 fewer injuries.
Judy Neiman's 2006 Cadillac Escalade didn't have any cameras installed. They weren't added as an optional package until the following model year. Instead, her vehicle was equipped with a "rear parking assist system" — bumper sensors, an alarm and lights that are supposed to go off within 5 feet of objects or people.
Neither Neiman nor the 10-year-old neighbor boy who had accompanied her and her daughter to the bank on Dec. 8, 2011, would recall hearing any alert, according to a police report.
Sydnee was carrying her purple plastic piggy bank and account book, so she could deposit $5 from her weekly allowance. After the transaction, Neiman slid behind the wheel and waited for the children. She heard the door slam, then saw the boy sitting on the right side of the back seat as she put the car into reverse.
She figured Sydnee was seated behind the driver's seat. Instead, the boy had gotten in first, telling Sydnee to go around and get in from the left side. He would later tell a police investigator that the girl had dropped her piggy bank on her way around the SUV.
Even if she were upright, at 4 feet, 3 inches tall, Sydnee would have been practically invisible through the rear window, the bottom edge of which was a few inches taller than she was.
As the first anniversary of her daughter's death passed, Neiman hoped that sharing her story might spare other parents from enduring the pain she feels every day.
She tortures herself by replaying a conversation she had with Sydnee the summer before she died. Her daughter always had taken her heart condition, a congenital defect, in stride. She never complained or showed fear, despite her many surgeries.
Then one night Sydnee started crying, and she wouldn't tell her mother what was troubling her until the next morning.
"She said, 'I don't want to die, Mom,' and when she died, that's all I could think about. She didn't want to die," Neiman says. "She survived four open heart surgeries. If God had taken her at that time, I could accept it. But who could take her with her being hit by my car? And my hitting her?"
Source: Associated Press
______________________________________________________________________
High-Tech Dreamliner Catches Fire
Date: 1/8/13
Article 1
See article 2 below giving the reasons for the fire - took some time to find out - the date: 2/19/13
The plane is determined safe - study this article - the plane gives more pleasant and healthier flight than other planes.
Click green for further info
A fire broke out on an empty Boeing 787 Dreamliner jet in Boston's Logan Airport after a non-stop flight from Tokyo, prompting more safety concerns about the new plane since its 2011 release.
The incident occurred Monday morning when an electrical fire broke out on board the Japan Airlines jet 30 minutes after 173 passengers and 11 crew members exited the plane. The Massachusetts Port Authority's fire chief, Bob Donahue, said the fire began in a battery pack for the plane's auxiliary power unit, which runs the jet's electrical systems when it's not getting power from its engines.
No major injuries were reported and one firefighter had skin irritation after contact with a chemical used to douse the fire, Donahue said.
The flight landed incident-free around 10:15 a.m., but a mechanic working in the cockpit was confronted minutes later by smoke billowing from electrical systems in the belly of the plane.
"We observed a heavy smoke condition throughout the entire cabin," Donahue said.
Fire crews using infrared equipment found flames in a small compartment in the plane's belly and had the fire out in about 20 minutes, he said. There was a flare-up later when a battery exploded, he added.
Japan Airlines said in a statement, "Safety is the foundation of JAL's operations and while no passengers were injured in this incident, we deeply apologize for causing our customers concern and inconvenience. We are now working closely with NTSB and Boeing in determining the cause of this incident."
The National Transportation Safety Board said it's sending an investigator to Boston. The Federal Aviation Administration also said it was investigating, according to The Associated Press.
"We're aware of the situation and are working with our customer," Boeing said in a statement.
Boeing has sold more than 800 of the planes around the world with only six flying domestically. The plane, mostly made of carbon fiber, was first released in 2011.
The FAA last month ordered inspections of potential fuel-line leaks on all 787s. On the same day the inspection was ordered, a United Airlines 787 flight from Houston to Newark, N.J., was diverted to New Orleans because of a generator failure. A similar fire broke out during the 787's testing phase in 2010.
"This event occurred in the same avionics bay where they had problems before," said John Hansman, MIT professor of aeronautics and astronautics. "So it raises a lot of questions that will be looked at as quickly as possible."
But Hansman believes this is just a new plane built differently with new systems and materials.
"I wouldn't be concerned as a passenger. This is a very good airplane, but it's very advanced. It's pushing the envelope," Hansman said.
Airlines are buying the new planes because they're cheaper to fly and more efficient, but they're going to sell would-be passengers on feature comforts such as the air itself.
Because the plane is made of plastic, it is more flexible so air pressure inside the plane can be kept higher. The maker says the improvement in air pressure leads to less jet lag, as well as less dry mouth and skin for passengers.
Blake Emery, the director of differentiation strategy for Boeing, told ABC News in November the Dreamliner offers "significant" changes from today's flying experience.
Such changes include windows that are 30 percent bigger and storage bins built to accommodate roll-aboard bags common among today's fliers.
Click green for further info
_______________________________________
Date: 1/8/13
Article 1
See article 2 below giving the reasons for the fire - took some time to find out - the date: 2/19/13
The plane is determined safe - study this article - the plane gives more pleasant and healthier flight than other planes.
Click green for further info
A fire broke out on an empty Boeing 787 Dreamliner jet in Boston's Logan Airport after a non-stop flight from Tokyo, prompting more safety concerns about the new plane since its 2011 release.
The incident occurred Monday morning when an electrical fire broke out on board the Japan Airlines jet 30 minutes after 173 passengers and 11 crew members exited the plane. The Massachusetts Port Authority's fire chief, Bob Donahue, said the fire began in a battery pack for the plane's auxiliary power unit, which runs the jet's electrical systems when it's not getting power from its engines.
No major injuries were reported and one firefighter had skin irritation after contact with a chemical used to douse the fire, Donahue said.
The flight landed incident-free around 10:15 a.m., but a mechanic working in the cockpit was confronted minutes later by smoke billowing from electrical systems in the belly of the plane.
"We observed a heavy smoke condition throughout the entire cabin," Donahue said.
Fire crews using infrared equipment found flames in a small compartment in the plane's belly and had the fire out in about 20 minutes, he said. There was a flare-up later when a battery exploded, he added.
Japan Airlines said in a statement, "Safety is the foundation of JAL's operations and while no passengers were injured in this incident, we deeply apologize for causing our customers concern and inconvenience. We are now working closely with NTSB and Boeing in determining the cause of this incident."
The National Transportation Safety Board said it's sending an investigator to Boston. The Federal Aviation Administration also said it was investigating, according to The Associated Press.
"We're aware of the situation and are working with our customer," Boeing said in a statement.
Boeing has sold more than 800 of the planes around the world with only six flying domestically. The plane, mostly made of carbon fiber, was first released in 2011.
The FAA last month ordered inspections of potential fuel-line leaks on all 787s. On the same day the inspection was ordered, a United Airlines 787 flight from Houston to Newark, N.J., was diverted to New Orleans because of a generator failure. A similar fire broke out during the 787's testing phase in 2010.
"This event occurred in the same avionics bay where they had problems before," said John Hansman, MIT professor of aeronautics and astronautics. "So it raises a lot of questions that will be looked at as quickly as possible."
But Hansman believes this is just a new plane built differently with new systems and materials.
"I wouldn't be concerned as a passenger. This is a very good airplane, but it's very advanced. It's pushing the envelope," Hansman said.
Airlines are buying the new planes because they're cheaper to fly and more efficient, but they're going to sell would-be passengers on feature comforts such as the air itself.
Because the plane is made of plastic, it is more flexible so air pressure inside the plane can be kept higher. The maker says the improvement in air pressure leads to less jet lag, as well as less dry mouth and skin for passengers.
Blake Emery, the director of differentiation strategy for Boeing, told ABC News in November the Dreamliner offers "significant" changes from today's flying experience.
Such changes include windows that are 30 percent bigger and storage bins built to accommodate roll-aboard bags common among today's fliers.
Click green for further info
_______________________________________
Coast Guard: Cause of cruise ship fire was a leak
Article 2 Date: 2/19/2013
See the related article 1 above - the first report on the fire - this article 2 gives the reason for the fire - it took some time to find out - the date for the fire: 1/8/13
Article 2 Date: 2/19/2013
See the related article 1 above - the first report on the fire - this article 2 gives the reason for the fire - it took some time to find out - the date for the fire: 1/8/13
ATLANTA (AP) — Now that investigators have determined the origins of the engine-room fire that paralyzed a Carnival cruise ship at sea for five days, they will try to learn more about the cause, the crew's response, and why the ship was disabled for so long.
A Coast Guard official said Monday that a leak in a fuel oil return line caused the engine-room fire that disabled the Carnival Triumph in the Gulf of Mexico, leaving 4,200 people without power or working toilets for five days.
Cmdr. Teresa Hatfield addressed the finding in a conference call with reporters. She estimated that the investigation of the disabled ship would take six months.
Hatfield said the Bahamas — where the ship is registered, or flagged — is leading the investigation, with the Coast Guard and National Transportation Safety Board representing U.S. interests in the probe. The vessel was in international waters at the time of the incident.
She said investigators have been with the massive 14-story vessel since it arrived Thursday in Mobile, Ala. They have interviewed passengers and crew, and forensic analysis has been performed on the ship.
She said the crew responded appropriately to the fire. "They did a very good job," she said.
In an email after Monday's conference call, Coast Guard spokesman Carlos Diaz described the oil return line that leaked as stretching from the ship's No. 6 engine to the fuel tank.
A Carnival Cruise Lines spokesman said in an email Monday that the company agrees with the Coast Guard's findings about the fire's source.
Cruise industry expert Andrew Coggins, a former Navy commander who was a chief engineer and is now a professor at Pace University in New York, said the fire could potentially have been serious.
"The problem is the oil's under pressure," he said. "What happens in the case of a fuel oil leak where you have a fire like that is it leaks in such a way that it sprays out in a mist. In the engine room you have many hot surfaces, so once the mist hits a hot surface it will flash into flame."
If the crew hadn't reacted quickly and the fire suppression system hadn't worked properly, he said, "the fire from the engine room would have eventually burned through to other parts of the ship." Engine room fires that can't be suppressed generally result in the loss of the entire ship, he said.
The Triumph left Galveston, Texas, on Feb. 7 for a four-day trip to Mexico. The fire paralyzed the ship early Feb. 10, leaving it adrift in the Gulf of Mexico until tugboats towed it to Mobile. Passengers described harsh conditions on board: overflowing toilets, long lines for food, foul odors and tent cities for sleeping on deck.
Hatfield said investigators from the Coast Guard and NTSB would stay with the ship until about the end of the week, then continue work at their respective offices. She said the investigation will look further at the cause of the fire and the crew's response, as well as why the ship was disabled for so long.
Last week, a team of six NTSB investigators were in Mobile trying to determine the cause of the fire. An NTSB spokesman said then that the agency could take information developed from the probe and use it to make recommendations for improving cruise ship safety.
Passengers interviewed after the cruise complained about confusion in the immediate aftermath of the fire about whether to evacuate their rooms as well as poor communication about what was happening.
Carnival CEO Gerry Cahill apologized to passengers late last week.
Source: AP news
_______________________________________________________
A Coast Guard official said Monday that a leak in a fuel oil return line caused the engine-room fire that disabled the Carnival Triumph in the Gulf of Mexico, leaving 4,200 people without power or working toilets for five days.
Cmdr. Teresa Hatfield addressed the finding in a conference call with reporters. She estimated that the investigation of the disabled ship would take six months.
Hatfield said the Bahamas — where the ship is registered, or flagged — is leading the investigation, with the Coast Guard and National Transportation Safety Board representing U.S. interests in the probe. The vessel was in international waters at the time of the incident.
She said investigators have been with the massive 14-story vessel since it arrived Thursday in Mobile, Ala. They have interviewed passengers and crew, and forensic analysis has been performed on the ship.
She said the crew responded appropriately to the fire. "They did a very good job," she said.
In an email after Monday's conference call, Coast Guard spokesman Carlos Diaz described the oil return line that leaked as stretching from the ship's No. 6 engine to the fuel tank.
A Carnival Cruise Lines spokesman said in an email Monday that the company agrees with the Coast Guard's findings about the fire's source.
Cruise industry expert Andrew Coggins, a former Navy commander who was a chief engineer and is now a professor at Pace University in New York, said the fire could potentially have been serious.
"The problem is the oil's under pressure," he said. "What happens in the case of a fuel oil leak where you have a fire like that is it leaks in such a way that it sprays out in a mist. In the engine room you have many hot surfaces, so once the mist hits a hot surface it will flash into flame."
If the crew hadn't reacted quickly and the fire suppression system hadn't worked properly, he said, "the fire from the engine room would have eventually burned through to other parts of the ship." Engine room fires that can't be suppressed generally result in the loss of the entire ship, he said.
The Triumph left Galveston, Texas, on Feb. 7 for a four-day trip to Mexico. The fire paralyzed the ship early Feb. 10, leaving it adrift in the Gulf of Mexico until tugboats towed it to Mobile. Passengers described harsh conditions on board: overflowing toilets, long lines for food, foul odors and tent cities for sleeping on deck.
Hatfield said investigators from the Coast Guard and NTSB would stay with the ship until about the end of the week, then continue work at their respective offices. She said the investigation will look further at the cause of the fire and the crew's response, as well as why the ship was disabled for so long.
Last week, a team of six NTSB investigators were in Mobile trying to determine the cause of the fire. An NTSB spokesman said then that the agency could take information developed from the probe and use it to make recommendations for improving cruise ship safety.
Passengers interviewed after the cruise complained about confusion in the immediate aftermath of the fire about whether to evacuate their rooms as well as poor communication about what was happening.
Carnival CEO Gerry Cahill apologized to passengers late last week.
Source: AP news
_______________________________________________________
10 tips for safe winter driving
When winter arrives, and with the change of seasons comes the threat of nasty
weather. Before winter strikes in full force, make sure you and your car are ready.
As you head to the roads during the busy holiday travel season, following our tips
can help ensure you get to your destination and back home safely.
Keeping up with car maintenance year-round is important, but it carries added significance in the winter when being stranded can be inconvenient due to holiday travel plans, as well as being downright unpleasant waiting at the side of the road. As always, try to time your routine maintenance ahead of long-distance travel. Putting off service today can turn into an expensive problem down the road.
As winter driving safety is so impacted by traction, it is key to make sure your tires are in top shape. Check tire pressure monthly, topping off as necessary. (Cold winter temperatures can lower tire pressure.) Inspect your tires for tread depth, an important factor in wet and snow traction. The tread should be at least 1/8 an inch, easily gauged by using a quarter and measuring from the coin's edge to Washington's head. Look for uneven tread wear, which typically indicates poor wheel alignment or worn suspension components. If you do invest in new tires, be sure to have your vehicle's alignment and suspension checked before having the tires mounted to avoid premature wear.
With the car prepped for travel, keep these 10 tips in mind:
- Clear off the snow and ice before driving. If snow has fallen since your car was parked, take the time to thoroughly brush it off the vehicle--including the roof--and scrape any ice from the windows. "Peephole driving" through a small, cleared spot on your windshield reduces your visibility and is quite dangerous.
- Accelerate slowly to reduce wheel spin. If starting from a standstill on slick snow or ice, start in second gear if you have a manual transmission or gear-selectable automatic so the vehicle is less likely to spin the tires.
- Reduce your speed and drive smoothly. In slippery conditions, tires lose their grip more easily, affecting all aspects of your driving: braking, turning, and accelerating. Keeping the speeds down will give you more time to react to slippage or a possible collision, and it will lessen the damage should things go wrong.
- Allow longer braking distances. Plan on starting your braking sooner than you normally would in dry conditions to give yourself extra room, and use more gentle pressure on the brake pedal.
- Don't lock your wheels when braking. Locked wheels can make the vehicle slide or skid. If you have an older vehicle without an antilock braking system (ABS), you may need to gently apply the brakes repeatedly in a pulsing motion to avoid having them lock up the wheels. If your vehicle has ABS, simply depress the brake pedal firmly and hold it down. The shuddering sounds and pedal feeling is expected (don't lift off the brake); the system is doing its job.
- Perform one action at a time when accelerating, braking, and turning. Asking a vehicle to do two things at once--such as braking and turning, or accelerating and turning--can reduce your control. When taking a turn on a slippery surface, for instance, slowly apply the brakes while the vehicle is going straight.
- Avoid sudden actions when cornering. A sudden maneuver--such as hard braking, a quick turn of the steering wheel, sudden acceleration, or shifting a manual transmission --can upset a vehicle's dynamics when it's taking a turn. Rapidly transferring the weight from one end or corner to another can throw a car off balance. In slick conditions, this can cause it to more easily go out of control.
- Be ready to correct for a slide. Should the rear end of the vehicle begin to slide during a turn, gently let off on the accelerator and turn the steering wheel in the direction of the slide. This will help straighten it out. Electronic stability control will also help keep control in a slide situation. But remember, safety systems may bend the laws of physics, but they can't overcome stupid.
- Don't let four- or all-wheel drive give you a false sense of security. 4WD and AWD systems only provide extra traction when accelerating. They provide no advantage when braking or cornering.
- Be extra wary of other motorists. They may not be driving as cautiously as you, so leave extra space, avoid distractions, and be predictable, signaling clearly ahead of any turns or lane changes.
Source:Consumer Reports News | ConsumerReports.org
This article is foryour private use, only
Can be used for educational guidance and for promoting safety
_____________________________________________________________
Scary driving practice that men do more
People of a certain age or those who live in one state
are more likely to commit this dangerous act
It's not texting
CDC: 1 in 24 admit nodding off
while driving
Click green for further info
CDC = Centers of Disease Control & Prevention
Source: Source: Online: CDC report: http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr
NEW YORK (AP) — This could give you nightmares:
1 in 24 U.S. adults say they recently fell asleep while driving.
And health officials behind the study think the number is probably higher. That's because some people don't realize it when they nod off for a second or two behind the wheel.
"If I'm on the road, I'd be a little worried about the other drivers," said the study's lead author, Anne Wheaton of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
In the CDC study released on 1/3/13, about 4 percent of U.S. adults said they nodded off or fell asleep at least once while driving in the previous month. Some earlier studies reached a similar conclusion, but the CDC telephone survey of 147,000 adults was far larger. It was conducted in 19 states and the District of Columbia in 2009 and 2010.
CDC researchers found drowsy driving was more common (1) in men, (2) people ages 25 to 34, (3) those who averaged less than six hours of sleep each night, and — for some unexplained reason — (4) Texans.
Wheaton said it's possible the Texas survey sample included larger numbers of sleep-deprived young adults or apnea-suffering overweight people.
Most of the CDC findings are not surprising to those who study this problem.
"A lot of people are getting insufficient sleep," said Dr. Gregory Belenky, director of Washington State University's Sleep and Performance Research Center in Spokane. Spokane is a city located in the Northwestern United States in the state of Washington.
The government estimates that about 3 percent of fatal traffic crashes involve drowsy drivers, but other estimates have put that number as high as 33 percent.
Warning signs of drowsy driving: Feeling very tired, not remembering the last mile or two, or drifting onto rumble strips on the side of the road. That signals a driver should get off the road and rest, Wheaton said.
Even a brief moment nodding off can be extremely dangerous, she noted. At 60 mph, a single second translates to speeding along for 88 feet — the length of two school buses.
To prevent drowsy driving, health officials recommend getting 7 to 9 hours of sleep each night, treating any sleep disorders and not drinking alcohol before getting behind the wheel.
Source: Online: CDC report: http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr
Related links
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__________________________________________
Ancient Shipwreck Reveals
2,000-Year-Old Eye Medicine
Click green for further info
Ancient gray disks loaded with zinc and beeswax found aboard a shipwreck more than 2,000 years old may have been used as medicine for the eyes, researchers say.
These new findings shed light on the development of medicine over the centuries, scientists added.
Scientists analyzed six flat gray tablets approximately 1.6 inches (4 centimeters) in diameter and 0.4 inches (1 cm) thick that were found in a round tin box aboard the so-called Relitto del Pozzino shipwreck, which was discovered about 60 feet (18 meters) underwater in 1974 on the seabed of the Baratti Gulf off the coast of Tuscany. The hull, only 50 to 60 feet (15 to 18 m) long and about 10 feet (3 m) wide, dated back to about 140 B.C.
The Roman shipwreck lay near the remains of the Etruscan city of Populonia, which at the time the ship foundered was a key port along sea trade routes between the west and east across the Mediterranean Sea. A number of artifacts were unearthed during the excavation, including wine jars, an inkwell, tin and bronze jugs, stacks of Syrian-Palestinian glass bowls and Ephesian lamps. [Shipwrecks Gallery: Secrets of the Deep]
"Such objects suggest that the ship, or at least a great part of its cargo, came from the east, probably the Greek coasts or islands," the researchers wrote in a study detailed online Jan. 7 in the journal the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
The cargo also included medical equipment, such as an iron probe and a bronze vessel that may have been used for bloodletting or for applying hot air to soothe aches. These findings suggest a physician was traveling by sea with his professional equipment, the researchers said.
To learn more about these potentially medicinal tablets, researchers investigated the chemical, mineralogical and botanical composition of fragments of a broken tablet.
"In archaeology, the discovery of ancient medicines is very rare, as is knowledge of their chemical composition," the researchers wrote. "The data revealed extraordinary information on the composition of the tablets and on their possible therapeutic use."
The disks were about 80 percent inorganic, with zinc making up about 75 percent of the inorganic components. Zinc compounds have been known since ancient times to serve as medicines, with the ancient Roman naturalist Pliny the Elder writing that they could help treat the eyes and skin.
The tablets also contained starch, pine resin, beeswax and a mix of plant- and animal-derived fats, perhaps including olive oil. Starch was a known ingredient of Roman cosmetics, olive oil was used for perfumes and medicines, and pine resin may have kept the oil from going rancid and fought microbes due to its antiseptic properties.
Pollen grains were numerous, with about 1,400 grains per gram seen in the tablets. These came from olive, wheat and many other plants, such as stinging nettles and alder trees. However, about 60 percent of this pollen came from plants that are pollinated by insects such as bees, suggesting they may inadvertently have hitched along in a bee product such as beeswax instead of getting intentionally added to the medicine.
Linen fibers were seen, which may have helped keep the tablets from crumbling. Charcoal was detected as well, which may be residue from other ingredients or was potentially added intentionally.
Intriguingly, the Latin word for eyewash, "collyrium," derives from a Greek word meaning "small round loaves." This fact highlights the notion that these small round tablets are linked with eye health.
"This study provided valuable information on ancient medical and pharmaceutical practices and on the development of pharmacology and medicine over the centuries," the researchers said. "In addition, given the current focus on natural compounds, our data could lead to new investigations and research for therapeutic care."
Follow LiveScience on Twitter @livescience. We're also on Facebook & Google+.
Click green for further info
Source: LiveScience.com
For your private use, only
Can be used for educational purposes
_______________________________________________
2,000-Year-Old Eye Medicine
Click green for further info
Ancient gray disks loaded with zinc and beeswax found aboard a shipwreck more than 2,000 years old may have been used as medicine for the eyes, researchers say.
These new findings shed light on the development of medicine over the centuries, scientists added.
Scientists analyzed six flat gray tablets approximately 1.6 inches (4 centimeters) in diameter and 0.4 inches (1 cm) thick that were found in a round tin box aboard the so-called Relitto del Pozzino shipwreck, which was discovered about 60 feet (18 meters) underwater in 1974 on the seabed of the Baratti Gulf off the coast of Tuscany. The hull, only 50 to 60 feet (15 to 18 m) long and about 10 feet (3 m) wide, dated back to about 140 B.C.
The Roman shipwreck lay near the remains of the Etruscan city of Populonia, which at the time the ship foundered was a key port along sea trade routes between the west and east across the Mediterranean Sea. A number of artifacts were unearthed during the excavation, including wine jars, an inkwell, tin and bronze jugs, stacks of Syrian-Palestinian glass bowls and Ephesian lamps. [Shipwrecks Gallery: Secrets of the Deep]
"Such objects suggest that the ship, or at least a great part of its cargo, came from the east, probably the Greek coasts or islands," the researchers wrote in a study detailed online Jan. 7 in the journal the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
The cargo also included medical equipment, such as an iron probe and a bronze vessel that may have been used for bloodletting or for applying hot air to soothe aches. These findings suggest a physician was traveling by sea with his professional equipment, the researchers said.
To learn more about these potentially medicinal tablets, researchers investigated the chemical, mineralogical and botanical composition of fragments of a broken tablet.
"In archaeology, the discovery of ancient medicines is very rare, as is knowledge of their chemical composition," the researchers wrote. "The data revealed extraordinary information on the composition of the tablets and on their possible therapeutic use."
The disks were about 80 percent inorganic, with zinc making up about 75 percent of the inorganic components. Zinc compounds have been known since ancient times to serve as medicines, with the ancient Roman naturalist Pliny the Elder writing that they could help treat the eyes and skin.
The tablets also contained starch, pine resin, beeswax and a mix of plant- and animal-derived fats, perhaps including olive oil. Starch was a known ingredient of Roman cosmetics, olive oil was used for perfumes and medicines, and pine resin may have kept the oil from going rancid and fought microbes due to its antiseptic properties.
Pollen grains were numerous, with about 1,400 grains per gram seen in the tablets. These came from olive, wheat and many other plants, such as stinging nettles and alder trees. However, about 60 percent of this pollen came from plants that are pollinated by insects such as bees, suggesting they may inadvertently have hitched along in a bee product such as beeswax instead of getting intentionally added to the medicine.
Linen fibers were seen, which may have helped keep the tablets from crumbling. Charcoal was detected as well, which may be residue from other ingredients or was potentially added intentionally.
Intriguingly, the Latin word for eyewash, "collyrium," derives from a Greek word meaning "small round loaves." This fact highlights the notion that these small round tablets are linked with eye health.
"This study provided valuable information on ancient medical and pharmaceutical practices and on the development of pharmacology and medicine over the centuries," the researchers said. "In addition, given the current focus on natural compounds, our data could lead to new investigations and research for therapeutic care."
Follow LiveScience on Twitter @livescience. We're also on Facebook & Google+.
- Disasters at Sea: 6 Deadliest Shipwrecks
- In Photos: Diving for Famed Roman Shipwreck
- In Photos: Amazing Ruins of the Ancient World
Click green for further info
Source: LiveScience.com
For your private use, only
Can be used for educational purposes
_______________________________________________
Settlement reached in Toyota acceleration cases
Current and former Toyota owners are expected to receive more information about the settlement in the coming months. Some information is also available at http://www.ToyotaELsettlement.com, a website created for Toyota owners affected by the settlement.
Source: Associated Press
December 2012
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Toyota Motor Corp. said Wednesday it has reached a settlement worth more than $1 billion in a case involving unintended acceleration problems in its vehicles.
The company said the deal will resolve hundreds of lawsuits from Toyota owners who said the value of their cars and trucks plummeted after a series of recalls stemming from claims that Toyota vehicles accelerated unintentionally.
Steve Berman, a lawyer representing Toyota owners, said the settlement is the largest in U.S. history involving automobile defects.
"We kept fighting and fighting and we secured what we think was a good settlement given the risks of this litigation," Berman told The Associated Press.
The proposed deal was filed Wednesday and must receive the approval of U.S. District Judge James Selna, who was expected to review the settlement Friday.
Toyota said it will take a one-time, $1.1 billion pre-tax charge against earnings to cover the estimated costs of the settlement. Berman said the total value of the deal is between $1.2 billion and $1.4 billion.
Hundreds of lawsuits have been filed against Toyota since 2009, when the Japanese automaker started receiving numerous complaints that its cars accelerated on their own, causing crashes, injuries and even deaths.
The cases were consolidated in U.S. District Court in Santa Ana and divided into two categories: economic loss and wrongful death. Claims by people who seek compensation for injury and death due to sudden acceleration are not part of the settlement; the first trial involving those suits is scheduled for February.
As part of the economic loss settlement, Toyota will offer cash payments from a pool of about $250 million to eligible customers who sold vehicles or turned in leased vehicles between September 2009 and December 2010.
The company also will launch a $250 million program for 16 million current owners to provide supplemental warranty coverage for certain vehicle components, and it will retrofit about 3.2 million vehicles with a brake override system. An override system is designed to ensure a car will stop when the brakes are applied, even if the accelerator pedal is depressed.
The settlement would also establish additional driver education programs and fund new research into advanced safety technologies.
"In keeping with our core principles, we have structured this agreement in ways that work to put our customers first and demonstrate that they can count on Toyota to stand behind our vehicles," said Christopher Reynolds, Toyota vice president and general counsel.
Current and former Toyota owners are expected to receive more information about the settlement in the coming months. Some information is also available at http://www.ToyotaELsettlement.com , a website created for Toyota owners affected by the settlement.
"We are extraordinarily proud of how we were able to represent the interests of Toyota owners, and believe this settlement is both comprehensive in its scope and fair in compensation," Berman said.
Toyota has recalled more than 14 million vehicles worldwide due to acceleration problems in several models and brake defects with the Prius hybrid. The automaker has blamed driver error, faulty floor mats and stuck accelerator pedals for the problems.
Plaintiffs' attorneys have spent the past two years deposing Toyota employees, poring over thousands of documents and reviewing software code, but the company maintains those lawyers have been unable to prove that a design defect — namely Toyota's electronic throttle control system — was responsible for vehicles surging unexpectedly.
Both the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and NASA were unable to find any defects in Toyota's source code that could cause problems.
The company has been dogged by fines for not reporting problems in a timely manner.
Earlier this month, NHTSA doled out a record $17.4 million fine to Toyota for failing to quickly report floor mat problems with some of its Lexus models. Toyota paid a total of $48.8 million in fines for three violations in 2010.
Toyota President Akio Toyoda appeared before Congress last year and pledged to strengthen quality control. Recent sales figures show the company appears to have rebounded following its safety issues.
Online:
Settlement website: http://www.ToyotaELsettlement.com
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Nonprofit tech innovators inspire new philanthropy
WASHINGTON (AP- Associated Press) — Scott Harrison knows his charity has funded nearly 7,000 clean water projects in some of the poorest areas of the world in the past six years. How many of those wells are still flowing with drinking water months or years later, though? That's a tough question to answer.
His organization called Charity: Water has funded projects in 20 different countries. It's committed to spend 100 percent of each donation in the field to help reach some of the 800 million people who don't have clean water and resort to drinking from swamps, unhealthy ponds or polluted rivers. Organizers send donors photos and GPS coordinates for each water project they pay for.
Still, Harrison, a former New York promoter for nightclubs and fashion events, didn't want to guess at how many water projects were actually working. He wanted to give donors more assurance, knowing as many as a third of hand pumps built by various governments or groups stop functioning later. His solution: why not create sensors to monitor the water flow at each well? But raising millions for a new innovation could prove impossible.
Few funders want to pay for a nonprofit's technical infrastructure or take the risk of funding a dreamy idea. They'd rather pay for real work on the ground.
This month, Google stepped in with major funding to create and install sensors on 4,000 wells across Africa by 2015 that will send back real-time data on the water flow at each site. The $5 million grant could be a game changer for Charity: Water to ensure its projects are sustainable, to raise money for maintenance and to empower developing countries to maintain their infrastructure with new data.
"You could imagine a water minister salivating over this technology, even a president of a country being able to hold his water ministers in different districts accountable, saying, 'Hey, look, I want a dashboard in my office where I can see how my small, rural water projects are performing,'" Harrison said.
The grant is part of the first class of Google's Global Impact Awards totaling $23 million to spur innovation among nonprofits. Experts say the new annual grants are a part of a growing trend in venture philanthropy from funders who see technology as an instrument for social change. Such donors say they can have a bigger impact funding nonprofits that find ways to multiply their efforts through technology.
The gifts also represent a shift in the tech company's approach to philanthropy.
Google's Director of Charitable Giving Jacquelline Fuller said the company analyzed its giving, including $115 million in grants last year. It decided it could have a greater impact by funding nonprofit tech innovation, rather than specific issue areas or existing projects. Its grants will come with volunteer consulting on each project from Google engineers or specialists.
"We're really looking for the transformational impact" from clever uses of technology, Fuller said. But that sometimes involves risk that new technologies and innovations may not work.
"Informed risk is something Google understands," she said. "There's actually very few dollars available that's truly risk capital, lenders willing to take informed risk to help back some of these new technologies and innovations that may not pan out."
The largest source of funding for U.S. nonprofits is government, mostly through contracts that come with strings attached. Individual donors contribute significant support to charities as well, and the nation's foundations give about 14 percent of overall philanthropy to nonprofits.
"There is sort of a new breed of philanthropists coming into the field," including many who made money in the tech sector at a young age, said Bradford Smith, president of the Foundation Center, an information clearinghouse on nonprofits. "There I think you're seeing a really interesting sort of confluence of almost kind of a venture, risk-taking approach and technology as an instrument for social change."
Google zeroed in on projects that could develop new technology to scale up smaller projects targeting the environment, poverty, education and gender issues.
It's giving $5 million to the World Wildlife Fund to develop high-tech sensors for wildlife tagging to detect and deter poaching of endangered species. Another $3 million is going to a project at the Smithsonian Institution to develop DNA barcoding as a tool to stop illegal trading of endangered plants or animals smuggled across borders. That project could give six developing countries DNA testing materials with fast results to use as evidence to prosecute smugglers.
To fuel future innovation, Google is giving Donorschoose.org $5 million to create 500 new Advanced Placement courses in math, science and technology for U.S. schools that are committed to enrolling girls and minority students.
The charity GiveDirectly will receive $2.4 million to expand its model of direct mobile cash transfers to poor families in Kenya as a new method for lifting people out of poverty.
A charity run by actress Geena Davis that studies gender portrayals in the media will use a $1.2 million Google grant to develop new automated software that analyzes how females are portrayed in children's media worldwide, speeding up a previously manual process.
"It was looking prohibitively expensive to do a global study," Davis said, adding that developing new technology seemed like a far-flung wish. "It seems so science future that we weren't really raising money to do it."
While the grant may be a relatively small investment for a major tech company, it represents one of the largest gifts ever for the Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media.
Innovation and technology among nonprofits have long been underfunded with traditional funders often feeling averse to risk and more often seeking to fund specific types of existing programs.
Momentum has been building for the past decade for funders pursuing venture philanthropy, said Matt Bannick, managing partner of the Omidyar Network founded by eBay founder Pierre Omidyar. Since 2004, the group has given out $310 million in grants to nonprofits, including the Sunlight Foundation and DonorsChoose.
Seeking out ideas to fund, rather than existing projects, turns traditional notions of philanthropy on its head, Bannick said.
"Rather than looking for organizations that could do this specific work that we're hoping to get accomplished, let's look for fabulous entrepreneurs ... that have a new and innovative idea that we can get behind," he said.
Silicon Valley philanthropists are fueling some growth in funding for nonprofit innovators, but some older foundations also have turned to funding innovation and nonprofit entrepreneurs.
The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation in Miami, born from a newspaper chain, has turned its focus to media innovation. The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, founded in 1934 by a General Motors chief, focuses on science and technology to drive the nation's prosperity. Sloan was an early funder of the Smithsonian's DNA barcoding project.
Such funders are betting that early seed money can have a big impact with the right ideas and entrepreneurs.
"If there was more funding," Bannick said, "there would be a lot more great ideas that could emerge."
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In the text above "to pan out" = to turn out well; be successful
___
Charity: Water: http://www.charitywater.org/
Google Global Impact Awards: http://www.google.com/giving/impact-awards.html
Omidyar Network: http://www.omidyar.com/
Source: Associated - AP Press
__________________________________________________________________
Hypersonic 'SpaceLiner' Aims to Fly Passengers in 2050
Date: January 2013
A hypersonic "SpaceLiner" would whisk up to 50 passengers
from Europe to Australia in 90 minutes
The futuristic vehicle would do so by riding a rocket into Earth's upper atmosphere,
reaching 24 times the speed of sound before gliding in for a landing
Click green for further info
Many challenges still remain, including finding the right shape for the vehicle, said Martin Sippel, project coordinator for SpaceLinerat the German Aerospace Center. But he suggested the project could make enough progress to begin attracting private funding in another 10 years and aim for full operations by 2050.
The current concept includes a rocket booster stage for launch and a separate orbiter stage to carrypassengers halfway around the world without ever making it to space. Flight times between the U.S. and Europe could fall to just over an hour if the SpaceLiner takes off — that is, if passengers don't mind paying the equivalent of space tourism prices around several hundred thousand dollars.
"Maybe we can best characterize the SpaceLiner by saying it's a kind of second-generation space shuttle, but with a completely different task," Sippel said.
SpaceLiner passengers would have eight minutes to experience the rocket launch before they reached an altitude of about 47 to 50 miles (75 to 80 kilometers). That falls short of the 62-mile (100-km) boundary considered the edge of space, but even a suborbital flight would allow SpaceLiner to glide back to Earth at hypersonic speeds of more than 15,000 mph (25,200 kph).
Relying on rocket power
The rocket-powered design stands out compared with other proposed hypersonic jets, which feature new air-breathing engine concepts. European aerospace giant EADS previously unveiled ahypersonic jet concept that would rely mainly upon air-breathing ramjets to reach cruising speeds of Mach 4 — faster than the supersonic Concorde's Mach 2 performances but far slower than theSpaceLiner's Mach 24 goal.
SpaceLiner's European project planners say their reliance upon proven rocket technology could allow their vehicle to fly sooner rather than later. They plan to use liquid oxygen and hydrogen rocket propellants so that the rocket engines leave only water vapor and hydrogen in the atmosphere. [Video: How DARPA's HTV-2 Hypersonic Bomber Test Works]
"We will not try to improve the performance of the engine but would like to have it more reusable,"Sippel told TechNewsDaily.
The empty rocket stage from SpaceLiner would return to Earth immediately after launch in preparation for reuse. An aircraft could grab the rocket stage in midair, tow it toward an airfield and release it for an autonomous gliding landing.
Chances of survival
But big challenges remain before SpaceLiner can take off. Researchers first must finalize a design shape capable of surviving the intense heat created by gliding at hypersonic speeds through the upper atmosphere. New cooling technologies and improved heat shielding for SpaceLiner's wing "leading edge" could help in that case.
Launching like a rocket rather than taking off like an aircraft means SpaceLiner would remain restricted to suitable launch sites with uninhabited areas down range. The SpaceLiner also would need a careful flight path during its final landing approach — the "sonic boom" shock that accompanies aircraft traveling faster than the speed of sound can damage buildings on the ground at low altitudes.
"The profile of the vehicle is very similar to a rocket-propelled vehicle," Sippel explained. "We only have a small corridor in which we can fly safely and economically."
SpaceLiner's design will make use of study results from a FAST20XX (Future High-Altitude High-Speed Transport 20XX) project funded by the European Union and backed by researchers from Germany, Austria, Spain, Switzerland, Italy, Belgium, the Netherlands, France and Sweden. It can also draw lessons from upcoming efforts such as Project ALPHA by Aerospace Innovation GmbH — a space plane that aims to launch in midair from an Airbus A330 aircraft.
But future success ultimately depends upon the success of space tourism efforts by companies such as Virgin Galactic. If enough people prove willing to pay top dollar for suborbital flights as part of their travels around the world, Sippel envisions a fleet of SpaceLiners eventually making 10 to 15 flights per day.
This story was provided by TechNewsDaily, sister site to SPACE.com. You can follow TechNewsDaily Senior Writer Jeremy Hsu on Twitter @jeremyhsu. Follow TechNewsDaily on Twitter @TechNewsDaily. We're also on Facebook & Google+.
Click green for further info
Date: January 2013
A hypersonic "SpaceLiner" would whisk up to 50 passengers
from Europe to Australia in 90 minutes
The futuristic vehicle would do so by riding a rocket into Earth's upper atmosphere,
reaching 24 times the speed of sound before gliding in for a landing
Click green for further info
Many challenges still remain, including finding the right shape for the vehicle, said Martin Sippel, project coordinator for SpaceLinerat the German Aerospace Center. But he suggested the project could make enough progress to begin attracting private funding in another 10 years and aim for full operations by 2050.
The current concept includes a rocket booster stage for launch and a separate orbiter stage to carrypassengers halfway around the world without ever making it to space. Flight times between the U.S. and Europe could fall to just over an hour if the SpaceLiner takes off — that is, if passengers don't mind paying the equivalent of space tourism prices around several hundred thousand dollars.
"Maybe we can best characterize the SpaceLiner by saying it's a kind of second-generation space shuttle, but with a completely different task," Sippel said.
SpaceLiner passengers would have eight minutes to experience the rocket launch before they reached an altitude of about 47 to 50 miles (75 to 80 kilometers). That falls short of the 62-mile (100-km) boundary considered the edge of space, but even a suborbital flight would allow SpaceLiner to glide back to Earth at hypersonic speeds of more than 15,000 mph (25,200 kph).
Relying on rocket power
The rocket-powered design stands out compared with other proposed hypersonic jets, which feature new air-breathing engine concepts. European aerospace giant EADS previously unveiled ahypersonic jet concept that would rely mainly upon air-breathing ramjets to reach cruising speeds of Mach 4 — faster than the supersonic Concorde's Mach 2 performances but far slower than theSpaceLiner's Mach 24 goal.
SpaceLiner's European project planners say their reliance upon proven rocket technology could allow their vehicle to fly sooner rather than later. They plan to use liquid oxygen and hydrogen rocket propellants so that the rocket engines leave only water vapor and hydrogen in the atmosphere. [Video: How DARPA's HTV-2 Hypersonic Bomber Test Works]
"We will not try to improve the performance of the engine but would like to have it more reusable,"Sippel told TechNewsDaily.
The empty rocket stage from SpaceLiner would return to Earth immediately after launch in preparation for reuse. An aircraft could grab the rocket stage in midair, tow it toward an airfield and release it for an autonomous gliding landing.
Chances of survival
But big challenges remain before SpaceLiner can take off. Researchers first must finalize a design shape capable of surviving the intense heat created by gliding at hypersonic speeds through the upper atmosphere. New cooling technologies and improved heat shielding for SpaceLiner's wing "leading edge" could help in that case.
Launching like a rocket rather than taking off like an aircraft means SpaceLiner would remain restricted to suitable launch sites with uninhabited areas down range. The SpaceLiner also would need a careful flight path during its final landing approach — the "sonic boom" shock that accompanies aircraft traveling faster than the speed of sound can damage buildings on the ground at low altitudes.
"The profile of the vehicle is very similar to a rocket-propelled vehicle," Sippel explained. "We only have a small corridor in which we can fly safely and economically."
SpaceLiner's design will make use of study results from a FAST20XX (Future High-Altitude High-Speed Transport 20XX) project funded by the European Union and backed by researchers from Germany, Austria, Spain, Switzerland, Italy, Belgium, the Netherlands, France and Sweden. It can also draw lessons from upcoming efforts such as Project ALPHA by Aerospace Innovation GmbH — a space plane that aims to launch in midair from an Airbus A330 aircraft.
But future success ultimately depends upon the success of space tourism efforts by companies such as Virgin Galactic. If enough people prove willing to pay top dollar for suborbital flights as part of their travels around the world, Sippel envisions a fleet of SpaceLiners eventually making 10 to 15 flights per day.
This story was provided by TechNewsDaily, sister site to SPACE.com. You can follow TechNewsDaily Senior Writer Jeremy Hsu on Twitter @jeremyhsu. Follow TechNewsDaily on Twitter @TechNewsDaily. We're also on Facebook & Google+.
Click green for further info
- Ten Military Aircraft that Never Made it Past the Test Phase
- Hypersonic Waverider - How the USAF X-51A Scramjet Works | Video
- 10 Ways Smarter Cars Will Make You Love Commuting
- ____________________________________________________________
Green, clean energy - free
The buildings can be heated with free power of a hot human body
The Power of a Hot Body
As I waited with a throng of Parisians in the Rambuteau Metro station on a blustery day, my frozen toes finally began to thaw. Alone we may have shivered, but together we brewed so much body heat that people began unbuttoning their coats. We might have been penguins crowding for warmth in Antarctica's icy torment of winds. Idly mingling, a human body radiates about 100 watts of excess heat, which can add up fast in confined spaces.
Heat also loomed from the friction of trains on the tracks, and seeped from the deep maze of tunnels, raising the platform temperature to around 70 degrees, almost a geothermal spa. As people clambered on and off trains, and trickled up and down the staircases to Rue Beaubourg, their haste kept the communal den toasty.
Geothermal warmth may abound in volcanic Iceland, but it's not easy to come by in downtown Paris. So why waste it? Savvy architects from Paris Habitat decided to borrow the surplus energy from so many human bodies and use it to supply radiant under-floor heating for 17 apartments in a nearby public housing project, which happens to share an unused stairwell with the metro station. Otherwise the free heat would be lost by the end of the morning's rush hour.
Appealing as the design may be, it isn't quite feasible throughout Paris without retrofitting buildings and Metro stops, which would be costly. But it is proving successful elsewhere. There's Minnesota's monument to capitalism, the four-million-square-foot Mall of America, where even on subzero winter days the indoor temperature skirts 70 from combined body heat, light fixtures and sunlight cascading through ceiling windows.
Or consider Stockholm's busy hub, Central Station, where engineers harness the body heat issuing from 250,000 railway travelers to warm the 13-story Kungsbrohuset office building about 100 yards away. Under the voluminous roof of the station, people donate their 100 watts of surplus natural heat, but many are also bustling around the shops and buying meals, drinks, books, flowers, cosmetics and such, emitting even more energy.
This ultra green, almost chartreuse, body-heat design works especially well in Sweden, a land of soaring fuel costs, legendary hard winters, and ecologically minded citizens. First, the station's ventilation system captures the commuters' body heat, which it uses to warm water in underground tanks. From there, the hot water is pumped to Kungsbrohuset's heating pipes, which ends up saving about 25 percent on energy bills.
Kungsbrohuset's design has other sustainable elements as well. The windows are angled to let sunlight flood in, but not heat in the summer. Fiber optics relay daylight from the roof to stairwells and other non-window spaces that in conventional buildings would cost money to heat. In summer, the building is cooled by water from a nearby lake.
It's hard not to admire the Swedes' resolve. During the 1970s, Sweden suffered from pollution, dead forests, lack of clean water and a nasty oil habit. In the past decade, through the use of wind and solar power, recycling of wastewater throughout eco-suburbs, linking up urban infrastructure in synergistic ways, and imposing stringent building codes, Swedes have cut their oil dependency and drastically reduced their sulfur and CO2 emissions.
Part of the appeal of heating buildings with body heat is the delicious simplicity of finding a new way to use old technology (just pipes, pumps and water). Hands down, it's my favorite form of renewable energy.
What could be cozier than keeping friends and strangers warm? Or knowing that by walking briskly or mousing around the shops, you're stoking a furnace to heat someone's chilly kitchen?
How about the reciprocity of a whole society, everyone keeping each other warm?
Widening their vision to embrace neighborhoods, engineers from Jernhusen, the state-owned railroad station developer, are hoping to find a way to capture excess body heat on a scale large enough to warm homes and office buildings in a perpetual cycle of mutual generosity. Heat generated by people at home at night would be piped to office buildings first thing in the morning, and then heat shed in the offices during the day would flow to the residences in the late afternoon. Nature is full of life-giving cycles; why not add this human one?
Alas, I don't see body-heat sharing sweeping the United States anytime soon. Retrofitting city buildings would be costly at a time when our lawmakers are squabbling over every penny. Also, the buildings can't be more than 100 to 200 feet apart, or the heat is lost in transit. The essential ingredient is a reliable flux of people every day to provide the heat.
But it's doable and worth designing into new buildings wherever possible.
As a Golden Rule technology of neighbor helping neighbor, it implies a willingness to live in harmony. What could be more selfless than sharing heat from the tiny campfires in your cells? I'll warm your apartment today, you'll warm my schoolroom tomorrow. It's as effective and homely as gathering around a hearth. Sometimes there's nothing like an old idea revamped.
Source: The New York Times Company
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The World’s Best Places To Live
Date: December 2012
SEE below also an article: Countries with Zero Income Taxes - interested ?
Then you need to study that article, also.
_____________
Can there be a city that is crime & pollution free, with excellent public transport & great schools to boast?
Human resources consulting firm Mercer has put together a list of cities that come closest to offering you all that. In its 2012 Quality of Living report it looks at living conditions in 221 cities worldwide and ranks them against New York as a base city in 10 categories - economy, socio-cultural environment, politics, education, and healthcare.
Cities in some of the world's biggest economies like the U.S. and Japan don't make the cut
So, which are the world's best places to live in? Read ahead to find out
1. Vienna, Austria
Austria's most populous city – Vienna – has won the title of the world's best city for quality of life since 2009. It is also one of eight European cities to make the top 10 list, showing the region's dominance in the survey.
Vienna is the cultural, economic, and political center of the country. It has the highest per capita GDP among all Austrian cities at over $55,000. Vienna's ability to transform old infrastructure into modern dwellings won the city the 2010 United Nations urban planning award for improving the living conditions of its residents. Under a multimillion-dollar program, the city refurbished more than 5,000 buildings with nearly 250,000 apartments. Vienna is also the world's No. 1 destination for conferences, drawing five million tourists a year — equivalent to three tourists for every resident.
The country's economy has, however, not been immune to the crisis plaguing Europe, and shrunk 0.1 percent in the third quarter of the year, as the European Union entered its second recession since 2009.
2. Zurich, Switzerland
Zurich, Switzerland's largest city, keeps the number two spot from last year after holding the title of the city with the best quality of life in the world previously. It is also one of three Swiss cities to make the top 10 rankings – tying with Germany for the most number of cities on the list.
Known as a global financial center, one out of every nine jobs in Switzerland is based in Zurich. Its low tax rates attract overseas companies and the assets of the 82 banks based there are equivalent to more than 85 percent of the total value of assets held in Switzerland. The city is also the country's biggest tourist destination, famous for its lakeside location and chain of hills that run from north to south, providing an extensive range of leisure activities.
The cost of living in Zurich is the sixth highest in the world, according to Mercer. Both Zurich and Geneva make Switzerland the most expensive country to live in in Western Europe. The city also attracts people to buy luxury properties here, because of its low taxes, safety record and good education system, according to real estate firm Knight Frank.
3. Auckland, New Zealand
New Zealand's largest and most populous city, Auckland, offers the best quality of life in the Asia-Pacific region, now for the second year in a row. It has been consistently placed within the top five best places to live in for the past six years.
Auckland is uniquely set between two harbors, with 11 extinct volcanoes and numerous islands making it the city with the world's largest boat ownership per person. Auckland is New Zealand's economic powerhouse - its 1.4 million people account for more than 30 percent of the country's population and contribute 35 percent to the country's GDP. Auckland is also home to the most educated people in the country, with nearly 37 percent of its working population holding a bachelor's degree or higher.
In March, the city launched a 30-year initiative called "The Auckland Plan" to make it the world's most livable city. The plan aims to tackle challenges in transport, housing, job creation and environment protection. However, the city has been impacted by the global economic slowdown. In the third quarter New Zealand's unemployment rate hit a 13-year high of 7.3 percent.
4. Munich, Germany
Munich is Germany's third largest city and one of the country's key economic centers. It is also one of three German cities to dominate the top 10 rankings for the best quality of life.
Holding on its fourth spot from last year, Munich is home to some of Germany's most notable businesses, including engineering firm Siemens and insurer Allianz. The city generates nearly 30 percent of the gross domestic product of the State of Bavaria. Munich's per capita purchasing power was more than $33,700 in 2011, the highest among all German cities and 30 percent above the national average. Drawing immigrants to its industries from all over the world, more than a fifth of the city's residents are foreigners.
Munich ties fellow German city Frankfurt for having the second best infrastructure in the world, according to Mercer. In total, four German cities including Dusseldorf and Hamburg dominate the top 10 infrastructure rankings highlighting the country's first-class airports and high standard of public services.
5. Vancouver, Canada
Vancouver is the only Canadian and North American city to make the top 10 list this year, similar to 2011.
Vancouver has made it to a number of rankings on the world's most livable cities over the past decade and has been among the top five in the Mercer quality of living survey for the past six years. Home to one of the mildest climates in Canada, Vancouver is also its greenest city with the smallest carbon footprint of any major city in North America. Surrounded by water and snowy mountains, Vancouver's government constantly promotes green building, planning, and technology with the ambition of becoming the world's greenest city by 2020.
In terms of infrastructure, Vancouver also tops the rankings for North America at ninth with Montreal and Atlanta landing in 13th place. Overall, Canadian cities still dominate the top of the rankings for North America despite only Vancouver making it into the global top 10. Ottawa comes in at 14, Toronto at 15 and Montreal at 23, while it's closet U.S. competitor is Honolulu at 28 globally.
See the full list: Click: The World's Best Places to live WITH PICTURES
6. Dusseldorf, Germany
German city Dusseldorf fell one spot from last year's rankings to take the sixth spot in 2012. However, the city has made Mercer's top 10 rankings for the best quality of life for the past six years.
The city by the river Rhine is the seventh most populated in Germany and is renowned for its fashion and trade fairs. With more than 100 galleries, Dusseldorf is Germany's art capital.
Dusseldorf's high standard of living is a big draw for the ultra-wealthy. The city ranks second only to Munich for the highest population in Germany of people with a net worth $30 million or more at 1,380, according to research firm Wealth-X. Earlier this year, local media also reported that the city has more millionaires than any other German city.
7. Frankfurt, Germany
Frankfurt, the largest financial center in continental Europe, retains the seventh spot from last year's rankings of the best places to live.
Germany's fifth largest city, it is home to major institutions such as the European Central Bank and the Frankfurt Stock Exchange. Frankfurt is also a major transport hub for central Europe given its modern infrastructure, including an integrated high-speed rail network and a busy international airport. The city ranks second only to Singapore in the world for its infrastructure, according to Mercer.
The city is also building a reputation for its environment-friendly initiatives. In 2008, a "low emission zone" was set up in the city and only vehicles with a green badge reflecting low emissions are allowed to enter the area. The aim is to reduce pollution and maintain air quality levels in Frankfurt. More than 50 percent of the city consists of open green spaces and waterways.
8. Geneva, Switzerland
Geneva, Switzerland's second most populous city and home to several international organizations, holds on to the eighth spot it earned in 2011.
Located at the foot of the Swiss Alps, along the banks of Lake Geneva, the city's natural environment also makes it one of the greenest cities in Europe. About 20 percent of Geneva is covered by green areas, giving it the name "city of parks." The city has benefited from strict air pollution laws and other environmental regulations, given that it is the base of many global environmental groups.
As home to a large expatriate community with over 40 percent of its population being foreigners, the cost of living in Geneva is the highest in Western Europe. It's considered the fifth most expensive city in the world, according to Mercer. The cosmopolitan hub is also home to the world's most expensive private schools and is said to have one of the best education systems globally. Geneva's strong economy is also boosted by the fact that it is the world's No. 1 center for oil trading, seeing 35 percent of global volume.
9. Copenhagen, Denmark
Copenhagen, the capital of Denmark, has held on to the ninth spot from last year and marks its sixth consecutive appearance on Mercer's list of the top 15 cities to live in.
Health and well-being is a big priority for the Danish people with nearly a quarter of them aged 60 and older, according to government data. Increased health awareness has translated into Denmark becoming one of the leading consumers and producers of organic food in Europe. Almost 75 percent of food served by city-run businesses like daycares in Copenhagen is organic. Copenhagen is also known as the city of cyclists with a total 218 miles of cycle tracks, resulting in about 35 percent of its population commuting by bicycle every day.
Despite being lauded for its high quality of life, Denmark's economy has struggled, impacted by the euro zone debt crisis. The Danish economy shrank 0.4 percent in the second quarter of the year. Consumption, one of the country's main growth drivers, has remained weak even with record-low interest rates, due in part to a property bubble bust in 2007 that has left many households in debt and cautious over spending.
10. (Tied) Bern, Switzerland
Bern, the capital of Switzerland, fell one spot this year to tie with Sydney at No. 10 after coming in 9th in the quality of living survey for the previous four years.
Located in the Swiss plateau, Bern has been able to maintain its medieval charm. In 1983, its city center known as the old town of Bern became a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Often ranked among the most expensive cities in the world, Bern is the center of Swiss engineering and manufacturing with medical, information technology, automotive, and luxury products such as watches made there.
Last year it was ranked as the second safest city to live in the world after Luxembourg, according to Mercer's survey. Switzerland's reputation as the traditional banking safe haven for the world's wealthy has made it an attractive place for relocation. However, growing immigration has become a major cause of concern for locals who fear that an inflow of foreigners is threatening the Alpine's country's high standard of living. In November, a Swiss environmentalist group presented the government with 120,000 signatures to force a referendum on immigration by calling for an annual limit on the country's population growth via immigration to 0.2 percent. The Swiss population hit the 8 million mark this year – an 18.5 percent rise from 1990.
10. (Tied) Sydney, Australia
Climbing one spot from last year, Sydney breaks into the top 10 best places to live this year as the only Australian city to make the rankings. However, it is one of five Australian cities to rank within the top 30 – highlighting the country's prominence for the quality of life it offers.
As Australia's economic hub and most populated city, Sydney is a favored destination in the Asia-Pacific region to live and work. Its metropolitan area is set in one of the world's most stunning harbors and is surrounded by national parks, bays, rivers, and beaches. Sydney is also the headquarters of about 40 percent of the top 500 Australian firms, and 44 percent of its broadcasting industry is located here.
The city also ranks eighth in the world for its infrastructure based on Mercer's ranking. The survey took into account factors like electricity and water supply, transportation and traffic congestion. In comparison to the rest of the Asia-Pacific region, both Australia and New Zealand also far outweigh their peers in living standards and personal safety. Singapore is the highest ranked Asian city at 25, followed by Toyko at 44.
See the full list: Click: The World's Best Places to Live WITH PICTURE
- Foreign Owned America ___________________________________________________________
Countries With Zero Income Taxes
Dated 2012
To paraphrase Benjamin Franklin: The only things certain in life are death and taxes. And sure enough, millions around the world file taxes every year.
Personal income taxes are a huge source of revenue for governments globally, and the debate on taxes is a hot-button issue in the U.S. presidential election.
But, there are some countries where you can be 100 percent certain that you don’t have to pay income tax.
We’ve put together a list of eight countries that have no income tax, based on KPMG’s 2011 survey of 96 countries. Some of the countries are well-known tax havens, while others have managed to use natural resources to fund government expenses.
So, which countries have no personal income tax? Click ahead to find out.
United Arab Emirates
The United Arab Emirates has one of the world's highest per-capita incomes, $48,200, and has no personal income or capital gains taxes.
Instead of generating revenue from income tax, the country, which is the third-biggest exporter of crude globally, is dependent on taxes from oil companies that pay up to 55 percent in corporate taxes. Foreign banks pay about 20 percent. Oil revenue,for example, accounted for 80 percent of consolidated government income in 2010, while income from various taxes, fees and customs duties made up less than 12 percent, according to government statistics.
While expatriate employees don’t pay for social security in the Arab country, UAE citizens must make monthly contributions of 5 percent of their total earnings for social security. Employers of citizens also have to make monthly contributions of 12.5 percent of the worker’s base salary for social security and pensions. Other indirect taxes include housing fees, road tolls and municipal taxes. The UAE charges a 50 percent tax on alcohol, and if a person has a liquor license and buys alcohol to drink at home, an additional 30 percent tax is charged.
QatarGas-rich Qatar became the world’s richest country this year with GDP per capita of more than $88,000, according to Forbes.
Relying on its natural gas reserves — which are the world’s third largest — for revenue, Qatar has invested heavily in infrastructure to liquefy and export the commodity. The country levies no taxes on personal incomes, dividends, royalties, profits, capital gains and property. Qatar nationals, however, have to pay 5 percent of their income for social security benefits, while employers contribute 10 percent for the fund.
Earlier this year, reports surfaced that the government was considering a value-added tax in an attempt to broaden its revenue base and reduce its non-hydrocarbon deficit, which was equivalent to 17 percent of the country’s GDP last year. Other indirect taxes include a 5 percent charge on imported goods.
Oman
Like neighboring Middle Eastern countries, Oman derives the majority of its revenue from crude oil.
The country’s oil revenues increased 35 percent in April to $8.49 billion compared to the same month last year and accounted for over 71 percent of the sultanate’s total revenues. Although, there is no individual income or capital gains taxes in Oman, citizens must contribute 6.5 percent of their monthly salary for social security benefits. A stamp duty of 3 percent is also charged on the purchase of property.
Despite its oil wealth, Oman has recently been rocked by a series of protests by residents demanding jobs and employment benefits. Several strikes at petroleum plants over pay and pensions have seen activists jailed in the biggest labor strife in Oman since protests last year against corruption and unemployment triggered by the Arab Spring. There’s growing resentment in the country over the jobs offered to 800,000 expatriates, while the unemployment rate for citizens was 24.4 percent in 2010 and is rising, according to the International Monetary Fund.
Kuwait
As the world’s sixth-largest oil exporter, Kuwait’s oil revenue of $63.5 billion between April and November of 2011, accounted for 95 percent of the government’s total revenue in the period.
While there is no income tax in the country, Kuwaiti nationals must contribute 7.5 percent of their salary for social security benefits; their employers make an 11 percent contribution. Despite being one of the world’s wealthiest countries per capita, strikes and protests by public sector workers unhappy about pay have led the government to introduce a 25 percent increase in wages. The IMF, however, warned Kuwait in May that such spending could impact the sustainability of its public finances. Only 7 percent of Kuwaitis work in the private sector, and the rising cost of retirement could put pressure on government spending.
Kuwait is no stranger to political turmoil, ushering in four new parliaments in the past six years. The country has been marred with corruption scandals implicating key political figures, while poor parliament-government relations have hampered policymaking. The IMF has recommended that Kuwait introduce a value-added tax and comprehensive income tax system.
Cayman Islands
Well known as an offshore financial center, the Cayman Islands are a big draw for the wealthy with its zero personal income and capital gains taxes and because it has no mandatory social security contributions.
Employers, however, are required to provide a pension plan for all workers, including expatriates who have been working for a continuous nine months in the islands. While there is no value added tax or government sales tax, the country does have some indirect taxes such as import duties, which can range up to 25 percent.
A high standard of living in the Caymans also means high property prices. The average cost of an apartment in April was over $550,000, while the average cost of a house was more than $736,000, according to government figures.
Bahrain
With no personal income tax, Bahrain relies on output from the Abu Safa oilfield, which is shared with Saudi Arabia, for about 70 percent of its budget revenue.
For social security benefits, citizens contribute 7 percent of their total income to the government, while expatriates pay 1 percent. Employers must also make a contribution of 12 percent of a citizen’s income for social insurance, and pay 3 percent for expatriate employees. Other indirect taxes include a stamp duty of up to 3 percent of the value of the property on real estate transfers. Expatriates also have to pay a 10 percent municipal tax for renting a home in the Persian Gulf state.
Despite its oil wealth, Bahrain had a budget deficit of $83 million in 2011 and is considering issuing an international bond. The country has also been in turmoil from pro-democracy protests by majority Shi’ite Muslims against a Sunni-dominated government. The protests began in February 2011 and followed uprisings in other Arab nations.
Bermuda
Considered one of the world’s most affluent countries, Bermuda also has among the world's highest cost of living.
While there is no income tax, workers may be asked by employers to contribute up to 5.75 percent of a 16 percent payroll tax that the employer has to pay to the government on the first $750,000 of an employee’s income. Workers also have to pay $30.40 per week toward social security insurance, which is matched by the employer. Other taxes include a property tax of up to 19 percent depending on the annual rental value of the land determined by the government. A stamp duty also applies to inheritance/estates from 5 percent to 20 percent depending on the property value.
Custom duties levied on imported goods are a major source of revenue for the government. Individuals relocating to Bermuda are charged 25 percent for goods they bring. Given its relatively low taxes, the country is a big draw for international firms, with more than 20 percent of its population being foreign-born. However, a 10-year work permit in the country costs a whopping $20,000.
The Bahamas
Among the wealthiest Caribbean countries, the Bahamas features an economy that's heavily dependent on tourism and offshore banking.
About 70 percent of government revenue comes from duties on imported goods. Even though there is no personal income tax, employees have to contribute 3.9 percent of their salary, up to a maximum of $26,000 annually, for a form of social security called National Insurance. Employers also have to contribute 5.9 percent of a worker’s salary for National Insurance, while self-employed individuals are charged 8.8 percent. The country also has a property tax of up to 1 percent.
Despite its prosperity as a financial center, The Bahamas has an unemployment rate of 15 percent and the political parties are feuding over oil exploration projects in its waters that could come at the cost of tourism.
Click: Countries With Zero Income Tax WITH PICTURES
________________________________
Dated 2012
To paraphrase Benjamin Franklin: The only things certain in life are death and taxes. And sure enough, millions around the world file taxes every year.
Personal income taxes are a huge source of revenue for governments globally, and the debate on taxes is a hot-button issue in the U.S. presidential election.
But, there are some countries where you can be 100 percent certain that you don’t have to pay income tax.
We’ve put together a list of eight countries that have no income tax, based on KPMG’s 2011 survey of 96 countries. Some of the countries are well-known tax havens, while others have managed to use natural resources to fund government expenses.
So, which countries have no personal income tax? Click ahead to find out.
United Arab Emirates
The United Arab Emirates has one of the world's highest per-capita incomes, $48,200, and has no personal income or capital gains taxes.
Instead of generating revenue from income tax, the country, which is the third-biggest exporter of crude globally, is dependent on taxes from oil companies that pay up to 55 percent in corporate taxes. Foreign banks pay about 20 percent. Oil revenue,for example, accounted for 80 percent of consolidated government income in 2010, while income from various taxes, fees and customs duties made up less than 12 percent, according to government statistics.
While expatriate employees don’t pay for social security in the Arab country, UAE citizens must make monthly contributions of 5 percent of their total earnings for social security. Employers of citizens also have to make monthly contributions of 12.5 percent of the worker’s base salary for social security and pensions. Other indirect taxes include housing fees, road tolls and municipal taxes. The UAE charges a 50 percent tax on alcohol, and if a person has a liquor license and buys alcohol to drink at home, an additional 30 percent tax is charged.
QatarGas-rich Qatar became the world’s richest country this year with GDP per capita of more than $88,000, according to Forbes.
Relying on its natural gas reserves — which are the world’s third largest — for revenue, Qatar has invested heavily in infrastructure to liquefy and export the commodity. The country levies no taxes on personal incomes, dividends, royalties, profits, capital gains and property. Qatar nationals, however, have to pay 5 percent of their income for social security benefits, while employers contribute 10 percent for the fund.
Earlier this year, reports surfaced that the government was considering a value-added tax in an attempt to broaden its revenue base and reduce its non-hydrocarbon deficit, which was equivalent to 17 percent of the country’s GDP last year. Other indirect taxes include a 5 percent charge on imported goods.
Oman
Like neighboring Middle Eastern countries, Oman derives the majority of its revenue from crude oil.
The country’s oil revenues increased 35 percent in April to $8.49 billion compared to the same month last year and accounted for over 71 percent of the sultanate’s total revenues. Although, there is no individual income or capital gains taxes in Oman, citizens must contribute 6.5 percent of their monthly salary for social security benefits. A stamp duty of 3 percent is also charged on the purchase of property.
Despite its oil wealth, Oman has recently been rocked by a series of protests by residents demanding jobs and employment benefits. Several strikes at petroleum plants over pay and pensions have seen activists jailed in the biggest labor strife in Oman since protests last year against corruption and unemployment triggered by the Arab Spring. There’s growing resentment in the country over the jobs offered to 800,000 expatriates, while the unemployment rate for citizens was 24.4 percent in 2010 and is rising, according to the International Monetary Fund.
Kuwait
As the world’s sixth-largest oil exporter, Kuwait’s oil revenue of $63.5 billion between April and November of 2011, accounted for 95 percent of the government’s total revenue in the period.
While there is no income tax in the country, Kuwaiti nationals must contribute 7.5 percent of their salary for social security benefits; their employers make an 11 percent contribution. Despite being one of the world’s wealthiest countries per capita, strikes and protests by public sector workers unhappy about pay have led the government to introduce a 25 percent increase in wages. The IMF, however, warned Kuwait in May that such spending could impact the sustainability of its public finances. Only 7 percent of Kuwaitis work in the private sector, and the rising cost of retirement could put pressure on government spending.
Kuwait is no stranger to political turmoil, ushering in four new parliaments in the past six years. The country has been marred with corruption scandals implicating key political figures, while poor parliament-government relations have hampered policymaking. The IMF has recommended that Kuwait introduce a value-added tax and comprehensive income tax system.
Cayman Islands
Well known as an offshore financial center, the Cayman Islands are a big draw for the wealthy with its zero personal income and capital gains taxes and because it has no mandatory social security contributions.
Employers, however, are required to provide a pension plan for all workers, including expatriates who have been working for a continuous nine months in the islands. While there is no value added tax or government sales tax, the country does have some indirect taxes such as import duties, which can range up to 25 percent.
A high standard of living in the Caymans also means high property prices. The average cost of an apartment in April was over $550,000, while the average cost of a house was more than $736,000, according to government figures.
Bahrain
With no personal income tax, Bahrain relies on output from the Abu Safa oilfield, which is shared with Saudi Arabia, for about 70 percent of its budget revenue.
For social security benefits, citizens contribute 7 percent of their total income to the government, while expatriates pay 1 percent. Employers must also make a contribution of 12 percent of a citizen’s income for social insurance, and pay 3 percent for expatriate employees. Other indirect taxes include a stamp duty of up to 3 percent of the value of the property on real estate transfers. Expatriates also have to pay a 10 percent municipal tax for renting a home in the Persian Gulf state.
Despite its oil wealth, Bahrain had a budget deficit of $83 million in 2011 and is considering issuing an international bond. The country has also been in turmoil from pro-democracy protests by majority Shi’ite Muslims against a Sunni-dominated government. The protests began in February 2011 and followed uprisings in other Arab nations.
Bermuda
Considered one of the world’s most affluent countries, Bermuda also has among the world's highest cost of living.
While there is no income tax, workers may be asked by employers to contribute up to 5.75 percent of a 16 percent payroll tax that the employer has to pay to the government on the first $750,000 of an employee’s income. Workers also have to pay $30.40 per week toward social security insurance, which is matched by the employer. Other taxes include a property tax of up to 19 percent depending on the annual rental value of the land determined by the government. A stamp duty also applies to inheritance/estates from 5 percent to 20 percent depending on the property value.
Custom duties levied on imported goods are a major source of revenue for the government. Individuals relocating to Bermuda are charged 25 percent for goods they bring. Given its relatively low taxes, the country is a big draw for international firms, with more than 20 percent of its population being foreign-born. However, a 10-year work permit in the country costs a whopping $20,000.
The Bahamas
Among the wealthiest Caribbean countries, the Bahamas features an economy that's heavily dependent on tourism and offshore banking.
About 70 percent of government revenue comes from duties on imported goods. Even though there is no personal income tax, employees have to contribute 3.9 percent of their salary, up to a maximum of $26,000 annually, for a form of social security called National Insurance. Employers also have to contribute 5.9 percent of a worker’s salary for National Insurance, while self-employed individuals are charged 8.8 percent. The country also has a property tax of up to 1 percent.
Despite its prosperity as a financial center, The Bahamas has an unemployment rate of 15 percent and the political parties are feuding over oil exploration projects in its waters that could come at the cost of tourism.
Click: Countries With Zero Income Tax WITH PICTURES
________________________________
About Fracking in The U.S.A
(1) Love it or hate , fracking will redefine the U.S. Economy
(2) Yes, there are serious environmental issues to address (3) The worst hazards may be political (4) And even economic
(Adam Davidson, The New York Times, Sunday Magazine, December 16, 2012)
Welcome to Saudi Albany?
December 11, 2012
Albany is the capital of the State of New York.
The people who run U.S. Steel have not had much reason to celebrate in a long time. Once the icon of American manufacturing, the company became shorthand for the country’s industrial decline. For decades, it ignored innovation and was undercut by cheaper Asian producers and outflanked by U.S. start-ups. Its brief glory in the mid-2000s turned out to be fueled by housing-bubble excess; and its stock price has dropped nearly 90 percent since late 2008. A few months ago, John P. Surma, the company’s chairman and C.E.O., addressed a Steel Hall of Fame event at which all the inductees were either long dead or retired. He noted that, given the business climate, his own generation of steel C.E.O.’s might have trouble getting the big prize themselves.
Fortunately, Surma went on, this misery is about to change. The American steel industry recently received the economic equivalent of a gift from the heavens: natural gas extracted by means of hydraulic fracturing, or fracking. Fracking involves a whole lot of long steel pipes being sunk into rock formations thousands of feet beneath the ground in search of hydrocarbons. U.S. Steel, which is based in Pittsburgh, also happens to be right on top of the Marcellus Shale, the oil-rich formation that stretches from New York to Ohio. No one knows exactly how much gas is down there, but modest estimates suggest it’s at least 100 trillion cubic feet. Given this bounty, U.S. Steel recently spent $100 million on a facility whose entire purpose is to make “tubular product” for gas companies.
For Surma, an even bigger gift should come over the next few decades. The switch from coal to cheaper natural gas will save U.S. Steel hundreds of millions of dollars a year. These savings will be amplified by the fact that the company’s competitors in Europe and Asia will need to pay much more. In fact, many economists say that fracking will soon fundamentally shift global economic logic to uniquely benefit the United States. Ed Morse, an influential energy analyst at Citigroup, argues that the natural-gas industry will bring around three million new jobs to the United States by the end of this decade. He also expects that fracking will add up to 3 percent to our G.D.P. and trillions in additional tax revenue. Along the way, it will turn around perennial stragglers, like steel and manufacturing. For millions of workers, there could not be any better news.
Fracking, of course, is not universally embraced. The State of Pennsylvania lists more than 80 chemicals that are injected into the earth as part of the hydraulic-fracturing process. Many are pretty nasty, including formaldehyde, naphthalene and crystalline silica, which are known to cause all sorts of illnesses, including cancer. Fracking’s early years, more than a decade ago, were similar to the old wildcatter days in California and Texas. Small companies dug quickly and with little constraint from unprepared regulators.
More recently, this has changed considerably. Earlier this year, Ohio passed new rules requiring higher standards for fracking-well construction. Pennsylvania is expected to update its regulations very soon. West Virginia, a state historically friendly to the hydrocarbon industry, passed rules allowing for more public comment before any new wells are dug. New York, the only significant Marcellus Shale state that is still deciding whether to allow fracking, commissioned a panel of independent experts to determine whether the industry, overseen by strict regulation, can operate without hurting citizens. The review is expected early next year.
Most observers would agree, though, that changes in regulation do not come from objective scientific studies. (Both sides, after all, can flood any government hearing with experts and impressive-looking scientific reports.) Regulations are determined, in large part, by politics. And the politics of fracking are changing and are very likely to change drastically in coming years. As examples from the last century suggest, the sudden discovery of oil and gas can transform an entire economy and regulatory system to serve the industry’s interests. Economists call this the resource curse — the perverse process in which a valuable discovery like oil, gas, diamonds or gold ends up enriching a few at the cost of impoverishing most of the population. At its worst, the resource curse leads to deeply corrupt regimes like those in Iraq, Iran, Myanmar and Libya. At its mildest, this can create one-industry economies in which there is little innovation and even less resistance to the whims of a handful of powerful interests. Many believe this already describes the oil economies of Louisiana, Texas and Oklahoma and, increasingly, North Dakota, where the fracking industry is entrenched. Politically and economically, it’s hard to argue with an industry that has helped keep the state’s unemployment rate at about 3 percent.
If there is an uneasy equilibrium, right now, between environmentally concerned citizens and pro-fracking industrial groups, what will the political balance be like in a decade? What pressures will be on state legislatures and regulators if the projections are true and the millions of workers in Pennsylvania, Ohio, West Virginia and maybe New York will owe their jobs to fracking. There will be trillions of dollars of new wealth. Will environmental and health concerns have any chance against that juggernaut?
It doesn’t necessarily have to end badly. In the late 1960s, Norway’s economy was immediately transformed when it discovered massive crude deposits off its North Sea shores. Back then, Farouk al-Kasim, an Iraqi-born Norwegian petroleum engineer, warned that all that sudden easy money could create “so much pressure that it will completely overwhelm environmental concerns; the force can undermine moral, ethical barriers.” The money available to the industry and government was so ample, he told me recently, that people soon began to say, “I don’t care, I’m getting rich, to hell with everybody else.”
Norway avoided the curse, and America will, too, Kasim said, because it has a huge, diverse economy. Still, as oil-rich states have shown, it’s possible for even a relatively small extractive industry to cause severe damage. In fact, the best thing that any U.S. environmentalist can do is to start thinking like an economist — particularly a Norwegian one. In 1990, Norway began channeling money from oil and gas into a pension fund designed to keep the country stable when the crude ran out. It’s now the largest sovereign wealth fund in the world, as Norway showed that the best defense against an extraction industry was diverse economic growth. For environmentalists, and even steel behemoths, it’s a point worth remembering.
Adam Davidson is co-founder of NPR’s “Planet Money,” a podcast and blog.
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For your private use, only except can be used
for promoting safety & education
_________________________________________
Who Made Those 3-D Glasses?
By PAGAN KENNEDY
One morning in 1915, curiosity-seekers filed into the Astor Theater in New York for a new cinematic spectacle. As two film projectors rattled to life, the audience was immersed in a wonderland. “Hills, valleys, houses, the figures on a country road,” wrote Lynde Denig, a reporter who attended the screening, “the effect is marvelously real.”
Denig loved the illusion of depth, but he hated the cardboard viewer, with its red and green lenses, that he had to hold in front of his face. After half an hour, his arm ached. And when he took a “disillusioning glimpse at the screen with the naked eye,” he shuddered. Because each of the films was tinted — one red, the other green — the people on screen looked like “hobgoblins.”
But in most respects the show was a success. Put on by the director Edwin Porter and his partner William Waddell, it built an experience out of a hodgepodge of footage — including shots of Niagara Falls. The point wasn’t the plot but to prove that the brain could be tricked into seeing images in three dimensions. The red-and-cyan 3-D system that grew out of their experiment enjoyed a brief vogue in the 1920s. But the technology worked only with a limited palette. Edwin Land would solve that problem by inventing polarized lenses in 1936, which worked in full color. These ushered in a new wave of 3-D mania when the technology made its way to Hollywood in the 1950s. At the same time, cheap red-and-cyan glasses based on the earlier system became popular in the world of comic books and B-movies.
“Every 20 to 30 years, you get this craze for 3-D movies,” says Jack Theakston, a historian with the 3-D Film Archive, which then burns out. Today’s “Avatar”-inspired boom is very likely no exception, Theakston says. Inventors, meanwhile, continue to work on the holy grail: 3-D effects with no glasses.
A VISION THING
Victor K. McElheny is the author of “Insisting on the Impossible,” a biography of Edwin Land.
In the iconic 1950s Life magazine photo of a 3-D movie premiere, was the audience wearing the lenses developed by Land?
Yes. Those glasses were sold by the millions. But there were a lot of problems in the ’50s. Projectionists had to run two strips of film at the same time. If the projectionist was a little slack and the films went out of sync, the people in the audience would get a headache. And there was an intermediate market for cheaper glasses — knockoffs that weren’t so well made — and they would give you a headache, too.
These polarizing lenses delivered a different image to each eye?
Yes, one eye would see one set of signals, and one eye would see another.
You worked as a writer at Polaroid during the early 1970s. What were your impressions of Land?
He had a movie-star quality; a lot of people thought he looked like Cary Grant.
3-D MILESTONES
19th century: The stereoscope
The hand-held device worked for still images, but this technology was difficult to translate into film.
1920s: Anaglyph 3-D
Plastigram films toured the country, bathing the screen in red and blue and offering a first taste of the third dimension.
1950s: Polarized 3-D
“Bwana Devil” helped to start another 3-D fad. The poster promised to put “a lion in your lap.”
2012: High-frame-rate 3-D
“The Hobbit” features this new technology, along with Elton John-size specs made from faux “hammer-forged steel.”
Click green for further info
This article is for your private use, only
except can be used for promoting safety and education
________________________________________________
By PAGAN KENNEDY
One morning in 1915, curiosity-seekers filed into the Astor Theater in New York for a new cinematic spectacle. As two film projectors rattled to life, the audience was immersed in a wonderland. “Hills, valleys, houses, the figures on a country road,” wrote Lynde Denig, a reporter who attended the screening, “the effect is marvelously real.”
Denig loved the illusion of depth, but he hated the cardboard viewer, with its red and green lenses, that he had to hold in front of his face. After half an hour, his arm ached. And when he took a “disillusioning glimpse at the screen with the naked eye,” he shuddered. Because each of the films was tinted — one red, the other green — the people on screen looked like “hobgoblins.”
But in most respects the show was a success. Put on by the director Edwin Porter and his partner William Waddell, it built an experience out of a hodgepodge of footage — including shots of Niagara Falls. The point wasn’t the plot but to prove that the brain could be tricked into seeing images in three dimensions. The red-and-cyan 3-D system that grew out of their experiment enjoyed a brief vogue in the 1920s. But the technology worked only with a limited palette. Edwin Land would solve that problem by inventing polarized lenses in 1936, which worked in full color. These ushered in a new wave of 3-D mania when the technology made its way to Hollywood in the 1950s. At the same time, cheap red-and-cyan glasses based on the earlier system became popular in the world of comic books and B-movies.
“Every 20 to 30 years, you get this craze for 3-D movies,” says Jack Theakston, a historian with the 3-D Film Archive, which then burns out. Today’s “Avatar”-inspired boom is very likely no exception, Theakston says. Inventors, meanwhile, continue to work on the holy grail: 3-D effects with no glasses.
A VISION THING
Victor K. McElheny is the author of “Insisting on the Impossible,” a biography of Edwin Land.
In the iconic 1950s Life magazine photo of a 3-D movie premiere, was the audience wearing the lenses developed by Land?
Yes. Those glasses were sold by the millions. But there were a lot of problems in the ’50s. Projectionists had to run two strips of film at the same time. If the projectionist was a little slack and the films went out of sync, the people in the audience would get a headache. And there was an intermediate market for cheaper glasses — knockoffs that weren’t so well made — and they would give you a headache, too.
These polarizing lenses delivered a different image to each eye?
Yes, one eye would see one set of signals, and one eye would see another.
You worked as a writer at Polaroid during the early 1970s. What were your impressions of Land?
He had a movie-star quality; a lot of people thought he looked like Cary Grant.
3-D MILESTONES
19th century: The stereoscope
The hand-held device worked for still images, but this technology was difficult to translate into film.
1920s: Anaglyph 3-D
Plastigram films toured the country, bathing the screen in red and blue and offering a first taste of the third dimension.
1950s: Polarized 3-D
“Bwana Devil” helped to start another 3-D fad. The poster promised to put “a lion in your lap.”
2012: High-frame-rate 3-D
“The Hobbit” features this new technology, along with Elton John-size specs made from faux “hammer-forged steel.”
Click green for further info
This article is for your private use, only
except can be used for promoting safety and education
________________________________________________
Low-water rivers offering up glimpse of history
Associated Press, 12.3.12 - ST. LOUIS (AP) — From sunken steamboats to a millennium-old map engraved in rock, the drought-drained rivers of the nation's midsection are offering a rare and fleeting glimpse into years gone by.
Lack of rain has left many rivers at low levels unseen for decades, creating problems for river commerce and recreation and raising concerns about water supplies and hydropower if the drought persists into next year, as many fear.
But for the curious, the receding water is offering an occasional treasure trove of history.
An old steamboat is now visible on the Missouri River near St. Charles, Mo., and other old boats nestled on river bottoms are showing up elsewhere. A World War II minesweeper, once moored along the Mississippi River as a museum at St. Louis before it was torn away by floodwaters two decades ago, has become visible — rusted but intact.
Perhaps most interesting, a rock containing what is believed to be an ancient map has emerged in the Mississippi River in southeast Missouri.
The rock contains etchings believed to be up to 1,200 years old. It was not in the river a millennium ago, but the changing course of the waterway now normally puts it under water — exposed only in periods of extreme drought. Experts are wary of giving a specific location out of fear that looters will take a chunk of the rock or scribble graffiti on it.
"It appears to be a map of prehistoric Indian villages," said Steve Dasovich, an anthropology professor at Lindenwood University in St. Charles. "What's really fascinating is that it shows village sites we don't yet know about."
Old boats are turning up in several locations, including sunken steamboats dating to the 19th century.
That's not surprising considering the volume of steamboat traffic that once traversed the Missouri and Mississippi rivers. Dasovich said it wasn't uncommon in the 1800s to have hundreds of steamboats pass by St. Louis each day, given the fact that St. Louis was once among the world's busiest inland ports. The boats, sometimes lined up two miles deep and four boats wide in both directions, carried not only people from town to town but goods and supplies up and down the rivers.
Sinkings were common among the wooden vessels, which often were poorly constructed.
"The average lifespan of a steamboat on the Missouri River was five years," Dasovich said. "They were made quickly. If you could make one run from St. Louis to Fort Benton, Mont., and back, you've paid for your boat and probably made a profit. After that, it's almost like they didn't care what happened."
What often happened, at least on the Missouri River, was the boat would strike an underwater tree that had been uprooted and become lodged in the river bottom, tearing a hole that would sink the ship. Dasovich estimated that the remains of 500 to 700 steamboats sit at the bottom of the Missouri River, scattered from its mouth in Montana to its convergence with the Mississippi near St. Louis.
The number of sunken steamboats on the Mississippi River is likely about the same, Dasovich said. Steamboat traffic was far heavier on the Mississippi, but traffic there was and is less susceptible to river debris.
Boiler explosions, lightning strikes and accidents also sunk many a steamboat. One of the grander ones, the Montana, turned up this fall on the Missouri River near St. Charles. The elaborate steamer was as long as a football field with lavish touches aimed at pleasing its mostly wealthy clientele. It went to its watery grave after striking a tree below the surface in 1884.
The U.S. Coast Guard and Army Corps of Engineers urge sightseers to stay away from any shipwreck sites. Sandbars leading to them can be unstable and dangerous, and the rusted hulks can pose dangers for those sifting through them.
Plus, taking anything from them is illegal. By law, sunken ships and their goods belong to the state where they went down.
While unusual, it's not unprecedented for low water levels to reveal historic artifacts.
Last year, an officer who patrols an East Texas lake discovered a piece of the space shuttle Columbia, which broke apart and burned on re-entry in 2003, killing all seven astronauts aboard. And the remains of a wooden steamer built 125 years ago recently were uncovered in a Michigan waterway because of low levels in the Great Lakes.
But treasure hunters expecting to find Titanic-like souvenirs in rivers will likely be disappointed if they risk exploring the lost boats.
"It's not like these wrecks are full of bottles, dishes, things like that," said Mark Wagner, an archaeologist at Southern Illinois University-Carbondale. "If there was anything on there in the first place, the river current pretty much stripped things out of these wrecks."
Such was the case with the USS Inaugural, a World War II minesweeper that for years served as a docked museum on the Mississippi River at St. Louis. The Great Flood of 1993 ripped the Inaugural from its mooring near the Gateway Arch. It crashed into the Poplar Street bridge, and then sank.
In September, the rusted Inaugural became visible again, though now nothing more than an empty, orange-rusted hulk lying on its side not far from a south St. Louis casino.
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For info about tossing or recycling batteries, go to
call2recycle.org or earth911.com
Consumer Reports tests AA batteries
Nov 6, 2012
In happy times (taking holiday photos) and sad (enduring winter storms), you want a battery you can trust.
Click green below for further info
We hired a lab to run new, improved tests that mimic the main uses of AA batteries: to power digital cameras and flashlights. We tested 10 alkaline and two lithium batteries. Neither type is rechargeable. (In past tests, we’ve found that rechargeables of 2,350 milliamp-hours or more are best for often-used toys like game controllers.)
In cameras.
This test mimics everyday use, zooming, flashing, shooting, and resting until batteries die. Energizer Ultimate lithium took 682 shots in our tough test; Eveready Gold alkaline, just 52.
In flashlights.
This test involves the equivalent of turning on a flashlight for 4 minutes every hour for 8 hours, letting it sit for 16 hours, and repeating the cycle until batteries die.
Battery life ranged from about 7.5 hours, for the Energizer Ultimate lithium, down to about 5.2, for the Eveready Gold alkaline. The best alkaline, Duracell Ultra Power, lasted about 6.7 hours.
Bottom line.
Energizer Ultimate lithium lasted longest in both tests. Lithiums are good in high-drain devices like cameras. Alkalines have shorter lives but cost less, and some perform almost as well in low-drain devices like flashlights and remotes.
Most alkalines have a shelf life of about seven years, but some claim up to 10 years. Energizer Ultimate lithium claims 15 years; Energizer Advanced, 10.
For info about tossing or recycling batteries, go to
call2recycle.org or earth911.com
This article is for your private use, only
_____________________________________
Verizon leads among major carriers
in latest Consumer Reports cell-phone service ratings
The report found that no-contract plans can be major cost-savers. See further below.
December 2012
Verizon Wireless was the highest-rated major carrier in Consumer Reports’ annual cell-phone service ratings, based on a survey of 63,253 subscribers by the Consumer Reports National Research Center.
The full report can be found online at ConsumerReports.org and in the January 2013 issue of Consumer Reports, which is on newsstands now.
Of the four major U.S. national cell-phone standard service providers, Verizon Wireless led the pack, receiving favorable scores for voice and data service quality, and also for support attributes like staff knowledge and resolution of issues. Sprint, T-Mobile, and AT&T each received mostly middling (= mediocre, average, ordinary) to low marks, particularly for voice and text service quality.
MORE AT CONSUMER REPORTSAT&T was among the lower-scoring providers, but its 4G LTE network was rated the most favorably of any carrier.
Its users reported the fewest problems with that higher-speed service, which most new smart phones now use.
Consumer Cellular, a national carrier that uses AT&T’s network, received high marks across the board in Consumer Reports’ ratings of standard (monthly bill) carriers. The no-frills carrier caters to users with the simplest wireless needs and offers the simplicity of monthly billing without a contractual commitment.
The report found that no-contract plans can be major cost-savers. Two-thirds of Consumer Reports survey respondents who switched to so-called “prepaid plans,” which typically lack a contract commitment and bill each month in advance, saved more than $20 a month by switching to prepaid. Those savings can allow wireless customers to quickly recoup the cost of the phone itself, which can be higher if they don’t make a contractual commitment.
TracFone was among the top-rated prepaid providers, receiving high marks for value, voice and text.
Like Consumer Cellular, it specializes in those who seek simple, low-cost phone service.
Even those whose phone needs are less than basic can save by going prepaid. “Some smaller carriers that scored respectably in our ratings and offer low-priced plans, such as Straight Talk and Virgin Mobile, now offer fairly sophisticated smart phones,” said Paul Reynolds, electronics editor for Consumer Reports. “And you can even save by switching a phone from a major carrier that’s coming off contract to a prepaid plan.”
The Microsoft nightmare scenario is actually becoming a reality.
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Steve Ballmer's Nightmare Is Coming True
Steve Ballmer is the CEO of Microsoft Corporation
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December 2012
Almost one year ago today, we laid out the nightmare scenario for Microsoft (MSFT) that could lead to its business collapsing. After laying it all out, we concluded, "Fortunately for Microsoft, none of this is going to happen."
We were wrong.
A lot changed in the last year. Microsoft's nightmare scenario is actually starting to take hold. We're revisiting our slideshow from last year to see how things have played out.
Each number that follows has one piece of the nightmare scenario for Microsoft and an explanation of where Microsoft stands in comparison to that hypothetical situation.
1. The iPad eats the consumer PC market.
This is happening right now. In the third quarter of 2012, PC sales were down 8 percent on a year-over-year basis worldwide. In the U.S., sales were down 14 percent. A big chunk of the decline can be attributed to the rise of the iPad. Apple sold 14 million iPads last quarter, which is more than the top PC maker, Lenovo, which shipped 13.7 million PCs. Throw in Apple's 4.9 million Macs, and it's the top computer maker by a mile.
As the personal computer market goes ...
2. Employees gradually switch away from using Windows PCs for work.
This trend has not played out that dramatically in 2012. However, British bank Barclays bought 8,500 iPads at employees' insistence this year.
And a recent survey showed that the iPhone has overtaken RIM as the smartphone of choice for enterprises. As more people get comfortable with Apple's mobile products at work, Microsoft will have to worry about them converting their Windows-based computers to Macs at work, too.
Microsoft has a plan to combat this but ...
3. Windows 8 fails to stop the iPad.
Gulp. It's still early, but every most data points say Windows 8 is not going to make a dent in the iPad.
-- NPD says Windows tablet sales were "nonexistent" between 10/21 and 11/17.
-- It also says Windows sales were down 21 percent over that period on a year-over-year basis.
-- Piper analyst Gene Munster was in a Microsoft store for two hours on Black Friday and saw zero Surface sales.
-- Microsoft reportedly cut its Surface order in half.
-- Ballmer said Surface sales were "modest."
Meanwhile, we can't think of any analyst who has cut his or her iPad estimate for the quarter based on Surface sales. In Microsoft's defense, it says it sold 40 million licenses, which it says is out pacing Windows 7. There's a chance analysts are wrong.
4. Loyal developers start to leave the Microsoft platform.
We're not sure if this happening or not. So far, the early signs are actually positive for Microsoft. It has over 20,000 apps in its Windows app store. Windows 8 is only a month old. At the same time, Microsoft doesn't have a Facebook app for the Surface, and one of the biggest complaints from reviewers was the lack of good apps for Windows 8.
Windows Phone has over 100,000 apps, but iOS has 700,000 apps, with 275,000 made specifically for the iPad.
5. Windows Phone gets no traction despite the Nokia deal and RIM's collapse.
This has happened. Despite everything Microsoft has tried in mobile for the last two years, consumers aren't buying it. The latest data from IDC says Microsoft has 2 percent of the global mobile market share. And the latest phone from Nokia is thick and heavy compared to phones from Apple and Samsung. We don't expect it to be a blockbuster.
Suddenly, all the dominoes are in place for a lot of bad things to start happening. ...
6. Office loses relevance.
Microsoft's Office has been a juggernaut. In fiscal 2012, the Microsoft business division did ~$24 billion in sales.
Last year, we cautioned, "Office runs only on Microsoft platforms and the Mac. As employees start to do more and more work from non-Windows smartphones and iPads, companies may start to question why they're still buying Office for every employee and upgrading it every two or three releases."
The death of Office, has not happened, though. Despite Google's attempt to create Docs, companies aren't giving up on Excel.
7. Microsoft's other business applications start to erode.
If Windows continues to fade, and if Office starts to fade, then corporations have less reason to adopt Microsoft technologies on the back end like Exchange Server for email, SharePoint Server for collaboration, Lync for videoconferencing and real-time communication, and Dynamics for CRM and accounting.
Exchange, SharePoint, and Dynamics all bring in more than $1 billion per year, and Lync is Microsoft's fastest growing business application. Plus, they pull through a lot of other Microsoft products. ...
8. The platform business collapses.
For the last decade, Microsoft's fastest growing business segment has been Server & Tools, which did $7.4 billion in sales last year.
A lot of these sales come because Microsoft business apps — Exchange, SharePoint, and Dynamics — require these products. But as companies stop buying these apps, they will have less reason to buy the Microsoft platform products that run them, and the System Center ($1 billion+) products used to manage them.
9. The Xbox was never going to make up the slack, and Microsoft can no longer afford to keep investing in it.
In a year of relative gloom, Microsoft's Xbox has become a big bright spot for the company. Kinect is great technology, people are still buying the console, and it's been a great entry point for Microsoft to take over the living room. But, for a company like Microsoft, Xbox isn't enough. Microsoft had $21 billion in operating income last year. The Entertainment and Devices division, which is home to the Xbox had $364 million in operating income. So, as nice as Xbox is, it's not going to be enough to boost Microsoft if the rest of the business collapses.
10. Microsoft suffers a huge quarterly loss. Ballmer retires to play golf.
Let's not kid ourselves — it's going to take a sudden, unexpected disaster at Microsoft to get Ballmer out of the company.
In 2012, Microsoft had its first ever quarterly loss as a public company because it had to write down the $6.2 billion acquisition of aQuantive. Investors mostly shrugged. If Microsoft posted a real loss people would freak out. But that's going to be nearly impossible in the near term.
In the long term ...
Is this just a bad dream?
Last year, we concluded by saying, "Fortunately for Microsoft, none of this is going to happen. Windows 8 will reassert the dominance of the Windows PC. Office and other business products will remain corporate necessities, and developers will never be able to ignore Microsoft. Windows Phone will become a viable third mobile platform, the Xbox will continue to dominate the living room, and new products will surprise the pundits who thought Microsoft couldn't innovate. Even Bing will finally make a profit someday."
This year, it's a lot harder to say much of that. Windows 8 doesn't seem to be reasserting the dominance of the PC. Windows Phone is not a viable third platform. Bing is still burning money. The Microsoft nightmare scenario is actually becoming a reality.
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______________________________________________________________________
Steve Ballmer is the CEO of Microsoft Corporation
Click green for further info
December 2012
Almost one year ago today, we laid out the nightmare scenario for Microsoft (MSFT) that could lead to its business collapsing. After laying it all out, we concluded, "Fortunately for Microsoft, none of this is going to happen."
We were wrong.
A lot changed in the last year. Microsoft's nightmare scenario is actually starting to take hold. We're revisiting our slideshow from last year to see how things have played out.
Each number that follows has one piece of the nightmare scenario for Microsoft and an explanation of where Microsoft stands in comparison to that hypothetical situation.
1. The iPad eats the consumer PC market.
This is happening right now. In the third quarter of 2012, PC sales were down 8 percent on a year-over-year basis worldwide. In the U.S., sales were down 14 percent. A big chunk of the decline can be attributed to the rise of the iPad. Apple sold 14 million iPads last quarter, which is more than the top PC maker, Lenovo, which shipped 13.7 million PCs. Throw in Apple's 4.9 million Macs, and it's the top computer maker by a mile.
As the personal computer market goes ...
2. Employees gradually switch away from using Windows PCs for work.
This trend has not played out that dramatically in 2012. However, British bank Barclays bought 8,500 iPads at employees' insistence this year.
And a recent survey showed that the iPhone has overtaken RIM as the smartphone of choice for enterprises. As more people get comfortable with Apple's mobile products at work, Microsoft will have to worry about them converting their Windows-based computers to Macs at work, too.
Microsoft has a plan to combat this but ...
3. Windows 8 fails to stop the iPad.
Gulp. It's still early, but every most data points say Windows 8 is not going to make a dent in the iPad.
-- NPD says Windows tablet sales were "nonexistent" between 10/21 and 11/17.
-- It also says Windows sales were down 21 percent over that period on a year-over-year basis.
-- Piper analyst Gene Munster was in a Microsoft store for two hours on Black Friday and saw zero Surface sales.
-- Microsoft reportedly cut its Surface order in half.
-- Ballmer said Surface sales were "modest."
Meanwhile, we can't think of any analyst who has cut his or her iPad estimate for the quarter based on Surface sales. In Microsoft's defense, it says it sold 40 million licenses, which it says is out pacing Windows 7. There's a chance analysts are wrong.
4. Loyal developers start to leave the Microsoft platform.
We're not sure if this happening or not. So far, the early signs are actually positive for Microsoft. It has over 20,000 apps in its Windows app store. Windows 8 is only a month old. At the same time, Microsoft doesn't have a Facebook app for the Surface, and one of the biggest complaints from reviewers was the lack of good apps for Windows 8.
Windows Phone has over 100,000 apps, but iOS has 700,000 apps, with 275,000 made specifically for the iPad.
5. Windows Phone gets no traction despite the Nokia deal and RIM's collapse.
This has happened. Despite everything Microsoft has tried in mobile for the last two years, consumers aren't buying it. The latest data from IDC says Microsoft has 2 percent of the global mobile market share. And the latest phone from Nokia is thick and heavy compared to phones from Apple and Samsung. We don't expect it to be a blockbuster.
Suddenly, all the dominoes are in place for a lot of bad things to start happening. ...
6. Office loses relevance.
Microsoft's Office has been a juggernaut. In fiscal 2012, the Microsoft business division did ~$24 billion in sales.
Last year, we cautioned, "Office runs only on Microsoft platforms and the Mac. As employees start to do more and more work from non-Windows smartphones and iPads, companies may start to question why they're still buying Office for every employee and upgrading it every two or three releases."
The death of Office, has not happened, though. Despite Google's attempt to create Docs, companies aren't giving up on Excel.
7. Microsoft's other business applications start to erode.
If Windows continues to fade, and if Office starts to fade, then corporations have less reason to adopt Microsoft technologies on the back end like Exchange Server for email, SharePoint Server for collaboration, Lync for videoconferencing and real-time communication, and Dynamics for CRM and accounting.
Exchange, SharePoint, and Dynamics all bring in more than $1 billion per year, and Lync is Microsoft's fastest growing business application. Plus, they pull through a lot of other Microsoft products. ...
8. The platform business collapses.
For the last decade, Microsoft's fastest growing business segment has been Server & Tools, which did $7.4 billion in sales last year.
A lot of these sales come because Microsoft business apps — Exchange, SharePoint, and Dynamics — require these products. But as companies stop buying these apps, they will have less reason to buy the Microsoft platform products that run them, and the System Center ($1 billion+) products used to manage them.
9. The Xbox was never going to make up the slack, and Microsoft can no longer afford to keep investing in it.
In a year of relative gloom, Microsoft's Xbox has become a big bright spot for the company. Kinect is great technology, people are still buying the console, and it's been a great entry point for Microsoft to take over the living room. But, for a company like Microsoft, Xbox isn't enough. Microsoft had $21 billion in operating income last year. The Entertainment and Devices division, which is home to the Xbox had $364 million in operating income. So, as nice as Xbox is, it's not going to be enough to boost Microsoft if the rest of the business collapses.
10. Microsoft suffers a huge quarterly loss. Ballmer retires to play golf.
Let's not kid ourselves — it's going to take a sudden, unexpected disaster at Microsoft to get Ballmer out of the company.
In 2012, Microsoft had its first ever quarterly loss as a public company because it had to write down the $6.2 billion acquisition of aQuantive. Investors mostly shrugged. If Microsoft posted a real loss people would freak out. But that's going to be nearly impossible in the near term.
In the long term ...
Is this just a bad dream?
Last year, we concluded by saying, "Fortunately for Microsoft, none of this is going to happen. Windows 8 will reassert the dominance of the Windows PC. Office and other business products will remain corporate necessities, and developers will never be able to ignore Microsoft. Windows Phone will become a viable third mobile platform, the Xbox will continue to dominate the living room, and new products will surprise the pundits who thought Microsoft couldn't innovate. Even Bing will finally make a profit someday."
This year, it's a lot harder to say much of that. Windows 8 doesn't seem to be reasserting the dominance of the PC. Windows Phone is not a viable third platform. Bing is still burning money. The Microsoft nightmare scenario is actually becoming a reality.
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Where Is Microsoft's Bing Amongst Its Competitors?
Bing holds just 4 percent of the global market share - the future?
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As a major player in the search engine market, Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) has earned 85 percent of the global market share. Competitor, Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT), which owns Bing, holds just 4 percent of the global market share. Microsoft really wants to dominate this market but remains unsuccessful since its launch in 2009. But pushing Google from the top won't be easy - and it's something that Microsoft won't be able to accomplish any time soon.
Search Engine Market
Over time, the search engine market has evolved to include mobile search and local search. These segments generated estimated profits of $1.6 billion in 2011. Microsoft only controls 2 percent of mobile search and 4.75 percent of local search globally, while Google controls 90 percent of both mobile and local search globally.
To increase its popularity, Microsoft has tried a variety of tactics including television and online ads to promote Bing. Unfortunately, these efforts have not yielded much in additional revenue. Microsoft even hired former Hilary Clinton campaign advisor Mark Penn to oversee marketing for Microsoft products including Bing. Maintaining a strong presence in the search engine market is tough - and the competition is growing. In addition to Yahoo! (YHOO), which controls 8 percent of the global market, both Amazon(NASDAQ: AMZN) and Facebook (NASDAQ: FB) provide alternative means to search the Internet. As reported by The New York Times, Amazon has surpassed Google as a popular way to find products online. And Facebook recently announced the company is serious about enhancing its internal search engine to include external search options.
Competition from other established, trusted names in e-commerce will certainly not help Microsoft claw its way to the top. If anything, added competition may only cause Bing to fall even further down on the list.
What Does This Mean for Microsoft?
Thankfully, Microsoft doesn't rely on earnings from Bing alone to maintain its operations. In addition to Bing, Microsoft earns revenue from Windows OS, Azure (cloud computing platform), Hotmail, Windows phone, and its new tablet computer, Surface, just to name a few. Companies like Martin Teppor's DataClub, which sells virtual and physical servers, are popping up in large numbers. Mr. Teppor recently stated, "Our main business (hosting service) is performing well. We are increasing our global customer count. We recently sold our 700th server." For Microsoft, becoming the number one search engine would certainly add to the company's bottom line, but it's more about bragging rights than earnings.
Much like its peers Google and Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL), Microsoft must continue to innovate in order to remain competitive. This means spending in areas like research and development as well as sales and marketing. Last year, the company spent $26.87 billion in SG&A expenses, which include R&D projects. In comparison, Google spent $12.48 billion, while Apple spent $7.6 billion. With spending usually comes debt, however. In 2011, Microsoft had $11.92 billion in long-term debt and no reported short-term debt. Google had $2.99 billion in long-term debt and $1.22 billion in short-term debt, and Apple reported no short or long-term debt. But to make money, companies must spend money, so this debt in comparison to net income - Microsoft had a net income of $23.15 billion, Google had a net income of $9.74 billion, and Apple had a net income of $25.92 billion - isn't as shocking as it seems.
Overall, Microsoft is a healthy company - investors should continue to invest as profits should remain high.
Not-So-Nice-Tactics
One sticking point investors should consider when reviewing Microsoft is its backlash against the competition - particularly to Google and Apple. It's no secret that competition is stiff and oftentimes ugly amongst IT companies. In an effort to increase its market share, Microsoft recently accused Google of providing biased search results on its new Google Shopping index by giving placement preference to top paying merchants (Google has made no effort to hide the fact that merchants pay for placement on Google Shopping).
Here's where I think Microsoft took a wrong turn. Instead of consistently building the Bing brand through traditional advertising and word-of-mouth, the company has chosen to smear a competitor with information that may or may not matter to most visitors. I think Microsoft should spend its time and marketing budget to come up with new and innovative ways to advertise Bing - with only 4 percent of the search engine market share, the company must also realize it will need lots of time to build the brand, which requires patience and a professional attitude.
In the End
Microsoft remains a valuable stock to have in an investor's portfolio - even if it will never reign supreme in the search engine market. Microsoft may never dominate the tablet computer market either, but this shouldn't deter investors from continuing to support the company. As long as Microsoft remains one of the top performers in these and other IT areas, the company will remain healthy and strong for many years to come. With a trailing price-to-earnings ratio of 14.38 and forward P/E of 8.21 (the application software industry average is 17.50), diluted EPS of 1.85, and free cash flow of $24.45 billion, investors should feel confident going into next year.
In the end, I think Microsoft should accept where it stands, particularly in the search engine market, and focus on perfecting current products and services while developing new products instead of engaging competitors like a stubborn child on the playground that feels defeated because he/she can't get their way all the time.
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Investor News
StockCroc1 has no positions in the stocks mentioned above. The Motley Fool owns shares of Apple, Amazon.com, Facebook, Google, and Microsoft and has the following options: long JAN 2014 $20.00 calls on Facebook. Motley Fool newsletter services recommend Apple, Amazon.com, Facebook, Google, and Microsoft. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services free for 30 days. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. Is this post wrong? Click here. Think you can do better? Join us and write your own!
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The Top 10 Most Stolen Items in the U.S.A.
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During your holiday gift shopping this season, there may be one option you haven't thought of before:
Property Room, an e-commerce auction house. On the Property Room website you can expect to see discounted prices on over 4,000 items, including jewelry, electronics and vehicles. The items are stolen goods recovered by 2,800 police departments across the country. When no one comes forward to claim them, the goods go up for auction.
Property Room's auctions have generated more than $46 million dollars in revenue sent back to local communities. Now you can turn a sad story into a nice gift for a loved one and give back in the holiday spirit.
Property Room's C.E.O. P.J. Bellomo shared the information about the most stolen (or, "recovered," as they like to say) items in the nation based on a survey the company conducted this year.
1. Bicycles
2. Power Tools
3. Gold Jewelry
4. Laptops
5. Cell Phones
6. Hunting Equipment (crossbows, knives, etc.) "This particularly comes up in the South and the Midwest, obviously," Bellomo explains.
7. Small Electronics and Apple Products
8. Decorative Weapons "I've been at this 12 years and we still don't understand where these decorative weapons come from. We have no idea," says Bellomo.
9. Lawn Mowers
10. Small Boats
Decorative weapons.
35 Days of Holiday Shopping Tips
In addition to the most commonly stolen items, Property Room also has the weirdest items they've ever recovered:
• Prosthetic Leg
• Patek Philppe watch "This particular watch was brand new, discontinued, worth $125,000. We assumed it was a replica, but we sent it to our jeweler and he couldn't believe it," Bellomo remembers. "All of our jewelry gets authenticated and our watches go out to a third-party watchmaker to be verified. Our jeweler said, this is the real deal. It sold for $77,000. "
• Waterslide
• Fender guitar
• Coffin. "The funny thing about the coffin is, I've worked here for twelve years. I had been with the company six months and I walk into a warehouse in L.A. and there's a coffin. Who steals a coffin?,"
said Bellomo. "By the way, it was a brand new, not used. We were thinking these people coming to get it are going to be creepy. But they were just a local theater group looking for a great prop."
Related links:
The Most Shoplifted Items of the Holiday Season
Fish Steals Man's Prosthetic Arm
Holiday Shopping Tips: Preventing Identity Theft and Fraud
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The most shoplifted items of
the Thanksgiving & Christmas season
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While most of us are out buying holiday presents some people are getting their gifts with a five-finger discount.
Ad Week is reporting that one in every 11 people walks out the door with at least one item they didn’t pay for. With shoplifting up six percent this year, retailers stand to lose a whopping $119 billion of merchandise to shoplifters in 2011. And it’s not just kids with sticky fingers—75 percent of shoplifters are adults, most of whom have jobs. We know people are hunting for holiday deals, but this amount of theft is both surprising and sad.
Ad Week spoke with loss prevention experts on why shoplifting is the highest it’s been in five years. "Most shoplifters simply succumb to temptation, “Johnny Custer, director of field operations for Merchant Analytic Solutions, told Ad Week. “But add a sense of desperation because of the economy and holiday pressures, and you have the recipe for theft soup." Barbara Staib, a spokesperson for the National Association of Shoplifting Prevention, told Ad Week, "Seventy percent of shoplifters tell us they didn't plan to shoplift."
Exactly what are people stealing? Ad Week has compiled the top 10 most shoplifted items of 2011 and they’re truly bizarre.
1. Filet mignon
So many people are tucking choice cuts of meats under their jackets that supermarkets are now considered the stores with the most theft.
2. Jameson
Those with an unquenchable thirst for booze just help themselves to a free bottle of expensive liquor.
3. Electric tools
Apparently the the most common items men nab are electric toothbrushes and power tools. At least they’re fighting cavities.
4. iPhone 4
Electronics like smartphones and video games are high risk items, and one research group claims 100,000 laptops are stolen annually from big box stores.
5. Gillette Mach 4
Anyone who uses non-disposable razors knows they’re pretty expensive, so in tough financial times people don’t want to pay for them anymore.
6. Axe
The men’s deodorant and body wash we love to hate are often stolen in mass quantities and resold at flea markets and corner stores. Dial is popular amongst thieves too.
7. Polo Ralph Lauren
Clothing theft is up 31 percent since 2009. It’s hard to look good in a bad economy, so some score fresh threads the illegal way.
8. Let’s Rock Elmo
The Sesame Street toy topped the Toys’R’Us "Hot Toys" list this year, so parents are stealing this must-have toy for their kids if they can’t afford it.
9. Chanel No. 5
Who wouldn’t love a bottle of this popular woman’s fragrance? Expensive perfumes make up nearly four percent of loss in stores that carry them.
10. Nikes
As Ad Week points out, some shoppers wear flip-flops into a store, try on a pair of sneakers, and walk out wearing them. Sneaker heads will do whatever it takes to score the kicks on their wish list.
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Consumer watchdogs have put these toys on their 2012 Dangerous Toys lists
The Most Dangerous Toys of 2012
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November 2012
Consumer watchdogs have put these toys on their 2012 Dangerous Toys lists.
(Photo: Fisher Price and Hasbro)Dora the Explorer guitars and backpacks, toy food, Power Rangers helmets, and Incredible Hulk hands are among the toys that consumer watchdogs have listed among their click: most-dangerous toys of 2012.
click: 7 Baby Toys That Drive Parents Crazy
While the click: U.S Public Interest Research Group (PIRG)
admits that toys today are safer than they've ever been before, there are still dangerous and/or toxic toys on store shelves, the group warned in their 27th annual click: "Trouble in Toyland" report, which they released on Tuesday.
Click: 8 Old-School Toys That Need to Make a Comeback
"The main trend that we saw this year was that we didn't find as many toxic toys as we thought we would," Nasima Hossain, a public health advocate with PIRG click: said during a recent press conference.
"We should be able to trust that the toys we buy are safe. However, until that's the case, parents need to watch out for common hazards when shopping for toys."
Click: Mom Fights to Ban Toxins in School Supplies
Among those hazards: high-powered magnets, such as those sold as Bucky Ball. The sets are aimed at adults, but small kids often find the tiny round magnets irresistible; the government estimates 1,700 emergency-room visits between 2009 and 2011 were caused by the magnets being swallowed by kids age 4 to 12 years old (older kids would use the ball-shaped magnets to mimicking tongue piercings). The magnets can stick together inside the stomach or intestine, causing pinching or perforations.
"The rising number of magnet injuries in children and teenagers suggests that the sale of high-powered magnets should be prohibited," Dr. Bryan Rudolph, Pediatric Gastroenterology Fellow at Children's Hospital at Montefiore in New York and a member of the North American Society for Pediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Nutrition, said in a statement. "In the meantime, the best defense against high-powered magnet ingestion and a trip to the emergency department is to make sure they are not present where children, live, visit or play."
The report also found toys that are "potentially harmful" to children's ears because they exceed the current noise standards, small parts in or on toys intended for toddlers, and toys with lead or click: phthalate levels higher than allowed limits. phthalate may disrupt the normal workings of the endocrine (hormone) system.
The group took a look at 200 toys purchased at stores like Toys R Us and Target, as well as dollar stores. Here are the top offenders:
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- Dora Backpack, price not available, by Global Design Concepts Inc. (high Phthalate levels)
- Dora Tunes Guitar, $22.39, by Fisher Price (excessively loud)
- FunKeys, $9.99, by B. Lively (excessively loud)
- Snake Eggs, $1, by GreenBrier International Inc. (ingestion hazard)
- Morphbot, $6, by GreenBrier International Inc (high lead levels)
- Just Like Home 120-piece Super Play Food sets, $19.99, by Toys R Us (choking hazards)
- Pullback dragster cars, $4.99, by Z Wind Ups (choking hazards, warning labels too small to read)
"Parents and toy givers need to remember that while the CPSC is doing a good job, no government agency tests all toys before they hit store shelves. Consumers should also remember that toys that are not on our list of examples could also pose hazards," Hossain said. "The message of today is clear. Parents have to stay vigilant. We cannot and must not accept any weakening of our consumer and public health safeguards because they protect young children, America's littlest consumers."
Also in November 2012 Boston-based consumer watchdog World Against Toys Causing Harm released their
click: annual "10 Worst Toys" list. (click: You can find last year's list here.) Their roundup focuses on toys that are aimed at older kids and widely available in big box stores and online:
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- Magnetic Fishing Game, $1.77, by Kole Imports (choking hazard)
- Inflatable Bongo Ball, $49.99, by Toys R Us (impact injuries)
- Dart Zone Quick Fire 12 dart gun, $19.32, by Prime Time Toys Ltd. (eye injuries)
- Spinner Shark 4-Wheel Kneeboard, $59.97, by FuzionNextsport (impact injuries)
- Explore & Learn Helicopter, $15.99, by V Tech (strangulation hazard)
- N-Force Vendetta Double Sword, $19.99, by Hasbro (impact injuries)
- Water Balloon Launcher, $21.99, by Water Sports LLC (choking hazard, facial injuries)
- Power Rangers Super Samurai Shogun Helmet, $29.99, by Bandai (puncture wound,
- impact injuries)
- Playful Xylophone, $29.99, by P'Kolino (choking hazard)
- The Avengers Gamma Green Smash Fists, $16.99, by Hasbro (impact injuries)
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- EX-NYPD Cop Reveals How Not to Get a Ticket
All windows down - Politeness - Apologetic but... (see below) - Playing dumb in a correct manner
Every driver hates getting a ticket. So when you are pulled over, how do you minimize the damage to your wallet?
First, realize the risk of serious danger to the officer is quite real.
"Cops get killed on car stops," said Jerry Kane, 53, a retired New York Police Department officer.
Kane said if you're pulled over, you should realize the officer will be on high alert.
Watch the full story - including more dramatic secrets from cops and other professions - on "20/20: True Confessions" Friday at 10 p.m. ET
"The most dangerous thing to the cop when he comes up to the car are the hands of someone, because they could hold a weapon," he said.
Drivers and passengers have been known to come out shooting, a fact cops are well aware of as they walk up to your vehicle.
(1) "If he can see everybody's hands, immediately his blood pressure goes down, his pulse gets a bit slower," Kane said. (2) "If it's nighttime, turn on the interior lights in your car. (3) If it's night or day, lower all the windows on your car. … (4) And put your hands up on the steering wheel - high, where the cop can see them."
This may make the officer more understanding and lenient, Kane said.
"If you were gonna get some discretion, you now set up that possibility."
The officer may then ask if you know what you did wrong. Kane said to be apologetic, but don't feel you have to admit anything.
"You can play dumb. You can say, 'What did I do?' And if he tells you what you did, you could say, 'I must have…you know, I just didn't realize it,'" Kane said.
Does it work to cry?
"Only for women," Kane said, laughing.
What if she shows a little leg?
"Since men and women were created, attractive women get more breaks," Kane said.
Finally, do as Kane does: keep your speed less than 10 miles per hour over the limit.
"If you were my brother or my cousin and asked me, that's what I would tell you."
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How to avoid car thefts
______
Keep your car away from the crooks' hands
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Whether one drives a lavish luxury car or the most humble subcompact, nobody wants to be a victim of car theft. Even with full-coverage auto insurance, you’ll likely take a serious financial hit if your car is stolen, as most auto policies only cover the depreciated value of a car, and not its full sticker price when new, and are usually subject to deductibles of $500-$1,000 on top of that. If you owe more than the car is worth you’ll have to dig deep in your pocket to make up the difference to the lender.Autos continue to be hot properties among thieves, with 379,677 of them pilfered in 2011 according to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). Fortunately, NHTSA says increased use of parts marking, anti-theft devices and technology like coded keys, along with heighted public awareness and improved law enforcement have helped reduce this number steadily since 2001, with vehicle thefts now at their lowest rate since 1967.
Still, the FBI figures one car was pinched last year for every 555 members of the U.S. population, to the tune of around $4.5 billion in annual losses.
NHTSA’s list is based on vehicle theft data provided by the FBI’s National Crime Information Center, which is compiled from approximately 23,000 criminal justice agencies and other law enforcement authorities throughout the U.S.
So what can you do to help ensure crooks won’t target your vehicular pride and joy?
NHTSA (= National Highway Traffic Safety Administration) offers the following theft-prevention checklist:
- Remove your keys from the ignition and take your keys with you.
- Lock your vehicle.
- Never hide a second set of keys in your vehicle.
- Park in attended lots.
- If you park in an attended lot, leave only the ignition/door key.
- Park in well-lighted areas.
- Never leave your vehicle running, even if you will only be gone for a minute.
- Completely close all vehicle windows when parking.
- Do not leave valuables in plain sight.
- Park with your wheels turned towards the curb to make your vehicle more difficult to tow away.
- If your vehicle is rear-wheel drive, backing into your driveway will also make it more difficult for a thief to tow it away.
- Garage your vehicle if you have one and always remember to lock the garage door.
- Do not leave the registration or title in your vehicle.
- Always use your emergency brake when parking, which ensures safety and makes it difficult for a thief to tow your vehicle away.
- Etch your vehicle identification number on car windows and major parts. This procedure makes vehicles and parts more easily traceable when stolen.
- Disable your vehicle when leaving it unattended for an extended period.
- Engrave expensive accessories like car stereos, cellular phones, compact disc changers, external speakers, etc., so that the thief will have difficulty disposing of them.
- Drop business cards, address labels or other documentation inside a vehicle’s doors for identification purposes.
- Replace easily accessible door lock assemblies.
- Install an antitheft device or system on your vehicle as an extra deterrent measure.
Below several links for vehicle safety and other facts necessary for everyone
- Home | National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA)
www.nhtsa.gov/
Includes free lists of recalls and technical service bulletins.
Recalls & Defects
Improving Safety On Our Nation's Highways Office of Defects ...
Impaired Driving
Impaired driving is often a symptom of a larger problem ...
Child Safety
Usage and installation tips. Booster seat information ...
Data
Evaluation of the Effectiveness Of TPMS in Proper Tire Pressure ...
Vehicle Safety
Studies, Reports and Information on Vehicle Safety. NHTSA ...
NHTSA Contact Information
Click Here to Send Email to NHTSA NHTSA Headquarters ...
More results from nhtsa.gov » - News for NHTSA
RedOrbit- NHTSA deputy director to join Google Inc.
The Detroit News - 47 minutes ago
Washington — The No. 2 official at the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is leaving government to join Google Inc. in January as ...
- NHTSA deputy director to join Google Inc.
- The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA, pronounced "nit-suh") is an agency of the Executive Branch of the U.S. government, part of the ...
- Research | National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA)www-nrd.nhtsa.dot.gov/
Vehicle Safety Research. The Vehicle Safety (NVS) program serves as the foundation that supports the Agency's goal to reduce motor vehicle injuries and ... - File a Safety Complaint | Safercar.gov | NHTSAwww-odi.nhtsa.dot.gov/ivoq/
FAQs, how to file a defect report, information on the recall process, and links to safety information. - Safety Recalls -- NHTSAwww-odi.nhtsa.dot.gov/recalls/
The recall information provided below includes vehicle and equipment campaigns from 1966 to present. The campaigns include motor vehicle products which ... - Vehicle Owners | Safercar -- National Highway Traffic
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80 % of the population round the world think they are a better-than-average driver
So You’re a Good Driver? Let’s Go to the Monitor
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Here is a new, computer-monitored way of getting discounts for your car insurance
Study this article, contact your insurance company, and participate - you'll like this
LAST week, under my car’s dashboard, I installed a small wireless gadget that would monitor my driving. I wanted to see how it felt to have my driving behavior captured, sent to an insurance company and analyzed. More drivers, seeking discounts on auto insurance, are voluntarily doing just that.
Insurers are offering these discounts as they aim to abandon the crude proxies they have long used to guess the likelihood that a particular policyholder will have an accident. These have included age, sex, marital status, miles driven (as reported by the driver) — and even credit scores, which can penalize those guilty of driving while poor.
Driving data is collected with a device that policyholders must be persuaded to install; it connects to the car’s computer system via a diagnostic port found in all cars since 1996. Such “user-based insurance,” the name for individualized pricing based on data collected from a vehicle, is spreading. Drivewise from Allstate is in 10 states; Drive Safe and Save, from State Farm, is in 16, with 11 more to be added next month; and Snapshot, from Progressive, is in 43.
Progressive was the first in the field, in 1998, when it started offering Houston customers a device that had to be professionally installed. Six years later, it introduced a device in three states that could be plugged in by the customer, but had to be unplugged at regular intervals and connected to a PC to upload the data. Wireless transmission came next.
In 2010, Progressive introduced Snapshot, which, unlike a predecessor, is offered without a threat of penalizing incautious drivers. Participating customers who drive without alarming tendencies will receive a discount of up to 30 percent; those with poor driving habits simply do not receive the discount. The company says that more than half of Snapshot participants earn discounts, which average 10 percent annually.
The Snapshot device records the time of day and distance traveled, along with the vehicle’s speed, second by second. But Progressive deliberately left GPS out of the device so the car’s exact location is not known; otherwise, more drivers might be nervous about using it.
Typically, Progressive collects data for only six months (that’s the “snapshot”), after which the customer removes and returns the device. The discount can then continue indefinitely. The company reserves the right to take another snapshot later, such as after an accident.
Richard Hutchinson, a general manager at Progressive who oversees user-based insurance, says the company understands that “acceptance of this kind of insurance increases when monitoring is not continuous.”
Customers who sign up for Snapshot can withdraw from the program at any time. Even drivers who are not Progressive customers can install the device for a no-obligation trial. Within a month, they will receive price quotations based on the driving data collected.
“Within 30 days, you have a strong flavor of how a customer drives,” Mr. Hutchinson says.
Allstate, which introduced its user-based product at the end of 2008, reports more customer acceptance today than four years ago. About 30 percent of new customers are signing up for it in states offering it, says Randy Birchfield, Allstate’s vice president for product operations, who oversees Drivewise.
THE device in my car is a Drivewise unit that Allstate supplied so that I could see how it works. (Drivewise is not currently offered in California, where I live.)
The day after I installed it, I could log on to the Drivewise site and see graphs showing miles driven, the number of incidents of “hard braking” and “extreme braking” sensed by an accelerometer, how many miles were driven at more than 80 miles an hour, and the number of miles driven at what times of day or night. That is all. The device is semiblind by design. It does not know what road I’m traveling or whether I’m stopping for a red light. It also remains oblivious to whether I’m going 70 miles per hour in a 30 m.p.h. zone.
Allstate says the lowest-risk time for accidents is 5 a.m. to 11 p.m. on weekends, with the highest risk from 11 p.m. to 4 a.m. on weekdays and 11 p.m. to 5 a.m. on weekends. So I couldn’t earn the maximum discount if I worked at a job that put me on the road in the highest-risk times.
“There is a very strong correlation between the driving behaviors we’re monitoring and accidents,” Mr. Birchfield says. Allstate says the discount for its participants also averages 10 percent.
I had thought I’d be uncomfortable knowing that the Drivewise gadget was accompanying me everywhere, But that wasn’t the case — perhaps because my driving behavior was translated into charts with innocuous titles like “miles driven” and “braking events.” The data can be used in post-accident investigations and litigation, however, so I wonder how innocuous it would all look in court in the hands of a plaintiff who has sued me.
“Today, the better drivers are the ones who are opting in” to user-based insurance, says Shamik Lala, a manager at A.T. Kearney, the consulting firm. In five years, when he expects the industry to view such insurance as standard, insurers will treat those who don’t opt in as bad risks, he predicts.
In places where user-based insurance is now available, drivers are voluntarily choosing it in large numbers because, Mr. Lala says, “we all think we’re above-average drivers.”
The little device installed under the dashboard, however, suffers not at all from excessive self-regard.
This info provided by: Randall Stross is an author based in Silicon Valley and a professor of business at San Jose State University
Published also in NYT
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What to do if you lock your keys in the car
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Every driver dreads locking keys in a car, and the reality is, it does happen. What do you do when the keys are safe inside a locked car? Here are some options help avoid that situation and deal with it, should it happen to you.
Dial 911. Safety comes first, and if you don’t feel secure where you’re stranded, you should call 911 to get help on the way fast. In many cases, the police can unlock the car’s door. But if they can’t, they will probably call a tow truck, which will be on your tab, of course. But at least you’ll be safe.
Call for roadside assistance. Here’s when those annual auto-club fees really pay off. AAA, Allstate, and other organizations that provide roadside service will help you, though it could take a while for them to reach you. If you don’t subscribe to such a service, you might still be in luck. Most new cars come with roadside assistance during the basic warranty period. Your owner’s manual should have the details, but of course that’s locked in the car with the keys. The number to call might be posted on a window decal. If it isn’t, you can get the details by calling a dealership. To be prepared, you should store the number in your phone or write it down on paper and keep it in your wallet or purse. What if you don’t have a new car or you don’t belong to a service such as AAA? Ask about adding roadside assistance to your auto-insurance policy. Also, some major highways are patrolled by trucks offering emergency aid. Keep an eye out for one.
Call a tow truck. If you have no free options, most towing services provide lock-out service. Call 411 for services in your area. Or text the words “tow service” and your location to GOOGL (46645).
Get a temporary key. A dealer might be able to make you an inexpensive key that will open the doors (but not start your car) so that you can retrieve your permanent keys. You’ll probably need your vehicle identification number (visible through the lower edge of the driver’s-side windshield) and to prove that you own the car. Of course, you’ll also need a ride to the dealership.
Keep an extra key handy. Stash a spare key in your purse, your wallet, or a well-hidden spot on the car. You can buy a small magnetic box that can hold a key and be placed on a car’s underside. Or leave a spare with someone who could rescue you.
Buy a car with benefits. Some cars won’t lock with the power-lock button if the key is in the ignition and a door is open. Also, many vehicles from Ford, Lincoln, and Mercury have a door-mounted keypad that lets you tap in a code to unlock the door. If you drive a vehicle with a telematics system such as GM’s OnStar, Hyundai’s Blue Link, or Mercedes-Benz’s Mbrace, you can call a toll-free number to have your car remotely unlocked. Those systems also offer free apps that let smart-phone owners unlock the doors. Check automaker websites for compatible phones and specifics.
Keyless. If you have lost the key, things get more complicated. You’re going to need a locksmith, and while the ones we spoke with said they did do emergency road service, expect to pay about $200 and up for a replacement key. Keys for some higher-end models can cost several hundred dollars and can only be purchased and programmed through a dealer. And that means an expensive trip to the dealer on a flatbed.
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Dangerous Driving Distraction - many new for most of us
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By now, almost everyone knows the dangers of texting or talking on a cellphone while driving. But phones aren’t the only distractions drivers should be aware of. Experts say that anything that draws your attention away from the road can be a potential cause of an accident. That includes actions and situations as innocuous as snacking behind the wheel or postponing a bathroom break.
Most adults who drive regularly admit to engaging in distracting behaviors while behind the wheel, according to a Harris Interactive/HealthDay poll. Eighty-six percent eat or drink while driving, 59 percent use a hand-held cellphone, 41 percent fiddle with their GPS device, 37 percent text and 14 percent apply makeup, according to the poll.
“Distracted driving can be deadly driving,” says Julie Lee, vice president and national director of AARP Driver Safety. “Researchers are finding that any type of distraction is risky, not just the ones we typically think of as dangerous, like texting or talking on the phone.”
In fact, a study led by Dr. Peter Snyder, vice president of research for Lifespan, a Rhode Island-based health system, found that a strong urge to urinate can impair your functioning as effectively as drinking alcohol or being sleep deprived. And the effects of hunger, thirst and tiredness on attention spans and reflex times have been well known for years.
Here are three other potentially distracting behaviors and situations that you might not view as risky:
Eating and/or drinking – We all do it, especially when we’re in a hurry to make an appointment, have skipped a meal or just can’t make it through the rest of the drive without a cup of joe. But eating or drinking while driving involves taking at least one hand – and part of your attention – off the wheel. Consider the 2011 case of a woman in Croton-on-Hudson, N.Y. Police said she hit a guardrail and flipped her Subaru when she spilled hot coffee during her morning drive. Fortunately, she sustained only minor injuries.
Unrestrained pets – Many pet owners think of their dogs as their children. But while they’re diligent about buckling up the kids and grandkids, they don’t always secure their dogs while in the car. Allowing your pet to ride unrestrained – in your lap, beside you or in the backseat – is dangerous for you and him. A survey by AAA and Kurgo Pet Products found that 65 percent of respondents had participated in at least one dog-related distracting behavior while driving, such as petting (52 percent) or allowing the dog to sit in their lap (17 percent). Restraining your pet can help minimize driver distractions, restrict the pet’s movement in case of a crash, and protect pets from potentially being harmed by inflating airbags.
Rubbernecking – Slowing down or pulling over to get a better look at an accident not only displays a lack of tact, it could also cause another accident. If your eyes are on the crash you’re approaching – or passing – they’re not on the road ahead of you. As recently as August 2012, police in Greenbelt, Md., cited rubbernecking as the probable cause of a double accident that shut down a major highway during morning rush hour. A Maryland State Police spokesperson told the Greenbelt Patch that police see rubbernecking accidents “all the time.”
“Although drivers age 50 and older are less likely to engage in distracting behaviors like texting or using a hand-held cellphone behind the wheel, they may face other challenges, such as natural changes in vision, hearing and reaction times,” says Lee.
Source: Los Angeles Times
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‘GIF’
(abbrevitation of: Graphics Interchange Format)
named word of the year 2012 by Oxford American Dictionary
The runner-up: "YOLO," which stands for "You only live once." "Superstorm" was another runner-up for word of the year
The British Oxford Dictionaries went a different route, choosing "omnishambles," as their word of the year, which is defined as "a situation that
has been comprehensively mismanaged, characterized by a string of blunders and miscalculations."
It's been delighting people around the world for 25 years but now formally holds a honored place in the cultural lexicon: "GIF" has been chosen as word of the year by the Oxford American Dictionary.
"GIF celebrated a lexical milestone in 2012, gaining traction as a verb, not just a noun," said Katherine Martin, head of the U.S. dictionaries program at Oxford.
"The GIF has evolved from a medium for pop-cultural memes into a tool with serious applications including research and journalism, and its lexical identity is transforming to keep pace."
GIF is, in fact, an abbreviation of three separate words: Graphics Interchange Format. It was first released by CompuServe in 1987 but has experienced a dramatic cultural resurgence in recent years, most commonly used to make humorous commentary on topics ranging from sports to the 2012 presidential election.
The runner-up for the word of the year was also an abbreviation, "YOLO," which stands for "You only live once."
"Superstorm" was another runner-up for word of the year, after the major storm that affected the Eastern U.S. during the first week of November.
The British Oxford Dictionaries went a different route, choosing "omnishambles," as their word of the year, which is defined as "a situation that has been comprehensively mismanaged, characterized by a string of blunders and miscalculations."
Needless to say, having all three words shows how neologisms are having a growing influence in the cultural landscape.
Still, some older words have found new linguistic relevance. "Pleb," taken from the Roman word "plebs," has found a modern context in its derogatory usage to describe "a member of the ordinary people or working classes."
Interestingly, the word-of the-year distinction does not guarantee that the chosen words will actually be included in future editions of the Oxford English Dictionary.
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The future is here - you need to know
Astronaut to Spend a Year in Orbit
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Enlarge Photo - Astronaut to Spend a Year in Orbit (ABC News)
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He was on the space station when his twin brother Mark was struggling to deal with the trauma of his wife's shooting. Mark Kelly, now retired from the astronaut corps, is a married to former Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords – and Scott could only offer long distance support to his twin brother when his wife was shot during in January 2011.
Jared Loughner has now pleaded guilty to 19 federal charges in the mass shooting that killed six and injured 13, including Giffords, who was hosting a congressional event that day.
Scott Kelly wished he could have done more to help. That is one of the drawbacks of a long term mission -- there is no easy way home if something happens to a loved one on Earth.
Click Here for Pictures: Images From the Final Frontier
Kelly clearly understands the risks -- and the rewards -- of long-duration space flight. He is, after all, a Navy fighter pilot, used to assignments overseas. He told ABC News in an interview before his last mission to the space station that his research was important to the future of space travel.
Scott Kelly "We need to learn how people can live and work in space for long periods of time, also how the equipment can survive and operate for long periods," he said. "If we are ever going to send people to live on the Moon, we are three days away, or to live on Mars where you are potentially 18 months away, we need to have some very robust systems to allow them to survive there. And the only place you can learn how to build and operate those systems is on the space station."
We already know many of the risks -- NASA has documented the damage to the eyesight of seven astronauts after they returned from spending months in space. Their flight surgeons have gone on record discussing bone density loss, decreased muscle mass, and the psychological isolation.
Why would anyone volunteer for this? The International Space Station is after all, is the only game in town if you are an astronaut and a mission to the dark side to the moon, while a popular topic, isn't funded yet, and Mars? Still decades away.
When will the U.S. space program get back into flying NASA astronauts into space? Hopefully by 2017. Several companies are working to build and certify human rated spacecraft to take crew, and cargo to the International Space Station.
While NASA touts the medical research accumulated from a year in space, the reality is that this also frees up a couple of seats on the Russian Soyuz spacecraft to sell to tourists.
When the U.S. space shuttles quit flying last year, they created a conundrum for companies like Space Adventures, whose business -- sending rich tourists into space -- depended upon the resources of Roscosmos, the Russian Space Agency. Roscosmos is the only space agency willing to send tourists to space (NASA won't do it, and now they don't have a spacecraft anyway so it's a moot point). Singer Sarah Brightman announced she is buying one of the seats -- and then launched a concert tour, so time will tell if she is really serious about training for a flight.
Kelly is an experienced astronaut -- he served as pilot on space shuttle mission STS-103 in 1999, commanded STS-118 in 2007, was flight engineer on the International Space Station Expedition 25 in 2010 and commander of Expedition 26 in 2011.
Kelly has logged more than 180 days in space, and a yearlong mission this would bring his total to almost 550 days. Impressive numbers, but the record will still belong to Russian cosmonaut Sergei Krikalev, who, over six missions, spent 803 days, 9 hours and 39 minutes of his life in space.
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Astronaut to Spend a Year in Orbit
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Enlarge Photo - Astronaut to Spend a Year in Orbit (ABC News)
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- BC News - Astronaut to Spend a Year in Orbit (ABC News) Astronaut Scott Kelly will become the first U.S. astronaut to spend a year in space. Why? He is volunteering to be a human guinea pig -- to help NASA collect detailed medical and psychological data about the effects of long term spaceflight on a human. He and cosmonaut Mikhail Kornienko are scheduled to launch to the International Space Station in 2015 and return to Earth in 2016.
He was on the space station when his twin brother Mark was struggling to deal with the trauma of his wife's shooting. Mark Kelly, now retired from the astronaut corps, is a married to former Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords – and Scott could only offer long distance support to his twin brother when his wife was shot during in January 2011.
Jared Loughner has now pleaded guilty to 19 federal charges in the mass shooting that killed six and injured 13, including Giffords, who was hosting a congressional event that day.
Scott Kelly wished he could have done more to help. That is one of the drawbacks of a long term mission -- there is no easy way home if something happens to a loved one on Earth.
Click Here for Pictures: Images From the Final Frontier
Kelly clearly understands the risks -- and the rewards -- of long-duration space flight. He is, after all, a Navy fighter pilot, used to assignments overseas. He told ABC News in an interview before his last mission to the space station that his research was important to the future of space travel.
Scott Kelly "We need to learn how people can live and work in space for long periods of time, also how the equipment can survive and operate for long periods," he said. "If we are ever going to send people to live on the Moon, we are three days away, or to live on Mars where you are potentially 18 months away, we need to have some very robust systems to allow them to survive there. And the only place you can learn how to build and operate those systems is on the space station."
We already know many of the risks -- NASA has documented the damage to the eyesight of seven astronauts after they returned from spending months in space. Their flight surgeons have gone on record discussing bone density loss, decreased muscle mass, and the psychological isolation.
Why would anyone volunteer for this? The International Space Station is after all, is the only game in town if you are an astronaut and a mission to the dark side to the moon, while a popular topic, isn't funded yet, and Mars? Still decades away.
When will the U.S. space program get back into flying NASA astronauts into space? Hopefully by 2017. Several companies are working to build and certify human rated spacecraft to take crew, and cargo to the International Space Station.
While NASA touts the medical research accumulated from a year in space, the reality is that this also frees up a couple of seats on the Russian Soyuz spacecraft to sell to tourists.
When the U.S. space shuttles quit flying last year, they created a conundrum for companies like Space Adventures, whose business -- sending rich tourists into space -- depended upon the resources of Roscosmos, the Russian Space Agency. Roscosmos is the only space agency willing to send tourists to space (NASA won't do it, and now they don't have a spacecraft anyway so it's a moot point). Singer Sarah Brightman announced she is buying one of the seats -- and then launched a concert tour, so time will tell if she is really serious about training for a flight.
Kelly is an experienced astronaut -- he served as pilot on space shuttle mission STS-103 in 1999, commanded STS-118 in 2007, was flight engineer on the International Space Station Expedition 25 in 2010 and commander of Expedition 26 in 2011.
Kelly has logged more than 180 days in space, and a yearlong mission this would bring his total to almost 550 days. Impressive numbers, but the record will still belong to Russian cosmonaut Sergei Krikalev, who, over six missions, spent 803 days, 9 hours and 39 minutes of his life in space.
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2012 Mayan Apocalypse Rumors Have Dark Side, NASA Warns
December 2012
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NASA scientists took time on Wednesday (Nov. 28) to soothe 2012 doomsday fears, warning against the dark side of Mayan apocalypse rumors — frightened children and suicidal teens who truly fear the world may come to an end Dec. 21.
These fears are based on misinterpretations of the Mayan calendar. On the 21st, the date of the winter solstice, a calendar cycle called the 13th b'ak'tun comes to an end. Although Maya scholars agree that the ancient Maya would not have seen this day as apocalyptic, rumors have spread that a cosmic event may end life on Earth on that day.
Thus NASA's involvement. The space agency maintains a 2012 information page debunking popular Mayan apocalypse rumors, such as the idea that a rogue planet will hit Earth on Dec. 21, killing everyone. (In fact, astronomers are quite good at detecting near-Earth objects, and any wandering planet scheduled to collide with Earth in three weeks would be the brightest object in the sky behind the sun and moon by now.)
"There is no true issue here," David Morrison, an astrobiologist at NASA Ames Research Center, said during a NASA Google+ Hangout event today (Nov. 28). "This is just a manufactured fantasy." [End of the World? Top Doomsday Fears]
Real-world consequences
Unfortunately, Morrison said, the fantasy has real-life consequences. As one of NASA's prominent speakers on 2012 doomsday myths, Morrison said, he receives many emails and letters from worried citizens, particularly young people. Some say they can't eat, or are too worried to sleep, Morrison said. Others say they're suicidal.
"While this is a joke to some people and a mystery to others, there is a core of people who are truly concerned," he said.
Not every 2012 apocalypse believer thinks the world will end on Dec. 21. Some, inspired by New Age philosophies, expect a day of universal peace and spiritual transformation. But it's impressionable kids who have NASA officials worried.
"I think it's evil for people to propagate rumors on the Internet to frighten children," Morrison said.
Myths and misconceptions
NASA scientists took questions via social media in the hour-long video chat, debunking doomsday myths from the rogue planet Nibiru to the danger of killer solar flares.
In fact, said NASA heliophysicist Lika Guhathakurta, it's true that the sun is currently in an active phase of its cycle, meaning electromagnetic energy has picked up. Large solar flares can impact electronics and navigation systems on Earth, but satellites monitoring the sun give plenty of warning and allow officials to compensate for the extra electromagnetic activity when it hits our atmosphere. What's more, Guhathakurta said, this particular solar maximum is the "wimpiest" in some time — scientists have no reason to expect solar storms beyond what our planet has weathered in the past.
Nor are any near-Earth objects, planetary or otherwise, threatening to slam into our planet on Dec. 21, said Don Yeomans, a planetary scientist who tracks near-Earth objects at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. The only close asteroid approach on the horizon is forecast to occur on Feb. 13, 2013, when an asteroid will pass within 4.5 Earth radii to our planet (for perspective, Earth's radius is 3,963 miles, or 6,378 kilometers). The asteroid is not going to hit Earth, Yeomans said.
Other rumors — that the Earth's magnetic field will suddenly reverse or that the planet will travel almost 30,000 light-years and fall into the black hole at the center of the Milky Way galaxy — were also dismissed. (A light-year is the distance light travels in one year, or about 6 trillion miles, or 10 trillion km.)
One popular rumor that the planet will undergo a complete blackout from Dec. 23 to 25 earned a "What?" and blank looks from the panel of scientists.
Ultimately, concerns about Earth's fate would be better focused on slow-acting problems such asclimate change rather than some sort of cosmic catastrophe, said Andrew Fraknoi, an astronomer at Foothill College in California.
Mitzi Adams, a heliophysicist at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center, agreed.
"The greatest threat to Earth in 2012, at the end of this year and in the future, is just from the human race itself," Adams said.
Follow Stephanie Pappas on Twitter @sipappas or SPACE.com @Spacedotcom. We're also onFacebook and Google+.
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how we destroy our earth and how it can be saved
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Why the Beaver Should Thank the Wolf
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September, 2012
Based on the book by Mary Ellen Hannibal - the author of “The Spine of the Continent” - (Read the book - it is worth it)
In September, 2012, a group of environmental nonprofits said they would challenge the federal government’s removal of Endangered Species Act protections for wolves in Wyoming. Since there are only about 328 wolves in a state with a historic blood thirst for the hides of these top predators, the nonprofits are probably right that lacking protection, Wyoming wolves are toast.
Many Americans, even as they view the extermination of a species as morally anathema, struggle to grasp the tangible effects of the loss of wolves. It turns out that, far from being freeloaders on the top of the food chain, wolves have a powerful effect on the well-being of the ecosystems around them — from the survival of trees and riverbank vegetation to, perhaps surprisingly, the health of the populations of their prey.
An example of this can be found in Wyoming’s Yellowstone National Park, where wolves were virtually wiped out in the 1920s and reintroduced in the ’90s. Since the wolves have come back, scientists have noted an unexpected improvement in many of the park’s degraded stream areas.
Stands of aspen and other native vegetation, once decimated by overgrazing, are now growing up along the banks. This may have something to do with changing fire patterns, but it is also probably because elk and other browsing animals behave differently when wolves are around. Instead of eating greenery down to the soil, they take a bite or two, look up to check for threats, and keep moving. The greenery can grow tall enough to reproduce.
Beavers, despite being on the wolf’s menu, also benefit when their predators are around. The healthy vegetation encouraged by the presence of wolves provides food and shelter to beavers. Beavers in turn go on to create dams that help keep rivers clean and lessen the effects of drought. Beaver activity also spreads a welcome mat for thronging biodiversity. Bugs, amphibians, fish, birds and small mammals find the water around dams to be an ideal habitat.
So the beavers keep the rivers from drying up while, at the same time, healthy vegetation keeps the rivers from flooding, and all this biological interaction helps maintain rich soil that better sequesters carbon — that stuff we want to get out of the atmosphere and back into the ground. In other words, by helping to maintain a healthy ecosystem, wolves are connected to climate change: without them, these landscapes would be more vulnerable to the effects of those big weather events we will increasingly experience as the planet warms.
Scientists call this sequence of impacts down the food chain a “trophic cascade.” The wolf is connected to the elk is connected to the aspen is connected to the beaver. Keeping these connections going ensures healthy, functioning ecosystems, which in turn support human life.
Another example is the effect of sea otters on kelp, which provides food and shelter for a host of species. Like the aspen for the elk, kelp is a favorite food of sea urchins. By hunting sea urchins, otters protect the vitality of the kelp and actually boost overall biodiversity. Without them, the ecosystem tends to collapse; the coastal reefs become barren, and soon not much lives there.
Unfortunately, sea otters are in the cross hairs of a conflict equivalent to the “wolf wars.” Some communities in southeast Alaska want to allow the hunting of sea otters in order to decrease their numbers and protect fisheries. But the rationale that eliminating the predator increases the prey is shortsighted and ignores larger food-web dynamics. A degraded ecosystem will be far less productive over all.
Having fewer fish wouldn’t just hurt fishermen: it would also endanger the other end of the trophic scale — the phytoplankton that turn sunshine into plant material, and as every student of photosynthesis knows, create oxygen and sequester carbon. In lakes, predator fish keep the smaller fish from eating all the phytoplankton, thus sustaining the lake’s rate of carbon uptake.
Around the planet, large predators are becoming extinct at faster rates than other species. And losing top predators has an outsize effect on the rate of loss of many other species below them on the food chain as well as on the plant life that is so important to the balance of our ecosystems.
So what can be done? For one thing, we have begun to realize that parks like Yellowstone are not the most effective means of conservation. Putting a boundary around an expanse of wilderness is an intuitive idea not borne out by the science. Many top predators must travel enormous distances to find mates and keep populations from becoming inbred. No national park is big enough for wolves, for example. Instead, conservation must be done on a continental scale. We can still erect our human boundaries — around cities and towns, mines and oil fields — but in order to sustain a healthy ecosystem, we need to build in connections so that top predators can move from one wild place to another.
Many biologists have warned that we are approaching another mass extinction. The wolf is still endangered and should be protected in its own right. But we should also recognize that bringing all the planet’s threatened and endangered species back to healthy numbers — as well as mitigating the effects of climate change — means keeping top predators around.
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By MARY ELLEN HANNIBAL - San Francisco
Mary Ellen Hannibal is the author of “The Spine of the Continent.”
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Op-Ed Contributor: A Glimmer in the Vast Wasteland
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See the next article below: another example of a sea animal guarding the earth's healthy ecology
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Why Is It Illegal To Ride a Manatee?
Riding a dolphin also violates federal law
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What is a manatee? See the link below at the end of this article for detailed info and a picture
Anyone looking for cheap thrills and a quick brush with nature should reconsider thoughts of riding a manatee. As a Florida woman is learning, multiple federal and state laws can be swiftly wielded in defense of the vulnerable sea cow.
Ana Gloria Garcia Gutierrez, 52, accused of riding a manatee in a waterway in Pinellas County over the weekend, turned herself in after authorities on her trail released photos that appear to show her mid-ride.
The Florida Manatee Sanctuary Act outlaws riding or touching the slow-moving marine mammals. And while Gutierrez wasn't immediately charged, her alleged crime is punishable by a $500 fine or a jail term of up to 60 days, according to the Tampa Bay Times.
There was no immediate indication that federal charges would be pressed, but Gutierrez's alleged offense also would violate the Marine Mammal Protection Act and the U.S. Endangered Species Act, under which she could be subject to thousands of dollars in additional fines for harassing a protected species.
Such penalties may seem outsized for a joy ride on a thick-skinned manatee, which was not thought to have been physically injured in the encounter. But authorities' refusal to regard Gutierrez's alleged crime as harmless whimsy is perhaps acknowledgement that human interactions with manatees are precisely what threaten to end the endangered animal's existence.
The same easygoing and curious nature that would likely predispose a manatee to taking on a human passenger seems to contribute to the species' vulnerability to being mowed down by passing speed boats. [Manatee Mystery: Why Can't They Avoid Speedboats?]
About 87 Florida manatees are killed by humans every year, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, most of them dying in boat collisions. And with an estimated Florida population of 3,800 manatees, 87 is a grave number.
Coastal development, which has altered and destroyed manatee habitat, also threatens the species.
Swimmers seeking a visceral interaction with a non-manatee marine mammal, take note: Riding a dolphin — the gazelle to the manatee's cow — also violates federal law.
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Source: Yahoo Science News
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Manatee - Wikipedia, the free encyclopediaen.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manatee
Manatees (family Trichechidae, genus Trichechus) are large, fully aquatic, mostly herbivorous marine mammals sometimes known as sea cows. There are three ...
Dugong - West Indian manatee - Amazonian manatee - Dwarf manatee
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Why Is It Illegal To Ride a Manatee?
Riding a dolphin also violates federal law
Click green for further info
What is a manatee? See the link below at the end of this article for detailed info and a picture
Anyone looking for cheap thrills and a quick brush with nature should reconsider thoughts of riding a manatee. As a Florida woman is learning, multiple federal and state laws can be swiftly wielded in defense of the vulnerable sea cow.
Ana Gloria Garcia Gutierrez, 52, accused of riding a manatee in a waterway in Pinellas County over the weekend, turned herself in after authorities on her trail released photos that appear to show her mid-ride.
The Florida Manatee Sanctuary Act outlaws riding or touching the slow-moving marine mammals. And while Gutierrez wasn't immediately charged, her alleged crime is punishable by a $500 fine or a jail term of up to 60 days, according to the Tampa Bay Times.
There was no immediate indication that federal charges would be pressed, but Gutierrez's alleged offense also would violate the Marine Mammal Protection Act and the U.S. Endangered Species Act, under which she could be subject to thousands of dollars in additional fines for harassing a protected species.
Such penalties may seem outsized for a joy ride on a thick-skinned manatee, which was not thought to have been physically injured in the encounter. But authorities' refusal to regard Gutierrez's alleged crime as harmless whimsy is perhaps acknowledgement that human interactions with manatees are precisely what threaten to end the endangered animal's existence.
The same easygoing and curious nature that would likely predispose a manatee to taking on a human passenger seems to contribute to the species' vulnerability to being mowed down by passing speed boats. [Manatee Mystery: Why Can't They Avoid Speedboats?]
About 87 Florida manatees are killed by humans every year, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, most of them dying in boat collisions. And with an estimated Florida population of 3,800 manatees, 87 is a grave number.
Coastal development, which has altered and destroyed manatee habitat, also threatens the species.
Swimmers seeking a visceral interaction with a non-manatee marine mammal, take note: Riding a dolphin — the gazelle to the manatee's cow — also violates federal law.
Click green for further info
Source: Yahoo Science News
- Marine Marvels: Spectacular Photos of Sea Creatures
- Humans' Taste for Dolphins & Manatees on the Rise
- Lumbering Sea Cows Were Once Plentiful and Diverse
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Manatee - Wikipedia, the free encyclopediaen.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manatee
Manatees (family Trichechidae, genus Trichechus) are large, fully aquatic, mostly herbivorous marine mammals sometimes known as sea cows. There are three ...
Dugong - West Indian manatee - Amazonian manatee - Dwarf manatee
This article is for your private use, only
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Move over, Moby Dick.
Scientists have found a white whale capable of imitating human speech
Beluga whales, also known as white whales, are known as "the canaries of the sea" because of how vocal they are.
They are not the same kind of whale as the monstrous giant of the story "Moby Dick," which was a white sperm whale.
Belugas are actually among the smallest species of whales.
Male Beluga Whale Mimics Human Voice
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These findings, the first to show that whales can mimic the voices of humans, suggest that researchers might want to analyze other whales for similar abilities.
Beluga whales, also known as white whales, are known as "the canaries of the sea" because of how vocal they are. They are not the same kind of whale as the monstrous giant of the story "Moby Dick," which was a white sperm whale — belugas are actually among the smallest species of whales.
Amazing Noc
In 1984, scientists at the National Marine Mammal Foundation in San Diego began noticing unusual noises emanating from where they kept the whales and dolphins. These resembled two people conversing in the distance, just beyond the range of the understanding of listeners.
Researchers traced these sounds back to one male white whale, Noc, when a diver surfaced from the whale enclosure to ask his colleagues an odd question: "Who told me to get out?" The investigators concluded sounds resembling "out" came from Noc. [Listen to Noc Speak Human]
There were plenty of opportunities for Noc to hear human speech. He had previously overheard people talking at the surface, and had also heard them using devices that allowed them to speak with divers underwater.
Anecdotal reports have surfaced in the past of whales sounding like humans. For instance, at Vancouver Aquarium, keepers suggested that a white whale about 15 years of age had uttered his name, "Lagosi."
In a more rigorous test to see if Noc could mimic humans, scientists rewarded him with snacks when he made those sounds, prompting him to do so enough times for them to capture recordings.
Analysis of Noc's sounds revealed a rhythm similar to human speech. They also displayed fundamental frequencies several octaves lower than typical whale sounds and far closer to that of the human voice.
"We were amazed — the voiceprint really reminded us of humanlike sounds and unlike normal whale sounds," researcher Sam Ridgway, neurobiologist, research veterinarian and president of the National Marine Mammal Foundation, told LiveScience. "We never heard anything like this before."
Whale puckers up
These sounds are even more surprising because whales typically produce sounds in a completely different way from people, using their nasal tracts and not the voice box or larynx as humans do. To make these humanlike sounds, Noc had to vary the air pressure in his nasal tract while adjusting liplike valves and over-inflating sacs under his blowhole.
"Such obvious effort suggests motivation for contact," Ridgway said.
Noc's speechlike sounds subsided after about four years, after he matured. Still, he remained quite vocal in other ways for the rest of his 30-year life. (Noc passed away five years ago.)
Ridgway cautioned that people "should not think that whales can communicate with us at a conversational level based on these results." Still, "that is an intriguing possibility for future research to determine what, if anything, could be achieved at a conversational level."
Beluga whales are often kept in captivity, and researchers may want to see if those whales can mimic human sounds as well. "Keepers in aquaria should remain alert to such behavior and see that such events are analyzed with good acoustic methods," Ridgway said.
The scientists detailed their findings in Oct. 23, 2012 issue of the journal Current Biology.
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October 28, 2012
From Calm Leadership, Lasting Change
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SHE was a slight, soft-spoken woman who preferred walking the Maine shoreline to stalking the corridors of power. And yet Rachel Carson, the author of “Silent Spring,” played a central role in starting the environmental movement, by forcing government and business to confront the dangers of pesticides.
Carson was a scientist with a lyrical bent, who saw it as her mission to share her observations with a wider audience. In the course of her work, she also felt called upon to become a leader — and was no less powerful for being a reluctant one.
As a professor at Harvard Business School, I encountered the great depth of her work when I was creating a course on the history of leadership. I was amazed to learn she wrote “Silent Spring” as she battled breast cancer and cared for a young child. After the book was published, 50 years ago last month, she faced an outburst of public reaction and a backlash from chemical companies. Yet throughout her personal and public struggles, she was an informed spokeswoman for environmental responsibility.
She was a classic introvert who exhibited few of the typical qualities associated with leadership, like charisma and aggressiveness. But as people like Susan Cain, author of “Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking,” have pointed out, leadership can come in less obvious forms.
Carson’s life shows that individual agency, fueled by resolution and hard work, has the power to change the world. In this election year, when so much influence seems concentrated in “super PACs,” lobbying groups and other moneyed interests, her story is a reminder that one person’s quiet leadership can make a difference.
The natural world had fascinated Carson since she was a young girl growing up near Pittsburgh. At the Pennsylvania College for Women, later Chatham College, she majored in biology and earned her master’s degree in zoology at Johns Hopkins.
In the 1930s, there were few professional opportunities for women in the sciences. But in 1935, she found a job writing radio scripts about the ocean for what would become the United States Fish and Wildlife Service. Within four years, she was editor in chief of all the agency’s publications, a position that connected her with researchers, conservationists and government officials.
Her work at the agency fed her larger calling as a writer. Throughout the 1930s and ’40s, she wrote freelance articles about the natural world for Colliers, the Atlantic Monthly and other magazines. In 1941, she published her first book, “Under the Sea-Wind,” a narrative account of the birds and sea creatures of North America’s eastern shores.
Carson wrote within the crevices of a busy life, and often with serious health problems. In 1950, she had surgery to remove a tumorfrom her left breast. The next year, she published “The Sea Around Us,” a wide-ranging history of the ocean. It was an instant best seller. Readers responded to her graceful prose and marshaling of scientific facts, as well as to her long-term perspective. The book’s success enabled her to leave her position at the wildlife agency and devote herself to writing.
IN early 1958, she began working intently on “Silent Spring” while serving as both a breadwinner and a caregiver. The previous year, her niece died after an illness and she adopted her 5-year-old grandnephew. Unmarried and living in Silver Spring, Md., she also cared for and financially supported her ailing mother.
For the next four years, she gave all the time and energy she could spare to researching and writing “Silent Spring.” A diligent investigator, she reached out to a network of scientists, physicians, librarians, conservationists and government officials. She found colleagues, clerks, whistle-blowers and others who had studied pesticide use and were willing to share their knowledge.
With an assistant’s help, she spent weeks in the research libraries of Washington. Many of her contacts generated even more leads.
Carson was particularly interested in possible connections between cancer and human exposure to pesticides. In late 1959, she wrote this to Paul Brooks, her editor at Houghton Mifflin: “In the beginning I felt the link between pesticides and cancer was tenuous and at best circumstantial; now I feel it is very strong indeed.”
Her research, she wrote, “has taken very deep digging into the realms of physiology and biochemistry and genetics, to say nothing of chemistry. But I now feel that a lot of isolated pieces of the jigsaw puzzle have suddenly fallen into place,” she said, as quoted in“Rachel Carson: Witness for Nature,” a book by Linda Lear.
In late 1958, Carson’s mother died. And the next summer, her grandnephew’s illness slowed her work. By late 1959, she knew that the book would take longer than she originally planned. Yet she remained confident, writing to her editor that she was building her work “on an unshakable foundation.”
As she researched her book, Carson knew she was playing with fire. Still, she realized she had to bring her findings to a large audience. “Knowing what I do,” she wrote to a close friend in 1958, “there would be no future peace for me if I kept silent.”
In early 1960, medical problems interrupted Carson’s work again. She learned that she had an ulcer, and she developed pneumonia. In early April, she had surgery in Washington to remove two tumors in her left breast. One was apparently benign, she told a friend. The other was “suspicious enough to require a radical mastectomy.” Her doctors stopped short of diagnosing cancer and recommended no further treatment.
She went home to recover from the surgery and slowly resumed work. In November, Carson discovered a mass in her left chest. This led her to seek a second opinion at the Cleveland Clinic.
There, she learned that she had cancer, and that it had metastasized to her lymph nodes. In early 1961, she began radiation treatment, which sapped her strength. A staph infection, a flare-up of her ulcer and the onset of phlebitis in her legs added to her problems, leaving her too debilitated to work. At times, she despaired over “the complete and devastating wreckage” of her writing schedule and the “nearly complete loss of any creative feeling or desire.”
Throughout, she was determined to keep her medical condition private, fearful that readers would question the objectivity of her findings, particularly her chapters about links between pesticides and cancer.
By late spring, Carson returned to her book. She made progress for six months, until an eye inflammation left her virtually sightless for several weeks. Her assistant read chapters aloud to her for correction, but she was intensely frustrated. “Such a catalog of illnesses!” she confided to a friend. “If one were superstitious it would be easy to believe in some malevolent force at work, determined by some means to keep the book from being finished.”
EARLY in 1962, Carson sent most of the manuscript to her publisher and The New Yorker. The end in sight, she took stock of her motivation for the book. As quoted in Ms. Lear’s book, she wrote to the conservationist and author Lois Crisler: “The beauty of the living world I was trying to save has always been uppermost in my mind — that, and anger at the senseless, brutish things that were being done.”
Carson’s grace and fervor struck a powerful chord in June when The New Yorker began serializing “Silent Spring.” In a focused, persuasive way, she had thrown down a moral gauntlet, asking readers to reconsider the consequences of rapid technological progress. “How could intelligent beings,” she asked early in the book, “seek to control a few unwanted species by a method that contaminated the entire environment and brought the threat of disease and death even to their own kind?”
She argued that synthetic pesticides like DDT and heptachlor were being applied in profligate quantities without regard to their effect on human health, animals and the environment. She predicted grave consequences for man and the larger natural world if their use continued to grow. (The title “Silent Spring” refers to a future season when singing birds and other animals have been wiped out by insecticides.)
The book, combined with the New Yorker serialization, created a sensation. In summer 1962, President John F. Kennedy, citing the book, appointed a committee to study pesticide use. During the next two years, various government units called for increased oversight of and reductions of pesticides.
Small wonder that chemical makers counterattacked. A biochemist with American Cyanamid called Carson “a fanatic defender of the cult of the balance of nature.” Invoking cold-war language, the general counsel for another chemical company suggested that Carson was a front for “sinister influences” intent on restricting pesticide use in order to reduce American food supplies to the levels of the Eastern bloc.
In the 18 months after “Silent Spring” was published, Carson worked to outrun the aggressive cancer attacking her body. She guarded her strength, choosing to make public appearances where she believed she could make the most difference. She offered Congressional testimony on pesticide use and made a rare television appearance with Eric Sevareid of CBS. But in 1964, the disease and its complications caught up. She died on April 14 at age 56.
In the late 1960s, events including a California oil spill, a chemical fire on the Cuyahoga River in Cleveland and civic protest about napalm and Agent Orange, used in the Vietnam War, underscored her warnings that efforts to control nature threatened man’s survival. The first Earth Day, on April 22, 1970, reflected mounting public concern.
Later that year, the Environmental Protection Agency began operations; in 1972, DDT was banned from use in the United States. The Clean Water Act was passed in 1972 and the Endangered Species Act in 1973. Looking back at such events, scientists like Paul Ehrlich and E. O. Wilson have credited “Silent Spring” with a pivotal role in starting the modern environmental movement.
RACHEL CARSON’S story offers many leadership lessons, including the importance of persistence in pursuing an objective. When I discuss her with business executives, many are struck by her ability to stay focused on goals in the face of obstacles including severe illness.
Another lesson involves the importance of doing thorough research and taking the long view. A sense of context based on hard facts, along with a knowledge of history, is essential to understanding what’s at stake in difficult and uncertain situations. It also confers a sense of authority on the person who has acquired this knowledge.
A third insight concerns the juggling of personal demands and professional ambitions. Carson understood the challenge — and satisfaction — of dealing with our obligations to others even as we follow our professional drive. And she saw that this can rarely be navigated smoothly. For her, and for many executives with whom I have worked, times of great productivity were followed by fallow periods when ambitions had to be put aside for personal reasons.
There continues to be debate about the use of DDT and its relation to Carson’s conclusions. Regardless, her story underscores the power of calling others to thoughtful action. At a time when Americans’ confidence in their business and government leaders is low, her journey offers a forceful example of one person’s ability to incite positive change.
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DealBook: On Wall Street, Time to Mend Fences With Obama
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Ecology - an inmportant science to save the earth - our home
Beach Turns Blood Red, Swimmers Flee
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Blood red water has stained several Australian beaches, making the popular surf spots resemble something out of a horror movie.
Sydney's iconic Bondi Beach and nearby Clovelly Beach have been closed so authorities can test the water.
Click green for pictures: SEE MORE PHOTOS: Red Tide Shocks Swimmers
While red algae isn't toxic, people are advised to avoid swimming in the algae-stained water because its high ammonia levels can cause skin irritation.
"It has got quite a fishy smell to it," lifeguard Bruce Hopkins told the Australian Associated Press. "It can irritate some people's skin but generally not much more than that."
Despite the warnings, it didn't stop some swimmers, including the one pictured above, from jumping in to the surf.
- (1) DADDY •We have RED TIDE here in Florida's West Coast and believe us when we say " Get away from it" as it causes breathing problems to the very young and the elderly !
- (2) I work in the Pulmonary dept, not only have I heard of red tide, but also have patients with breathing problems associated with red tide.
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Melting Permafrost: Scientists Warn of Dangers of Trapped Carbon
Permafrost = a thick subsurface layer of soil that remains frozen throughout the year, occurring chiefly in polar regions
Research published on 2/21/13 in the journal Science says that even slightly warmer temperatures could start melting permafrost, which in turn threatens to trigger the release of huge amounts of greenhouse gases trapped in ice.
The frosty dungeon hides a dark secret. At least a quarter of the Northern Hemisphere's landmass is frozen and, like a vault, it holds 1,700 gigatonnes of carbon. This unimaginably high quantity of carbon comes from countless generations of creatures that have lived and died in the area over millions of years.
A portion of those dead plants and animals weren't decomposed by microorganisms because, at a certain point, it was simply too cold for that. But the permafrost is slowly melting. If large areas of ground underneath were to thaw one day, the bacterial decomposition process would pick up where it left off, releasing huge amounts of greenhouse gases. In total, permafrost contains twice as much carbon as what is currently billowing through the Earth's atmosphere.
If major portions of that carbon become released, the world's climate would suffer fatal consequences. For this reason, scientists have for some time now been asking the frightening question of just how strongly global warming affects permafrost areas. Using ingenious measuring methods, they are meticulously monitoring the fate of the planet. A new study, published in the professional journal Science on , suggests that it's possible that even slightly higher temperatures could thaw out significant portions of the region's permafrost areas.
A team of researchers led by Anton Vaks at the University of Oxford examined calcareous deposits from a total of six Siberian caves. Specifically, they looked at so called speleothems*), which are mineral deposits -- including stalactites **) and stalagmites -- that form in limestone and other caves. "Speleothems only grow when rain and meltwater can seep through cracks into the caves," Vaks told SPIEGEL ONLINE. "And that process only occurs when temperatures are above the freezing point."
The frosty dungeon hides a dark secret. At least a quarter of the Northern Hemisphere's landmass is frozen and, like a vault, it holds 1,700 gigatonnes of carbon. This unimaginably high quantity of carbon comes from countless generations of creatures that have lived and died in the area over millions of years.
A portion of those dead plants and animals weren't decomposed by microorganisms because, at a certain point, it was simply too cold for that. But the permafrost is slowly melting. If large areas of ground underneath were to thaw one day, the bacterial decomposition process would pick up where it left off, releasing huge amounts of greenhouse gases. In total, permafrost contains twice as much carbon as what is currently billowing through the Earth's atmosphere.
If major portions of that carbon become released, the world's climate would suffer fatal consequences. For this reason, scientists have for some time now been asking the frightening question of just how strongly global warming affects permafrost areas. Using ingenious measuring methods, they are meticulously monitoring the fate of the planet. A new study, published in the professional journal Science on , suggests that it's possible that even slightly higher temperatures could thaw out significant portions of the region's permafrost areas.
A team of researchers led by Anton Vaks at the University of Oxford examined calcareous deposits from a total of six Siberian caves. Specifically, they looked at so called speleothems*), which are mineral deposits -- including stalactites **) and stalagmites -- that form in limestone and other caves. "Speleothems only grow when rain and meltwater can seep through cracks into the caves," Vaks told SPIEGEL ONLINE. "And that process only occurs when temperatures are above the freezing point."
Precise Climate Records
Since water from the frozen earth can't reach cracks deep within the caves, the mineral deposits are precise records of the climate. In warmer times, the so-called interglacial periods, stalactites and stalagmites form. In colder phases, so called glacial periods, they don't. So there is a pattern similar to how tree rings can be used to tell their age.
A total of 36 speleothems were dated using the uranium-thorium method. Over time, uranium decays into thorium. The uranium isotopes dissolve in water that penetrates into the speleothems, while thorium does not and thus remains in the deposits.
Researchers can look back about 500,000 years in the past using this method. Speleothems in today's permafrost areas must have come from a significantly warmer period in which water was flowing. Vaks and his colleagues have been able to show that stalactites in the northern-most Lenskaya Ledyanaya Cave only grew in a very warm part of an interglacial period about 400,000 years ago.
At that time, average temperatures were about 1.5 degrees Celsius higher than they are today. Traces of this particularly warm period were also proven with pollen deposits and residue of algae found in the sediment of Elgygytgyn Lake, in northeastern Siberia, as well as from other sources of evidence. During this time, there were probably even numerous trees in southern Greenland.
Since water from the frozen earth can't reach cracks deep within the caves, the mineral deposits are precise records of the climate. In warmer times, the so-called interglacial periods, stalactites and stalagmites form. In colder phases, so called glacial periods, they don't. So there is a pattern similar to how tree rings can be used to tell their age.
A total of 36 speleothems were dated using the uranium-thorium method. Over time, uranium decays into thorium. The uranium isotopes dissolve in water that penetrates into the speleothems, while thorium does not and thus remains in the deposits.
Researchers can look back about 500,000 years in the past using this method. Speleothems in today's permafrost areas must have come from a significantly warmer period in which water was flowing. Vaks and his colleagues have been able to show that stalactites in the northern-most Lenskaya Ledyanaya Cave only grew in a very warm part of an interglacial period about 400,000 years ago.
At that time, average temperatures were about 1.5 degrees Celsius higher than they are today. Traces of this particularly warm period were also proven with pollen deposits and residue of algae found in the sediment of Elgygytgyn Lake, in northeastern Siberia, as well as from other sources of evidence. During this time, there were probably even numerous trees in southern Greenland.
*) = Speleothem - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speleothem
A speleothem commonly known as a cave formation, is a secondary mineral deposit formed in a cave. Speleothems are typically formed in limestone or ...
Origin and composition - Types and categories - Chemistry - As climate proxies
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speleothem
A speleothem commonly known as a cave formation, is a secondary mineral deposit formed in a cave. Speleothems are typically formed in limestone or ...
Origin and composition - Types and categories - Chemistry - As climate proxies
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stalactite
A stalactite is a type of speleothem (secondary mineral) that hangs from the ceiling of limestone caves. It is a type of dripstone. The corresponding formation on ...National student online poll
has called four elections correctly
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10/23/12 - An online poll taken by millions of American students has forecast four presidential elections correctly.
But will it get another election correct on Monday, 10/29/12 , when the public finds out the results from the OneVote 2012 project?
National Constitution Center Channel One, the education media service, ran the elaborate polls in 1992, 2000, 2004, and 2008, and the middle- and high-school students picked Bill Clinton, George Bush (twice), and Barack Obama correctly.The students and teachers involved in the OneVote project aren’t taking a simple straw poll.
Students across the country are filling out ballots this week, which are vetted in the classroom by their teachers. The educators file the votes on the OneVote website. Voting ends at 10 p.m. ET on Friday.
A team at OneVote then looks at polling patterns to make sure there aren’t any irregularities.
The final results will be listed at onevote.channelone.com.
It’s unknown if political pollsters and the campaigns will slice and dice the OneVote results like they examine political tracking polls.
But OneVote could be a window into the future of voting, since all the votes are submitted electronically after the students fill our paper ballots (no hanging chads here).
The OneVote project also mimics other institutions in the mainstream voting world. Teams of students work on videos throughout the fall, which classes watch as students prepare to research issues.
The candidates have student “surrogates” who write about their parties, and there will be a post-election spin room where the results are argued about and analyzed.
The results from past elections, though, varied greatly from this year’s election.
For example, in 2000, Bush won the student election with 58.9 percent of the 877,497 middle- and high-school students who voted. The biggest issue to students then was crime and violence.
In 2004, Bush won again with 55 percent out of 1.4 million student votes. He even won Pennsylvania and had a near sweep of the swing states.
In 2008, Obama had a big win with 58.5 percent of the student vote, according to OneVote’s press release. The economy was the biggest issue, followed by the war in Iraq.
Currently, the economy is the biggest issue on students’ minds, based on survey data from OneVote.
Recent Constitution Daily Stories
Making sense out of Gallup and other presidential polls
Inside America’s first dirty presidential campaign, 1796 style
Romney’s ace could come from a mystery swing state
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Making sense out of Gallup and other presidential polls
The pollsters at Gallup have been on the defensive after issuing tracking polls showing Mitt Romney with a significant lead over President Barack Obama. But is the poll’s own track record that much different than other polls?
Frank Newport, the head pollster at Gallup, told Fox News in an interview over the weekend that the poll was “extremely solid.”
“It’s not unusual, going back to Dr. George Gallup who founded our company… He found heated commentary from either side on polls, and I’ve certainly found it in the six election cycles going back to 1992,” Newport told Fox. “People come at you from either side if they don’t like the results.”
Gallup also had a detailed explanation of its polling definitions on its website.
Newport’s comments came after a drubbing in the media about the “likely voters” section of the poll, which shows Romney with a 7-point lead over Obama.
Nate Silver, the New York Times political blogger, laid out a detailed argument against the poll in a post called “Gallup vs. the World.”
“We tend to put too much emphasis on the newest, most widely reported and most dramatic pieces of data—more than is usually warranted,” Silver says.
“Apart from Gallup’s final poll not having been especially accurate in recent years, it has often been a wild ride to get there. Their polls, for whatever reason, have often found implausibly large swings in the race,” he adds.
The website The Hill was less generous to Gallup than The New York Times. Allan Lichtman, a professor at American University, challenged Gallup’s concept of likely voters.
“You don’t have to compare the Gallup poll with any other survey to expose its flaws. A check of the internal consistency of this poll yields such implausible results that its findings are almost certain to be wrong. The key to this analysis is comparing results for registered voters and for likely voters,” Lichtman wrote on The Hill.
He shares Silver’s concerns about publicity related to the Gallup poll.
“Poll-driven journalism is not just meaningless. It is also pernicious because it detracts from coverage of what this election means for the American people,” Lichtman concluded in his story.
Constitution Daily did a little digging on Gallup’s own website to look at the track record of the tracking poll’s predictions for mid-October, going back to 1976, and the actual popular vote on Election Day.
We looked at 14 examples where Gallup’s likely-voter polls and registered-voter polls were taken closest to October 20, including five likely-voter polls and nine registered-voter polls.
Overall, Gallup had the correct winner in eight of nine presidential elections. (It had Jimmy Carter ahead in October 1980.)
Recent Constitution Daily Stories
Mitt Romney takes lead in projected electoral vote count
Inside America’s first dirty presidential campaign, 1796 style
Romney’s ace could come from a mystery swing state
Where Gallup diverged was in the difference between the projected national direct voting and the final November outcome.
The average Gallup October 20 popular vote prediction was at least 6 percentage points off the final election outcome. For example, Gallup had George W. Bush ahead by 6 percent over Al Gore among likely voters in October 2000. Gore took the popular by 0.5 percent, so the Gallup poll in October differed by 6.5 percent.
The closest Gallup came to calling the final results was in 2004, when its registered-voter poll had Bush ahead of John Kerry by 3 percent in October 2004. The final difference was 2.5 percent in the popular vote.
The average Gallup difference from the final vote was 6.2 percent in likely-voter polls, 5.8 percent in registered-voter polls, and 5.9 percent in both polls.
To be sure, Gallup is measuring voter sentiment about three weeks before an election, and a lot can change in that period. For example, Ronald Reagan’s dramatic debate victory in 1980 made that race into a rout.
And what about other polls? Are we just piling on Gallup just because they show a gap in the race between Romney and Obama?
Only five of 10 major polls taken in mid-October 2008 had the Obama-John McCain race within 2 points of its final outcome in November. Gallup’s traditional poll was off by 4.3 percent, while Pew was off by a whopping 6.7 percent.
Back in 2004, only three of 10 polls we looked at for a period that ended closest to October 19 were within 2 points of the final election result, and another two were within 2.5 points of the final results.
So out of those 20 polls in the past two elections, taken in mid-October, only about half were close to indicating the final margins on Election Night.
In mid-October 2008, Gallup’s expanded poll (which didn’t factor in past voting behavior) was very close to the final outcome of the Obama-McCain race, giving Obama a 7-point lead (he won by 7.3 points).
The uncertainty over poll outcomes in the general election has led to various folks who do “composite” polls that average and weight groups of polls based on past data.
The popular website Real Clear Politics keeps historical data about its accuracy in past elections. On October 22, 2008, the site had Obama ahead by 7 percent in its composite poll—which was very close to the final election outcome.
Today, it has Romney ahead by 0.8 percent in the popular vote.
Gallup Poll Mid-October Trends, 1976-2012 (Source: Gallup.com)
Likely votersRegistered votersFinal Vote2012Romney+7+3—2008Obama+10+11+72004Bush+8+3+2.52000Bush+6+1-0.51996Clinton+21+24+8.51992Clinton+2+13+5.51988Bush+10+7.71984Reagan+20+181980Carter+6-9.71976Carter+5
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Making sense out of Gallup and other presidential polls
The pollsters at Gallup have been on the defensive after issuing tracking polls showing Mitt Romney with a significant lead over President Barack Obama. But is the poll’s own track record that much different than other polls?
Frank Newport, the head pollster at Gallup, told Fox News in an interview over the weekend that the poll was “extremely solid.”
“It’s not unusual, going back to Dr. George Gallup who founded our company… He found heated commentary from either side on polls, and I’ve certainly found it in the six election cycles going back to 1992,” Newport told Fox. “People come at you from either side if they don’t like the results.”
Gallup also had a detailed explanation of its polling definitions on its website.
Newport’s comments came after a drubbing in the media about the “likely voters” section of the poll, which shows Romney with a 7-point lead over Obama.
Nate Silver, the New York Times political blogger, laid out a detailed argument against the poll in a post called “Gallup vs. the World.”
“We tend to put too much emphasis on the newest, most widely reported and most dramatic pieces of data—more than is usually warranted,” Silver says.
“Apart from Gallup’s final poll not having been especially accurate in recent years, it has often been a wild ride to get there. Their polls, for whatever reason, have often found implausibly large swings in the race,” he adds.
The website The Hill was less generous to Gallup than The New York Times. Allan Lichtman, a professor at American University, challenged Gallup’s concept of likely voters.
“You don’t have to compare the Gallup poll with any other survey to expose its flaws. A check of the internal consistency of this poll yields such implausible results that its findings are almost certain to be wrong. The key to this analysis is comparing results for registered voters and for likely voters,” Lichtman wrote on The Hill.
He shares Silver’s concerns about publicity related to the Gallup poll.
“Poll-driven journalism is not just meaningless. It is also pernicious because it detracts from coverage of what this election means for the American people,” Lichtman concluded in his story.
Constitution Daily did a little digging on Gallup’s own website to look at the track record of the tracking poll’s predictions for mid-October, going back to 1976, and the actual popular vote on Election Day.
We looked at 14 examples where Gallup’s likely-voter polls and registered-voter polls were taken closest to October 20, including five likely-voter polls and nine registered-voter polls.
Overall, Gallup had the correct winner in eight of nine presidential elections. (It had Jimmy Carter ahead in October 1980.)
Recent Constitution Daily Stories
Mitt Romney takes lead in projected electoral vote count
Inside America’s first dirty presidential campaign, 1796 style
Romney’s ace could come from a mystery swing state
Where Gallup diverged was in the difference between the projected national direct voting and the final November outcome.
The average Gallup October 20 popular vote prediction was at least 6 percentage points off the final election outcome. For example, Gallup had George W. Bush ahead by 6 percent over Al Gore among likely voters in October 2000. Gore took the popular by 0.5 percent, so the Gallup poll in October differed by 6.5 percent.
The closest Gallup came to calling the final results was in 2004, when its registered-voter poll had Bush ahead of John Kerry by 3 percent in October 2004. The final difference was 2.5 percent in the popular vote.
The average Gallup difference from the final vote was 6.2 percent in likely-voter polls, 5.8 percent in registered-voter polls, and 5.9 percent in both polls.
To be sure, Gallup is measuring voter sentiment about three weeks before an election, and a lot can change in that period. For example, Ronald Reagan’s dramatic debate victory in 1980 made that race into a rout.
And what about other polls? Are we just piling on Gallup just because they show a gap in the race between Romney and Obama?
Only five of 10 major polls taken in mid-October 2008 had the Obama-John McCain race within 2 points of its final outcome in November. Gallup’s traditional poll was off by 4.3 percent, while Pew was off by a whopping 6.7 percent.
Back in 2004, only three of 10 polls we looked at for a period that ended closest to October 19 were within 2 points of the final election result, and another two were within 2.5 points of the final results.
So out of those 20 polls in the past two elections, taken in mid-October, only about half were close to indicating the final margins on Election Night.
In mid-October 2008, Gallup’s expanded poll (which didn’t factor in past voting behavior) was very close to the final outcome of the Obama-McCain race, giving Obama a 7-point lead (he won by 7.3 points).
The uncertainty over poll outcomes in the general election has led to various folks who do “composite” polls that average and weight groups of polls based on past data.
The popular website Real Clear Politics keeps historical data about its accuracy in past elections. On October 22, 2008, the site had Obama ahead by 7 percent in its composite poll—which was very close to the final election outcome.
Today, it has Romney ahead by 0.8 percent in the popular vote.
Gallup Poll Mid-October Trends, 1976-2012 (Source: Gallup.com)
Likely votersRegistered votersFinal Vote2012Romney+7+3—2008Obama+10+11+72004Bush+8+3+2.52000Bush+6+1-0.51996Clinton+21+24+8.51992Clinton+2+13+5.51988Bush+10+7.71984Reagan+20+181980Carter+6-9.71976Carter+5
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Age-Old Fixes for India’s Water
INDIA’S monsoon rains are retreating in October, a delayed end to a yearly wet season that has become ever more unpredictable as a result of global warming. Of all the challenges that face India, few are more pressing than how it manages water. In vast cities like New Delhi, where showers and flush toilets have become necessities for a rapidly expanding middle class, groundwater has been depleted. New Delhi once had many ponds and an open floodplain to absorb the monsoon and replenish aquifers; now the sprawling city has more concrete and asphalt than it has ponds and fields to absorb water.
India’s capital has come to rely for half its water on dams in the Himalaya range that capture monsoon runoff. But the dams disrupt the ecology of the Himalaya, South Asia’s precious watershed. Much of the waste from New Delhi’s overwhelmed sewage treatment system ends up in the Yamuna River, one of the main tributaries of the Ganges, which winds down from the Himalaya and flows 1,500 miles across India to the Bay of Bengal. Combined with under-regulated industrial effluents, urban waste has turned India’s mythic and misused rivers into cesspools.
In the countryside, where a vast majority of Indians still live, a combination of free electricity and inadequate regulation has led farmers to deplete untold groundwater supplies. In some places the water table is so low it no longer helps sustain roots, so even more water must be pumped up. In addition, soils have been degraded by chemical fertilizers, so they require even more water.
But in some parts of India, communities are turning to “rainwater harvesting,” capturing rainwater in ponds and allowing it to percolate into the ground to feed wells and springs. Such techniques were once commonplace throughout the South Asian subcontinent, where rain falls for only a few months in the summer monsoon, and often not at all for the rest of the year. Now villagers are returning to these ancient methods to secure the future.
In northwest India, near Almora, a town of 40,000 in the Himalayan foothills, farmers are restoring ponds that have fallen into disuse in order to once again replenish groundwater and feed springs. They are also digging new ponds to use for irrigation and fish culture. In one village near there, I visited a one-room preschool — a balwadi, or child’s garden — where mothers in brightly colored saris told me that they needed a toilet so that the kids wouldn’t have to run to the woods to relieve themselves. I took that to indicate that this area, while still poor, was progressing; the rural villagers expected to have some form of indoor toilet. However, there isn’t enough water for full plumbing — and there is barely enough in the town itself, where many people have plumbing, but the river cannot satisfy all the needs of both the town and irrigation systems in farms nearby.
India’s challenges — how to keep the economic engine moving while making government more effective and efficient; how to raise hundreds of millions of people out of poverty while protecting the environment — are staggering. Efforts like Almora’s hold great promise, and more are needed.
Even though much of the water resource planning in India looks anachronistic given what we now know, a large contingent in government and engineering circles still advocates big, highly engineered, concrete-based solutions: large dams and deep reservoirs to generate electricity, urban water and sewer systems like those in the West. Many of these projects address the needs of industry and city dwellers, but some of the big dams and concrete canals proposed are meant to sustain rural areas, and many Indian water specialists say they’ll do more harm than good.
In a region known as Bundelkhand, for example, a drought has driven farmers to desperation: part of the year they go sleep on the streets of New Delhi by night and build new high-rises there by day. The solution proposed for Bundelkhand is to dam a river to the east and transport its water through a long concrete canal. So far it has not been approved, thanks in part to the opposition of people who say the proposal is foolish, expensive and disruptive. They contend that the region can gain as much or more by going back to its traditional rainwater harvesting: ponds, small dams and an older, more sustainable style of farming.
In the Indian state just west of there, Rajasthan, some villagers have already gone back to the style of rainwater harvesting their ancestors practiced. In the hilly topography of eastern Rajasthan — part of an ancient mountain range that long predates the upthrust of the Himalaya — villagers built small damlike obstructions so that water could be trapped in depressions. Within a short time the groundwater table rose, a dead river became perennial again, and the land was green.
These successes hold lessons even for the megacities. In recent years, environmental groups in New Delhi have advocated the harvesting of rainwater from the roofs of houses and high-rises; the effort has begun, though not yet on a scale large enough to halt the destructive dam building.
For a long time now, centralized solutions for India have appeared to New Delhi’s bureaucracy as easier to manage than local initiatives. It would of course be naïve to think a return to indigenous ways is the only answer in a country that is on track to become the world’s most populous within a decade or so. But for millenniums, the distinct regions of the subcontinent developed ingenious ways to manage their water, and they prospered. Retrieving those methods, perhaps reinventing them, could give rural Indians some control over their destinies, even in the face of the wrenching changes wrought by globalization and the continued warming of the planet.
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MORE IN OPINION (7 OF 27 ARTICLES) Taking Note: Schumer Says Taxes on Rich Must Rise Read More »
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This article is for your private use, only
______________________________________________________
Click green for further info
Age-Old Fixes for India’s Water
INDIA’S monsoon rains are retreating in October, a delayed end to a yearly wet season that has become ever more unpredictable as a result of global warming. Of all the challenges that face India, few are more pressing than how it manages water. In vast cities like New Delhi, where showers and flush toilets have become necessities for a rapidly expanding middle class, groundwater has been depleted. New Delhi once had many ponds and an open floodplain to absorb the monsoon and replenish aquifers; now the sprawling city has more concrete and asphalt than it has ponds and fields to absorb water.
India’s capital has come to rely for half its water on dams in the Himalaya range that capture monsoon runoff. But the dams disrupt the ecology of the Himalaya, South Asia’s precious watershed. Much of the waste from New Delhi’s overwhelmed sewage treatment system ends up in the Yamuna River, one of the main tributaries of the Ganges, which winds down from the Himalaya and flows 1,500 miles across India to the Bay of Bengal. Combined with under-regulated industrial effluents, urban waste has turned India’s mythic and misused rivers into cesspools.
In the countryside, where a vast majority of Indians still live, a combination of free electricity and inadequate regulation has led farmers to deplete untold groundwater supplies. In some places the water table is so low it no longer helps sustain roots, so even more water must be pumped up. In addition, soils have been degraded by chemical fertilizers, so they require even more water.
But in some parts of India, communities are turning to “rainwater harvesting,” capturing rainwater in ponds and allowing it to percolate into the ground to feed wells and springs. Such techniques were once commonplace throughout the South Asian subcontinent, where rain falls for only a few months in the summer monsoon, and often not at all for the rest of the year. Now villagers are returning to these ancient methods to secure the future.
In northwest India, near Almora, a town of 40,000 in the Himalayan foothills, farmers are restoring ponds that have fallen into disuse in order to once again replenish groundwater and feed springs. They are also digging new ponds to use for irrigation and fish culture. In one village near there, I visited a one-room preschool — a balwadi, or child’s garden — where mothers in brightly colored saris told me that they needed a toilet so that the kids wouldn’t have to run to the woods to relieve themselves. I took that to indicate that this area, while still poor, was progressing; the rural villagers expected to have some form of indoor toilet. However, there isn’t enough water for full plumbing — and there is barely enough in the town itself, where many people have plumbing, but the river cannot satisfy all the needs of both the town and irrigation systems in farms nearby.
India’s challenges — how to keep the economic engine moving while making government more effective and efficient; how to raise hundreds of millions of people out of poverty while protecting the environment — are staggering. Efforts like Almora’s hold great promise, and more are needed.
Even though much of the water resource planning in India looks anachronistic given what we now know, a large contingent in government and engineering circles still advocates big, highly engineered, concrete-based solutions: large dams and deep reservoirs to generate electricity, urban water and sewer systems like those in the West. Many of these projects address the needs of industry and city dwellers, but some of the big dams and concrete canals proposed are meant to sustain rural areas, and many Indian water specialists say they’ll do more harm than good.
In a region known as Bundelkhand, for example, a drought has driven farmers to desperation: part of the year they go sleep on the streets of New Delhi by night and build new high-rises there by day. The solution proposed for Bundelkhand is to dam a river to the east and transport its water through a long concrete canal. So far it has not been approved, thanks in part to the opposition of people who say the proposal is foolish, expensive and disruptive. They contend that the region can gain as much or more by going back to its traditional rainwater harvesting: ponds, small dams and an older, more sustainable style of farming.
In the Indian state just west of there, Rajasthan, some villagers have already gone back to the style of rainwater harvesting their ancestors practiced. In the hilly topography of eastern Rajasthan — part of an ancient mountain range that long predates the upthrust of the Himalaya — villagers built small damlike obstructions so that water could be trapped in depressions. Within a short time the groundwater table rose, a dead river became perennial again, and the land was green.
These successes hold lessons even for the megacities. In recent years, environmental groups in New Delhi have advocated the harvesting of rainwater from the roofs of houses and high-rises; the effort has begun, though not yet on a scale large enough to halt the destructive dam building.
For a long time now, centralized solutions for India have appeared to New Delhi’s bureaucracy as easier to manage than local initiatives. It would of course be naïve to think a return to indigenous ways is the only answer in a country that is on track to become the world’s most populous within a decade or so. But for millenniums, the distinct regions of the subcontinent developed ingenious ways to manage their water, and they prospered. Retrieving those methods, perhaps reinventing them, could give rural Indians some control over their destinies, even in the face of the wrenching changes wrought by globalization and the continued warming of the planet.
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MORE IN OPINION (7 OF 27 ARTICLES) Taking Note: Schumer Says Taxes on Rich Must Rise Read More »
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This article is for your private use, only
______________________________________________________
U.S. Unprepared for Electromagnetic Storm
Important information
- at the STAF, Inc.'s scale 0 - 10 of importance this is 9-1/2 -
Power Failure: An Attack US Unprepared For
U.S. Unprepared for Electromagnetic
Storm
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October 4, 2012
Abbreviations and their meaning used in this article:
(1) (EMP) electromagnetic pulse , (2) (HEMP) high-altitude EMP, (3) (DHS) The Department of Homeland Security ,
(4) (CME) coronal mass ejection, (5) the Carrington Event, The solar storm of 1859, also known as the 1859 Solar Superstorm, or the Carrington Event, was a powerful solar storm in 1859 during solar cycle 10. It produced the largest known solar flare, which was observed and recorded by Richard C. Carrington.
Additional info: Solar storm of 1859 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopediaen. wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_storm_of_1859
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A single electromagnetic pulse (EMP) attack could affect the entire United States. Power would go out, financial infrastructure would be lost, electronics would be fried. Cars, trains, and airplanes would be useless hunks of metal. If energy, pumps, and transportation were knocked out, food and water would become a dwindling commodity.
An EMP capable of causing damage of this magnitude could come from either a nuclear weapon detonated 15 miles above the earth’s surface or from solar weather as the sun approaches its solar maximum.
Despite the risk, the United States remains unprepared. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is working with other government departments to raise awareness about the threat, according to Brandon Wales, director of the DHS Infrastructure Threat and Risk Analysis Center, who testified before the House Committee on Homeland Security on Sept. 12.
A nuclear weapon detonated above the earth’s surface, also known as a high-altitude EMP (HEMP), could “blanket the entire continental United States,” and “A concern is the growing number of nation-states that in the past have sponsored terrorism and are now developing capabilities that could be used in a HEMP attack,” Wales said, according to a transcript.
He added that a coronal mass ejection (CME) plasma hurricane, which can come from solar activity, “could create low-frequency EMP similar to a megaton-class nuclear HEMP detonation over the United States, which could disrupt or damage the power grid, undersea cables, and other critical infrastructures.”
Solar storms that could have caused significant EMP damage have occurred in the past, but unlike today, reliance on technology was not widespread enough to cause much harm.
The largest known solar storm took place during a solar maximum in 1859, known as the Carrington Event. The sun is again entering its solar maximum of around that same size, National Geographic reported, citing NASA. Similar solar activity is expected within the next two years.
“In 1859, such reports were mostly curiosities. But if something similar happened today, the world’s high-tech infrastructure could grind to a halt,” states the March 2, 2011, National Geographic report.
According to Wales, the DHS is working closely with information provided by the Commission to Assess the Threat to the United States from Electromagnetic Pulse (EMP) Attack. The commission has released three comprehensive reports since 2002, which look at the vulnerabilities of the United States to an EMP.
The commission’s last report was released in April 2008, and states, “Because of the ubiquitous dependence of U.S. society on the electrical power system, its vulnerability to an EMP attack, coupled with the EMP’s particular damage mechanisms, creates the possibility of long-term, catastrophic consequences.”
It states that an EMP attack could “leave significant parts of the electrical infrastructure out of service for periods measured in months to a year or more.”
The loss of the electrical infrastructure is more serious than just losing computers and cellphones. The most fundamental threat would be to water and food supplies.
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Food infrastructure in the United States is heavily dependent upon modern technology. Farming requires technology, as do transportation and refrigeration. The commission states, “It is highly possible that the recovery time would be very slow and the amount of human suffering great, including loss of life.”
The water infrastructure faces a similar threat, since it is reliant on treatment plants, pumps, and other systems. The commission said that, “Faced with the failure of the water infrastructure in a single large city, [federal, state, and local emergency services] would be hard-pressed to provide the population with the minimum water requirements necessary to sustain life over a time frame longer than a few days.”
___________________
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Source:
Epoch Times, 10/4/12
By Joshua Philipp
This article is for your private use, only
Study further through the web links below:
- Earthbound Solar Flares (x 2) Strongest of 2012 ~ (UPDATED 3*9 ...newearthdaily.com/earthbound-solar-flares-x-2-strongest-of-2012/
The first big solar storm was also the most powerful one, ranking as an X5.4-class flare... Analysts at the Goddard Space Weather Lab, who prepared the CME's ... quiettime as these solar incidents can certainly affect all facets of our lives ~ from ...Crowning, Birth & Maturation: The Dawn of a New Epoch & the 'Evoluminous ...
Streamlining Solar Storm - New Earth Dailynewearthdaily.com/streamlining-solar-storm/
We shared about the incoming earth facing solar CME a couple of days ago ~ here is the ... to a forecast track prepared by analysts at the Goddard Space Weather Lab. ...Crowning, Birth & Maturation: The Dawn of a New Epoch & the 'Evoluminous ... the exact Full Moon will take place on Friday early morning EST time- ______________________________________
What do you think? Is this reasonable?
The case has drawn wide condemnation from international bodies including the American Geophysical Union, which
said the risk of litigation may deter scientists from advising governments or even working to assess seismic risk.
Italian scientists convicted over earthquake warning
Reuters
10/22/12
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L'AQUILA, Italy (Reuters) - An Italian court convicted six scientists and a government official of manslaughter on Monday and sentenced them to six years in prison for failing to give adequate warning of a deadly earthquake which destroyed the central city of L'Aquila and killed more than 300 people in 2009.
The seven, all members of an official body called the National Commission for the Forecast and Prevention of Major Risks, were accused of negligence and malpractice in their evaluation of the danger of an earthquake and their duty to keep the city informed of the risks.
The case has drawn wide condemnation from international bodies including the American Geophysical Union, which said the risk of litigation may deter scientists from advising governments or even working to assess seismic risk.
A 6.3 strength earthquake struck L'Aquila, in Italy's Abruzzo region at 3.32 a.m. on April 6, 2009, wrecking tens of thousands of buildings, injuring more than 1,000 people and killing hundreds of others in their sleep.
At the heart of the case was whether the government-appointed experts gave an overly reassuring picture of the risks facing the town, which contained many ancient and fragile buildings and which had been partially destroyed three times by earthquakes over the centuries.
The case focused in particular on a series of low-level tremors which hit the region in the months preceding the earthquake and which prosecutors said should have warned experts not to underestimate the risk of a major shock.
The scientists are unlikely to be sent to jail pending a probable appeal trial.
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Source:
Reuter news
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_____________________________________________________________
A photo I.D. is needed for air, train, some bus, & boat traveling.
Perhaps soon for the space traveling?
What to do if you have left your photo I.D. home, in the office, in the last night's hotel,
or anywhere else, or it is stolen, or you just or misplaced and lost it.
Below an article "how & what to do" for the flight industry - be creative to modify it for other industries.
THE MOST RELEVANT ADVICE: always be calm, be polite to the inspectors to all people around,
smile and politely explain how sorry you are for net checking well for all documents.
If you start raisin your voice or show impatience and disrespect you may be stranded
- that's the end of the trip.
Quotation
"Treat others first how you would like to be treated and the others will do the same to you."
Flying Without a Photo ID
Last Friday, while my family gulped down breakfast before leaving for a weekend trip, I dealt with a last-minute, work-related technology snafu and went through a mental travel check list. Cancel delivery of the newspapers? Yes. Stop mail? Yes. All that was left was to check in online and print out the boarding passes. I grabbed my wallet to pay the $50 in advance for two checked bags to save time at the airport.
We then piled into the minivan, dropped our dog off at the kennel and headed to the airport, congratulating ourselves that, for once, we were on schedule.
Our self-satisfaction -- or at least, mine -- evaporated, though, when we arrived at the airport, I opened my purse and discovered that my wallet was missing. I quickly realized that after using my credit card to pay for the checked bags, I had left my wallet on my desk. At home. With my driver's license (read: photo identification) in it.
There wasn't time to go home and get my wallet. I would have missed the flight. And my family didn't want to go ahead without me. So we approached an agent at the security checkpoint, handed him our boarding passes and explained the situation.
He wasn't amused. (Are security agents, ever?) But, after asking my husband and children to step aside, he summoned a colleague -- some sort of "no photo identification" specialist -- to deal with me.
According to the Transportation Security Administration's Web site, a federal- or state-issued photo identification is required to fly. But, the site adds: "We understand passengers occasionally arrive at the airport without an ID due to lost items or inadvertently leaving them at home. Not having an ID does not necessarily mean a passenger won't be allowed to fly. If passengers are willing to provide additional information, we have other means of substantiating someone's identity, like using publicly available databases."
The special T.S.A. agent had me sign a form, allowing the agency to verify my identity. He asked me if I had any other form of identification (I didn't), or if my husband had anything in his wallet that had my name on it. (Again, no.) I did have a checkbook, bearing checks that had both my name and my husband's, so I handed that over for him to examine. Then, he called someone else on his phone, and asked me some questions -- things like my previous addresses and my date of birth. It reminded me of the online verification process you go through when opening a bank account or obtaining your credit report.
Apparently I answered satisfactorily, because the agent was finally given a number that he jotted on my boarding pass, before waving me on to be screened. The process took about 15 to 20 minutes. I asked if I could have some sort of documentation of the screening process for my return flight, but he shook his head. "Make sure you get to the airport early," he advised, in case the screening process took longer on the trip home. (It didn't. The process was much the same, although I was asked slightly different versions of the screening questions, and had my hands swabbed before being sent on my way.)
We made our outgoing flight with a few minutes to spare, but the whole process was very stressful. I know that it's ultimately my fault that I left my wallet behind in the rush to get out of the house. But I can't help but blame the airline's extra baggage fees. If I hadn't had to grab my credit card from wallet to pay for them, my wallet wouldn't have been out of my purse in the first place.
Have you ever flown without your photo identification? What happened?
_________________________________________________
Perhaps soon for the space traveling?
What to do if you have left your photo I.D. home, in the office, in the last night's hotel,
or anywhere else, or it is stolen, or you just or misplaced and lost it.
Below an article "how & what to do" for the flight industry - be creative to modify it for other industries.
THE MOST RELEVANT ADVICE: always be calm, be polite to the inspectors to all people around,
smile and politely explain how sorry you are for net checking well for all documents.
If you start raisin your voice or show impatience and disrespect you may be stranded
- that's the end of the trip.
Quotation
"Treat others first how you would like to be treated and the others will do the same to you."
Flying Without a Photo ID
Last Friday, while my family gulped down breakfast before leaving for a weekend trip, I dealt with a last-minute, work-related technology snafu and went through a mental travel check list. Cancel delivery of the newspapers? Yes. Stop mail? Yes. All that was left was to check in online and print out the boarding passes. I grabbed my wallet to pay the $50 in advance for two checked bags to save time at the airport.
We then piled into the minivan, dropped our dog off at the kennel and headed to the airport, congratulating ourselves that, for once, we were on schedule.
Our self-satisfaction -- or at least, mine -- evaporated, though, when we arrived at the airport, I opened my purse and discovered that my wallet was missing. I quickly realized that after using my credit card to pay for the checked bags, I had left my wallet on my desk. At home. With my driver's license (read: photo identification) in it.
There wasn't time to go home and get my wallet. I would have missed the flight. And my family didn't want to go ahead without me. So we approached an agent at the security checkpoint, handed him our boarding passes and explained the situation.
He wasn't amused. (Are security agents, ever?) But, after asking my husband and children to step aside, he summoned a colleague -- some sort of "no photo identification" specialist -- to deal with me.
According to the Transportation Security Administration's Web site, a federal- or state-issued photo identification is required to fly. But, the site adds: "We understand passengers occasionally arrive at the airport without an ID due to lost items or inadvertently leaving them at home. Not having an ID does not necessarily mean a passenger won't be allowed to fly. If passengers are willing to provide additional information, we have other means of substantiating someone's identity, like using publicly available databases."
The special T.S.A. agent had me sign a form, allowing the agency to verify my identity. He asked me if I had any other form of identification (I didn't), or if my husband had anything in his wallet that had my name on it. (Again, no.) I did have a checkbook, bearing checks that had both my name and my husband's, so I handed that over for him to examine. Then, he called someone else on his phone, and asked me some questions -- things like my previous addresses and my date of birth. It reminded me of the online verification process you go through when opening a bank account or obtaining your credit report.
Apparently I answered satisfactorily, because the agent was finally given a number that he jotted on my boarding pass, before waving me on to be screened. The process took about 15 to 20 minutes. I asked if I could have some sort of documentation of the screening process for my return flight, but he shook his head. "Make sure you get to the airport early," he advised, in case the screening process took longer on the trip home. (It didn't. The process was much the same, although I was asked slightly different versions of the screening questions, and had my hands swabbed before being sent on my way.)
We made our outgoing flight with a few minutes to spare, but the whole process was very stressful. I know that it's ultimately my fault that I left my wallet behind in the rush to get out of the house. But I can't help but blame the airline's extra baggage fees. If I hadn't had to grab my credit card from wallet to pay for them, my wallet wouldn't have been out of my purse in the first place.
Have you ever flown without your photo identification? What happened?
_________________________________________________
Alan Alda asks scientists to explain: What's time?
MINEOLA, N.Y. (AP), 12/12/2012 — Professor Alan Alda has a homework assignment for scientists. Yes, that Alan Alda.
The actor known for portraying Capt. Benjamin Franklin "Hawkeye" Pierce on the TV show "MASH" and more recent guest shots on NBC's "30 Rock" is also a visiting professor at New York'sStony Brook University school of journalism and a founder of the school's Center for Communicating Science.
The center is sponsoring an international contest for scientists asking them to explain in terms a sixth-grader could understand: "What is time?"
Alda is well-known for his affinity for science and is the longtime host of PBS' "Scientific American Frontiers." He said it is vital for society to have a better understanding of science, and puts much of the onus on scientists to better explain their work.
"There's hardly an issue we deal with today that isn't affected by science," Alda said. "I've even heard from a number of people in Congress that they often don't understand what scientists are talking about when they go to Washington to testify, and these are the people who make the decisions about funding and policy."
He said many scientists have told him they have to get better at communicating.
"We see misinformation about scientific facts on a daily basis," Alda said. "Sometimes you know so much about something you assume everybody else is as familiar as you are and you tend to speak in shorthand. Even other scientists may not understand what you are talking about if they are not an expert in your field."
This is the second year Alda is supporting what he calls the Flame Challenge II. The name comes from his own experience as an 11-year-old, when he asked a teacher what a flame was. She replied, "oxidation," which left him just as puzzled.
So, last year he asked scientists to answer his childhood question via a contest administered by the Stony Brook center.
The center received more than 800 submissions from around the world, and the winner chosen by 6,000 student judges was Ben Ames, a 31-year-old Kansas City native studying for his Ph.D. at the University of Innsbruck. He created an animated video (http://bit.ly/YJXdwV) explaining how clashing atoms create fire.
This year, Stony Brook received 300 questions from 11-year-olds and settled on a query submitted by Sydney Allison, a sixth-grader at Gomm Elementary School in Reno, Nev. Entries can be submitted until March 1. The winner gets a trophy, a trip to the 2013 World Science Festival in New York and the satisfaction of educating not only sixth-graders, but the general public.
"This contest probably gives people the impression that it's a teaching tool for kids," Alda said. "That's a happy by-product, but it really is a tool for scientists to take a complex question and explain it in a way the rest of us can understand."
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Click green for further info This article is for your private use, only Source: Associated Press _______________________________________________________________________________
America's most stressful airports
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Long check-in lines and distances between gates were the top factors that make airports stressful, according to a new study.
A study released last week by KRC Research on behalf of Concur, a provider of travel and expense management solutions, ranked the 16 most stressful U.S. airports based on interviews with 1,500 business travelers. The survey also revealed that availability of electrical outlets and Wi-Fi are important factors among road warriors.
Here's the list of the most stressful U.S. airports according to business travelers:
Stress-Inducing Factors
The majority of respondents (56 percent) found the vast distance between gates and terminals to be the biggest challenge at Chicago O’Hare, while nearly half (49 percent) agreed John F. Kennedy International Airport presents some of the longest lines.
Other factors that contribute to airport stress included:
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This article is for your private use, only
_________________________________________________________
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Long check-in lines and distances between gates were the top factors that make airports stressful, according to a new study.
- » Worst Airports to Connect
- » Which Airport Will be the Busiest This Thanksgiving?
- » Six Ways to Get Free Wi-Fi When You Travel
A study released last week by KRC Research on behalf of Concur, a provider of travel and expense management solutions, ranked the 16 most stressful U.S. airports based on interviews with 1,500 business travelers. The survey also revealed that availability of electrical outlets and Wi-Fi are important factors among road warriors.
Here's the list of the most stressful U.S. airports according to business travelers:
- Chicago O'Hare International Airport
- Los Angeles International Airport
- John F. Kennedy International Airport
- Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport
- New York's LaGuardia Airport
- Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport
- Newark Liberty International Airport
- George Bush Houston Intercontinental Airport
- San Francisco International Airport
- Miami International Airport
- Washington Dulles International Airport
- Charlotte/Douglas International Airport
- Philadelphia International Airport
- Orlando International Airport
- Boston Logan International Airport
- Las Vegas McCarran International Airport
Stress-Inducing Factors
The majority of respondents (56 percent) found the vast distance between gates and terminals to be the biggest challenge at Chicago O’Hare, while nearly half (49 percent) agreed John F. Kennedy International Airport presents some of the longest lines.
Other factors that contribute to airport stress included:
- Confusing airport signs (28 percent)
- Poor service from airport staff (28 percent)
- Not enough or crowded bathrooms (19 percent)
- Poor Wi-Fi coverage (19 percent)
- Insufficient amount of electrical outlets (18 percent)
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This article is for your private use, only
_________________________________________________________
How to Avoid a Smartphone’s Bite
This info is necessary for traveling abroad - info released September 2012
Travel and smartphones go together - and these days, texting, updating Facebook
and good old tweeting-while-eating are the least of it.
Just one catch: leave the country and your smartphone plan - much like the Constitution - no longer has you covered.
Calling and texting while abroad can bring painful bills; using data services can lead to insolvency.
That's because standard international roaming rates are outrageous: $2, $3 or even $5 a minute, 50 cents for a text
message. A megabyte of data costs $15 to $20. That means that checking the status of your Facebook friends can cost
about $3 or $4. That's a lot to see your high school classmate's backyard tomato plant.
How to Avoid a Smartphone’s Bite
When traveling abroad
SEPTEMBER 18, 2012
Source: NYT
By SETH KUGEL
Click the green for further info
Travel and smartphones go together - and these days, texting, updating Facebook and good old tweeting-while-eating are the least of it. Instant access to Yelp, TripAdvisor and endless other apps helps with everything from choosing an entree, tracking down discounts, posting a photo and checking the traffic ahead. Add a healthy dose of old-fashioned phone calls from poolside or mountain trail, and you might say staying connected has become something close to a constitutional right.
Just one catch: leave the country and your smartphone plan - much like the Constitution - no longer has you covered.
As many people have learned the hard way, calling and texting while abroad can bring painful bills; using data services can lead to insolvency. That's because standard international roaming rates are outrageous: $2, $3 or even $5 a minute, 50 cents for a text message. A megabyte of data costs $15 to $20. That means that checking the status of your Facebook friends can cost about $3 or $4. That's a lot to see your high school classmate's backyard tomato plant.
The good news is there are ways to save. The bad news is there are lots and lots of ways, some complementary and none perfect. Here's how I'd break it down for five kinds of budget travelers.
The Blissfully Disconnected
You're the type who leaves your cellphone and laptop at home, because traveling is about getting away from it all.
What you should do: Write out your itinerary with hotels and contact numbers and leave it with loved ones. Try not to break your quill pen while doing so.
But be aware: The world doesn't really cater to your type anymore. Many budget hotels don't bother with phones in rooms, and good luck finding a pay phone to make a dinner reservation or to check what time a museum closes. Better hope the local farmers speak English when you get lost biking. Send me a telegram and let me know how it goes.
The Semi-Connected
You don't feel the need for constant connectivity, and can wait until you're connected to your hotel's or hostel's Wi-Fi network to call home, check e-mail and plan the next day's activities.
What you should do: Once you connect to Wi-Fi, e-mail, Web browsing and online chat are free. But phone calls are not, so be sure you have an account with an app like Google Voice or Skype that can dial out to real world numbers. Calling the United States is as low as one cent a minute; calling other countries (like the one you're in - to make dinner reservations, to check on hotel vacancies, and contact local friends) is usually something like one-tenth the price of the standard cellphone plan.
Choosing the company is a matter of personal preference. Google Voice has lower rates than Skype to virtually every country and is especially easy if you already use Gmail. Skype is reasonable too and maintains a loyal following. There are many other competitors, and all them claim to be revolutionary and cheap, but I've yet to find one that can beat the reach and dependability of those two.
Keep in mind that while offering "free Wi-Fi" is practically an industry standard at budget hotels, and even some campgrounds, it can mean many things. A system that's always online, is acceptably fast and actually works in your room (rather than the lobby) seems more the exception than the rule.
Finally, when you go out for the day, bring your smartphone along for emergency calls and even for the occasional 50-cent text message if you make local friends or split with travel companions and need to meet up. Just be sure the international data roaming is turned off.
The Moderates
You love to make friends in a new country and want to be able to call and text them later. Tweeting every minute is too much, but you would like to alert your friends the moment you've reached the mountaintop/seen the Mona Lisa/eaten a bug. You want the option of checking with TripAdvisor or Yelp to decide between two restaurants. You need to check your e-mail occasionally.
What you should do: If your phone is "unlocked," meaning you can use other providers, get an international SIM card. I tested two this summer, Telestial's Passport card ($19) and OneSimCard's Standard card ($30). They have slightly different features, but each works more or less the same way. Your main phone number, once you insert the card, is not American.
For Telestial, it's a British number; for OneSimCard, it's Estonian. Telestial also provides you with an American number - OneSimCard offers it for $5 a month - that allows friends and family back home to text or call as if you had a local number. (You are charged 20 cents a minute to receive the call, though.)
Web browsing was surprisingly affordable in many places; in Scandinavia, it was 49 cents a megabyte on Telestial, which was enough to keep up with e-mail, tweet regularly and use the occasional app or Google search. Prices have dropped recently, to as little as 10 cents a megabyte with a $99 bundle from Telestial or 25 cents a megabyte with OneSimCard's Daily Data Package.
For pure Web browsing, install the Opera Mini app, a free, intuitive browser that saves money by compressing data to a fraction of what Safari or Chrome or many other mobile browsers do.
Most of the time, you can travel from one country to another and your phone is unfazed, simply switching from one local company to another. (Data rates will change, but you can find them easily online.) You load your phone with credits and set your account to reload automatically.
But the international SIM cards can be quirky. For instance, to make a call, you enter the number and press enter or send. The call is instantly disconnected, and sometimes weird codes appear on the screen. Seconds later, the phone rings. You pick up, and then it connects your call. It's weird at first, but you get used to it. My biggest complaint, especially with Telestial, was that calls sometimes did not connect - and occasionally forced me to restart my phone to try again.
If that sounds too frustrating and you're an AT&T or Verizon customer, consider their newly competitive international data plans.AT&T, for example, now offers $30 a month rates that allow 120 megabytes of usage in over 140 countries. The cost of voice minutes, though, is still very high and can't compete with the international SIMs. A final note: though the rates sound reasonable, beware. You can easily fall into your home habits and stay overconnected. Don't. For a while, I was running through $10 or $15 of data a day.
The Power Users
You want connectivity 24/7, and you'll sacrifice convenience - but not too much money - for it.
What you should do: Buy local SIM cards. It's the cheapest way to go. But it's also the biggest hassle. Make that hassles.
First, you'll need to research and compare domestic companies' rates and coverage for each country you're visiting.
Then once you find a place to buy the card, you'll have to activate it and get used to its systems (for dialing, adding credit, and so on). If credit disappears faster than you think it should, there's little recourse. (The companies mentioned earlier have excellent American- or Australian-based customer service.)
Finally, while in some countries getting a local SIM card is as simple as handing cash to a street vendor, in others you have to fill out paperwork, provide documents and sometimes even travel across the city to register and activate your account.
The Addicts
You looked up from your smartphone once, and you didn't like what you saw. Your greatest fear is that you'll die and find out that heaven doesn't have a Wi-Fi connection.
Unless you just won a mega-lottery, forget about foreign travel for now. Head to some cozy spot in the United States where you and your smartphone can spend some uninterrupted quality time together. Find a cafe, check in there on Four Square, snap a picture of yourself and post it to Instagram, and remember not to leave before praising your latte's foam design on Yelp.
A trip abroad can wait, because, while there are a few companies that offer international plans for "Mi-Fi" devices, a sort of mobile hot spot with large data allowances in specific countries, they are still prohibitively expensive for budget travelers and won't cover you everywhere anyway.
Click the green for further info
Source: NYT
This is for your private use, only
______________________________
Scientists find a way to erase frightening memories
The technique could be used to treat anxiety and other disorders
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You know that irrational fear of clowns you have because one accidentally popped a balloon animalin your face when you were a kid? If a new technique developed by Swedish scientists had existed back then, that fear might never have developed.
Researchers at Uppsala University in Sweden have found that it's possible to interrupt the formation of memories during a crucial stage when they're being cemented in your brain by proteins. In fact, it seems that memories associated with fears can be replaced entirely — if caught before this consolidation process can finish.
By displaying a photograph and simultaneously administering a small electric shock, the researchers were able to induce formation of a fear memory in test subjects. Then, by showing half of the subjects the same photo without the shock repeatedly during the consolidation process, they were able to stop a sense of fear from being permanently associated with the picture.
There's still a lot of testing to be done, but the scientists believe that this technique could eventually be used to interrupt the association of fear with other memories, such as witnessing the horrors of war, that might otherwise lead to disorders like Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). Unlike scary clowns, that's no laughing matter
More from Tecca:
click green
- Gray Matter Matters: 30 experiments, brain hacks, and studies to set your neurons ablaze
- Weird Science: 37 facts and phenomena sure to wow you
- Monkeys can become smarter through use of brain implants
The technique could be used to treat anxiety and other disorders
You know that irrational fear of clowns you have because one accidentally popped a balloon animalin your face when you were a kid? If a new technique developed by Swedish scientists had existed back then, that fear might never have developed.
Researchers at Uppsala University in Sweden have found that it's possible to interrupt the formation of memories during a crucial stage when they're being cemented in your brain by proteins. In fact, it seems that memories associated with fears can be replaced entirely — if caught before this consolidation process can finish.
By displaying a photograph and simultaneously administering a small electric shock, the researchers were able to induce formation of a fear memory in test subjects. Then, by showing half of the subjects the same photo without the shock repeatedly during the consolidation process, they were able to stop a sense of fear from being permanently associated with the picture.
There's still a lot of testing to be done, but the scientists believe that this technique could eventually be used to interrupt the association of fear with other memories, such as witnessing the horrors of war, that might otherwise lead to disorders like Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). Unlike scary clowns, that's no laughing matter.
Click the green for further information
[Image credit: Scared woman via Shutterstock]
[via Gizmodo]
Source: Yahoo Science News
- Gray Matter Matters: 30 experiments, brain hacks, and studies to set your neurons ablaze
- Weird Science: 37 facts and phenomena sure to wow you
- Monkeys can become smarter through use of brain implants
______________________________________________
Declaration of Internet Freedom
By: U.S. Congress Rep. Darrell Issa and Rep. Anna Eshoo
Source:
Politico Newspaper
September 18, 2012
The Internet is essential to life in the 21st century. The way we do business, communicate and live our lives now largely depends on being able to get online. Ensuring the freedom to access and use the Internet has become a bipartisan priority.
For the first time, both the Republican and Democratic parties included a discussion of Internet freedom in their official platforms.
“The Internet,” says the GOP platform, “has unleashed innovation, enabled growth, and inspired freedom more rapidly and extensively than any other technological advance in human history. Its independence is its power.”
The Democratic platform states: “President [Barack] Obama is strongly committed to protecting an open Internet that fosters investment, innovation, creativity, consumer choice and free speech, unfettered by censorship or undue violations or privacy.”
These party platform documents are not without their differences. Open, inclusive and robust debate is a good thing. But when it comes to Internet freedom, there is far more that unites us than separates us.
That is the reason we have both signed the Declaration of Internet Freedom — a landmark document drafted by Internet advocates of all political persuasions who have come together in support of five principles that transcend partisan politics.
The declaration reads:
We stand for a free and open Internet.
We support transparent and participatory processes for making Internet policy and the establishment of five basic principles:
• Expression: Don’t censor the Internet.
• Access: Promote universal access to fast and affordable networks.
• Openness: Keep the Internet an open network in which everyone is free to connect, communicate, write, read, watch, speak, listen, learn, create and innovate.
• Innovation: Protect the freedom to innovate and create without permission. Don’t block new technologies, and don’t punish innovators for their users’ actions.
• Privacy: Protect privacy and defend everyone’s ability to control how their data and devices are used.
More than 50,000 people and some 2,000 organizations — representing millions of people around the world — have already signed this declaration. It has been translated into more than 70 languages, so that as many people as possible can read the text and participate in the debate.
The Internet may well prove to be our most fundamental technological achievement. Because of it, people around the world have instant access to vital information, can hold their governments accountable and create better lives for themselves and their families.
Democrats and Republicans, despite continuing political debate and differences, can join together to protect an open Internet that strengthens our economy and our democracy.
Will you join us in supporting the Declaration of Internet Freedom?
Visit (click) www.internetdeclaration.org to view it.
Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) is chairman of the Oversight and Government Reform Committee. Rep. Anna Eshoo (D-Calif.) is the ranking member of the Subcommittee on Communications and Technology.
© 2012 POLITICO LLC
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Additional free internet information See the article below - the same topic "Keep The Internet Free"
Keep the Internet free
Additional free internet information See the article above - the same topic: Internet Freedom
Marco Rubio:
By: U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio
September 18, 2012
The Internet’s impact around the globe is staggering. It has connected people and ideas in ways not previously imagined. Just last year, authoritarian rulers were overthrown in North Africa and the Middle East by popular uprisings. These events have been greatly aided by their people’s access to the Internet, which helped them share ideas, organize demonstrations and highlight repressive government actions in real time.
We need to protect fundamental Internet freedoms in the hope that greater connectivity will help bring greater prosperity to people around the world while helping the oppressed achieve what the Arab Spring achieved for the people in the Middle East and North Africa.
If we look just 90 miles from the shores of Florida, to the homeland of my parents and grandparents, we see what the tyrannical Castro brothers have done to all Cubans not just through dictatorship but with control of technology and the Internet. The average citizen is strictly prohibited from using Google, YouTube and blogs. Only the government elite and foreigners have access to the Internet in Cuba, as well as the few who might illegally access a limited piece of the Internet.
Or look to China, which recently announced plans to tighten government control over the Internet. The new rules require all users of microblogs like Twitter to register with their real names, and all forums, blogs and microblogs must meet government approval. The communist government is clearly concerned about the Internet’s power to connect and influence people. Rather than allowing the Chinese people to take advantage of new innovations and Internet services, the government has issued stricter rules to maintain more control and restrict freedom of information.
It is no surprise that China is one of the nations due to call for more international control over the Internet at the coming World Conference on International Telecommunications in December, when 193 countries are to meet in Dubai to update the International Telecommunications Regulations.
Some countries view this meeting as an opportunity to give the United Nations and International Telecommunications Union unprecedented controls over Internet governance. Last year, China, Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan proposed an “international code of conduct” in an attempt to claim greater control over the Internet.
A top-down, international regulatory model goes against the very nature of the Internet. An international regulatory regime, and the politics and red tape that go with it, directly conflict with the Internet’s purpose of sharing ideas and connecting people. Governments and international bodies cannot keep pace with the Internet, and they should not try to do so.
The current bottom-up, multi-stakeholder model has ensured the Internet’s success and helped safeguard it from international or state control. The Internet we know today — which has transformed societies and economies around the world — has thrived because it is not controlled by governments and is open, allowing for continued innovation and information sharing.
To ensure this continues, the United States must be a leader. We cannot sit idly by as Internet freedom around the world is threatened. I have introduced a bipartisan resolution condemning some countries’ efforts to control the Internet and urging the Obama administration to oppose these actions. The House recently passed a similar resolution by 414-0. It is time for the Senate to act.
The Senate Foreign Relations Committee should pass this resolution without delay, and we must get the Senate’s full weight behind it. Given the Internet’s impact on commerce and the exercise of basic freedoms, we must proactively assert our interests in keeping the Internet free and prevent enemies of freedom from dictating its future.
Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) serves as a member on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and the Communications, Technology and the Internet Subcommittee of the Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee.
© 2012 POLITICO LLC
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Study: Facebook drove turnout in 2010 - Drove 300,000 Voters to Polls
September 12, 2012
Facebook’s efforts to encourage users to vote drove more than 300,000 voters across the U.S. to the polls in November 2010, according to a new study to be published Thursday in the journal Nature.
The study found that users who saw a “Vote” message in their newsfeeds that identified several friends were more likely to themselves vote than those who saw no such message. In addition, researchers at the University of California, San Diego, said, there was an indirect effect, in which friends of people who saw the message were more likely to vote than the friends of people who did not.
Users who saw the “Vote” message without the component referencing their friends voted at the same rate as those who didn’t see the message at all.
The conclusion: People are more likely to vote if they’re told their friends — or friends of friends — have.
Researchers extrapolated to conclude that more than 300,000 people may have been prompted to vote because of these social media messages.
“Social influence made all the difference in political mobilization,” lead researcher James Fowler said. “It’s not the ‘I Voted’ button, or the lapel sticker we’ve all seen, that gets out the vote. It’s the person attached to it.”
The study involved 61 million Facebook users and examined their behaviors; researchers later cross-referenced with public voter information to verify whether those who claimed to vote actually had done so.
Digital campaign specialists, who have long advocated increasing candidates' use of online media, cheered the data.
“If this was a truly scientifically based study with appropriate experimental and control groups, then this is fantastic news and important for campaigns and advocacy organizations to pay attention to,” said Jim Walsh, CEO of the online campaign firm DSPolitical. “Admiring the last three election cycles, we've seen tons of anecdotal evidence proving the significant influence online advertising's effects on voting behavior and this study further proves how the online tactics are gaining parity with the effectiveness of traditional offline campaign tactics.”
And Stu Trevelyan, CEO of the campaign software giant NGP-VAN, said the impact is sure to grow. “In 2012 and cycles to come, many more people will have adopted social networks, so it would stand to reason that these impacts would only increase,” he said.
Columbia University political scientist Donald Green called the study “ingenious” but questioned its claim that the influence carries over not just from one friend to another but to friends of those friends as well.
“I find the statistical evidence for the authors' further claim that the effect spread through second-hand communication more ambiguous,” said Green, co-author of “Getting out the Vote: Understanding Voter Mobilization.” “Their technical appendix indicates that validated voting among all friends was negligibly influenced by the treatment, and the same goes for friends of friends.”
This article first appeared on POLITICO Pro on September 12, 2012.
© 2012 POLITICO LLC
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"Voting Rights Act" Still needed - The GOP attacks Show it
September 11, 2012
By:
William Yeomans served as Sen. Ted Kennedy’s chief counsel on the Senate Judiciary Committee and as a Justice Department official. He is a fellow in law and government at American University College of Law.
Click the green areas for further information
In 2006, Congress reauthorized Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act with nearly unanimous Republican support. In 2012, Republican officials declared war on minority voting and have challenged the constitutionality of Section 5 — which requires states and localities with egregious histories of voting discrimination to seek federal approval before making any election changes — in multiple court cases. What happened?
Consider: Republican support among African-Americans for presidential nominee Mitt Romney finally hit zero in a recent NBC/Wall Street Journal poll and the GOP’s strength among Latino voters is nearly as anemic. These numbers make minority voters, sadly, irresistible targets for Republican vote suppression efforts. Legal battles over when ballots can be cast and whose votes will be counted, The New York Times reported Monday, could substantially affect the outcome of 2012 elections.
In many states, only the Voting Rights Act is standing in the GOP’s way. Rather than showing respect for the voting rights of minorities and winning their votes with appealing policies, Republicans appear to have instead decided to try to expel them from the electorate and attack the biggest legal obstacle to their expulsion — the Voting Rights Act.
The rights of minority voters, however, are not fair game in partisan battles. Partisanship must not be allowed to trump equal opportunity in voting. Republicans have whipped up a phony frenzy over the extent of voter fraud to justify their assault on minority voters.
Rather than working overtime to stir up fears, they should join in efforts to broaden the franchise to include as many Americans as possible. The true scandal in our electoral process is our shockingly low turnout level. Nearly every other advanced democracy has higher voter participation. Yet we now have one political party working mightily to reduce that turnout through unwarranted restrictions that disproportionately burden minority voters.
The math is simple. The Voting Rights Act increases the number and effectiveness of minority voters. And minority voters now overwhelmingly support Democrats. President Barack Obama’s support among African-Americans has reached 94 percent. Latinos have voted increasingly Democratic since California Gov. Pete Wilson launched the GOP’s war against undocumented immigrants with Proposition 187 in 1994. The Republicans’ current hard-line immigration policies have only advanced this trend. Reduce the minority vote and Republicans improve their chances of winning.
This shameful calculation has been embraced by the party of Lincoln. Republicans in state legislatures have produced a flurry of photo ID laws, discriminatory redistrictings, restrictions on registration, cutbacks on early voting, reinstatement of strict felon disfranchisement rules and erroneous purges of voter lists.
Republicans have now turned their backs on the powerful moral imperative that animated the Voting Rights Act in 1965 and produced overwhelming bipartisan majorities for renewal of Section 5 as recently as 2006. In the interest of winning elections at any cost, Republicans are trying to take back the vote from the most vulnerable in our society.
Since its passage in 1965, the Voting Rights Act’s explicit goal has been to empower minorities by ensuring that they have an equal opportunity to participate in the political process and elect candidates of their choice.
The real partisan implications were less clear when the act passed. In fact, Democrats seemed the likely losers. Southern whites fled the party of their forebears and into the arms of a Republican Party that promised to protect them from the advance of civil rights. President Lyndon B. Johnson famously said, as he signed the bill, that he was delivering the South to the Republican Party for a long time to come.
Section 5 was designed to address the insidious creativity of Jim Crow jurisdictions in devising ways to stay one step ahead of enforcers of the 15th Amendment, the post-Civil War amendment that prohibited racial discrimination in voting. Congress decided that it was necessary for covered jurisdictions — those with the worst histories of discrimination — to pre-clear their voting changes by proving to the attorney general or a three-judge Washington court that they did not have the purpose or effect of discriminating against minority voters.
Events during recent weeks have confirmed why Section 5 remains essential. A three-judge court denied preclearance to Texas’s redistricting of its congressional, state Senate and state House districts — explicitly finding that the Legislature drew congressional and Senate lines with the intent to dilute the strength of minority voters. A separate three-judge court two days later refused to pre-clear Texas’s draconian, and transparently discriminatory, requirement that voters produce a photo ID prescribed by the state. The court found that the photo ID requirement would fall most heavily on poor voters, who are disproportionately minorities.
A three-judge court had previously denied preclearance of Florida’s effort to restrict early voting, including the Sunday before the election. Early and Sunday voters in Florida have been disproportionately minorities. South Carolina’s photo ID requirement is pending before another three-judge court.
Because Section 5 is successfully frustrating Republican efforts in covered states to shape the electorate by slicing off pockets of noncompliant minority voters, it looks as if Republican-led jurisdictions have now set their sights on eliminating Section 5.
Covered jurisdictions have included constitutional challenges to the law in their pre-clearance actions and in separate lawsuits. Though the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals recently reaffirmed Section 5’s constitutionality, that case is likely to be heard by the Supreme Court. And other challenges are in the pipeline.
Ironically, the Republican drive to exclude minority voters could boomerang. The principal basis for the constitutional challenges to Section 5 is that it is no longer necessary. Covered jurisdictions argue that they have reformed and there is now no reason for requiring them to pre-clear election changes with the federal government. You can trust us to treat minority voters equally, they contend.
Yet, as courts have confirmed, these states’ recent efforts demonstrate persistent intent to roll back the clock by diminishing the impact of minority voters. These are the very type of practices that produced Section 5 in 1965. They remain reprehensible in 2012 and they undermine any suggestion that Section 5 has outlived its need.
Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.), who as a freedom rider was beaten by white mobs, reminded the delegates last week at the Democratic National Convention that the right of minority citizens to vote was secured through a moral crusade. It succeeded because of the heroism of people like Lewis, who also survived the bloody attack by Alabama state troopers at the Edmund Pettus Bridge.
Lewis expressed incredulity that GOP officials are trying to take away that hard-won vote, describing it as “the most powerful nonviolent tool we have to create a more perfect union.” He hearkened back to the time when people “had to pass a literacy test, pay a poll tax,” and recounted that would-be African-American voters were required “to count the number of bubbles in a bar of soap.”
This victory won by men and women of extraordinary moral vision and physical courage, such as Lewis, must not fall victim to the GOP’s narrow partisan interests.
William Yeomans served as Sen. Ted Kennedy’s chief counsel on the Senate Judiciary Committee and as a Justice Department official. He is a fellow in law and government at American University College of Law.
© 2012 POLITICO LLC
_________________________________________________________________
September 11, 2012
By:
William Yeomans served as Sen. Ted Kennedy’s chief counsel on the Senate Judiciary Committee and as a Justice Department official. He is a fellow in law and government at American University College of Law.
Click the green areas for further information
In 2006, Congress reauthorized Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act with nearly unanimous Republican support. In 2012, Republican officials declared war on minority voting and have challenged the constitutionality of Section 5 — which requires states and localities with egregious histories of voting discrimination to seek federal approval before making any election changes — in multiple court cases. What happened?
Consider: Republican support among African-Americans for presidential nominee Mitt Romney finally hit zero in a recent NBC/Wall Street Journal poll and the GOP’s strength among Latino voters is nearly as anemic. These numbers make minority voters, sadly, irresistible targets for Republican vote suppression efforts. Legal battles over when ballots can be cast and whose votes will be counted, The New York Times reported Monday, could substantially affect the outcome of 2012 elections.
In many states, only the Voting Rights Act is standing in the GOP’s way. Rather than showing respect for the voting rights of minorities and winning their votes with appealing policies, Republicans appear to have instead decided to try to expel them from the electorate and attack the biggest legal obstacle to their expulsion — the Voting Rights Act.
The rights of minority voters, however, are not fair game in partisan battles. Partisanship must not be allowed to trump equal opportunity in voting. Republicans have whipped up a phony frenzy over the extent of voter fraud to justify their assault on minority voters.
Rather than working overtime to stir up fears, they should join in efforts to broaden the franchise to include as many Americans as possible. The true scandal in our electoral process is our shockingly low turnout level. Nearly every other advanced democracy has higher voter participation. Yet we now have one political party working mightily to reduce that turnout through unwarranted restrictions that disproportionately burden minority voters.
The math is simple. The Voting Rights Act increases the number and effectiveness of minority voters. And minority voters now overwhelmingly support Democrats. President Barack Obama’s support among African-Americans has reached 94 percent. Latinos have voted increasingly Democratic since California Gov. Pete Wilson launched the GOP’s war against undocumented immigrants with Proposition 187 in 1994. The Republicans’ current hard-line immigration policies have only advanced this trend. Reduce the minority vote and Republicans improve their chances of winning.
This shameful calculation has been embraced by the party of Lincoln. Republicans in state legislatures have produced a flurry of photo ID laws, discriminatory redistrictings, restrictions on registration, cutbacks on early voting, reinstatement of strict felon disfranchisement rules and erroneous purges of voter lists.
Republicans have now turned their backs on the powerful moral imperative that animated the Voting Rights Act in 1965 and produced overwhelming bipartisan majorities for renewal of Section 5 as recently as 2006. In the interest of winning elections at any cost, Republicans are trying to take back the vote from the most vulnerable in our society.
Since its passage in 1965, the Voting Rights Act’s explicit goal has been to empower minorities by ensuring that they have an equal opportunity to participate in the political process and elect candidates of their choice.
The real partisan implications were less clear when the act passed. In fact, Democrats seemed the likely losers. Southern whites fled the party of their forebears and into the arms of a Republican Party that promised to protect them from the advance of civil rights. President Lyndon B. Johnson famously said, as he signed the bill, that he was delivering the South to the Republican Party for a long time to come.
Section 5 was designed to address the insidious creativity of Jim Crow jurisdictions in devising ways to stay one step ahead of enforcers of the 15th Amendment, the post-Civil War amendment that prohibited racial discrimination in voting. Congress decided that it was necessary for covered jurisdictions — those with the worst histories of discrimination — to pre-clear their voting changes by proving to the attorney general or a three-judge Washington court that they did not have the purpose or effect of discriminating against minority voters.
Events during recent weeks have confirmed why Section 5 remains essential. A three-judge court denied preclearance to Texas’s redistricting of its congressional, state Senate and state House districts — explicitly finding that the Legislature drew congressional and Senate lines with the intent to dilute the strength of minority voters. A separate three-judge court two days later refused to pre-clear Texas’s draconian, and transparently discriminatory, requirement that voters produce a photo ID prescribed by the state. The court found that the photo ID requirement would fall most heavily on poor voters, who are disproportionately minorities.
A three-judge court had previously denied preclearance of Florida’s effort to restrict early voting, including the Sunday before the election. Early and Sunday voters in Florida have been disproportionately minorities. South Carolina’s photo ID requirement is pending before another three-judge court.
Because Section 5 is successfully frustrating Republican efforts in covered states to shape the electorate by slicing off pockets of noncompliant minority voters, it looks as if Republican-led jurisdictions have now set their sights on eliminating Section 5.
Covered jurisdictions have included constitutional challenges to the law in their pre-clearance actions and in separate lawsuits. Though the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals recently reaffirmed Section 5’s constitutionality, that case is likely to be heard by the Supreme Court. And other challenges are in the pipeline.
Ironically, the Republican drive to exclude minority voters could boomerang. The principal basis for the constitutional challenges to Section 5 is that it is no longer necessary. Covered jurisdictions argue that they have reformed and there is now no reason for requiring them to pre-clear election changes with the federal government. You can trust us to treat minority voters equally, they contend.
Yet, as courts have confirmed, these states’ recent efforts demonstrate persistent intent to roll back the clock by diminishing the impact of minority voters. These are the very type of practices that produced Section 5 in 1965. They remain reprehensible in 2012 and they undermine any suggestion that Section 5 has outlived its need.
Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.), who as a freedom rider was beaten by white mobs, reminded the delegates last week at the Democratic National Convention that the right of minority citizens to vote was secured through a moral crusade. It succeeded because of the heroism of people like Lewis, who also survived the bloody attack by Alabama state troopers at the Edmund Pettus Bridge.
Lewis expressed incredulity that GOP officials are trying to take away that hard-won vote, describing it as “the most powerful nonviolent tool we have to create a more perfect union.” He hearkened back to the time when people “had to pass a literacy test, pay a poll tax,” and recounted that would-be African-American voters were required “to count the number of bubbles in a bar of soap.”
This victory won by men and women of extraordinary moral vision and physical courage, such as Lewis, must not fall victim to the GOP’s narrow partisan interests.
William Yeomans served as Sen. Ted Kennedy’s chief counsel on the Senate Judiciary Committee and as a Justice Department official. He is a fellow in law and government at American University College of Law.
© 2012 POLITICO LLC
_________________________________________________________________
How much does it cost Apple to build an iPhone 5?
A new report shows just how much money Apple can expect from every sale
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9/14/12 - iPhone 5 was introduced
If you were one of the lucky few to sign on to Apple's website overnight and grab a new iPhone 5 before they sold out,
you likely paid anywhere between $199 and $399 for the privilege. But did you ever stop to wonder how much money Apple was making from each sale? Research firm UBM TechInsights did the math, and the final price tag to build an iPhone 5 turns out to be $167.50 — making it Apple's most expensive phone ever.
Some of the most impressive components of the iPhone 5 actually don't wind up being very expensive on their own. UBM TechInsights estimates that the new, thinner 4-inch touch display costs Apple $18 with the touch screen glass costing another $7.50. The camera runs about $10, the wifi/bluetooth/GPS costs $4, and the battery only runs $3. The most expensive part of the phone is the new A6 processor, at $28 each.
That may not seem like a large margin for Apple — just $32. But remember, that $199 you paid is just your cost for the phone with a new two-year contract. Your cell carrier had to pay Apple much more (and here's why). After all, an unlocked out-of-contract phone sells for $649, allowing the world's richest company plenty more room to get even richer.
9/14/12 - This article was written by Fox Van Allen and originally appeared on Tecca
More from Tecca:
Click the green areas for further information
- Everything you need to know about the iPhone 5
- Hands on pictures of the new iPhone 5
- Hands-on with the new iPhone ____________________________
June 24, 2012
Source: The New York Times, front page A1
Apple’s Retail Army, Long on Loyalty but Short on Pay
By DAVID SEGAL
Last year, during his best three-month stretch, Jordan Golson sold about $750,000 worth of computers and gadgets at the Apple Store in Salem, N.H. It was a performance that might have called for a bottle of Champagne — if that were a luxury Mr. Golson could have afforded.
“I was earning $11.25 an hour,” he said. “Part of me was thinking, ‘This is great. I’m an Apple fan, the store is doing really well.’ But when you look at the amount of money the company is making and then you look at your paycheck, it’s kind of tough.”
America’s love affair with the smartphone has helped create tens of thousands of jobs at places like Best Buy and Verizon Wireless and will this year pump billions into the economy.
Within this world, the Apple Store is the undisputed king, a retail phenomenon renowned for impeccable design, deft service and spectacular revenues. Last year, the company’s 327 global stores took in more money per square foot than any other United States retailer — wireless or otherwise — and almost double that of Tiffany, which was No. 2 on the list, according to the research firm RetailSails.
Worldwide, its stores sold $16 billion in merchandise.
But most of Apple’s employees enjoyed little of that wealth. While consumers tend to think of Apple’s headquarters in Cupertino, Calif., as the company’s heart and soul, a majority of its workers in the United States are not engineers or executives with hefty salaries and bonuses but rather hourly wage earners selling iPhones and MacBooks.
About 30,000 of the 43,000 Apple employees in this country work in Apple Stores, as members of the service economy, and many of them earn about $25,000 a year. They work inside the world’s fastest growing industry, for the most valuable company, run by one of the country’s most richly compensated chief executives, Tim Cook. Last year, he received stock grants, which vest over a 10-year period, that at today’s share price would be worth more than $570 million.
And though Apple is unparalleled as a retailer, when it comes to its lowliest workers, the company is a reflection of the technology industry as a whole.
The Internet and advances in computing have created untold millionaires, but most of the jobs created by technology giants are service sector positions — sales employees and customer service representatives, repairmen and delivery drivers — that offer little of Silicon Valley’s riches or glamour.
Much of the debate about American unemployment has focused on why companies have moved factories overseas, but only 8 percent of the American work force is in manufacturing, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Job growth has for decades been led by service-related work, and any recovery with real legs, labor experts say, will be powered and sustained by this segment of the economy.
And as the service sector has grown, the definition of a career has been reframed for millions of American workers.
“In the service sector, companies provide a little bit of training and hope their employees leave after a few years,” says Arne L. Kalleberg, a professor of sociology at the University of North Carolina. “Especially now, given the number of college kids willing to work for low wages.”
By the standards of retailing, Apple offers above average pay — well above the minimum wage of $7.25 and better than the Gap, though slightly less than Lululemon, the yoga and athletic apparel chain, where sales staff earn about $12 an hour. The company also offers very good benefits for a retailer, including health care, 401(k) contributions and the chance to buy company stock, as well as Apple products, at a discount.
But Apple is not selling polo shirts or yoga pants. Divide revenue by total number of employees and you find that last year, each Apple store employee — that includes non-sales staff like technicians and people stocking shelves — brought in $473,000.
“These are sales rates for a consulting company,” said Horace Dediu, an analyst who blogged about the calculation on the site Asymco. Electronics and appliance stores typically post $206,000 in revenue per employee, according to the latest figures from the National Retail Federation.
Even Apple, it seems, has recently decided it needs to pay its workers more. Last week, four months after The New York Times first began inquiring about the wages of its store employees, the company started to inform some staff members that they would receive substantial raises. An Apple spokesman confirmed the raises but would not discuss their size, timing or impetus, nor who would earn them.
But Cory Moll, a salesman in the San Francisco flagship store and a vocal labor activist, said that on Tuesday he was given a raise of $2.82 an hour, to $17.31, an increase of 19.5 percent and a big jump compared with the 49-cent raise he was given last year.
“My manager called me into his office and said, ‘Apple wants to show that it cares about its workers, and show that it knows how much value you add to the company, by offering a bigger raise than in previous years,’ ” Mr. Moll recalled.
Though a significant increase, Mr. Moll’s new salary of about $36,000 puts him on the low side of the wage scale at the other large sellers of Apple products, AT&T and Verizon Wireless, both of which offer commissions to sales staff at their stores.
In other areas, Apple has been a leader. Stores in a variety of fields have adopted the company’s retail techniques, like the use of roving credit-card swipers to minimize checkout lines, as well as the petting-zoo layout that encourages customers to test-drive products.
But Apple’s success, it turns out, rests on a set of intangibles; foremost among them is a built-in fan base that ensures a steady supply of eager applicants and an employee culture that tries to turn every job into an exalted mission.
This is why Apple can do something unique in the annals of retailing: pay a modest hourly wage, and no commission, to employees who typically have college degrees and who at the highest performing levels can move as much as $3 million in goods a year.
“When you’re working for Apple you feel like you’re working for this greater good,” says a former salesman who asked for anonymity because he didn’t want to draw attention to himself. “That’s why they don’t have a revolution on their hands.”
These true believers skew young, as anyone who has ever set foot in an Apple Store knows. And the relative youth of this work force helps explain why people are likely to judge the company by a different set of standards when it comes to wages, says Paul Osterman, a professor at M.I.T.’s Sloan School of Management.
“It’s interesting to ask why we find it offensive that Wal-Mart pays a single mother $9 an hour, but we don’t find it offensive that Apple pays a young man $12 an hour,” Mr. Osterman said. “For each company, the logic is the same — there is a line of people eager to take the job. In effect, we’re saying that our value judgments depend on the circumstances of the employee, not just supply and demand of the labor market.”
Twenty-two-year-olds also tend to be more tolerant of the Apple Store’s noise and bustle, yet these days some former employees describe a work environment that was too hectic and stressful, thanks in large part to the runaway popularity of the iPhone and iPad.
Managers often tell new workers that they hope to get six years of service, former employees say. “That was what we heard all the time,” says Shane Garcia, a former Apple Store manager in Chicago. “Six years.” But the average tenure is two and a half years, says a person familiar with the company’s retention numbers, and as foot traffic has increased, turnover rates in many stores have increased, too. Internal surveys at stores have also found surprising dissatisfaction levels, particularly among technicians, or “geniuses” in Apple’s parlance, who work at what is called the Genius Bar. Apple declined requests for interviews for this article. Instead, the company issued a statement:
“Thousands of incredibly talented professionals work behind the Genius Bar and deliver the best customer service in the world. The annual retention rate for Geniuses is almost 90%, which is unheard-of in the retail industry, and shows how passionate they are about their customers and their careers at Apple.”
That 90 percent figure sounds accurate to Mr. Garcia, who quit last July after four years with the company, overwhelmed by the work and unable to mollify employees and customers alike. Plenty of technicians do, in fact, like their jobs, which vary around the country, and which pay in the range of $40,000 a year in the Chicago area. Many technicians, though, wanted to leave but were unable to find equivalent work, according to Mr. Garcia and other former managers, in part because of the weak economy.
The problem for Apple Store employees, they said, wasn’t just the pace. It was the lack of upward mobility. There are only a handful of different jobs at Apple Stores and the most prestigious are invariably sought after by dozens of candidates. And a leap to the company headquarters is highly unusual.
Apple prohibits its staff from talking to the media, but several former employees who spoke for this article said they had fond memories of their jobs, and regarded them as ideal for people in their early 20s who aren’t ready for a full-on dive into the white-collar world.
And “Apple” can be a strong credential to have on a résumé, these people said. Technicians often move on to higher-paying jobs in information technology, they said, and sales staff have a leg up on the competition if they stay in retailing because “people know how grueling the job is,” as one former manager put it.
But other former employees have struggled to find work, or have moved into lateral jobs at other companies. And even those who used Apple as a launching pad described a gradual evolution, from team player to skeptic, as they discovered that there was a gap between what the job appeared to be (kind of hip) and what it was (frenetic and in many cases a dead end).
Kelly Jackson, who was a technician at an Apple Store in Chicago, was thrilled when she was hired two years ago. But she said she was even happier when she quit a year later, having found the work too relentless and the satisfactions too elusive.
“When somebody left, you’d be really excited for them,” says Ms. Jackson, who now works at Groupon. “It was sort of like, ‘Congratulations. You’ve done what everyone here wants to do.’ ”
Recruiting the Devoted
Skeptics outnumbered believers when Steven P. Jobs, then Apple’s chief, pitched the Apple Store concept to his board in 2000. Ultimately, approval was given for just four stores.
Mr. Jobs hired a Target executive named Ron Johnson to help design and oversee the stores. He in turn hired eight people, one of whom was Denyelle Bruno, then an executive at Macy’s West. When she was first approached, she said, she was told next to nothing about the work.
That did not daunt Ms. Bruno, now an executive at Peet’s Coffee.
“I had grown up using Macs, and if it involved Apple and I could be involved,” she said, “it made me feel important.”
Ms. Bruno was one of the first hard-core Apple fans hired for the nascent chain. Many others would follow, and part of her job was to help recruit them. Initially, that involved walking into stores, including those operated by Sprint and AT&T, and scouting out promising employees.
Such solicitations were unnecessary after the first two stores opened, on May 19, 2001, in McLean, Va., and Glendale, Calif. Soon, so many people wanted to work at the stores that Mr. Johnson would compare applicants-to-openings ratios and boast that it was harder to land a job at an Apple Store than to get into Stanford, his alma mater.
Those applicants have for years submitted résumés through the company’s site. The time-intensive part, former managers say, is finding the right people amid the pile, and the candidates of choice are affable and self-directed rather than tech-savvy. (The latter can be taught, is the theory, while the former is innate.) The vetting has not changed much. It often starts with an invitation to a seminar, held in a conference room at a hotel.
The culling begins before the seminar starts.
“They turn away people who are three minutes late,” says Graham Marley, who attended his seminar in a hotel in Dedham, Mass., in 2009. “My dream my whole life was to work for Apple and suddenly, you can,” he said. “You’ve always been an evangelist for Apple and now you can get paid for it.”
One manager said it was common for people offered jobs to burst into tears. But if the newly hired arrive as devotees, Apple’s training course, which can range from a few days to a few weeks, depending on the job and locale, turns them into disciples.
Training commences with what is known as a “warm welcome.” As new employees enter the room, Apple managers and trainers give them a standing ovation. The clapping often bewilders the trainees, at least at first, but when the applause goes on for several lengthy minutes they eventually join in.
“My hands would sting from all the clapping,” says Michael Dow, who trained Apple employees for years in Providence, R.I.
There is more role-playing at Core training, as it’s known, this time with pointers on the elaborate etiquette of interacting with customers. One rule: ask for permission before touching anyone’s iPhone.
“And we told trainees that the first thing they needed to do was acknowledge the problem, though don’t promise you can fix the problem,” said Shane Garcia, the one-time Chicago manager. “If you can, let them know that you have felt some of the emotions they are feeling. But you have to be careful because you don’t want to lie about that.”
The phrase that trainees hear time and again, which echoes once they arrive at the stores, is “enriching people’s lives.” The idea is to instill in employees the notion that they are doing something far grander than just selling or fixing products. If there is a secret to Apple’s sauce, this is it: the company ennobles employees. It understands that a lot of people will forgo money if they have a sense of higher purpose.
That empowerment is important because aspiring sales employees would clearly be better off working at one of the country’s other big sellers of Apple products, AT&T and Verizon Wireless, if they were searching for a hefty paycheck. Both offer sales commissions.
“It’s not at all common but there are sales agents at Verizon who earn six figures,” says Jonathan Jarboe, who managed Verizon Wireless stores in Oklahoma until last summer. Several former Verizon Wireless managers said that annual pay ran from $35,000 up to $100,000 in rare cases, with the sweet spot in the $50,000 to $60,000 range.
At Apple, the decision not to offer commissions was made, Ms. Bruno said, before a store had opened. The idea was that such incentives would work against the company’s primary goals — finding customers the right products, rather than the most expensive ones, and establishing long-term rapport with the brand. Commissions, it was also thought, would foster employee competition, which would undermine camaraderie.
Tellingly, Apple doesn’t use the word “sales” to describe members of its sales team. They’re called “specialists.”
By minimizing the profit motive among employees, Apple does more than just filter out people interested primarily in money. It also reduces the number of middle-aged and older people on the payroll, said former managers. This isn’t about age discrimination, they said, so much as self-selection. Generally, an Apple employee is someone who can afford to live cheaply, is not bothered by the nonstop commotion of an Apple Store and is comfortable with technology.
People who fit that bill tend to be in their early or mid-20s, the former managers said. They typically don’t have children and many don’t have spouses, which means they are relatively inexpensive to cover with health insurance.
There is no shortage of college graduates eager to dedicate themselves to Apple’s vision, on Apple’s terms. That includes people like Asher Perlman, another former technician from a store in Chicago, who joined Apple three years ago, when he was 22.
“I’m happy with my time at Apple and where it landed me,” says Mr. Perlman, who now works in information technology. “I wouldn’t recommend it for my 35-year-old friend with a kid, but it works for someone who is 22 years old and doesn’t want to enter the business world yet.”
When Work Piles Up
The iPhone, which arrived in 2007, brought unprecedented crowds to Apple Stores. The company tried to hang on to its culture, but naturally it changed, and in many ways, say some former employees, for the worse.
Arthur Zarate, who joined Apple in 2004 and later worked as a technician at the store in Mission Viejo, Calif., says his training left him with a sense of ownership and pride. For a while, he loved the job, in large part because it delivered the simple and gratifying sense that he was helping people. There were time constraints on technicians — 20 minutes per customer — but because the store was rarely swamped, he usually had more time than that.
“My customers knew me by name,” he said. “That was a big deal.”
He had already begun to sour on the job when in 2007, he said, his store began an attendance system whereby employees accumulated a point for every day they did not come to work; anyone with four points in a 90-day period was at risk of termination.
“It was a perfectly good idea, but the thing that was terrible is that it didn’t matter why you couldn’t come to work,” Mr. Zarate said. “Even if you had a doctor document some medical condition, if you didn’t come to work, you got a point.”
Mr. Zarate, a former heavy smoker, said he was once out for two and a half weeks with severe bronchitis and was on the verge of dismissal when he e-mailed Ron Johnson, then the retail chief, who intervened on his behalf.
“I just wrote and said, ‘This isn’t fair. They don’t look at why you were out,’ ” he recalls. “And he saved my job.”
To meet the growing demand for the technicians, several former employees said their stores imposed new rules limiting on-the-spot repairs to 15 minutes for a computer-related problem, and 10 minutes for Apple’s assortment of devices. If a solution took longer to find, which it frequently did, a pileup ensued and a scrum of customers would hover. It wasn’t unusual for a genius to help three customers at once.
Because of the constant backlog, technicians often worked nonstop through their shift, instead of taking two allotted 15-minute breaks. In 2009, Matthew Bainer, a lawyer, filed a class action alleging that Apple was breaking California labor laws.
“State law mandates two 10-minute breaks a day,” Mr. Bainer said. “But geniuses had these lengthy queues of customers that made it all but impossible for them to stop even for a few minutes.”
The lawsuit was denied class certification in June of last year. Mr. Bainer pursued the matter in separate lawsuits and achieved what he described as “very favorable settlements” for 10 plaintiffs.
Not long after the class-action lawsuit was filed, a technician named Kevin Timmer who worked at the Woodland Mall store in Grand Rapids, Mich., noticed an added step when he logged onto a computer to punch out of work.
“This window popped up and it said something like, ‘By clicking this box I acknowledge that I received all my breaks,’ ” Mr. Timmer recalled. “The rumor was that was because some guy in California had sued.”
Mr. Timmer said he and other technicians in the store clicked the box even when they didn’t take any breaks. It wasn’t because management insisted they stick around. It was that any down time would slam already overburdened colleagues with even more work.
“We were all in the trenches together,” he said. “Nobody wanted to leave.”
With time limits, several former employees said, came another change at their stores. Technicians had always been able to spend a few hours of their shift in the repair room, providing a little away-from-customers time. In many stores, that ended. Walk-in demand for tech help was so great that when the bar was open, management at these stores decreed, it was to be staffed by any technician in the building. Repairs that could not be done at the bar would wait. As a result, the late shift in the repair room at these stores ended not at 10 p.m., but at midnight.
The pressure didn’t faze everyone. Multitasking, for instance, did not bother Asher Perlman.
“I’m a low stress kind of person to begin with and I didn’t find it unmanageable,” he said. “I know others did.”
As the crowds grew, the company’s “thank you” gestures started to seem a little tin-eared. Jordan Golson, who now blogs atMacRumors, a site that keeps tabs on all things Apple, said that for Christmas 2010, he and others at the store were given a fleece blanket and an insulated coffee thermos.
Mr. Zarate fared no better at one quarterly meeting for employees. Mr. Johnson made a videotaped appearance and referred to a wonderful surprise that managers were about to spring on everyone in the room. Free iPads for everyone was the expectation.“Then the lights went down, and we had a party in the store, with games and dancing,” Mr. Zarate said. “And we all got two tacos from a taco truck. That was our surprise. Two tacos.”
Rising to the Top
Like many who spoke for this article, Shane Garcia, the former Chicago manager, talked about Apple with a bittersweet mix of admiration and sadness. When he joined the company in 2007, he considered it a place, as he said, that “wanted you to be the best you could be in life, not just in sales.”
Three years later, his work life seemed tense and thankless. He had little expectation that upper management would praise or even notice his efforts.
Sales employees, Mr. Garcia and others noted, deal with stresses all their own. Though commissions are not offered, many managers keep close tabs on sales of warranties, known as Apple Care, and One to One, which is personal tutoring for a fee. Employees often had goals for “attachments” as these add-ons are called — 40 percent of certain products should include One to One, and 65 percent should include Apple Care.
For a sales employee who wanted to climb Apple’s in-store ladder — to technician or manager, for instance — those numbers were important. And in terms of keeping employees invested and striving, so were the rungs on that ladder, something that is true across retailing.
“There was always something being dangled in terms of different positions,” says Danielle Draper, a former manager at a store in Hingham, Mass. “‘You’ll need to do this if you want to become a creative,’ that kind of thing. There was never perfection. You could always tell someone they needed to work on something.”
At some point, employees either realize they won’t rise, or rise as high as they can.
“The disillusionment settles in not because of pay,” says Graham Marley, the former part-time salesman, “though pay is part of it. What happens is you realize that they want you to spend years there, but there is no actual career path.”
An exception is the job of manager, and Apple is often diligent about elevating from within its ranks of high achievers. Though not always. After the great influx that started with the iPhone, the company started plucking managers from stores like the Gap and Banana Republic. From employees who were around in the pre-2007 era, you can hear occasional laments about the gradual “Gapification of Apple.”
In recent years, the level of unhappiness at some stores was captured by an employee satisfaction survey known in the company as NetPromoter for Our People. It’s a variation of a questionnaire that Apple has long given to customers, and the key question asks employees to rate, on a scale of one to 10, “How likely are you to recommend working at your Apple Retail Store to an interested friend or family member?” Anyone who offers a nine or 10 is considered a “promoter.” Anyone who offers a seven or below is considered a “detractor.”
Kevin Timmer said the internal survey results last year at the Grand Rapids store were loaded with fives and sixes.
“We discussed it in a monthly meeting and our manager had tears in her eyes,” Mr. Timmer recalled. “She said something about how humbling these results were, that they want to fix any problems, that her door is always open, and so on.”
Similar figures were found in Chicago.
“By then,” Mr. Garcia said, “it wasn’t a surprise to upper management because it was clear that many geniuses wanted to leave. There was a ceiling. It wasn’t a glass ceiling because everyone could see it.”
Mr. Garcia would eventually quit Apple, and walk away from a job that paid a little more than $40,000 a year, when stress-related health issues sidelined him long enough to put his job at risk. He had no doubts that the company would easily find a replacement.
“There was never a shortage of résumés,” he said. “People will always want to work for Apple.”
_______________________
Source: The New York Times, front page A1
Apple’s Retail Army, Long on Loyalty but Short on Pay
By DAVID SEGAL
Last year, during his best three-month stretch, Jordan Golson sold about $750,000 worth of computers and gadgets at the Apple Store in Salem, N.H. It was a performance that might have called for a bottle of Champagne — if that were a luxury Mr. Golson could have afforded.
“I was earning $11.25 an hour,” he said. “Part of me was thinking, ‘This is great. I’m an Apple fan, the store is doing really well.’ But when you look at the amount of money the company is making and then you look at your paycheck, it’s kind of tough.”
America’s love affair with the smartphone has helped create tens of thousands of jobs at places like Best Buy and Verizon Wireless and will this year pump billions into the economy.
Within this world, the Apple Store is the undisputed king, a retail phenomenon renowned for impeccable design, deft service and spectacular revenues. Last year, the company’s 327 global stores took in more money per square foot than any other United States retailer — wireless or otherwise — and almost double that of Tiffany, which was No. 2 on the list, according to the research firm RetailSails.
Worldwide, its stores sold $16 billion in merchandise.
But most of Apple’s employees enjoyed little of that wealth. While consumers tend to think of Apple’s headquarters in Cupertino, Calif., as the company’s heart and soul, a majority of its workers in the United States are not engineers or executives with hefty salaries and bonuses but rather hourly wage earners selling iPhones and MacBooks.
About 30,000 of the 43,000 Apple employees in this country work in Apple Stores, as members of the service economy, and many of them earn about $25,000 a year. They work inside the world’s fastest growing industry, for the most valuable company, run by one of the country’s most richly compensated chief executives, Tim Cook. Last year, he received stock grants, which vest over a 10-year period, that at today’s share price would be worth more than $570 million.
And though Apple is unparalleled as a retailer, when it comes to its lowliest workers, the company is a reflection of the technology industry as a whole.
The Internet and advances in computing have created untold millionaires, but most of the jobs created by technology giants are service sector positions — sales employees and customer service representatives, repairmen and delivery drivers — that offer little of Silicon Valley’s riches or glamour.
Much of the debate about American unemployment has focused on why companies have moved factories overseas, but only 8 percent of the American work force is in manufacturing, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Job growth has for decades been led by service-related work, and any recovery with real legs, labor experts say, will be powered and sustained by this segment of the economy.
And as the service sector has grown, the definition of a career has been reframed for millions of American workers.
“In the service sector, companies provide a little bit of training and hope their employees leave after a few years,” says Arne L. Kalleberg, a professor of sociology at the University of North Carolina. “Especially now, given the number of college kids willing to work for low wages.”
By the standards of retailing, Apple offers above average pay — well above the minimum wage of $7.25 and better than the Gap, though slightly less than Lululemon, the yoga and athletic apparel chain, where sales staff earn about $12 an hour. The company also offers very good benefits for a retailer, including health care, 401(k) contributions and the chance to buy company stock, as well as Apple products, at a discount.
But Apple is not selling polo shirts or yoga pants. Divide revenue by total number of employees and you find that last year, each Apple store employee — that includes non-sales staff like technicians and people stocking shelves — brought in $473,000.
“These are sales rates for a consulting company,” said Horace Dediu, an analyst who blogged about the calculation on the site Asymco. Electronics and appliance stores typically post $206,000 in revenue per employee, according to the latest figures from the National Retail Federation.
Even Apple, it seems, has recently decided it needs to pay its workers more. Last week, four months after The New York Times first began inquiring about the wages of its store employees, the company started to inform some staff members that they would receive substantial raises. An Apple spokesman confirmed the raises but would not discuss their size, timing or impetus, nor who would earn them.
But Cory Moll, a salesman in the San Francisco flagship store and a vocal labor activist, said that on Tuesday he was given a raise of $2.82 an hour, to $17.31, an increase of 19.5 percent and a big jump compared with the 49-cent raise he was given last year.
“My manager called me into his office and said, ‘Apple wants to show that it cares about its workers, and show that it knows how much value you add to the company, by offering a bigger raise than in previous years,’ ” Mr. Moll recalled.
Though a significant increase, Mr. Moll’s new salary of about $36,000 puts him on the low side of the wage scale at the other large sellers of Apple products, AT&T and Verizon Wireless, both of which offer commissions to sales staff at their stores.
In other areas, Apple has been a leader. Stores in a variety of fields have adopted the company’s retail techniques, like the use of roving credit-card swipers to minimize checkout lines, as well as the petting-zoo layout that encourages customers to test-drive products.
But Apple’s success, it turns out, rests on a set of intangibles; foremost among them is a built-in fan base that ensures a steady supply of eager applicants and an employee culture that tries to turn every job into an exalted mission.
This is why Apple can do something unique in the annals of retailing: pay a modest hourly wage, and no commission, to employees who typically have college degrees and who at the highest performing levels can move as much as $3 million in goods a year.
“When you’re working for Apple you feel like you’re working for this greater good,” says a former salesman who asked for anonymity because he didn’t want to draw attention to himself. “That’s why they don’t have a revolution on their hands.”
These true believers skew young, as anyone who has ever set foot in an Apple Store knows. And the relative youth of this work force helps explain why people are likely to judge the company by a different set of standards when it comes to wages, says Paul Osterman, a professor at M.I.T.’s Sloan School of Management.
“It’s interesting to ask why we find it offensive that Wal-Mart pays a single mother $9 an hour, but we don’t find it offensive that Apple pays a young man $12 an hour,” Mr. Osterman said. “For each company, the logic is the same — there is a line of people eager to take the job. In effect, we’re saying that our value judgments depend on the circumstances of the employee, not just supply and demand of the labor market.”
Twenty-two-year-olds also tend to be more tolerant of the Apple Store’s noise and bustle, yet these days some former employees describe a work environment that was too hectic and stressful, thanks in large part to the runaway popularity of the iPhone and iPad.
Managers often tell new workers that they hope to get six years of service, former employees say. “That was what we heard all the time,” says Shane Garcia, a former Apple Store manager in Chicago. “Six years.” But the average tenure is two and a half years, says a person familiar with the company’s retention numbers, and as foot traffic has increased, turnover rates in many stores have increased, too. Internal surveys at stores have also found surprising dissatisfaction levels, particularly among technicians, or “geniuses” in Apple’s parlance, who work at what is called the Genius Bar. Apple declined requests for interviews for this article. Instead, the company issued a statement:
“Thousands of incredibly talented professionals work behind the Genius Bar and deliver the best customer service in the world. The annual retention rate for Geniuses is almost 90%, which is unheard-of in the retail industry, and shows how passionate they are about their customers and their careers at Apple.”
That 90 percent figure sounds accurate to Mr. Garcia, who quit last July after four years with the company, overwhelmed by the work and unable to mollify employees and customers alike. Plenty of technicians do, in fact, like their jobs, which vary around the country, and which pay in the range of $40,000 a year in the Chicago area. Many technicians, though, wanted to leave but were unable to find equivalent work, according to Mr. Garcia and other former managers, in part because of the weak economy.
The problem for Apple Store employees, they said, wasn’t just the pace. It was the lack of upward mobility. There are only a handful of different jobs at Apple Stores and the most prestigious are invariably sought after by dozens of candidates. And a leap to the company headquarters is highly unusual.
Apple prohibits its staff from talking to the media, but several former employees who spoke for this article said they had fond memories of their jobs, and regarded them as ideal for people in their early 20s who aren’t ready for a full-on dive into the white-collar world.
And “Apple” can be a strong credential to have on a résumé, these people said. Technicians often move on to higher-paying jobs in information technology, they said, and sales staff have a leg up on the competition if they stay in retailing because “people know how grueling the job is,” as one former manager put it.
But other former employees have struggled to find work, or have moved into lateral jobs at other companies. And even those who used Apple as a launching pad described a gradual evolution, from team player to skeptic, as they discovered that there was a gap between what the job appeared to be (kind of hip) and what it was (frenetic and in many cases a dead end).
Kelly Jackson, who was a technician at an Apple Store in Chicago, was thrilled when she was hired two years ago. But she said she was even happier when she quit a year later, having found the work too relentless and the satisfactions too elusive.
“When somebody left, you’d be really excited for them,” says Ms. Jackson, who now works at Groupon. “It was sort of like, ‘Congratulations. You’ve done what everyone here wants to do.’ ”
Recruiting the Devoted
Skeptics outnumbered believers when Steven P. Jobs, then Apple’s chief, pitched the Apple Store concept to his board in 2000. Ultimately, approval was given for just four stores.
Mr. Jobs hired a Target executive named Ron Johnson to help design and oversee the stores. He in turn hired eight people, one of whom was Denyelle Bruno, then an executive at Macy’s West. When she was first approached, she said, she was told next to nothing about the work.
That did not daunt Ms. Bruno, now an executive at Peet’s Coffee.
“I had grown up using Macs, and if it involved Apple and I could be involved,” she said, “it made me feel important.”
Ms. Bruno was one of the first hard-core Apple fans hired for the nascent chain. Many others would follow, and part of her job was to help recruit them. Initially, that involved walking into stores, including those operated by Sprint and AT&T, and scouting out promising employees.
Such solicitations were unnecessary after the first two stores opened, on May 19, 2001, in McLean, Va., and Glendale, Calif. Soon, so many people wanted to work at the stores that Mr. Johnson would compare applicants-to-openings ratios and boast that it was harder to land a job at an Apple Store than to get into Stanford, his alma mater.
Those applicants have for years submitted résumés through the company’s site. The time-intensive part, former managers say, is finding the right people amid the pile, and the candidates of choice are affable and self-directed rather than tech-savvy. (The latter can be taught, is the theory, while the former is innate.) The vetting has not changed much. It often starts with an invitation to a seminar, held in a conference room at a hotel.
The culling begins before the seminar starts.
“They turn away people who are three minutes late,” says Graham Marley, who attended his seminar in a hotel in Dedham, Mass., in 2009. “My dream my whole life was to work for Apple and suddenly, you can,” he said. “You’ve always been an evangelist for Apple and now you can get paid for it.”
One manager said it was common for people offered jobs to burst into tears. But if the newly hired arrive as devotees, Apple’s training course, which can range from a few days to a few weeks, depending on the job and locale, turns them into disciples.
Training commences with what is known as a “warm welcome.” As new employees enter the room, Apple managers and trainers give them a standing ovation. The clapping often bewilders the trainees, at least at first, but when the applause goes on for several lengthy minutes they eventually join in.
“My hands would sting from all the clapping,” says Michael Dow, who trained Apple employees for years in Providence, R.I.
There is more role-playing at Core training, as it’s known, this time with pointers on the elaborate etiquette of interacting with customers. One rule: ask for permission before touching anyone’s iPhone.
“And we told trainees that the first thing they needed to do was acknowledge the problem, though don’t promise you can fix the problem,” said Shane Garcia, the one-time Chicago manager. “If you can, let them know that you have felt some of the emotions they are feeling. But you have to be careful because you don’t want to lie about that.”
The phrase that trainees hear time and again, which echoes once they arrive at the stores, is “enriching people’s lives.” The idea is to instill in employees the notion that they are doing something far grander than just selling or fixing products. If there is a secret to Apple’s sauce, this is it: the company ennobles employees. It understands that a lot of people will forgo money if they have a sense of higher purpose.
That empowerment is important because aspiring sales employees would clearly be better off working at one of the country’s other big sellers of Apple products, AT&T and Verizon Wireless, if they were searching for a hefty paycheck. Both offer sales commissions.
“It’s not at all common but there are sales agents at Verizon who earn six figures,” says Jonathan Jarboe, who managed Verizon Wireless stores in Oklahoma until last summer. Several former Verizon Wireless managers said that annual pay ran from $35,000 up to $100,000 in rare cases, with the sweet spot in the $50,000 to $60,000 range.
At Apple, the decision not to offer commissions was made, Ms. Bruno said, before a store had opened. The idea was that such incentives would work against the company’s primary goals — finding customers the right products, rather than the most expensive ones, and establishing long-term rapport with the brand. Commissions, it was also thought, would foster employee competition, which would undermine camaraderie.
Tellingly, Apple doesn’t use the word “sales” to describe members of its sales team. They’re called “specialists.”
By minimizing the profit motive among employees, Apple does more than just filter out people interested primarily in money. It also reduces the number of middle-aged and older people on the payroll, said former managers. This isn’t about age discrimination, they said, so much as self-selection. Generally, an Apple employee is someone who can afford to live cheaply, is not bothered by the nonstop commotion of an Apple Store and is comfortable with technology.
People who fit that bill tend to be in their early or mid-20s, the former managers said. They typically don’t have children and many don’t have spouses, which means they are relatively inexpensive to cover with health insurance.
There is no shortage of college graduates eager to dedicate themselves to Apple’s vision, on Apple’s terms. That includes people like Asher Perlman, another former technician from a store in Chicago, who joined Apple three years ago, when he was 22.
“I’m happy with my time at Apple and where it landed me,” says Mr. Perlman, who now works in information technology. “I wouldn’t recommend it for my 35-year-old friend with a kid, but it works for someone who is 22 years old and doesn’t want to enter the business world yet.”
When Work Piles Up
The iPhone, which arrived in 2007, brought unprecedented crowds to Apple Stores. The company tried to hang on to its culture, but naturally it changed, and in many ways, say some former employees, for the worse.
Arthur Zarate, who joined Apple in 2004 and later worked as a technician at the store in Mission Viejo, Calif., says his training left him with a sense of ownership and pride. For a while, he loved the job, in large part because it delivered the simple and gratifying sense that he was helping people. There were time constraints on technicians — 20 minutes per customer — but because the store was rarely swamped, he usually had more time than that.
“My customers knew me by name,” he said. “That was a big deal.”
He had already begun to sour on the job when in 2007, he said, his store began an attendance system whereby employees accumulated a point for every day they did not come to work; anyone with four points in a 90-day period was at risk of termination.
“It was a perfectly good idea, but the thing that was terrible is that it didn’t matter why you couldn’t come to work,” Mr. Zarate said. “Even if you had a doctor document some medical condition, if you didn’t come to work, you got a point.”
Mr. Zarate, a former heavy smoker, said he was once out for two and a half weeks with severe bronchitis and was on the verge of dismissal when he e-mailed Ron Johnson, then the retail chief, who intervened on his behalf.
“I just wrote and said, ‘This isn’t fair. They don’t look at why you were out,’ ” he recalls. “And he saved my job.”
To meet the growing demand for the technicians, several former employees said their stores imposed new rules limiting on-the-spot repairs to 15 minutes for a computer-related problem, and 10 minutes for Apple’s assortment of devices. If a solution took longer to find, which it frequently did, a pileup ensued and a scrum of customers would hover. It wasn’t unusual for a genius to help three customers at once.
Because of the constant backlog, technicians often worked nonstop through their shift, instead of taking two allotted 15-minute breaks. In 2009, Matthew Bainer, a lawyer, filed a class action alleging that Apple was breaking California labor laws.
“State law mandates two 10-minute breaks a day,” Mr. Bainer said. “But geniuses had these lengthy queues of customers that made it all but impossible for them to stop even for a few minutes.”
The lawsuit was denied class certification in June of last year. Mr. Bainer pursued the matter in separate lawsuits and achieved what he described as “very favorable settlements” for 10 plaintiffs.
Not long after the class-action lawsuit was filed, a technician named Kevin Timmer who worked at the Woodland Mall store in Grand Rapids, Mich., noticed an added step when he logged onto a computer to punch out of work.
“This window popped up and it said something like, ‘By clicking this box I acknowledge that I received all my breaks,’ ” Mr. Timmer recalled. “The rumor was that was because some guy in California had sued.”
Mr. Timmer said he and other technicians in the store clicked the box even when they didn’t take any breaks. It wasn’t because management insisted they stick around. It was that any down time would slam already overburdened colleagues with even more work.
“We were all in the trenches together,” he said. “Nobody wanted to leave.”
With time limits, several former employees said, came another change at their stores. Technicians had always been able to spend a few hours of their shift in the repair room, providing a little away-from-customers time. In many stores, that ended. Walk-in demand for tech help was so great that when the bar was open, management at these stores decreed, it was to be staffed by any technician in the building. Repairs that could not be done at the bar would wait. As a result, the late shift in the repair room at these stores ended not at 10 p.m., but at midnight.
The pressure didn’t faze everyone. Multitasking, for instance, did not bother Asher Perlman.
“I’m a low stress kind of person to begin with and I didn’t find it unmanageable,” he said. “I know others did.”
As the crowds grew, the company’s “thank you” gestures started to seem a little tin-eared. Jordan Golson, who now blogs atMacRumors, a site that keeps tabs on all things Apple, said that for Christmas 2010, he and others at the store were given a fleece blanket and an insulated coffee thermos.
Mr. Zarate fared no better at one quarterly meeting for employees. Mr. Johnson made a videotaped appearance and referred to a wonderful surprise that managers were about to spring on everyone in the room. Free iPads for everyone was the expectation.“Then the lights went down, and we had a party in the store, with games and dancing,” Mr. Zarate said. “And we all got two tacos from a taco truck. That was our surprise. Two tacos.”
Rising to the Top
Like many who spoke for this article, Shane Garcia, the former Chicago manager, talked about Apple with a bittersweet mix of admiration and sadness. When he joined the company in 2007, he considered it a place, as he said, that “wanted you to be the best you could be in life, not just in sales.”
Three years later, his work life seemed tense and thankless. He had little expectation that upper management would praise or even notice his efforts.
Sales employees, Mr. Garcia and others noted, deal with stresses all their own. Though commissions are not offered, many managers keep close tabs on sales of warranties, known as Apple Care, and One to One, which is personal tutoring for a fee. Employees often had goals for “attachments” as these add-ons are called — 40 percent of certain products should include One to One, and 65 percent should include Apple Care.
For a sales employee who wanted to climb Apple’s in-store ladder — to technician or manager, for instance — those numbers were important. And in terms of keeping employees invested and striving, so were the rungs on that ladder, something that is true across retailing.
“There was always something being dangled in terms of different positions,” says Danielle Draper, a former manager at a store in Hingham, Mass. “‘You’ll need to do this if you want to become a creative,’ that kind of thing. There was never perfection. You could always tell someone they needed to work on something.”
At some point, employees either realize they won’t rise, or rise as high as they can.
“The disillusionment settles in not because of pay,” says Graham Marley, the former part-time salesman, “though pay is part of it. What happens is you realize that they want you to spend years there, but there is no actual career path.”
An exception is the job of manager, and Apple is often diligent about elevating from within its ranks of high achievers. Though not always. After the great influx that started with the iPhone, the company started plucking managers from stores like the Gap and Banana Republic. From employees who were around in the pre-2007 era, you can hear occasional laments about the gradual “Gapification of Apple.”
In recent years, the level of unhappiness at some stores was captured by an employee satisfaction survey known in the company as NetPromoter for Our People. It’s a variation of a questionnaire that Apple has long given to customers, and the key question asks employees to rate, on a scale of one to 10, “How likely are you to recommend working at your Apple Retail Store to an interested friend or family member?” Anyone who offers a nine or 10 is considered a “promoter.” Anyone who offers a seven or below is considered a “detractor.”
Kevin Timmer said the internal survey results last year at the Grand Rapids store were loaded with fives and sixes.
“We discussed it in a monthly meeting and our manager had tears in her eyes,” Mr. Timmer recalled. “She said something about how humbling these results were, that they want to fix any problems, that her door is always open, and so on.”
Similar figures were found in Chicago.
“By then,” Mr. Garcia said, “it wasn’t a surprise to upper management because it was clear that many geniuses wanted to leave. There was a ceiling. It wasn’t a glass ceiling because everyone could see it.”
Mr. Garcia would eventually quit Apple, and walk away from a job that paid a little more than $40,000 a year, when stress-related health issues sidelined him long enough to put his job at risk. He had no doubts that the company would easily find a replacement.
“There was never a shortage of résumés,” he said. “People will always want to work for Apple.”
_______________________
__________________________________
Couple's drastic move to save money A family of four shows off their 168-square-foot house, which they built themselves. Inside their unusual lives
Related links (click)
Couple's drastic move to save money A family of four shows off their 168-square-foot house, which they built themselves. Inside their unusual lives
Related links (click)
_____________________________
How Long Do You Want to Live?
SINCE 1900, the life expectancy of Americans has jumped to just shy of 80 from 47 years. This surge comes mostly from improved hygiene and nutrition, but also from new discoveries and interventions: everything from antibiotics and heart bypass surgery to cancer drugs that target and neutralize the impact of specific genetic mutations.
Now scientists studying the intricacies of DNA and other molecular bio-dynamics may be poised to offer even more dramatic boosts to longevity. This comes not from setting out explicitly to conquer aging, which remains controversial in mainstream science, but from researchers developing new drugs and therapies for such maladies of growing old as heart disease and diabetes.
“Aging is the major risk factor for most diseases,” says Felipe Sierra, director of the Division of Aging Biology at the National Institute on Aging. “The National Institutes of Health fund research into understanding the diseases of aging, not life extension, though this could be a side effect.”
How many years might be added to a life? A few longevity enthusiasts suggest a possible increase of decades. Most others believe in more modest gains. And when will they come? Are we a decade away? Twenty years? Fifty years?
Even without a new high-tech “fix” for aging, the United Nations estimates that life expectancy over the next century will approach 100 years for women in the developed world and over 90 years for women in the developing world. (Men lag behind by three or four years.)
Whatever actually happens, this seems like a good time to ask a very basic question: How long do you want to live?
Over the past three years I have posed this query to nearly 30,000 people at the start of talks and lectures on future trends in bioscience, taking an informal poll as a show of hands. To make it easier to tabulate responses I provided four possible answers: 80 years, currently the average life span in the West; 120 years, close to the maximum anyone has lived; 150 years, which would require a biotech breakthrough; and forever, which rejects the idea that life span has to have any limit at all.
I made it clear that participants should not assume that science will come up with dramatic new anti-aging technologies, though people were free to imagine that breakthroughs might occur — or not.
The results: some 60 percent opted for a life span of 80 years. Another 30 percent chose 120 years, and almost 10 percent chose 150 years. Less than 1 percent embraced the idea that people might avoid death altogether.
These percentages have held up as I’ve spoken to people from many walks of life in libraries and bookstores; teenagers in high schools; physicians in medical centers; and investors and entrepreneurs at business conferences. I’ve popped the question at meetings of futurists and techno-optimists and gotten perhaps a doubling of people who want to live to 150 — less than I would have thought for these groups.
Rarely, however, does anyone want to live forever, although abolishing disease and death from biological causes is a fervent hope for a small scattering of would-be immortals.
In my talks, I go on to describe some highlights of cutting-edge biomedical research that might influence human life span.
For instance, right now drug companies are running clinical trials on new compounds that may have the “side effect” of extending life span. These include a drug at Sirtris, part of GlaxoSmithKline, that is being developed to treat inflammation and other diseases of aging. Called SRT-2104, this compound works on an enzyme called SIRT1 that, when activated, seems to slow aging in mice and other animals. It may do the same thing in humans, though this remains to be proven.
“Many serious attempts are being made to come up with a pill for aging,” said Dr. Sierra, though he suspects that there will not be a single anti-aging pill, if these compounds end up working at all. “It will be a combination of things.”
For over a decade, scientists also have experimented with using stem cells — master cells that can grow into different specialized cells — to replace and repair tissue in the heart, liver and other organs in animals. Some researchers have succeeded in also using them in people. The researchers include the urologist Anthony Atala of Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center, who has grown human bladders and urethras from stem cells that have been successfully transplanted into patients.
But another stem cell pioneer, James Thomson of the University of Wisconsin, believes that stem cell solutions will be a long time coming for more complex organs. “We’re a long way from transplanting cells into a human brain or nervous system,” he said.
ANOTHER intervention that might thwart the impact of aging is bionics: the augmentation or replacement of biological functions with machines. For years cardiac pacemakers have saved and extended the lives of millions of people. More recent devices and machine-tooled solutions have restored hearing to thousands who are deaf and replaced damaged knees and hips. Physicians use brain implants to help control tremors brought on by Parkinson’s disease. Researchers also are working on a wide range of other machine fixes, from exoskeletons that protect joints to experimental devices that tap into the brain activity of paralyzed patients, allowing them to operate computers using thought.
Curiously, after learning about these possibilities, few people wanted to change their votes. Even if I asked them to imagine that a pill had been invented to slow aging down by one-half, allowing a person who is, say, 60 years old to have the body of a 30-year-old, only about 10 percent of audiences switched to favoring a life span of 150 years.
Overwhelmingly the reason given was that people didn’t want to be old and infirm any longer than they had to be, even if a pill allowed them to delay this inevitability.
Others were concerned about a range of issues both personal and societal that might result from extending the life spans of millions of people in a short time. These included everything from boredom and the cost of paying for a longer life to the impact of so many extra people on planetary resources and on the environment. Some worried that millions of healthy centenarians still working and calling the shots in society would leave our grandchildren and great-grandchildren without the jobs and opportunities that have traditionally come about with the passing of generations.
Long-lifers countered that extending healthy lives would delay suffering, possibly for a very long time. This would allow people to accomplish more in life and to try new things. It would also mean that geniuses like Steve Jobs or Albert Einstein might still be alive. Einstein, were he alive today, would be 133 years old.
That’s assuming that he would want to live that long. As he lay dying of an abdominal aortic aneurysm in 1955, he refused surgery, saying: “It is tasteless to prolong life artificially. I have done my share, it is time to go. I will do it elegantly.”
David Ewing Duncan is a contributor to Science Times. This essay is adapted from his most recent e-book, “When I’m 164: The New Science of Radical Life Extension and What Happens If It Succeeds.”
Source:
NYT, 8/26/12
By DAVID EWING DUNCAN
This is for your personal use, only
_______________________________________
How Long Do You Want to Live?
SINCE 1900, the life expectancy of Americans has jumped to just shy of 80 from 47 years. This surge comes mostly from improved hygiene and nutrition, but also from new discoveries and interventions: everything from antibiotics and heart bypass surgery to cancer drugs that target and neutralize the impact of specific genetic mutations.
Now scientists studying the intricacies of DNA and other molecular bio-dynamics may be poised to offer even more dramatic boosts to longevity. This comes not from setting out explicitly to conquer aging, which remains controversial in mainstream science, but from researchers developing new drugs and therapies for such maladies of growing old as heart disease and diabetes.
“Aging is the major risk factor for most diseases,” says Felipe Sierra, director of the Division of Aging Biology at the National Institute on Aging. “The National Institutes of Health fund research into understanding the diseases of aging, not life extension, though this could be a side effect.”
How many years might be added to a life? A few longevity enthusiasts suggest a possible increase of decades. Most others believe in more modest gains. And when will they come? Are we a decade away? Twenty years? Fifty years?
Even without a new high-tech “fix” for aging, the United Nations estimates that life expectancy over the next century will approach 100 years for women in the developed world and over 90 years for women in the developing world. (Men lag behind by three or four years.)
Whatever actually happens, this seems like a good time to ask a very basic question: How long do you want to live?
Over the past three years I have posed this query to nearly 30,000 people at the start of talks and lectures on future trends in bioscience, taking an informal poll as a show of hands. To make it easier to tabulate responses I provided four possible answers: 80 years, currently the average life span in the West; 120 years, close to the maximum anyone has lived; 150 years, which would require a biotech breakthrough; and forever, which rejects the idea that life span has to have any limit at all.
I made it clear that participants should not assume that science will come up with dramatic new anti-aging technologies, though people were free to imagine that breakthroughs might occur — or not.
The results: some 60 percent opted for a life span of 80 years. Another 30 percent chose 120 years, and almost 10 percent chose 150 years. Less than 1 percent embraced the idea that people might avoid death altogether.
These percentages have held up as I’ve spoken to people from many walks of life in libraries and bookstores; teenagers in high schools; physicians in medical centers; and investors and entrepreneurs at business conferences. I’ve popped the question at meetings of futurists and techno-optimists and gotten perhaps a doubling of people who want to live to 150 — less than I would have thought for these groups.
Rarely, however, does anyone want to live forever, although abolishing disease and death from biological causes is a fervent hope for a small scattering of would-be immortals.
In my talks, I go on to describe some highlights of cutting-edge biomedical research that might influence human life span.
For instance, right now drug companies are running clinical trials on new compounds that may have the “side effect” of extending life span. These include a drug at Sirtris, part of GlaxoSmithKline, that is being developed to treat inflammation and other diseases of aging. Called SRT-2104, this compound works on an enzyme called SIRT1 that, when activated, seems to slow aging in mice and other animals. It may do the same thing in humans, though this remains to be proven.
“Many serious attempts are being made to come up with a pill for aging,” said Dr. Sierra, though he suspects that there will not be a single anti-aging pill, if these compounds end up working at all. “It will be a combination of things.”
For over a decade, scientists also have experimented with using stem cells — master cells that can grow into different specialized cells — to replace and repair tissue in the heart, liver and other organs in animals. Some researchers have succeeded in also using them in people. The researchers include the urologist Anthony Atala of Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center, who has grown human bladders and urethras from stem cells that have been successfully transplanted into patients.
But another stem cell pioneer, James Thomson of the University of Wisconsin, believes that stem cell solutions will be a long time coming for more complex organs. “We’re a long way from transplanting cells into a human brain or nervous system,” he said.
ANOTHER intervention that might thwart the impact of aging is bionics: the augmentation or replacement of biological functions with machines. For years cardiac pacemakers have saved and extended the lives of millions of people. More recent devices and machine-tooled solutions have restored hearing to thousands who are deaf and replaced damaged knees and hips. Physicians use brain implants to help control tremors brought on by Parkinson’s disease. Researchers also are working on a wide range of other machine fixes, from exoskeletons that protect joints to experimental devices that tap into the brain activity of paralyzed patients, allowing them to operate computers using thought.
Curiously, after learning about these possibilities, few people wanted to change their votes. Even if I asked them to imagine that a pill had been invented to slow aging down by one-half, allowing a person who is, say, 60 years old to have the body of a 30-year-old, only about 10 percent of audiences switched to favoring a life span of 150 years.
Overwhelmingly the reason given was that people didn’t want to be old and infirm any longer than they had to be, even if a pill allowed them to delay this inevitability.
Others were concerned about a range of issues both personal and societal that might result from extending the life spans of millions of people in a short time. These included everything from boredom and the cost of paying for a longer life to the impact of so many extra people on planetary resources and on the environment. Some worried that millions of healthy centenarians still working and calling the shots in society would leave our grandchildren and great-grandchildren without the jobs and opportunities that have traditionally come about with the passing of generations.
Long-lifers countered that extending healthy lives would delay suffering, possibly for a very long time. This would allow people to accomplish more in life and to try new things. It would also mean that geniuses like Steve Jobs or Albert Einstein might still be alive. Einstein, were he alive today, would be 133 years old.
That’s assuming that he would want to live that long. As he lay dying of an abdominal aortic aneurysm in 1955, he refused surgery, saying: “It is tasteless to prolong life artificially. I have done my share, it is time to go. I will do it elegantly.”
David Ewing Duncan is a contributor to Science Times. This essay is adapted from his most recent e-book, “When I’m 164: The New Science of Radical Life Extension and What Happens If It Succeeds.”
Source:
NYT, 8/26/12
By DAVID EWING DUNCAN
This is for your personal use, only
_______________________________________
Underwater, Feeling Our Ocean Origins
I've always loved scuba diving and the cell-tickling feel of being underwater, though it poses unique frustrations. Alone, but with others, you may share the same sights and feelings, but you can't communicate well.
There are few ways to convey joy, amazement or thrill. How many divers know American Sign Language? The vocabulary of scuba talk is small and inadequate, circling around the transactional analyst's bywords, I'm O.K. Are you O.K.? One can also signal: I'm in trouble, I'm low on air, I'm going to surface, Look at that, I'm cold, Danger over there, My ears haven't pressurized, Stay where you are - but little more.
"Isn't that fish on the rock face spending his whole life guarding a minute territory mind-blowing?" is just as unsayable as "I've got to go to the toilet." Or "My throat feels parched from the wheeze of the regulator." Or "Those brown angelfish are hanging like flak in the water."
I think some people may dive, in part, for the thick layers of quiet and the luxury of not having to converse.
Once, offshore in Jamaica, I swam through a variety of vividly colored fish, including some I'd never seen before, and was so spellbound that one hand automatically touched my chest and my eyes teared. My guide's eyes questioned me through the fishbowl of his face mask. There was no way to signal that I wasn't hurt or frightened, but jubilant, merely glad to the brink of tears. How do you scuba-sign wonder?
Are you in trouble? he signaled.
No, no, I answered emphatically. I'm O.K. I put an open palm over my heart, then made a stirring motion in the water. My heart is stirred, and my eyes ... I made a rain-falling movement beside one eye with my fingers.
Surface? he motioned, his knitted brow adding a question mark.
No! I signaled stiffly. I'm O.K. Wait. Wait. I thought for a moment, then made the sign French chefs use in commercials, the gestural Esperanto for "This dish is perfection," making a purse of my fingers and exploding open the purse just after it touched my mouth. Then I swept a hand wide.
Even with the regulator stuffed in his mouth and his eyes distorted behind the face plate, he made an exaggerated smile, yawning around the mouthpiece. He nodded his head in a magnified "Yes!" then made an O.K. sign and led me deeper, using his compass and surfacing once to check his direction by sighting the boat.
After a 10-minute swim, we suddenly came to a maze of underwater canyons thick with enormous sponges and coral fans, around which schools of circus-colored fish zigzagged. Plump purple sea pens with feathery quills stood in sand inkwells. Tiny tube worms - shaped like Christmas trees, feather dusters, maypole streamers, parasols - jutted out of the coral heads. Sea relationships are sometimes like those in a Russian novel; a worm enters the larder of a fine, respectable coral to steal its food, and just stays there, never being evicted. I moved my palm over a red-and-white striped parasol, and in a flash it folded up its umbrella and dragged it back inside the coral. It's a game divers love to play with tube worms: abracadabra, and the tube worm vanishes.
On a coral butte just in front of us, a dark sea whip jutted out between the canyon walls, its Medusa-like hair straggling in the current. I laughed. That sea whip's hair is just like my own.
Then I remembered: We're mainly salt water, we carry the ocean inside us. The simple, stupefying truth that, as a woman, I am a minute ocean, in the dark tropic of whose womb eggs lay coded as roe, floating in the sea that wet-nursed us all, moved me deeply. I pulled my mask up and washed my face with salt water, fitted it back on and exhaled through my nose to clear it.
From then on, I was hooked, and often returned to the sea to re-experience the visible links of that invisible chain.
Source:
NYT
AUGUST 25, 2012
By DIANE ACKERMAN
This is for your private use, only
_______________________________
July 12, 2012
Source:
The New York Times, p. B7
Personal Tech
This article is for your personal use, only
Seeking a Laptop? What You Need to Know
By SAM GROBART
SEE also the next article just below: It shows what month(s) may be the best time (= lowest prices) to buy a laptop
If you’re looking to buy a laptop, there’s no shortage of sites to help you choose one. Just type “laptop b” into Google, and the search engine will auto-complete with “laptop buying guide.” (Apparently “laptop bacon” is not as popular as I thought).
The results of that search, most likely, will tell you to keep track of these things: the processor’s speed, the amount of memory, the brand and the model of graphics card.
But for most of us, worrying about such features is a waste of time (with one exception).
First off, I want to reiterate — for most of us. If you need a laptop that will let you render 3-D graphics while also managing La Guardia’s air traffic control system, stop reading and come back next week. You can continue to buy laptops the old-fashioned way.
For those of you who are still reading, there are a few features that you should worry about that are unlikely to have come up in your search. You want a portable computer to get you online, and to allow you to watch some movies, answer some e-mails and work on a document, spreadsheet or PowerPoint presentation.
So here’s a guide to help you figure out what’s worth paying attention to, and what you can skip.
WEIGHT Anything more than six pounds is a pain in the shoulder. Any number of laptops weigh far less than that (down to around two and a half pounds), so there’s no reason to get anything heavier.
SCREEN SIZE The smallest displays are about 10 inches, measured diagonally. This is too small. The next step up is around 11 and a half inches, which is great for a second laptop that you can take traveling. But for most of us, 13 inches is the sweet spot — big enough but still portable enough to be thrown in a bag.
Laptops with 15-inch displays are just a bit too big for that, to say nothing of IMAX-size 17- and 18-inch models, which are awkwardly huge and at eight pounds or more, violate our weight rule.
PROCESSOR Doesn’t matter. Seriously. Does the laptop you’re looking at have a 2nd Generation Intel Core i3-2377M Processor running at 1.4GHz with a 3MB L3 cache? That’s wonderful. Oh wait, it doesn’t? Still wonderful. For regular people, all processors are fine. Don’t get bogged down in the details — and don’t pay more for some optional chip that offers an incremental speed boost. For what you need a laptop to do, it’s fine as is.
BATTERY LIFE Take a look at this fine print about battery-life specs from Best Buy’s Web site: “Battery life will vary depending on the product configuration, product model, applications loaded on the product, power management setting of the product, and product features used by the customer.”
In other words, battery-life specs mean little. Have a power cord with you.
MEMORY Unlike the processor, RAM (random access memory) does matter. You want 4 gigabytes of RAM. A laptop with less than that will seem sluggish, with annoying delays between the time you click on a menu command or hit a key and something actually happens. If a manufacturer tries to sneak beneath a certain price with a model that comes with under 4GB, but you can upgrade for a couple of hundred bucks, you should upgrade.
Do you need more than 4GB? Let me ask you this: Are you a video editor? Do you like to leave more than a dozen applications open at once? If your answer is “no,” you don’t.
STORAGE This used to matter a lot, but with the rise of streaming services and cloud computing, the amount of storage on your computer has become a little less important. Music can be streamed from Spotify, Rhapsody and other services. Documents and other files can live on Google Docs. Photos can be uploaded to iCloud or SmugMug or Flickr. TV shows and movies can be streamed from Netflix, Amazon and Hulu.
Even if you want to keep files stored on your computer’s hard drive so that they can be available when you do not have an online connection, services like Dropbox and Microsoft’s SkyDrive can let you select the specific files you want to keep locally, while keeping copies in the cloud. When you make changes to files that live on your computer, they will sync up with their online twin, so you don’t have to worry about which version you were working on.
Videos may also be something you want to see when you are offline, but how many videos do you need to store on your computer? If you’re taking a trip, download some rentals. When you finish watching them, they’ll be gone.
In any event, almost any laptop north of $300 has 500GB of storage, which could hold nearly 500 hours of standard-definition video, or around 8,300 hours of music. An application like Microsoft Office requires three gigabytes.
GRAPHICS CARD See “Processor.” For regular use, any graphics processor is going to do the trick.
WIRELESS Some laptops are Wi-Fi only, but some have built-in cellular chips so the laptop can get on 3G or 4G networks. Get the Wi-Fi-only model. If you need a cellular data connection, you can either wirelessly tether your laptop to your smartphone and use its signal, or you can get a MiFi, a separate device that will share a cell data signal with multiple devices at the same time.
OPTICAL DRIVE This is that slot or tray you have been using for DVDs or recordable CDs and it is falling by the wayside. Music has gone largely digital, forgoing physical media. Video seems next. Applications are increasingly downloaded from online stores. So you don’t need the optical drive.
Might there be a time when you do need one? Perhaps, but it will probably be so infrequent that you would be better off getting a thinner, lighter laptop without an optical drive and then getting an external drive for those rare occasions when you need it. Laptops have better performance and longer battery life if they don’t have to spin a mirrored disk around and shoot a laser at it.
PRICE Spending $500 or so will get you a perfectly fine laptop. Spend twice that or more, and you get into fancier machines that are notably slimmer and lighter. Many of these are called ultrabooks, and they have some things in common.
They are very slim and lightweight, and provide generally good battery life. One of the ways they accomplish these things is by using so-called flash storage (another way is by forgoing the aforementioned optical drive). With flash storage, files are stored on a chip, as opposed to a traditional spinning hard disk. Flash storage, also called solid-state storage, is lighter, faster and consumes less energy. It’s also more expensive and has less capacity than some hard disks. But most flash drives still exceed 300 gigabytes, which is enough for most people.
MAC OR PC It’s an age-old question, but it’s less important now. Most things we do these days are Web-based, so whether you’re in an Apple operating system or not isn’t the main factor. It used to be that Macs cost more than competing Windows machines, but that gap has shrunk. In the ultrabook category, Macs can be the least expensive, so don’t rule anything out.
TRY IT OUT Before buying any laptop, you must get it into your hands. All the specs in the world won’t tell you if the keyboard’s too cramped, the screen is not to your liking or the speakers are tinny. To figure that out, you need to go to a brick-and-mortar store. I’m not saying you have to buy a laptop at a brick-and-mortar store (sorry, brick-and-mortar stores), as lower prices may be found online. But you do need to kick the tires before handing over your cash.
SEE also the next article just below: It shows what month(s) may be the best time (= lowest prices) to buy a laptop
___________________________
July 12, 2012
Source:
The New York Times, p. B7
Personal Tech
This article is for your personal use, only
Seeking a Laptop? What You Need to Know
By SAM GROBART
SEE also the next article just below: It shows what month(s) may be the best time (= lowest prices) to buy a laptop
If you’re looking to buy a laptop, there’s no shortage of sites to help you choose one. Just type “laptop b” into Google, and the search engine will auto-complete with “laptop buying guide.” (Apparently “laptop bacon” is not as popular as I thought).
The results of that search, most likely, will tell you to keep track of these things: the processor’s speed, the amount of memory, the brand and the model of graphics card.
But for most of us, worrying about such features is a waste of time (with one exception).
First off, I want to reiterate — for most of us. If you need a laptop that will let you render 3-D graphics while also managing La Guardia’s air traffic control system, stop reading and come back next week. You can continue to buy laptops the old-fashioned way.
For those of you who are still reading, there are a few features that you should worry about that are unlikely to have come up in your search. You want a portable computer to get you online, and to allow you to watch some movies, answer some e-mails and work on a document, spreadsheet or PowerPoint presentation.
So here’s a guide to help you figure out what’s worth paying attention to, and what you can skip.
WEIGHT Anything more than six pounds is a pain in the shoulder. Any number of laptops weigh far less than that (down to around two and a half pounds), so there’s no reason to get anything heavier.
SCREEN SIZE The smallest displays are about 10 inches, measured diagonally. This is too small. The next step up is around 11 and a half inches, which is great for a second laptop that you can take traveling. But for most of us, 13 inches is the sweet spot — big enough but still portable enough to be thrown in a bag.
Laptops with 15-inch displays are just a bit too big for that, to say nothing of IMAX-size 17- and 18-inch models, which are awkwardly huge and at eight pounds or more, violate our weight rule.
PROCESSOR Doesn’t matter. Seriously. Does the laptop you’re looking at have a 2nd Generation Intel Core i3-2377M Processor running at 1.4GHz with a 3MB L3 cache? That’s wonderful. Oh wait, it doesn’t? Still wonderful. For regular people, all processors are fine. Don’t get bogged down in the details — and don’t pay more for some optional chip that offers an incremental speed boost. For what you need a laptop to do, it’s fine as is.
BATTERY LIFE Take a look at this fine print about battery-life specs from Best Buy’s Web site: “Battery life will vary depending on the product configuration, product model, applications loaded on the product, power management setting of the product, and product features used by the customer.”
In other words, battery-life specs mean little. Have a power cord with you.
MEMORY Unlike the processor, RAM (random access memory) does matter. You want 4 gigabytes of RAM. A laptop with less than that will seem sluggish, with annoying delays between the time you click on a menu command or hit a key and something actually happens. If a manufacturer tries to sneak beneath a certain price with a model that comes with under 4GB, but you can upgrade for a couple of hundred bucks, you should upgrade.
Do you need more than 4GB? Let me ask you this: Are you a video editor? Do you like to leave more than a dozen applications open at once? If your answer is “no,” you don’t.
STORAGE This used to matter a lot, but with the rise of streaming services and cloud computing, the amount of storage on your computer has become a little less important. Music can be streamed from Spotify, Rhapsody and other services. Documents and other files can live on Google Docs. Photos can be uploaded to iCloud or SmugMug or Flickr. TV shows and movies can be streamed from Netflix, Amazon and Hulu.
Even if you want to keep files stored on your computer’s hard drive so that they can be available when you do not have an online connection, services like Dropbox and Microsoft’s SkyDrive can let you select the specific files you want to keep locally, while keeping copies in the cloud. When you make changes to files that live on your computer, they will sync up with their online twin, so you don’t have to worry about which version you were working on.
Videos may also be something you want to see when you are offline, but how many videos do you need to store on your computer? If you’re taking a trip, download some rentals. When you finish watching them, they’ll be gone.
In any event, almost any laptop north of $300 has 500GB of storage, which could hold nearly 500 hours of standard-definition video, or around 8,300 hours of music. An application like Microsoft Office requires three gigabytes.
GRAPHICS CARD See “Processor.” For regular use, any graphics processor is going to do the trick.
WIRELESS Some laptops are Wi-Fi only, but some have built-in cellular chips so the laptop can get on 3G or 4G networks. Get the Wi-Fi-only model. If you need a cellular data connection, you can either wirelessly tether your laptop to your smartphone and use its signal, or you can get a MiFi, a separate device that will share a cell data signal with multiple devices at the same time.
OPTICAL DRIVE This is that slot or tray you have been using for DVDs or recordable CDs and it is falling by the wayside. Music has gone largely digital, forgoing physical media. Video seems next. Applications are increasingly downloaded from online stores. So you don’t need the optical drive.
Might there be a time when you do need one? Perhaps, but it will probably be so infrequent that you would be better off getting a thinner, lighter laptop without an optical drive and then getting an external drive for those rare occasions when you need it. Laptops have better performance and longer battery life if they don’t have to spin a mirrored disk around and shoot a laser at it.
PRICE Spending $500 or so will get you a perfectly fine laptop. Spend twice that or more, and you get into fancier machines that are notably slimmer and lighter. Many of these are called ultrabooks, and they have some things in common.
They are very slim and lightweight, and provide generally good battery life. One of the ways they accomplish these things is by using so-called flash storage (another way is by forgoing the aforementioned optical drive). With flash storage, files are stored on a chip, as opposed to a traditional spinning hard disk. Flash storage, also called solid-state storage, is lighter, faster and consumes less energy. It’s also more expensive and has less capacity than some hard disks. But most flash drives still exceed 300 gigabytes, which is enough for most people.
MAC OR PC It’s an age-old question, but it’s less important now. Most things we do these days are Web-based, so whether you’re in an Apple operating system or not isn’t the main factor. It used to be that Macs cost more than competing Windows machines, but that gap has shrunk. In the ultrabook category, Macs can be the least expensive, so don’t rule anything out.
TRY IT OUT Before buying any laptop, you must get it into your hands. All the specs in the world won’t tell you if the keyboard’s too cramped, the screen is not to your liking or the speakers are tinny. To figure that out, you need to go to a brick-and-mortar store. I’m not saying you have to buy a laptop at a brick-and-mortar store (sorry, brick-and-mortar stores), as lower prices may be found online. But you do need to kick the tires before handing over your cash.
SEE also the next article just below: It shows what month(s) may be the best time (= lowest prices) to buy a laptop
___________________________
It May Be a Good Time to Buy a Laptop
Source: The New York Times: Gadgetwise, 7/12/1212, p. B8
See also the article just above: It shows how and what laptop you should buy
By ROY FURCHGOTT
This article is for your personal use, only
If you are thinking about buying a new laptop, stop thinking and do it. At least that’s what the algorithms at Decide.com say to do.
Decide.com is a Web site created by artificial intelligence experts that tracks millions of price changes on consumer electronics and appliances and uses algorithms to to predict when buyers are most likely to get a deal. The site claims 77 percent accuracy since its inception in June 2011.
Recently released data from the company showed that laptop prices tended to dip to seasonal lows three times a year: in late June, the last two weeks of September and beginning again in mid-December.
The first dip would appear to be the back-to-school rush and the third comes after the Christmas rush. The second one, I don’t know. But there are cycles in electronics when new products are introduced and old models retired. It is at those occasions — and they differ for different product categories — that shoppers can save money.
Decide.com, which is also available as a mobile app, says its report is based on data collected from 116 sellers and on 3,600 models of laptops.
The average savings was about 10 percent, with the highest savings at 30 percent, Decide.com said. Excluding high-priced game laptops, that should be an average savings of about $100.
_____________________________
See also the article just above: It shows how and what laptop with what in/on it you should buy
_____________________________
Source: The New York Times: Gadgetwise, 7/12/1212, p. B8
See also the article just above: It shows how and what laptop you should buy
By ROY FURCHGOTT
This article is for your personal use, only
If you are thinking about buying a new laptop, stop thinking and do it. At least that’s what the algorithms at Decide.com say to do.
Decide.com is a Web site created by artificial intelligence experts that tracks millions of price changes on consumer electronics and appliances and uses algorithms to to predict when buyers are most likely to get a deal. The site claims 77 percent accuracy since its inception in June 2011.
Recently released data from the company showed that laptop prices tended to dip to seasonal lows three times a year: in late June, the last two weeks of September and beginning again in mid-December.
The first dip would appear to be the back-to-school rush and the third comes after the Christmas rush. The second one, I don’t know. But there are cycles in electronics when new products are introduced and old models retired. It is at those occasions — and they differ for different product categories — that shoppers can save money.
Decide.com, which is also available as a mobile app, says its report is based on data collected from 116 sellers and on 3,600 models of laptops.
The average savings was about 10 percent, with the highest savings at 30 percent, Decide.com said. Excluding high-priced game laptops, that should be an average savings of about $100.
_____________________________
See also the article just above: It shows how and what laptop with what in/on it you should buy
_____________________________
A Strong Password Isn’t the Strongest Security
See article below: Hacker can break into your key-carded hotel room
MAKE your password strong, with a unique jumble of letters, numbers and punctuation marks. But memorize it — never write it down. And, oh yes, change it every few months. These instructions are supposed to protect us. But they don’t.
Some computer security experts are advancing the heretical thought that passwords might not need to be “strong,” or changed constantly. They say onerous requirements for passwords have given us a false sense of protection against potential attacks. In fact, they say, we aren’t paying enough attention to more potent threats.
Here’s one threat to keep you awake at night: Keylogging software, which is deposited on a PC by a virus, records all keystrokes — including the strongest passwords you can concoct — and then sends it surreptitiously to a remote location.
“Keeping a keylogger off your machine is about a trillion times more important than the strength of any one of your passwords,” says Cormac Herley, a principal researcher at Microsoft Research who specializes in security-related topics. He said antivirus software could detect and block many kinds of keyloggers, but “there’s no guarantee that it gets everything.”
After investigating password requirements in a variety of settings, Mr. Herley is critical not of users but of system administrators who aren’t paying enough attention to the inconvenience of making people comply with arcane rules. “It is not users who need to be better educated on the risks of various attacks, but the security community,” he said at a meeting of security professionals, the New Security Paradigms Workshop, at Queen’s College in Oxford, England. “Security advice simply offers a bad cost-benefit tradeoff to users.”
One might guess that heavily trafficked Web sites — especially those that provide access to users’ financial information — would have requirements for strong passwords. But it turns out that password policies of many such sites are among the most relaxed. These sites don’t publicly discuss security breaches, but Mr. Herley said it “isn’t plausible” that these sites would use such policies if their users weren’t adequately protected from attacks by those who do not know the password.
Mr. Herley, working with Dinei Florêncio, also at Microsoft Research, looked at the password policies of 75 Web sites. At the Symposium on Usable Privacy and Security, held in July in Redmond, Wash., they reportedthat the sites that allowed relatively weak passwords were busy commercial destinations, including PayPal, Amazon.com and Fidelity Investments. The sites that insisted on very complex passwords were mostly government and university sites. What accounts for the difference? They suggest that “when the voices that advocate for usability are absent or weak, security measures become needlessly restrictive.”
Donald A. Norman, a co-founder of the Nielsen Norman Group, a design consulting firm in Fremont, Calif., makes a similar case. In “When Security Gets in the Way,” an essay published last year, he noted the password rules of Northwestern University, where he then taught. It was a daunting list of 15 requirements. He said unreasonable rules can end up rendering a system less secure: users end up writing down passwords and storing them in places that can be readily discovered.
“These requirements keep out the good guys without deterring the bad guys,” he said.
Northwestern has reduced its password requirements to eight, but they still constitute a challenging maze. For example, the password can’t have more than four sequential characters from the previous seven passwords, and a new password is required every 120 days.
By contrast, Amazon has only one requirement: that the password be at least six characters. That’s it. And hold on to it as long as you like.
A short password wouldn’t work well if an attacker could try every possible combination in quick succession. But as Mr. Herley and Mr. Florêncio note, commercial sites can block “brute-force attacks” by locking an account after a given number of failed log-in attempts. “If an account is locked for 24 hours after three unsuccessful attempts,” they write, “a six-digit PIN can withstand 100 years of sustained attack.”
Roger A. Safian, a senior data security analyst at Northwestern, says that unlike Amazon, the university is unfortunately vulnerable to brute-force attacks in that it doesn’t lock out accounts after failed log-ins. The reason, he says, is that anyone could use a lockout policy to try logging in to a victim’s account, “knowing that you won’t succeed, but also knowing that the victim won’t be able to use the account, either.” (Such thoughts may occur to a student facing an unwelcome exam, who could block a professor from preparations.)
VERY short passwords, taken directly from the dictionary, would be permitted in a password system that Mr. Herley and Stuart Schechter at Microsoft Research developed with Michael Mitzenmacher at Harvard.
At the Usenix Workshop on Hot Topics in Security conference, held last month in Washington, the three suggested that Web sites with tens or hundreds of millions of users, could let users choose any password they liked — as long as only a tiny percentage selected the same one. That would render a list of most often used passwords useless: by limiting a single password to, say, 100 users among 10 million, the odds of an attacker getting lucky on one attempt per account are astronomically long, Mr. Herley explained in a conversation last month.
Mr. Herley said the proposed system hadn’t been tested and that users might become frustrated in trying to select a password that was no longer available. But he said he believed an anything-is-permitted password system would be welcomed by users sick of being told, “Eat your broccoli; a strong password is good for security.”
9/4/10 The New York Times
_________________________________
See article below: Hacker can break into your key-carded hotel room
MAKE your password strong, with a unique jumble of letters, numbers and punctuation marks. But memorize it — never write it down. And, oh yes, change it every few months. These instructions are supposed to protect us. But they don’t.
Some computer security experts are advancing the heretical thought that passwords might not need to be “strong,” or changed constantly. They say onerous requirements for passwords have given us a false sense of protection against potential attacks. In fact, they say, we aren’t paying enough attention to more potent threats.
Here’s one threat to keep you awake at night: Keylogging software, which is deposited on a PC by a virus, records all keystrokes — including the strongest passwords you can concoct — and then sends it surreptitiously to a remote location.
“Keeping a keylogger off your machine is about a trillion times more important than the strength of any one of your passwords,” says Cormac Herley, a principal researcher at Microsoft Research who specializes in security-related topics. He said antivirus software could detect and block many kinds of keyloggers, but “there’s no guarantee that it gets everything.”
After investigating password requirements in a variety of settings, Mr. Herley is critical not of users but of system administrators who aren’t paying enough attention to the inconvenience of making people comply with arcane rules. “It is not users who need to be better educated on the risks of various attacks, but the security community,” he said at a meeting of security professionals, the New Security Paradigms Workshop, at Queen’s College in Oxford, England. “Security advice simply offers a bad cost-benefit tradeoff to users.”
One might guess that heavily trafficked Web sites — especially those that provide access to users’ financial information — would have requirements for strong passwords. But it turns out that password policies of many such sites are among the most relaxed. These sites don’t publicly discuss security breaches, but Mr. Herley said it “isn’t plausible” that these sites would use such policies if their users weren’t adequately protected from attacks by those who do not know the password.
Mr. Herley, working with Dinei Florêncio, also at Microsoft Research, looked at the password policies of 75 Web sites. At the Symposium on Usable Privacy and Security, held in July in Redmond, Wash., they reportedthat the sites that allowed relatively weak passwords were busy commercial destinations, including PayPal, Amazon.com and Fidelity Investments. The sites that insisted on very complex passwords were mostly government and university sites. What accounts for the difference? They suggest that “when the voices that advocate for usability are absent or weak, security measures become needlessly restrictive.”
Donald A. Norman, a co-founder of the Nielsen Norman Group, a design consulting firm in Fremont, Calif., makes a similar case. In “When Security Gets in the Way,” an essay published last year, he noted the password rules of Northwestern University, where he then taught. It was a daunting list of 15 requirements. He said unreasonable rules can end up rendering a system less secure: users end up writing down passwords and storing them in places that can be readily discovered.
“These requirements keep out the good guys without deterring the bad guys,” he said.
Northwestern has reduced its password requirements to eight, but they still constitute a challenging maze. For example, the password can’t have more than four sequential characters from the previous seven passwords, and a new password is required every 120 days.
By contrast, Amazon has only one requirement: that the password be at least six characters. That’s it. And hold on to it as long as you like.
A short password wouldn’t work well if an attacker could try every possible combination in quick succession. But as Mr. Herley and Mr. Florêncio note, commercial sites can block “brute-force attacks” by locking an account after a given number of failed log-in attempts. “If an account is locked for 24 hours after three unsuccessful attempts,” they write, “a six-digit PIN can withstand 100 years of sustained attack.”
Roger A. Safian, a senior data security analyst at Northwestern, says that unlike Amazon, the university is unfortunately vulnerable to brute-force attacks in that it doesn’t lock out accounts after failed log-ins. The reason, he says, is that anyone could use a lockout policy to try logging in to a victim’s account, “knowing that you won’t succeed, but also knowing that the victim won’t be able to use the account, either.” (Such thoughts may occur to a student facing an unwelcome exam, who could block a professor from preparations.)
VERY short passwords, taken directly from the dictionary, would be permitted in a password system that Mr. Herley and Stuart Schechter at Microsoft Research developed with Michael Mitzenmacher at Harvard.
At the Usenix Workshop on Hot Topics in Security conference, held last month in Washington, the three suggested that Web sites with tens or hundreds of millions of users, could let users choose any password they liked — as long as only a tiny percentage selected the same one. That would render a list of most often used passwords useless: by limiting a single password to, say, 100 users among 10 million, the odds of an attacker getting lucky on one attempt per account are astronomically long, Mr. Herley explained in a conversation last month.
Mr. Herley said the proposed system hadn’t been tested and that users might become frustrated in trying to select a password that was no longer available. But he said he believed an anything-is-permitted password system would be welcomed by users sick of being told, “Eat your broccoli; a strong password is good for security.”
9/4/10 The New York Times
_________________________________
COMMENT from the public:
And yet you continue to send them your money. What's the real mystery here?
7 Ways to Slash Your Cable and Movie Bills
Click the green for additional info
Ask for a better deal. If you really like to channel-surf, keep cable, but see if the provider will better its offer. If the company stonewalls, tell it you want to cancel. You should be transferred to the retention department, where they'll work with you to lower your bill because they really want to keep you as a customer.
Remember that there are only so many hours in the day.If you've simply added on each new entertainment technology as it came along-maintaining a generous cable package with DVR, ordering movies from Netflix, streaming shows on Hulu, even buying digital episodes of Top Chef for $2.99 apiece-then you're surely paying for much more than you could ever possibly watch. "Utilization is the key," says Kay. "People tend to overbuy."
Track your family's watching patterns for a month. If you find that you only watch specific shows and only occasionally seek out a movie on a lazy night, you might want to drop down to basic cable or opt out of cable altogether and sign up for Hulu for television shows and Netflix for movies. Do the math and see what makes sense.
Related: Check out 9 bad habits that are actually good for you.
Skip movie subscription plans. On the other hand, depending on how many movies and TV shows you watch and how expensive they are, it may be cheaper to order à la carte. In order to make good use of a typical Netflix plan, for instance, you need to watch at least four movies a month, since comparable rentalson Amazon, iTunes or On Demand run between $4 and $6 apiece. Or you can head to a grocery store like Giant, a drugstore like Walgreens or convenience stores such as Turkey Hill and rent a movie from Redbox for $1.20 a day.
Dump premium channels. Having HBO and Showtime costs you between $10 and $15 each, per month. Unless you watch multiple series, you're better off waiting until they come out on Netflix if you have a subscription, or on iTunes or Amazon where you can spend $18 to $60 for the season, which, even at the high end, is still less than half of what you would pay over a year for the channel. In short, unless you must see Boardwalk Empire as soon as it appears or you'll feel behind the times, you're spending too much on premium channels.
Related: See the surprising things you can get for free.
Watch, then cancel. If you are addicted to a premium channel show you want to see in real time, cancel the channel after the finale. If you miss it, you can always add it back on.
Buy a simple HDMI cable. No need to pay big bucks-the $5 one works just fine to connect your computer to your television. This allows you to watch free shows from the network websites on the big screen or rentals you've downloaded. Many recent episodes stay online for a limited time. That way, you can save by not spending money for DVR service or using On Demand.
Related: Turn your clutter into cash.
Source:
By Woman's Day | Financially Fit
Fri, Aug 24, 2012
By Rebecca Webber
Original article appeared on WomansDay.com.
This is for your personal use, only
You Might Also Like:
10 Bad Money Habits and How to Break Them
10 Sneaky Ways Websites Get You to Spend More
8 Surprising Health Benefits of Sex
________________________________________
And yet you continue to send them your money. What's the real mystery here?
7 Ways to Slash Your Cable and Movie Bills
Click the green for additional info
Ask for a better deal. If you really like to channel-surf, keep cable, but see if the provider will better its offer. If the company stonewalls, tell it you want to cancel. You should be transferred to the retention department, where they'll work with you to lower your bill because they really want to keep you as a customer.
Remember that there are only so many hours in the day.If you've simply added on each new entertainment technology as it came along-maintaining a generous cable package with DVR, ordering movies from Netflix, streaming shows on Hulu, even buying digital episodes of Top Chef for $2.99 apiece-then you're surely paying for much more than you could ever possibly watch. "Utilization is the key," says Kay. "People tend to overbuy."
Track your family's watching patterns for a month. If you find that you only watch specific shows and only occasionally seek out a movie on a lazy night, you might want to drop down to basic cable or opt out of cable altogether and sign up for Hulu for television shows and Netflix for movies. Do the math and see what makes sense.
Related: Check out 9 bad habits that are actually good for you.
Skip movie subscription plans. On the other hand, depending on how many movies and TV shows you watch and how expensive they are, it may be cheaper to order à la carte. In order to make good use of a typical Netflix plan, for instance, you need to watch at least four movies a month, since comparable rentalson Amazon, iTunes or On Demand run between $4 and $6 apiece. Or you can head to a grocery store like Giant, a drugstore like Walgreens or convenience stores such as Turkey Hill and rent a movie from Redbox for $1.20 a day.
Dump premium channels. Having HBO and Showtime costs you between $10 and $15 each, per month. Unless you watch multiple series, you're better off waiting until they come out on Netflix if you have a subscription, or on iTunes or Amazon where you can spend $18 to $60 for the season, which, even at the high end, is still less than half of what you would pay over a year for the channel. In short, unless you must see Boardwalk Empire as soon as it appears or you'll feel behind the times, you're spending too much on premium channels.
Related: See the surprising things you can get for free.
Watch, then cancel. If you are addicted to a premium channel show you want to see in real time, cancel the channel after the finale. If you miss it, you can always add it back on.
Buy a simple HDMI cable. No need to pay big bucks-the $5 one works just fine to connect your computer to your television. This allows you to watch free shows from the network websites on the big screen or rentals you've downloaded. Many recent episodes stay online for a limited time. That way, you can save by not spending money for DVR service or using On Demand.
Related: Turn your clutter into cash.
Source:
By Woman's Day | Financially Fit
Fri, Aug 24, 2012
By Rebecca Webber
Original article appeared on WomansDay.com.
This is for your personal use, only
You Might Also Like:
10 Bad Money Habits and How to Break Them
10 Sneaky Ways Websites Get You to Spend More
8 Surprising Health Benefits of Sex
________________________________________
Source:By Tecca | Today in Tech
This is for your personal use, only
Hacker: I can open a keycarded hotel room door in seconds
Spending just $50 in parts, a thief could effortlessly — and silently — break into your room
Between jewelry, passports, laptops, and even tablets, a lot of us carry some very expensive things when we travel. And we expect the hotel we're staying at to do all they reasonably can to keep us and our belongings safe. But according to a Forbes report, hotel doors with keycard entry offer virtually no security at all — they can be easily hacked with as little as $50 worth of equipment.
According to 24-year old security expert Cody Brocious, if your hotel room door's keycard lock has a DC power port, it can be broken in to with inexpensive software and other hacking tools. And to prove it, Brocious has created a device capable of breaking into as many as 5,000,000 hotel rooms worldwide. The device works by spoofing the all-access cards used by hotel staff. According to Brocious, while every locked hotel room door requires its own access code to open, that access code is programmed into the door itself. The hacking tool can read the code, and then use it moments later to unlock the door.
Brocious will talk more about his hacking tool (and, more broadly, hotel room security) at the Black Hat USA security conference on July 24.
[Image credit: Open keycard door via Shutterstock]
This article was written by Fox Van Allen and originally appeared on Tecca
More from Tecca:
This is for your personal use, only
Hacker: I can open a keycarded hotel room door in seconds
Spending just $50 in parts, a thief could effortlessly — and silently — break into your room
Between jewelry, passports, laptops, and even tablets, a lot of us carry some very expensive things when we travel. And we expect the hotel we're staying at to do all they reasonably can to keep us and our belongings safe. But according to a Forbes report, hotel doors with keycard entry offer virtually no security at all — they can be easily hacked with as little as $50 worth of equipment.
According to 24-year old security expert Cody Brocious, if your hotel room door's keycard lock has a DC power port, it can be broken in to with inexpensive software and other hacking tools. And to prove it, Brocious has created a device capable of breaking into as many as 5,000,000 hotel rooms worldwide. The device works by spoofing the all-access cards used by hotel staff. According to Brocious, while every locked hotel room door requires its own access code to open, that access code is programmed into the door itself. The hacking tool can read the code, and then use it moments later to unlock the door.
Brocious will talk more about his hacking tool (and, more broadly, hotel room security) at the Black Hat USA security conference on July 24.
[Image credit: Open keycard door via Shutterstock]
This article was written by Fox Van Allen and originally appeared on Tecca
More from Tecca:
Late night TV/computer sessions linked to depression
Source:
By Chris Wickham | Reuters
This is for your personal use, only
LONDON (Reuters) - Sitting in front of a computer or TV screen late into the night or leaving it on when you fall asleep could increase your chances of becoming depressed, according to a study by U.S. scientists.
The study, by a team of neuroscientists at Ohio State University Medical Center partly funded by theU.S. Department of Defense, will give screen-addicted night owls pause for thought.
The researchers - who exposed hamsters to dim light at night and picked up changes in behavior and the brain that bore striking similarities to symptoms in depressed people - said a surge in exposure to artificial light at night in the last 50 years had coincided with rising rates of depression, particularly among women, who are twice as prone as men.
"The results we found in hamsters are consistent with what we know about depression in humans," said Tracy Bedrosian, who led the study, published in the journal Molecular Psychiatry.
Although exposure to night-time light has been linked to an increased risk of breast cancer and obesity, the relationship with mood disorders is poorly understood.
The hamsters involved in the experiment were exposed for four weeks to dim light at night - equivalent to a television screen in a darkened room - and the results compared to a control group exposed to a normal light-dark cycle.
The experimental group was then moved back onto a normal cycle for one, two or four weeks before they were tested.
The results showed they were less active and had a lower than usual interest in drinking sugar water - both symptoms are comparable to signs of depression in people.
The similarity extended to their biological make-up. The researchers found changes in the hippocampus - a part of the brain - that were consistent with people suffering depression.
The hamsters exposed to dim light at night were also shown to produce more of a protein called tumor necrosis factor (TNF), a chemical messenger that is mobilized when the body is injured or infected and causes inflammation in its efforts to repair the damage.
"Researchers have found a strong association in people between chronic inflammation and depression," said Randy Nelson, who also worked on the study. "That's why it is very significant that we found this relationship between dim light at night and increased expression of TNF."
The scientists found that blocking the effects of TNF with a drug prevented signs of depression in the hamsters, though some other indicators in the structure of the brain were unaffected.
For instance, hamsters that were exposed to dim light at night still showed a much reduced density of dendritic spines - hairlike growths on brain cells that are used to send chemical messages from one cell to another.
The overall symptoms of depression were reversible, the researchers said. Those hamsters returned to a normal light-dark cycle saw both their TNF levels and the density of their dendritic spines return to normal after about two weeks.
"The good news is that people who stay up late in front of the television and computer may be able to undo some of the harmful effects just by going back to a regular light-dark cycle and minimizing their exposure to artificial light at night," Bedrosian said.
(Editing by Andrew Osborn)
Source:
By Chris Wickham | Reuters
This is for your personal use, only
LONDON (Reuters) - Sitting in front of a computer or TV screen late into the night or leaving it on when you fall asleep could increase your chances of becoming depressed, according to a study by U.S. scientists.
The study, by a team of neuroscientists at Ohio State University Medical Center partly funded by theU.S. Department of Defense, will give screen-addicted night owls pause for thought.
The researchers - who exposed hamsters to dim light at night and picked up changes in behavior and the brain that bore striking similarities to symptoms in depressed people - said a surge in exposure to artificial light at night in the last 50 years had coincided with rising rates of depression, particularly among women, who are twice as prone as men.
"The results we found in hamsters are consistent with what we know about depression in humans," said Tracy Bedrosian, who led the study, published in the journal Molecular Psychiatry.
Although exposure to night-time light has been linked to an increased risk of breast cancer and obesity, the relationship with mood disorders is poorly understood.
The hamsters involved in the experiment were exposed for four weeks to dim light at night - equivalent to a television screen in a darkened room - and the results compared to a control group exposed to a normal light-dark cycle.
The experimental group was then moved back onto a normal cycle for one, two or four weeks before they were tested.
The results showed they were less active and had a lower than usual interest in drinking sugar water - both symptoms are comparable to signs of depression in people.
The similarity extended to their biological make-up. The researchers found changes in the hippocampus - a part of the brain - that were consistent with people suffering depression.
The hamsters exposed to dim light at night were also shown to produce more of a protein called tumor necrosis factor (TNF), a chemical messenger that is mobilized when the body is injured or infected and causes inflammation in its efforts to repair the damage.
"Researchers have found a strong association in people between chronic inflammation and depression," said Randy Nelson, who also worked on the study. "That's why it is very significant that we found this relationship between dim light at night and increased expression of TNF."
The scientists found that blocking the effects of TNF with a drug prevented signs of depression in the hamsters, though some other indicators in the structure of the brain were unaffected.
For instance, hamsters that were exposed to dim light at night still showed a much reduced density of dendritic spines - hairlike growths on brain cells that are used to send chemical messages from one cell to another.
The overall symptoms of depression were reversible, the researchers said. Those hamsters returned to a normal light-dark cycle saw both their TNF levels and the density of their dendritic spines return to normal after about two weeks.
"The good news is that people who stay up late in front of the television and computer may be able to undo some of the harmful effects just by going back to a regular light-dark cycle and minimizing their exposure to artificial light at night," Bedrosian said.
(Editing by Andrew Osborn)
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June 17, 2012
Source: The New York Times
How Depressives Surf the Web
By SRIRAM CHELLAPPAN and RAGHAVENDRA KOTIKALAPUDI
IN what way do you spend your time online? Do you check your e-mail compulsively? Watch lots of videos? Switch frequently among multiple Internet applications — from games to file downloads to chat rooms?
We believe that your pattern of Internet use says something about you. Specifically, our research suggests it can offer clues to your mental well-being.
In a study to be published in a forthcoming issue of IEEE Technology and Society Magazine, we and our colleagues found that students who showed signs of depression tended to use the Internet differently from those who showed no symptoms of depression.
In February of last year, we recruited 216 undergraduate volunteers at Missouri University of Science and Technology. First, we had the participants fill out a version of a questionnaire called the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale, which is widely used for measuring depression levels in the general population. The survey revealed that 30 percent of the participants met the criteria for depressive symptoms. (This was in line with national estimates that 10 to 40 percent of college students at some point experience such symptoms.)
Next, we had the university’s information technology department provide us with campus Internet usage data for our participants for February. This didn’t mean snooping on what the students were looking at or whom they were e-mailing; it merely meant monitoringhow they were using the Internet — information about traffic flow that the university customarily collects for troubleshooting network connections and such.
Finally, we conducted a statistical analysis of the depression scores and the Internet usage data.
There were two major findings. First, we identified several features of Internet usage that correlated with depression. In other words, we found a trend: in general, the more a participant’s score on the survey indicated depression, the more his or her Internet usage included these (rather technical-sounding) features — for instance, “p2p packets,” which indicate high levels of sharing files (like movies and music).
Our second major discovery was that there were patterns of Internet usage that were statistically high among participants with depressive symptoms compared with those without symptoms. That is, we found indicators: styles of Internet behavior that were signs of depressive people. For example, participants with depressive symptoms tended to engage in very high e-mail usage. This perhaps was to be expected: research by the psychologists Janet Morahan-Martin and Phyllis Schumacher has shown that frequent checking of e-mail may relate to high levels of anxiety, which itself correlates with depressive symptoms.
Another example: the Internet usage of depressive people tended to exhibit high “flow duration entropy” — which often occurs when there is frequent switching among Internet applications like e-mail, chat rooms and games. This may indicate difficulty concentrating. This finding, too, is consistent with the psychological literature: according to the National Institute of Mental Health, difficulty concentrating is also a sign of depressive symptoms among students.
OTHER characteristic features of “depressive” Internet behavior included increased amounts of video watching, gaming and chatting.
Earlier studies have looked into the relationship between Internet usage and depression, but ours is thought to be the first to use actual Internet data, collected anonymously and unobtrusively, rather than student-completed surveys about Internet usage, which are less reliable.
What are the practical applications of this research? We hope to use our findings to develop a software application that could be installed on home computers and mobile devices. It would monitor your Internet usage and alert you when your usage patterns might signal symptoms of depression. This would not replace the function of mental health professionals, but it could be a cost-effective way to prompt people to seek medical help early. It might also be a tool for parents to monitor the mood-related Internet usage patterns of their children.
Such software could also be used at universities, perhaps installed on campus networks to notify counselors of students whose Internet usage patterns are indicative of depressive behavior. (This proposal, of course, raises privacy concerns that would have to be addressed.)
Mental health groups have recommended screening in multiple settings as a critical component of preventing mental health problems in young people. We believe that monitoring Internet usage could be part of the solution.
Sriram Chellappan is an assistant professor of computer science at Missouri University of Science and Technology. Raghavendra Kotikalapudi is a software development engineer.
June 17, 2012
Source: The New York Times
How Depressives Surf the Web
By SRIRAM CHELLAPPAN and RAGHAVENDRA KOTIKALAPUDI
IN what way do you spend your time online? Do you check your e-mail compulsively? Watch lots of videos? Switch frequently among multiple Internet applications — from games to file downloads to chat rooms?
We believe that your pattern of Internet use says something about you. Specifically, our research suggests it can offer clues to your mental well-being.
In a study to be published in a forthcoming issue of IEEE Technology and Society Magazine, we and our colleagues found that students who showed signs of depression tended to use the Internet differently from those who showed no symptoms of depression.
In February of last year, we recruited 216 undergraduate volunteers at Missouri University of Science and Technology. First, we had the participants fill out a version of a questionnaire called the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale, which is widely used for measuring depression levels in the general population. The survey revealed that 30 percent of the participants met the criteria for depressive symptoms. (This was in line with national estimates that 10 to 40 percent of college students at some point experience such symptoms.)
Next, we had the university’s information technology department provide us with campus Internet usage data for our participants for February. This didn’t mean snooping on what the students were looking at or whom they were e-mailing; it merely meant monitoringhow they were using the Internet — information about traffic flow that the university customarily collects for troubleshooting network connections and such.
Finally, we conducted a statistical analysis of the depression scores and the Internet usage data.
There were two major findings. First, we identified several features of Internet usage that correlated with depression. In other words, we found a trend: in general, the more a participant’s score on the survey indicated depression, the more his or her Internet usage included these (rather technical-sounding) features — for instance, “p2p packets,” which indicate high levels of sharing files (like movies and music).
Our second major discovery was that there were patterns of Internet usage that were statistically high among participants with depressive symptoms compared with those without symptoms. That is, we found indicators: styles of Internet behavior that were signs of depressive people. For example, participants with depressive symptoms tended to engage in very high e-mail usage. This perhaps was to be expected: research by the psychologists Janet Morahan-Martin and Phyllis Schumacher has shown that frequent checking of e-mail may relate to high levels of anxiety, which itself correlates with depressive symptoms.
Another example: the Internet usage of depressive people tended to exhibit high “flow duration entropy” — which often occurs when there is frequent switching among Internet applications like e-mail, chat rooms and games. This may indicate difficulty concentrating. This finding, too, is consistent with the psychological literature: according to the National Institute of Mental Health, difficulty concentrating is also a sign of depressive symptoms among students.
OTHER characteristic features of “depressive” Internet behavior included increased amounts of video watching, gaming and chatting.
Earlier studies have looked into the relationship between Internet usage and depression, but ours is thought to be the first to use actual Internet data, collected anonymously and unobtrusively, rather than student-completed surveys about Internet usage, which are less reliable.
What are the practical applications of this research? We hope to use our findings to develop a software application that could be installed on home computers and mobile devices. It would monitor your Internet usage and alert you when your usage patterns might signal symptoms of depression. This would not replace the function of mental health professionals, but it could be a cost-effective way to prompt people to seek medical help early. It might also be a tool for parents to monitor the mood-related Internet usage patterns of their children.
Such software could also be used at universities, perhaps installed on campus networks to notify counselors of students whose Internet usage patterns are indicative of depressive behavior. (This proposal, of course, raises privacy concerns that would have to be addressed.)
Mental health groups have recommended screening in multiple settings as a critical component of preventing mental health problems in young people. We believe that monitoring Internet usage could be part of the solution.
Sriram Chellappan is an assistant professor of computer science at Missouri University of Science and Technology. Raghavendra Kotikalapudi is a software development engineer.
_________________________________________________________
August 11, 2012
Source: The New York Times, Sunday Review, page 6, 8/12/12
Hundred-Year Forecast: Drought
By CHRISTOPHER R. SCHWALM, CHRISTOPHER A. WILLIAMS and KEVIN SCHAEFER
BY many measurements, this summer’s drought is one for the record books. But so was last year’s drought in the South Central states. And it has been only a decade since an extreme five-year drought hit the American West. Widespread annual droughts, once a rare calamity, have become more frequent and are set to become the “new normal.”
Until recently, many scientists spoke of climate change mainly as a “threat,” sometime in the future. But it is increasingly clear that we already live in the era of human-induced climate change, with a growing frequency of weather and climate extremes like heat waves, droughts, floods and fires.
Future precipitation trends, based on climate model projections for the coming fifth assessment from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, indicate that droughts of this length and severity will be commonplace through the end of the century unless human-induced carbon emissions are significantly reduced. Indeed, assuming business as usual, each of the next 80 years in the American West is expected to see less rainfall than the average of the five years of the drought that hit the region from 2000 to 2004.
That extreme drought (which we have analyzed in a new study in the journal Nature-Geoscience) had profound consequences for carbon sequestration, agricultural productivity and water resources: plants, for example, took in only half the carbon dioxide they do normally, thanks to a drought-induced drop in photosynthesis.
In the drought’s worst year, Western crop yields were down by 13 percent, with many local cases of complete crop failure. Major river basins showed 5 percent to 50 percent reductions in flow. These reductions persisted up to three years after the drought ended, because the lakes and reservoirs that feed them needed several years of average rainfall to return to predrought levels.
In terms of severity and geographic extent, the 2000-4 drought in the West exceeded such legendary events as the Dust Bowl of the 1930s. While that drought saw intervening years of normal rainfall, the years of the turn-of-the-century drought were consecutive. More seriously still, long-term climate records from tree-ring chronologies show that this drought was the most severe event of its kind in the western United States in the past 800 years. Though there have been many extreme droughts over the last 1,200 years, only three other events have been of similar magnitude, all during periods of “megadroughts.”
Most frightening is that this extreme event could become the new normal: climate models point to a warmer planet, largely because of greenhouse gas emissions. Planetary warming, in turn, is expected to create drier conditions across western North America, because of the way global-wind and atmospheric-pressure patterns shift in response.
Indeed, scientists see signs of the relationship between warming and drought in western North America by analyzing trends over the last 100 years; evidence suggests that the more frequent drought and low precipitation events observed for the West during the 20th century are associated with increasing temperatures across the Northern Hemisphere.
These climate-model projections suggest that what we consider today to be an episode of severe drought might even be classified as a period of abnormal wetness by the end of the century and that a coming megadrought — a prolonged, multidecade period of significantly below-average precipitation — is possible and likely in the American West.
The current drought plaguing the country is worryingly consistent with these expectations. Although we do not attribute any single event to global warming, the severity of both the turn-of-the-century drought and the current one is consistent with simulations accounting for warming from increased greenhouse gases. The Northern Hemisphere has just recorded its 327th consecutive month in which the temperature exceeded the 20th-century average. This year had the fourth-warmest winter on record, with record-shattering high temperatures in March. And 2012 has already seen huge wildfires in Colorado and other Western states. More than 3,200 heat records were broken in June alone.
And yet that may be only the beginning, a fact that should force us to confront the likelihood of new and painful challenges. A megadrought would present a major risk to water resources in the American West, which are distributed through a complex series of local, state and regional water-sharing agreements and laws. Virtually every drop of water flowing in the American West is legally claimed, sometimes by several users, and the demand is expected to increase as the population grows.
Many Western cities will have to fundamentally change how they acquire and use water. The sort of temporary emergency steps that we grudgingly adopt during periods of low rainfall — fewer showers, lawn-watering bans — will become permanent. Some regions will become impossible to farm because of lack of irrigation water. Thermoelectric energy production will compete for limited water resources.
There is still time to prevent the worst; the risk of a multidecade megadrought in the American West can be reduced if we reduce fossil-fuel emissions. But there can be little doubt that what was once thought to be a future threat is suddenly, catastrophically upon us.
Christopher R. Schwalm is a research assistant professor of earth sciences at Northern Arizona University. Christopher A. Williams is anassistant professor of geography at Clark University. Kevin Schaefer is a research scientist at the National Snow and Ice Data Center.
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August 11, 2012
Source: The New York Times, Sunday Review, page 6, 8/12/12
Hundred-Year Forecast: Drought
By CHRISTOPHER R. SCHWALM, CHRISTOPHER A. WILLIAMS and KEVIN SCHAEFER
BY many measurements, this summer’s drought is one for the record books. But so was last year’s drought in the South Central states. And it has been only a decade since an extreme five-year drought hit the American West. Widespread annual droughts, once a rare calamity, have become more frequent and are set to become the “new normal.”
Until recently, many scientists spoke of climate change mainly as a “threat,” sometime in the future. But it is increasingly clear that we already live in the era of human-induced climate change, with a growing frequency of weather and climate extremes like heat waves, droughts, floods and fires.
Future precipitation trends, based on climate model projections for the coming fifth assessment from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, indicate that droughts of this length and severity will be commonplace through the end of the century unless human-induced carbon emissions are significantly reduced. Indeed, assuming business as usual, each of the next 80 years in the American West is expected to see less rainfall than the average of the five years of the drought that hit the region from 2000 to 2004.
That extreme drought (which we have analyzed in a new study in the journal Nature-Geoscience) had profound consequences for carbon sequestration, agricultural productivity and water resources: plants, for example, took in only half the carbon dioxide they do normally, thanks to a drought-induced drop in photosynthesis.
In the drought’s worst year, Western crop yields were down by 13 percent, with many local cases of complete crop failure. Major river basins showed 5 percent to 50 percent reductions in flow. These reductions persisted up to three years after the drought ended, because the lakes and reservoirs that feed them needed several years of average rainfall to return to predrought levels.
In terms of severity and geographic extent, the 2000-4 drought in the West exceeded such legendary events as the Dust Bowl of the 1930s. While that drought saw intervening years of normal rainfall, the years of the turn-of-the-century drought were consecutive. More seriously still, long-term climate records from tree-ring chronologies show that this drought was the most severe event of its kind in the western United States in the past 800 years. Though there have been many extreme droughts over the last 1,200 years, only three other events have been of similar magnitude, all during periods of “megadroughts.”
Most frightening is that this extreme event could become the new normal: climate models point to a warmer planet, largely because of greenhouse gas emissions. Planetary warming, in turn, is expected to create drier conditions across western North America, because of the way global-wind and atmospheric-pressure patterns shift in response.
Indeed, scientists see signs of the relationship between warming and drought in western North America by analyzing trends over the last 100 years; evidence suggests that the more frequent drought and low precipitation events observed for the West during the 20th century are associated with increasing temperatures across the Northern Hemisphere.
These climate-model projections suggest that what we consider today to be an episode of severe drought might even be classified as a period of abnormal wetness by the end of the century and that a coming megadrought — a prolonged, multidecade period of significantly below-average precipitation — is possible and likely in the American West.
The current drought plaguing the country is worryingly consistent with these expectations. Although we do not attribute any single event to global warming, the severity of both the turn-of-the-century drought and the current one is consistent with simulations accounting for warming from increased greenhouse gases. The Northern Hemisphere has just recorded its 327th consecutive month in which the temperature exceeded the 20th-century average. This year had the fourth-warmest winter on record, with record-shattering high temperatures in March. And 2012 has already seen huge wildfires in Colorado and other Western states. More than 3,200 heat records were broken in June alone.
And yet that may be only the beginning, a fact that should force us to confront the likelihood of new and painful challenges. A megadrought would present a major risk to water resources in the American West, which are distributed through a complex series of local, state and regional water-sharing agreements and laws. Virtually every drop of water flowing in the American West is legally claimed, sometimes by several users, and the demand is expected to increase as the population grows.
Many Western cities will have to fundamentally change how they acquire and use water. The sort of temporary emergency steps that we grudgingly adopt during periods of low rainfall — fewer showers, lawn-watering bans — will become permanent. Some regions will become impossible to farm because of lack of irrigation water. Thermoelectric energy production will compete for limited water resources.
There is still time to prevent the worst; the risk of a multidecade megadrought in the American West can be reduced if we reduce fossil-fuel emissions. But there can be little doubt that what was once thought to be a future threat is suddenly, catastrophically upon us.
Christopher R. Schwalm is a research assistant professor of earth sciences at Northern Arizona University. Christopher A. Williams is anassistant professor of geography at Clark University. Kevin Schaefer is a research scientist at the National Snow and Ice Data Center.
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Time Travel Possible? Scientists Say Maybe
Click green for further information
September, 28/2012
Time travel is a staple of science fiction, with the latest rendition showing up in the 2012 film "Looper."
And it turns out jumps through time are possible, according to the laws of physics, though traveling into the future looks to be much more feasible than traveling into the past.
"Looper" stars Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Joe, an assassin who kills targets sent back in time by the mob.
Things get complicated when Joe is assigned to kill his future self, played by Bruce Willis.
The movie, produced by TriStar Pictures, opened on Sept. 28, 2012. It is available as a home copy.
In this imagining, time travel has been put to nefarious uses by people operating outside the law. But could such a thing ever happen in real life? [Gallery: Time Travel in "Looper"]
"It's actually consistent with the laws of physics to change the rate at which clocks run," said Edward Farhi, director of the Center for Theoretical Physics at MIT. "There's no question that you can skip into the future."
However, Farhi told LiveScience, "most physicists think you can go forward, but coming back is much more problematic."
The roots of time travel stem from Einstein's theory of relativity, which revealed how the passage of time is relative, depending on how fast you are traveling. The faster you go, the more time seems to slow down, so that a person traveling on a very fast starship, for example, would experience a journey in two weeks that seemed to take 20 years to people left behind on Earth.
In this way, a person who wanted to travel to a period in the future need only board a fast enough vehicle to kill some time.
"That was a huge thing when Einstein realized the flow of time was not a constant thing," Farhi said.
However, this kind of manipulation only affects the rate at which time moves forward. No matter your speed, time will still progress toward the future, leaving scientists struggling to predict how one might travel to the past.
Some outlandish solutions to Einstein's equations do suggest that traveling backward in time might be possible, but to do so could require about half the mass of the universe in energy, and would likely destroy the universe in the process.
And even if science presented a method for backward time travel, there are troubling paradoxes involved.
"If you could go back in time, you could prevent your parents from getting together and making you," Farhi said. "I think some people might say it ends there." [Video - Looper Time-Travel]
Still, since physics doesn't forbid time travel in either direction, the door remains open for future solutions.
"I don't know of a definitive theorem that says it absolutely cannot happen, other than it leads to logical paradoxes and it can also cause the entire universe to collapse," Farhi said.
Click green for further information
- Science Fact or Fantasy? 20 Imaginary Worlds
- Looper Movie Review: A Once-In-A-Generation Sci-Fi Masterpiece
- Teleportation, ESP & Time Travel: 10 Tales of Superpowers
Yahoo News
This article is for your personal use, only
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Los Angeles is not the most time taking in its traffic -
Honolulu in 2011 is - ten cities listed
Published in 2012
Los Angeles seem to be the nation's capital for gridlock, but according to Inrix, a provider of traffic data and information, the City of Angels doesn't have the worst traffic in the United States.
Inrix says that the city of Honolulu wins that dubious honor, with drivers wasting 58 hours a year on average on congested roads.
The Inrix study shows that drivers in other major cities are still spending a fair number of hours stuck in traffic, too. While Los Angeles ranked a close second to Honolulu, those in San Francisco spent almost 48 additional hours in the car because of traffic.
The news wasn't all bad, though. Inrix says overall congestion was down 30 percent in 2011 from the year before, and notes that of the 100 cities it surveyed, 70 of them logged lower rates of congestion year over year.
These cities had the worst traffic in 2011, according to Inrix, which lists the average hours wasted per driver after each city:
10) Chicago – 32.8 hours
9) Boston - 35 hours
8) Austin – 30 hours
7) Seattle – 33 hours
6) Washington, D.C. – 45 hours
5) Bridgeport, CT – 42 hours
4) New York – 57 hours
3) San Francisco – 48 hours
2) Los Angeles – 56 hours
1) Honolulu – 58 hours
Note: the study rankings are not strictly according to hours wasted. Instead they're indexed to the duration of traffic over peak hours, which explains why some cities with more hours logged--New York--are ranked lower than cities like San Francisco.
The study also finds that, nationally, the worst morning commute occurs on Tuesday, while the worst evening commute is on Friday.
Inrix also says some of the worst traffic corridors in the country include the 405 freeway in Los Angeles, from the 105 to Getty Center; a 16-mile stretch of the Long Island Expressway in New York; and three miles of the Penn Lincoln Parkway in Pittsburgh.
For more information and complete results of the survey, see the Inrix report card and methodology.
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Source:
The New York Times
June 17, 2012 - Business Section, page 1
You for Sale: Mapping, and Sharing, the Consumer Genome
By NATASHA SINGER
IT knows who you are. It knows where you live. It knows what you do.
It peers deeper into American life than the F.B.I. or the I.R.S., or those prying digital eyes at Facebook and Google. If you are an American adult, the odds are that it knows things like your age, race, sex, weight, height, marital status, education level, politics, buying habits, household health worries, vacation dreams — and on and on.
Right now in Conway, Ark., north of Little Rock, more than 23,000 computer servers are collecting, collating and analyzing consumer data for a company that, unlike Silicon Valley’s marquee names, rarely makes headlines. It’s called the Acxiom Corporation, and it’s the quiet giant of a multibillion-dollar industry known as database marketing.
Few consumers have ever heard of Acxiom. But analysts say it has amassed the world’s largest commercial database on consumers — and that it wants to know much, much more. Its servers process more than 50 trillion data “transactions” a year. Company executives have said its database contains information about 500 million active consumers worldwide, with about 1,500 data points per person. That includes a majority of adults in the United States.
Such large-scale data mining and analytics — based on information available in public records, consumer surveys and the like — are perfectly legal. Acxiom’s customers have included big banks like Wells Fargo and HSBC, investment services like E*Trade, automakers like Toyota and Ford, department stores like Macy’s — just about any major company looking for insight into its customers.
For Acxiom, based in Little Rock, the setup is lucrative. It posted profit of $77.26 million in its latest fiscal year, on sales of $1.13 billion.
But such profits carry a cost for consumers. Federal authorities say current laws may not be equipped to handle the rapid expansion of an industry whose players often collect and sell sensitive financial and health information yet are nearly invisible to the public. In essence, it’s as if the ore of our data-driven lives were being mined, refined and sold to the highest bidder, usually without our knowledge — by companies that most people rarely even know exist.
Julie Brill, a member of the Federal Trade Commission, says she would like data brokers in general to tell the public about the data they collect, how they collect it, whom they share it with and how it is used. “If someone is listed as diabetic or pregnant, what is happening with this information? Where is the information going?” she asks. “We need to figure out what the rules should be as a society.”
Although Acxiom employs a chief privacy officer, Jennifer Barrett Glasgow, she and other executives declined requests to be interviewed for this article, said Ines Rodriguez Gutzmer, director of corporate communications.
In March, however, Ms. Barrett Glasgow endorsed increased industry openness. “It’s not an unreasonable request to have more transparency among data brokers,” she said in an interview with The New York Times. In marketing materials, Acxiom promotes itself as “a global thought leader in addressing consumer privacy issues and earning the public trust.”
But, in interviews, security experts and consumer advocates paint a portrait of a company with practices that privilege corporate clients’ interests over those of consumers and contradict the company’s stance on transparency. Acxiom’s marketing materials, for example, promote a special security system for clients and associates to encrypt the data they send. Yet cybersecurity experts who examined Acxiom’s Web site for The Times found basic security lapses on an online form for consumers seeking access to their own profiles. (Acxiom says it has fixed the broken link that caused the problem.)
In a fast-changing digital economy, Acxiom is developing even more advanced techniques to mine and refine data. It has recruited talent from Microsoft, Google, Amazon.com and Myspace and is using a powerful, multiplatform approach to predicting consumer behavior that could raise its standing among investors and clients.
Of course, digital marketers already customize pitches to users, based on their past activities. Just think of “cookies,” bits of computer code placed on browsers to keep track of online activity. But Acxiom, analysts say, is pursuing far more comprehensive techniques in an effort to influence consumer decisions. It is integrating what it knows about our offline, online and even mobile selves, creating in-depth behavior portraits in pixilated detail. Its executives have called this approach a “360-degree view” on consumers.
“There’s a lot of players in the digital space trying the same thing,” says Mark Zgutowicz, a Piper Jaffray analyst. “But Acxiom’s advantage is they have a database of offline information that they have been collecting for 40 years and can leverage that expertise in the digital world.”
Yet some prominent privacy advocates worry that such techniques could lead to a new era of consumer profiling.
Jeffrey Chester, executive director of the Center for Digital Democracy, a nonprofit group in Washington, says: “It is Big Brother in Arkansas.”
SCOTT HUGHES, an up-and-coming small-business owner and Facebook denizen, is Acxiom’s ideal consumer. Indeed, it created him.
Mr. Hughes is a fictional character who appeared in an Acxiom investor presentation in 2010. A frequent shopper, he was designed to show the power of Acxiom’s multichannel approach.
In the presentation, he logs on to Facebook and sees that his friend Ella has just become a fan of Bryce Computers, an imaginary electronics retailer and Acxiom client. Ella’s update prompts Mr. Hughes to check out Bryce’s fan page and do some digital window-shopping for a fast inkjet printer.
Such browsing seems innocuous — hardly data mining. But it cues an Acxiom system designed to recognize consumers, remember their actions, classify their behaviors and influence them with tailored marketing.
When Mr. Hughes follows a link to Bryce’s retail site, for example, the system recognizes him from his Facebook activity and shows him a printer to match his interest. He registers on the site, but doesn’t buy the printer right away, so the system tracks him online. Lo and behold, the next morning, while he scans baseball news on ESPN.com, an ad for the printer pops up again.
That evening, he returns to the Bryce site where, the presentation says, “he is instantly recognized” as having registered. It then offers a sweeter deal: a $10 rebate and free shipping.
It’s not a random offer. Acxiom has its own classification system, PersonicX, which assigns consumers to one of 70 detailed socioeconomic clusters and markets to them accordingly. In this situation, it pegs Mr. Hughes as a “savvy single” — meaning he’s in a cluster of mobile, upper-middle-class people who do their banking online, attend pro sports events, are sensitive to prices — and respond to free-shipping offers.
Correctly typecast, Mr. Hughes buys the printer.
But the multichannel system of Acxiom and its online partners is just revving up. Later, it sends him coupons for ink and paper, to be redeemed via his cellphone, and a personalized snail-mail postcard suggesting that he donate his old printer to a nearby school.
Analysts say companies design these sophisticated ecosystems to prompt consumers to volunteer enough personal data — like their names, e-mail addresses and mobile numbers — so that marketers can offer them customized appeals any time, anywhere.
Still, there is a fine line between customization and stalking. While many people welcome the convenience of personalized offers, others may see the surveillance engines behind them as intrusive or even manipulative.
“If you look at it in cold terms, it seems like they are really out to trick the customer,” says Dave Frankland, the research director for customer intelligence at Forrester Research. “But they are actually in the business of helping marketers make sure that the right people are getting offers they are interested in and therefore establish a relationship with the company.”
DECADES before the Internet as we know it, a businessman named Charles Ward planted the seeds of Acxiom. It was 1969, and Mr. Ward started a data processing company in Conway called Demographics Inc., in part to help the Democratic Party reach voters. In a time when Madison Avenue was deploying one-size-fits-all national ad campaigns, Demographics and its lone computer used public phone books to compile lists for direct mailing of campaign material.
Today, Acxiom maintains its own database on about 190 million individuals and 126 million households in the United States. Separately, it manages customer databases for or works with 47 of the Fortune 100 companies. It also worked with the government after the September 2001 terrorist attacks, providing information about 11 of the 19 hijackers.
To beef up its digital services, Acxiom recently mounted an aggressive hiring campaign. Last July, it named Scott E. Howe, a former corporate vice president for Microsoft’s advertising business group, as C.E.O. Last month, it hired Phil Mui, formerly group product manager for Google Analytics, as its chief product and engineering officer.
In interviews, Mr. Howe has laid out a vision of Acxiom as a new-millennium “data refinery” rather than a data miner. That description posits Acxiom as a nimble provider of customer analytics services, able to compete with Facebook and Google, rather than as a stealth engine of consumer espionage.
Still, the more that information brokers mine powerful consumer data, the more they become attractive targets for hackers — and draw scrutiny from consumer advocates.
This year, Advertising Age ranked Epsilon, another database marketing firm, as the biggest advertising agency in the United States, with Acxiom second. Most people know Epsilon, if they know it at all, because it experienced a major security breach last year, exposing the e-mail addresses of millions of customers of Citibank, JPMorgan Chase, Target, Walgreens and others. In 2003, Acxiom had its own security breaches.
But privacy advocates say they are more troubled by data brokers’ ranking systems, which classify some people as high-value prospects, to be offered marketing deals and discounts regularly, while dismissing others as low-value — known in industry slang as “waste.”
Exclusion from a vacation offer may not matter much, says Pam Dixon, the executive director of the World Privacy Forum, a nonprofit group in San Diego, but if marketing algorithms judge certain people as not worthy of receiving promotions for higher education or health services, they could have a serious impact.
“Over time, that can really turn into a mountain of pathways not offered, not seen and not known about,” Ms. Dixon says.
Until now, database marketers operated largely out of the public eye. Unlike consumer reporting agencies that sell sensitive financial information about people for credit or employment purposes, database marketers aren’t required by law to show consumers their own reports and allow them to correct errors. That may be about to change. This year, the F.T.C. published a report calling for greater transparency among data brokers and asking Congress to give consumers the right to access information these firms hold about them.
ACXIOM’S Consumer Data Products Catalog offers hundreds of details — called “elements” — that corporate clients can buy about individuals or households, to augment their own marketing databases. Companies can buy data to pinpoint households that are concerned, say, about allergies, diabetes or “senior needs.” Also for sale is information on sizes of home loans and household incomes.
Clients generally buy this data because they want to hold on to their best customers or find new ones — or both.
A bank that wants to sell its best customers additional services, for example, might buy details about those customers’ social media, Web and mobile habits to identify more efficient ways to market to them. Or, says Mr. Frankland at Forrester, a sporting goods chain whose best customers are 25- to 34-year-old men living near mountains or beaches could buy a list of a million other people with the same characteristics. The retailer could hire Acxiom, he says, to manage a campaign aimed at that new group, testing how factors like consumers’ locations or sports preferences affect responses.
But the catalog also offers delicate information that has set off alarm bells among some privacy advocates, who worry about the potential for misuse by third parties that could take aim at vulnerable groups. Such information includes consumers’ interests — derived, the catalog says, “from actual purchases and self-reported surveys” — like “Christian families,” “Dieting/Weight Loss,” “Gaming-Casino,” “Money Seekers” and “Smoking/Tobacco.” Acxiom also sells data about an individual’s race, ethnicity and country of origin. “Our Race model,” the catalog says, “provides information on the major racial category: Caucasians, Hispanics, African-Americans, or Asians.” Competing companies sell similar data.
Acxiom’s data about race or ethnicity is “used for engaging those communities for marketing purposes,” said Ms. Barrett Glasgow, the privacy officer, in an e-mail response to questions.
There may be a legitimate commercial need for some businesses, like ethnic restaurants, to know the race or ethnicity of consumers, says Joel R. Reidenberg, a privacy expert and a professor at the Fordham Law School.
“At the same time, this is ethnic profiling,” he says. “The people on this list, they are being sold based on their ethnic stereotypes. There is a very strong citizen’s right to have a veto over the commodification of their profile.”
He says the sale of such data is troubling because race coding may be incorrect. And even if a data broker has correct information, a person may not want to be marketed to based on race.
“DO you really know your customers?” Acxiom asks in marketing materials for its shopper recognition system, a program that uses ZIP codes to help retailers confirm consumers’ identities — without asking their permission.
“Simply asking for name and address information poses many challenges: transcription errors, increased checkout time and, worse yet, losing customers who feel that you’re invading their privacy,” Acxiom’s fact sheet explains. In its system, a store clerk need only “capture the shopper’s name from a check or third-party credit card at the point of sale and then ask for the shopper’s ZIP code or telephone number.” With that data Acxiom can identify shoppers within a 10 percent margin of error, it says, enabling stores to reward their best customers with special offers. Other companies offer similar services.
“This is a direct way of circumventing people’s concerns about privacy,” says Mr. Chester of the Center for Digital Democracy.
Ms. Barrett Glasgow of Acxiom says that its program is a “standard practice” among retailers, but that the company encourages its clients to report consumers who wish to opt out.
Acxiom has positioned itself as an industry leader in data privacy, but some of its practices seem to undermine that image. It created the position of chief privacy officer in 1991, well ahead of its rivals. It even offers an online request form, promoted as an easy way for consumers to access information Acxiom collects about them.
But the process turned out to be not so user-friendly for a reporter for The Times.
In early May, the reporter decided to request her record from Acxiom, as any consumer might. Before submitting a Social Securitynumber and other personal information, however, she asked for advice from a cybersecurity expert at The Times. The expert examined Acxiom’s Web site and immediately noticed that the online form did not employ a standard encryption protocol — called https — used by sites like Amazon and American Express. When the expert tested the form, using software that captures data sent over the Web, he could clearly see that the sample Social Security number he had submitted had not been encrypted. At that point, the reporter was advised not to request her file, given the risk that the process might expose her personal information.
Later in May, Ashkan Soltani, an independent security researcher and former technologist in identity protection at the F.T.C., also examined Acxiom’s site and came to the same conclusion. “Parts of the site for corporate clients are encrypted,” he says. “But for consumers, who this information is about and who stand the most to lose from data collection, they don’t provide security.”
Ms. Barrett Glasgow says that the form has always been encrypted with https but that on May 11, its security monitoring system detected a “broken redirect link” that allowed unencrypted access. Since then, she says, Acxiom has fixed the link and determined that no unauthorized person had gained access to information sent using the form.
On May 25, the reporter submitted an online request to Acxiom for her file, along with a personal check, sent by Express Mail, for the $5 processing fee. Three weeks later, no response had arrived.
Regulators at the F.T.C. declined to comment on the practices of individual companies. But Jon Leibowitz, the commission chairman, said consumers should have the right to see and correct personal details about them collected and sold by data aggregators.
After all, he said, “they are the unseen cyberazzi who collect information on all of us.”
________________________________________
The New York Times
June 17, 2012 - Business Section, page 1
You for Sale: Mapping, and Sharing, the Consumer Genome
By NATASHA SINGER
IT knows who you are. It knows where you live. It knows what you do.
It peers deeper into American life than the F.B.I. or the I.R.S., or those prying digital eyes at Facebook and Google. If you are an American adult, the odds are that it knows things like your age, race, sex, weight, height, marital status, education level, politics, buying habits, household health worries, vacation dreams — and on and on.
Right now in Conway, Ark., north of Little Rock, more than 23,000 computer servers are collecting, collating and analyzing consumer data for a company that, unlike Silicon Valley’s marquee names, rarely makes headlines. It’s called the Acxiom Corporation, and it’s the quiet giant of a multibillion-dollar industry known as database marketing.
Few consumers have ever heard of Acxiom. But analysts say it has amassed the world’s largest commercial database on consumers — and that it wants to know much, much more. Its servers process more than 50 trillion data “transactions” a year. Company executives have said its database contains information about 500 million active consumers worldwide, with about 1,500 data points per person. That includes a majority of adults in the United States.
Such large-scale data mining and analytics — based on information available in public records, consumer surveys and the like — are perfectly legal. Acxiom’s customers have included big banks like Wells Fargo and HSBC, investment services like E*Trade, automakers like Toyota and Ford, department stores like Macy’s — just about any major company looking for insight into its customers.
For Acxiom, based in Little Rock, the setup is lucrative. It posted profit of $77.26 million in its latest fiscal year, on sales of $1.13 billion.
But such profits carry a cost for consumers. Federal authorities say current laws may not be equipped to handle the rapid expansion of an industry whose players often collect and sell sensitive financial and health information yet are nearly invisible to the public. In essence, it’s as if the ore of our data-driven lives were being mined, refined and sold to the highest bidder, usually without our knowledge — by companies that most people rarely even know exist.
Julie Brill, a member of the Federal Trade Commission, says she would like data brokers in general to tell the public about the data they collect, how they collect it, whom they share it with and how it is used. “If someone is listed as diabetic or pregnant, what is happening with this information? Where is the information going?” she asks. “We need to figure out what the rules should be as a society.”
Although Acxiom employs a chief privacy officer, Jennifer Barrett Glasgow, she and other executives declined requests to be interviewed for this article, said Ines Rodriguez Gutzmer, director of corporate communications.
In March, however, Ms. Barrett Glasgow endorsed increased industry openness. “It’s not an unreasonable request to have more transparency among data brokers,” she said in an interview with The New York Times. In marketing materials, Acxiom promotes itself as “a global thought leader in addressing consumer privacy issues and earning the public trust.”
But, in interviews, security experts and consumer advocates paint a portrait of a company with practices that privilege corporate clients’ interests over those of consumers and contradict the company’s stance on transparency. Acxiom’s marketing materials, for example, promote a special security system for clients and associates to encrypt the data they send. Yet cybersecurity experts who examined Acxiom’s Web site for The Times found basic security lapses on an online form for consumers seeking access to their own profiles. (Acxiom says it has fixed the broken link that caused the problem.)
In a fast-changing digital economy, Acxiom is developing even more advanced techniques to mine and refine data. It has recruited talent from Microsoft, Google, Amazon.com and Myspace and is using a powerful, multiplatform approach to predicting consumer behavior that could raise its standing among investors and clients.
Of course, digital marketers already customize pitches to users, based on their past activities. Just think of “cookies,” bits of computer code placed on browsers to keep track of online activity. But Acxiom, analysts say, is pursuing far more comprehensive techniques in an effort to influence consumer decisions. It is integrating what it knows about our offline, online and even mobile selves, creating in-depth behavior portraits in pixilated detail. Its executives have called this approach a “360-degree view” on consumers.
“There’s a lot of players in the digital space trying the same thing,” says Mark Zgutowicz, a Piper Jaffray analyst. “But Acxiom’s advantage is they have a database of offline information that they have been collecting for 40 years and can leverage that expertise in the digital world.”
Yet some prominent privacy advocates worry that such techniques could lead to a new era of consumer profiling.
Jeffrey Chester, executive director of the Center for Digital Democracy, a nonprofit group in Washington, says: “It is Big Brother in Arkansas.”
SCOTT HUGHES, an up-and-coming small-business owner and Facebook denizen, is Acxiom’s ideal consumer. Indeed, it created him.
Mr. Hughes is a fictional character who appeared in an Acxiom investor presentation in 2010. A frequent shopper, he was designed to show the power of Acxiom’s multichannel approach.
In the presentation, he logs on to Facebook and sees that his friend Ella has just become a fan of Bryce Computers, an imaginary electronics retailer and Acxiom client. Ella’s update prompts Mr. Hughes to check out Bryce’s fan page and do some digital window-shopping for a fast inkjet printer.
Such browsing seems innocuous — hardly data mining. But it cues an Acxiom system designed to recognize consumers, remember their actions, classify their behaviors and influence them with tailored marketing.
When Mr. Hughes follows a link to Bryce’s retail site, for example, the system recognizes him from his Facebook activity and shows him a printer to match his interest. He registers on the site, but doesn’t buy the printer right away, so the system tracks him online. Lo and behold, the next morning, while he scans baseball news on ESPN.com, an ad for the printer pops up again.
That evening, he returns to the Bryce site where, the presentation says, “he is instantly recognized” as having registered. It then offers a sweeter deal: a $10 rebate and free shipping.
It’s not a random offer. Acxiom has its own classification system, PersonicX, which assigns consumers to one of 70 detailed socioeconomic clusters and markets to them accordingly. In this situation, it pegs Mr. Hughes as a “savvy single” — meaning he’s in a cluster of mobile, upper-middle-class people who do their banking online, attend pro sports events, are sensitive to prices — and respond to free-shipping offers.
Correctly typecast, Mr. Hughes buys the printer.
But the multichannel system of Acxiom and its online partners is just revving up. Later, it sends him coupons for ink and paper, to be redeemed via his cellphone, and a personalized snail-mail postcard suggesting that he donate his old printer to a nearby school.
Analysts say companies design these sophisticated ecosystems to prompt consumers to volunteer enough personal data — like their names, e-mail addresses and mobile numbers — so that marketers can offer them customized appeals any time, anywhere.
Still, there is a fine line between customization and stalking. While many people welcome the convenience of personalized offers, others may see the surveillance engines behind them as intrusive or even manipulative.
“If you look at it in cold terms, it seems like they are really out to trick the customer,” says Dave Frankland, the research director for customer intelligence at Forrester Research. “But they are actually in the business of helping marketers make sure that the right people are getting offers they are interested in and therefore establish a relationship with the company.”
DECADES before the Internet as we know it, a businessman named Charles Ward planted the seeds of Acxiom. It was 1969, and Mr. Ward started a data processing company in Conway called Demographics Inc., in part to help the Democratic Party reach voters. In a time when Madison Avenue was deploying one-size-fits-all national ad campaigns, Demographics and its lone computer used public phone books to compile lists for direct mailing of campaign material.
Today, Acxiom maintains its own database on about 190 million individuals and 126 million households in the United States. Separately, it manages customer databases for or works with 47 of the Fortune 100 companies. It also worked with the government after the September 2001 terrorist attacks, providing information about 11 of the 19 hijackers.
To beef up its digital services, Acxiom recently mounted an aggressive hiring campaign. Last July, it named Scott E. Howe, a former corporate vice president for Microsoft’s advertising business group, as C.E.O. Last month, it hired Phil Mui, formerly group product manager for Google Analytics, as its chief product and engineering officer.
In interviews, Mr. Howe has laid out a vision of Acxiom as a new-millennium “data refinery” rather than a data miner. That description posits Acxiom as a nimble provider of customer analytics services, able to compete with Facebook and Google, rather than as a stealth engine of consumer espionage.
Still, the more that information brokers mine powerful consumer data, the more they become attractive targets for hackers — and draw scrutiny from consumer advocates.
This year, Advertising Age ranked Epsilon, another database marketing firm, as the biggest advertising agency in the United States, with Acxiom second. Most people know Epsilon, if they know it at all, because it experienced a major security breach last year, exposing the e-mail addresses of millions of customers of Citibank, JPMorgan Chase, Target, Walgreens and others. In 2003, Acxiom had its own security breaches.
But privacy advocates say they are more troubled by data brokers’ ranking systems, which classify some people as high-value prospects, to be offered marketing deals and discounts regularly, while dismissing others as low-value — known in industry slang as “waste.”
Exclusion from a vacation offer may not matter much, says Pam Dixon, the executive director of the World Privacy Forum, a nonprofit group in San Diego, but if marketing algorithms judge certain people as not worthy of receiving promotions for higher education or health services, they could have a serious impact.
“Over time, that can really turn into a mountain of pathways not offered, not seen and not known about,” Ms. Dixon says.
Until now, database marketers operated largely out of the public eye. Unlike consumer reporting agencies that sell sensitive financial information about people for credit or employment purposes, database marketers aren’t required by law to show consumers their own reports and allow them to correct errors. That may be about to change. This year, the F.T.C. published a report calling for greater transparency among data brokers and asking Congress to give consumers the right to access information these firms hold about them.
ACXIOM’S Consumer Data Products Catalog offers hundreds of details — called “elements” — that corporate clients can buy about individuals or households, to augment their own marketing databases. Companies can buy data to pinpoint households that are concerned, say, about allergies, diabetes or “senior needs.” Also for sale is information on sizes of home loans and household incomes.
Clients generally buy this data because they want to hold on to their best customers or find new ones — or both.
A bank that wants to sell its best customers additional services, for example, might buy details about those customers’ social media, Web and mobile habits to identify more efficient ways to market to them. Or, says Mr. Frankland at Forrester, a sporting goods chain whose best customers are 25- to 34-year-old men living near mountains or beaches could buy a list of a million other people with the same characteristics. The retailer could hire Acxiom, he says, to manage a campaign aimed at that new group, testing how factors like consumers’ locations or sports preferences affect responses.
But the catalog also offers delicate information that has set off alarm bells among some privacy advocates, who worry about the potential for misuse by third parties that could take aim at vulnerable groups. Such information includes consumers’ interests — derived, the catalog says, “from actual purchases and self-reported surveys” — like “Christian families,” “Dieting/Weight Loss,” “Gaming-Casino,” “Money Seekers” and “Smoking/Tobacco.” Acxiom also sells data about an individual’s race, ethnicity and country of origin. “Our Race model,” the catalog says, “provides information on the major racial category: Caucasians, Hispanics, African-Americans, or Asians.” Competing companies sell similar data.
Acxiom’s data about race or ethnicity is “used for engaging those communities for marketing purposes,” said Ms. Barrett Glasgow, the privacy officer, in an e-mail response to questions.
There may be a legitimate commercial need for some businesses, like ethnic restaurants, to know the race or ethnicity of consumers, says Joel R. Reidenberg, a privacy expert and a professor at the Fordham Law School.
“At the same time, this is ethnic profiling,” he says. “The people on this list, they are being sold based on their ethnic stereotypes. There is a very strong citizen’s right to have a veto over the commodification of their profile.”
He says the sale of such data is troubling because race coding may be incorrect. And even if a data broker has correct information, a person may not want to be marketed to based on race.
“DO you really know your customers?” Acxiom asks in marketing materials for its shopper recognition system, a program that uses ZIP codes to help retailers confirm consumers’ identities — without asking their permission.
“Simply asking for name and address information poses many challenges: transcription errors, increased checkout time and, worse yet, losing customers who feel that you’re invading their privacy,” Acxiom’s fact sheet explains. In its system, a store clerk need only “capture the shopper’s name from a check or third-party credit card at the point of sale and then ask for the shopper’s ZIP code or telephone number.” With that data Acxiom can identify shoppers within a 10 percent margin of error, it says, enabling stores to reward their best customers with special offers. Other companies offer similar services.
“This is a direct way of circumventing people’s concerns about privacy,” says Mr. Chester of the Center for Digital Democracy.
Ms. Barrett Glasgow of Acxiom says that its program is a “standard practice” among retailers, but that the company encourages its clients to report consumers who wish to opt out.
Acxiom has positioned itself as an industry leader in data privacy, but some of its practices seem to undermine that image. It created the position of chief privacy officer in 1991, well ahead of its rivals. It even offers an online request form, promoted as an easy way for consumers to access information Acxiom collects about them.
But the process turned out to be not so user-friendly for a reporter for The Times.
In early May, the reporter decided to request her record from Acxiom, as any consumer might. Before submitting a Social Securitynumber and other personal information, however, she asked for advice from a cybersecurity expert at The Times. The expert examined Acxiom’s Web site and immediately noticed that the online form did not employ a standard encryption protocol — called https — used by sites like Amazon and American Express. When the expert tested the form, using software that captures data sent over the Web, he could clearly see that the sample Social Security number he had submitted had not been encrypted. At that point, the reporter was advised not to request her file, given the risk that the process might expose her personal information.
Later in May, Ashkan Soltani, an independent security researcher and former technologist in identity protection at the F.T.C., also examined Acxiom’s site and came to the same conclusion. “Parts of the site for corporate clients are encrypted,” he says. “But for consumers, who this information is about and who stand the most to lose from data collection, they don’t provide security.”
Ms. Barrett Glasgow says that the form has always been encrypted with https but that on May 11, its security monitoring system detected a “broken redirect link” that allowed unencrypted access. Since then, she says, Acxiom has fixed the link and determined that no unauthorized person had gained access to information sent using the form.
On May 25, the reporter submitted an online request to Acxiom for her file, along with a personal check, sent by Express Mail, for the $5 processing fee. Three weeks later, no response had arrived.
Regulators at the F.T.C. declined to comment on the practices of individual companies. But Jon Leibowitz, the commission chairman, said consumers should have the right to see and correct personal details about them collected and sold by data aggregators.
After all, he said, “they are the unseen cyberazzi who collect information on all of us.”
________________________________________
June 2, 2012
In Land of Gas Drilling, Battle for Water That Doesn’t Reek or Fizz
By DAN FROSCH
PAVILLION, Wyo. — It has been more than four decades since the first well was drilled in the natural gas field beneath this stretch of slow rolling alfalfa and sugar beet farms. But for some who live here, in the shadows of the Wind River Mountains, the drilling rigs have brought more than jobs and industry.
For the last few years, a small group of farmers and landowners scattered across this rural Wyoming basin have complained that their water wells have been contaminated with chemicals from a controversial drilling technique known as hydraulic fracturing, or fracking.
A draft report by the Environmental Protection Agency, issued in December, appeared to confirm their concerns, linking chemicals in local groundwater to gas drilling.
But here on the front lines of the battle over fracking, which has become an increasingly popular technique to extract previously unobtainable reserves of oil and gas, no conclusion is yet definitive.
After an outcry from Wyoming’s governor, Matt Mead, and the energy industry that the federal report was premature and inconclusive, more testing was conducted by the United States Geological Survey and is being processed. The E.P.A. is also in the midst of collecting additional water samples for study.
In the meantime, the state has offered to provide cisterns for local residents, using $750,000 allocated by the Wyoming Legislature this year. Under the plan, people here would still have to pay a fee to have their water hauled from the nearby community of Pavillion, at a cost that could run more than $150 per month.
“I’d like to have the industry held accountable for once,” said Jeff Locker, a hay and barley farmer who said that his well water had gone bad around the mid-’90s and that the contaminants had contributed to his wife’s neuropathy. “We’ve got scientific proof. And they’re still turning their back on us. They expect us to pay between $100 and $200 for something we didn’t cause. It gets under my skin.”
Encana Oil and Gas (U.S.A.) Inc., which bought the Pavillion gas field in 2004 and operates about 125 gas wells in the area, is already providing jugs of drinking water for Mr. Locker and 20 other households. It is unclear whether Encana will defray any of the cost of the cistern water.
“Until there is a peer-reviewed study and a good scientific basis that indicates that the issues related to water are related to our operations, that is not something we are ready to address,” said Doug Hock, an Encana spokesman.
Encana has maintained that water in the area is naturally poor and that its operations did not cause the problems — fracking had also occurred before the company purchased the gas field. Moreover, the energy industry has steadfastly pointed out that there has never been any conclusive link between fracking and water contamination.
Mr. Hock said it should have come as no surprise that the E.P.A.’s two monitoring wells showed high levels of methane and benzene because they were drilled deep into a natural gas field.
But some locals say the draft report’s analysis of water samples, which identified synthetic chemicals consistent with natural gas drilling and hydraulic fracturing fluids, is proof of what they suspected for years.
“These are people that had good water,” said John Fenton, a barrel-chested farmer and chairman of the Pavillion Area Concerned Citizens group. “And it changed when there was this rush to come in here and develop the area when they didn’t understand the geology.”
Mr. Fenton said he thought he had dodged a bullet until about three years ago, when his tap water began occasionally fizzing and smelling like petroleum. And even though Encana is giving him drinking water, Mr. Fenton said he and his family still bathe in dirty water.
Renny MacKay, a spokesman for Mr. Mead, said the governor was committed to figuring out a long-term fix for about 20 homes whose water was found to contain contaminants while the source of the pollution is studied.
“The governor believes let’s get more data points, let’s do more science on this that is peer reviewed and whatever the conclusion, you go from there,” he said.
At a meeting at the town high school on Thursday night, state environmental and water officials explained how the cisterns would work to about 50 people in attendance.
Some worried about their property values being deflated because of the attention the water contamination had drawn.
“Most of the property out here is fine,” said Jon Martin, a local landowner. “There’s nothing wrong with it. This is a shallow gas field. When you pass 200 feet, you’re liable to hit natural gas. This isn’t a fracking problem.”
Most residents seemed open to installing cisterns, peppering the officials with questions. How much would it cost? Was this the only option? And what of the additional water samples drawn by the United States Geological Survey, whose results will be released this fall, and the E.P.A.’s draft report and new data, which will be reviewed by an independent panel? For now, there were plenty of unknowns.
Louis Meeks, a landowner whose tap water reeks like diesel fuel, listened quietly. He said he had been trying to clean his water for years to no avail, and no longer lets his granddaughter wash her clothes or bathe in his home. Recently, Mr. Meeks printed business cards for anyone interested in his predicament. A glass of water is pictured prominently.
“Fresh, fizzy ... Fracked,” the cards read.
Source: The New York Times, Sat. 6/2/12
For private, non-commercial use, only
________________________________
In Land of Gas Drilling, Battle for Water That Doesn’t Reek or Fizz
By DAN FROSCH
PAVILLION, Wyo. — It has been more than four decades since the first well was drilled in the natural gas field beneath this stretch of slow rolling alfalfa and sugar beet farms. But for some who live here, in the shadows of the Wind River Mountains, the drilling rigs have brought more than jobs and industry.
For the last few years, a small group of farmers and landowners scattered across this rural Wyoming basin have complained that their water wells have been contaminated with chemicals from a controversial drilling technique known as hydraulic fracturing, or fracking.
A draft report by the Environmental Protection Agency, issued in December, appeared to confirm their concerns, linking chemicals in local groundwater to gas drilling.
But here on the front lines of the battle over fracking, which has become an increasingly popular technique to extract previously unobtainable reserves of oil and gas, no conclusion is yet definitive.
After an outcry from Wyoming’s governor, Matt Mead, and the energy industry that the federal report was premature and inconclusive, more testing was conducted by the United States Geological Survey and is being processed. The E.P.A. is also in the midst of collecting additional water samples for study.
In the meantime, the state has offered to provide cisterns for local residents, using $750,000 allocated by the Wyoming Legislature this year. Under the plan, people here would still have to pay a fee to have their water hauled from the nearby community of Pavillion, at a cost that could run more than $150 per month.
“I’d like to have the industry held accountable for once,” said Jeff Locker, a hay and barley farmer who said that his well water had gone bad around the mid-’90s and that the contaminants had contributed to his wife’s neuropathy. “We’ve got scientific proof. And they’re still turning their back on us. They expect us to pay between $100 and $200 for something we didn’t cause. It gets under my skin.”
Encana Oil and Gas (U.S.A.) Inc., which bought the Pavillion gas field in 2004 and operates about 125 gas wells in the area, is already providing jugs of drinking water for Mr. Locker and 20 other households. It is unclear whether Encana will defray any of the cost of the cistern water.
“Until there is a peer-reviewed study and a good scientific basis that indicates that the issues related to water are related to our operations, that is not something we are ready to address,” said Doug Hock, an Encana spokesman.
Encana has maintained that water in the area is naturally poor and that its operations did not cause the problems — fracking had also occurred before the company purchased the gas field. Moreover, the energy industry has steadfastly pointed out that there has never been any conclusive link between fracking and water contamination.
Mr. Hock said it should have come as no surprise that the E.P.A.’s two monitoring wells showed high levels of methane and benzene because they were drilled deep into a natural gas field.
But some locals say the draft report’s analysis of water samples, which identified synthetic chemicals consistent with natural gas drilling and hydraulic fracturing fluids, is proof of what they suspected for years.
“These are people that had good water,” said John Fenton, a barrel-chested farmer and chairman of the Pavillion Area Concerned Citizens group. “And it changed when there was this rush to come in here and develop the area when they didn’t understand the geology.”
Mr. Fenton said he thought he had dodged a bullet until about three years ago, when his tap water began occasionally fizzing and smelling like petroleum. And even though Encana is giving him drinking water, Mr. Fenton said he and his family still bathe in dirty water.
Renny MacKay, a spokesman for Mr. Mead, said the governor was committed to figuring out a long-term fix for about 20 homes whose water was found to contain contaminants while the source of the pollution is studied.
“The governor believes let’s get more data points, let’s do more science on this that is peer reviewed and whatever the conclusion, you go from there,” he said.
At a meeting at the town high school on Thursday night, state environmental and water officials explained how the cisterns would work to about 50 people in attendance.
Some worried about their property values being deflated because of the attention the water contamination had drawn.
“Most of the property out here is fine,” said Jon Martin, a local landowner. “There’s nothing wrong with it. This is a shallow gas field. When you pass 200 feet, you’re liable to hit natural gas. This isn’t a fracking problem.”
Most residents seemed open to installing cisterns, peppering the officials with questions. How much would it cost? Was this the only option? And what of the additional water samples drawn by the United States Geological Survey, whose results will be released this fall, and the E.P.A.’s draft report and new data, which will be reviewed by an independent panel? For now, there were plenty of unknowns.
Louis Meeks, a landowner whose tap water reeks like diesel fuel, listened quietly. He said he had been trying to clean his water for years to no avail, and no longer lets his granddaughter wash her clothes or bathe in his home. Recently, Mr. Meeks printed business cards for anyone interested in his predicament. A glass of water is pictured prominently.
“Fresh, fizzy ... Fracked,” the cards read.
Source: The New York Times, Sat. 6/2/12
For private, non-commercial use, only
________________________________
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DIGITAL DOMAIN
‘Exergames’ Don’t Cure Young Couch Potatoes
By RANDALL STROSS
Published: June 24, 2012
GETTING our sedentary, overweight children off the couch is a challenge. That’s why the Nintendo Wii game console, which arrived in the United States six years ago, was such an exciting prospect. It offered the chance for children to get exercise without even leaving the house.
Tennis was one of the games in the Wii Sports software that came right in the box with the console. This was the progenitor of “exergames,” video games that led to hopes that fitness could turn into irresistible fun.
But exergames turn out to be much digital ado about nothing, at least as far as measurable health benefits for children. “Active” video games distributed to homes with children do not produce the increase in physical activity that naïve parents (like me) expected. That’s according to a study undertaken by the Children’s Nutrition Research Center at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, and published early this year in Pediatrics, the official journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics.
Previous studies have shown that adults and children who play active video games, when encouraged in an ideal laboratory setting, engage in moderate, even vigorous physical activity briefly. The Baylor team wanted to determine what happened when the games were used not in a laboratory, but in actual homes.
The participants in this study were children 9 to 12 years old who had a body mass index above the median and whose households did not already have a video game console. Each was given a Wii. Half were randomly assigned to a group that could choose two among the five most physically demanding games that could be found: Active Life: Extreme Challenge; EA Sports Active; Dance Dance Revolution; Wii Fit Plus; and Wii Sports. The other half could choose among the most popular games that are played passively, like Disney Sing It: Pop Hits and Madden NFL 10.
The participants agreed to wear accelerometers periodically to measure physical activity over the 13-week experiment. To observe how well the intrinsic appeal of active games changed children’s behavior, the researchers distributed the consoles and games without exhortations to exercise frequently.
They found “no evidence that children receiving the active video games were more active in general, or at any time, than children receiving the inactive video games.”
How is it possible that children who play active video games do not emerge well ahead in physical activity? One of the authors of the Pediatrics article, Anthony Barnett, an exercise physiologist who is a consultant at the University of Hong Kong, explains that the phenomenon is well known in the field.
“When you prescribe increased physical activity, overall activity remains the same because the subjects compensate by reducing other physical activities during the day,” he says.
Changing sedentary behavior is extremely difficult, says Dr. Charles T. Cappetta, an executive committee member of the American Academy of Pediatrics’ Council on Sports Medicine and Fitness. “It may seem that active video games are an easy solution to getting kids off the couch,” he says. “But as this study and others show, they do no such thing.”
He says that “live sports” — the kind that are outside of the home, without controllers and television monitors — “remain the gold standard to get cardiovascular benefit.”
Last year, the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research published a small-scale study of use of the Wii Fit by adults and children in homes over three months and its impact on physical activity and fitness.
“When the Wii Fit was introduced in 2008, it targeted fitness instead of just entertainment,” says Scott G. Owens, an associate professor of exercise science at the University of Mississippi and the lead author. “This caught our attention. Anything that comes out that might help kids be more physically active would be of interest to us.”
PROFESSOR OWENS and his colleagues offered Wii Fit games to eight households that responded to advertisements seeking study participants. Before the games arrived, the researchers used accelerometers to set the baseline of the participants’ physical activity and ran fitness tests. Measurements were taken again six weeks and 12 weeks after.
“A major finding was the dramatic drop in daily use after the first six weeks,” Professor Owens says. The Wii Fit was used an average of 22 minutes a day by everyone in the household in the first six weeks, but only four minutes a day in the second six weeks. At the end, health-related fitness measures were essentially unchanged.
Professor Owens says he presented the findings at the 2010 meeting of the Games for Health conference, which focuses on video games. “The academics who presented at the meeting tended not to be surprised by our findings. But the exergame developers and marketers were disappointed, I think.”
Asked about this study and the one at Baylor, a Nintendo spokesman issued this statement: “While Nintendo does not make any health claims with active-play games like Wii Sports and Wii Fit Plus, we hope that the games encourage users to be more physically active. They are designed to get people up off the couch and to have fun.”
For physical activity that brings measurable health benefits, kids need things like real balls, real rackets and real courts.
Randall Stross is an author based in Silicon Valley and a professor of business at San Jose State University
Source:
A version of this article appeared in print on June 24, 2012, on page BU3 of the New York edition with the headline: ‘Exergames’ Don’t Cure Young Couch Potatoes.
For private, non-commercial use, only
________________________________
DIGITAL DOMAIN
‘Exergames’ Don’t Cure Young Couch Potatoes
By RANDALL STROSS
Published: June 24, 2012
GETTING our sedentary, overweight children off the couch is a challenge. That’s why the Nintendo Wii game console, which arrived in the United States six years ago, was such an exciting prospect. It offered the chance for children to get exercise without even leaving the house.
Tennis was one of the games in the Wii Sports software that came right in the box with the console. This was the progenitor of “exergames,” video games that led to hopes that fitness could turn into irresistible fun.
But exergames turn out to be much digital ado about nothing, at least as far as measurable health benefits for children. “Active” video games distributed to homes with children do not produce the increase in physical activity that naïve parents (like me) expected. That’s according to a study undertaken by the Children’s Nutrition Research Center at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, and published early this year in Pediatrics, the official journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics.
Previous studies have shown that adults and children who play active video games, when encouraged in an ideal laboratory setting, engage in moderate, even vigorous physical activity briefly. The Baylor team wanted to determine what happened when the games were used not in a laboratory, but in actual homes.
The participants in this study were children 9 to 12 years old who had a body mass index above the median and whose households did not already have a video game console. Each was given a Wii. Half were randomly assigned to a group that could choose two among the five most physically demanding games that could be found: Active Life: Extreme Challenge; EA Sports Active; Dance Dance Revolution; Wii Fit Plus; and Wii Sports. The other half could choose among the most popular games that are played passively, like Disney Sing It: Pop Hits and Madden NFL 10.
The participants agreed to wear accelerometers periodically to measure physical activity over the 13-week experiment. To observe how well the intrinsic appeal of active games changed children’s behavior, the researchers distributed the consoles and games without exhortations to exercise frequently.
They found “no evidence that children receiving the active video games were more active in general, or at any time, than children receiving the inactive video games.”
How is it possible that children who play active video games do not emerge well ahead in physical activity? One of the authors of the Pediatrics article, Anthony Barnett, an exercise physiologist who is a consultant at the University of Hong Kong, explains that the phenomenon is well known in the field.
“When you prescribe increased physical activity, overall activity remains the same because the subjects compensate by reducing other physical activities during the day,” he says.
Changing sedentary behavior is extremely difficult, says Dr. Charles T. Cappetta, an executive committee member of the American Academy of Pediatrics’ Council on Sports Medicine and Fitness. “It may seem that active video games are an easy solution to getting kids off the couch,” he says. “But as this study and others show, they do no such thing.”
He says that “live sports” — the kind that are outside of the home, without controllers and television monitors — “remain the gold standard to get cardiovascular benefit.”
Last year, the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research published a small-scale study of use of the Wii Fit by adults and children in homes over three months and its impact on physical activity and fitness.
“When the Wii Fit was introduced in 2008, it targeted fitness instead of just entertainment,” says Scott G. Owens, an associate professor of exercise science at the University of Mississippi and the lead author. “This caught our attention. Anything that comes out that might help kids be more physically active would be of interest to us.”
PROFESSOR OWENS and his colleagues offered Wii Fit games to eight households that responded to advertisements seeking study participants. Before the games arrived, the researchers used accelerometers to set the baseline of the participants’ physical activity and ran fitness tests. Measurements were taken again six weeks and 12 weeks after.
“A major finding was the dramatic drop in daily use after the first six weeks,” Professor Owens says. The Wii Fit was used an average of 22 minutes a day by everyone in the household in the first six weeks, but only four minutes a day in the second six weeks. At the end, health-related fitness measures were essentially unchanged.
Professor Owens says he presented the findings at the 2010 meeting of the Games for Health conference, which focuses on video games. “The academics who presented at the meeting tended not to be surprised by our findings. But the exergame developers and marketers were disappointed, I think.”
Asked about this study and the one at Baylor, a Nintendo spokesman issued this statement: “While Nintendo does not make any health claims with active-play games like Wii Sports and Wii Fit Plus, we hope that the games encourage users to be more physically active. They are designed to get people up off the couch and to have fun.”
For physical activity that brings measurable health benefits, kids need things like real balls, real rackets and real courts.
Randall Stross is an author based in Silicon Valley and a professor of business at San Jose State University
Source:
A version of this article appeared in print on June 24, 2012, on page BU3 of the New York edition with the headline: ‘Exergames’ Don’t Cure Young Couch Potatoes.
For private, non-commercial use, only
________________________________
Cardboard bicycle is a game-changer for commuters
Cardboard bicycle can change the world, says Israeli inventor Izhar Gafni
The bicycle made almost entirely of cardboard has the potential to change
transportation habits from the world's most congested cities to the poorest reaches of Africa
Reuter
Click green for further info
- CLICK green for pictures: Enlarge Gallery Israeli inventor Izhar Gafni holds his cardboard bicycle as he poses for a photo in Moshav Ahituv, central Israel September 24, 2012. The bicycle, made almost entirely of cardboard, has the potential to change …Enlarge Gallery
MOSHAV AHITUV, Israel (Reuters) - A bicycle made almost entirely of cardboard has the potential to change transportation habits from the world's most congested cities to the poorest reaches of Africa, its Israeli inventor says.
Izhar Gafni, 50, is an expert in designing automated mass-production lines. He is an amateur cycling enthusiast who for years toyed with an idea of making a bicycle from cardboard.
He told Reuters during a recent demonstration that after much trial and error, his latest prototype has now proven itself and mass production will begin in a few months.
"I was always fascinated by applying unconventional technologies to materials and I did this on several occasions. But this was the culmination of a few things that came together. I worked for four years to cancel out the corrugated cardboard's weak structural points," Gafni said.
"Making a cardboard box is easy and it can be very strong and durable, but to make a bicycle was extremely difficult and I had to find the right way to fold the cardboard in several different directions. It took a year and a half, with lots of testing and failure until I got it right," he said.
[Related: Bike thief leaves apology note]
Cardboard, made of wood pulp, was invented in the 19th century as sturdy packaging for carrying other more valuable objects, it has rarely been considered as raw material for things usually made of much stronger materials, such as metal.
Once the shape has been formed and cut, the cardboard is treated with a secret concoction made of organic materials to give it its waterproof and fireproof qualities. In the final stage, it is coated with lacquer paint for appearance.
In testing the durability of the treated cardboard, Gafni said he immersed a cross-section in a water tank for several months and it retained all its hardened characteristics.
Once ready for production, the bicycle will include no metal parts, even the brake mechanism and the wheel and pedal bearings will be made of recycled substances, although Gafni said he could not yet reveal those details due to pending patent issues.
[Related: Biker captures dramatic fall on video]
"I'm repeatedly surprised at just how strong this material is, it is amazing. Once we are ready to go to production, the bike will have no metal parts at all," Gafni said.
Gafni's workshop, a ramshackle garden shed, is typically the sort of place where legendary inventions are born. It is crammed with tools and bicycle parts and cardboard is strewn everywhere.
One of his first models was a push bike he made as a toy for his young daughter which she is still using months later.
Gafni owns several top-of-the-range bicycles which he said are worth thousands of dollars each, but when his own creation reaches mass production, it should cost no more than about $20 to buy. The cost of materials used are estimated at $9 per unit.
"When we started, a year and a half or two years ago, people laughed at us, but now we are getting at least a dozen e-mails every day asking where they can buy such a bicycle, so this really makes me hopeful that we will succeed," he said.
A ride of the prototype was quite stiff, but generally no different to other ordinary basic bikes.
"GAME CHANGER"
Nimrod Elmish, Gafni's business partner, said cardboard and other recycled materials could bring a major change in current production norms because grants and rebates would only be given for local production and there would be no financial benefits by making bicycles in cheap labor markets.
"This is a real game-changer. It changes ... the way products are manufactured and shipped, it causes factories to be built everywhere instead of moving production to cheaper labor markets, everything that we have known in the production world can change," he said.
Elmish said the cardboard bikes would be made on largely automated production lines and would be supplemented by a workforce comprising pensioners and the disabled.
He said that apart from the social benefits this would provide for all concerned, it would also garner government grants for the manufacturers.
[Related: Google's biggest idea yet?]
Elmish said the business model they had created meant that rebates for using "green" materials would entirely cancel out production costs and this could allow for bicycles to be given away for free in poor countries.
Producers would reap financial rewards from advertisements such as from multinational companies who would pay for their logo to be part of the frame, he explained.
"Because you get a lot of government grants, it brings down the production costs to zero, so the bicycles can be given away for free. We are copying a business model from the high-tech world where software is distributed free because it includes embedded advertising," Elmish explained.
"It could be sold for around $20, because (retailers) have to make a profit ... and we think they should not cost any more than that. We will make our money from advertising," he added.
Elmish said initial production was set to begin in Israel in months on three bicycle models and a wheelchair and they will be available to purchase within a year.
"In six months we will have completed planning the first production lines for an urban bike which will be assisted by an electric motor, a youth bike which will be a 2/3 size model for children in Africa, a balance bike for youngsters learning to ride, and a wheelchair that a non-profit organization wants to build with our technology for Africa," he said.
CHEAP AND LIGHT
The bicycles are not only very cheap to make, they are very light and do not need to be adjusted or repaired, the solid tires that are made of reconstituted rubber from old car tires will never get a puncture, Elmish said.
"These bikes need no maintenance and no adjustment, a car timing belt is used instead of a chain, and the tires do not need inflating and can last for 10 years," he said.
A full-size cardboard bicycle will weigh around 9 kg (about 20 lbs) compared to an average metal bicycle, which weight around 14 kg.
The urban bicycle, similar to London's "Boris bikes" and others worldwide, will have a mounting for a personal electric motor. Commuters would buy one and use it for their journey and then take it home or to work where it could be recharged.
He said that as bicycles would be so cheap, it hardly mattered how long they lasted.
"So you buy one, use it for a year and then you can buy another one, and if it breaks, you can take it back to the factory and recycle it," he said.
Gafni predicted that in the future, cardboard might even be used in cars and even aircraft "but that is still a way down the road."
"We are just at the beginning and from here my vision is to see cardboard replacing metals ... and countries that right now don't have the money, will be able to benefit from so many uses for this material," he said.
Source:
Reuter News
This article is for your private use, only
_________________________________________________
Source: The New York Times
April 26, 2012
Study Sheds Light on How Birds Navigate by Magnetic Field
By JAMES GORMAN
Birds are famously good navigators. Some migrate thousands of miles, flying day and night, even when the stars are obscured. And for decades, scientists have known that one navigational skill they employ is an ability to detect variations in the earth’s magnetic field.
How this magnetic sense works, however, has been frustratingly difficult to figure out.
Now, two researchers at Baylor College of Medicine, Le-Qing Wu and David Dickman, have solved a central part of that puzzle, identifying cells in a pigeon’s brain that record detailed information on the earth’s magnetic field, a kind of biological compass.
“It’s a stunning piece of work,” David Keays of the Institute of Molecular Pathology in Vienna wrote in an e-mail. “Wu and Dickman have found cells in the pigeon brain that are tuned to specific directions of the magnetic field.”
Their report appeared online in Science Express on Thursday. Kenneth Lohmann at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, who also studies magnetic sensing, said in an e-mail that the study was “very exciting and important.”
Navigating by magnetism includes several steps. Birds have to have a way to detect a magnetic field, and some part of the brain has to register that information; it seems likely that another part of the brain then compares the incoming information to a stored map.
The Baylor researchers have offered a solution to the middle step. They identified a group of cells in the brainstem of pigeons that record both the direction and the strength of the magnetic field. And they have good, but not conclusive, evidence to suggest that the information these cells are recording is coming from the bird’s inner ear. Dr. Dickman said this research “is still something we want to pursue.”
They did not work on the third step, but Dr. Dickman said a good candidate for the location of that map was the hippocampus, the brain region involved in memory of locations in both birds and humans.
A well-known and often-mentioned study of London taxi drivers showed that experienced drivers with a mental map of London had a hippocampus larger in one area than people without their experience. In some birds that hide seeds and return later to their caches with astonishing accuracy, the hippocampus grows and shrinks seasonally, presumably as they map their hiding spots.
Efforts to understand the magnetic sense in birds have gone in several directions. Some researchers have offered evidence for chemical reactions in the eyes sensitive to magnetic signals, while others have looked at neurons in the beak that they thought contained minute amounts of magnetite, a mineral that is affected by magnetic fields.
Just a few weeks ago, Dr. Keays and colleagues reported in the journal Nature that the idea of neurons in the beak was a nonstarter.
The Baylor researchers did a kind of step-by-step tracking of what areas in pigeons’ brains were responding to variations in an artificial magnetic field that they created. They focused on activity in the brainstem, one of the most primitive parts of the brain, partly because in earlier work they had shown that this area of the brain received signals from a part of the inner ear.
By looking at specific neurons in this part of the brain, the researchers found that the bird’s orientation determined which neurons were active. Each neuron was tuned to respond to signals from one direction. The neurons also registered the strength of the magnetic field.
Other brain regions are also active in response to magnetic stimulation and may be involved in the magnetic sense, Dr. Dickman said. And although he does not provide an answer to how birds detect magnetism, the research clearly falls on one side of a debate over whether magnetite is involved, or whether chemical reactions in the eye may be the key.
Dr. Keays said the research gave strong support to the magnetite idea and the hypothesis that “a population of undiscovered magnetoreceptive cells reside in the pigeon’s ear.”
As Dr. Lohmann said, the discovery “will no doubt inspire much additional work in the future.”
This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:
Correction: April 30, 2012
An article on Friday about a magnetic sense that helps birds navigate misidentified an iron-containing substance found in a recent analysis of beaks. It is ferrihydrite, not magnetite. (The study found that the cells containing the substance were not involved in navigation.)
_______________________________________
World's Highest Skydive!
Daredevil Makes Record-Breaking Supersonic Jump
By Mike Wall | SPACE.com
Click green for further info
An Austrian daredevil plummeted into the record books on Sunday, Oct. 14, 2012, breaking the mark for highest-ever skydive after leaping from a balloon more than 24 miles above Earth's surface. Add one more feat: Going supersonic. Felix Baumgartner stepped into the void nearly 128,000 feet (39,000 meters) above southeastern New Mexico Sunday, 10/14/12, at just after 12 p.m. MT (2 p.m. ET, 1800 GMT), then landed safely on the desert floor about 20 minutes later. His harrowing plunge shattered the skydiving altitude record, which had stood for more than 50 years, and it notched a few other firsts as well.
During his freefall, for example, Baumgartner became the first skydiver ever to break the sound barrier, which is about 690 mph (1,110 kph) at such lofty heights. And this happened on a special day — today is the 65th anniversary of the first supersonic airplane flight, which was piloted by American Chuck Yeager in 1947 aboard the Bell X-1 rocket plane.
"I know the whole world is watching now, and I wish the world could see what I see," Baumgartner said just before the leap. "And sometimes you have to go up really high to see how small you really are." [Photos: Skydiver's Makes Record 24-Mile Supersonic Jump]
Preliminary results of the jump showed Baumgartner spent about 4 minutes and 20 seconds in freefall (a record without a drogue parachute). His maximum speed was 833 mph (1,342.8 kph), said Brian Utley, an air sports official watching over event.
The jump's top speed was thus Mach 1.24 — considerably faster than the speed of sound. Applause and cheers erupted in a post-jump press conference as Utley relayed the good news.
Baumgartner said he didn't feel anything different while breaking the sound barrier.
"When you're in that pressure suit, you don't feel anything. It's like being in a cast," he said.
About the only glitch during the jump was a problem with the faceplate heater in Baumgartner's helmet, which the skydiver and his Mission Control team worked on during the hours-long ascent. They ultimately decided to proceed with the jump despite the heater glitch, and later Baumgartner reported the heater was working.
While in freefall, Baumgartner went into a harrowing spin briefly, but was able to recover and go into a controlled descent. He said his visor was fogging up during the dramatic descent. After the daredevil fell toward Earth for more than four minutes, his parachute deployed and applause erupted from his Mission Control.
Roof of the sky
Baumgartner's mission — called Red Bull Stratos, and sponsored by the Red Bull energy drink company — also set the record for highest-ever manned balloon flight, officials said. Project officials touted the skydive as a "space jump," calling it a "Mission to the Edge of Space."
The officially recognized space border is actually higher, however. Most experts generally regard space to begin at an altitude of 62 miles (100 kilometers), or about 327,000 feet.
One of the many folks congratulating Baumgartner today is doubtless Joe Kittinger, who set the previous altitude mark of 102,800 feet (31,333 m) in 1960 while a captain in the U.S. Air Force. Kittinger serves as an adviser to the Red Bull Stratos mission and communicated with Baumgartner during his ascent from mission control on the ground. [Extreme Skydive From 120,000 Feet Animated]
"I couldn't have done it any better myself," Kittinger radioed Baumgartner as he descended under parachute.
The 43-year-old Baumgartner is a veteran thrill-seeker, having leapt from some of the world's tallest buildings and soared across the English Channel in freefall with the aid of a carbon wing. But he said today's historic jump should do more than just etch his name in the record books.
"Red Bull Stratos is an opportunity to gather information that could contribute to the development of life-saving measures for astronauts and pilots — and maybe for the space tourists of tomorrow," Baumgartner said in a statement before his leap. "Proving that a human can break the speed of sound in the stratosphere and return to Earth would be a step toward creating near-space bailout procedures that currently don’t exist."
Liftoff for Red Bull Stratos
Baumgartner's 55-story helium-filled balloon lifted off from Roswell, N.M. around 9:30 a.m. local time today (11:30 a.m. EDT; 1530 GMT), carrying the daredevil aloft in his custom-built 2,900-pound (1,315 kilograms) capsule.
The balloon was originally supposed to take off Monday (Oct. 8), but that launch, and another attempt Tuesday (Oct. 9), were called off because of gusting winds. Even moderate breezes can damage the enormous balloon, which is made of material 10 times thinner than a plastic sandwich bag, Red Bull Stratos officials have said.
Some of the daredevil's close friends and family — including his parents, Felix and Eva — made the trip from Austria to witness his record-breaking leap, mission officials said.
"I know he is perfectly prepared," Eva Baumgartner said in a statement before her son's jump, which he had spent five years readying for. "I am happy that he can do this; he worked hard for it. It is his childhood dream coming true."
Baumgartner worked up to today's leap in a stepwise fashion, jumping from 71,581 feet (21,818 m) this past March and then from 97,146 feet (29,610 m) on July 25.
Jonathan Clark, a former NASA flight surgeon who served as the medical officer for Baumgartner's Red Bull Stratos mission, said nothing about the skydive was simple. From the faceplate heater to Baumgartner's early spin during freefall, the challenges were always great.
"This was not an easy task," Clark said. "The world needs a hero, and today they got one."
Source:
(click) SPACE.com
Click green for further info
This article is for your private use, only
__________________________________________________________________________
Daredevil Makes Record-Breaking Supersonic Jump
By Mike Wall | SPACE.com
Click green for further info
An Austrian daredevil plummeted into the record books on Sunday, Oct. 14, 2012, breaking the mark for highest-ever skydive after leaping from a balloon more than 24 miles above Earth's surface. Add one more feat: Going supersonic. Felix Baumgartner stepped into the void nearly 128,000 feet (39,000 meters) above southeastern New Mexico Sunday, 10/14/12, at just after 12 p.m. MT (2 p.m. ET, 1800 GMT), then landed safely on the desert floor about 20 minutes later. His harrowing plunge shattered the skydiving altitude record, which had stood for more than 50 years, and it notched a few other firsts as well.
During his freefall, for example, Baumgartner became the first skydiver ever to break the sound barrier, which is about 690 mph (1,110 kph) at such lofty heights. And this happened on a special day — today is the 65th anniversary of the first supersonic airplane flight, which was piloted by American Chuck Yeager in 1947 aboard the Bell X-1 rocket plane.
"I know the whole world is watching now, and I wish the world could see what I see," Baumgartner said just before the leap. "And sometimes you have to go up really high to see how small you really are." [Photos: Skydiver's Makes Record 24-Mile Supersonic Jump]
Preliminary results of the jump showed Baumgartner spent about 4 minutes and 20 seconds in freefall (a record without a drogue parachute). His maximum speed was 833 mph (1,342.8 kph), said Brian Utley, an air sports official watching over event.
The jump's top speed was thus Mach 1.24 — considerably faster than the speed of sound. Applause and cheers erupted in a post-jump press conference as Utley relayed the good news.
Baumgartner said he didn't feel anything different while breaking the sound barrier.
"When you're in that pressure suit, you don't feel anything. It's like being in a cast," he said.
About the only glitch during the jump was a problem with the faceplate heater in Baumgartner's helmet, which the skydiver and his Mission Control team worked on during the hours-long ascent. They ultimately decided to proceed with the jump despite the heater glitch, and later Baumgartner reported the heater was working.
While in freefall, Baumgartner went into a harrowing spin briefly, but was able to recover and go into a controlled descent. He said his visor was fogging up during the dramatic descent. After the daredevil fell toward Earth for more than four minutes, his parachute deployed and applause erupted from his Mission Control.
Roof of the sky
Baumgartner's mission — called Red Bull Stratos, and sponsored by the Red Bull energy drink company — also set the record for highest-ever manned balloon flight, officials said. Project officials touted the skydive as a "space jump," calling it a "Mission to the Edge of Space."
The officially recognized space border is actually higher, however. Most experts generally regard space to begin at an altitude of 62 miles (100 kilometers), or about 327,000 feet.
One of the many folks congratulating Baumgartner today is doubtless Joe Kittinger, who set the previous altitude mark of 102,800 feet (31,333 m) in 1960 while a captain in the U.S. Air Force. Kittinger serves as an adviser to the Red Bull Stratos mission and communicated with Baumgartner during his ascent from mission control on the ground. [Extreme Skydive From 120,000 Feet Animated]
"I couldn't have done it any better myself," Kittinger radioed Baumgartner as he descended under parachute.
The 43-year-old Baumgartner is a veteran thrill-seeker, having leapt from some of the world's tallest buildings and soared across the English Channel in freefall with the aid of a carbon wing. But he said today's historic jump should do more than just etch his name in the record books.
"Red Bull Stratos is an opportunity to gather information that could contribute to the development of life-saving measures for astronauts and pilots — and maybe for the space tourists of tomorrow," Baumgartner said in a statement before his leap. "Proving that a human can break the speed of sound in the stratosphere and return to Earth would be a step toward creating near-space bailout procedures that currently don’t exist."
Liftoff for Red Bull Stratos
Baumgartner's 55-story helium-filled balloon lifted off from Roswell, N.M. around 9:30 a.m. local time today (11:30 a.m. EDT; 1530 GMT), carrying the daredevil aloft in his custom-built 2,900-pound (1,315 kilograms) capsule.
The balloon was originally supposed to take off Monday (Oct. 8), but that launch, and another attempt Tuesday (Oct. 9), were called off because of gusting winds. Even moderate breezes can damage the enormous balloon, which is made of material 10 times thinner than a plastic sandwich bag, Red Bull Stratos officials have said.
Some of the daredevil's close friends and family — including his parents, Felix and Eva — made the trip from Austria to witness his record-breaking leap, mission officials said.
"I know he is perfectly prepared," Eva Baumgartner said in a statement before her son's jump, which he had spent five years readying for. "I am happy that he can do this; he worked hard for it. It is his childhood dream coming true."
Baumgartner worked up to today's leap in a stepwise fashion, jumping from 71,581 feet (21,818 m) this past March and then from 97,146 feet (29,610 m) on July 25.
Jonathan Clark, a former NASA flight surgeon who served as the medical officer for Baumgartner's Red Bull Stratos mission, said nothing about the skydive was simple. From the faceplate heater to Baumgartner's early spin during freefall, the challenges were always great.
"This was not an easy task," Clark said. "The world needs a hero, and today they got one."
- Photos: Daring Skydiver Makes Record 24-Mile Supersonic Jump
- 8 Craziest Skydives of All Time
- Space Jump: How Daredevil's Record-Breaking Supersonic Skydive Works (Infographic)
- Jump from space's edge provides collective moment
- Endeavour finally reaches permanent LA museum home
- AP PHOTOS: Skydiver's supersonic, 24-mile jump
- Leap of Faith: 5 Ways Skydiving 120,000 Feet Can Kill You
- 'Uncanny Valley' Unease May Start in Infancy
- How a Martian Meteorite Rocked the World
- Polar Bear Video Shows Dark Side of Drinking Soda — Will It Change Habits?
Source:
(click) SPACE.com
Click green for further info
This article is for your private use, only
__________________________________________________________________________
How to Make Your Car Last 200,000 Miles - and Beyond
By Katie LaBarre
U.S.News & World Report LP
Wed, Jun 27, 2012
Last October, the odometer in Joe LoCicero's 1990 Honda Accord rolled past the 1 million-mile mark. He's a damage claims inspector who reportedly drives his Accord about 62,500 miles every year. Honda not only gave "Million Mile Joe" a new Accord, but organized a parade in his home town in Maine in honor of the milestone.
Not many of us will own a car long enough to drive it a million miles, since most of us drive our cars about 15,000 miles per year, according to AAA. But experts agree that basic maintenance can help you stretch your car to 200,000 miles and beyond.
[Related: 5 money-saving DIY tips for car owners]
Read Your Owner's Manual - and Follow it
Joe Malizia Sr., owner of Bel Air Fast Lube in Maryland, says the best thing you can do is read your owner's manual as soon as you bring your new car home, and find out what your car's maintenance schedule is, since keeping up with the recommended maintenance schedule can prolong your car's life significantly. It may seem like a hassle to have to visit your mechanic every few months, and some may lament the higher price of the premium gas that's recommended for their car. But following those simple directions can prevent unnecessary problems that will wear your car out prematurely.
John Lawlor, technical advisor at NPR's Car Talk, agrees, saying "the least-read book in the world is the owner's manual." He adds that not only is maintaining your oil and fluids important, but keeping your tires properly inflated to the owner's manual's specs is another important factor to keeping your car on the road. Though making regular visits to the mechanic for normal maintenance may seem like the expenses will add up quickly, you'll most often be saving yourself lots of money in expensive repairs down the road. Like Lawlor says, "It is the cheapskate who spends the most."
Get Personal With Your Car
Unless you're a gearhead, you probably won't know how to change your spark plugs, or what makes your electronic stability control system kick in. But knowing basics like how to check your oil level and paying attention to your car when something feels wrong could save you a big repair bill down the road, say both Malizia and Lawlor.
[Related: 14 Things You Should Always Buy Used]
Malizia also says that it's very important to pay attention to your warning lights. Your vehicle's monitoring systems are there for a reason, and it's better to nip a problem in the bud rather than to let it escalate to catastrophic proportions that could keep you from reaching that 200,000-mile mark.
Lawlor says that one of the most important things you can do is keep your car clean. The paint on today's cars can be damaged by simple things like bird droppings, acid rain or sap. Always having a coat of wax on your car will prevent the paint from being damaged, which can keep the metal from rusting. Additionally, Lawlor says you should make sure you keep your interior clean. Dirt on your seats or dash can act like sandpaper, grinding into the surface every time you touch it.
Find a Mechanic You Can Trust
One of the best ways to ensure that your car is well taken-care of for the long haul is to find a mechanic you trust, Malizia says. We've all heard horror stories about garages charging unsuspecting customers for fictional "blinker fluid" problems, or going in to fix one problem and finding 15 more. But most technicians are honest and up-front, and building a relationship with a mechanic you trust will help you as you push your car past that 200,000-mile mark.
[Related: Debunking Fuel-Economy Myths]
Lawlor suggests taking later-model cars to the dealership, especially if they're under warranty. The more recent the car's model year, the more complex it's likely to be, and dealership technicians undergo specific training so they know your car like the back of their hand. While the dealership is likely worth the money for newer models, Lawlor says that you'll be better off taking cars that are more than 10 years old to your local mom-and-pop repair shop. They'll know the basics of your car well enough to perform maintenance like changing the brake pads, but most won't charge you as much as a dealership might.
No matter how you take care of your car, accidents are bound to happen and mechanical failures may be beyond your control. Properly maintaining your car will keep it on the road longer and will get you a higher price when it's time to sell it or trade it in. Take it from Joe Malizia: The highest-mileage car he's seen in his shop is his own 1993 Ford Taurus SHO, which is still going strong after 19 years and 238,000 miles.
More From US News & World Report
- U.S. News Car Rankings
- Best Cars for the Money
- Best Cars for Families
- _________________________
University professor to study life after death
Pop quiz: Does life exist after death?
August, 2012
A University of California, Riverside philosophy professor, John Martin Fischer, has been awarded a three-year, $5 million grant by the John Templeton Foundation to study just this topic—and yes, students can take his class.
Fischer noted in an email to Yahoo News, "Both I and my post-doc, Benjamin Mitchell-Yellin, will teach related classes over the next three years. I have frequently taught classes on death, immortality, and the meaning of life both at Yale University and UC Riverside."
So what's the meaning of life? More on that in a moment.
Fischer noted, "We'll be open both to studying religious and non-religious views about immortality. One thing that we'll study is whether human beings would want to live forever: would it be boring? Would it lose its meaning and beauty and urgency? Does death give meaning to life?"
According to the university's website announcing the grant award, many anecdotal reports of the afterlife abound, but there has been "no comprehensive and rigorous, scientific study of global reports about near-death and other experiences, or of how belief in immortality influences human behavior." The research will look at a range of phenomena, including heaven, hell, purgatory, and karma. The grant is the largest ever awarded to a humanities professor at UC Riverside, and one of the largest given to an individual at the university.
Fischer said in a statement, "We will be very careful in documenting near-death experiences and other phenomena, trying to figure out if these offer plausible glimpses of an afterlife or are biologically induced illusions," Fischer said. "Our approach will be uncompromisingly scientifically rigorous. We're not going to spend money to study alien-abduction reports."
The grant will also fund two conferences to discuss the findings. Said UC Riverside Chancellor Timothy P. White, Fischer's research "takes a universal concern and subjects it to rigorous examination to sift fact from fiction."
The Immortality Project, as it is called, will solicit research proposals from eminent scientists, philosophers and theologians whose work "will be reviewed by respected leaders in their fields and published in academic and popular journals."
The research will also delve into cultural aspects of the afterlife. For example, there are reports of millions of Americans seeing a tunnel with a bright light at the end. In Japan, reports often find the individual tending a garden.
The professor added that the academic research could include a range of issues, like "heaven and hell: If we are material beings, how can we exist in heaven, where we would not have physical bodies (or not of the sort we have here)?
"There is a lot of interest in near-death experiences. We can carefully catalog them and look into whether there are patterns. There has already been a lot of work on this. Perhaps some cross-cultural studies would be helpful.
"We'll also be open to studying the relationship between beliefs in afterlife and behavior--moral behavior and crime rates."
Sounds like the kind of research topics that many college students have already spent hours pondering. As for the meaning of life? The professor says check back in three years.
MORE COVERAGE FROM YAHOO! NEWS
______________________________________
Pop quiz: Does life exist after death?
August, 2012
A University of California, Riverside philosophy professor, John Martin Fischer, has been awarded a three-year, $5 million grant by the John Templeton Foundation to study just this topic—and yes, students can take his class.
Fischer noted in an email to Yahoo News, "Both I and my post-doc, Benjamin Mitchell-Yellin, will teach related classes over the next three years. I have frequently taught classes on death, immortality, and the meaning of life both at Yale University and UC Riverside."
So what's the meaning of life? More on that in a moment.
Fischer noted, "We'll be open both to studying religious and non-religious views about immortality. One thing that we'll study is whether human beings would want to live forever: would it be boring? Would it lose its meaning and beauty and urgency? Does death give meaning to life?"
According to the university's website announcing the grant award, many anecdotal reports of the afterlife abound, but there has been "no comprehensive and rigorous, scientific study of global reports about near-death and other experiences, or of how belief in immortality influences human behavior." The research will look at a range of phenomena, including heaven, hell, purgatory, and karma. The grant is the largest ever awarded to a humanities professor at UC Riverside, and one of the largest given to an individual at the university.
Fischer said in a statement, "We will be very careful in documenting near-death experiences and other phenomena, trying to figure out if these offer plausible glimpses of an afterlife or are biologically induced illusions," Fischer said. "Our approach will be uncompromisingly scientifically rigorous. We're not going to spend money to study alien-abduction reports."
The grant will also fund two conferences to discuss the findings. Said UC Riverside Chancellor Timothy P. White, Fischer's research "takes a universal concern and subjects it to rigorous examination to sift fact from fiction."
The Immortality Project, as it is called, will solicit research proposals from eminent scientists, philosophers and theologians whose work "will be reviewed by respected leaders in their fields and published in academic and popular journals."
The research will also delve into cultural aspects of the afterlife. For example, there are reports of millions of Americans seeing a tunnel with a bright light at the end. In Japan, reports often find the individual tending a garden.
The professor added that the academic research could include a range of issues, like "heaven and hell: If we are material beings, how can we exist in heaven, where we would not have physical bodies (or not of the sort we have here)?
"There is a lot of interest in near-death experiences. We can carefully catalog them and look into whether there are patterns. There has already been a lot of work on this. Perhaps some cross-cultural studies would be helpful.
"We'll also be open to studying the relationship between beliefs in afterlife and behavior--moral behavior and crime rates."
Sounds like the kind of research topics that many college students have already spent hours pondering. As for the meaning of life? The professor says check back in three years.
MORE COVERAGE FROM YAHOO! NEWS
- Republicans deliver ‘You Didn’t Bake This’ Obama cake
- Obama, after jobs figures, hits Republicans on taxes
- White House: 8.3 percent unemployment? No! 8.254 percent!
______________________________________
August 25, 2012
The Best Book Reviews Money Can Buy
TULSA , Okla. - TODD RUTHERFORD was 7 years old when he first understood the nature of supply and demand. He was with a bunch of other boys, one of whom showed off a copy of Playboy to giggles and intense interest. Todd bought the magazine for $5, tore out the racy pictures and resold them to his chums for a buck apiece. He made $20 before his father shut him down a few hours later.
A few years ago, Mr. Rutherford, then in his mid-30s, had another flash of illumination about how scarcity opens the door to opportunity.
He was part of the marketing department of a company that provided services to self-published writers — services that included persuading traditional media and blogs to review the books. It was uphill work. He could churn out press releases all day long, trying to be noticed, but there is only so much space for the umpteenth vampire novel or yet another self-improvement manifesto or one more homespun recollection of times gone by. There were not enough reviewers to go around.
Suddenly it hit him. Instead of trying to cajole others to review a client’s work, why not cut out the middleman and write the review himself? Then it would say exactly what the client wanted — that it was a terrific book. A shattering novel. A classic memoir. Will change your life. Lyrical and gripping, Stunning and compelling. Or words to that effect.
In the fall of 2010, Mr. Rutherford started a Web site, GettingBookReviews.com. At first, he advertised that he would review a book for $99. But some clients wanted a chorus proclaiming their excellence. So, for $499, Mr. Rutherford would do 20 online reviews. A few people needed a whole orchestra. For $999, he would do 50.
There were immediate complaints in online forums that the service was violating the sacred arm’s-length relationship between reviewer and author. But there were also orders, a lot of them. Before he knew it, he was taking in $28,000 a month.
A polite fellow with a rakish goatee and an entrepreneurial bent, Mr. Rutherford has been on the edges of publishing for most of his career. Before working for the self-publishing house, he owned a distributor of inspirational books. Before that, he was sales manager for a religious publishing house. Nothing ever quite worked out as well as he hoped. With the reviews business, though, “it was like I hit the mother lode.”
Reviews by ordinary people have become an essential mechanism for selling almost anything online; they are used for resorts, dermatologists, neighborhood restaurants, high-fashion boutiques, churches, parks, astrologers and healers — not to mention products like garbage pails, tweezers, spa slippers and cases for tablet computers. In many situations, these reviews are supplanting the marketing department, the press agent, advertisements, word of mouth and the professional critique.
But not just any kind of review will do. They have to be somewhere between enthusiastic and ecstatic.
“The wheels of online commerce run on positive reviews,” said Bing Liu, a data-mining expert at the University of Illinois, Chicago, whose 2008 research showed that 60 percent of the millions of product reviews on Amazon are five stars and an additional 20 percent are four stars. “But almost no one wants to write five-star reviews, so many of them have to be created.”
Consumer reviews are powerful because, unlike old-style advertising and marketing, they offer the illusion of truth. They purport to be testimonials of real people, even though some are bought and sold just like everything else on the commercial Internet.
Mr. Liu estimates that about one-third of all consumer reviews on the Internet are fake. Yet it is all but impossible to tell when reviews were written by the marketers or retailers (or by the authors themselves under pseudonyms), by customers (who might get a deal from a merchant for giving a good score) or by a hired third-party service.
The Federal Trade Commission has issued guidelines stating that all online endorsements need to make clear when there is a financial relationship, but enforcement has been minimal and there has been a lot of confusion in the blogosphere over how this affects traditional book reviews.
The tale of GettingBookReviews.com, which commissioned 4,531 reviews in its brief existence, is a story of a vast but hidden corner of the Internet, where Potemkin villages bursting with ardor arise overnight. At the same time, it shows how the book world is being transformed by the surging popularity of electronic self-publishing.
For decades a largely stagnant industry controlled from New York, book publishing is fragmenting and changing at high speed. Twenty percent of Amazon’s top-selling e-books are self-published. They do not get to the top without adulation, lots and lots of it.
Mr. Rutherford’s insight was that reviews had lost their traditional function. They were no longer there to evaluate the book or even to describe it but simply to vouch for its credibility, the way doctors put their diplomas on examination room walls. A reader hears about a book because an author is promoting it, and then checks it out on Amazon. The reader sees favorable reviews and is reassured that he is not wasting his time.
“I was creating reviews that pointed out the positive things, not the negative things,” Mr. Rutherford said. “These were marketing reviews, not editorial reviews.”
In essence, they were blurbs, the little puffs on the backs of books in the old days, when all books were physical objects and sold in stores. No one took blurbs very seriously, but books looked naked without them.
One of Mr. Rutherford’s clients, who confidently commissioned hundreds of reviews and didn’t even require them to be favorable, subsequently became a best seller. This is proof, Mr. Rutherford said, that his notion was correct. Attention, despite being contrived, draws more attention.
The system is enough to make you a little skeptical, which is where Mr. Rutherford finds himself. He is now suspicious of all online reviews — of books or anything else. “When there are 20 positive and one negative, I’m going to go with the negative,” he said. “I’m jaded.”
Trainloads of Books
“If there was anything the human race had a sufficiency of, a sufficiency and a surfeit, it was books,” the New Yorker writer Joseph Mitchell wrote in 1964. He reflected on “the cataracts of books, the Niagaras of books, the rushing rivers of books, the oceans of books, the tons and truckloads and trainloads of books that were pouring off the presses of the world at that moment,” regretting that so few would be “worth picking up and looking at, let alone reading.”
Since then, the pace of production has picked up quite a bit, although it is debatable whether Mr. Mitchell, who died in 1996, would be any more impressed by the quality. There has been a boom in what used to be called vanity publishers, which can efficiently produce physical copies that look just as good as anything from the traditional New York houses. But an even bigger factor is the explosion in electronic publishing. It used to take the same time to produce a book that it does to produce a baby. Now it takes about as long as boiling an egg.
In 2006, before Amazon supercharged electronic publishing with the Kindle, 51,237 self-published titles appeared as physical books, according to the data company Bowker. Last year, Bowker estimates that more than 300,000 self-published titles were issued in either print or digital form.
“I don’t know how many people have a book in them trying to get out, but if they do, all the barriers are being removed,” said Kelly Gallagher, vice president of Bowker Market Research. “This is a golden age of being able to make yourself more widely known.”
In theory, at least, good reviews are proof that a writer is finding his or her way, establishing an audience and has something worthwhile to say. So as soon as new authors confront that imperative line on their Amazon pages — “Be the first to review this item” — the temptation is great for them to start soliciting notices, at first among those closest at hand: family, friends and acquaintances. They want to be told how great they are.
“Nearly all human beings have unrealistically positive self-regard,” said Robert I. Sutton, a Stanford professor and the author of several traditionally published books on business psychology. “When people tell us we’re not as great as we thought we were, we don’t like it. Anything less than a five-star review is an attack.”
Mr. Sutton’s best-known book, about bullies in the workplace, had 110 five-star reviews on Amazon late last week, none of which he paid for but a few of which he says he solicited. He once asked his wife to review one of his books. To his disappointment, she refused.
Mr. Rutherford’s customers faced no such setbacks. Mark Husson, author of “LoveScopes: What Astrology Knows About You and the Ones You Love,” wrote in an online testimonial about GettingBookReviews.com that “my review was more thorough than I expected. I wanted to go back out and buy my own book.” On Amazon, “LoveScopes” had 70 reviews, 65 of which were five-star.
Peter Biadasz, a writer here in Tulsa, hired GettingBookReviews when he published “Write Your First Book.” As a writing coach, he knows all about how writers obsess over bad reviews. “Nobody likes to hear their baby’s ugly,” he said. Still, he added: “I know the flaws in my book. I know my baby’s not perfect.”
But it is perfect, according to all 18 reviewers on Amazon, every one of whom gave it five stars.
“For me, it came out very favorably,” Mr. Biadasz acknowledged. Most books, he cautioned, will not get such uniformly glowing notices.
This is true. For example, here’s a derisive notice, recently posted on Amazon: “I was utterly bored.” A second reader offered this: “Mediocre.” A third: “This isn’t good prose.”
All three were offering their opinions of “The Great Gatsby.” Quite a few reviews of the book, the F. Scott Fitzgerald classic that’s among the greatest American novels of the last century, deem it somewhere between so-so and poor.
Roland Hughes, another self-published writer, has a theory about this: “Reviews for the established classics tend to come from actual readers.”
A computer programmer and novelist based in Illinois, Mr. Hughes, 48, says he has spent about $20,000 on review services. “I’d like to say I view it as an education,” he wrote in an e-mail. His goal, not yet accomplished, is to make that difficult leap from “being an author” to “being a recognized author.”
His thriller “Infinite Exposure” had an average rating of 4.5 stars out of 5 late last week on Barnes & Noble, while another of his books, “The Minimum You Need to Know to Be an OpenVMS Application Developer,” got 5 out of 5.
“Some of these review services will actually ensure your title is read by someone who likes your genre of books,” he added. “The last thing you want is someone who loves Christian and romance novels reviewing a science-fiction book which has no romance and calls into account the existence of God.”
Finding the Reviewers
Traditional journalism jobs may be dwindling, but the Internet offers many new possibilities for writers. As soon as the orders started pouring in, Mr. Rutherford realized that he could not produce all the reviews himself.
How little, he wondered, could he pay freelance reviewers and still satisfy the authors? He figured on $15. He advertised on Craigslist and received 75 responses within 24 hours.
Potential reviewers were told that if they felt they could not give a book a five-star review, they should say so and would still be paid half their fee, Mr. Rutherford said. As you might guess, this hardly ever happened.
Amazon and other e-commerce sites have policies against paying for reviews. But Mr. Rutherford did not spend much time worrying about that. “I was just a pure capitalist,” he said. Amazon declined to comment.
Mr. Rutherford’s busiest reviewer was Brittany Walters-Bearden, now 24, a freelancer who had just returned to the United States from a stint in South Africa. She had recently married a former professional wrestler, and the newlyweds had run out of money and were living in a hotel in Las Vegas when she saw the job posting.
Ms. Walters-Bearden had the energy of youth and an upbeat attitude. “A lot of the books were trying to prove creationism,” she said. “I was like, I don’t know where I stand, but they make a solid case.”
For a 50-word review, she said she could find “enough information on the Internet so that I didn’t need to read anything, really.” For a 300-word review, she said, “I spent about 15 minutes reading the book.” She wrote three of each every week as well as press releases. In a few months, she earned $12,500.
“There were books I wished I could have gone back and actually read,” she said. “But I had to produce 70 pieces of content a week to pay my bills.”
An E-Book Best Seller
John Locke started as a door-to-door insurance salesman, was successful enough to buy his own insurance company, and then became a real estate investor. In 2009, he turned to writing fiction. By the middle of 2011, his nine novels, most of them suspense tales starring a former C.I.A. agent, Donovan Creed, had sold more than a million e-books through Amazon, making him the first self-published author to achieve that distinction.
Mr. Locke, now 61, has also published a nonfiction book, “How I Sold One Million E-Books in Five Months.” One reason for his success was that he priced his novels at 99 cents, which encouraged readers to take a chance on someone they didn’t know. Another was his willingness to try to capture readers one at a time through blogging, Twitter posts and personalized e-mail, an approach that was effective but labor-intensive.
“My first marketing goal was to get five five-star reviews,” he writes. “That’s it. But you know what? It took me almost two months!” In the first nine months of his publishing career, he sold only a few thousand e-books. Then, in December 2010, he suddenly caught on and sold 15,000 e-books.
One thing that made a difference is not mentioned in “How I Sold One Million E-Books.” That October, Mr. Locke commissioned Mr. Rutherford to order reviews for him, becoming one of the fledging service’s best customers. “I will start with 50 for $1,000, and if it works and if you feel you have enough readers available, I would be glad to order many more,” he wrote in an Oct. 13 e-mail to Mr. Rutherford. “I’m ready to roll.”
Mr. Locke was secure enough in his talents to say that he did not care what the reviews said. “If someone doesn’t like my book,” he instructed, “they should feel free to say so.” He also asked that the reviewers make their book purchases directly from Amazon, which would then show up as an “Amazon verified purchase” and increase the review’s credibility.
In a phone interview from his office in Louisville, Ky., Mr. Locke confirmed the transaction. “I wouldn’t hesitate to buy reviews from people that were honest,” he said. Even before using GettingBookReviews.com, he experimented with buying attention through reviews. “I reached out every way I knew to people to try to get them to read my books.”
Many of the 300 reviews he bought through GettingBookReviews were highly favorable, although it’s impossible to say whether this was because the reviewers genuinely liked the books, or because of their well-developed tendency toward approval, or some combination of the two.
Mr. Locke is unwilling to say that paying for reviews made a big difference. “Reviews are the smallest piece of being successful,” he said. “But it’s a lot easier to buy them than cultivating an audience.”
Mr. Rutherford, who says he is a little miffed that the novelist never gave him proper credit, is more definitive. “It played a role, for sure,” he said. “All those reviews said to potential readers, ‘You’ll like it, too.’ ”
End of a Venture
By early 2011, things were going swimmingly. Mr. Rutherford rented a small office in Tulsa and hired two assistants, including an editor who polished his reviews for $2 each. He had plans for a multimillion-dollar review business that went far beyond just books. But the end was near.
The collapse was hastened by a young Oregon woman, Ashly Lorenzana, who gave Mr. Rutherford and GettingBookReviews.comperhaps their only bad review. Ms. Lorenzana, 24, self-published some of her journal entries as an exceedingly bleak book, “Sex, Drugs & Being an Escort” (“I hated today,” reads one representative passage. “Today was full of hate. I hate, hate, hate.”) In seeking some attention for it, she checked out Kirkus, a reviewing service founded in 1933 that has branched out into self-published books. Kirkus would review “Sex” for $425, a price that made her balk.
Another issue with Kirkus was that it did not guarantee its review would be positive. Ms. Lorenzana felt she would then be in the position of having spent a bundle just so someone she did not know could insult, belittle or devalue her work. On the Internet, you can usually get someone to do that free.
“You’re taking a chance by putting your writing out there — a huge chance,” she said. “You want validation that it’s not a joke.”
When Ms. Lorenzana found GettingBookReviews.com, $99 seemed reasonable. But the review did not show up as quickly as she expected. She posted a long, angry accusation against Mr. Rutherford and his service on several consumer sites, saying she had received better treatment from a reviewer whom she had hired for $5. (“You could tell that the person had really spent a few minutes checking out the information about my book and getting a feel for it before just diving into writing a meaningless review.”)
Mr. Rutherford refunded her fee, but his problems were just beginning. Google suspended his advertising account, saying it did not approve of ads for favorable reviews. At about the same time, Amazon took down some, though not all, of his reviews. Mr. Rutherford dropped his first name in favor of his middle name, Jason, so that people who searched for him through Google would not automatically see Ms. Lorenzana’s complaints.
These days, Mr. Rutherford is selling R.V.’s in Oklahoma City and planning a comeback in that narrow zone straddling what writers want and what the marketplace considers legitimate. Bowker, the data firm, says that as many as 600,000 self-published titles could appear in 2015, and they all will be needing their share of attention.
Mr. Rutherford tried to start another service, Authors Reviewing Authors — a scratch-my-back-and-I’ll-scratch-yours approach. Authors preferred receiving over giving, however, and that venture failed. Now he is developing a service where, for $99, he blogs and tweets about a book — he has 33,000 Twitter followers — and solicits reviews from bloggers and regular Amazon reviewers. No money is paid to the reviewers, so Google has approved ads for the service.
He says he regrets his venture into what he called “artificially embellished reviews” but argues that the market will take care of the problem of insincere overenthusiasm. “Objective consumers who purchase a book based on positive reviews will end up posting negative reviews if the work is not good,” he said.
In other words, the (real) bad reviews will then drive out the (fake) good reviews. This seems to underestimate, however, the powerful motivations that writers have to rack up good reviews — and the ways they have to manipulate them until a better system comes along.
“It’s a quagmire,” Mr. Rutherford conceded.
A few months ago, he self-published a guide for aspiring authors called “The Publishing Guru on Writing.” Late last week, it had one lone review on Amazon, two sentences from someone named Kelly. “Great advice,” it read, giving the book five stars and, even more important, that all-important shot of credibility. Mr. Rutherford said he had no idea who Kelly was, but added, “I’m glad she liked it.”
8/25/12
Source:
The New York Times
By DAVID STREITFELD
This is for your personal use, only
_______________________________________
The Best Book Reviews Money Can Buy
TULSA , Okla. - TODD RUTHERFORD was 7 years old when he first understood the nature of supply and demand. He was with a bunch of other boys, one of whom showed off a copy of Playboy to giggles and intense interest. Todd bought the magazine for $5, tore out the racy pictures and resold them to his chums for a buck apiece. He made $20 before his father shut him down a few hours later.
A few years ago, Mr. Rutherford, then in his mid-30s, had another flash of illumination about how scarcity opens the door to opportunity.
He was part of the marketing department of a company that provided services to self-published writers — services that included persuading traditional media and blogs to review the books. It was uphill work. He could churn out press releases all day long, trying to be noticed, but there is only so much space for the umpteenth vampire novel or yet another self-improvement manifesto or one more homespun recollection of times gone by. There were not enough reviewers to go around.
Suddenly it hit him. Instead of trying to cajole others to review a client’s work, why not cut out the middleman and write the review himself? Then it would say exactly what the client wanted — that it was a terrific book. A shattering novel. A classic memoir. Will change your life. Lyrical and gripping, Stunning and compelling. Or words to that effect.
In the fall of 2010, Mr. Rutherford started a Web site, GettingBookReviews.com. At first, he advertised that he would review a book for $99. But some clients wanted a chorus proclaiming their excellence. So, for $499, Mr. Rutherford would do 20 online reviews. A few people needed a whole orchestra. For $999, he would do 50.
There were immediate complaints in online forums that the service was violating the sacred arm’s-length relationship between reviewer and author. But there were also orders, a lot of them. Before he knew it, he was taking in $28,000 a month.
A polite fellow with a rakish goatee and an entrepreneurial bent, Mr. Rutherford has been on the edges of publishing for most of his career. Before working for the self-publishing house, he owned a distributor of inspirational books. Before that, he was sales manager for a religious publishing house. Nothing ever quite worked out as well as he hoped. With the reviews business, though, “it was like I hit the mother lode.”
Reviews by ordinary people have become an essential mechanism for selling almost anything online; they are used for resorts, dermatologists, neighborhood restaurants, high-fashion boutiques, churches, parks, astrologers and healers — not to mention products like garbage pails, tweezers, spa slippers and cases for tablet computers. In many situations, these reviews are supplanting the marketing department, the press agent, advertisements, word of mouth and the professional critique.
But not just any kind of review will do. They have to be somewhere between enthusiastic and ecstatic.
“The wheels of online commerce run on positive reviews,” said Bing Liu, a data-mining expert at the University of Illinois, Chicago, whose 2008 research showed that 60 percent of the millions of product reviews on Amazon are five stars and an additional 20 percent are four stars. “But almost no one wants to write five-star reviews, so many of them have to be created.”
Consumer reviews are powerful because, unlike old-style advertising and marketing, they offer the illusion of truth. They purport to be testimonials of real people, even though some are bought and sold just like everything else on the commercial Internet.
Mr. Liu estimates that about one-third of all consumer reviews on the Internet are fake. Yet it is all but impossible to tell when reviews were written by the marketers or retailers (or by the authors themselves under pseudonyms), by customers (who might get a deal from a merchant for giving a good score) or by a hired third-party service.
The Federal Trade Commission has issued guidelines stating that all online endorsements need to make clear when there is a financial relationship, but enforcement has been minimal and there has been a lot of confusion in the blogosphere over how this affects traditional book reviews.
The tale of GettingBookReviews.com, which commissioned 4,531 reviews in its brief existence, is a story of a vast but hidden corner of the Internet, where Potemkin villages bursting with ardor arise overnight. At the same time, it shows how the book world is being transformed by the surging popularity of electronic self-publishing.
For decades a largely stagnant industry controlled from New York, book publishing is fragmenting and changing at high speed. Twenty percent of Amazon’s top-selling e-books are self-published. They do not get to the top without adulation, lots and lots of it.
Mr. Rutherford’s insight was that reviews had lost their traditional function. They were no longer there to evaluate the book or even to describe it but simply to vouch for its credibility, the way doctors put their diplomas on examination room walls. A reader hears about a book because an author is promoting it, and then checks it out on Amazon. The reader sees favorable reviews and is reassured that he is not wasting his time.
“I was creating reviews that pointed out the positive things, not the negative things,” Mr. Rutherford said. “These were marketing reviews, not editorial reviews.”
In essence, they were blurbs, the little puffs on the backs of books in the old days, when all books were physical objects and sold in stores. No one took blurbs very seriously, but books looked naked without them.
One of Mr. Rutherford’s clients, who confidently commissioned hundreds of reviews and didn’t even require them to be favorable, subsequently became a best seller. This is proof, Mr. Rutherford said, that his notion was correct. Attention, despite being contrived, draws more attention.
The system is enough to make you a little skeptical, which is where Mr. Rutherford finds himself. He is now suspicious of all online reviews — of books or anything else. “When there are 20 positive and one negative, I’m going to go with the negative,” he said. “I’m jaded.”
Trainloads of Books
“If there was anything the human race had a sufficiency of, a sufficiency and a surfeit, it was books,” the New Yorker writer Joseph Mitchell wrote in 1964. He reflected on “the cataracts of books, the Niagaras of books, the rushing rivers of books, the oceans of books, the tons and truckloads and trainloads of books that were pouring off the presses of the world at that moment,” regretting that so few would be “worth picking up and looking at, let alone reading.”
Since then, the pace of production has picked up quite a bit, although it is debatable whether Mr. Mitchell, who died in 1996, would be any more impressed by the quality. There has been a boom in what used to be called vanity publishers, which can efficiently produce physical copies that look just as good as anything from the traditional New York houses. But an even bigger factor is the explosion in electronic publishing. It used to take the same time to produce a book that it does to produce a baby. Now it takes about as long as boiling an egg.
In 2006, before Amazon supercharged electronic publishing with the Kindle, 51,237 self-published titles appeared as physical books, according to the data company Bowker. Last year, Bowker estimates that more than 300,000 self-published titles were issued in either print or digital form.
“I don’t know how many people have a book in them trying to get out, but if they do, all the barriers are being removed,” said Kelly Gallagher, vice president of Bowker Market Research. “This is a golden age of being able to make yourself more widely known.”
In theory, at least, good reviews are proof that a writer is finding his or her way, establishing an audience and has something worthwhile to say. So as soon as new authors confront that imperative line on their Amazon pages — “Be the first to review this item” — the temptation is great for them to start soliciting notices, at first among those closest at hand: family, friends and acquaintances. They want to be told how great they are.
“Nearly all human beings have unrealistically positive self-regard,” said Robert I. Sutton, a Stanford professor and the author of several traditionally published books on business psychology. “When people tell us we’re not as great as we thought we were, we don’t like it. Anything less than a five-star review is an attack.”
Mr. Sutton’s best-known book, about bullies in the workplace, had 110 five-star reviews on Amazon late last week, none of which he paid for but a few of which he says he solicited. He once asked his wife to review one of his books. To his disappointment, she refused.
Mr. Rutherford’s customers faced no such setbacks. Mark Husson, author of “LoveScopes: What Astrology Knows About You and the Ones You Love,” wrote in an online testimonial about GettingBookReviews.com that “my review was more thorough than I expected. I wanted to go back out and buy my own book.” On Amazon, “LoveScopes” had 70 reviews, 65 of which were five-star.
Peter Biadasz, a writer here in Tulsa, hired GettingBookReviews when he published “Write Your First Book.” As a writing coach, he knows all about how writers obsess over bad reviews. “Nobody likes to hear their baby’s ugly,” he said. Still, he added: “I know the flaws in my book. I know my baby’s not perfect.”
But it is perfect, according to all 18 reviewers on Amazon, every one of whom gave it five stars.
“For me, it came out very favorably,” Mr. Biadasz acknowledged. Most books, he cautioned, will not get such uniformly glowing notices.
This is true. For example, here’s a derisive notice, recently posted on Amazon: “I was utterly bored.” A second reader offered this: “Mediocre.” A third: “This isn’t good prose.”
All three were offering their opinions of “The Great Gatsby.” Quite a few reviews of the book, the F. Scott Fitzgerald classic that’s among the greatest American novels of the last century, deem it somewhere between so-so and poor.
Roland Hughes, another self-published writer, has a theory about this: “Reviews for the established classics tend to come from actual readers.”
A computer programmer and novelist based in Illinois, Mr. Hughes, 48, says he has spent about $20,000 on review services. “I’d like to say I view it as an education,” he wrote in an e-mail. His goal, not yet accomplished, is to make that difficult leap from “being an author” to “being a recognized author.”
His thriller “Infinite Exposure” had an average rating of 4.5 stars out of 5 late last week on Barnes & Noble, while another of his books, “The Minimum You Need to Know to Be an OpenVMS Application Developer,” got 5 out of 5.
“Some of these review services will actually ensure your title is read by someone who likes your genre of books,” he added. “The last thing you want is someone who loves Christian and romance novels reviewing a science-fiction book which has no romance and calls into account the existence of God.”
Finding the Reviewers
Traditional journalism jobs may be dwindling, but the Internet offers many new possibilities for writers. As soon as the orders started pouring in, Mr. Rutherford realized that he could not produce all the reviews himself.
How little, he wondered, could he pay freelance reviewers and still satisfy the authors? He figured on $15. He advertised on Craigslist and received 75 responses within 24 hours.
Potential reviewers were told that if they felt they could not give a book a five-star review, they should say so and would still be paid half their fee, Mr. Rutherford said. As you might guess, this hardly ever happened.
Amazon and other e-commerce sites have policies against paying for reviews. But Mr. Rutherford did not spend much time worrying about that. “I was just a pure capitalist,” he said. Amazon declined to comment.
Mr. Rutherford’s busiest reviewer was Brittany Walters-Bearden, now 24, a freelancer who had just returned to the United States from a stint in South Africa. She had recently married a former professional wrestler, and the newlyweds had run out of money and were living in a hotel in Las Vegas when she saw the job posting.
Ms. Walters-Bearden had the energy of youth and an upbeat attitude. “A lot of the books were trying to prove creationism,” she said. “I was like, I don’t know where I stand, but they make a solid case.”
For a 50-word review, she said she could find “enough information on the Internet so that I didn’t need to read anything, really.” For a 300-word review, she said, “I spent about 15 minutes reading the book.” She wrote three of each every week as well as press releases. In a few months, she earned $12,500.
“There were books I wished I could have gone back and actually read,” she said. “But I had to produce 70 pieces of content a week to pay my bills.”
An E-Book Best Seller
John Locke started as a door-to-door insurance salesman, was successful enough to buy his own insurance company, and then became a real estate investor. In 2009, he turned to writing fiction. By the middle of 2011, his nine novels, most of them suspense tales starring a former C.I.A. agent, Donovan Creed, had sold more than a million e-books through Amazon, making him the first self-published author to achieve that distinction.
Mr. Locke, now 61, has also published a nonfiction book, “How I Sold One Million E-Books in Five Months.” One reason for his success was that he priced his novels at 99 cents, which encouraged readers to take a chance on someone they didn’t know. Another was his willingness to try to capture readers one at a time through blogging, Twitter posts and personalized e-mail, an approach that was effective but labor-intensive.
“My first marketing goal was to get five five-star reviews,” he writes. “That’s it. But you know what? It took me almost two months!” In the first nine months of his publishing career, he sold only a few thousand e-books. Then, in December 2010, he suddenly caught on and sold 15,000 e-books.
One thing that made a difference is not mentioned in “How I Sold One Million E-Books.” That October, Mr. Locke commissioned Mr. Rutherford to order reviews for him, becoming one of the fledging service’s best customers. “I will start with 50 for $1,000, and if it works and if you feel you have enough readers available, I would be glad to order many more,” he wrote in an Oct. 13 e-mail to Mr. Rutherford. “I’m ready to roll.”
Mr. Locke was secure enough in his talents to say that he did not care what the reviews said. “If someone doesn’t like my book,” he instructed, “they should feel free to say so.” He also asked that the reviewers make their book purchases directly from Amazon, which would then show up as an “Amazon verified purchase” and increase the review’s credibility.
In a phone interview from his office in Louisville, Ky., Mr. Locke confirmed the transaction. “I wouldn’t hesitate to buy reviews from people that were honest,” he said. Even before using GettingBookReviews.com, he experimented with buying attention through reviews. “I reached out every way I knew to people to try to get them to read my books.”
Many of the 300 reviews he bought through GettingBookReviews were highly favorable, although it’s impossible to say whether this was because the reviewers genuinely liked the books, or because of their well-developed tendency toward approval, or some combination of the two.
Mr. Locke is unwilling to say that paying for reviews made a big difference. “Reviews are the smallest piece of being successful,” he said. “But it’s a lot easier to buy them than cultivating an audience.”
Mr. Rutherford, who says he is a little miffed that the novelist never gave him proper credit, is more definitive. “It played a role, for sure,” he said. “All those reviews said to potential readers, ‘You’ll like it, too.’ ”
End of a Venture
By early 2011, things were going swimmingly. Mr. Rutherford rented a small office in Tulsa and hired two assistants, including an editor who polished his reviews for $2 each. He had plans for a multimillion-dollar review business that went far beyond just books. But the end was near.
The collapse was hastened by a young Oregon woman, Ashly Lorenzana, who gave Mr. Rutherford and GettingBookReviews.comperhaps their only bad review. Ms. Lorenzana, 24, self-published some of her journal entries as an exceedingly bleak book, “Sex, Drugs & Being an Escort” (“I hated today,” reads one representative passage. “Today was full of hate. I hate, hate, hate.”) In seeking some attention for it, she checked out Kirkus, a reviewing service founded in 1933 that has branched out into self-published books. Kirkus would review “Sex” for $425, a price that made her balk.
Another issue with Kirkus was that it did not guarantee its review would be positive. Ms. Lorenzana felt she would then be in the position of having spent a bundle just so someone she did not know could insult, belittle or devalue her work. On the Internet, you can usually get someone to do that free.
“You’re taking a chance by putting your writing out there — a huge chance,” she said. “You want validation that it’s not a joke.”
When Ms. Lorenzana found GettingBookReviews.com, $99 seemed reasonable. But the review did not show up as quickly as she expected. She posted a long, angry accusation against Mr. Rutherford and his service on several consumer sites, saying she had received better treatment from a reviewer whom she had hired for $5. (“You could tell that the person had really spent a few minutes checking out the information about my book and getting a feel for it before just diving into writing a meaningless review.”)
Mr. Rutherford refunded her fee, but his problems were just beginning. Google suspended his advertising account, saying it did not approve of ads for favorable reviews. At about the same time, Amazon took down some, though not all, of his reviews. Mr. Rutherford dropped his first name in favor of his middle name, Jason, so that people who searched for him through Google would not automatically see Ms. Lorenzana’s complaints.
These days, Mr. Rutherford is selling R.V.’s in Oklahoma City and planning a comeback in that narrow zone straddling what writers want and what the marketplace considers legitimate. Bowker, the data firm, says that as many as 600,000 self-published titles could appear in 2015, and they all will be needing their share of attention.
Mr. Rutherford tried to start another service, Authors Reviewing Authors — a scratch-my-back-and-I’ll-scratch-yours approach. Authors preferred receiving over giving, however, and that venture failed. Now he is developing a service where, for $99, he blogs and tweets about a book — he has 33,000 Twitter followers — and solicits reviews from bloggers and regular Amazon reviewers. No money is paid to the reviewers, so Google has approved ads for the service.
He says he regrets his venture into what he called “artificially embellished reviews” but argues that the market will take care of the problem of insincere overenthusiasm. “Objective consumers who purchase a book based on positive reviews will end up posting negative reviews if the work is not good,” he said.
In other words, the (real) bad reviews will then drive out the (fake) good reviews. This seems to underestimate, however, the powerful motivations that writers have to rack up good reviews — and the ways they have to manipulate them until a better system comes along.
“It’s a quagmire,” Mr. Rutherford conceded.
A few months ago, he self-published a guide for aspiring authors called “The Publishing Guru on Writing.” Late last week, it had one lone review on Amazon, two sentences from someone named Kelly. “Great advice,” it read, giving the book five stars and, even more important, that all-important shot of credibility. Mr. Rutherford said he had no idea who Kelly was, but added, “I’m glad she liked it.”
8/25/12
Source:
The New York Times
By DAVID STREITFELD
This is for your personal use, only
_______________________________________
August 27, 2012
Click green areas for additional info
Active in Cloud, Amazon Reshapes Computing
SEATTLE — Within a few years, Amazon.com’s creative destruction of both traditional book publishing and retailing may be footnotes to the company’s larger and more secretive goal: giving anyone on the planet access to an almost unimaginable amount of computing power.
Every day, a start-up called the Climate Corporation performs over 10,000 simulations of the next two years’ weather for more than one million locations in the United States. It then combines that with data on root structure and soil porosity to write crop insurance for thousands of farmers.
Another start-up, called Cue, scans up to 500 million e-mails, Facebook updates and corporate documents to create a service that can outline the biography of a given person you meet, warn you to be home to receive a package or text a lunch guest that you are running late.
Each of these start-ups carries out computing tasks that a decade ago would have been impossible without a major investment in computers. Both of these companies, however, own little besides a few desktop computers. They and thousands of other companies now rent data storage and computer server time from Amazon, through its Amazon Web Services division, for what they say is a fraction of the cost of owning and running their own computers.
“I have 10 engineers, but without A.W.S. I guarantee I’d need 60,” said Daniel Gross, Cue’s 20-year-old co-founder. “It just gets cheaper, and cheaper, and cheaper.” He figures Cue spends something under $100,000 a month with Amazon but would spend “probably $2 million to do it ourselves, without the speed and flexibility.”
He conceded that “I don’t even know what the ballpark number for a server is — for me, it would be like knowing what the price of a sword is.”
Cloud computing has been around for years, but it is now powering all kinds of new businesses around the globe, quickly and with less capital.
Instagram, a 12-person photo-sharing company that was sold to Facebook for an estimated $1 billion just 19 months after it opened, skipped the expenses and bother of setting up its own computer servers.
EdX, a global online education program from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard, had over 120,000 students taking a single class together on A.W.S. Over 185 United States government agencies run some part of their services on A.W.S. Millions of people in Africa shop for cars online, using cheap smartphones connected to A.W.S. servers located in California and Ireland.
“We are on a shift that is as momentous and as fundamental as the shift to the electrical grid,” said Andrew R. Jassy, the head of A.W.S. “It’s happening a lot faster than any of us thought.”
He started A.W.S. in 2006 with about three dozen employees. Amazon won’t say how many people now work at A.W.S., but the company’s Web site currently lists over 600 job openings.
Amazon’s efforts are just the start of a global competition among computing giants. In June, Google fully introduced a service similar to A.W.S. Microsoft is also in the business with its offering, Windows Azure.
If only for competitive reasons, Amazon does not say much about A.W.S. However, it is estimated to bring in about $1 billion to Amazon. Its three giant computer regional centers in the United States, in Virginia, Oregon and California, each consist of multiple buildings with thousands of servers.
There are others in Japan, Ireland, Singapore and Brazil. And the pace of its expansion has quickened. It opened four of those regions in 2011 and is believed to be building a similar number now. Jeff Bezos, the chief executive of Amazon, is interested in setting up cloud-computing installations for other governments.
According to an executive with knowledge of Amazon’s operation who was not authorized to speak publicly, just one of the 10 data centers in Amazon’s Eastern United States region has more servers dedicated to cloud computing than does Rackspace, a public cloud company serving 180,000 businesses with more than 80,000 servers.
Eventually, however, Mr. Jassy said, “we believe at the highest level that A.W.S. can be at least as big as our other businesses.” Amazon recorded nearly $50 billion in revenue last year. Mr. Jassy thinks A.W.S. is probably less than 10 percent of its eventual size.
The lower cost of computing, along with overnight deployment of machines, drives the business. Germany’s Spiegel TV paid A.W.S. to make digital copies of 20,000 programs. It cost less than Spiegel would have paid for the electricity powering its own servers.
GoodData, based in San Francisco, analyzes data from 6,000 companies on A.W.S. to find things like sales leads. “Before, each company needed at least five people to do this work,” said Roman Stanek, GoodData’s chief executive. “That is 30,000 people. I do it with 180. I don’t know what all those other people will do now, but this isn’t work they can do anymore. It’s a winner-takes-all consolidation.”
All that data running through Amazon’s cloud also has value. People leave bits of data about themselves that others then analyze. At any given time on A.W.S., there are about one million uses of a powerful database, called Elastic MapReduce, that is used to make predictions. Some suggest a new movie or video game to play, while others log behavior for advertising, credit history or suggestions about whom to date. (Companies have to permit their data to be analyzed, and Amazon says it applies the same security standards it uses on its retail site.)
The efficiency of this hyper-aware environment is already remaking jobs for many and will most likely dislocate more. “You can now test a product against millions of users for just a few thousand dollars, or start a company with just one or two people,” said Graham Spencer, a partner at Google Ventures, which invests in data-heavy start-ups that rely on such cheap computing. “It’s a huge change for Silicon Valley.”
That vision is in line with the way Mr. Bezos sees A.W.S., say executives who have worked with him. “Jeff thinks on a planetary level,” said David Risher, a former Amazon senior executive who now heads a charity called Worldreader, which uses A.W.S. to download books to thousands of computers in Africa. “A.W.S. is an opportunity, as a business. But it is also a philosophy of enabling other people to build big systems. That is how Amazon will make a dent in the universe.”
By QUENTIN HARDY
Source: NYT
This is for your personal use, only
___________________________________________
Click green areas for additional info
Active in Cloud, Amazon Reshapes Computing
SEATTLE — Within a few years, Amazon.com’s creative destruction of both traditional book publishing and retailing may be footnotes to the company’s larger and more secretive goal: giving anyone on the planet access to an almost unimaginable amount of computing power.
Every day, a start-up called the Climate Corporation performs over 10,000 simulations of the next two years’ weather for more than one million locations in the United States. It then combines that with data on root structure and soil porosity to write crop insurance for thousands of farmers.
Another start-up, called Cue, scans up to 500 million e-mails, Facebook updates and corporate documents to create a service that can outline the biography of a given person you meet, warn you to be home to receive a package or text a lunch guest that you are running late.
Each of these start-ups carries out computing tasks that a decade ago would have been impossible without a major investment in computers. Both of these companies, however, own little besides a few desktop computers. They and thousands of other companies now rent data storage and computer server time from Amazon, through its Amazon Web Services division, for what they say is a fraction of the cost of owning and running their own computers.
“I have 10 engineers, but without A.W.S. I guarantee I’d need 60,” said Daniel Gross, Cue’s 20-year-old co-founder. “It just gets cheaper, and cheaper, and cheaper.” He figures Cue spends something under $100,000 a month with Amazon but would spend “probably $2 million to do it ourselves, without the speed and flexibility.”
He conceded that “I don’t even know what the ballpark number for a server is — for me, it would be like knowing what the price of a sword is.”
Cloud computing has been around for years, but it is now powering all kinds of new businesses around the globe, quickly and with less capital.
Instagram, a 12-person photo-sharing company that was sold to Facebook for an estimated $1 billion just 19 months after it opened, skipped the expenses and bother of setting up its own computer servers.
EdX, a global online education program from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard, had over 120,000 students taking a single class together on A.W.S. Over 185 United States government agencies run some part of their services on A.W.S. Millions of people in Africa shop for cars online, using cheap smartphones connected to A.W.S. servers located in California and Ireland.
“We are on a shift that is as momentous and as fundamental as the shift to the electrical grid,” said Andrew R. Jassy, the head of A.W.S. “It’s happening a lot faster than any of us thought.”
He started A.W.S. in 2006 with about three dozen employees. Amazon won’t say how many people now work at A.W.S., but the company’s Web site currently lists over 600 job openings.
Amazon’s efforts are just the start of a global competition among computing giants. In June, Google fully introduced a service similar to A.W.S. Microsoft is also in the business with its offering, Windows Azure.
If only for competitive reasons, Amazon does not say much about A.W.S. However, it is estimated to bring in about $1 billion to Amazon. Its three giant computer regional centers in the United States, in Virginia, Oregon and California, each consist of multiple buildings with thousands of servers.
There are others in Japan, Ireland, Singapore and Brazil. And the pace of its expansion has quickened. It opened four of those regions in 2011 and is believed to be building a similar number now. Jeff Bezos, the chief executive of Amazon, is interested in setting up cloud-computing installations for other governments.
According to an executive with knowledge of Amazon’s operation who was not authorized to speak publicly, just one of the 10 data centers in Amazon’s Eastern United States region has more servers dedicated to cloud computing than does Rackspace, a public cloud company serving 180,000 businesses with more than 80,000 servers.
Eventually, however, Mr. Jassy said, “we believe at the highest level that A.W.S. can be at least as big as our other businesses.” Amazon recorded nearly $50 billion in revenue last year. Mr. Jassy thinks A.W.S. is probably less than 10 percent of its eventual size.
The lower cost of computing, along with overnight deployment of machines, drives the business. Germany’s Spiegel TV paid A.W.S. to make digital copies of 20,000 programs. It cost less than Spiegel would have paid for the electricity powering its own servers.
GoodData, based in San Francisco, analyzes data from 6,000 companies on A.W.S. to find things like sales leads. “Before, each company needed at least five people to do this work,” said Roman Stanek, GoodData’s chief executive. “That is 30,000 people. I do it with 180. I don’t know what all those other people will do now, but this isn’t work they can do anymore. It’s a winner-takes-all consolidation.”
All that data running through Amazon’s cloud also has value. People leave bits of data about themselves that others then analyze. At any given time on A.W.S., there are about one million uses of a powerful database, called Elastic MapReduce, that is used to make predictions. Some suggest a new movie or video game to play, while others log behavior for advertising, credit history or suggestions about whom to date. (Companies have to permit their data to be analyzed, and Amazon says it applies the same security standards it uses on its retail site.)
The efficiency of this hyper-aware environment is already remaking jobs for many and will most likely dislocate more. “You can now test a product against millions of users for just a few thousand dollars, or start a company with just one or two people,” said Graham Spencer, a partner at Google Ventures, which invests in data-heavy start-ups that rely on such cheap computing. “It’s a huge change for Silicon Valley.”
That vision is in line with the way Mr. Bezos sees A.W.S., say executives who have worked with him. “Jeff thinks on a planetary level,” said David Risher, a former Amazon senior executive who now heads a charity called Worldreader, which uses A.W.S. to download books to thousands of computers in Africa. “A.W.S. is an opportunity, as a business. But it is also a philosophy of enabling other people to build big systems. That is how Amazon will make a dent in the universe.”
By QUENTIN HARDY
Source: NYT
This is for your personal use, only
___________________________________________
April 23, 2011
When There’s No Such Thing as Too Much Information
lick the green areas for further information
By STEVE LOHR
INFORMATION overload is a headache for individuals and a huge challenge for businesses. Companies are swimming, if not drowning, in wave after wave of data — from increasingly sophisticated computer tracking of shipments, sales, suppliers and customers, as well as e-mail, Web traffic and social-network comments. These Internet-era technologies, by one estimate, are doubling the quantity of business data every 1.2 years.
Yet the data explosion is also an enormous opportunity. In a modern economy, information should be the prime asset — the raw material of new products and services, smarter decisions, competitive advantage for companies, and greater growth and productivity.
Is there any real evidence of a “data payoff” across the corporate world? It has taken a while, but new research led by Erik Brynjolfsson, an economist at the Sloan School of Management at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, suggests that the beginnings are now visible.
Mr. Brynjolfsson and his colleagues, Lorin Hitt, a professor at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, and Heekyung Kim, a graduate student at M.I.T., studied 179 large companies. Those that adopted “data-driven decision making” achieved productivity that was 5 to 6 percent higher than could be explained by other factors, including how much the companies invested in technology, the researchers said.
In the study, based on a survey and follow-up interviews, data-driven decision making was defined not only by collecting data, but also by how it is used — or not — in making crucial decisions, like whether to create a new product or service. The central distinction, according to Mr. Brynjolfsson, is between decisions based mainly on “data and analysis” and on the traditional management arts of “experience and intuition.”
A 5 percent increase in output and productivity, he says, is significant enough to separate winners from losers in most industries.
The companies that are guided by data analysis, Mr. Brynjolfsson says, are “harbingers of a trend in how managers make decisions.”
“And it has huge implications for competitiveness and growth,” he adds.
The research is not yet published, but it was presented at an academic conference this month. The conclusion that companies that rely heavily on data analysis are likely to outperform others is not new. Notably, Thomas H. Davenport, a professor of information technology and management at Babson College, has made that point, and his most recent book, with Jeanne G. Harris and Robert Morison, is “Analytics at Work: Smarter Decisions, Better Results” (Harvard Business Press, 2010).
And companies like Google, whose search and advertising business is based on exploiting and organizing online information, are testimony to the power of intelligent data sifting.
But the new research appears to be broader and to apply economic measurement to the impact of data-led decision making in a way not done before.
“To the best of our knowledge,” Mr. Brynjolfsson says, “this is the first quantitative evidence of the anecdotes we’re been hearing about.”
Mr. Brynjolfsson emphasizes that the spread of such decision making is just getting started, even though the data surge began at least a decade ago. That pattern is familiar in history. The productivity payoff from a new technology comes only when people adopt new management skills and new ways of working.
The electric motor, for example, was introduced in the early 1880s. But that technology did not generate discernible productivity gains until the 1920s. It took that long for the use of motors to spread, and for businesses to reorganize work around the mass-production assembly line, the efficiency breakthrough of its day.
The story was much the same with computers. By 1987, the personal computer revolution was more than a decade old, when Robert M. Solow, an economist and Nobel laureate, dryly observed, “You can see the computer age everywhere but in the productivity statistics.”
It was not until 1995 that productivity in the American economy really started to pick up. The Internet married computing to low-cost communications, opening the door to automating all kinds of commercial transactions. The gains continued through 2004, well after the dot-com bubble burst and investment in technology plummeted.
The technology absorption lag accounts for the delayed productivity benefits, observes Robert J. Gordon, an economist at Northwestern University.
“It’s never pure technology that makes the difference,” Mr. Gordon says. “It’s reorganizing things — how work is done. And technology does allow new forms of organization.”
Since 2004, productivity has slowed again. Historically, Mr. Gordon notes, productivity wanes when innovation based on fundamental new technologies runs out. The steam engine and railroads fueled the first industrial revolution, he says; the second was powered by electricity and the internal combustion engine. The Internet, according to Mr. Gordon, qualifies as the third industrial revolution — but one that will prove far more short-lived than the previous two.
“I think we’re seeing hints that we’re running through inventions of the Internet revolution,” he says.
STILL, the software industry is making a big bet that the data-driven decision making described in Mr. Brynjolfsson’s research is the wave of the future. The drive to help companies find meaningful patterns in the data that engulfs them has created a fast-growing industry in what is known as “business intelligence” or “analytics” software and services. Major technology companies — I.B.M., Oracle,SAP and Microsoft — have collectively spent more than $25 billion buying up specialist companies in the field.
I.B.M. alone says it has spent $14 billion on 25 companies that focus on data analytics. That business now employs 8,000 consultants and 200 mathematicians. I.B.M. said last week that it expected its analytics business to grow to $16 billion by 2015.
“The biggest change facing corporations is the explosion of data,” says David Grossman, a technology analyst at Stifel Nicolaus. “The best business is in helping customers analyze and manage all that data.”
Source:
NYT
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When There’s No Such Thing as Too Much Information
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By STEVE LOHR
INFORMATION overload is a headache for individuals and a huge challenge for businesses. Companies are swimming, if not drowning, in wave after wave of data — from increasingly sophisticated computer tracking of shipments, sales, suppliers and customers, as well as e-mail, Web traffic and social-network comments. These Internet-era technologies, by one estimate, are doubling the quantity of business data every 1.2 years.
Yet the data explosion is also an enormous opportunity. In a modern economy, information should be the prime asset — the raw material of new products and services, smarter decisions, competitive advantage for companies, and greater growth and productivity.
Is there any real evidence of a “data payoff” across the corporate world? It has taken a while, but new research led by Erik Brynjolfsson, an economist at the Sloan School of Management at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, suggests that the beginnings are now visible.
Mr. Brynjolfsson and his colleagues, Lorin Hitt, a professor at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, and Heekyung Kim, a graduate student at M.I.T., studied 179 large companies. Those that adopted “data-driven decision making” achieved productivity that was 5 to 6 percent higher than could be explained by other factors, including how much the companies invested in technology, the researchers said.
In the study, based on a survey and follow-up interviews, data-driven decision making was defined not only by collecting data, but also by how it is used — or not — in making crucial decisions, like whether to create a new product or service. The central distinction, according to Mr. Brynjolfsson, is between decisions based mainly on “data and analysis” and on the traditional management arts of “experience and intuition.”
A 5 percent increase in output and productivity, he says, is significant enough to separate winners from losers in most industries.
The companies that are guided by data analysis, Mr. Brynjolfsson says, are “harbingers of a trend in how managers make decisions.”
“And it has huge implications for competitiveness and growth,” he adds.
The research is not yet published, but it was presented at an academic conference this month. The conclusion that companies that rely heavily on data analysis are likely to outperform others is not new. Notably, Thomas H. Davenport, a professor of information technology and management at Babson College, has made that point, and his most recent book, with Jeanne G. Harris and Robert Morison, is “Analytics at Work: Smarter Decisions, Better Results” (Harvard Business Press, 2010).
And companies like Google, whose search and advertising business is based on exploiting and organizing online information, are testimony to the power of intelligent data sifting.
But the new research appears to be broader and to apply economic measurement to the impact of data-led decision making in a way not done before.
“To the best of our knowledge,” Mr. Brynjolfsson says, “this is the first quantitative evidence of the anecdotes we’re been hearing about.”
Mr. Brynjolfsson emphasizes that the spread of such decision making is just getting started, even though the data surge began at least a decade ago. That pattern is familiar in history. The productivity payoff from a new technology comes only when people adopt new management skills and new ways of working.
The electric motor, for example, was introduced in the early 1880s. But that technology did not generate discernible productivity gains until the 1920s. It took that long for the use of motors to spread, and for businesses to reorganize work around the mass-production assembly line, the efficiency breakthrough of its day.
The story was much the same with computers. By 1987, the personal computer revolution was more than a decade old, when Robert M. Solow, an economist and Nobel laureate, dryly observed, “You can see the computer age everywhere but in the productivity statistics.”
It was not until 1995 that productivity in the American economy really started to pick up. The Internet married computing to low-cost communications, opening the door to automating all kinds of commercial transactions. The gains continued through 2004, well after the dot-com bubble burst and investment in technology plummeted.
The technology absorption lag accounts for the delayed productivity benefits, observes Robert J. Gordon, an economist at Northwestern University.
“It’s never pure technology that makes the difference,” Mr. Gordon says. “It’s reorganizing things — how work is done. And technology does allow new forms of organization.”
Since 2004, productivity has slowed again. Historically, Mr. Gordon notes, productivity wanes when innovation based on fundamental new technologies runs out. The steam engine and railroads fueled the first industrial revolution, he says; the second was powered by electricity and the internal combustion engine. The Internet, according to Mr. Gordon, qualifies as the third industrial revolution — but one that will prove far more short-lived than the previous two.
“I think we’re seeing hints that we’re running through inventions of the Internet revolution,” he says.
STILL, the software industry is making a big bet that the data-driven decision making described in Mr. Brynjolfsson’s research is the wave of the future. The drive to help companies find meaningful patterns in the data that engulfs them has created a fast-growing industry in what is known as “business intelligence” or “analytics” software and services. Major technology companies — I.B.M., Oracle,SAP and Microsoft — have collectively spent more than $25 billion buying up specialist companies in the field.
I.B.M. alone says it has spent $14 billion on 25 companies that focus on data analytics. That business now employs 8,000 consultants and 200 mathematicians. I.B.M. said last week that it expected its analytics business to grow to $16 billion by 2015.
“The biggest change facing corporations is the explosion of data,” says David Grossman, a technology analyst at Stifel Nicolaus. “The best business is in helping customers analyze and manage all that data.”
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September 8, 2012
Tech’s New Wave, Driven by Data
By STEVE LOHR
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TECHNOLOGY tends to cascade into the marketplace in waves. Think of personal computers in the 1980s, the Internet in the 1990s and smartphones in the last five years.
Computing may be on the cusp of another such wave. This one, many researchers and entrepreneurs say, will be based on smarter machines and software that will automate more tasks and help people make better decisions in business, science and government. And the technological building blocks, both hardware and software, are falling into place, stirring optimism.
Michael R. Stonebraker, a pioneer in database research, is one of the optimists. Software used by companies and government agencies — in products sold by Oracle, I.B.M., Microsoft and others — descends from research done in the 1970s by Mr. Stonebraker and Eugene Wong, a colleague at the University of California, Berkeley, as well as a team of scientists at I.B.M.
Today, Mr. Stonebraker sees an opportunity for new kinds of ultrafast databases. The new software, he explains, takes advantage of rapid advances in computer hardware to help businesses and researchers find insights in the rising flood of data coming from so many sources, including Web-browsing trails, sensor data, genetic testing and stock trading.
So, at 68, Mr. Stonebraker is a co-founder and chief technology officer of two start-ups in the field of data-driven discovery, VoltDB andParadigm4.
“Now is the time,” says Mr. Stonebraker, who is an adjunct professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s computer science and artificial intelligence laboratory. “The economics and the technology are ripe.”
The case for optimism is by no means unqualified. The march of these technologies raises social issues, including privacy concerns, and the timing is uncertain. All of the bold predictions in the 1990s that the Internet would disrupt traditional industries like media, advertising and retailing did come true — a decade later.
But a series of related technologies, scientists and entrepreneurs say, has reached a critical mass — come to a digital boiling point, so to speak — so that new products and capabilities become possible. The technical ingredients, they note, include powerful, low-cost computing and storage spread across thousands of computers. The digital engine rooms of Google and Amazon are prime examples.
Another fast-improving technology involves inexpensive and intelligent sensors, which are crucial to a new breed of automated machines like experimental driverless cars and battlefield drones. Clever software — notably machine-learning algorithms — animates much of the current wave of smarter technology. Two well-known examples are found in Watson, the “Jeopardy”-winning computer from I.B.M., and the movie recommendations on Netflix.
ADVANCES in such underlying technologies are fueling the current excitement in fields like artificial intelligence, robotics and data analysis and prediction. “All parts of the technology pipeline are gearing up at the same time, and that’s how you get this explosion of new applications and uses,” says Jon Kleinberg, a computer scientist at Cornell University.
Behind the seeming explosion, experts say, is a process of technology evolution. Paul Saffo, a technology forecaster, compares the process to the evolutionary biology concept known as “punctuated equilibria” formulated by the paleontologists Stephen Jay Gould and Niles Eldredge. The idea is that species often evolve in periodic spurts.
Yet, they say, there are typically years of progress before a commercial breakthrough in the technological realm.
“Even in Silicon Valley, it takes most technologies 20 years to become overnight successes,” says Mr. Saffo, a consulting professor at Stanford’s school of engineering.
The Internet provides a case study of both technology’s evolutionary progress and its exponential growth. In 1969, there were only four computers connected to the nascent Internet, compared with roughly a billion computing devices today, from laptops to cellphones, saysEdward Lazowska, a computer scientist at the University of Washington.
The early increases in connected computers drew scant attention. “But at some point in the late 1990s,” Mr. Lazowska says, “you were going from 4 million to 8 million to 16 million to 32 million to 64 million, and people started to notice that something revolutionary was going on.”
Rocket Fuel is a four-year-old Silicon Valley start-up that uses artificial-intelligence software to place display advertisements for marketers on the Web. The company can not only tailor ads by demographic slices of viewers’ ages, gender and interests, but can also use its predictive algorithms to produce campaigns based on results, says George H. John, the company’s chief executive.
For example, a luxury carmaker might tell Rocket Fuel that it wants to place 100 million ads in the next month, and it will pay the company, say, $80 for generating a sales lead, as evidenced by a potential customer downloading a brochure or filling out an online form.
Rocket Fuel is growing fast, having nearly doubled its work force since the start of the year, to 240. So far in 2012, it has handled campaigns for more than 500 advertisers, including BMW, Duncan Hines, Allstate, Pizza Hut and Ace Hardware. It has raised $76 million in venture funding and debt, and its thousands of computers handle 19 billion bid requests a day on ad exchanges. Each online auction for ad space is typically completed in about 100 milliseconds, a tenth of a second.
Rocket Fuel, Mr. John says, is using some of the ideas he worked on in the 1990s as a doctoral student focusing on artificial intelligence at Stanford — research that was supported with government dollars from the National Science Foundation and other agencies, as is so often the case. In the last few years, building a business around those ideas has become achievable and affordable. “And a lot of it has to do with the underlying technology,” Mr. John says.
FOR Mr. Stonebraker, the hardware advance that opens the door to his start-ups is the striking improvement of solid-state memory, as performance climbs and prices plunge. Solid-state, or flash, memory is most widely known as the lightweight storage technology used in consumer devices like small music players and smartphones.
But increasingly, solid-state memory can be used in big computers, holding a hefty database in memory instead of sending data off to be stored on disk drives. According to Mr. Stonebraker, some data-handling tasks can now be completed 50 times faster than with conventional systems.
“Memory is the new disk,” he says. “The obvious thing to do is to exploit that technology.”
In the yin and yang of computing, it is software that exploits hardware, enabling a computer to do useful things. And machine-learning programs and other data-sifting software are advancing swiftly.
“There is no point in collecting and storing all this data if the algorithms are not able to find useful patterns and insights in the data,” says Mr. Kleinberg at Cornell. “But the software is scaling up to the task.”
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Tech’s New Wave, Driven by Data
By STEVE LOHR
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TECHNOLOGY tends to cascade into the marketplace in waves. Think of personal computers in the 1980s, the Internet in the 1990s and smartphones in the last five years.
Computing may be on the cusp of another such wave. This one, many researchers and entrepreneurs say, will be based on smarter machines and software that will automate more tasks and help people make better decisions in business, science and government. And the technological building blocks, both hardware and software, are falling into place, stirring optimism.
Michael R. Stonebraker, a pioneer in database research, is one of the optimists. Software used by companies and government agencies — in products sold by Oracle, I.B.M., Microsoft and others — descends from research done in the 1970s by Mr. Stonebraker and Eugene Wong, a colleague at the University of California, Berkeley, as well as a team of scientists at I.B.M.
Today, Mr. Stonebraker sees an opportunity for new kinds of ultrafast databases. The new software, he explains, takes advantage of rapid advances in computer hardware to help businesses and researchers find insights in the rising flood of data coming from so many sources, including Web-browsing trails, sensor data, genetic testing and stock trading.
So, at 68, Mr. Stonebraker is a co-founder and chief technology officer of two start-ups in the field of data-driven discovery, VoltDB andParadigm4.
“Now is the time,” says Mr. Stonebraker, who is an adjunct professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s computer science and artificial intelligence laboratory. “The economics and the technology are ripe.”
The case for optimism is by no means unqualified. The march of these technologies raises social issues, including privacy concerns, and the timing is uncertain. All of the bold predictions in the 1990s that the Internet would disrupt traditional industries like media, advertising and retailing did come true — a decade later.
But a series of related technologies, scientists and entrepreneurs say, has reached a critical mass — come to a digital boiling point, so to speak — so that new products and capabilities become possible. The technical ingredients, they note, include powerful, low-cost computing and storage spread across thousands of computers. The digital engine rooms of Google and Amazon are prime examples.
Another fast-improving technology involves inexpensive and intelligent sensors, which are crucial to a new breed of automated machines like experimental driverless cars and battlefield drones. Clever software — notably machine-learning algorithms — animates much of the current wave of smarter technology. Two well-known examples are found in Watson, the “Jeopardy”-winning computer from I.B.M., and the movie recommendations on Netflix.
ADVANCES in such underlying technologies are fueling the current excitement in fields like artificial intelligence, robotics and data analysis and prediction. “All parts of the technology pipeline are gearing up at the same time, and that’s how you get this explosion of new applications and uses,” says Jon Kleinberg, a computer scientist at Cornell University.
Behind the seeming explosion, experts say, is a process of technology evolution. Paul Saffo, a technology forecaster, compares the process to the evolutionary biology concept known as “punctuated equilibria” formulated by the paleontologists Stephen Jay Gould and Niles Eldredge. The idea is that species often evolve in periodic spurts.
Yet, they say, there are typically years of progress before a commercial breakthrough in the technological realm.
“Even in Silicon Valley, it takes most technologies 20 years to become overnight successes,” says Mr. Saffo, a consulting professor at Stanford’s school of engineering.
The Internet provides a case study of both technology’s evolutionary progress and its exponential growth. In 1969, there were only four computers connected to the nascent Internet, compared with roughly a billion computing devices today, from laptops to cellphones, saysEdward Lazowska, a computer scientist at the University of Washington.
The early increases in connected computers drew scant attention. “But at some point in the late 1990s,” Mr. Lazowska says, “you were going from 4 million to 8 million to 16 million to 32 million to 64 million, and people started to notice that something revolutionary was going on.”
Rocket Fuel is a four-year-old Silicon Valley start-up that uses artificial-intelligence software to place display advertisements for marketers on the Web. The company can not only tailor ads by demographic slices of viewers’ ages, gender and interests, but can also use its predictive algorithms to produce campaigns based on results, says George H. John, the company’s chief executive.
For example, a luxury carmaker might tell Rocket Fuel that it wants to place 100 million ads in the next month, and it will pay the company, say, $80 for generating a sales lead, as evidenced by a potential customer downloading a brochure or filling out an online form.
Rocket Fuel is growing fast, having nearly doubled its work force since the start of the year, to 240. So far in 2012, it has handled campaigns for more than 500 advertisers, including BMW, Duncan Hines, Allstate, Pizza Hut and Ace Hardware. It has raised $76 million in venture funding and debt, and its thousands of computers handle 19 billion bid requests a day on ad exchanges. Each online auction for ad space is typically completed in about 100 milliseconds, a tenth of a second.
Rocket Fuel, Mr. John says, is using some of the ideas he worked on in the 1990s as a doctoral student focusing on artificial intelligence at Stanford — research that was supported with government dollars from the National Science Foundation and other agencies, as is so often the case. In the last few years, building a business around those ideas has become achievable and affordable. “And a lot of it has to do with the underlying technology,” Mr. John says.
FOR Mr. Stonebraker, the hardware advance that opens the door to his start-ups is the striking improvement of solid-state memory, as performance climbs and prices plunge. Solid-state, or flash, memory is most widely known as the lightweight storage technology used in consumer devices like small music players and smartphones.
But increasingly, solid-state memory can be used in big computers, holding a hefty database in memory instead of sending data off to be stored on disk drives. According to Mr. Stonebraker, some data-handling tasks can now be completed 50 times faster than with conventional systems.
“Memory is the new disk,” he says. “The obvious thing to do is to exploit that technology.”
In the yin and yang of computing, it is software that exploits hardware, enabling a computer to do useful things. And machine-learning programs and other data-sifting software are advancing swiftly.
“There is no point in collecting and storing all this data if the algorithms are not able to find useful patterns and insights in the data,” says Mr. Kleinberg at Cornell. “But the software is scaling up to the task.”
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Living, Thinking Houses
By DIANE ACKERMAN (opinion)
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In the sizzling summer heat I’ve been thinking about igloos. To chill out in, of course, but also because I admire their elemental simplicity. Inuits traditionally used bone knives to carve bricks from quarries of hardened snow. A short, low tunnel led to the front door, trapping heat in and keeping out fierce cold and critters. Mortar wasn’t needed, because the snow bricks were shaved to fit, and at night the dome ossified into a glistening ice fort. The human warmth inside melted the ice just enough to seal the seams.
The idea behind such homes was refuge from elements and predators, based on a watchful understanding of both. The igloo was really an extension of the self — shoulder blades of snow and backbone of ice, beneath which a family slept, swathed in thick animal fur, beside one or two small lamps burning blubber. All the building materials lay at hand, perpetually recycled, costing nothing but effort.
Picture most of our houses and apartment buildings today — full of sharp angles, lighted by bulbs and colors one doesn’t find in nature, built from plywood, linoleum, iron, cement and glass. Despite their style, efficiency and maybe good location, they don’t always offer us a sense of sanctuary, rest or well-being. Because we can’t escape our ancient hunger to live close to nature, we encircle the house with lawns and gardens, install picture windows, adopt pets and Boston ferns, and scent everything that touches our lives.
This tradition of doing and undoing doesn’t really make sense or promote healthy living or a sustainable planet, so there’s an impassioned trend worldwide toward building green cities with living walls and roofs and urban farms in skyscrapers. Referring to “the north 40” would mean crops 40 floors up. In such a cityscape, the line blurs between indoor and outdoor.
Vertical gardens and living roofs are sprouting up everywhere.Mexico City’s three eco-sculptures, carpeted in over 50,000 plants, tower above car-clogged avenues. A blooming tapestry of plants adorns the exterior walls of the Quai Branly Museum in Paris. InsideLisbon’s Dolce Vita shopping center, a plush vertical meadow undulates. In Milan’s Café Trussardi, diners and flâneurs sit in a glass-box courtyard beneath a hint of heaven: a vibrant cloud of frizzy greens, cascading vines and flowers. The Plant, an oldmeatpacking building in Chicago, has morphed into an eco farm, home to tilapia fish breeders, mushroom gardeners and hydroponically grown vegetables. Xero Flor America, based in North Carolina, has already sold 1.2 million square feet of living roofs.
Jacob Magraw
Patrick Blanc, a botanist and a pioneer of the vertical garden (whose own house in the suburbs of Paris includes growing walls and an aquarium floor), has designed or inspired living walls for the New York Botanical Garden and a luxury apartment building in Sydney, among dozens of businesses, homes, schools and museums, whose walls whisper and bloom. The goal is homes and public spaces that are live organisms that will scrub the air of pollutants, increase oxygen, reduce noise, save energy and refresh the spirit. Roofs planted with low-maintenance sedums and succulents blossom, changing color with the seasons, providing a habitat for birds and, importantly, reflecting heat.
Big cities are hot spots, on average 13 to 16 degrees warmer than the surrounding countryside. On some summer days in New York City, the air hangs thickly visible, like the combined exhalations of eight million souls. Steam rising from vents underground makes you wonder if there isn’t one giant sweat gland lodged beneath the city.
A big worry to environmentalists is the record number of people fleeing suburbia for city life. Three and a half billion people now live in cities, and scientists predict that by 2050 cities will contain two-thirds of the world’s population and most of its pollution.
As people flock to urban centers where ground space is limited, cities with green walls and roofs and skyscraper farms offer improved health and well-being, renewable resources, reliable food supply, and relief to the environment.
A living building is really an entity with its own metabolism, which needs a brain of some sort to nourish it. That could be a human being, or better yet a robotic Jeeves (or maybe Leeves) who tends its herbal roof, meadow walls and human family with equal pride, and is a good listener. “Smart houses” already have plenty of bells and whistles run by savvy computer brains. Artificial intelligence is growing up fast, as are robots whose facial expressions can elicit empathy and make your mirror neurons quiver.
One can easily imagine the day, famously foretold in the movies “Blade Runner” and “2001: A Space Odyssey,” when computers feel pride, paranoia, love, melancholy, anger and the other stirrings of our carbon hearts. Then the already lively debate about whether machines are conscious will really heat up.
In J. G. Ballard’s science-fiction short story “The Thousand Dreams of Stellavista,” there are psycho-sensitive houses that can be driven to hysteria by their owners’ neuroses. Picture living walls sweating with anxiety, a vine-clad staircase keening when an occupant dies, roof seams fraying from a mild sense of neglect. Some days I swear I’m living in that house right now.
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NYT
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September 9, 2012
How to Find Weeds in a Mortgage Pool
By GRETCHEN MORGENSON
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IT sounds like the Domesday Book of the housing bust. In fact, it is a computerized compendium of millions of housing transactions — a decade’s worth from across the country — that could finally help us get to the bottom of troubled mortgage investments.
The system is an outgrowth of work done by a New York investment manager, Thomas Priore. In the boom years, his investment firm, ICP Capital, navigated the dangerous waters of collateralized debt obligations via an investment vehicle called Triaxx. Buyers of Triaxx C.D.O.’s did better than most, but Triaxx still incurred losses when the bottom fell out.
Now Triaxx’s database could help its managers and other investors identify bad mortgages and, perhaps, learn who snookered whom when questionable home loans were bundled into investments that later went bad.
Triaxx’s technology came to light only last month, in court documents filed in connection with the bankruptcy of Residential Capital. ResCap was the mortgage lending unit of GMAC, now known as Ally Financial. As an investor in mortgage securities, Triaxx gained access to a lot of information about loans that were pooled, including when those loans were made, where the properties are and how big the mortgage was, relative to the property’s value. After Triaxx fed such details into its system, dubious loans popped out.
Granted, Mr. Priore is no stranger to controversy. He and ICP spent two years defending themselves against a lawsuit by the Securities and Exchange Commission, which accused them of improperly generating “tens of millions of dollars in fees and undisclosed profits at the expense of clients and investors.” On Friday, ICP and Mr. Priore settled the matter. As is typical in such cases, they neither admitted nor denied the accusations. Mr. Priore paid $1.5 million. He declined to discuss the settlement.
But he did say that, looking ahead, he believed that Triaxx’s technology would help its investors recover money they deserved. Many other investors, unable or unwilling to dig through such data, have settled for pennies on the dollar.
“Our hope is that the technology will level the playing field for mortgage-backed investors and provide a superior method to manage residential mortgage risk in the future,” Mr. Priore said.
A step in that direction is Triaxx’s recent objection to a proposed settlement struck last May between ResCap and a group of large mortgage investors. Triaxx, which invested in mortgage loans originated by ResCap, criticized that settlement because it was based in part on estimated losses. Triaxx said the estimates had assumed that all the trusts that invested in ResCap paper were the same. Triaxx argued that a settlement based on estimated losses, rather than one based on an analysis of actual misrepresentations, unfairly rewards investors who bought ResCap’s riskier mortgages.
ResCap replied that it would be a herculean task to examine the loans in the trusts to determine the validity of each investor’s claims. But Triaxx noted that it took only seven weeks or so to do a forensic analysis of the roughly 20,000 loans held by the trusts in which it is an investor. Of its investments in loans with an original balance of $12.8 billion, Triaxx has identified approximately $2.17 billion with likely breaches. A lawyer for ResCap did not return a phone call on Friday seeking comment about problem loans.
John G. Moon, a lawyer at Miller & Wrubel who represents Mr. Priore’s firm, said: “Large institutions have been able to hide behind the expense of loan file review to evade responsibility for this very important national problem that we now have. Using years of data and cross-referencing it, Triaxx has figured out where the bad loans are.”
Triaxx, for example, said it had found loans that probably involved inflated appraisals. Those appraisals led to mortgages far exceeding the values of the underlying properties. As a result, investors who thought they were buying mortgages that didn’t exceed 80 percent of the properties’ value were instead buying highly risky loans that totaled well over 100 percent of the value.
Triaxx identifies these loans by analyzing 50 property sales in the same vicinity during the same period that the original mortgage was given. Then it compares the specific mortgage to 10 others that are most similar. The comparable transactions must involve the same type of property — a single-family home, for example — of roughly the same size. They must also be within a 5.5-mile radius. If the appraisal appears excessive, the system flags it.
Phony appraisals in its ResCap loans likely resulted in $1.29 billion in breaches, Triaxx told the court. Triaxx cited 50 possible cases; one involved a mortgage written in November 2006 on a home in Miami. It was a 1,036-square-foot single-family residence, and was appraised at $495,000. That appraisal supported a $396,000 mortgage, reflecting a relatively conservative 80 percent loan-to-value ratio.
But an analysis of 10 similar sales around that time suggested that the property was actually worth about $279,000. If that was indeed the case, that $396,000 mortgage represented a 142 percent loan-to-value ratio.
Perhaps the home had gold-plated bathroom fixtures and diamond-encrusted appliances. Probably not.
Triaxx’s system also points to loans on properties that were not owner-occupied, a breach of what investors were told would be in the pool when they bought it, Triaxx’s filing said. Such misrepresentations in loans underwritten by ResCap amounted to $352 million, Triaxx said.
The technology also kicks out mortgages on which borrowers failed to make even their first payments, loans that should never have wound up in the pools to begin with.
Although Triaxx is using its technology to try to recover losses, that system could also help investors looking to buy privately issued mortgage securities. After all, investors’ inability to analyze the loans in these pools during the mania led to enormous losses in the collapse. Now, deeply mistrustful of such securities, investors have pretty much abandoned the market.
Lenders and packagers of mortgage securities will undoubtedly fight the use of any technology like Triaxx’s to identify questionable loans. That battle will be interesting to watch. But investors should certainly welcome anything that brings transparency to this dysfunctional market.
Source:
NYT, 9/9/12
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September 9, 2012
In 2012 Presidential Election, a Weak Economy Is a Relative Term
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By JEFF SOMMER
THE unemployment rate is 8.1 percent, hiring has slowed to a trickle and the economy is weak. For a president seeking re-election, those are high hurdles.
In fact, if the maxim, “It’s the economy, stupid,” still has any validity in American politics, it might seem that Barack Obama’s goose is already cooked.
But that’s not what the polls or prediction markets are showing. President Obama and Mitt Romney appear to be running neck-and-neck, and in major betting markets Mr. Obama is the heavy favorite.
Has the economy lost some of its ability to influence politics?
Not at all, says Ray C. Fair, the Yale economics professor who uses economic data to predict presidential elections. As the final stretch of the campaign begins, Professor Fair’s equations suggest that the economy is a liability for President Obama. But while the economy is weak, Professor Fair says, it’s not all that weak, so his model is producing an emotionally unsatisfying result: based on the state of the economy alone, this election is just too close to call.
For a year in which a truly dismal economy sealed the electoral fate of an incumbent president, he says, look at 1980, when President Jimmy Carter lost to Ronald Reagan. In the nine months leading up to that election, per capita gross domestic product actually declined at an average annual rate of 3.7 percent, while inflation increased at an annual rate of 7.9 percent.
Professor Fair estimates that the comparable numbers for President Obama are G.D.P. growth of 1.62 percent and inflation of 1.51 percent. The low inflation rate is a plus for the president, while the mediocre G.D.P. growth rate is a problem — though not a fatal one.
“You can quite properly call this economy ‘weak,’ ” he said, “but it’s nothing like what Carter faced.” Mr. Reagan’s overwhelming victory “fit the economic picture perfectly,” he said. “This is a different situation.”
He added: “If the economy were significantly weaker or significantly stronger — if we were in a recession or if economic growth were really dramatically better — we’d have a much clearer picture of who would win the election. But the economy remains in a range of mediocre growth. It puts us in the margin-of-error range.”
As he has done since that 1980 election, Mr. Fair has plugged economic data into a computer model that correlates presidential elections. What’s fascinating about the model is that it disregards nearly everything except the strength of the economy — yet produces reasonably accurate predictions. The relative appeal of the candidates and the issues of their campaigns play no part.
Based on data entered on July 27, the model projects that Mr. Obama will receive only 49.5 percent of the popular vote in November, one percentage point less than Mr. Romney — but the equations have a “standard error” of 2.5 percent, he said. That means that based on the state of the economy alone, the model is showing that either candidate has a reasonable chance of winning.
Professor Fair’s equations reflect the historical edge enjoyed by incumbents. This time around, while the economy is bad enough to essentially wipe out President Obama’s advantage, it’s not bad enough to kill his chances, the model suggests. (It’s available for do-it-yourselfers on Professor Fair’s Yale Web site.)
Professor Fair will compute a fresh prediction based on data available in late October, but at this stage the political probabilities aren’t likely to shift very much, he says. “It looks as though this will be a horse race, a very close one,” he says.
He isn’t the only one to rely on economic data for an election forecast. Nigel Gault, the chief United States economist at IHS Global Insights, a research firm in Boston, says his firm’s projections, using proprietary methods and different economic variables, show that the president is in serious trouble.
The unemployment rate is “a crucial variable that feeds into our equations,” Mr. Gault said, and income growth, which also weighs heavily, is low. He estimates a mere 1.1 percent increase in per capita real income growth in the 12 months leading up to the election. The model projects that Mr. Obama will receive only 45.4 percent of the popular vote.
Mr. Gault doubts that the forecast will be borne out, however. “The equation says that based on history, a president running with those sort of economic numbers would be expected to have trouble being re-elected. That may be right. But I think there’s no doubt that the equation is underestimating President Obama’s chances.”
The IHS model has an obvious limitation. It is based on data starting with 1948 and the election of Harry Truman, so it includes no period with economic circumstances as dire as those faced by President Obama at his inauguration in 2009. (Professor Fair’s model, which he uses as a teaching device, includes all presidential elections going back to Woodrow Wilson’s victory in 1916, and therefore encompasses the elections of the Great Depression.)
The Democrats today are arguing “that the economy was in free fall when President Obama came into office and that it has gotten back on track under his leadership,” Mr. Gault said. “That might be effective. It’s possible that this is the election that breaks the mold.”
Many polls suggest that voters find the president more likable than Mr. Romney, he said, and this, too, could be decisive.
TWO economists, David M. Rothschild of Microsoft Research and Patrick Hummel of Google, have created a model that includes political as well as economic data, and makes state-by-state predictions for the Electoral College. It, too, shows President Obama losing.
But as Election Day draws nearer, Mr. Rothschild has found, prediction markets like Intrade and Betfair, as well as public opinion polls, become increasingly accurate. He melds data from those sources with findings of his “fundamental model” on a Web site, PredictWise, and finds that President Obama is actually the favorite.
“The economy is important,” Mr. Rothschild said. “But it doesn’t tell you everything.”
Source:
NYT
MORE IN YOUR MONEY (52 OF 68 ARTICLES)
(Click) Common Sense: Influence of Money Market Funds Ended OverhaulRead More »
_____________________________
In 2012 Presidential Election, a Weak Economy Is a Relative Term
Click the green areas for further information
By JEFF SOMMER
THE unemployment rate is 8.1 percent, hiring has slowed to a trickle and the economy is weak. For a president seeking re-election, those are high hurdles.
In fact, if the maxim, “It’s the economy, stupid,” still has any validity in American politics, it might seem that Barack Obama’s goose is already cooked.
But that’s not what the polls or prediction markets are showing. President Obama and Mitt Romney appear to be running neck-and-neck, and in major betting markets Mr. Obama is the heavy favorite.
Has the economy lost some of its ability to influence politics?
Not at all, says Ray C. Fair, the Yale economics professor who uses economic data to predict presidential elections. As the final stretch of the campaign begins, Professor Fair’s equations suggest that the economy is a liability for President Obama. But while the economy is weak, Professor Fair says, it’s not all that weak, so his model is producing an emotionally unsatisfying result: based on the state of the economy alone, this election is just too close to call.
For a year in which a truly dismal economy sealed the electoral fate of an incumbent president, he says, look at 1980, when President Jimmy Carter lost to Ronald Reagan. In the nine months leading up to that election, per capita gross domestic product actually declined at an average annual rate of 3.7 percent, while inflation increased at an annual rate of 7.9 percent.
Professor Fair estimates that the comparable numbers for President Obama are G.D.P. growth of 1.62 percent and inflation of 1.51 percent. The low inflation rate is a plus for the president, while the mediocre G.D.P. growth rate is a problem — though not a fatal one.
“You can quite properly call this economy ‘weak,’ ” he said, “but it’s nothing like what Carter faced.” Mr. Reagan’s overwhelming victory “fit the economic picture perfectly,” he said. “This is a different situation.”
He added: “If the economy were significantly weaker or significantly stronger — if we were in a recession or if economic growth were really dramatically better — we’d have a much clearer picture of who would win the election. But the economy remains in a range of mediocre growth. It puts us in the margin-of-error range.”
As he has done since that 1980 election, Mr. Fair has plugged economic data into a computer model that correlates presidential elections. What’s fascinating about the model is that it disregards nearly everything except the strength of the economy — yet produces reasonably accurate predictions. The relative appeal of the candidates and the issues of their campaigns play no part.
Based on data entered on July 27, the model projects that Mr. Obama will receive only 49.5 percent of the popular vote in November, one percentage point less than Mr. Romney — but the equations have a “standard error” of 2.5 percent, he said. That means that based on the state of the economy alone, the model is showing that either candidate has a reasonable chance of winning.
Professor Fair’s equations reflect the historical edge enjoyed by incumbents. This time around, while the economy is bad enough to essentially wipe out President Obama’s advantage, it’s not bad enough to kill his chances, the model suggests. (It’s available for do-it-yourselfers on Professor Fair’s Yale Web site.)
Professor Fair will compute a fresh prediction based on data available in late October, but at this stage the political probabilities aren’t likely to shift very much, he says. “It looks as though this will be a horse race, a very close one,” he says.
He isn’t the only one to rely on economic data for an election forecast. Nigel Gault, the chief United States economist at IHS Global Insights, a research firm in Boston, says his firm’s projections, using proprietary methods and different economic variables, show that the president is in serious trouble.
The unemployment rate is “a crucial variable that feeds into our equations,” Mr. Gault said, and income growth, which also weighs heavily, is low. He estimates a mere 1.1 percent increase in per capita real income growth in the 12 months leading up to the election. The model projects that Mr. Obama will receive only 45.4 percent of the popular vote.
Mr. Gault doubts that the forecast will be borne out, however. “The equation says that based on history, a president running with those sort of economic numbers would be expected to have trouble being re-elected. That may be right. But I think there’s no doubt that the equation is underestimating President Obama’s chances.”
The IHS model has an obvious limitation. It is based on data starting with 1948 and the election of Harry Truman, so it includes no period with economic circumstances as dire as those faced by President Obama at his inauguration in 2009. (Professor Fair’s model, which he uses as a teaching device, includes all presidential elections going back to Woodrow Wilson’s victory in 1916, and therefore encompasses the elections of the Great Depression.)
The Democrats today are arguing “that the economy was in free fall when President Obama came into office and that it has gotten back on track under his leadership,” Mr. Gault said. “That might be effective. It’s possible that this is the election that breaks the mold.”
Many polls suggest that voters find the president more likable than Mr. Romney, he said, and this, too, could be decisive.
TWO economists, David M. Rothschild of Microsoft Research and Patrick Hummel of Google, have created a model that includes political as well as economic data, and makes state-by-state predictions for the Electoral College. It, too, shows President Obama losing.
But as Election Day draws nearer, Mr. Rothschild has found, prediction markets like Intrade and Betfair, as well as public opinion polls, become increasingly accurate. He melds data from those sources with findings of his “fundamental model” on a Web site, PredictWise, and finds that President Obama is actually the favorite.
“The economy is important,” Mr. Rothschild said. “But it doesn’t tell you everything.”
Source:
NYT
MORE IN YOUR MONEY (52 OF 68 ARTICLES)
(Click) Common Sense: Influence of Money Market Funds Ended OverhaulRead More »
_____________________________
September 9, 2012
In Defense of the Power of Paper
Click the green areas for further information
By PHYLLIS KORKKI
PAPER still matters. The frequent whirring of printers in offices — despite the Internet, Microsoft Word, social media, scanners, smartphone apps and PDF files — attests to that. We may use less of it than we once did, but reading and writing on paper serves a function that, for many workers, a screen can’t replicate.
Paper, says the productivity expert David Allen, is “in your face.” Its physical presence can be a goad to completing tasks, whereas computer files can easily be hidden and thus forgotten, he said. Some of his clients are returning to paper planners for this very reason, he added.
Mr. Allen, the author of “Getting Things Done,” does much of his writing on a computer, but there are still times when writing with a fountain pen on a notepad “allows me to get my head in the right place,” he said.
Paper printouts also serve an important function, he said. For long texts, a printout can allow a reader to better understand relationships between sections of writing. And paper handouts are still a presence at meetings partly because they are useful for taking notes.
Reading a long document on paper rather than on a computer screen helps people “better understand the geography of the argument contained within,” said Richard H. R. Harper, a principal researcher for Microsoft in Cambridge, England, and co-author with Abigail J. Sellen of “The Myth of the Paperless Office,” published in 2001.
Today’s workers are often navigating through multiple objects in complex ways and creating new documents as well, Mr. Harper said. Using more than one computer screen can be helpful for all this cognitive juggling. But when workers are going back and forth between points in a longer document, it can be more efficient to read on paper, he said.
A study released in 1997 showed that people’s comprehension is superior when they read texts on paper as opposed to online, Mr. Harper said. That finding, of course, doesn’t consider the vast improvements in screen technology that have occurred since then, among them e-readers.
Mr. Harper is currently doing research on e-readers, which are now used mostly for leisure reading. In the future, office workers might make more use of e-readers “alongside other devices for reading and creation, and this will add to the spread of screen collateral on the desk” while not necessarily making reading more efficient, he said.
STEVE LEVEEN, co-founder and C.E.O. of Levenger, maintains that digital technology is better for socializing and sharing, while paper is best for quiet contemplation. His company is in the business of promoting paper as an aesthetic experience, offering high-end notebooks, journals and pens, even as it expands to sell items like laptop desks and smartphone cases.
Paper, Mr. Leveen said, “can be a luscious and beautiful thing — the way we savor fine food and wine, we can savor paper and ink and what it does for us.”
Paper reminds us that “we’re physical beings, despite having to contend with an increasingly virtual world,” he said. People complain that writing by hand is slow, but that can be good for thinking and creating, he said: “It slows us down to think and to contemplate and to revise and recast.”
Computer styluses, too, can “force you to think more carefully about which words you put down and how to plan what you say,” Mr. Harper said. But a stylus can’t replace the physical experience of pen on paper, he said.
A stylus has the advantage of cutting down on the heedless use of paper, as does typing and reading on screens. And that’s good news for trees.
As a nation, “we’re doing more with less paper, and recycling more of what we do use,” said Joel Makower, chairman and executive editor of the GreenBiz Group, which aims to help businesses become more environmentally responsible.
Mr. Makower doesn’t do a great deal of writing on paper because he has trouble reading his own handwriting. And he is more organized with his computer files than with paper.
“I don’t know where to put things in the real world,” he said, “but I know exactly where to put them on my computer.”
But, he said, he knows that some people are just the opposite, and that there is still a place for paper in the office. Although he conducts almost all his work digitally, he still prints out his group’s “State of Green Business” report — more than 80 pages this year — for proofreading.
“I can do a pretty good job on the screen, but there’s something about reading it in hard copy” Mr. Makower said, that makes it easier for him to understand.
Source:
NYT
MORE IN JOBS (6 OF 20 ARTICLES)
(click) Critics Say California Law Hurts Effort to Add JobsRead More »
__________________________
In Defense of the Power of Paper
Click the green areas for further information
By PHYLLIS KORKKI
PAPER still matters. The frequent whirring of printers in offices — despite the Internet, Microsoft Word, social media, scanners, smartphone apps and PDF files — attests to that. We may use less of it than we once did, but reading and writing on paper serves a function that, for many workers, a screen can’t replicate.
Paper, says the productivity expert David Allen, is “in your face.” Its physical presence can be a goad to completing tasks, whereas computer files can easily be hidden and thus forgotten, he said. Some of his clients are returning to paper planners for this very reason, he added.
Mr. Allen, the author of “Getting Things Done,” does much of his writing on a computer, but there are still times when writing with a fountain pen on a notepad “allows me to get my head in the right place,” he said.
Paper printouts also serve an important function, he said. For long texts, a printout can allow a reader to better understand relationships between sections of writing. And paper handouts are still a presence at meetings partly because they are useful for taking notes.
Reading a long document on paper rather than on a computer screen helps people “better understand the geography of the argument contained within,” said Richard H. R. Harper, a principal researcher for Microsoft in Cambridge, England, and co-author with Abigail J. Sellen of “The Myth of the Paperless Office,” published in 2001.
Today’s workers are often navigating through multiple objects in complex ways and creating new documents as well, Mr. Harper said. Using more than one computer screen can be helpful for all this cognitive juggling. But when workers are going back and forth between points in a longer document, it can be more efficient to read on paper, he said.
A study released in 1997 showed that people’s comprehension is superior when they read texts on paper as opposed to online, Mr. Harper said. That finding, of course, doesn’t consider the vast improvements in screen technology that have occurred since then, among them e-readers.
Mr. Harper is currently doing research on e-readers, which are now used mostly for leisure reading. In the future, office workers might make more use of e-readers “alongside other devices for reading and creation, and this will add to the spread of screen collateral on the desk” while not necessarily making reading more efficient, he said.
STEVE LEVEEN, co-founder and C.E.O. of Levenger, maintains that digital technology is better for socializing and sharing, while paper is best for quiet contemplation. His company is in the business of promoting paper as an aesthetic experience, offering high-end notebooks, journals and pens, even as it expands to sell items like laptop desks and smartphone cases.
Paper, Mr. Leveen said, “can be a luscious and beautiful thing — the way we savor fine food and wine, we can savor paper and ink and what it does for us.”
Paper reminds us that “we’re physical beings, despite having to contend with an increasingly virtual world,” he said. People complain that writing by hand is slow, but that can be good for thinking and creating, he said: “It slows us down to think and to contemplate and to revise and recast.”
Computer styluses, too, can “force you to think more carefully about which words you put down and how to plan what you say,” Mr. Harper said. But a stylus can’t replace the physical experience of pen on paper, he said.
A stylus has the advantage of cutting down on the heedless use of paper, as does typing and reading on screens. And that’s good news for trees.
As a nation, “we’re doing more with less paper, and recycling more of what we do use,” said Joel Makower, chairman and executive editor of the GreenBiz Group, which aims to help businesses become more environmentally responsible.
Mr. Makower doesn’t do a great deal of writing on paper because he has trouble reading his own handwriting. And he is more organized with his computer files than with paper.
“I don’t know where to put things in the real world,” he said, “but I know exactly where to put them on my computer.”
But, he said, he knows that some people are just the opposite, and that there is still a place for paper in the office. Although he conducts almost all his work digitally, he still prints out his group’s “State of Green Business” report — more than 80 pages this year — for proofreading.
“I can do a pretty good job on the screen, but there’s something about reading it in hard copy” Mr. Makower said, that makes it easier for him to understand.
Source:
NYT
MORE IN JOBS (6 OF 20 ARTICLES)
(click) Critics Say California Law Hurts Effort to Add JobsRead More »
__________________________
To Stay on Schedule, Take a Break
Click the green areas for further info
WANT to be more productive? Keep your nose to the grindstone, or your fingers on the keyboard and your eyes on the screen. Because the more time you put in, the more you’ll get done, right?
Wrong. A growing body of evidence shows that taking regular breaks from mental tasks improves productivity and creativity — and that skipping breaks can lead to stress and exhaustion.
I think I’ll go to the gym now.
Mental concentration is similar to a muscle, says John P. Trougakos, an assistant management professor at the University of Toronto Scarborough and the Rotman School of Management. It becomes fatigued after sustained use and needs a rest period before it can recover, he explains — much as a weight lifter needs rest before doing a second round of repetitions at the gym.
Breaks are great. But I feel guilty taking too many of them.
Breaks can induce guilt because they’re “this little oasis of personal time that we get while we’re selling ourselves to someone else,” Professor Trougakos says. But that’s just the point.
Employees generally need to detach from their work and their work space to recharge their internal resources, he says. Options include walking, reading a book in another room or taking the all-important lunch break, which provides both nutritional and cognitive recharging.
It’s shortsighted not to take this time, or for managers to discourage employees from taking it, he says.
I mean, if you think .... uh, what I mean to say is ... oh no, my head feels a little fuzzy. I think I need to walk around the block.
Try to take a break before reaching the absolute bottom of your mental barrel, Professor Trougakos says. Symptoms of needing time to recharge include drifting and daydreaming.
After that walk, I’m “in the zone” and want to keep working. Do I really have to take another break anytime soon?
There is no need to take a break if you’re on a roll, Professor Trougakos advises. Working over an extended period can be invigorating — if it’s your choice. What drains your energy reserves most is forcing yourself to go on, he says.
Well, I don’t want to strain myself. What if I can’t do this topic justice? I need to get another cup of coffee. Oh look, someone brought in her baby. I need to update my Netflix queue. Maybe I’ll visit Fred on the seventh floor.
Don’t go too far with this, Professor Trougakos says. Too many breaks can abet procrastination. “Anything at an extreme level,” he says, “is not going to be good.”
Mostly, though, workers don’t take enough breaks — especially breaks involving movement, says James A. Levine, a professor of medicine at the Mayo Clinic. He has done studies showing that workers who remain sedentary throughout the day are impairing their health.
“The design of the human being is to be a mobile entity,” says Dr. Levine, who is also a proponent of standing, and even walking, while working and during meetings.
I want to make some more calls, but I’m so sleepy! I wish I could take a nap underneath my desk.
Dr. Levine is a supporter of nap breaks, but only if they are allowed by management, he says. Otherwise, nappers can be perceived as slackers — even though research shows that naps improve productivity.
When it comes to productivity and concentration, everyone has a different capacity. Management should encourage employees to devise individually effective break routines, Dr. Levine says. But he also has some general guidelines: try working in intense 15-minute bursts, punctuated by breaks, in cycles that are repeated throughout the day. This works because “the thought process is not designed to be continuous,” he says.
“Long hours don’t mean good work — highly efficient, productive work is more valuable,” Dr. Levine says, and frequent breaks promote that.
They also encourage those flashes of genius that employers value so much, he adds, noting that Albert Einstein is thought to haveconceived the theory of relativity while riding his bicycle.
When you come right down to it, Dr. Levine says, “the work should break up the break.”
Now that’s an idea I can get up and walk around the room to support.Source
Source:
NYT
By PHYLLIS KORKKI
This is for your personal use, only
_________________________________________
August 29, 2012
Be More Productive. Take Time Off
By JASON FRIED - a co-founder and CEO of 37signals, a software company
Click the green areas for further info
IN the Midwest we’re all very aware of seasons and seasonal change. The cold, the warm, the wet, the dry, the hot — we have it all every year. Some seasons are more welcome than others, but they’re all good about one thing: change.
Change is important. When we were growing up, we got summers off from school. Summer vacation was change. It was something to look forward to. A few months of something different really meant a lot.
We grow out of a lot as we grow up. One of the most unfortunate things we leave behind is a regular dose of change. Nowhere is this more evident than at work.
Work in February is the same as work in May. June’s the same as October. And it would be hard to tell August from April.
Yes, some businesses are more seasonal than others, but ultimately the stuff we do at work isn’t that much different — it’s just busier some times than others. That isn’t change, it’s just more volume.
I wanted to do something about this. So, at 37signals, the software company I’ve run for the past 13 years, we take inspiration from the seasons and build change into our work schedule.
For example, from May through October, we switch to a four-day workweek. And not 40 hours crammed into four days, but 32 hours comfortably fit into four days. We don’t work the same amount of time, we work less.
Most staff workers take Fridays off, but some choose a different day. Nearly all of us enjoy three-day weekends. Work ends Thursday, the weekend starts Friday, and work starts back up on Monday.
The benefits of a six-month schedule with three-day weekends are obvious. But there’s one surprising effect of the changed schedule: better work gets done in four days than in five.
When there’s less time to work, you waste less time. When you have a compressed workweek, you tend to focus on what’s important. Constraining time encourages quality time.
At 37signals there’s another thing we do to celebrate the seasons: we cover the cost of a weekly community-supported agriculture share for each employee. We enjoy this benefit year-round, but fresh fruit and produce really glisten in the summer months. It’s a simple way to celebrate change.
In the spirit of continual change, this summer we tried something new. We decided to give everyone the month of June to work on whatever they wanted. It wasn’t vacation, but it was vacation from whatever work was already scheduled. We invited everyone to shelve their nonessential work and to use the time to explore their own ideas.
People worked independently or joined up with other employees on team projects. The only rule was: explore, see if there are ways to make our existing products better, or come up with a new product idea, create a new business model, or do whatever is of most interest.
Then, in July, we asked each person to share, with the rest of the staff, whatever idea he or she came up with, on a day we set aside as “Pitchday.”
The June-on-your-own experiment led to the greatest burst of creativity I’ve seen from our 34-member staff. It was fun, and it was a big morale booster. It was also ultraproductive. So much so that we’ll likely start repeating the month-off project a few times a year.
Are you thinking of introducing change to your business or work life? Try following the seasons. There are few things that are as regular and predictable, yet so fresh and different.
Jason Fried is a co-founder and C.E.O. of 37signals, a software company.
Source:
NYT
This is for your private use, only
_________________________________
Be More Productive. Take Time Off
By JASON FRIED - a co-founder and CEO of 37signals, a software company
Click the green areas for further info
IN the Midwest we’re all very aware of seasons and seasonal change. The cold, the warm, the wet, the dry, the hot — we have it all every year. Some seasons are more welcome than others, but they’re all good about one thing: change.
Change is important. When we were growing up, we got summers off from school. Summer vacation was change. It was something to look forward to. A few months of something different really meant a lot.
We grow out of a lot as we grow up. One of the most unfortunate things we leave behind is a regular dose of change. Nowhere is this more evident than at work.
Work in February is the same as work in May. June’s the same as October. And it would be hard to tell August from April.
Yes, some businesses are more seasonal than others, but ultimately the stuff we do at work isn’t that much different — it’s just busier some times than others. That isn’t change, it’s just more volume.
I wanted to do something about this. So, at 37signals, the software company I’ve run for the past 13 years, we take inspiration from the seasons and build change into our work schedule.
For example, from May through October, we switch to a four-day workweek. And not 40 hours crammed into four days, but 32 hours comfortably fit into four days. We don’t work the same amount of time, we work less.
Most staff workers take Fridays off, but some choose a different day. Nearly all of us enjoy three-day weekends. Work ends Thursday, the weekend starts Friday, and work starts back up on Monday.
The benefits of a six-month schedule with three-day weekends are obvious. But there’s one surprising effect of the changed schedule: better work gets done in four days than in five.
When there’s less time to work, you waste less time. When you have a compressed workweek, you tend to focus on what’s important. Constraining time encourages quality time.
At 37signals there’s another thing we do to celebrate the seasons: we cover the cost of a weekly community-supported agriculture share for each employee. We enjoy this benefit year-round, but fresh fruit and produce really glisten in the summer months. It’s a simple way to celebrate change.
In the spirit of continual change, this summer we tried something new. We decided to give everyone the month of June to work on whatever they wanted. It wasn’t vacation, but it was vacation from whatever work was already scheduled. We invited everyone to shelve their nonessential work and to use the time to explore their own ideas.
People worked independently or joined up with other employees on team projects. The only rule was: explore, see if there are ways to make our existing products better, or come up with a new product idea, create a new business model, or do whatever is of most interest.
Then, in July, we asked each person to share, with the rest of the staff, whatever idea he or she came up with, on a day we set aside as “Pitchday.”
The June-on-your-own experiment led to the greatest burst of creativity I’ve seen from our 34-member staff. It was fun, and it was a big morale booster. It was also ultraproductive. So much so that we’ll likely start repeating the month-off project a few times a year.
Are you thinking of introducing change to your business or work life? Try following the seasons. There are few things that are as regular and predictable, yet so fresh and different.
Jason Fried is a co-founder and C.E.O. of 37signals, a software company.
Source:
NYT
This is for your private use, only
_________________________________
Extreme Global Warming
May Have Caused Largest Extinction Ever
Feverishly hot ocean surface waters potentially reaching more than 104 degrees Fahrenheit (40 degrees Celsius) may have helped cause the greatest mass extinction in Earth's history, researchers say.
"We may have found the hottest time the world has ever had," researcher Paul Wignall, a geologist at the University of Leeds in England, told LiveScience.
The mass extinction at the end of the Permian Era about 250 million years ago was the greatest die-off in Earth's history. The cataclysm killed as much as 95 percent of the planet's species. One key factor behind this disaster was probably catastrophic volcanic activity in what is now Siberia that spewed out as much as 2.7 million square miles (7 million square kilometers) of lava, an area nearly as large as Australia. These eruptions might have released gases that damaged Earth's protective ozone layer.
After the end-Permian mass extinction came a time "called the 'dead zone,'" Wignall said. "It's this 5-million-year period where there's no recovery, where there is a very low diversity of life."
The dead zone apparently experienced a serious case of global warming, but the extremes this global warming reached were uncertain. To find out, scientists analyzed fossils dating from 253 million to 245 million years ago, shortly before and after the mass extinction. [Wipe Out: History's Most Mysterious Extinctions]
Unraveling an isotope mystery
The researchers focused on isotopes or atomic variants of oxygen within these fossils. All isotopes of oxygen have eight protons in their atomic nuclei, but differ in the number of neutrons they possess — oxygen-16 has eight neutrons, while oxygen-18 has 10.
As marine creatures form shells, bones and teeth, "they tend to use lighter isotopes of oxygen under warmer conditions," Wignall said. "You can still see this today when looking at modern-day sea creatures. The ratios of oxygen isotopes in their shells are entirely controlled by temperature."
The researchers analyzed strange eel-like creatures known as conodonts, which are known mainly by their elaborate mouthparts. The fossils came from the Nanpanjiang Basin in south China, helping reconstruct what temperatures were like around the equator at the end-Permian.
Different groups of conodonts shed light on what temperatures were at different depths. For instance, one group, Neospathodus, lived down about 230 feet (70 meters) deep, while others, such asPachycladina, Parachirognathus and Platyvillosus lived near the surface.
"We had to go through several tons of rock to look at tiny conodont fossils," Wignall said. "People always thought the end-Permian extinctions were related to temperature increases, but they never measured the temperature then in much detail before, since it involves a lot of hard work looking at these microfossils."
Extreme case of warming
The fruits of this labor? "We've got a case of extreme global warming, the most extreme ever seen in the last 600 million years," Wignall said. "We think the main reason for the dead zone after the end-Permian is a very hot planet, particularly in equatorial parts of the world." [The Harshest Environments on Earth]
The upper part of the ocean may have reached about 100 degrees F (38 degrees C), and sea-surface temperatures may have exceeded 104 degrees F (40 degrees C). For comparison, today's average annual sea-surface temperatures around the equator are 77 to 86 degrees F (25 to 30 degrees C).
"Photosynthesis starts to shut down at about 35 degrees C [95 degrees F], and plants often start dying at temperatures above 40 degrees C [104 degrees F]," Wignall said. "This would explain why there's not much fossil record of plants at the end-Permian— for instance, there are no peat swamps forming, no coal-forming whatsoever. This was a huge, devastating extinction."
Without plants to absorb carbon dioxide, more of this heat-trapping gas would stay in the atmosphere, driving up temperatures further. "There are other ways of taking carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere, but the planet lost a key way for millions of years," Wignall said.
These lethally hot temperatures may explain why the regions at and near the equator were nearly uninhabited. Nearly all fish and marine reptiles were driven to higher latitudes, and those creatures that remained were often smaller, making it easier for them to shed any heat from their bodies.
"I'm sure there will be questions as to whether sea-surface temperatures really did get this extreme," Wignall said. "But I think extreme temperatures would explain quite a lot with the fossils we see showing major losses of animal and plant life."
These findings show that global warming can directly cause extinctions. Still, although the world is currently warming, "we're not going to get anywhere near the level seen after the end-Permian," Wignall said. "We need to worry about global warming, but it's not going to get to this stage."
The scientists detailed their findings in the Oct. 19 issue of the journal Science.
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'Alien-Like' Skulls Excavated in Mexico
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Human skulls deliberately warped into strange, alien-like shapes have been unearthed in a 1,000-year-old cemetery in Mexico, researchers say.
The practice of deforming skulls of children as they grew was common in Central America, and these findings suggest the tradition spread farther north than had been thought, scientists added.
The cemetery was discovered by residents of the small Mexican village of Onavas in 1999 as they were building an irrigation canal. It is the first pre-Hispanic cemetery found in the northern Mexican state of Sonora.
The site, referred to as El Cementerio, contained the remains of 25 human burials. Thirteen of them had deformed skulls, which were elongate and pointy at the back, and five had mutilated teeth. [See Photos of the 'Alien' Skulls]
Dental mutilation involves filing or grinding teeth into odd shapes, while cranial deformation involves distorting the normal growth of a child's skull by applying force — for example, by using cloths to bind wooden boards against their heads.
"Cranial deformation has been used by different societies in the world as a ritual practice, or for distinction of status within a group or to distinguish between social groups," said researcher Cristina García Moreno, an archaeologist at Arizona State University. "The reason why these individuals at El Cementerio deformed their skulls is still unknown."
"The most common comment I've read from people that see the pictures of cranial deformation has been that they think that those people were 'aliens,'" García added. "I could say that some say that as a joke, but the interesting thing is that some do think so. Obviously we are talking about human beings, not of aliens."
Of the 25 burials, 17 were children between 5 months and 16 years of age. The high number of children seen at the site could suggest inept cranial deformation killed them due to excessive force against the skull. The children had no signs of disease that caused their deaths.
Although cranial deformation and dental mutilation were common features among the pre-Hispanic populations of Mesoamerica and western Mexico, scientists had not seen either practice in Sonora or the American Southwest, which share a common pre-Hispanic culture. The researchers suggest the people at El Cementerio had been influenced by recent migrants from the south.
"The most important implication would be to extend the northern boundary of the Mesoamerican influence," García told LiveScience.
A number of skeletons also were found with earrings, nose rings, bracelets, pendants and necklaces made from seashells and snails from the Gulf of California. One person was buried with a turtle shell on the chest. It remains uncertain why some of these people were buried with ornaments while others were not, or — another mystery — why only one of the 25 skeletons was female.
During the next field season, the researchers aim to determine the cemetery's total size and hope to find more burials to get a clearer idea of the society's burial customs. "With new information, we also hope to determine whether there was any interaction between these and Mesoamerican societies — how it was and when it happened," they said.
García and her colleagues completed their analysis of the skeletal remains in November. They plan to submit their research to either the journal American Antiquity or the journal Latin American Antiquity.
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100 Billion Alien Planets Fill Our Milky Way Galaxy
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Our Milky Way galaxy is home to at least 100 billion alien planets, and possibly many more, a new study suggests.
"It's a staggering number, if you think about it," lead author Jonathan Swift, of Caltech in Pasadena, said in a statement. "Basically there's one of these planets per star."
Swift and his colleagues arrived at their estimate after studying a five-planet system called Kepler-32, which lies about 915 light-years from Earth. The five worlds were detected by NASA's Kepler Space Telescope, which flags the tiny brightness dips caused when exoplanets cross their star's face from the instrument's perspective.
The Kepler-32 planets orbit an M dwarf, a type of star that is smaller and cooler than our sun. M dwarfs are the most common star in the Milky Way, accounting for about 75 percent of the galaxy's 100 billion or so stars, researchers said.
Further, the five Kepler-32 worlds are similar in size to Earth and orbit quite close to their parent star, making them typical of the planets Kepler has spotted around other M dwarfs. So the Kepler-32 system should be representative of many of the galaxy's planets, scientists said. [The Strangest Alien Planets (Gallery)]
"I usually try not to call things 'Rosetta stones,' but this is as close to a Rosetta stone as anything I've seen," said co-author John Johnson, also of Caltech. "It's like unlocking a language that we're trying to understand — the language of planet formation."
Kepler can detect planetary systems only if they're oriented edge-on to the telescope; otherwise, the instrument won't observe any star-dimming planetary transits. So the researchers calculated the odds that an M-dwarf system in the Milky Way would have this orientation, then combined that with the number of such systems Kepler is able to detect to come up with their estimate of 100 billionexoplanets.
The team considered only planets orbiting close to M dwarfs; their analysis didn't include outer planets in M-dwarf systems, or any worlds circling other types of stars. So the galaxy may actually harbor many more planets than the conservative estimate implies — perhaps 200 billion, or about two per star, Swift said.
The new analysis confirms three of the five Kepler-32 planets (the other two had been confirmed previously). The Kepler-32 worlds have diameters ranging from 0.8 to 2.7 times that of Earth, and all of them orbit within 10 million miles (16 million kilometers) of their star. For comparison, Earth circles the sun at an average distance of 93 million miles (150 million km).
Because the Kepler-32 star is smaller and less luminous than our sun, the five planets are likely not as heat-blasted as their tight orbits might imply. In fact, the outermost planet in the system appears to lie in the habitable zone, a range of distances that could support the existence of liquid water on a world's system.
The new analysis also suggests that the Kepler-32 planets originally formed farther away from the star and then migrated closer in over time, researchers said.
Several pieces of evidence point toward this conclusion. For example, the team estimated that the five Kepler-32 worlds coalesced from material containing about as much mass as three Jupiters. But models suggest that this much gas and dust cannot be squeezed into the small area circumscribed by the planets' current orbits, researchers said.
"You look in detail at the architecture of this very special planetary system, and you're forced into saying these planets formed farther out and moved in," Johnson said.
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Source: The new study was published Jan. 2, 2013 in The Astrophysical Journal
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5 Reasons to Care About Asteroid Flyby
On Friday, 2/15/13, an asteroid dubbed 2012 DA14 will whiz by Earth closer than any rock of its size since record-keeping began. But if NASAweren't aiming high-powered telescopes at 2012 DA14, most Earthlings would never know we'd been buzzed.
That's because the asteroid won't come any nearer than 17,150 miles (27,650 kilometers) away as it passes Earth. Still, 2012 DA14's lack of imminent threat to the planet is no reason to ignore the flyby.
From historical precedent to future implications, here's why you should care.
1. Asteroids are cool
Whether they fly by Earth or not, asteroids are important remnants of the early solar system. They formed early in the solar system's history, and their compositions may hint at why our neighbors are so diverse, from rocky Mars to gaseous Jupiter. That's one reason scientists are increasingly interested in probing the humble surfaces of asteroids. In 2007, NASA sent its Dawn spacecraft to the asteroid belt to visit Vesta and Ceres. Vesta is rocky and Ceres is icy, and the differences between the two could help explain what happened to differentiate the bodies in our solar system after they formed.
2. It's happened before
Friday's flyby is record-breaking; skywatchers have never before recorded an asteroid of this size passing so close to Earth. Unrecorded close calls are another story. In 1908, a hunk of space rock about 150 feet (45 meters) in diameter screamed into the atmosphere near the Tunguska River in Siberia. The asteroid or comet fragment — about the size of the White House — broke up explosively in the atmosphere, leveling more than 800 square miles (1,287 square kilometers) of forest. [The 10 Greatest Explosions Ever]
Fortunately, the Tunguska Event happened in an extremely remote area, with the nearest human eyewitnesses miles away. But a rock like the one that caused the Tunguska Event, or like the one that will zip by Earth Friday, could level Washington D.C., and its suburbs, said Mark Boslough, a physicist at Sandia National Laboratories in New Mexico, who has used computer modeling to recreate the Tunguska impact.
3. It will happen again
2012 DA14's flyby is a close one, but the asteroid itself is an old friend. Though first discovered in 2012, the space rock passes by Earth fairly frequently. It has an orbit around the sun roughly similar to Earth's, and zings by about twice per orbit. That means we'll be seeing 2012 DA14 again, although not as up-close. The next near-approach by the asteroid is scheduled for Feb. 15, 2046, according to NASA, when 2012 DA14 will pass about 995,000 miles (1.6 million km) from Earth. (Needless to say, astronomers have different ideas about "nearness" than most people.)
4. No, really — 2012 DA14 is one in (half) a million
Observing and measuring asteroids like 2012 DA14 is important because there are at least 500,000 of them out there. Less than 1 percent of these midsized near-Earth objects have been discovered, according to NASA.
Discoveries are made with optical telescopes, though once asteroids get close enough, scientists can use radar to better understand them. Astronomers of the La Sagra Sky Survey at the Astronomical Observatory of Mallorca in Spain discovered 2012 DA14 last February when the asteroid was 2.7 million miles (4.3 million km) from Earth.
Scientists at NASA's Near-Earth Object Program Office say that an asteroid the same size as 2012 DA14 approaches Earth this closely about every 40 years. Once every 1,200 years or so, one this size hits the planet. [See Photos of Asteroid 2012 DA14]
5. It helps us prepare
2012 DA14 won't hit Earth. But a close flyby like Friday's gives scientists the opportunity to think about what they'd do in the case of a once-in-a-thousand-year event, Sandia's Boslough told LiveScience.
For example, size estimates of asteroids are tentative until they reach radar range, Boslough said. Scientists would be able to pinpoint where an asteroid on a collision course with Earth would hit, but they wouldn't know with complete certainty how big it would be. Thus, evacuation orders might need to go out to larger areas than the best estimate of the size of the impact would suggest in order to be safe.
"For a lot of us, this is an opportunity to think about that, because we are going to have the answer when it does fly by," Boslough said of 2012 DA14. "What is the true size going to be relative to the estimates?"
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On Friday, 2/15/13, an asteroid dubbed 2012 DA14 will whiz by Earth closer than any rock of its size since record-keeping began. But if NASAweren't aiming high-powered telescopes at 2012 DA14, most Earthlings would never know we'd been buzzed.
That's because the asteroid won't come any nearer than 17,150 miles (27,650 kilometers) away as it passes Earth. Still, 2012 DA14's lack of imminent threat to the planet is no reason to ignore the flyby.
From historical precedent to future implications, here's why you should care.
1. Asteroids are cool
Whether they fly by Earth or not, asteroids are important remnants of the early solar system. They formed early in the solar system's history, and their compositions may hint at why our neighbors are so diverse, from rocky Mars to gaseous Jupiter. That's one reason scientists are increasingly interested in probing the humble surfaces of asteroids. In 2007, NASA sent its Dawn spacecraft to the asteroid belt to visit Vesta and Ceres. Vesta is rocky and Ceres is icy, and the differences between the two could help explain what happened to differentiate the bodies in our solar system after they formed.
2. It's happened before
Friday's flyby is record-breaking; skywatchers have never before recorded an asteroid of this size passing so close to Earth. Unrecorded close calls are another story. In 1908, a hunk of space rock about 150 feet (45 meters) in diameter screamed into the atmosphere near the Tunguska River in Siberia. The asteroid or comet fragment — about the size of the White House — broke up explosively in the atmosphere, leveling more than 800 square miles (1,287 square kilometers) of forest. [The 10 Greatest Explosions Ever]
Fortunately, the Tunguska Event happened in an extremely remote area, with the nearest human eyewitnesses miles away. But a rock like the one that caused the Tunguska Event, or like the one that will zip by Earth Friday, could level Washington D.C., and its suburbs, said Mark Boslough, a physicist at Sandia National Laboratories in New Mexico, who has used computer modeling to recreate the Tunguska impact.
3. It will happen again
2012 DA14's flyby is a close one, but the asteroid itself is an old friend. Though first discovered in 2012, the space rock passes by Earth fairly frequently. It has an orbit around the sun roughly similar to Earth's, and zings by about twice per orbit. That means we'll be seeing 2012 DA14 again, although not as up-close. The next near-approach by the asteroid is scheduled for Feb. 15, 2046, according to NASA, when 2012 DA14 will pass about 995,000 miles (1.6 million km) from Earth. (Needless to say, astronomers have different ideas about "nearness" than most people.)
4. No, really — 2012 DA14 is one in (half) a million
Observing and measuring asteroids like 2012 DA14 is important because there are at least 500,000 of them out there. Less than 1 percent of these midsized near-Earth objects have been discovered, according to NASA.
Discoveries are made with optical telescopes, though once asteroids get close enough, scientists can use radar to better understand them. Astronomers of the La Sagra Sky Survey at the Astronomical Observatory of Mallorca in Spain discovered 2012 DA14 last February when the asteroid was 2.7 million miles (4.3 million km) from Earth.
Scientists at NASA's Near-Earth Object Program Office say that an asteroid the same size as 2012 DA14 approaches Earth this closely about every 40 years. Once every 1,200 years or so, one this size hits the planet. [See Photos of Asteroid 2012 DA14]
5. It helps us prepare
2012 DA14 won't hit Earth. But a close flyby like Friday's gives scientists the opportunity to think about what they'd do in the case of a once-in-a-thousand-year event, Sandia's Boslough told LiveScience.
For example, size estimates of asteroids are tentative until they reach radar range, Boslough said. Scientists would be able to pinpoint where an asteroid on a collision course with Earth would hit, but they wouldn't know with complete certainty how big it would be. Thus, evacuation orders might need to go out to larger areas than the best estimate of the size of the impact would suggest in order to be safe.
"For a lot of us, this is an opportunity to think about that, because we are going to have the answer when it does fly by," Boslough said of 2012 DA14. "What is the true size going to be relative to the estimates?"
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September 22, 2012
Power, Pollution and the Internet
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SANTA CLARA, Calif. — Jeff Rothschild’s machines at Facebook had a problem he knew he had to solve immediately. They were about to melt.
The company had been packing a 40-by-60-foot rental space here with racks of computer servers that were needed to store and process information from members’ accounts. The electricity pouring into the computers was overheating Ethernet sockets and other crucial components.
Thinking fast, Mr. Rothschild, the company’s engineering chief, took some employees on an expedition to buy every fan they could find — “We cleaned out all of the Walgreens in the area,” he said — to blast cool air at the equipment and prevent the Web site from going down.
That was in early 2006, when Facebook had a quaint 10 million or so users and the one main server site. Today, the information generated by nearly one billion people requires outsize versions of these facilities, called data centers, with rows and rows of servers spread over hundreds of thousands of square feet, and all with industrial cooling systems.
They are a mere fraction of the tens of thousands of data centers that now exist to support the overall explosion of digital information. Stupendous amounts of data are set in motion each day as, with an innocuous click or tap, people download movies on iTunes, check credit card balances through Visa’s Web site, send Yahoo e-mail with files attached, buy products on Amazon, post on Twitter or read newspapers online.
A yearlong examination by The New York Times has revealed that this foundation of the information industry is sharply at odds with its image of sleek efficiency and environmental friendliness.
Most data centers, by design, consume vast amounts of energy in an incongruously wasteful manner, interviews and documents show. Online companies typically run their facilities at maximum capacity around the clock, whatever the demand. As a result, data centers can waste 90 percent or more of the electricity they pull off the grid, The Times found.
To guard against a power failure, they further rely on banks of generators that emit diesel exhaust. The pollution from data centers has increasingly been cited by the authorities for violating clean air regulations, documents show. In Silicon Valley, many data centers appear on the state government’s Toxic Air Contaminant Inventory, a roster of the area’s top stationary diesel polluters.
Worldwide, the digital warehouses use about 30 billion watts of electricity, roughly equivalent to the output of 30 nuclear power plants, according to estimates industry experts compiled for The Times. Data centers in the United States account for one-quarter to one-third of that load, the estimates show.
“It’s staggering for most people, even people in the industry, to understand the numbers, the sheer size of these systems,” said Peter Gross, who helped design hundreds of data centers. “A single data center can take more power than a medium-size town.”
Energy efficiency varies widely from company to company. But at the request of The Times, the consulting firm McKinsey & Company analyzed energy use by data centers and found that, on average, they were using only 6 percent to 12 percent of the electricity powering their servers to perform computations. The rest was essentially used to keep servers idling and ready in case of a surge in activity that could slow or crash their operations.
A server is a sort of bulked-up desktop computer, minus a screen and keyboard, that contains chips to process data. The study sampled about 20,000 servers in about 70 large data centers spanning the commercial gamut: drug companies, military contractors, banks, media companies and government agencies.
“This is an industry dirty secret, and no one wants to be the first to say mea culpa,” said a senior industry executive who asked not to be identified to protect his company’s reputation. “If we were a manufacturing industry, we’d be out of business straightaway.”
These physical realities of data are far from the mythology of the Internet: where lives are lived in the “virtual” world and all manner of memory is stored in “the cloud.”
The inefficient use of power is largely driven by a symbiotic relationship between users who demand an instantaneous response to the click of a mouse and companies that put their business at risk if they fail to meet that expectation.
Even running electricity at full throttle has not been enough to satisfy the industry. In addition to generators, most large data centers contain banks of huge, spinning flywheels or thousands of lead-acid batteries — many of them similar to automobile batteries — to power the computers in case of a grid failure as brief as a few hundredths of a second, an interruption that could crash the servers.
“It’s a waste,” said Dennis P. Symanski, a senior researcher at the Electric Power Research Institute, a nonprofit industry group. “It’s too many insurance policies.”
At least a dozen major data centers have been cited for violations of air quality regulations in Virginia and Illinois alone, according to state records. Amazon was cited with more than 24 violations over a three-year period in Northern Virginia, including running some of its generators without a basic environmental permit.
A few companies say they are using extensively re-engineered software and cooling systems to decrease wasted power. Among them are Facebook and Google, which also have redesigned their hardware. Still, according to recent disclosures, Google’s data centers consume nearly 300 million watts and Facebook’s about 60 million watts.
Many of these solutions are readily available, but in a risk-averse industry, most companies have been reluctant to make wholesale change, according to industry experts.
Improving or even assessing the field is complicated by the secretive nature of an industry that is largely built around accessing other people’s personal data.
For security reasons, companies typically do not even reveal the locations of their data centers, which are housed in anonymous buildings and vigilantly protected. Companies also guard their technology for competitive reasons, said Michael Manos, a longtime industry executive. “All of those things play into each other to foster this closed, members-only kind of group,” he said.
That secrecy often extends to energy use. To further complicate any assessment, no single government agency has the authority to track the industry. In fact, the federal government was unable to determine how much energy its own data centers consume, according to officials involved in a survey completed last year.
The survey did discover that the number of federal data centers grew from 432 in 1998 to 2,094 in 2010.
To investigate the industry, The Times obtained thousands of pages of local, state and federal records, some through freedom of information laws, that are kept on industrial facilities that use large amounts of energy. Copies of permits for generators and information about their emissions were obtained from environmental agencies, which helped pinpoint some data center locations and details of their operations.
In addition to reviewing records from electrical utilities, The Times also visited data centers across the country and conducted hundreds of interviews with current and former employees and contractors.
Some analysts warn that as the amount of data and energy use continue to rise, companies that do not alter their practices could eventually face a shake-up in an industry that has been prone to major upheavals, including the bursting of the first Internet bubble in the late 1990s.
“It’s just not sustainable,” said Mark Bramfitt, a former utility executive who now consults for the power and information technology industries. “They’re going to hit a brick wall.”
Bytes by the Billions
Wearing an FC Barcelona T-shirt and plaid Bermuda shorts, Andre Tran strode through a Yahoo data center in Santa Clara where he was the site operations manager. Mr. Tran’s domain — there were servers assigned to fantasy sports and photo sharing, among other things — was a fair sample of the countless computer rooms where the planet’s sloshing tides of data pass through or come to rest.
Aisle after aisle of servers, with amber, blue and green lights flashing silently, sat on a white floor punctured with small round holes that spit out cold air. Within each server were the spinning hard drives that store the data. The only hint that the center was run by Yahoo, whose name was nowhere in sight, could be found in a tangle of cables colored in the company’s signature purple and yellow.
“There could be thousands of people’s e-mails on these,” Mr. Tran said, pointing to one storage aisle. “People keep old e-mails and attachments forever, so you need a lot of space.”
This is the mundane face of digital information — player statistics flowing into servers that calculate fantasy points and league rankings, snapshots from nearly forgotten vacations kept forever in storage devices. It is only when the repetitions of those and similar transactions are added up that they start to become impressive.
Each year, chips in servers get faster, and storage media get denser and cheaper, but the furious rate of data production goes a notch higher.
Jeremy Burton, an expert in data storage, said that when he worked at a computer technology company 10 years ago, the most data-intensive customer he dealt with had about 50,000 gigabytes in its entire database. (Data storage is measured in bytes. The letter N, for example, takes 1 byte to store. A gigabyte is a billion bytes of information.)
Today, roughly a million gigabytes are processed and stored in a data center during the creation of a single 3-D animated movie, said Mr. Burton, now at EMC, a company focused on the management and storage of data.
Just one of the company’s clients, the New York Stock Exchange, produces up to 2,000 gigabytes of data per day that must be stored for years, he added.
EMC and the International Data Corporation together estimated that more than 1.8 trillion gigabytes of digital information were created globally last year.
“It is absolutely a race between our ability to create data and our ability to store and manage data,” Mr. Burton said.
About three-quarters of that data, EMC estimated, was created by ordinary consumers.
With no sense that data is physical or that storing it uses up space and energy, those consumers have developed the habit of sending huge data files back and forth, like videos and mass e-mails with photo attachments. Even the seemingly mundane actions like running an app to find an Italian restaurant in Manhattan or a taxi in Dallas requires servers to be turned on and ready to process the information instantaneously.
The complexity of a basic transaction is a mystery to most users: Sending a message with photographs to a neighbor could involve a trip through hundreds or thousands of miles of Internet conduits and multiple data centers before the e-mail arrives across the street.
“If you tell somebody they can’t access YouTube or download from Netflix, they’ll tell you it’s a God-given right,” said Bruce Taylor, vice president of the Uptime Institute, a professional organization for companies that use data centers.
To support all that digital activity, there are now more than three million data centers of widely varying sizes worldwide, according to figures from the International Data Corporation.
Nationwide, data centers used about 76 billion kilowatt-hours in 2010, or roughly 2 percent of all electricity used in the country that year, based on an analysis by Jonathan G. Koomey, a research fellow at Stanford University who has been studying data center energy use for more than a decade. DatacenterDynamics, a London-based firm, derived similar figures.
The industry has long argued that computerizing business transactions and everyday tasks like banking and reading library books has the net effect of saving energy and resources. But the paper industry, which some predicted would be replaced by the computer age, consumed 67 billion kilowatt-hours from the grid in 2010, according to Census Bureau figures reviewed by the Electric Power Research Institute for The Times.
Direct comparisons between the industries are difficult: paper uses additional energy by burning pulp waste and transporting products. Data centers likewise involve tens of millions of laptops, personal computers and mobile devices.
Chris Crosby, chief executive of the Dallas-based Compass Datacenters, said there was no immediate end in sight to the proliferation of digital infrastructure.
“There are new technologies and improvements,” Mr. Crosby said, “but it still all runs on a power cord.”
‘Comatose’ Power Drains
Engineers at Viridity Software, a start-up that helped companies manage energy resources, were not surprised by what they discovered on the floor of a sprawling data center near Atlanta.
Viridity had been brought on board to conduct basic diagnostic testing. The engineers found that the facility, like dozens of others they had surveyed, was using the majority of its power on servers that were doing little except burning electricity, said Michael Rowan, who was Viridity’s chief technology officer.
A senior official at the data center already suspected that something was amiss. He had previously conducted his own informal survey, putting red stickers on servers he believed to be “comatose” — the term engineers use for servers that are plugged in and using energy even as their processors are doing little if any computational work.
“At the end of that process, what we found was our data center had a case of the measles,” said the official, Martin Stephens, during a Web seminar with Mr. Rowan. “There were so many red tags out there it was unbelievable.”
The Viridity tests backed up Mr. Stephens’s suspicions: in one sample of 333 servers monitored in 2010, more than half were found to be comatose. All told, nearly three-quarters of the servers in the sample were using less than 10 percent of their computational brainpower, on average, to process data.
The data center’s operator was not some seat-of-the-pants app developer or online gambling company, but LexisNexis, the database giant. And it was hardly unique.
In many facilities, servers are loaded with applications and left to run indefinitely, even after nearly all users have vanished or new versions of the same programs are running elsewhere.
“You do have to take into account that the explosion of data is what aids and abets this,” said Mr. Taylor of the Uptime Institute. “At a certain point, no one is responsible anymore, because no one, absolutely no one, wants to go in that room and unplug a server.”
Kenneth Brill, an engineer who in 1993 founded the Uptime Institute, said low utilization began with the field’s “original sin.”
In the early 1990s, Mr. Brill explained, software operating systems that would now be considered primitive crashed if they were asked to do too many things, or even if they were turned on and off. In response, computer technicians seldom ran more than one application on each server and kept the machines on around the clock, no matter how sporadically that application might be called upon.
So as government energy watchdogs urged consumers to turn off computers when they were not being used, the prime directive at data centers became running computers at all cost.
A crash or a slowdown could end a career, said Michael Tresh, formerly a senior official at Viridity. A field born of cleverness and audacity is now ruled by something else: fear of failure.
“Data center operators live in fear of losing their jobs on a daily basis,” Mr. Tresh said, “and that’s because the business won’t back them up if there’s a failure.”
In technical terms, the fraction of a computer’s brainpower being used on computations is called “utilization.”
McKinsey & Company, the consulting firm that analyzed utilization figures for The Times, has been monitoring the issue since at least 2008, when it published a report that received little notice outside the field. The figures have remained stubbornly low: the current findings of 6 percent to 12 percent are only slightly better than those in 2008. Because of confidentiality agreements, McKinsey is unable to name the companies that were sampled.
David Cappuccio, a managing vice president and chief of research at Gartner, a technology research firm, said his own recent survey of a large sample of data centers found that typical utilizations ran from 7 percent to 12 percent.
“That’s how we’ve overprovisioned and run data centers for years,” Mr. Cappuccio said. “ ‘Let’s overbuild just in case we need it’ — that level of comfort costs a lot of money. It costs a lot of energy.”
Servers are not the only components in data centers that consume energy. Industrial cooling systems, circuitry to keep backup batteries charged and simple dissipation in the extensive wiring all consume their share.
In a typical data center, those losses combined with low utilization can mean that the energy wasted is as much as 30 times the amount of electricity used to carry out the basic purpose of the data center.
Some companies, academic organizations and research groups have shown that vastly more efficient practices are possible, although it is difficult to compare different types of tasks.
The National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center, which consists of clusters of servers and mainframe computers at theLawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in California, ran at 96.4 percent utilization in July, said Jeff Broughton, the director of operations. The efficiency is achieved by queuing up large jobs and scheduling them so that the machines are running nearly full-out, 24 hours a day.
A company called Power Assure, based in Santa Clara, markets a technology that enables commercial data centers to safely power down servers when they are not needed — overnight, for example.
But even with aggressive programs to entice its major customers to save energy, Silicon Valley Power has not been able to persuade a single data center to use the technique in Santa Clara, said Mary Medeiros McEnroe, manager of energy efficiency programs at the utility.
“It’s a nervousness in the I.T. community that something isn’t going to be available when they need it,” Ms. McEnroe said.
The streamlining of the data center done by Mr. Stephens for LexisNexis Risk Solutions is an illustration of the savings that are possible.
In the first stage of the project, he said that by consolidating the work in fewer servers and updating hardware, he was able to shrink a 25,000-square-foot facility into 10,000 square feet.
Of course, data centers must have some backup capacity available at all times and achieving 100 percent utilization is not possible. They must be prepared to handle surges in traffic.
Mr. Symanski, of the Electric Power Research Institute, said that such low efficiencies made sense only in the obscure logic of the digital infrastructure.
“You look at it and say, ‘How in the world can you run a business like that,’ ” Mr. Symanski said. The answer is often the same, he said: “They don’t get a bonus for saving on the electric bill. They get a bonus for having the data center available 99.999 percent of the time.”
The Best-Laid Plans
In Manassas, Va., the retailing colossus Amazon runs servers for its cloud amid a truck depot, a defunct grain elevator, a lumberyard and junk-strewn lots where machines compress loads of trash for recycling.
The servers are contained in two Amazon data centers run out of three buildings shaped like bulky warehouses with green, corrugated sides. Air ducts big enough to accommodate industrial cooling systems sprout along the rooftops; huge diesel generators sit in rows around the outside.
The term “cloud” is often generally used to describe a data center’s functions. More specifically, it refers to a service for leasing computing capacity. These facilities are primarily powered from the national grid, but generators and batteries are nearly always present to provide electricity if the grid goes dark.
The Manassas sites are among at least eight major data centers Amazon operates in Northern Virginia, according to records of Virginia’sDepartment of Environmental Quality.
The department is on familiar terms with Amazon. As a result of four inspections beginning in October 2010, the company was told it would be fined $554,476 by the agency for installing and repeatedly running diesel generators without obtaining standard environmental permits required to operate in Virginia.
Even if there are no blackouts, backup generators still emit exhaust because they must be regularly tested.
After months of negotiations, the penalty was reduced to $261,638. In a “degree of culpability” judgment, all 24 violations were given the ranking “high.”
Drew Herdener, an Amazon spokesman, agreed that the company “did not get the proper permits” before the generators were turned on. “All of these generators were all subsequently permitted and approved,” Mr. Herdener said.
The violations came in addition to a series of lesser infractions at one of Amazon’s data centers in Ashburn, Va., in 2009, for which the company paid $3,496, according to the department’s records.
Of all the things the Internet was expected to become, it is safe to say that a seed for the proliferation of backup diesel generators was not one of them.
Terry Darton, a former manager at Virginia’s environmental agency, said permits had been issued to enough generators for data centers in his 14-county corner of Virginia to nearly match the output of a nuclear power plant.
“It’s shocking how much potential power is available,” said Mr. Darton, who retired in August.
No national figures on environmental violations by data centers are available, but a check of several environmental districts suggests that the centers are beginning to catch the attention of regulators across the country.
Over the past five years in the Chicago area, for example, the Internet powerhouses Savvis and Equinix received violation notices, according to records from the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency. Aside from Amazon, Northern Virginia officials have also cited data centers run by Qwest, Savvis, VeriSign and NTT America.
Despite all the precautions — the enormous flow of electricity, the banks of batteries and the array of diesel generators — data centers still crash.
Amazon, in particular, has had a series of failures in Northern Virginia over the last several years. One, in May 2010 at a facility in Chantilly, took businesses dependent on Amazon’s cloud offline for what the company said was more than an hour — an eternity in the data business.
Pinpointing the cause became its own information glitch.
Amazon announced that the failure “was triggered when a vehicle crashed into a high-voltage utility pole on a road near one of our data centers.”
As it turns out, the car accident was mythical, a misunderstanding passed from a local utility lineman to a data center worker to Amazon headquarters. Instead, Amazon said that its backup gear mistakenly shut down part of the data center after what Dominion Virginia Power said was a short on an electrical pole that set off two momentary failures.
Mr. Herdener of Amazon said the backup system had been redesigned, and that “we don’t expect this condition to repeat.”
The Source of the Problem
Last year in the Northeast, a $1 billion feeder line for the national power grid went into operation, snaking roughly 215 miles from southwestern Pennsylvania, through the Allegheny Mountains in West Virginia and terminating in Loudon County, Va.
The work was financed by millions of ordinary ratepayers. Steven R. Herling, a senior official at PJM Interconnection, a regional authority for the grid, said the need to feed the mushrooming data centers in Northern Virginia was the “tipping point” for the project in an otherwise down economy.
Data centers in the area now consume almost 500 million watts of electricity, said Jim Norvelle, a spokesman for Dominion Virginia Power, the major utility there. Dominion estimates that the load could rise to more than a billion watts over the next five years.
Data centers are among utilities’ most prized customers. Many utilities around the country recruit the facilities for their almost unvarying round-the-clock loads. Large, steady consumption is profitable for utilities because it allows them to plan their own power purchases in advance and market their services at night, when demand by other customers plummets.
Mr. Bramfitt, the former utility executive, said he feared that this dynamic was encouraging a wasteful industry to cling to its pedal-to-the-metal habits. Even with all the energy and hardware pouring into the field, others believe it will be a challenge for current methods of storing and processing data to keep up with the digital tsunami.
Some industry experts believe a solution lies in the cloud: centralizing computing among large and well-operated data centers. Those data centers would rely heavily on a technology called virtualization, which in effect allows servers to merge their identities into large, flexible computing resources that can be doled out as needed to users, wherever they are.
One advocate of that approach is Mr. Koomey, the Stanford data center expert. But he said that many companies that try to manage their own data centers, either in-house or in rental spaces, are still unfamiliar with or distrustful of the new cloud technology. Unfortunately, those companies account for the great majority of energy usage by data centers, Mr. Koomey said.
Others express deep skepticism of the cloud, saying that the sometimes mystical-sounding belief in its possibilities is belied by the physicality of the infrastructure needed to support it.
Using the cloud “just changes where the applications are running,” said Hank Seader, managing principal for research and education at the Uptime Institute. “It all goes to a data center somewhere.”
Some wonder if the very language of the Internet is a barrier to understanding how physical it is, and is likely to stay. Take, for example, the issue of storing data, said Randall H. Victora, a professor of electrical engineering at the University of Minnesota who does research on magnetic storage devices.
“When somebody says, ‘I’m going to store something in the cloud, we don’t need disk drives anymore’ — the cloud is disk drives,” Mr. Victora said. “We get them one way or another. We just don’t know it.”
Whatever happens within the companies, it is clear that among consumers, what are now settled expectations largely drive the need for such a formidable infrastructure.
“That’s what’s driving that massive growth — the end-user expectation of anything, anytime, anywhere,” said David Cappuccio, a managing vice president and chief of research at Gartner, the technology research firm. “We’re what’s causing the problem.”
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MORE IN TECHNOLOGY (11 OF 28 ARTICLES)
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Source:
NYT 9/23/2012, page A1
By James Glanz
This article is for your private use, only
__________________________________________________
The next article is full of very good & accurate practical information
relating to 12 different daily life areas
Everyone nation & worldwide needs the info given in this article
Schedule your day!
Experts reveal the ideal hours
to nap, exercise, ask for a raise, and more
Best Time of Day to Do Just About Anything
Best time of day to do everything
Most people know to take a multivitamin with food, but there's one meal that's better than others
Work out
Next »
« Prev
1 of 12
___________________________________
(1)
Breakfast time
Taking your supplements with a meal is important because vitamins are components of food, and whether water soluble or fat soluble, they are absorbed better with food. Also, as with many other pills, you're more likely to get queasy if you take multivitamins on an empty stomach. Breakfast is the meal of choice. Because most people have it at home (whereas lunch and dinner are often eaten elsewhere), making the morning meal your time for vitamin-popping will help you stick with the habit. Another reason dinnertime may not be a good option, Lieberman adds, is that certain nutrients, including vitamin B, may keep you awake.
__________________________________
(2)
8 a.m. to 9 a.m., or 1 p.m. to 2 p.m.
You'll spend less time in the waiting room if you book the first appointment of the morning or the first after lunch, says Patricia Carroll, R.N., author of What Nurses Know and Doctors Don't Have Time to Tell You ($15, amazon.com): "Doctors start fresh in the morning and catch up when the office is 'closed' for lunch." Many lab tests require fasting, so a morning appointment will help you avoid being hungry half the day. If you're seeing a doctor who performs surgery (orthopedist, gynecologist), ask that your appointment not follow her operating time―a recipe for serious delays, says Carroll. Pediatricians' and family-practice offices can get mobbed when work and school let out (5 p.m. to 7 p.m.). And if you leave with a prescription to be filled, try to visit the pharmacy before 3 p.m. on weekdays, when it's least busy―"which also reduces the risk of error," says Carroll.
________________________________
(3)
1 p.m. to 2:30 p.m.
Doctors used to think afternoon sleepiness was the result of a big lunch. "But we've found that in the early afternoon there's a dip in body temperature, which causes sleepiness," says Michael Smolensky, a professor of environmental physiology at the University of Texas School of Public Health at Houston and author of The Body Clock Guide to Better Health: How to Use Your Body's Natural Clock to Fight Illness and Achieve Maximum Health ($19, amazon.com). Just as a similar decrease encourages you to shut down at bedtime, this midday dip can make you crave a siesta. An ideal nap, he says, should last 15 to 20 minutes. More than 30 and you may end up with sleep inertia―and feel even more groggy when you wake up. Richard Schwab, M.D., codirector of the University of Pennsylvania Penn Sleep Center, in Philadelphia, says that early afternoon is indeed when your circadian rhythms (the pattern of physical and mental changes we each repeat every 24 hours) are "more likely to want your body to sleep." But Schwab insists that if we weren't all sleep-deprived, we wouldn't even need naps. (Other research opinions exist relating to this last statement - comment by STAF, Inc.'s editor).
_________________________________
(4)
8 p.m. to 9 p.m.
To you, walking the dog may be about exercise. To him, it's all about the social life, explains Jean Donaldson, author of Dogs Are From Neptune ($15, amazon.com) and director of the San Francisco SPCA's dog-training academy. Owners have more time to stroll in the evening and to let their pets linger over exciting smells and sounds missed on the morning-rush walk. Evening walks also let him avoid midday overheating. He can make himself comfortable before bedtime, says David Reinecke, the founder of Los Angeles-based Dog Remedy behavioral training.
__________________________________
(5)
5 p.m. to 6 p.m.
"For increasing fitness, decreasing the chance of injury, and improving sleep, the best time to exercise is late afternoon or early evening," says Matthew Edlund, M.D., author of The Body Clock Advantage: Finding Your Best Time of Day to Succeed In: Love, Work, Play, Exercise ($15, amazon.com) and head of the Center for Circadian Medicine, in Sarasota, Florida. At these times, he says, your lungs use oxygen more efficiently, you're more coordinated, and your muscles are warmed up, so you're less likely to suffer a sprain or strain. Finish exercising at least three hours before bed so that when your head hits the pillow the extra adrenaline will no longer be pumping through your bloodstream (and other factors that keep you awake will also have subsided). Bonus: "If you're all wound up at the end of the day, exercise may be a great stress reliever," notes Shirley Archer of the Stanford Health Improvement Program, in Palo Alto, California.
___________________________________
(6)
5 p.m.
"The key is finding a moment when your boss is not rushed and has time to truly listen," and that's most likely to be the end of the day, says Lynn Ellis, a career coach in Austin, Texas, who has worked with employees and bosses at global companies like Unilever. "That's when I'm getting ready for the next day or looking ahead to the next week, and I'm in a good mood because I'm going home soon," says Amy Holloway, a vice president at Angelou Economics, in Austin. And you'll have a biological edge then, since, as Edlund, points out, your elevated body temperature makes you more alert in the late afternoon. But asking for a raise is not an exact science. Ellis advises tracking your boss's daily habits to find the ideal, low-key time for him or her. And, in the end, if you're at your best in the morning, just go for it.
__________________________________
(7)
10 a.m.
Arrive with your what-was-I-thinking sweater within the first hour a store is open. Workforces are leaner these days, but “retailers still need enough staff to open up, so that may be when they have the best ratio of staff to customers,” says Edward Fox, director of Southern Methodist University’s JCPenney Center for Retail Excellence, in Dallas. It may also be the only time all day when staff are at assigned posts, “so you can usually get someone to help,” notes former fashion stylist Linda Arroz, who spent years returning things she didn’t end up using for movies and TV shows. Fox adds that “the most experienced people get the best hours, so they will be working the day shift.” Finally, consider customer flow. “A city store may be busier during weekday lunch hours, a suburban store on weekend afternoons,” says Target spokesperson Lena Michaud.
__________________________________
(8)
7:30 a.m. to 10 a.m.
The U.S. Postal Service may have more than 700,000 employees, yet there never seems to be enough of them when you're waiting in line to mail a birthday present. Your best chance, according to USPS spokesperson Monica Suraci: Find out when your post office opens (generally between 7 a.m. and 9 a.m.) and arrive a half hour or so later. You'll hit a
mid-morning lull, missing the rush of early birds lined up at the door (as well as distracted window personnel chatting with carriers sorting the day's mail). Heavy traffic is more likely at lunch, at the end of the workday, and just before closing, so those are times to avoid. Suraci's tip: Look for USPS "contract stations," which offer services in locations like supermarkets and drugstores, and for machines in some post-office lobbies that weigh and stamp packages most any time.
_________________________________
(9)
8 a.m. to 9 a.m.
Booking the first appointment of the day will help you ease into the shampoo bowl on time. That’s because no latecomers will have thrown off the schedule, says Serena Chreky, co-owner of the Andre Chreky salon, in Washington, D.C. Saturday mornings (after busy workweeks) are usually the least frantic, says Allen Ruiz of the Jackson Ruiz Salon Spa, in Austin. However, some salons fill up then with bridal parties, Chreky cautions, so ask when you book. An early appointment may also get you the best cut. “Stress levels are at their lowest,” says Michelle Breyer, cofounder of NaturallyCurly.com, which deals with salons nationwide. “Even if you’re only the third or fourth client of the day, your stylist may not look at your hair with the same enthusiasm.” For the best service, Breyer and Ruiz both suggest asking your stylist, “What’s your favorite time of day to do hair?”
________________________________
(10)
Scheduling flights for easy traveling
"Although U.S. Department of Transportation statistics show that flights taking off between 6 a.m. and 7 a.m. have the best on-time record, those numbers are sometimes misleading," says Rally Caparas, an Atlanta-based air-traffic controller and a Travelocity "Eye on the Sky" correspondent for CNN. "On time" refers to when the plane pushes back from the gate. You can wait on the tarmac for an hour because of weather problems, which cause the vast majority of delays.
"Scheduling arrivals and departures between 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. local time," Caparas says, "will help you avoid most delay-causing weather patterns. This will also help you avoid airport rush hours, "which mostly coincide with workday rush hours," says Robert Baron, president of the Aviation Consulting Group, in Fort Lauderdale.
For best results, check for regional weather patterns and schedule accordingly. "For example, for the West Coast, fly in or out after noon Pacific Standard Time, when marine-level fog has dissipated," says Caparas. For southeastern and Gulf Coast hops, steer clear of the thunderstorms that kick up around 3 p.m. "Airline schedules are based on perfect weather conditions," he says. "You're more likely to be punctual if you follow Mother Nature's schedule."
____________________________________
(11)
4 p.m.
You're more likely to whistle while you window wash (and not kick over the bucket) if you do it in the late afternoon. That's when hand-eye coordination is at its peak and mood levels are high, says Smolensky. If anyone in the house has allergies or asthma, avoid insomnia-hour and morning cleaning sprees (nasal-allergy symptoms are most severe between 6 a.m. and noon, asthma attacks more likely between midnight and 6 a.m.), and finish well before that person walks in the door. "It takes about an hour for allergens and dust to settle after you clean," says Martha White, M.D., director of research at the Institute for Asthma and Allergy, in Wheaton, Maryland.
___________________________________
(12)
8 a.m. or 10 p.m.
If you're going over notes for today's presentation or memorizing the names of your child's classmates' parents before the school open house tonight, do it early in the morning, when your immediate recall is highest. For longer retention (the book club meets in three weeks, but this weekend's your only chance to finish The Good Nanny), evening is better. "This is just the way the brain is organized," says Smolensky. "Memory depends on nucleic acids, and those show circadian rhythms." In other words, your brain doesn't store information with the same efficiency all day; there are peaks and valleys. "College students often unknowingly take advantage of the dual circadian rhythm by staying up late studying, then doing a quick review the morning of the exam," says Smolensky.
___________________________________
More helpful info - Health:
Click the green topic below
Click green topics & green areas for further info
This article is for your private use, only
__________________________________________________________________________
relating to 12 different daily life areas
Everyone nation & worldwide needs the info given in this article
Schedule your day!
Experts reveal the ideal hours
to nap, exercise, ask for a raise, and more
Best Time of Day to Do Just About Anything
Best time of day to do everything
Most people know to take a multivitamin with food, but there's one meal that's better than others
Work out
Next »
« Prev
1 of 12
___________________________________
(1)
Breakfast time
Taking your supplements with a meal is important because vitamins are components of food, and whether water soluble or fat soluble, they are absorbed better with food. Also, as with many other pills, you're more likely to get queasy if you take multivitamins on an empty stomach. Breakfast is the meal of choice. Because most people have it at home (whereas lunch and dinner are often eaten elsewhere), making the morning meal your time for vitamin-popping will help you stick with the habit. Another reason dinnertime may not be a good option, Lieberman adds, is that certain nutrients, including vitamin B, may keep you awake.
__________________________________
(2)
8 a.m. to 9 a.m., or 1 p.m. to 2 p.m.
You'll spend less time in the waiting room if you book the first appointment of the morning or the first after lunch, says Patricia Carroll, R.N., author of What Nurses Know and Doctors Don't Have Time to Tell You ($15, amazon.com): "Doctors start fresh in the morning and catch up when the office is 'closed' for lunch." Many lab tests require fasting, so a morning appointment will help you avoid being hungry half the day. If you're seeing a doctor who performs surgery (orthopedist, gynecologist), ask that your appointment not follow her operating time―a recipe for serious delays, says Carroll. Pediatricians' and family-practice offices can get mobbed when work and school let out (5 p.m. to 7 p.m.). And if you leave with a prescription to be filled, try to visit the pharmacy before 3 p.m. on weekdays, when it's least busy―"which also reduces the risk of error," says Carroll.
________________________________
(3)
1 p.m. to 2:30 p.m.
Doctors used to think afternoon sleepiness was the result of a big lunch. "But we've found that in the early afternoon there's a dip in body temperature, which causes sleepiness," says Michael Smolensky, a professor of environmental physiology at the University of Texas School of Public Health at Houston and author of The Body Clock Guide to Better Health: How to Use Your Body's Natural Clock to Fight Illness and Achieve Maximum Health ($19, amazon.com). Just as a similar decrease encourages you to shut down at bedtime, this midday dip can make you crave a siesta. An ideal nap, he says, should last 15 to 20 minutes. More than 30 and you may end up with sleep inertia―and feel even more groggy when you wake up. Richard Schwab, M.D., codirector of the University of Pennsylvania Penn Sleep Center, in Philadelphia, says that early afternoon is indeed when your circadian rhythms (the pattern of physical and mental changes we each repeat every 24 hours) are "more likely to want your body to sleep." But Schwab insists that if we weren't all sleep-deprived, we wouldn't even need naps. (Other research opinions exist relating to this last statement - comment by STAF, Inc.'s editor).
_________________________________
(4)
8 p.m. to 9 p.m.
To you, walking the dog may be about exercise. To him, it's all about the social life, explains Jean Donaldson, author of Dogs Are From Neptune ($15, amazon.com) and director of the San Francisco SPCA's dog-training academy. Owners have more time to stroll in the evening and to let their pets linger over exciting smells and sounds missed on the morning-rush walk. Evening walks also let him avoid midday overheating. He can make himself comfortable before bedtime, says David Reinecke, the founder of Los Angeles-based Dog Remedy behavioral training.
__________________________________
(5)
5 p.m. to 6 p.m.
"For increasing fitness, decreasing the chance of injury, and improving sleep, the best time to exercise is late afternoon or early evening," says Matthew Edlund, M.D., author of The Body Clock Advantage: Finding Your Best Time of Day to Succeed In: Love, Work, Play, Exercise ($15, amazon.com) and head of the Center for Circadian Medicine, in Sarasota, Florida. At these times, he says, your lungs use oxygen more efficiently, you're more coordinated, and your muscles are warmed up, so you're less likely to suffer a sprain or strain. Finish exercising at least three hours before bed so that when your head hits the pillow the extra adrenaline will no longer be pumping through your bloodstream (and other factors that keep you awake will also have subsided). Bonus: "If you're all wound up at the end of the day, exercise may be a great stress reliever," notes Shirley Archer of the Stanford Health Improvement Program, in Palo Alto, California.
___________________________________
(6)
5 p.m.
"The key is finding a moment when your boss is not rushed and has time to truly listen," and that's most likely to be the end of the day, says Lynn Ellis, a career coach in Austin, Texas, who has worked with employees and bosses at global companies like Unilever. "That's when I'm getting ready for the next day or looking ahead to the next week, and I'm in a good mood because I'm going home soon," says Amy Holloway, a vice president at Angelou Economics, in Austin. And you'll have a biological edge then, since, as Edlund, points out, your elevated body temperature makes you more alert in the late afternoon. But asking for a raise is not an exact science. Ellis advises tracking your boss's daily habits to find the ideal, low-key time for him or her. And, in the end, if you're at your best in the morning, just go for it.
__________________________________
(7)
10 a.m.
Arrive with your what-was-I-thinking sweater within the first hour a store is open. Workforces are leaner these days, but “retailers still need enough staff to open up, so that may be when they have the best ratio of staff to customers,” says Edward Fox, director of Southern Methodist University’s JCPenney Center for Retail Excellence, in Dallas. It may also be the only time all day when staff are at assigned posts, “so you can usually get someone to help,” notes former fashion stylist Linda Arroz, who spent years returning things she didn’t end up using for movies and TV shows. Fox adds that “the most experienced people get the best hours, so they will be working the day shift.” Finally, consider customer flow. “A city store may be busier during weekday lunch hours, a suburban store on weekend afternoons,” says Target spokesperson Lena Michaud.
__________________________________
(8)
7:30 a.m. to 10 a.m.
The U.S. Postal Service may have more than 700,000 employees, yet there never seems to be enough of them when you're waiting in line to mail a birthday present. Your best chance, according to USPS spokesperson Monica Suraci: Find out when your post office opens (generally between 7 a.m. and 9 a.m.) and arrive a half hour or so later. You'll hit a
mid-morning lull, missing the rush of early birds lined up at the door (as well as distracted window personnel chatting with carriers sorting the day's mail). Heavy traffic is more likely at lunch, at the end of the workday, and just before closing, so those are times to avoid. Suraci's tip: Look for USPS "contract stations," which offer services in locations like supermarkets and drugstores, and for machines in some post-office lobbies that weigh and stamp packages most any time.
_________________________________
(9)
8 a.m. to 9 a.m.
Booking the first appointment of the day will help you ease into the shampoo bowl on time. That’s because no latecomers will have thrown off the schedule, says Serena Chreky, co-owner of the Andre Chreky salon, in Washington, D.C. Saturday mornings (after busy workweeks) are usually the least frantic, says Allen Ruiz of the Jackson Ruiz Salon Spa, in Austin. However, some salons fill up then with bridal parties, Chreky cautions, so ask when you book. An early appointment may also get you the best cut. “Stress levels are at their lowest,” says Michelle Breyer, cofounder of NaturallyCurly.com, which deals with salons nationwide. “Even if you’re only the third or fourth client of the day, your stylist may not look at your hair with the same enthusiasm.” For the best service, Breyer and Ruiz both suggest asking your stylist, “What’s your favorite time of day to do hair?”
________________________________
(10)
Scheduling flights for easy traveling
"Although U.S. Department of Transportation statistics show that flights taking off between 6 a.m. and 7 a.m. have the best on-time record, those numbers are sometimes misleading," says Rally Caparas, an Atlanta-based air-traffic controller and a Travelocity "Eye on the Sky" correspondent for CNN. "On time" refers to when the plane pushes back from the gate. You can wait on the tarmac for an hour because of weather problems, which cause the vast majority of delays.
"Scheduling arrivals and departures between 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. local time," Caparas says, "will help you avoid most delay-causing weather patterns. This will also help you avoid airport rush hours, "which mostly coincide with workday rush hours," says Robert Baron, president of the Aviation Consulting Group, in Fort Lauderdale.
For best results, check for regional weather patterns and schedule accordingly. "For example, for the West Coast, fly in or out after noon Pacific Standard Time, when marine-level fog has dissipated," says Caparas. For southeastern and Gulf Coast hops, steer clear of the thunderstorms that kick up around 3 p.m. "Airline schedules are based on perfect weather conditions," he says. "You're more likely to be punctual if you follow Mother Nature's schedule."
____________________________________
(11)
4 p.m.
You're more likely to whistle while you window wash (and not kick over the bucket) if you do it in the late afternoon. That's when hand-eye coordination is at its peak and mood levels are high, says Smolensky. If anyone in the house has allergies or asthma, avoid insomnia-hour and morning cleaning sprees (nasal-allergy symptoms are most severe between 6 a.m. and noon, asthma attacks more likely between midnight and 6 a.m.), and finish well before that person walks in the door. "It takes about an hour for allergens and dust to settle after you clean," says Martha White, M.D., director of research at the Institute for Asthma and Allergy, in Wheaton, Maryland.
___________________________________
(12)
8 a.m. or 10 p.m.
If you're going over notes for today's presentation or memorizing the names of your child's classmates' parents before the school open house tonight, do it early in the morning, when your immediate recall is highest. For longer retention (the book club meets in three weeks, but this weekend's your only chance to finish The Good Nanny), evening is better. "This is just the way the brain is organized," says Smolensky. "Memory depends on nucleic acids, and those show circadian rhythms." In other words, your brain doesn't store information with the same efficiency all day; there are peaks and valleys. "College students often unknowingly take advantage of the dual circadian rhythm by staying up late studying, then doing a quick review the morning of the exam," says Smolensky.
___________________________________
More helpful info - Health:
Click the green topic below
- Top Health Risks for Women Over 40
- Surprising Causes of Erectile Dysfunction
- What Causes Cancer?
- Medicare Comparison Tool
- 9 unusual food cures
- Diabetes' famous faces
- Feet and your health
- 5 Work Rules You Should Break
- How to Tell If Someone is Lying
- What Does Your Handwriting Say About You?
- 5 Quick Rituals for a Better Day
Click green topics & green areas for further info
This article is for your private use, only
__________________________________________________________________________
This article about spy agencies is an example how the secret info can leak out
Swiss spy agency warns
U.S., Britain about huge data leak
ZURICH (Reuters), 12/4/12 - Secret information on counter-terrorism shared by foreign governments may have been compromised by a massive data theft by a senior IT technician for the NDB, Switzerland'sintelligence service, European national security sources said.
Intelligence agencies in the United States and Britain are among those who were warned by Swiss authorities that their data could have been put in jeopardy, said one of the sources, who asked for anonymity when discussing sensitive information.
Swiss authorities arrested the technician suspected in the data theft last summer amid signs he was acting suspiciously. He later was released from prison while a criminal investigation by the office of Switzerland's Federal Attorney General continues, according to two sources familiar with the case.
The suspect's name was not made public. Swiss authorities believe he intended to sell the stolen data to foreign officials or commercial buyers.
A European security source said investigators now believe the suspect became disgruntled because he felt he was being ignored and his advice on operating the data systems was not being taken seriously.
Swiss news reports and the sources close to the investigation said that investigators believe the technician downloaded terrabytes, running into hundreds of thousands or even millions of printed pages, of classified material from the Swiss intelligence service's servers onto portable hard drives. He then carried them out of government buildings in a backpack.
One of the sources familiar with the investigation said that intelligence services like the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency and Britain's Secret Intelligence Service, also known as MI6, routinely shared data on counter-terrorism and other issues with the NDB. Swiss authorities informed U.S. and British agencies that such data could have been compromised, the source said.
News of the theft of intelligence data surfaced with Switzerland's reputation for secrecy and discretion in government and financial affairs already under assault.
Swiss authorities have been investigating, and in some cases have charged, whistleblowers and some European government officials for using criminal methods to acquire confidential financial data about suspected tax evaders from Switzerland's traditionally secretive banks.
The suspect in the spy data theft worked for the NDB, or Federal Intelligence Service, which is part of Switzerland's Defense Ministry, for about eight years.
He was described by a source close to the investigation as a "very talented" technician and senior enough to have "administrator rights," giving him unrestricted access to most or all of the NDB's networks, including those holding vast caches of secret data.
Swiss investigators seized portable storage devices containing the stolen data after they arrested the suspect, according to the sources. At this point, they said, Swiss authorities believe that the suspect was arrested and the stolen data was impounded before he had an opportunity to sell it.
However, one source said that Swiss investigators could not be positive the suspect did not sell or pass on any of the information before his arrest, which is why Swiss authorities felt obliged to notify foreign intelligence partners their information may have been compromised.
Representatives of U.S. and British intelligence agencies had no immediate response to detailed queries about the case submitted by Reuters, although one U.S. official said he was unaware of the case.
SECURITY PROCEDURES QUESTIONED
Swiss Attorney General Michael Lauber and a senior prosecutor, Carolo Bulletti, announced in September that they were investigating the data theft and its alleged perpetrator. A spokeswoman for the attorney general said she was prohibited by law from disclosing the suspect's identity.
A spokesman for the NDB said he could not comment on the investigation.
At their September press conference, Swiss officials indicated that they believed the suspect intended to sell the data he stole to foreign countries. They did not talk about the possible compromise of information shared with the NDB by U.S. and British intelligence.
A European source familiar with the case said it raised serious questions about security procedures and structures at the NDB, a relatively new agency which combined the functions of predecessor agencies that separately conducted foreign and domestic intelligence activities for the Swiss government.
The source said that under the NDB's present structure, its human resources staff - responsible for, among other things, ensuring the reliability and trustworthiness of the agency's personnel - is lumped together organizationally with the agency's information technology division. This potentially made it difficult or confusing for the subdivision's personnel to investigate themselves, the source said.
According to the source, investigators now believe that in the months before his arrest, the data theft suspect displayed warning signs that should have been spotted by his bosses or by security officials.
The source said that the suspect became so disgruntled earlier this year that he stopped showing up for work.
However, according to Swiss news reports, the NDB did not realize that something was amiss until the largest Swiss bank, UBS, expressed concern to authorities about a potentially suspicious attempt to set up a new numbered bank account, which then was traced to the NDB technician.
A Swiss parliamentary committee is now conducting its own investigation into the data theft and is expected to report next spring. Investigators are known to be concerned that the NDB lacks investigative powers, such as to search premises or conduct wiretaps, which are widely used by counter-intelligence investigators in other countries.
(Reporting by Mark Hosenball; Editing by Mark Heinrich)
______________________________________________________________
Swiss spy agency warns
U.S., Britain about huge data leak
ZURICH (Reuters), 12/4/12 - Secret information on counter-terrorism shared by foreign governments may have been compromised by a massive data theft by a senior IT technician for the NDB, Switzerland'sintelligence service, European national security sources said.
Intelligence agencies in the United States and Britain are among those who were warned by Swiss authorities that their data could have been put in jeopardy, said one of the sources, who asked for anonymity when discussing sensitive information.
Swiss authorities arrested the technician suspected in the data theft last summer amid signs he was acting suspiciously. He later was released from prison while a criminal investigation by the office of Switzerland's Federal Attorney General continues, according to two sources familiar with the case.
The suspect's name was not made public. Swiss authorities believe he intended to sell the stolen data to foreign officials or commercial buyers.
A European security source said investigators now believe the suspect became disgruntled because he felt he was being ignored and his advice on operating the data systems was not being taken seriously.
Swiss news reports and the sources close to the investigation said that investigators believe the technician downloaded terrabytes, running into hundreds of thousands or even millions of printed pages, of classified material from the Swiss intelligence service's servers onto portable hard drives. He then carried them out of government buildings in a backpack.
One of the sources familiar with the investigation said that intelligence services like the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency and Britain's Secret Intelligence Service, also known as MI6, routinely shared data on counter-terrorism and other issues with the NDB. Swiss authorities informed U.S. and British agencies that such data could have been compromised, the source said.
News of the theft of intelligence data surfaced with Switzerland's reputation for secrecy and discretion in government and financial affairs already under assault.
Swiss authorities have been investigating, and in some cases have charged, whistleblowers and some European government officials for using criminal methods to acquire confidential financial data about suspected tax evaders from Switzerland's traditionally secretive banks.
The suspect in the spy data theft worked for the NDB, or Federal Intelligence Service, which is part of Switzerland's Defense Ministry, for about eight years.
He was described by a source close to the investigation as a "very talented" technician and senior enough to have "administrator rights," giving him unrestricted access to most or all of the NDB's networks, including those holding vast caches of secret data.
Swiss investigators seized portable storage devices containing the stolen data after they arrested the suspect, according to the sources. At this point, they said, Swiss authorities believe that the suspect was arrested and the stolen data was impounded before he had an opportunity to sell it.
However, one source said that Swiss investigators could not be positive the suspect did not sell or pass on any of the information before his arrest, which is why Swiss authorities felt obliged to notify foreign intelligence partners their information may have been compromised.
Representatives of U.S. and British intelligence agencies had no immediate response to detailed queries about the case submitted by Reuters, although one U.S. official said he was unaware of the case.
SECURITY PROCEDURES QUESTIONED
Swiss Attorney General Michael Lauber and a senior prosecutor, Carolo Bulletti, announced in September that they were investigating the data theft and its alleged perpetrator. A spokeswoman for the attorney general said she was prohibited by law from disclosing the suspect's identity.
A spokesman for the NDB said he could not comment on the investigation.
At their September press conference, Swiss officials indicated that they believed the suspect intended to sell the data he stole to foreign countries. They did not talk about the possible compromise of information shared with the NDB by U.S. and British intelligence.
A European source familiar with the case said it raised serious questions about security procedures and structures at the NDB, a relatively new agency which combined the functions of predecessor agencies that separately conducted foreign and domestic intelligence activities for the Swiss government.
The source said that under the NDB's present structure, its human resources staff - responsible for, among other things, ensuring the reliability and trustworthiness of the agency's personnel - is lumped together organizationally with the agency's information technology division. This potentially made it difficult or confusing for the subdivision's personnel to investigate themselves, the source said.
According to the source, investigators now believe that in the months before his arrest, the data theft suspect displayed warning signs that should have been spotted by his bosses or by security officials.
The source said that the suspect became so disgruntled earlier this year that he stopped showing up for work.
However, according to Swiss news reports, the NDB did not realize that something was amiss until the largest Swiss bank, UBS, expressed concern to authorities about a potentially suspicious attempt to set up a new numbered bank account, which then was traced to the NDB technician.
A Swiss parliamentary committee is now conducting its own investigation into the data theft and is expected to report next spring. Investigators are known to be concerned that the NDB lacks investigative powers, such as to search premises or conduct wiretaps, which are widely used by counter-intelligence investigators in other countries.
(Reporting by Mark Hosenball; Editing by Mark Heinrich)
- Signs are seen on the outside of Swiss …
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Doomsday clock
is a science device - today's scientists created it - read further below
Important science article - a must to read and to know
End Near? Doomsday Clock
Holds at 5 'Til Midnight
Date: January, 2013
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The hands of the infamous "Doomsday Clock" will remain firmly in their place at five minutes to midnight — symbolizing humans' destruction — for the year 2013, scientists announced today (Jan. 14).
Keeping their outlook for the future of humanity quite dim, the group of scientists also wrote an open letter to President Barack Obama, urging him to partner with other global leaders to act on climate change.
The clock is a symbol of the threat of humanity's imminent destruction from nuclear or biological weapons, climate change and other human-caused disasters. In making their deliberations about how to update the clock's time this year, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists considered the current state of nuclear arsenals around the globe, the slow and costly recovery from events like Fukushima nuclear meltdown, and extreme weather events that fit in with a pattern of global warming.
"2012 was the hottest year on record in the contiguous United States, marked by devastating drought and brutal storms," the letter says. "These extreme events are exactly what climate models predict for an atmosphere laden with greenhouse gases." [Doom and Gloom: 10 Post-Apocalyptic Worlds]
At the same time, the letter did give a nod to some progress, applauding the president for taking steps to "nudge the country along a more rational energy path," with his support for wind and other renewable energy sources.
"We have as much hope for Obama's second term in office as we did in 2010, when we moved back the hand of the Clock after his first year in office," Robert Socolow, chair of the board that determines the clock's position, said in a statement. "This is the year for U.S. leadership in slowing climate change and setting a path toward a world without nuclear weapons."
The Doomsday Clock came into being in 1947 as a way for atomic scientists to warn the world of the dangers of nuclear weapons. That year, the Bulletin set the time at seven minutes to midnight, with midnight symbolizing humanity's destruction. By 1949, it was at three minutes to midnight as the relationship between the United States and the Soviet Union deteriorated. In 1953, after the first test of the hydrogen bomb, the doomsday clock ticked to two minutes until midnight.
The Bulletin was at its most optimistic in 1991, when the Cold War thawed and the United States and Russia began cutting their arsenals. That year, the clock was set at 17 minutes to midnight.
From then until 2010, however, it was a gradual creep back toward destruction, as hopes of total nuclear disarmament vanished and threats of nuclear terrorism and climate change reared their heads. In 2010, the Bulletin found some hope in arms reduction treaties and international climate talks and bumped the minute hand of the Doomsday Clock back to six minutes from midnight from its previous post at five to midnight. But by 2012, the clock was pushed forward another minute.
- Top 10 Ways to Destroy Earth
- End of the World? Top Doomsday Fears
- 8 Ways Global Warming Is Already Changing the World
Source: 2013 LiveScience
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Milky Way Galaxy May Be Less Massive Than Thought
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The Milky Way galaxy, home of Earth's solar system, may actually be only half as massive as currently thought, scientists say.
Stars in the far outer reaches of the Milky Way, between 260,000 and 490,000 light-years from the galactic center, are cruising around surprisingly slowly, researchers found. Galactic mass and star velocities are linked, so the results could have big implications.
"Because these velocities are so low, the mass of our galaxy may be much lower than we once thought," lead author Alis Deason, of the University of California, Santa Cruz, told reporters Wednesday (Jan. 9) at the 221st meeting of the American Astronomical Socity in Long Beach, Calif.
"If we infer the properties of the stars that we think are reasonable, then we find the mass of the Milky Way could be half as massive as we currently believe," added Deason, who performed the research while at the University of Cambridge in England. [Stunning Photos of Our Milky Way Galaxy]
The Milky Way is composed of three main parts: a central bulge, a relatively flat disk and a roughly spherical surrounding halo.
Deason and her team looked far out into the Milky Way's halo, which extends far beyond the 100,000-light-year-wide disk. They measured the radial velocities of a sample of distant halo stars using two different instruments: the European Southern Observatory's 8.2-meter telescope in Chile and the 4.2-meter William Herschel Observatory in Spain.
They found that the dispersion, or spread, of halo-star velocities was about half that seen for stars closer to the galactic center.
"This was quite a surprise when we found this," Deason said.
Using this information, the team calculated that the total mass of the Milky Way out to such extreme distances may be between 500 billion and 1 trillion times that of our sun — substantially lower than the current leading estimate, Deason said.
But the new study is not necessarily the final word on the Milky Way's mass, which is not well understood.
"The problem is, we are really in unknown territory," Deason said. "We are assuming properties of these stars that are the same in the inner parts of the galaxy. And this is something that really needs to be verified, what we're assuming, in terms of their density profile and also what their orbits are like."
Future work along these lines could help astronomers map the distribution of mass throughout the Milky Way, Deason said, potentially shedding light on the mysterious dark matter that is thought to make up more than 80 percent of all matter in the universe.
"I think we will be able to use measurements like this to not only say what the total mass is, but also if the dark matter distribution is what we expect," she said. "At the moment, we just don't know."
Follow SPACE.com senior writer Mike Wall on Twitter @michaeldwall or SPACE.com@Spacedotcom. We're also on Facebook and Google+.
- Our Milky Way Galaxy: A Traveler's Guide (Infographic)
- Massive Star Formation Sites Discovered In Milky Way | Video
- Milky Way Quiz: Test Your Galaxy Smarts
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Phrenology
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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This article is about the pseudoscience. For the album by The Roots, see Phrenology (album).
Not to be confused with Phenology.
This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article byadding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed.(October 2012)
An 1883 phrenology chart
Phrenology (from Greek: φρήν, phrēn, "mind"; and λόγος, logos, "knowledge") is apseudoscience primarily focused on measurements of the human skull, based on the concept that the brain is the organ of the mind, and that certain brain areas have localized, specific functions or modules.[1] The distinguishing feature of phrenology is the idea that the sizes of brain areas were meaningful and could be inferred by examining the skull of an individual. Following the materialist notions of mental functions originating in the brain, phrenologists believed that human conduct could best be understood in neurological rather than philosophical or religious terms. Developed by German physician Franz Joseph Gall in 1796,[2] the discipline was very popular in the 19th century, especially from about 1810 until 1840. The principal British centre for phrenology was Edinburgh, where the Edinburgh Phrenological Society was established in 1820. In 1843, François Magendie referred to phrenology as "a pseudo-science of the present day."[3]
Phrenological thinking was, however, influential in 19th-century psychiatry and modernneuroscience. Gall's assumption that character, thoughts, and emotions are located in localized parts of the brain is considered an important historical advance towardneuropsychology.[4][5]
Contents [hide]
These areas were said to be proportional to a person's propensities. The importance of a organ was derrived from relative size compared to other organs. It was believed that the cranial bone conformed in order to accommodate the different sizes of these particular areas of the brain in different individuals, so that a person's capacity for a given personality trait could be determined simply by measuring the area of the skull that overlies the corresponding area of the brain.
An older notion was that personality was determined by the four humors.
Phrenology, which focuses on personality and character, is distinct from craniometry, which is the study of skull size, weight and shape, and physiognomy, the study of facial features.
[edit]MethodContrary to popular thought, phrenology is not the reading of bumps on the head but determing internal brain mass associated with each organ. The phrenologist Nelson Sizer summed up the topic by writting "The first difficulty the phrenologist meets among the public, is that he is supposed to study the brain by means of certain "bumps on the cranium; that he looks for hills or hollows, and that his opinions are based on the deficiency or defiency of these bumps."[6]
Phrenology is a process that involved observing and feeling the skull to determine an individual's psychological attributes. Franz Joseph Gall first believed that the brain was made up of 27 individual organs that determined personality, with the first 19 of these 'organs' believed to exist in other animal species. Phrenologists would run their fingertips and palms over the skulls of their patients to feel for enlargements or indentations.[7] The phrenologist would often take measurements with a tape measure of the overall head size and more rarely employ a crainometer, a special version of a caliper. In general instruments to measure sizes of cranium were used after the main stream phrenology had ended. The phrenologists put emphysis on employing drawings of individuals with particular traits to determine the character of the person and thus many phrenology books have many pictures of subjects. From absolute and relative sizes the organ regions of the skull the phrenologist would assess the character and temperament of the patient.
Gall's list of the "brain organs" was specific. An enlarged organ meant that the patient used that particular "organ" extensively. The number and more detailed meanings of organs were added later by other phrenologists. The 27 areas were varied in function, from sense of color, to the likelihood of religiosity, to the potential to be combative or destructive. Each of the 27 "brain organs" was located in a specific area of the skull. As a phrenologist felt the skull, he would use his knowledge of the shapes of heads and organ positions to determine the overall natural strengths and weakness of an individual. Phrenologists believed the head reveiled natural tendencies and not absolute limitations or strengths of a persons character.
[edit]History
A definition of phrenology with chart from Webster's Academic Dictionary, circa 1895
The first philosopher to locate the mental abilities of the brain was Aristotle.[8] Anatomists and physiologists had studied neither the function of the brain nor how it might be segmented.[9] The German physician Franz Joseph Gall (1758–1828)in 1796 began lecturing on organology, the isolation of mental faculties[10] and later cranioscopy, which was the reading of the skull's shape as it pertained to the general individual. It would be Gall's collaborator Johann Gaspar Spurzheim who would popularize the term "phrenology".[10][11]
In 1809 Gall began writing his greatest[12] work "The Anatomy and Physiology of the Nervous System in General, and of the Brain in Particular, with Observations upon the possibility of ascertaining the several Intellectual and Moral Dispositions of Man and Animal, by the configuration of their Heads. It was not published until 1819. In the introduction to this main work, Gall makes the following statement in regard to his doctrinal principles, which comprise the intellectual basis of phrenology:[13]
Johann Spurzheim was Gall's most important collaborator. He worked as Gall's anatomist until 1813 when for unknown reasons they had a permanent falling out.[10] Publishing under his own name Spurzheim successfully disseminated phrenology throughout the United Kingdom during his lecture tours through 1814 and 1815[14] and the United States in 1832 where he would eventually die of illness.[15]
Gall was more concerned with creating a physical science so it was through Spurzheim that phrenology was first spread throughout Europe and America.[10] Phrenology, while not universally accepted, was hardly a fringe phenomenon of the era. George Combe would become the main promoter of phrenology throughout the English speaking world after he viewed a brain dissection by Spurzheim's, convincing him of phrenology's merits.
George Combe
The popularization of phrenology in the middle and working class was due to in part to the idea that scientific knowledge was important and an indication of sophistication and modernity.[16]Cheap and plentiful pamphlets as well as the growing popularity of scientific lectures as entertainment also helped spread phrenology to the masses. Combe created a system of philosophy of the human mind[17] that became popular with the masses because of its simplified principles and wide range of social applications that were in harmony with the liberal Victorian world view.[14] George Combe's book On the Constitution of Man and its Relationship to External Objects sold over 200 000 copies through nine editions.[18] Combe also devoted a large portion of his book to reconciling religion and phrenology, which had long been a sticking point of acceptance. Another reason for its popularity was that phrenology stood balanced between free will and determinism.[19] A person's inherent faculties were clear, and no faculty was viewed as evil, but the abuse of a faculty was. Phrenology allowed for self-improvement and upward mobility, while providing fodder for attacks on aristocratic privilege.[19][20]Phrenology also had wide appeal because of being a reformist philosophy not a radical one.[21] Phrenology was not limited to the common people and both Queen Victoria and Prince Albert invited George Combe to read the heads of their children.[22]
Phrenology came about at a time when scientific procedures and standards for acceptable evidence were still being codified.[23] In the context of Victorian society phrenology was a respectable scientific theory. The Phrenological Society of Edinburgh founded by George and Andrew Combe was an example of the credibility of phrenology at the time, and included a number of extremely influential social reformers and intellectuals, including the publisher Robert Chambers, the astronomer John Pringle Nichol, the evolutionary environmentalist Hewett Cottrell Watson and asylum reformer William A.F. Browne. As well in 1826, out of the 120 members of the Edinburgh society an estimated one third were from a medical background[24] and by the 1840s there were over twenty-eight phrenological societies in London with over 1000 members.[18] Another important scholar was Luigi Ferrarese, the leading Italian phrenologist.[25] He advocated for a government embrace of phrenology as a scientific means of conquering many social ills and his Memorie Risguardanti La Dottrina Frenologica (1836), is considered "one of the fundamental 19th century works in the field".[25]
Traditionally the mind had been studied through introspection. Phrenology provided an attractive, biological alternative that attempted to unite all mental phenomena and treat them with consistent biological terms.[26] Ironically Gall's approach provided a way to studying the mind that would lead to the downfall of his theories.[27] Phrenology also contributed to development of physical anthropology, forensic medicine, understanding of brain, nervous system and brain anatomy as well as contributing to applied psychology.[23][28]
John Elliotson was a brilliant but erratic heart specialist became a phrenologist in the 1840s, he was also a mesmerist and combined the two into something he called phrenomesmerism or phrenomegnatism.[24] The prospect of changing behaviour with mesmerism eventually won out in Elliotson's mesmeric hospital, putting phrenology in a subordinate role.[23] Others amalgamated phrenology andmesmerism as well, such as the practical phrenologists Collyer and Joseph R. Buchanan. The benefits of combining mesmerism and phrenology was that the trance that the mesmeric trance a patient was placed in was supposed to allow for the manipulation of penchants and qualities.[24] For example if the organ of self-esteem was touched the subject would take on a haughty expression.[29]
Phrenology had been mostly discredited as a scientific theory by the 1840s. This was only in part due to a growing amount of evidence against phrenology.[24] Phrenologists had never been able to agree on the most basic underpinnings with mental organ numbers going from 27 to over 40,[28][30] and had also never been able to locate the mental organs. Instead phrenologists relied on cranioscopic readings of the skull to find organ locations.[31] Jean Pierre Flourens experiments on the brains of pigeons indicated that the loss of parts of the brain either caused no loss of function, or the loss of a completely different function than what had been attributed to it by phrenology. Flourens experiment, while not perfect seemed to indicated that Gall's supposed organs were imaginary.[27][32] Scientists had also become disillusioned with phrenology since its popularization with the middle and working classes by entrepreneurs. The popularization had resulted in the simplification of phrenology and the mixing of principles with physiognomy, which had from the start been rejected by Gall as an indicator of personality.[33] Phrenology from its inception was continuously followed by accusations of promoting materialism and atheism, and being destructive of morality. These were all factors which led to the downfall of phrenology.[31][34]
During the early 20th century, a revival of interest in phrenology occurred on the fringe, partly because of studies of evolution,criminology and anthropology (as pursued by Cesare Lombroso). The most famous British phrenologist of the 20th century was theLondon psychiatrist Bernard Hollander (1864–1934). His main works, The Mental Function of the Brain (1901) and Scientific Phrenology(1902) are an appraisal of Gall's teachings. Hollander introduced a quantitative approach to the phrenological diagnosis, defining a method for measuring the skull, and comparing the measurements with statistical averages.[35]
In Belgium, Paul Bouts (1900–1999) began studying phrenology from a pedagogical background, using the phrenological analysis to define an individual pedagogy. Combining phrenology with typology and graphology, he coined a global approach known aspsychognomy.
Bouts, a Roman Catholic priest, became the main promoter of renewed 20th-century interest in phrenology and psychognomy in Belgium. He was also active in Brazil and Canada, where he founded institutes for characterology. His works Psychognomie and Les Grandioses Destinées individuelle et humaine dans la lumière de la Caractérologie et de l'Evolution cérébro-cranienne are considered standard works in the field. In the latter work, which examines the subject of paleoanthropology, Bouts developed a teleological andorthogenetical view on a perfecting evolution, from the paleo-encephalical skull shapes of prehistoric man, which he considered still prevalent in criminals and savages, towards a higher form of mankind, thus perpetuating phrenology's problematic racializing of the human frame. Bouts died on March 7, 1999, after which his work has been continued by the Dutch foundation PPP (Per Pulchritudinem in Pulchritudine), operated by Anette Müller, one of Bouts' students.
During the 1930s Belgian colonial authorities in Rwanda used phrenology to explain the so-called superiority of Tutsis over Hutus.[36]
In 2007 the US State of Michigan included phrenology in a list of personal services subject to sales tax.[37]
[edit]ApplicationAdvocates of phrenology used its concepts as justification for European superiority over other "lesser" races. By comparing skulls of different ethnic groups it supposedly allowed for ranking of races from least to most evolved. Broussais, a disciple of Gall, proclaimed that the Caucasians were the "most beautiful" while peoples like the New Hollander (Australian) and Maori would never become civilized since they had no cerebral organ for producing great artists.[38] Surprisingly few phrenologist argued against the emancipation of the slaves. Instead they argued that through education and interbreeding the lesser peoples could improve.[39] Another argument was that the natural inequality of people could be used to situate them in the most appropriate place in society. Gender stereotyping was also common with phrenology. Women who's heads were generally larger in the back with lower foreheads were thought to have underdeveloped organs necessary for success in the arts and sciences while having larger mental organs relating to the care of children and religion.[40] While phrenologist did not contend the existence of talented women, this minority did not provide justification for citizenship or participation in politics.[41]
One of the considered practical applications of phrenology was education. Due to the nature of phrenology people were naturally considered unequal with very few people would have a naturally perfect balance between organs. Thus education would play an important role in creating a balance through rigorous exercise of beneficial organs while repressing baser ones. One of the best examples of this is Félix Voisin who for approximately ten years ran a reform school in Issy for the express purpose of correction of the mind of children who had suffered some hardship. Voisin focused on four categories of children for his reform school:[42]
The American brothers Lorenzo Niles Fowler (1811–1896) and Orson Squire Fowler (1809–1887) were leading phrenologists of their time. Orson, together with associates Samuel Wells and Nelson Sizer, ran the phrenological business and publishing house Fowlers & Wells in New York City. Meanwhile, Lorenzo spent much of his life in England where he initiated the famous phrenological publishing house, L.N Fowler & Co., and gained considerable fame with his phrenology head (a china head showing the phrenological faculties), which has become a symbol of the discipline.[48] Orson Fowler was known for his octagonal house.
1848 edition of American Phrenological Journal published by Fowlers & Wells, New York City.
In the Victorian age, phrenology as a psychology was taken seriously and permeated the literature and novels of the day. Many prominent public figures such as the Reverend Henry Ward Beecher (a college classmate and initial partner of Orson Fowler) promoted phrenology actively as a source of psychological insight and self-knowledge.[49] Thousands of people consulted phrenologists for advice in various matters, such as hiring personnel or finding suitable marriage partners.[50] As such, phrenology as a brain science waned but developed into the popular psychology of the 19th century.
[edit]Reception[edit]BritainPhrenology was introduced at a time when the old theological and philosophical understanding of the mind was being questioned and no longer seemed adequate in a society that was experiencing rapid social and demographic changes.[51] Phrenology became one of the most popular movements of the Victorian Era. In part phrenology's success was due to George Combe tailoring phrenology for the middle class. Combe's bookOn the Constitution of Man and its Relationship to External Objects was one of the most popular of the time selling over two hundred thousand copies in a ten-year period. Phrenology's success was also due in part because it was introduced at a time when scientific lectures were becoming a form of middle class entertainment, exposing a large demographic of people to phrenological ideas who wouldn't have been exposed otherwise.[52]As a result of the changing of the times, along with new avenues for exposure, and its multifaceted appeal phrenology flourished.[53]
[edit]FranceWhile still not a fringe movement, there was not popular widespread support of phrenology in France. This was not only due to strong opposition of phrenology by French scholars but also once again accusations of promoting atheism, materialism and radical religious views. Politics in France also played a role in preventing rapid spread of phrenology.[20][30] In Britain phrenology had provided another tool to be used for situating demographic changes, the difference was there was less fear of revolutionary upheaval in Britain compared with France. Given that most French supporters of phrenology were liberal, left-wing or socialist, it was an objective of the social elite of France who held a restrained vision of social change that phrenology remain on the fringes. Another objection was that phrenology seemed to provide a built in excuse for criminal behaviour, since in its original form it was essentially deterministic in nature.[20][30]
[edit]IrelandPhrenology arrived in Ireland in 1815, through Spurzheim.[54] While Ireland largely mirrored British trends, with scientific lectures and demonstrations becoming a popular pastime of the age, by 1815 phrenology had already been ridiculed in some circles priming the audiences to the its skeptical claims.[55] Because of this the general public valued it more for its comic relief than anything else, however It did find an audience in the rational dissenters who found it an attractive alternative to explain human motivations without the attached superstitions of religion.[55][56] The supporters of phrenology in Ireland were relegated to scientific subcultures because the Irish scholars neglected marginal movements like phrenology, denying it scientific support in Ireland.[16] In 1830 George Combe came to Ireland, his self-promotion barely winning out against his lack of medical expertise, still only drew lukewarm crowds. This was due to not only the Vatican's decree that phrenology was subversive of religion and morality but also that based on phrenology the "Irish Catholics were sui generis a flawed and degenerate breed".[57] Because of the lack of scientific support, along with religious and prejudicial reasons phrenology never found a wide audience in Ireland.
[edit]United StatesThrough the teachings of Gall and Spurzheim phrenological teachings spread, and by the 1834 when Combe came to lecture in the United States phrenology had become a widespread popular movement.[58][59] Sensing commercial possibilities men like the Fowlers became phrenologists and sought additional ways to bring phrenology to the masses.[59] Though a popular movement, the intellectual elite of the United States found phrenology attractive because it provided a biological explanation of mental processes based on observation, yet it wasn't accepted uncritically. Some intellectuals accepted organology while questioning crainoscopy.[60] Gradually though the popular success of phrenology undermined its scientific merits in the United States and elsewhere, along with its materialistic underpinnings, fostering radical religious views and increasing evidence to refute phrenological claims by the 1840s it had largely lost its credibility.[50] In the United States, especially in the south, phrenology faced an additional obstacle in the antislavery movement. While phrenologist usually claimed the superiority of the European race, they were often sympathetic to liberal causes including the antislavery movement, this sowed skepticism over phrenology among those who were pro-slavery.[61] The rise and surge in popularity in mesmerism, phrenomesmerism, also had a hand in the loss of interest in phrenology among intellectuals and the general public.[29]
[edit]Specific Phrenological ModulesFrom Combe:[62]
[edit]PropensitiesPropensities do not form ideas, they solely produce propensities common to animals and man
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An 1883 phrenology chart
Phrenology (from Greek: φρήν, phrēn, "mind"; and λόγος, logos, "knowledge") is apseudoscience primarily focused on measurements of the human skull, based on the concept that the brain is the organ of the mind, and that certain brain areas have localized, specific functions or modules.[1] The distinguishing feature of phrenology is the idea that the sizes of brain areas were meaningful and could be inferred by examining the skull of an individual. Following the materialist notions of mental functions originating in the brain, phrenologists believed that human conduct could best be understood in neurological rather than philosophical or religious terms. Developed by German physician Franz Joseph Gall in 1796,[2] the discipline was very popular in the 19th century, especially from about 1810 until 1840. The principal British centre for phrenology was Edinburgh, where the Edinburgh Phrenological Society was established in 1820. In 1843, François Magendie referred to phrenology as "a pseudo-science of the present day."[3]
Phrenological thinking was, however, influential in 19th-century psychiatry and modernneuroscience. Gall's assumption that character, thoughts, and emotions are located in localized parts of the brain is considered an important historical advance towardneuropsychology.[4][5]
Contents [hide]
- 1 Mental Faculties
- 2 Method
- 3 History
- 4 Application
- 5 Reception
- 6 Specific Phrenological Modules
- 7 In popular culture
- 8 See also
- 9 References
- 10 External links
These areas were said to be proportional to a person's propensities. The importance of a organ was derrived from relative size compared to other organs. It was believed that the cranial bone conformed in order to accommodate the different sizes of these particular areas of the brain in different individuals, so that a person's capacity for a given personality trait could be determined simply by measuring the area of the skull that overlies the corresponding area of the brain.
An older notion was that personality was determined by the four humors.
Phrenology, which focuses on personality and character, is distinct from craniometry, which is the study of skull size, weight and shape, and physiognomy, the study of facial features.
[edit]MethodContrary to popular thought, phrenology is not the reading of bumps on the head but determing internal brain mass associated with each organ. The phrenologist Nelson Sizer summed up the topic by writting "The first difficulty the phrenologist meets among the public, is that he is supposed to study the brain by means of certain "bumps on the cranium; that he looks for hills or hollows, and that his opinions are based on the deficiency or defiency of these bumps."[6]
Phrenology is a process that involved observing and feeling the skull to determine an individual's psychological attributes. Franz Joseph Gall first believed that the brain was made up of 27 individual organs that determined personality, with the first 19 of these 'organs' believed to exist in other animal species. Phrenologists would run their fingertips and palms over the skulls of their patients to feel for enlargements or indentations.[7] The phrenologist would often take measurements with a tape measure of the overall head size and more rarely employ a crainometer, a special version of a caliper. In general instruments to measure sizes of cranium were used after the main stream phrenology had ended. The phrenologists put emphysis on employing drawings of individuals with particular traits to determine the character of the person and thus many phrenology books have many pictures of subjects. From absolute and relative sizes the organ regions of the skull the phrenologist would assess the character and temperament of the patient.
Gall's list of the "brain organs" was specific. An enlarged organ meant that the patient used that particular "organ" extensively. The number and more detailed meanings of organs were added later by other phrenologists. The 27 areas were varied in function, from sense of color, to the likelihood of religiosity, to the potential to be combative or destructive. Each of the 27 "brain organs" was located in a specific area of the skull. As a phrenologist felt the skull, he would use his knowledge of the shapes of heads and organ positions to determine the overall natural strengths and weakness of an individual. Phrenologists believed the head reveiled natural tendencies and not absolute limitations or strengths of a persons character.
[edit]History
A definition of phrenology with chart from Webster's Academic Dictionary, circa 1895
The first philosopher to locate the mental abilities of the brain was Aristotle.[8] Anatomists and physiologists had studied neither the function of the brain nor how it might be segmented.[9] The German physician Franz Joseph Gall (1758–1828)in 1796 began lecturing on organology, the isolation of mental faculties[10] and later cranioscopy, which was the reading of the skull's shape as it pertained to the general individual. It would be Gall's collaborator Johann Gaspar Spurzheim who would popularize the term "phrenology".[10][11]
In 1809 Gall began writing his greatest[12] work "The Anatomy and Physiology of the Nervous System in General, and of the Brain in Particular, with Observations upon the possibility of ascertaining the several Intellectual and Moral Dispositions of Man and Animal, by the configuration of their Heads. It was not published until 1819. In the introduction to this main work, Gall makes the following statement in regard to his doctrinal principles, which comprise the intellectual basis of phrenology:[13]
- The Brain is the organ of the mind
- The brain is not a homogenous unity, but an aggregate of mental organs with specific functions
- The cerebral organs are topographically localized
- Other things being equal, the relative size of any particular mental organ is indicative of the power or strength of that organ
- Since the skull ossifies over the brain during infant development, external craniological means could be used to diagnose the internal states of the mental characters
Johann Spurzheim was Gall's most important collaborator. He worked as Gall's anatomist until 1813 when for unknown reasons they had a permanent falling out.[10] Publishing under his own name Spurzheim successfully disseminated phrenology throughout the United Kingdom during his lecture tours through 1814 and 1815[14] and the United States in 1832 where he would eventually die of illness.[15]
Gall was more concerned with creating a physical science so it was through Spurzheim that phrenology was first spread throughout Europe and America.[10] Phrenology, while not universally accepted, was hardly a fringe phenomenon of the era. George Combe would become the main promoter of phrenology throughout the English speaking world after he viewed a brain dissection by Spurzheim's, convincing him of phrenology's merits.
George Combe
The popularization of phrenology in the middle and working class was due to in part to the idea that scientific knowledge was important and an indication of sophistication and modernity.[16]Cheap and plentiful pamphlets as well as the growing popularity of scientific lectures as entertainment also helped spread phrenology to the masses. Combe created a system of philosophy of the human mind[17] that became popular with the masses because of its simplified principles and wide range of social applications that were in harmony with the liberal Victorian world view.[14] George Combe's book On the Constitution of Man and its Relationship to External Objects sold over 200 000 copies through nine editions.[18] Combe also devoted a large portion of his book to reconciling religion and phrenology, which had long been a sticking point of acceptance. Another reason for its popularity was that phrenology stood balanced between free will and determinism.[19] A person's inherent faculties were clear, and no faculty was viewed as evil, but the abuse of a faculty was. Phrenology allowed for self-improvement and upward mobility, while providing fodder for attacks on aristocratic privilege.[19][20]Phrenology also had wide appeal because of being a reformist philosophy not a radical one.[21] Phrenology was not limited to the common people and both Queen Victoria and Prince Albert invited George Combe to read the heads of their children.[22]
Phrenology came about at a time when scientific procedures and standards for acceptable evidence were still being codified.[23] In the context of Victorian society phrenology was a respectable scientific theory. The Phrenological Society of Edinburgh founded by George and Andrew Combe was an example of the credibility of phrenology at the time, and included a number of extremely influential social reformers and intellectuals, including the publisher Robert Chambers, the astronomer John Pringle Nichol, the evolutionary environmentalist Hewett Cottrell Watson and asylum reformer William A.F. Browne. As well in 1826, out of the 120 members of the Edinburgh society an estimated one third were from a medical background[24] and by the 1840s there were over twenty-eight phrenological societies in London with over 1000 members.[18] Another important scholar was Luigi Ferrarese, the leading Italian phrenologist.[25] He advocated for a government embrace of phrenology as a scientific means of conquering many social ills and his Memorie Risguardanti La Dottrina Frenologica (1836), is considered "one of the fundamental 19th century works in the field".[25]
Traditionally the mind had been studied through introspection. Phrenology provided an attractive, biological alternative that attempted to unite all mental phenomena and treat them with consistent biological terms.[26] Ironically Gall's approach provided a way to studying the mind that would lead to the downfall of his theories.[27] Phrenology also contributed to development of physical anthropology, forensic medicine, understanding of brain, nervous system and brain anatomy as well as contributing to applied psychology.[23][28]
John Elliotson was a brilliant but erratic heart specialist became a phrenologist in the 1840s, he was also a mesmerist and combined the two into something he called phrenomesmerism or phrenomegnatism.[24] The prospect of changing behaviour with mesmerism eventually won out in Elliotson's mesmeric hospital, putting phrenology in a subordinate role.[23] Others amalgamated phrenology andmesmerism as well, such as the practical phrenologists Collyer and Joseph R. Buchanan. The benefits of combining mesmerism and phrenology was that the trance that the mesmeric trance a patient was placed in was supposed to allow for the manipulation of penchants and qualities.[24] For example if the organ of self-esteem was touched the subject would take on a haughty expression.[29]
Phrenology had been mostly discredited as a scientific theory by the 1840s. This was only in part due to a growing amount of evidence against phrenology.[24] Phrenologists had never been able to agree on the most basic underpinnings with mental organ numbers going from 27 to over 40,[28][30] and had also never been able to locate the mental organs. Instead phrenologists relied on cranioscopic readings of the skull to find organ locations.[31] Jean Pierre Flourens experiments on the brains of pigeons indicated that the loss of parts of the brain either caused no loss of function, or the loss of a completely different function than what had been attributed to it by phrenology. Flourens experiment, while not perfect seemed to indicated that Gall's supposed organs were imaginary.[27][32] Scientists had also become disillusioned with phrenology since its popularization with the middle and working classes by entrepreneurs. The popularization had resulted in the simplification of phrenology and the mixing of principles with physiognomy, which had from the start been rejected by Gall as an indicator of personality.[33] Phrenology from its inception was continuously followed by accusations of promoting materialism and atheism, and being destructive of morality. These were all factors which led to the downfall of phrenology.[31][34]
During the early 20th century, a revival of interest in phrenology occurred on the fringe, partly because of studies of evolution,criminology and anthropology (as pursued by Cesare Lombroso). The most famous British phrenologist of the 20th century was theLondon psychiatrist Bernard Hollander (1864–1934). His main works, The Mental Function of the Brain (1901) and Scientific Phrenology(1902) are an appraisal of Gall's teachings. Hollander introduced a quantitative approach to the phrenological diagnosis, defining a method for measuring the skull, and comparing the measurements with statistical averages.[35]
In Belgium, Paul Bouts (1900–1999) began studying phrenology from a pedagogical background, using the phrenological analysis to define an individual pedagogy. Combining phrenology with typology and graphology, he coined a global approach known aspsychognomy.
Bouts, a Roman Catholic priest, became the main promoter of renewed 20th-century interest in phrenology and psychognomy in Belgium. He was also active in Brazil and Canada, where he founded institutes for characterology. His works Psychognomie and Les Grandioses Destinées individuelle et humaine dans la lumière de la Caractérologie et de l'Evolution cérébro-cranienne are considered standard works in the field. In the latter work, which examines the subject of paleoanthropology, Bouts developed a teleological andorthogenetical view on a perfecting evolution, from the paleo-encephalical skull shapes of prehistoric man, which he considered still prevalent in criminals and savages, towards a higher form of mankind, thus perpetuating phrenology's problematic racializing of the human frame. Bouts died on March 7, 1999, after which his work has been continued by the Dutch foundation PPP (Per Pulchritudinem in Pulchritudine), operated by Anette Müller, one of Bouts' students.
During the 1930s Belgian colonial authorities in Rwanda used phrenology to explain the so-called superiority of Tutsis over Hutus.[36]
In 2007 the US State of Michigan included phrenology in a list of personal services subject to sales tax.[37]
[edit]ApplicationAdvocates of phrenology used its concepts as justification for European superiority over other "lesser" races. By comparing skulls of different ethnic groups it supposedly allowed for ranking of races from least to most evolved. Broussais, a disciple of Gall, proclaimed that the Caucasians were the "most beautiful" while peoples like the New Hollander (Australian) and Maori would never become civilized since they had no cerebral organ for producing great artists.[38] Surprisingly few phrenologist argued against the emancipation of the slaves. Instead they argued that through education and interbreeding the lesser peoples could improve.[39] Another argument was that the natural inequality of people could be used to situate them in the most appropriate place in society. Gender stereotyping was also common with phrenology. Women who's heads were generally larger in the back with lower foreheads were thought to have underdeveloped organs necessary for success in the arts and sciences while having larger mental organs relating to the care of children and religion.[40] While phrenologist did not contend the existence of talented women, this minority did not provide justification for citizenship or participation in politics.[41]
One of the considered practical applications of phrenology was education. Due to the nature of phrenology people were naturally considered unequal with very few people would have a naturally perfect balance between organs. Thus education would play an important role in creating a balance through rigorous exercise of beneficial organs while repressing baser ones. One of the best examples of this is Félix Voisin who for approximately ten years ran a reform school in Issy for the express purpose of correction of the mind of children who had suffered some hardship. Voisin focused on four categories of children for his reform school:[42]
- Slow learners
- Spoiled, neglected, or harshly treated children
- willful, disorderly children
- Children at high risk of inheriting mental disorders
The American brothers Lorenzo Niles Fowler (1811–1896) and Orson Squire Fowler (1809–1887) were leading phrenologists of their time. Orson, together with associates Samuel Wells and Nelson Sizer, ran the phrenological business and publishing house Fowlers & Wells in New York City. Meanwhile, Lorenzo spent much of his life in England where he initiated the famous phrenological publishing house, L.N Fowler & Co., and gained considerable fame with his phrenology head (a china head showing the phrenological faculties), which has become a symbol of the discipline.[48] Orson Fowler was known for his octagonal house.
1848 edition of American Phrenological Journal published by Fowlers & Wells, New York City.
In the Victorian age, phrenology as a psychology was taken seriously and permeated the literature and novels of the day. Many prominent public figures such as the Reverend Henry Ward Beecher (a college classmate and initial partner of Orson Fowler) promoted phrenology actively as a source of psychological insight and self-knowledge.[49] Thousands of people consulted phrenologists for advice in various matters, such as hiring personnel or finding suitable marriage partners.[50] As such, phrenology as a brain science waned but developed into the popular psychology of the 19th century.
[edit]Reception[edit]BritainPhrenology was introduced at a time when the old theological and philosophical understanding of the mind was being questioned and no longer seemed adequate in a society that was experiencing rapid social and demographic changes.[51] Phrenology became one of the most popular movements of the Victorian Era. In part phrenology's success was due to George Combe tailoring phrenology for the middle class. Combe's bookOn the Constitution of Man and its Relationship to External Objects was one of the most popular of the time selling over two hundred thousand copies in a ten-year period. Phrenology's success was also due in part because it was introduced at a time when scientific lectures were becoming a form of middle class entertainment, exposing a large demographic of people to phrenological ideas who wouldn't have been exposed otherwise.[52]As a result of the changing of the times, along with new avenues for exposure, and its multifaceted appeal phrenology flourished.[53]
[edit]FranceWhile still not a fringe movement, there was not popular widespread support of phrenology in France. This was not only due to strong opposition of phrenology by French scholars but also once again accusations of promoting atheism, materialism and radical religious views. Politics in France also played a role in preventing rapid spread of phrenology.[20][30] In Britain phrenology had provided another tool to be used for situating demographic changes, the difference was there was less fear of revolutionary upheaval in Britain compared with France. Given that most French supporters of phrenology were liberal, left-wing or socialist, it was an objective of the social elite of France who held a restrained vision of social change that phrenology remain on the fringes. Another objection was that phrenology seemed to provide a built in excuse for criminal behaviour, since in its original form it was essentially deterministic in nature.[20][30]
[edit]IrelandPhrenology arrived in Ireland in 1815, through Spurzheim.[54] While Ireland largely mirrored British trends, with scientific lectures and demonstrations becoming a popular pastime of the age, by 1815 phrenology had already been ridiculed in some circles priming the audiences to the its skeptical claims.[55] Because of this the general public valued it more for its comic relief than anything else, however It did find an audience in the rational dissenters who found it an attractive alternative to explain human motivations without the attached superstitions of religion.[55][56] The supporters of phrenology in Ireland were relegated to scientific subcultures because the Irish scholars neglected marginal movements like phrenology, denying it scientific support in Ireland.[16] In 1830 George Combe came to Ireland, his self-promotion barely winning out against his lack of medical expertise, still only drew lukewarm crowds. This was due to not only the Vatican's decree that phrenology was subversive of religion and morality but also that based on phrenology the "Irish Catholics were sui generis a flawed and degenerate breed".[57] Because of the lack of scientific support, along with religious and prejudicial reasons phrenology never found a wide audience in Ireland.
[edit]United StatesThrough the teachings of Gall and Spurzheim phrenological teachings spread, and by the 1834 when Combe came to lecture in the United States phrenology had become a widespread popular movement.[58][59] Sensing commercial possibilities men like the Fowlers became phrenologists and sought additional ways to bring phrenology to the masses.[59] Though a popular movement, the intellectual elite of the United States found phrenology attractive because it provided a biological explanation of mental processes based on observation, yet it wasn't accepted uncritically. Some intellectuals accepted organology while questioning crainoscopy.[60] Gradually though the popular success of phrenology undermined its scientific merits in the United States and elsewhere, along with its materialistic underpinnings, fostering radical religious views and increasing evidence to refute phrenological claims by the 1840s it had largely lost its credibility.[50] In the United States, especially in the south, phrenology faced an additional obstacle in the antislavery movement. While phrenologist usually claimed the superiority of the European race, they were often sympathetic to liberal causes including the antislavery movement, this sowed skepticism over phrenology among those who were pro-slavery.[61] The rise and surge in popularity in mesmerism, phrenomesmerism, also had a hand in the loss of interest in phrenology among intellectuals and the general public.[29]
[edit]Specific Phrenological ModulesFrom Combe:[62]
[edit]PropensitiesPropensities do not form ideas, they solely produce propensities common to animals and man
- Adhesiveness
- Alimentiveness
- Amativeness
- Acquisitiveness
- Causality
- Cautiousness
- Combativeness
- Concentrativeness
- Constructiveness
- Destructiveness
- Ideality
- Love of life
- Philoprogenitiveness
- Secretiveness
- Cautiousness
- Love of Approbation
- Self-esteem
- Benevolence
- Conscientiousness
- Firmness
- Hope
- Ideality
- Imitation
- Veneration
- Wit or Mirthfulness
- Wonder
- Coloring
- Eventuality
- Form
- Hearing
- Individuality
- Language
- Locality
- Number
- Order
- Sight
- Size
- Smell
- Taste
- Time
- Touch
- Tune
- Weight
- Causality
- Comparison
This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article byadding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed.(August 2011)
- In Bram Stoker's Dracula, several characters make phrenological observations in describing other characters, as does Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's fictional detective Sherlock Holmes.
- Charlotte Brontë, as well as her sister Anne Brontë, display a belief in phrenology in their works.
- The comedy-musical play Heid (pronounced 'Heed', a Scottish inflection of the word 'Head') by Forbes Masson alluded to the phrenology work of George Combe, citing the pseudoscience's influence on a young Charles Darwin as an inspiration for writers.
- Several literary critics have noted the influence of phrenology[63] (and physiognomy) in Edgar Allan Poe's fiction.[64]
- In the novel The War of the End of the World from Latin American writer Mario Vargas Llosa, one of the main characters is Galileo Gall, a phrenologist whose name refers to Galileo Galilei and Franz Joseph Gall, founder of the science of phrenology.
- In the novel Moby-Dick by Herman Melville many references are made to phrenology and the narrator identifies himself as an amateur phrenologist.
- In HBO's Bored to Death series, Louis Green (played by John Hodgman) claims phrenology is one of his hobbies.
- In the Discworld series of novels by Terry Pratchett, the practice of retrophrenology is mentioned. This is where people pay a retrophrenologist to hit them on the head with hammers of various sizes in order to change the shape of their skull, thus retrospectively giving them the mental attributes they desire. There is an element of pseudoscience to this even in the Discworld universe.
- In the House M.D. episode "Baggage", House has a phrenology model standing in his office. His friend Alvie studies it, saying "I didn't know there was a section of the brain just for hope." House responds with "It's very, very tiny."[65][66]
- In the 1990 film Men At Work, Charlie Sheen's character, Carl Taylor, claims to be a Phrenologist in an attempt to both impress and deceive Leslie Hope's character, Susan Wilkins.
- Phrenology (album) is the fifth studio album by American hip hop band The Roots, released November 26, 2002, on Geffen Records and MCA Records. Recording sessions for the album took place during June 2000 to September 2002.[67]
- In the animated sitcom The Simpsons episode "Mother Simpson", Mr. Burns uses a phrenology head model and a caliper to establish odd diagnoses despite his personal aide Waylon Smithers's remark that phrenology was dismissed as quackery 160 years ago.
- In Quentin Tarantino's 2012 film Django Unchained, Calvin Candie, played by Leonardo Dicaprio, gives a speech describing three bumps on the back of the skulls of negros that supposedly make them predisposed to subservience, therefore explaining why slaves didn't rise up and kill their masters to gain their freedom.
- Anthropometry
- Brodmann's areas
- Characterology
- Faculty psychology
- Localization of brain function
- Moral insanity
- Neuro-imaging
- Pathognomy
- Personology
- Physiognomy
- Psychognomy
- Racial policy of Nazi Germany
- Scientific racism
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- ^ Magendie, F (1843) An Elementary Treatise on Human Physiology. 5th Ed. Tr. John Revere. New York: Harper, p 150. (note the hyphen).
- ^ Fodor, JA. (1983) The Modularity of Mind. MIT Press. p.14, 23, 131
- ^ Simpson, D. (2005) Phrenology and the neurosciences: contributions of F. J. Gall and J. G. Spurzheim ANZ Journal of Surgery. Oxford. Vol.75.6; p.475
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- ^ Parssinen. p. 2.
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- ^ 1833 "The American Journal of the Medical Sciences" Southern Society for Clinical Investigation
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- ^ a b Parssinen, T. M. (Autumn 1974). "Popular Science and Society: The Phrenology Movement in Early Victorian Britain".Journal of Social History 8: 3. Retrieved 10 June 2012.
- ^ McCandless, Peter (May). "Mesmerism and Phrenology in Antebellum Charleston: "Enough of the Marvellous"". The Journal of Southern History 58: 199. Retrieved 10 June 2012.
- ^ a b Leaney, Enda (Autumn). "Phrenology in Nineteenth-Century Ireland". New Hibernia Review / Iris Éireannach Nua 10: 25. Retrieved 10 June 2012.
- ^ Combe, George (1851). A System of Phrenology. Boston: Benjamin B. Mussey and Company. p. 1.
- ^ a b Staum. p. 50.
- ^ a b Parssinen. p. 5.
- ^ a b c Staum. p. 51.
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- ^ Parssinen. p. 1.
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- ^ Lyons. p. 83.
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- ^ Staum. p. 80.
- ^ Staum. p. 56.
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- ^ Hollander, Bernard (1891). "A Contribution to a Scientific Phrenology". The Journal of the Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland 20: 227–234.
- ^ Rea, Lisa. "Applying Restorative Justice to the Genocide in Rwanda". Retrieved 10 June 2012.
- ^ Michigan Set your local edition ». "Mlive.com blog". Blog.mlive.com. Retrieved 2013-01-04.
- ^ Staum. p. 59.
- ^ Staum. p. 62.
- ^ Staum. p. 64.
- ^ Staum. p. 65.
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- ^ Staum. p. 77.
- ^ "Punishing Criminals". Phrenological Journal. Num 3 LII(Whole Number 386): 200-204. March 1871.
- ^ Lyons. p. 80.
- ^ Staum. p. 76.
- ^ [1], Phrenological Head.
- ^ McCandless. p. 204.
- ^ a b McCandless. p. 210.
- ^ Parrsinen. p. 14.
- ^ Parrsinen. pp. 2, 9.
- ^ Parrsinen. pp. 3–9.
- ^ Leany. p. 30.
- ^ a b Leany. p. 28.
- ^ Leany. p. 38.
- ^ Leany. p. 35.
- ^ McCandless. p. 205.
- ^ a b McCandless. p. 208.
- ^ McCandless. p. 206.
- ^ McCandless. p. 212.
- ^ Combe. pp. x-xi.
- ^ Edward Hungerford. "Poe and Phrenology", American Literature 2 (1930): 209-31.
- ^ Erik Grayson. "Weird Science, Weirder Unity: Phrenology and Physiognomy in Edgar Allan Poe" Mode 1 (2005): 56-77. Alsoonline.
- ^ House MD - 6.21 Baggage, LiveJournal.com, retrieved January 12, 2012
- ^ I didn't know there was a section of the brain just for hope...., TVFanatic.com, retrieved January 12, 2012
- ^ Huey, Steve. "Album". Allmusic.com. Retrieved 2009-08-11.
[edit]External linksWikimedia Commons has media related to: Phrenology
- Manual of Phrenology Open Content Alliance eBook Collection, Manual of phrenology: being an analytical summary of the system of Doctor Gall, on the faculties of man and the functions of the brain : translated from the 4th French ed
- A System of Phrenology Open Content Alliance eBook Collection, George Combe's A system of phrenology
- New illustrated self-instructor in phrenology and physiology Open Content Alliance eBook Collection, Fowler, O. S. (Orson Squire) (1809–1887); Fowler, L. N. (Lorenzo Niles) (1811–1896)
- The History of Phrenology on the Web by John van Wyhe, PhD.
- Phrenology: an Overview includes The History of Phrenology by John van Wyhe, PhD.
- The Phrenology Pages, a Belgian site advocating phrenology.
- Phrenology Today! Russian portal, advocating phrenology. Articles on so-called modern phrenology.
- Examples of phrenological tools can be seen in The Museum of Questionable Medical Devices in Minneapolis, Minnesota, U.S..
- Joseph Vimont: Traité de phrénologie humaine et comparée. (Paris, 1832-1835). Selected pages scanned from the original work. Historical Anatomies on the Web. US National Library of Medicine.
- Jean-Claude Vimont: Phrénologie à Rouen, les moulages du musée Flaubert d'histoire de la médecine
- Phrenology: History of a Classic Pseudoscience - by Steven Novella MD
- Historical Deadwood Newspaper accounts of C. R. Broadbent well known speaker on Phrenology and Physiology visit Deadwood SD 1878
- The Skeptic's Dictionary by Robert Todd Carroll
- Who Named It? Franz Joseph Gall Biography of Franz Joseph Gall and his creation: Phrenology.
- Phrenology by George Burgess (1829-1905) George Burgess, Phrenologist in Bristol, England 1861-1901.
- History of the Phrenology Bust as developed by Spurzheim
- George Combe's Elements of Phrenology.
- Psychophysiognomy Today! Polish portal, advocating psychophysiognomy. Articles on modern psychophysiognomy and the current use of psychophysiognomy in the personal consultation CVonVideo
- Phrenology Tools of the Trade.
- Early accounts of Phrenology practice
- Brain and Mind (electronic magazine on Neuroscience) Modern Phrenology Offshoots of Phrenology: Crainiology and Anthropometry
- Florida State University College of Criminology and Criminal Justice. Course material.
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Why I never voted for Barack Obama
Date: 1/8/13
I didn’t vote for Barack Obama last November. I didn’t vote for him in 2008, either. And I can prove it.
No, nobody violated the sanctity of a voting booth.
I can prove it because I didn’t vote at all those years.
In fact, I haven’t voted in any election since 1996. What began as a logistical issue—I had to be in Atlanta for CNN, and neglected to ask for an absentee ballot in time—became a deliberate decision. It became a way to distance myself, however inadequately, from choosing sides in a contest I was reporting and analyzing.
It’s also one way I have of answering a question posed by Margaret Sullivan, The New York Times’ “public editor”—a job known in other places as “ombudsman”—about how much consumers are entitled to know about the viewpoints that journalists bring to their work.
In Sullivan’s piece on Sunday, she offered the view of NYU journalism professor Jay Rosen. She wrote:
“[Rosen] believes that traditional notions about impartial reporting are fundamentally flawed. For starters, he thinks journalists should just come out and tell readers more about their beliefs: ‘The grounds for trust are slowly shifting,’ he told me recently. ‘The View from Nowhere is slowly getting harder to trust, and ‘Here’s where I’m coming from’ is more likely to be trusted.’”
Rosen is certainly right when it comes to opinion columnists. There’s no “hidden agenda” when you’re reading George Will or Paul Krugman, or watching Sean Hannity or Rachel Maddow, because telling you what they believe and why is the essence of what they do.
But what about a reporter or, as I’ve been for 30-plus years on TV, an “analyst”—someone who tries to put news events in a broader context, but who is not offering conclusions about the right choice for president or the right course for policy? Don’t I approach stories with a basket full of opinions, preferences, prejudices (in the non-bigoted sense)? Wouldn’t it be self-delusional to think otherwise?
An example from the past might shed some light on this perennial issue.
In 1984 and again in 1990, I covered the campaign of North Carolina Sen. Jesse Helms, whose views on race led distinguished Washington columnist David Broder to label him
“The last prominent unabashed white racist politician in this country.” Based on Helms’ history—suggesting that Martin Luther King, Jr. was a Communist, railing against “Negro hoodlums” during his years as a TV commentator—Broder’s judgment was dead-on.
So what do you do if you were a reporter for ABC’s “Nightline,” as I was? Do you offer that opinion as a conclusion? I did something else: I tried to explain why North Carolina, with its relatively progressive track record on race, repeatedly sent Helms back to the Senate. I tried to show how he managed to convince just enough voters that he was a man of conviction, willing to stand up to “the elites” of both parties, protecting taxpayers’ money, and standing up for their values.
As for race, I followed the maxim of “Show, don’t tell.” In Helms’s case, that meant showing the infamous 1990 ad that had white hands crumpling a rejection letter while an announcer said, “You needed that job and you were the best qualified. But they had to give it to a minority because of a racial quota.”
But what of my own personal views and background? Was it relevant that I had participated in the March on Washington in 1963 (and two previous, much-smaller civil rights marches)? Or that I had worked, years before those Helms’ pieces I did, in the Senate and on Robert Kenney’s presidential campaign?
Would it have been important, when I covered the impeachment of President Clinton, to know that I had voted for Ross Perot in 1996 because I didn’t want Clinton to win 50 per cent of the popular vote that year? (It worked—he got 49 percent).
The problem for me is that it’s hard to know where this approach ends. Look up a member of Congress in the Almanac of American Politics and you’ll find a voting record, and ideological “scores” from a raft of organizations left and right. Does it really make sense to attach such scores to a reporter’s story? What if I’ve changed my mind over the years (as I have on all sorts of matters)? And how trustworthy are those “ratings” of journalists, given that much media criticism assumes that any critical note about a candidate or policy inevitably reveals a bias?
Look, some of these questions are easy to answer. A journalist with a family or financial stake in the outcome of a controversy should either stay away from that story, or fully disclose his or her interest. The Washington Post’s Ben Bradlee had it right when he said (more or less), You can get intimate with an elephant, but don’t cover the circus. (Bradlee himself faced questions about how much he knew about the extra-marital affairs of his friend John Kennedy).
But it’s rarely that easy. The one obligation any reporter has is to acknowledge his or her beliefs, and to ask, “Why do the people I’m covering believe otherwise?” I did not have to believe in the literal truth of the Bible to cover a Southern Baptist Convention. I did not have to believe in a virtually limitless right to bear arms to cover the National Rifle Association. What I tried to do was to report as honestly as I could what they believed and why. And even as a Yahoo News columnist, with a lot more freedom to offer judgments, I try to maintain that approach.
I know many of you just don’t believe that’s possible. But here’s one of my opinions I’m happy to reveal: I think you’re wrong.
Source:
Jeff Greenfield is a Yahoo! News columnist and the host of “Need to Know” on PBS. A five-time Emmy winner, he has spent more than 30 years on network television, including time as the senior political correspondent for CBS News, the senior analyst for CNN, and the political and media analyst for ABC News. His most recent book is “Then Everything Changed: Stunning Alternate Histories of American Politics.”
MORE FROM JEFF GREENFIELD
_______________________________________
Date: 1/8/13
I didn’t vote for Barack Obama last November. I didn’t vote for him in 2008, either. And I can prove it.
No, nobody violated the sanctity of a voting booth.
I can prove it because I didn’t vote at all those years.
In fact, I haven’t voted in any election since 1996. What began as a logistical issue—I had to be in Atlanta for CNN, and neglected to ask for an absentee ballot in time—became a deliberate decision. It became a way to distance myself, however inadequately, from choosing sides in a contest I was reporting and analyzing.
It’s also one way I have of answering a question posed by Margaret Sullivan, The New York Times’ “public editor”—a job known in other places as “ombudsman”—about how much consumers are entitled to know about the viewpoints that journalists bring to their work.
In Sullivan’s piece on Sunday, she offered the view of NYU journalism professor Jay Rosen. She wrote:
“[Rosen] believes that traditional notions about impartial reporting are fundamentally flawed. For starters, he thinks journalists should just come out and tell readers more about their beliefs: ‘The grounds for trust are slowly shifting,’ he told me recently. ‘The View from Nowhere is slowly getting harder to trust, and ‘Here’s where I’m coming from’ is more likely to be trusted.’”
Rosen is certainly right when it comes to opinion columnists. There’s no “hidden agenda” when you’re reading George Will or Paul Krugman, or watching Sean Hannity or Rachel Maddow, because telling you what they believe and why is the essence of what they do.
But what about a reporter or, as I’ve been for 30-plus years on TV, an “analyst”—someone who tries to put news events in a broader context, but who is not offering conclusions about the right choice for president or the right course for policy? Don’t I approach stories with a basket full of opinions, preferences, prejudices (in the non-bigoted sense)? Wouldn’t it be self-delusional to think otherwise?
An example from the past might shed some light on this perennial issue.
In 1984 and again in 1990, I covered the campaign of North Carolina Sen. Jesse Helms, whose views on race led distinguished Washington columnist David Broder to label him
“The last prominent unabashed white racist politician in this country.” Based on Helms’ history—suggesting that Martin Luther King, Jr. was a Communist, railing against “Negro hoodlums” during his years as a TV commentator—Broder’s judgment was dead-on.
So what do you do if you were a reporter for ABC’s “Nightline,” as I was? Do you offer that opinion as a conclusion? I did something else: I tried to explain why North Carolina, with its relatively progressive track record on race, repeatedly sent Helms back to the Senate. I tried to show how he managed to convince just enough voters that he was a man of conviction, willing to stand up to “the elites” of both parties, protecting taxpayers’ money, and standing up for their values.
As for race, I followed the maxim of “Show, don’t tell.” In Helms’s case, that meant showing the infamous 1990 ad that had white hands crumpling a rejection letter while an announcer said, “You needed that job and you were the best qualified. But they had to give it to a minority because of a racial quota.”
But what of my own personal views and background? Was it relevant that I had participated in the March on Washington in 1963 (and two previous, much-smaller civil rights marches)? Or that I had worked, years before those Helms’ pieces I did, in the Senate and on Robert Kenney’s presidential campaign?
Would it have been important, when I covered the impeachment of President Clinton, to know that I had voted for Ross Perot in 1996 because I didn’t want Clinton to win 50 per cent of the popular vote that year? (It worked—he got 49 percent).
The problem for me is that it’s hard to know where this approach ends. Look up a member of Congress in the Almanac of American Politics and you’ll find a voting record, and ideological “scores” from a raft of organizations left and right. Does it really make sense to attach such scores to a reporter’s story? What if I’ve changed my mind over the years (as I have on all sorts of matters)? And how trustworthy are those “ratings” of journalists, given that much media criticism assumes that any critical note about a candidate or policy inevitably reveals a bias?
Look, some of these questions are easy to answer. A journalist with a family or financial stake in the outcome of a controversy should either stay away from that story, or fully disclose his or her interest. The Washington Post’s Ben Bradlee had it right when he said (more or less), You can get intimate with an elephant, but don’t cover the circus. (Bradlee himself faced questions about how much he knew about the extra-marital affairs of his friend John Kennedy).
But it’s rarely that easy. The one obligation any reporter has is to acknowledge his or her beliefs, and to ask, “Why do the people I’m covering believe otherwise?” I did not have to believe in the literal truth of the Bible to cover a Southern Baptist Convention. I did not have to believe in a virtually limitless right to bear arms to cover the National Rifle Association. What I tried to do was to report as honestly as I could what they believed and why. And even as a Yahoo News columnist, with a lot more freedom to offer judgments, I try to maintain that approach.
I know many of you just don’t believe that’s possible. But here’s one of my opinions I’m happy to reveal: I think you’re wrong.
Source:
Jeff Greenfield is a Yahoo! News columnist and the host of “Need to Know” on PBS. A five-time Emmy winner, he has spent more than 30 years on network television, including time as the senior political correspondent for CBS News, the senior analyst for CNN, and the political and media analyst for ABC News. His most recent book is “Then Everything Changed: Stunning Alternate Histories of American Politics.”
MORE FROM JEFF GREENFIELD
_______________________________________
Saving The World From Asteroids*)
Date: February 2013
Ed Lu, who has spent seven months of his life in space, states:
"We can do something about it," said Lu. "It would be sort of the height of stupidity if we didn’t do something about it.
We could get wiped out, but we couldn’t do anything about it because we didn’t have the foresight to do so. We have the technology to do this."
____________
*) Asteroids are small Solar System bodies that are not comets**).
There are millions of asteroids, many thought to be the shattered remnants of planetesimals, bodies within the young Sun's solar nebula that never grew large enough to become planets.[3]The large majority of known asteroids orbit in the asteroid belt between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter or co-orbital with Jupiter (the Jupiter Trojans). However, other orbital families exist with significant populations, including the near-Earth asteroids.
Click: Asteroid - Wikipedia,
**) A comet is an icy small Solar System body (SSSB) that, when close enough to the Sun, displays a visible coma (a thin, fuzzy, temporary atmosphere) and sometimes also a tail. These phenomena are both due to the effects of solar radiation and the solar wind upon the nucleus of the comet. Comet nuclei range from a few hundred meters to tens of kilometers across and are composed of loose collections of ice, dust, and small rocky particles. Comets have been observed since ancient times.
Click: Comet - Wikipedia
______________
The article: Saving The World From Asteroids
"Yes, they managed to kick me off the planet three times," he said in a Newsmakers interview with ABC News and Yahoo! News. Lu, chosen as a NASA astronaut in 1994, flew twice on American space shuttle flights, and then spent six months on the International Space Station.
"It was awesome, best office in the world, view can’t be beat, the work is interesting,” Lu joked. "The food’s good, but it gets boring.”
These days, Lu spends a fair amount of his time worrying about protecting the planet he got to see from afar. Having left NASA in 2007 to work for Google and other technology companies, he is now CEO of the B612 Foundation, a nonprofit group that advocates action to prevent errant asteroids from hitting Earth.
Asteroids? Death from the sky? Yes, says Lu, the chances may be small -- but it’s a small chance of a big catastrophe, and that’s something worth our attention. For the first time in history, we have the technology to detect incoming asteroids -- and, if necessary, deflect them before they do us damage.
There was the asteroid that is believed to have wiped out the last dinosaurs, but that was 66 million years ago, and disasters of that magnitude are very rare.
Lu says he’s more concerned about objects like the one that crashed near the Tunguska River in Siberia in 1908, decimating about a thousand square miles of forest. It was probably about 150 feet in diameter.
And it so happens there is another, of about the same size, that will pass the Earth on Feb. 15, missing by 17,200 miles. It is called 2012 DA14, and it’s not missing by much when you consider the vastness of space.
"It’s a wake-up call," said Lu, "because this asteroid is big enough, if it hit, to take out an area roughly the size of metropolitan D.C."
There are estimated to be a million asteroids of that size or larger. Telescopes on Earth have spotted about 10,000 of them. "So for every one of these out there that we see, there’s 99 more we haven’t tracked yet," said Lu. "Each and every day, think of it as sort of playing roulette with the Earth."
The B612 group’s solution is to launch a telescope, called Sentinel, into space, where it can scan for objects whose orbits cross ours.
Lu says the project is technologically possible, and could be done with private funding, which he and his team are now trying to attract. They hope to launch Sentinel in 2018.
If Sentinel does spot something with our name on it, what then? Fifteen years ago, in the movie "Armageddon," Bruce Willis led a team of roughneck astronauts who tried to blow up a threatening asteroid with a nuclear weapon. Lu says the reality would be much less dramatic.
If you spot an incoming asteroid well in advance -- and that's the idea behind Sentinel -- you just have to nudge it ever so slightly.
Lu and his colleagues have proposed a space tug, a rocket that would rendezvous with the asteroid and push it just enough to make it harmless. If an asteroid is spotted and its orbit is calculated, scientists will be able to plot its path decades into the future. Changing its orbital speed by a few thousandths of a mile per hour now, he says, would head off a collision years from now.
"We can do something about it," said Lu. "It would be sort of the height of stupidity if we didn’t do something about it. We could get wiped out, but we couldn’t do anything about it because we didn’t have the foresight to do so. We have the technology to do this."
Source: Yahoo news
_____________________________
Date: February 2013
Ed Lu, who has spent seven months of his life in space, states:
"We can do something about it," said Lu. "It would be sort of the height of stupidity if we didn’t do something about it.
We could get wiped out, but we couldn’t do anything about it because we didn’t have the foresight to do so. We have the technology to do this."
____________
*) Asteroids are small Solar System bodies that are not comets**).
There are millions of asteroids, many thought to be the shattered remnants of planetesimals, bodies within the young Sun's solar nebula that never grew large enough to become planets.[3]The large majority of known asteroids orbit in the asteroid belt between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter or co-orbital with Jupiter (the Jupiter Trojans). However, other orbital families exist with significant populations, including the near-Earth asteroids.
Click: Asteroid - Wikipedia,
**) A comet is an icy small Solar System body (SSSB) that, when close enough to the Sun, displays a visible coma (a thin, fuzzy, temporary atmosphere) and sometimes also a tail. These phenomena are both due to the effects of solar radiation and the solar wind upon the nucleus of the comet. Comet nuclei range from a few hundred meters to tens of kilometers across and are composed of loose collections of ice, dust, and small rocky particles. Comets have been observed since ancient times.
Click: Comet - Wikipedia
______________
The article: Saving The World From Asteroids
"Yes, they managed to kick me off the planet three times," he said in a Newsmakers interview with ABC News and Yahoo! News. Lu, chosen as a NASA astronaut in 1994, flew twice on American space shuttle flights, and then spent six months on the International Space Station.
"It was awesome, best office in the world, view can’t be beat, the work is interesting,” Lu joked. "The food’s good, but it gets boring.”
These days, Lu spends a fair amount of his time worrying about protecting the planet he got to see from afar. Having left NASA in 2007 to work for Google and other technology companies, he is now CEO of the B612 Foundation, a nonprofit group that advocates action to prevent errant asteroids from hitting Earth.
Asteroids? Death from the sky? Yes, says Lu, the chances may be small -- but it’s a small chance of a big catastrophe, and that’s something worth our attention. For the first time in history, we have the technology to detect incoming asteroids -- and, if necessary, deflect them before they do us damage.
There was the asteroid that is believed to have wiped out the last dinosaurs, but that was 66 million years ago, and disasters of that magnitude are very rare.
Lu says he’s more concerned about objects like the one that crashed near the Tunguska River in Siberia in 1908, decimating about a thousand square miles of forest. It was probably about 150 feet in diameter.
And it so happens there is another, of about the same size, that will pass the Earth on Feb. 15, missing by 17,200 miles. It is called 2012 DA14, and it’s not missing by much when you consider the vastness of space.
"It’s a wake-up call," said Lu, "because this asteroid is big enough, if it hit, to take out an area roughly the size of metropolitan D.C."
There are estimated to be a million asteroids of that size or larger. Telescopes on Earth have spotted about 10,000 of them. "So for every one of these out there that we see, there’s 99 more we haven’t tracked yet," said Lu. "Each and every day, think of it as sort of playing roulette with the Earth."
The B612 group’s solution is to launch a telescope, called Sentinel, into space, where it can scan for objects whose orbits cross ours.
Lu says the project is technologically possible, and could be done with private funding, which he and his team are now trying to attract. They hope to launch Sentinel in 2018.
If Sentinel does spot something with our name on it, what then? Fifteen years ago, in the movie "Armageddon," Bruce Willis led a team of roughneck astronauts who tried to blow up a threatening asteroid with a nuclear weapon. Lu says the reality would be much less dramatic.
If you spot an incoming asteroid well in advance -- and that's the idea behind Sentinel -- you just have to nudge it ever so slightly.
Lu and his colleagues have proposed a space tug, a rocket that would rendezvous with the asteroid and push it just enough to make it harmless. If an asteroid is spotted and its orbit is calculated, scientists will be able to plot its path decades into the future. Changing its orbital speed by a few thousandths of a mile per hour now, he says, would head off a collision years from now.
"We can do something about it," said Lu. "It would be sort of the height of stupidity if we didn’t do something about it. We could get wiped out, but we couldn’t do anything about it because we didn’t have the foresight to do so. We have the technology to do this."
Source: Yahoo news
_____________________________
Interglacial = of or relating to a period of milder climate between two glacial periods
Occurring between glacial epochs
A comparatively short period of warmth during an overall period of glaciation. Interglacials are characterized both by the melting of ice and by a change in vegetation.
Epoch = (1) A period of time in history or a person's life, typically one marked by notable events or particular characteristics (2) The beginning of a distinctive period in the history of someone or something.
Synonyms period - era - age - time - season - date - day
Interglacial - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interglacial
An interglacial period (or alternatively interglacial) is a geological interval of warmer global average temperature lasting thousands of years that separates consecutive glacial periods within an ice age. The current Holocene interglacial has persisted since the end of the Pleistocene, about 11,400 years ago.
Click green for further info
______________________________________________
Occurring between glacial epochs
A comparatively short period of warmth during an overall period of glaciation. Interglacials are characterized both by the melting of ice and by a change in vegetation.
Epoch = (1) A period of time in history or a person's life, typically one marked by notable events or particular characteristics (2) The beginning of a distinctive period in the history of someone or something.
Synonyms period - era - age - time - season - date - day
Interglacial - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interglacial
An interglacial period (or alternatively interglacial) is a geological interval of warmer global average temperature lasting thousands of years that separates consecutive glacial periods within an ice age. The current Holocene interglacial has persisted since the end of the Pleistocene, about 11,400 years ago.
Click green for further info
______________________________________________
September 4, 2012
Gas Prices Rise, but So Do Auto Sales
Dated: September 2012
DETROIT — In the past, nothing slowed down strong car sales faster than a spike in gasoline prices.
But these days, consumers simply switch to more fuel-efficient models.
Major automakers reported Tuesday, 9/4/12, that sales grew 19.9 percent in August despite higher gas prices during the month.
Analysts said the wide range of fuel-efficient models on the market, particularly new small cars from the Detroit automakers, had helped spur demand and accelerate the industry’s recovery.
“The choices for fuel efficiency are so plentiful it’s harder for a consumer to walk away because of gas prices,” said Jesse Toprak, an analyst with the auto research site TrueCar.com.
One underlying factor for the heavy demand is Americans’ need to replace older vehicles. The average car or truck on the road is more than 11 years old.
So far this year, auto sales in the United States have increased 14.7 percent over the same period in 2011. The industry sold 1.28 million vehicles in August, bringing the total for the year to 9.71 million.
The pace in August was even hotter than earlier in the year, with most major manufacturers posting double-digit percentage increases despite a rise in gasoline prices. Gas hit $3.80 a gallon by the end of the month, compared with about $3.60 in early August, according to theAAA Daily Fuel Gauge Report.
Many of the sales gains came from the continued comeback of Toyota and Honda from their low sales a year ago in the aftermath of the earthquake and tsunami in Japan. Their resurgence was driven by big gains in sales of their most fuel-efficient models, like Toyota’s Corolla and Prius hybrid and Honda’s Civic sedan.
The Detroit auto companies also benefited from the introduction of new high-mileage cars that filled gaping holes in their product lineups.
General Motors, the nation’s largest automaker, said its United States sales grew 10.1 percent, to 240,000 vehicles, in August. The increase was driven by a strong performance by its Chevrolet passenger cars, particularly the new Sonic subcompact model and the even-smaller Spark minicar that G.M. builds in Korea.
G.M. also reported one of its best sales months ever for the Chevrolet Volt plug-in hybrid. The company said it sold 2,800 Volts during August, compared with 300 a year earlier.
“Although trucks had a solid month, the small-car performance is what’s most impressive about G.M.’s numbers today,” said Jessica Caldwell, an analyst with the automotive research site Edmunds.com.
The Ford Motor Company said its August sales increased 12.6 percent, to 196,000 vehicles. It reported its biggest gains in the Focus compact car and the new Escape, its smallest sport utility vehicle.
Focus sales were up 35 percent compared with the same period a year earlier, and Escape sales rose 36 percent.
“As fuel prices rose again during August, we saw growing numbers of people gravitate toward our fuel-efficient vehicles,” said Ken Czubay, Ford’s head of United States sales and marketing.
The company also said pickup sales were steadily increasing in conjunction with a slow recovery in the housing market. Sales of the F-series pickup climbed 19 percent during August, with a large percentage of those buyers choosing trucks with high-mileage, six-cylinder engines instead of the less efficient eight-cylinder models.
The overall strength of the American market prompted Ford to announce it will build 725,000 vehicles in North America during the fourth quarter, a 7 percent increase from the same period a year earlier.
Chrysler, the smallest of the Detroit car companies, said its August sales increased by 14.1 percent, to 148,000 vehicles.
The increase was attributed in part to sales of the all-new Dodge Dart compact sedan, which is derived from a vehicle platform developed by Fiat, Chrysler’s Italian parent company. Chrysler, which previously lacked a competitive model in the small-car segment, said it sold 3,000 Darts in August.
Reid Bigland, Chrysler’s head of United States sales, called the domestic market “incredibly resilient” and estimated that the seasonally adjusted, industrywide annual sales rate was 14.6 million vehicles in August.
Toyota said that it sold 188,000 vehicles during August, a 45.6 percent increase from the same month last year. Honda reported a 59.5 percent gain, to 131,000 vehicles.
The surge by the two large Japanese automakers seemed to hurt the performance of their Asian rivals. Nissan said its American sales grew just 7.6 percent in August, to 98,000, while the Korean carmaker Hyundai reported a 4.4 percent gain, to 61,000 vehicles.
One of the fastest-growing auto companies in the United States, the German carmaker Volkswagen, said it sold 52,000 VW and Audi brand vehicles in August. That represents a 48.2 percent increase from the same period last year.
Like other automakers, VW’s results were lifted by fuel-efficient cars like the Jetta and Passat.
Analysts said the overall industry results exceeded expectations. The consistent level of demand throughout the year has helped the companies keep inventories stable and sales incentives relatively low.
“The more predictable the market is, the better it is for product planning and marketing,” Mr. Toprak said. “The fact is, predictability is what this industry has been lacking for the past four years.”
Source:
The New York Times, We 9/5/12, p. B1
By BILL VLASIC
This is for your private use, only
__________________________________
Gas Prices Rise, but So Do Auto Sales
Dated: September 2012
DETROIT — In the past, nothing slowed down strong car sales faster than a spike in gasoline prices.
But these days, consumers simply switch to more fuel-efficient models.
Major automakers reported Tuesday, 9/4/12, that sales grew 19.9 percent in August despite higher gas prices during the month.
Analysts said the wide range of fuel-efficient models on the market, particularly new small cars from the Detroit automakers, had helped spur demand and accelerate the industry’s recovery.
“The choices for fuel efficiency are so plentiful it’s harder for a consumer to walk away because of gas prices,” said Jesse Toprak, an analyst with the auto research site TrueCar.com.
One underlying factor for the heavy demand is Americans’ need to replace older vehicles. The average car or truck on the road is more than 11 years old.
So far this year, auto sales in the United States have increased 14.7 percent over the same period in 2011. The industry sold 1.28 million vehicles in August, bringing the total for the year to 9.71 million.
The pace in August was even hotter than earlier in the year, with most major manufacturers posting double-digit percentage increases despite a rise in gasoline prices. Gas hit $3.80 a gallon by the end of the month, compared with about $3.60 in early August, according to theAAA Daily Fuel Gauge Report.
Many of the sales gains came from the continued comeback of Toyota and Honda from their low sales a year ago in the aftermath of the earthquake and tsunami in Japan. Their resurgence was driven by big gains in sales of their most fuel-efficient models, like Toyota’s Corolla and Prius hybrid and Honda’s Civic sedan.
The Detroit auto companies also benefited from the introduction of new high-mileage cars that filled gaping holes in their product lineups.
General Motors, the nation’s largest automaker, said its United States sales grew 10.1 percent, to 240,000 vehicles, in August. The increase was driven by a strong performance by its Chevrolet passenger cars, particularly the new Sonic subcompact model and the even-smaller Spark minicar that G.M. builds in Korea.
G.M. also reported one of its best sales months ever for the Chevrolet Volt plug-in hybrid. The company said it sold 2,800 Volts during August, compared with 300 a year earlier.
“Although trucks had a solid month, the small-car performance is what’s most impressive about G.M.’s numbers today,” said Jessica Caldwell, an analyst with the automotive research site Edmunds.com.
The Ford Motor Company said its August sales increased 12.6 percent, to 196,000 vehicles. It reported its biggest gains in the Focus compact car and the new Escape, its smallest sport utility vehicle.
Focus sales were up 35 percent compared with the same period a year earlier, and Escape sales rose 36 percent.
“As fuel prices rose again during August, we saw growing numbers of people gravitate toward our fuel-efficient vehicles,” said Ken Czubay, Ford’s head of United States sales and marketing.
The company also said pickup sales were steadily increasing in conjunction with a slow recovery in the housing market. Sales of the F-series pickup climbed 19 percent during August, with a large percentage of those buyers choosing trucks with high-mileage, six-cylinder engines instead of the less efficient eight-cylinder models.
The overall strength of the American market prompted Ford to announce it will build 725,000 vehicles in North America during the fourth quarter, a 7 percent increase from the same period a year earlier.
Chrysler, the smallest of the Detroit car companies, said its August sales increased by 14.1 percent, to 148,000 vehicles.
The increase was attributed in part to sales of the all-new Dodge Dart compact sedan, which is derived from a vehicle platform developed by Fiat, Chrysler’s Italian parent company. Chrysler, which previously lacked a competitive model in the small-car segment, said it sold 3,000 Darts in August.
Reid Bigland, Chrysler’s head of United States sales, called the domestic market “incredibly resilient” and estimated that the seasonally adjusted, industrywide annual sales rate was 14.6 million vehicles in August.
Toyota said that it sold 188,000 vehicles during August, a 45.6 percent increase from the same month last year. Honda reported a 59.5 percent gain, to 131,000 vehicles.
The surge by the two large Japanese automakers seemed to hurt the performance of their Asian rivals. Nissan said its American sales grew just 7.6 percent in August, to 98,000, while the Korean carmaker Hyundai reported a 4.4 percent gain, to 61,000 vehicles.
One of the fastest-growing auto companies in the United States, the German carmaker Volkswagen, said it sold 52,000 VW and Audi brand vehicles in August. That represents a 48.2 percent increase from the same period last year.
Like other automakers, VW’s results were lifted by fuel-efficient cars like the Jetta and Passat.
Analysts said the overall industry results exceeded expectations. The consistent level of demand throughout the year has helped the companies keep inventories stable and sales incentives relatively low.
“The more predictable the market is, the better it is for product planning and marketing,” Mr. Toprak said. “The fact is, predictability is what this industry has been lacking for the past four years.”
Source:
The New York Times, We 9/5/12, p. B1
By BILL VLASIC
This is for your private use, only
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Hard times? Not for Rolls-Royce
and other luxury automakers
Date: January 2013
Click green for further info
If ever there was a sign that for the super rich, austerity is something that happens to other people, take a look at the results of Rolls-Royce, the British car manufacturer whose customized sedans are a byword for automotive luxury.
The fabled British marque, which Thursday said it would launch a new model in its Ghost range of limousines this year, reported its second consecutive annual sales record in its 108 years of history last year, though overall sales rose only around 1% on year.
Still, selling even a few hundred more cars is big business for Rolls-Royce given that its cheapest model sets a customer back by £170,000 ($272,000).
The auto maker, a wholly owned unit of Germany’s BMW AG, sold 3,575 cars as it pushed into new markets including Latin America and Thailand, with sales in its fastest-growing market, the Middle East, up 25%.
Rolls-Royce isn’t alone in enjoying the sustained world-wide demand for premium cars. BMW itself sold a record number of its namesake brand and Mini cars in 2012 as did Audi AG, the premium car maker owned by Volkswagen AG, Daimler AG unit Mercedes-Benz and Jaguar Land Rover, which is owned by India’s Tata Motors Co.
Premium and luxury car sales world-wide have grown by an average 13% over the past four years, according to automotive research consultancy JATO Dynamics. But within the premium market the top-end superluxury brands such as Rolls-Royce, Volkswagen’s Bentley and Fiat SpA’s Maserati, growth has been even faster, up 36% over the same period, said JATO. Bentley Thursday said its sales rose 22% to 8,510 cars last year from the year before.
The premium auto makers’ good fortune contrasts mightily with Europe’s mass-market auto makers, which are much more vulnerable to price-sensitive customers facing higher taxes and rising unemployment across much of the continent.
“There is a disconnect between the mega-rich and the rest us but in the last downturn 2007-2009 even the luxury makers took a hit,” said Tim Urquhart, an analyst at research firm IHS Automotive.
“This time Rolls-Royce [is riding] out the general gloom with the introduction of its Ghost range, which attracted new customers because of its price point—the Phantom vehicle is purely for the ultrarich and only sells in hundreds compared with thousands for the Ghost. It’s a different section of the market,” Mr. Urquhart said.
Indeed, part of BMW’s success has been to invest heavily in new technology and new models, driving its brands into new market segments to take advantage of strong demand, particularly in North America and China. Rolls-Royce is deploying the same strategy.
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2013 Car Brand Perception Survey:
Consumers name their top 20 brands
By Consumer Reports News | ConsumerReports.org – Fri, Feb 1, 2013
When it comes to how people perceive car brands, Toyota, Ford, Honda, and Chevrolet stand above all others, based on the 2013 Car Brand Perception Survey, conducted by the Consumer Reports National Research Center.
The survey scores reflect how consumers perceive each brand in seven categories: quality, safety, value, performance, design/style, technology/innovation, and environmentally friendly/green. Combining those factors gives us the total brand-perception score, as shown in the chart below. While the scores reflect a brand's image in consumers' minds, they do not necessarily represent the actual qualities of any brand's vehicles.
Toyota, Ford, Honda, and Chevrolet scored well above the second-tier performances in our survey. When looking past sixth-ranked Volvo, many brands are clustered close together, showing that consumers are identifying with more brands than before, making it harder for most car companies to stand out from the competition. It also signals that buyers may be seeing merits in more brands, rather than so closely identifying single brands as "owning" a given category.
Best overall
BrandScoreToyota133Ford118Honda114Chevrolet94Mercedes-Benz77Volvo77Cadillac66BMW66Dodge56Tesla55Lexus50Subaru50Audi47GMC45Hyundai43Buick42Nissan41Smart35Lincoln33Chrysler32As the full report on the 2013 Car Brand Perception Survey shows, some brands are well respected in several categories, while others rest their brand image on excelling in fewer factors.
For instance, Volvo's score is based quite heavily on its dominating the safety category. For consumers placing a top priority on safety, this brand stands out. In reality, many companies offer excellent occupant protection and just as many cutting-edge safety features.
Overall, the top brands excel in many areas and aren't as pigeonholed as the more single-factor-focused brands. Toyota and Ford, for instance, stand out in several categories, giving them strong overall scores. But across the board, competition for brand mindshare is tough.
Because perception often differs from reality, it is important for shoppers to research the makes and models carefully, rather than rely on fuzzy impressions and word-of-mouth recommendations. Brand perception is often a trailing indicator, and every product line has a spectrum of performance—not every model represents the brand's best efforts.
For this report, the Consumer Reports National Research Center conducted a random, nationwide telephone survey of 2,034 adults from Dec. 6-16, 2012, and collected survey data from 1,764 adults in households that had at least one car.
Read our complete story on the 2013 Car Brand Perception Survey to see how the brands measured up in the seven categories, how they compare against last year's results, and which brands are the lowest ranked.
More from Consumer Reports:
2013 New Car Preview
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Not sure where to start?Consumer Reports can help lead you through the used-car buying experience. This guide provides the essential information you need to choose a used car with a good reliability history, sell your old car, and get the best price.Used-car buying guide ========================================
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Consumers name their top 20 brands
By Consumer Reports News | ConsumerReports.org – Fri, Feb 1, 2013
When it comes to how people perceive car brands, Toyota, Ford, Honda, and Chevrolet stand above all others, based on the 2013 Car Brand Perception Survey, conducted by the Consumer Reports National Research Center.
The survey scores reflect how consumers perceive each brand in seven categories: quality, safety, value, performance, design/style, technology/innovation, and environmentally friendly/green. Combining those factors gives us the total brand-perception score, as shown in the chart below. While the scores reflect a brand's image in consumers' minds, they do not necessarily represent the actual qualities of any brand's vehicles.
Toyota, Ford, Honda, and Chevrolet scored well above the second-tier performances in our survey. When looking past sixth-ranked Volvo, many brands are clustered close together, showing that consumers are identifying with more brands than before, making it harder for most car companies to stand out from the competition. It also signals that buyers may be seeing merits in more brands, rather than so closely identifying single brands as "owning" a given category.
Best overall
BrandScoreToyota133Ford118Honda114Chevrolet94Mercedes-Benz77Volvo77Cadillac66BMW66Dodge56Tesla55Lexus50Subaru50Audi47GMC45Hyundai43Buick42Nissan41Smart35Lincoln33Chrysler32As the full report on the 2013 Car Brand Perception Survey shows, some brands are well respected in several categories, while others rest their brand image on excelling in fewer factors.
For instance, Volvo's score is based quite heavily on its dominating the safety category. For consumers placing a top priority on safety, this brand stands out. In reality, many companies offer excellent occupant protection and just as many cutting-edge safety features.
Overall, the top brands excel in many areas and aren't as pigeonholed as the more single-factor-focused brands. Toyota and Ford, for instance, stand out in several categories, giving them strong overall scores. But across the board, competition for brand mindshare is tough.
Because perception often differs from reality, it is important for shoppers to research the makes and models carefully, rather than rely on fuzzy impressions and word-of-mouth recommendations. Brand perception is often a trailing indicator, and every product line has a spectrum of performance—not every model represents the brand's best efforts.
For this report, the Consumer Reports National Research Center conducted a random, nationwide telephone survey of 2,034 adults from Dec. 6-16, 2012, and collected survey data from 1,764 adults in households that had at least one car.
Read our complete story on the 2013 Car Brand Perception Survey to see how the brands measured up in the seven categories, how they compare against last year's results, and which brands are the lowest ranked.
More from Consumer Reports:
2013 New Car Preview
Best & worst used cars
Complete Ratings for 200 cars and trucks
Car Buying Guides
Not sure where to start?Consumer Reports can help lead you through the used-car buying experience. This guide provides the essential information you need to choose a used car with a good reliability history, sell your old car, and get the best price.Used-car buying guide ========================================
Toyota RAV4
View Video
Subaru Forester
View Video
Mazda6
View Video
Tesla Model S
View Video
Ford C-Max Energi & hybrid
View Video
- Acura RLX
- BMW 6 Series Gran Coupe
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Starting December 2012, these articles are added in this tab:
(1) So You’re a Good Driver? 80 % of the population round the world think they are a better-than-average driver - Let’s Go to the Monitor- Here is a new, computer-monitored way of getting discounts for your car insurance Study this article, contact your insurance company, and participate - you'll like this
(2)
Starting December 2012, these articles are added in this tab:
(1) So You’re a Good Driver? 80 % of the population round the world think they are a better-than-average driver - Let’s Go to the Monitor- Here is a new, computer-monitored way of getting discounts for your car insurance Study this article, contact your insurance company, and participate - you'll like this
(2)
Take the Color Test
Click the BLOG tab at the top bar of this page; BLOG page # 1 (one) has the Color Test to look at some hidden info in your own or in your friends' personality and attitudes.
Have some fun with your family and friend - the Color Test will tell you interesting facts. The test is in the blog down from the top.
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