Source: http://the-gadgeteer.com/2012/01/31/boxx-electric-scooter-looks-as-comfortable-as-a-box/
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Read more: "Power paradox: Clean might not be green forever "
BACK in 1896, the Swedish scientist Svante Arrhenius realised that by burning coal we were adding carbon dioxide to the air, and that this would warm the Earth. But he mentioned the issue only in passing, for his calculations suggested it would not become a problem for thousands of years. Others thought that the oceans would soak up any extra CO2, so there was nothing much to worry about.
That this latter argument has persisted to this day in some quarters highlights our species' propensity to underestimate the scale of our impact on the planet. Even the Earth's vast oceans cannot suck up CO2 as quickly as we can produce it, and we now know the stored CO2 is acidifying the oceans, a problem in itself.
Now a handful of researchers are warning that energy sources we normally think of as innocuous could affect the planet's climate too. If we start to extract immense amounts of power from the wind, for instance, it will have an impact on how warmth and water move around the planet, and thus on temperatures and rainfall (see "How clean is green?").
Just to be clear, no one is suggesting we should stop building wind farms on the basis of this risk. Aside from the huge uncertainties about the climatic effects of extracting power from the wind, our present and near-term usage is far too tiny to make any difference. For the moment, any negative consequences on the climate are massively outweighed by the effects of pumping out ever more CO2. That poses by far the greater environmental threat; weaning ourselves off fossil fuels should remain the priority.
Even so, now is the time to start thinking about the long-term effects of the alternative energy sources we are turning to. Those who have already started to look at these issues report weary, indifferent or even hostile reactions to their work.
That's understandable, but disappointing. These effects may be inconsequential, in which case all that will have been wasted is some research time that may well yield interesting insights anyway. Or they may turn out to be sharply negative, in which case the more notice we have, the better. It would be unfortunate, to put it mildly, to spend countless trillions replacing fossil-fuel energy infrastructure only to discover that its successor is also more damaging than it need be.
These climatic effects may even be beneficial. The first, tentative models suggest that extracting large amounts of energy from high-altitude jet streams would cool the planet, counteracting the effects of rising greenhouse gases. It might even be possible to build an energy infrastructure that gives us a degree of control over the weather: turning off wind turbines here, capturing more of the sun's energy there.
We may also need to rethink our long-term research priorities. The sun is ultimately the only source of energy that doesn't end up altering the planet's energy balance. So the best bet might be to invest heavily in improving solar technology and and energy storage - rather than in efforts to harness, say, nuclear fusion.
For the moment, all of this remains supposition. But our species has a tendency to myopia. We have nothing to lose, and everything to gain, by taking the long view for a change.
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LONDON ? Royal Bank of Scotland chief executive Stephen Hester will not be accepting a 1 million pound ($1.5 million) bonus that drew criticism from British public and politicians, the bank said Sunday.
Spokesman David Gaffney said Hester would not receive the bonus of 3.6 million shares he was awarded last week by the board of the largely state-owned bank.
The British government spent 45 billion pounds bailing out RBS three years ago. It still owns an 82 percent stake, and politicians had criticized the reward at a time when Britons face painful spending cuts and tax hikes.
The government ? which has insisted it has no control over the bank's bonuses ? welcomed the announcement.
"This is a sensible and welcome decision that enables Stephen Hester to focus on the very important job he has got to do, namely to get back billions of pounds of taxpayers' money that was put into RBS," Treasury chief George Osborne said.
The decision follows Saturday's announcement that RBS chairman Philip Hampton was waiving his own bonus of 1.4 million pounds in shares.
Hester and Hampton were brought in after Fred Goodwin, who led RBS's ill-fated takeover of Dutch bank ABN Amro, stepped down in October 2008 as the government was spending billions to prop up the bank.
The board of directors decided last week to award Hester a bonus of 3.6 million shares ? worth just under 1 million pounds at Friday's closing share price of 27.74 pence. That came on top of his annual salary of 1.2 million pounds.
Prime Minister David Cameron said Saturday that Hester's bonus was "a matter for him," but pointed out it was much less than last year's.
The government claimed it had no control over bonuses awarded by the bank, and said replacing Hester if he resigned would be more costly than paying the reward.
But many politicians were critical. London Mayor Boris Johnson, a Conservative like Cameron, said he found the bonus "absolutely bewildering."
Rachel Reeves, Treasury spokeswoman for the opposition Labour Party, said Sunday the sum was inappropriate "when families are feeling the pinch."
"It's time the government explained why they have allowed these bonuses to go through unchallenged," she said.
Before the bank's announcement, the Labour Party said it would force a vote in the House of Commons next month calling for Hester to be stripped of his bonus.
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The challenge facing America now is arguably greater than that facing the U.S. at the end of WWII. Victory in Europe and the Pacific delivered a much needed sense of achievement and resolution to the attack on Pearl Harbor. This has not been the case in Iraq or Afghanistan. While Bin Laden's death has no doubt provided some catharsis, it comes at the expense of two long, hard wars whose achievements are harder to quantify. Iraq looks on the verge of a collapse into anarchy and it is hard to feel optimistic about the future of an Afghanistan without coalition troops.
More striking still is the contrast between the home front now and at the end of the Second World War. Even if Iraq and Afghanistan had been a huge success the thought of some Marshall plan for either country beggars belief. With the deficit spiralling out of control, harsh cuts to defense spending and an urgent need to re-energize the U.S. economy America itself could use some rebuilding. In his state of the Union, Obama cited the Golden Gate Bridge and Hoover Dam as examples of a time when America rebuilt after economic hardship. However, he could only pledge to "sign an executive order clearing away the red tape that slows down too many construction projects." This was not a commitment to put a man on Mars in the next ten years, or to connect the eastern seaboard by high-speed rail.
President Obama recognized that his grandparents enjoyed "the basic American promise that if you worked hard, you could do well enough to raise a family, own a home, send your kids to college, and put a little away for retirement." In no uncertain terms he stated that "the defining issue of our time is how to keep that promise alive. No challenge is more urgent. No debate is more important." Now he just has to convince the voters that he is the president to address that challenge in the next four years. By Obama's reckoning four million jobs were lost in the six months before he took office, with another four million following before his policies took effect. While businesses created three million jobs in the last 22 months, that still leaves a deficit of 5 million American jobs. Coincidentally the voters who filled those jobs would account for roughly half of Obama's 2008 margin of victory, and would have swung it for George H. W. Bush against Clinton in 1992.
On taxes Obama came out with a reiteration of his populist "let's not tax Joe the plumber" strategy. While this worked in 2008 due to anti-financial institution sentiment I'm not sure it's going to be enough to win over the Occupy movement. His Attorney General appointed task force to crack down on risky lenders may be too little, too late. I also find it hard to believe that taxing American multinationals who rely on cheap overseas labor will help them to drive down prices and enable consumers to buy American. It will also make his goal of increasing U.S. exports harder, as comparative advantage on high-end goods goes down with rising costs to American manufacturers. People pay a premium for quality, as Apple have deftly proven, but how much would people be willing to pay if iPhone components weren't manufactured in China?
Ironically for an election year, the defense portion of the speech felt tacked on, and as if it may have been written in the limo on the way to the Capitol. In truth, the only military aspect of the speech I could get behind was Obama's promise that he would launch a program to provide incentives to U.S. business to hire veterans. The rest of his speech attempted to take partial credit for the Arab Spring (where were you on Tunisia again Mr. President?) and remind Americans that in the fight against terrorism, "we got him." Subtle and statesman-like this was not. His new defense strategy leaves me cold, and will have even centrist Democrats feeling uncertain given unfolding events in Iran and Syria. Hillary Clinton looked pretty uncomfortable as Obama muddled his way through what was tantamount to an acceptance that America needs to take a step back from the world stage for the next four years.
This State of the Union gave Obama the chance to set his stall out for November's election, and I've got to say I came away thinking 2012 might be there for the taking for a Republican candidate promising voters a very different type of change. When Obama said "I bet most Americans are thinking the same thing right about now," I wonder how many were thinking about Mitt Romney taking the oath of office.
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Follow Peter Blair on Twitter: www.twitter.com/peterhblair
Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/peter-blair/obama-state-of-the-union_b_1238330.html
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The five-member Missouri Gaming Commission this week unanimously approved a settlement agreement and $375,000 fine against a company that provided electronic bingo machines to casinos in Alabama.
The order states that International Game Technology, or IGT, failed to inform the Missouri commission of a 2009 warning it had received from then Alabama Gov. Bob Riley concerning the legality of the machines in Alabama and also did not report an attempted seizure of the machines at VictoryLand in Macon County.
IGT also failed to report a 2008 federal grand jury subpoena seeking documents related to their business dealings at VictoryLand and the Jefferson County Racing Association, according to the order.
Missouri gaming regulations require licensees to within 15 days report the receipt of any subpoena or notice that they are the target of any gambling investigation.
A spokeswoman for IGT could not immediately be reached for comment.
The Missouri Commission last month issued a preliminary decision to fine Bally Technologies $600,000 for also failing to report activities in Alabama.
Source: http://blog.al.com/spotnews/2012/01/missouri_gaming_commission_app.html
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MEXICO CITY (Reuters) ? The activist hacker group Anonymous attacked three Mexican government websites on Friday in protest at a proposed bill that seeks to toughen local laws about online file-sharing.
The affected sites belong to the Interior Ministry, the Senate and the Chamber of Deputies. The homepage of the Interior Ministry remained offline by mid-afternoon.
"We demand the Mexican government not continue with this law because they will take away our freedom of speech and file sharing," Anonymous said in a video posted on Youtube ahead of Friday's action.
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MANILA, Philippines ? Officials say Manila and Washington are discussing how to intensify joint military exercises in the Philippines as America tries to reassert its presence in Asia.
Filipino officials say the defense talks in Washington from Thursday to Friday will not include the possibility of U.S. troops re-establishing permanent military bases in the country. That is forbidden by the 1987 Philippine constitution.
Defense Secretary Voltaire Gazmin said Thursday that Washington intends to station troops in Australia, dock military ships in Singapore and intensify military exercises in the Philippines.
Filipino senators in 1991 voted to close U.S. military bases in the country. The allies later signed an accord allowing U.S. troops to join war drills in the country.
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The launch of Grand Theft Auto III on Android was a pretty big deal, but initially a lot of devices couldn't play it. Todays update among other features adds compatibility for the Asus Transformer Prime.
Support is also added for the Medion Lifetab, but even better is the added support for the Gamestop Wireless Controller. Controls are also improved for currently supported gamepads, and for the Sony Ericsson Xperia Play. New video display settings help you to tailor the visuals to your particular tastes.
And the final piece of the puzzle is that the game can now be installed to an SD card. For some this will be a most welcome update. Download links can be found after the break.
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Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/androidcentral/~3/LVQGWXymujA/story01.htm
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LUCKNOW, India (Reuters) ? By her own standards, Kumari Mayawati's birthday celebrations were low-key this year.
After driving through a red-carpeted tunnel of plaster elephant tusks in an Ambassador, India's retro-looking national car, the chief minister of India's largest state swept past a coterie of her party's workers, who bowed and touched her feet.
Diamonds adorned the diminutive figure of "the Dalit Queen," encrusting her necklace, a bracelet, her earrings, a nose-ring and her watch, as she accepted a few bouquets of flowers and marched about briskly in the marigold-draped party headquarters.
But the huge crowds of gaping admirers were missing this year; there was no garland of banknotes, no upper-caste Brahmin on hand to symbolically pop a morsel of birthday cake into the mouth of an "untouchable" who has risen from the bottom of India's social pile to become one of the most powerful women in the world.
That's because election campaign rules are now in effect for staggered polls to be held in February and March in Uttar Pradesh.
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Graphic: Uttar Pradesh growth http://link.reuters.com/jef36s
SPECIAL REPORT: Gandhi dynasty http://r.reuters.com/rur93s
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Mayawati is far from a sure bet to win another term as chief minister of the northern state whose population of 200 million would rank as the fifth-most populous in the world if it were a country.
If she doesn't, it would be a blow to her undisguised ambition to one day become prime minister of India, a goal that looked reasonable back in 2007 when she won a huge mandate from the state's voters by appealing to a rainbow of castes, which still define the socio-economic status for many of India's 1.2 billion people.
Launching the seventh, gilt-edged volume of an autobiography that runs to thousands of pages and is printed in Hindi and English, Mayawati bemoaned Election Commission rules that obliged her to row back on her usual birthday beneficence.
"Normally, my birthday is an occasion to give away thousands of crores in welfare schemes for Dalits and other backward castes, but because of the election code of conduct we could not do that this year," she said. A crore is 10 million rupees, or $188,000.
Mayawati's nemesis in the election is Rahul Gandhi, scion of the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty that has ruled the country for most of its six decades of independence. A relative greenhorn in the hurly-burly of Indian politics, Gandhi has staked his future on the performance of the venerable but troubled Congress party in Uttar Pradesh.
A TRADITION OF EXTRAVAGANCE
Although she presides over one of the most poverty-plagued states of India -- its per-capita income is just above 50 percent of the national average -- Mayawati's extraordinary personal extravagance preserves a tradition set over the centuries by a succession of rulers in the plains of the river Ganges.
In the five years since she took office, she has blanketed hundreds of acres of prime real estate in the state capital Lucknow and elsewhere in pink marble and sandstone monuments.
Statues of marble elephants and icons of the lower castes, including a dozen of herself, occupy memorial parks created on a scale not seen in India since the British built New Delhi in the fading days of their empire.
A federal government report found that Uttar Pradesh lavished more than $400 million on such projects between 2007 and 2009 alone -- and the building continues.
"She's taken it straight out of the pages of the Mughals and the first British Viceroys who built huge statues. These are abiding icons that the Dalits always hankered after but never had themselves," said Ajoy Bose, author of a biography of Mayawati.
Like the Nawabs, descendents of Persian courtiers who governed the region in the 18th century, Mayawati likes to flaunt her wealth. On paper, she is India's richest chief minister, with declared assets of $16 million that include a shopping mall in New Delhi and $169,000 in jewelry. But unlike many of her peers in other states, she is open about her income and pays taxes on it.
A U.S. diplomatic cable released by WikiLeaks last year recounted how she once sent a private jet to fetch a pair of sandals from Mumbai, 1,000 km (620 miles) away. According to the
cable, one minister was forced to do sit-ups in front of Mayawati as a punishment for a minor offence; those wanting to become election candidates for her Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) had to pay tens of thousands of dollars for the privilege.
But, unlike her aristocratic Mughal, Nawab and British predecessors, she hails from India's "Dalit" castes, who were marginalized for centuries on the bottom rungs of Hinduism's social ladder. Still today, the idea that a Dalit could become prime minister is as outlandish for many Indians as the thought of a black president once was in the United States.
"FIRST-RATE EGOMANIAC"
One of nine children of a poor government clerk, Mayawati grew up in a Delhi slum and became a school teacher before launching into politics. Aides say she's a news junkie, who obsessively watches the many all-news channels now available in India.
She is often ridiculed by urban middle classes for her monumental personality cult -- the U.S. cable described her as a "first-rate egomaniac" -- and yet Mayawati still has many supporters in Uttar Pradesh, where economic growth has picked up and law and order have improved on her watch.
Mayawati's aides point out that she has spent far more on building roads and joining villages to the electrical grid than she has on the icons to herself and the Dalit people.
"Once you get the infrastructure on the ground, Uttar Pradesh will grow on its own," said a senior official in her inner circle, who asked not to be identified.
Sympathetic analysts even liken her park-building spree to that of the Nawab of Lucknow, Asaf-Ud-Dowlah, who employed 20,000 people to build a shrine during a harsh 1784 famine, a project some historians call an example of pre-Keynesian economics.
That might be a stretch, but electrification and rural welfare projects have undoubtedly contributed to economic growth, which at seven percent annually in her first four years of office, was the state's fastest-ever rate.
A report by the central government's economic Planning Commission last year said Mayawati's pro-Dalit policies had begun to improve the dire nutrition situation in the state, where 42 percent of children under five are underweight.
Even critics admit crime has fallen noticeably since she took over as chief minister in 2007 from Mulayam Singh Yadav, a former wrestler many remember for presiding over a surge in gang violence, with gun-wielding goons threatening shopkeepers.
POLICE ON THEIR SIDE
In the mainly Dalit village of Bhaddi Kheda, an hour's drive from Lucknow, families have been given grants to build modest new houses to replace mud-walled hovels. New toilets improve sanitation, and muddy lanes have been paved.
Most importantly, said villager Saptruhan Das, Dalits who for generations were terrorized by higher castes now feel protected because the police are on their side.
"Yadav people would come and misbehave with the women," Das said, referring to former Chief Minister Yadav's caste. "In some places, they'd give us work but beat us. Now with Mayawati in power, nobody dares."
According to an opinion poll conducted in Uttar Pradesh for India Today magazine last November, 69 percent said that Mayawati had fulfilled the expectations of Dalits.
But nearly 9 out of 10 voters said competence mattered more than the chief minister's caste, two-thirds wanted a change of guard, and the poll showed that Yadav was more favored than Mayawati as the best person to lead the state.
Indeed, Yadav's Samajwadi Party could well emerge from the election with more seats in the 403-member state assembly than Mayawati, though probably not enough for a majority, forcing him to ally with Gandhi's Congress for a return to power.
ELEPHANTINE AMBITIONS
It is too soon to write off the wily Mayawati. She has outwitted every opponent who has crossed her path since the 1990s, first forming several short-lived coalition governments and then storming home with a single-party majority in 2007.
She still pulls in crowds of easily 100,000 at election rallies, far more than her opponents, including Gandhi. And she has a knack for turning adversity into advantage.
Take the flap over the life-sized elephant statues Mayawati had erected in a sprawling Lucknow park, which she opened in 2008 and named after the untouchable leader who wrote India's constitution, Dr. B.R Ambedkar.
The Election Commission this month ordered all statues of Mayawati and of elephants -- her party's electoral symbol -- to be covered during the campaign. So now, dozens of hulking elephant statues are clad in yellow plastic sheeting, and plyboard boxes have been built around bronze Mayawati statues.
"I thank the Election Commission for this order," she said. "It is going to benefit the party and has given us free publicity."
Despite her bravado, Mayawati is likely to lose the votes of millions who believe that corruption has gone from bad to worse and the fruits of economic growth have been unevenly spread both across the sprawling state and its castes.
Speaking on condition of anonymity, one businessman in the state described a well-organized system of bribe-paying to bureaucrats and constant harassment of companies for pay-offs.
"You have to be really desperate to do business in Uttar Pradesh. You have to pay for virtually everything," he said. "Since you have to pay out even if you follow the law -- why follow the law?"
NO INDUSTRY, NO JOBS
Apart from a couple of companies seen as close to her administration including Jaypee Group, which built the track used for India's first Formula One race last year, Uttar Pradesh has missed out on India's industrial growth of the past decade.
Construction, particularly state-funded building of roads, has been the main driver of the state's economy, along with agriculture. Manufacturing has stagnated, hobbled by regular power cuts, high taxes and corruption.
Dalit villager Chote Lal, 28, says life has improved for his caste under Mayawati, but he still does not have enough food to feed his seven children properly. "There are no jobs, no factories -- she should have brought in industry," he said.
This may be Mayawati's undoing: not the statues and the personal extravagance, but the sense she has not done enough to lift living standards evenly across so vast a population.
"Overall, her performance is a mixed bag," said Bose, her biographer. "She has clearly been disappointing. She had a great chance to do more."
This is especially felt among higher castes and Muslims, whose votes helped propel Mayawati to power with a majority in 2007 but who now feel her pro-Dalit policies have not taken them into account.
"We want a government that works for development, not one that works for one particular caste or religion," said Mohammed Ahmed Khan, a Muslim farmer in the village of Dharai Mafi.
(Additional reporting by Alka Pande and Sharat Pradhan; John Chalmers reported from New Delhi; Editing by Bill Tarrant)
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Current tropical timber practices are not sustainable and nations should consider the "implications of 'peak timber'", a study has suggested.
A team of researchers says the standard cutting cycle of 30-40 years is too short to allow trees to grow to a volume required by commercial loggers.
As a result, they add, the pressure to harvest primary forests will continue, leading to ongoing deforestation.
The findings have been published in the journal Biological Conservation.
The scientists used logging on the Solomon Islands as an example because it was, in some respects, "a microcosm of the challenges facing sustainable forest management in the tropics".
They said the industry had been a major source of government revenue for a number of years.
Yet, they added: "For nearly a decade, the nation had been warned that the volume of timber annually harvested from native forests was too high and, if unchecked, that timber stocks would be seriously depleted by 2012.
"In 2009, the Central Bank of the Solomon Islands asserted that (the) exhaustion of timber stocks had arrived even earlier that predicted and its economic consequences were likely to be severe."
Pushing the limitThe team - made up by Dr Phil Shearman and Jane Bryan from the Australian National University, and Prof William Laurance from James Cook University, Australia - said the trajectory of the country's timber production (a rapid increase in production, followed by a peak and then a decline) was akin to the 'Hubbert curve', which has been observed in the exploitation of non-renewable resources, such as oil.
"It is occurring in the Solomons because timber extraction has occurred at a rate far in excess of the capacity of the forests to regenerate commercial timber stocks," they wrote.
The researchers suggested that there were three main factors that made it difficult to find examples of sustainable forestry in the tropics:
As well as these factors, the problem of illegal logging was also threatening primary forest cover in many nations.
A joint World Bank and Interpol project called Chainsaw produced a report in 2010 that highlighted the widespread nature of the problem.
"Illegal logging is one, very significant, component of a complex array of problems that are leading to a worldwide crisis of forest loss and degradation," it reported.
It went on to say that Interpol estimated that an area of forests "equivalent in size to the territory of Austria" disappeared worldwide every year as the result of illegal logging.
The report added: "They also estimate that the percentage of timber marketed worldwide of illegal origin stands at between 20% and 50% of all marketed timber products."
Prof Laurance and the team said that the Redd (Reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation) concept could be an avenue that offered some hope in the future.
Redd is essentially a way of paying developing countries or communities within them to preserve their forests.
"We believe that some Redd+ funds should be directed at initiatives designed to keep loggers and their associated road networks out of forests, rather than merely modifying logging operations," they wrote.
The team concluded with a stark warning: "Unless something fundamental changes... we believe that logged tropical forests will continue to be over-harvested and, far too frequently, cleared afterwards, leading to an inevitable global decline in native timber supplies.
"It has become common these days to speak of 'peak oil'. In the tropics, we assert, we should also begin to seriously consider the implications of 'peak timber'."
Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/int/news/-/news/science-environment-16682177
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WASHINGTON ? The sun is bombarding Earth with radiation from the biggest solar storm in more than six years with more to come from the fast-moving eruption.
The solar flare occurred at about 11 p.m. EST Sunday and will hit Earth with three different effects at three different times. The biggest issue is radiation, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Space Weather Prediction Center in Colorado.
The radiation is mostly a concern for satellite disruptions and astronauts in space. It can cause communication problems for polar-traveling airplanes, said space weather center physicist Doug Biesecker.
Radiation from Sunday's flare arrived at Earth an hour later and will likely continue through Wednesday. Levels are considered strong but other storms have been more severe. There are two higher levels of radiation on NOAA's storm scale ? severe and extreme ? Biesecker said. Still, this storm is the strongest for radiation since May 2005.
The radiation ? in the form of protons ? came flying out of the sun at 93 million miles per hour.
"The whole volume of space between here and Jupiter is just filled with protons and you just don't get rid of them like that," Biesecker said. That's why the effects will stick around for a couple days.
NASA's flight surgeons and solar experts examined the solar flare's expected effects and decided that the six astronauts on the International Space Station do not have to do anything to protect themselves from the radiation, spokesman Rob Navias said.
A solar eruption is followed by a one-two-three punch, said Antti Pulkkinen, a physicist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland and Catholic University.
First comes electromagnetic radiation, followed by radiation in the form of protons.
Then, finally the coronal mass ejection ? that's the plasma from the sun itself ? hits. Usually that travels at about 1 or 2 million miles per hour, but this storm is particularly speedy and is shooting out at 4 million miles per hour, Biesecker said.
It's the plasma that causes much of the noticeable problems on Earth, such as electrical grid outages. In 1989, a solar storm caused a massive blackout in Quebec. It can also pull the northern lights further south.
But this coronal mass ejection seems likely to be only moderate, with a chance for becoming strong, Biesecker said. The worst of the storm is likely to go north of Earth.
And unlike last October, when a freak solar storm caused auroras to be seen as far south as Alabama, the northern lights aren't likely to dip too far south this time, Biesecker said. Parts of New England, upstate New York, northern Michigan, Montana and the Pacific Northwest could see an aurora but not until Tuesday evening, he said.
For the past several years the sun had been quiet, almost too quiet. Part of that was the normal calm part of the sun's 11-year cycle of activity. Last year, scientists started to speculate that the sun was going into an unusually quiet cycle that seems to happen maybe once a century or so.
Now that super-quiet cycle doesn't seem as likely, Biesecker said.
Scientists watching the sun with a new NASA satellite launched in 2010 ? during the sun's quiet period ? are excited.
"We haven't had anything like this for a number of years," Pulkkinen said. "It's kind of special."
___
NOAA's Space Weather Prediction Center: http://www.swpc.noaa.gov/
NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory: http://sdo.gsfc.nasa.gov/
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COMMENTARY | On Thursday, Jan. 19, Mitt Romney was looking back in hindsight. If there was one thing he would do differently in his campaign, "I would go back and take every moment I spent talking about one of the guys on the stage and spend that time talking about Barack Obama," he said at a presidential debate sponsored by CNN. "The right course for America is to return to our fundamental principles, and I would be talking about that more, and probably about my colleagues less -- because frankly, any one of them would be a better president than the one we've got."
That was before the South Carolina primary. Gingrich dealt Romney a double-digit loss in the Palmetto State. On Jan. 23, Holly Bailey reported in The Ticket that Romney has gone from hardly speaking of his Republican opponents to firing serious barbs at Gingrich. Romney wants to paint him a chaotic, sleazy candidate who would hurt the GOP if nominated.
Romney is stroking fears that Gingrich's ethics investigations from his days as speaker of the House will come back to haunt the Republican Party. He is dogwhistling about his opponent's consulting work for Freddie Mac and about the lobbying Gingrich did for Medicare and health care reform. Romney says the dirty records need to come out now, before it's too late.
There are a few reasons why Romney's pit bull tactics may just work. First, it's especially surprising that the evangelicals rallied around a thrice-married guy that cheated on two out of thee wives (that we know of). I would have thought they would go with Santorum who was much stronger on those issues. Apparently, Romney's Mormon faith didn't help much either. Stranger still is how the evangelicals rallied around a moral midget like Gingrich while Romney has all the positions evangelicals love. He also has the personal history to back it up. But the evangelicals couldn't support someone who believes in the Book of Mormon.
But these voters may prove to simply be a speed bump to the well-funded Romney machine. Florida and other key states, including Ohio, have a much different electoral population than South Carolina. Of the warring factions within the Republican party, the moderate wing is still the most influential. The far right has its moments in the spotlight. But most of us find ourselves swinging reasonably in the middle on the political pendulum.
Newt has now won one out of three. But his campaign is still pretty disorganized and he's not polling well in the other states. The only message that South Carolinians sent was that Republicans aren't ready to settle on one candidate yet. Gingrich won a battle but the war is far from over.
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Have you heard that joke about women drivers? Your first reaction is probably, "Which one?" Women often get a bum rap when it comes to automotive issues. So after spending much of her career in the auto industry, watching women being taken advantage of by mechanics and car salespeople, Gail Dunn decided to take matters into her own hands.
At the age of 62, with 15 years of experience working around cars, Dunn set out to educate drivers, one oil change at a time, through the Women?s Automotive Connection. A former business consultant, experienced estimator and longtime manager of a body shop, Dunn had built a reputation for herself in the industry as a no-nonsense advocate for her customers' needs -- traits she now relies on as her own boss.
Founded in 2007, Atlanta-based Women's Automotive Connection provides automotive advice, assistance and service to those without the time or expertise to address problems related to the maintenance and repair of their vehicles. But Dunn's greater mission revolves around her greatest passion -- to teach car owners about the games some of the dishonest people in the automotive industry play in an effort to "relieve" car owners of their money, and to build a fleet of astute, competent customers. And the boys are starting to notice too.
What was your career background prior to starting the Women's Automotive Connection?
I was a consultant in organizational development. I basically fixed broken companies. But I got to a point where I was working 80 hours per week and didn't want to do that anymore.
What led you to decide to start your own business, post retirement?
I knew I would get bored, because I had retired once before and that's exactly what happened. And I realized I didn't want to work for somebody else anymore. The easiest thing was to be on my own, and it sounded great to be able to make my own schedule and my own decisions.
One of the major goals of the Women's Automotive Connection is to help women feel more comfortable and knowledgeable about the auto-repair process. What are some of the negative repair experiences you encountered personally ? and that you saw other women encounter -- prior to starting the company?
My own short story is that I had a '96 Jeep Grand Cherokee that wouldn't start. At the time, I was managing a body shop at a dealership. I looked at it and knew exactly what it needed. I went in on a Monday morning and told them I needed a fuel pump put in a Jeep and just left the car there. Later, someone brought my car over, and I asked what I owed them. They told me I didn't need what I said I needed and charged me for a completely different repair. Obviously, two days later, it once again wouldn't start. So, I bought my own fuel pump and had one of the guys at my body shop put it in.
It made me angry, because they thought they knew more than I did. A lot of shops do this: They put a band-aid on a problem instead of fixing it. I think a lot of people -- both women and men -- have similar experiences with car repairs. A lot of my clients have had experiences like mine where the shop tells them they need more than they think they do, and it becomes too much of a guessing game. And then they'll just agree to it, even if it's not the repair they need.
And what is the overarching mission of the Women's Automotive Connection?
Primarily we're here to assist people in buying, selling and repairing vehicles. But we want to educate. We do automotive boot camps. And I have a weekly podcast called "Garage Gab." I educate women and the public on the games people play when they try to, as I call it, "relieve you of your money." And I don't mind spending money if it's necessary, but if someone is ripping me off, I'm going to get upset.
I have a lot of fun at the boot camps, and think it's amazing the questions people ask. There are a lot of basic things people don't know about vehicles. Once they learn them, they are capable and competent and able to deal with the automotive industry without being taken advantage of.
I think the whole country realizes there is a lot of game-playing going on in the auto industry, whether related to buying or repairing. The honest brokers get upset because the whole industry gets a bad name thanks to those who are dishonest. I want to educate people about the process, but also find honest repair shops I can refer my clients to so they know it will be done right the first time and that someone will take responsibility for the work they do.
And which types of services do you offer your customers?
It varies. I offer consultations to clients over the phone to help them get to the right shop. I also do some brokering to connect people to the right car for them. As mentioned, I also offer educational automotive boot camps and do the weekly car repair podcast.
Everything I do is about giving people the education they need to find honest mechanical shops and brokers. In terms of figuring out who is honest, I have my ways. One of the things I will tell people who call from other cities for help with choosing a shop is to go to that shop, get an oil change and sit in the waiting room to see how customers are treated. I think people are afraid to challenge a mechanic or technician. They automatically think the mechanic knows more than they know. But customers who educate themselves often know as much as any mechanic.
Have you found that a lot of your customers come in with similar issues? What are some of the most common ones?
The biggest issue on new cars that really bothers people is the "check engine" light. That light has nothing to do with your engine and everything to do with your emissions. People see that light on the dash and panic. Then they go to a mechanic and pay a lot of money for something they probably didn't need. The light might just mean something simple -- like they didn't tighten their gas cap.
Have you attracted male customers too?
A lot of men come to me. I've been involved in the Chamber of Commerce for a while now and know a lot of the men there who have become customers. They realize they don't know a lot about modern cars either. Cars today are basically rolling computers. It's funny in a way, because the men who come to me as customers would rather ask me for help than admit to another man that they don't know the answer. I've been able to get so many male customers because the ones I help become big fans of mine and then tell their other friends.
I would say the ratio of male to female clients is probably 50/50. That's not what I intended, but it's what ended up happening. Actually, I've learned that guys get treated the same way women get treated when they go in for repairs or to buy cars.
Have you discovered specific entrepreneurial challenges related to starting a business after age 60 that younger entrepreneurs might not face?
It's hard to say, because I didn't start a business when I was younger. But I find that my age has actually been a help to me. At my age, people look at me and understand I have experience. I don't know that someone much younger starting a business like this would have the same credibility. Sometimes this gray hair I have is a sign of experience and maybe a little wisdom. And that works in my favor.
In general, I don't think there have been any real challenges that I couldn?t overcome. My biggest challenge was getting people to understand what I did. But the uniqueness of it has given me some extra visibility that the rest of the world doesn't have.
When people get older, their focus changes from "I want everything" to "I want to see how I can help other people." A lot of people I know who are running businesses over 50 or 60 really are there to try to help other people.
Entrepreneur Spotlight
Name: Gail Dunn
Company: Women's Automotive Connection
Age: 66
Employees: 2
Founded: 2007
Website: www.womensautomotiveconnection.com
Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/23/gail-dunn-womens-automotive-connection_n_1183719.html
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Soul singer Etta James, whose hits include “At Last” and “Somethings Got A Hold On Me”, died of leukemia complications at the age of 73. [...]
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Source: http://stupidcelebrities.net/2012/01/20/singer-etta-james-dead-at-73/
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A Monroe, Mich., mother is being investigated for offering a pawn shop employee sexual favors from her daughter in exchange for dropping a $25 extension fee on her $120 laptop payment, says My Fox Detroit. Here are details about this case.
* Al Hassan, an employee at DaSilva's Pawn Shop in Southgate, Mich., contacted police after a customer offered to perform a sex act on him when she couldn't pay the $25 extension on the laptop.
* According to Fox Detroit, the woman, whose name is being withheld, said: "What about me and my daughter can do something for you in the back room?"
* Store surveillance cameras showed the woman in the store and her daughter playing and jumping around. When the mother mentioned the proposition, the clerk reported the daughter said, "Not me this time, Mom. You mean you."
* Police investigated the 36-year-old woman's townhouse and found the 10-year-old child in no immediate danger. As of Wednesday, the News Herald reports the child has not been removed from the home.
* The mother admitted to police she had promised the clerk a sexual favor if he would overlook the deposit owed on the laptop but adds she was joking and she had not included her daughter in the offer.
* The mother stated the clerk probably misunderstood her because of the way she phrased the offer but she didn't say she was offering sex from her daughter.
* In an interview with News 4, the mother denies doing anything wrong. She calls the offer "flirting" but that she wasn't serious. "I don't want to be seen as a bad mom because I needed the $25 for gas and groceries."
* Child Protective Services is following up with the mother and child, but a supervisor told USA Today that confidentiality laws prevent case workers from discussing details of the investigation.
* Police are still trying to determine if the mother's comment was a misunderstanding or a blatant proposition. The video camera only places the woman and child in the store; it does not give them access to the verbal exchange or any corroborating witnesses.
* Det. Lt. Edward Sukel told the News Herald that, "we're cautiously moving forward because, of course, we want to make sure we know what we have and not make any rash decisions."
Marilisa Kinney Sachteleben writes about people, places, events and issues in her native state of "Pure Michigan."
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FILE - In this May 1, 2011, file photo, Boston Red Sox's Marco Scutaro throws to first base for the out on a ground ball by Seattle Mariners' Jack Wilson in the fifth inning of a baseball game in Boston. The Colorado Rockies acquired infielder Scutaro from the Red Sox on Saturday, Jan. 21, 2012, for right-hander Clayton Mortensen. (AP Photo/Michael Dwyer, File)
FILE - In this May 1, 2011, file photo, Boston Red Sox's Marco Scutaro throws to first base for the out on a ground ball by Seattle Mariners' Jack Wilson in the fifth inning of a baseball game in Boston. The Colorado Rockies acquired infielder Scutaro from the Red Sox on Saturday, Jan. 21, 2012, for right-hander Clayton Mortensen. (AP Photo/Michael Dwyer, File)
DENVER (AP) ? The Colorado Rockies acquired infielder Marco Scutaro from the Red Sox for right-hander Clayton Mortensen on Saturday in a surprising trade that could pave the way for top Boston prospect Jose Iglesias to take over at shortstop sooner than expected.
The 36-year-old Scutaro hit a career-high .299 for the Red Sox last season, when he had seven homers, 26 doubles, 54 RBIs and a .358 on-base percentage. Boston picked up his $6 million option in October, a month after the team missed the playoffs following a record collapse down the stretch.
Scutaro was expected to remain Boston's starting shortstop this season but he will play second base and bat second in Colorado, where the Rockies also have added Michael Cuddyer and Ramon Martinez in an offseason makeover following last year's disappointing slide.
Mortensen, 26, went 2-4 with a 3.86 ERA in 16 games between the Rockies' rotation and their bullpen last season. He provides depth for a Boston rotation that will be without injured starters John Lackey and Daisuke Matsuzaka next season.
The Rockies targeted Scutaro for months and taking on his $6 million contract gives the Red Sox financial flexibility to make a run at free-agent pitcher Roy Oswalt.
Shortstop has been a trouble spot in Boston since Nomar Garciaparra was traded during the World Series championship season of 2004. Orlando Cabrera filled the position the rest of that year, but he was followed by Edgar Renteria, Alex Gonzalez, Julio Lugo and Gonzalez again; Jed Lowrie, Nick Green and Alex Cora were also in the mix.
Scutaro provided two years of stability after signing with Boston as a free agent following the 2009 season. Now he's gone, too.
The 22-year-old Iglesias appeared in 10 games for the Red Sox last year, getting two hits in six at-bats. A slick fielder who has struggled at the plate as a pro, he batted .235 with a homer and 31 RBIs in 101 games for Triple-A Pawtucket last year. In two minor league seasons since he defected from Cuba, Iglesias has a paltry .308 on-base percentage and .316 slugging percentage.
Still, his defense is considered outstanding and the Red Sox have been grooming him as their shortstop of the future.
Other options for Boston include versatile veterans Mike Aviles and Nick Punto. Both have plenty of big league experience at shortstop, but they were expected to fill utility roles off the bench this season.
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By The Associated Press The Associated Press ? Thu?Jan?19, 10:48?am?ET | The average rate on the 30-year fixed mortgage fell to a record low of 3.88 percent, Freddie Mac said Thursday. That's just below the previous record of 3.89 percent reached one week ago. Here's a look at rates for fixed- and adjustable-rate mortgages over the past 52 weeks. |
| Current week's average Last week's average 52-week high 52-week low |
| 30-year fixed 3.88 3.89 5.05 3.88 |
| 15-year fixed 3.17 3.16 4.29 3.16 |
| 5-year adjustable 2.82 2.82 3.92 2.82 |
| 1-year adjustable 2.74 2.76 3.40 2.74 |
| All values are in percentage points. |
| Source: Freddie Mac Primary Mortgage Market Survey. |
Copyright ? 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. The information contained in the AP News report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press.
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The dawn of a new year means 365 days of new gaming action to look forward to, and the pressure?s really on for Nintendo in 2012. Not only is the company launching its new Wii U console at the end of the year; there?s also a need to keep pushing with the 3DS, which suffered at launch a year ago due to a high price tag and a generally weak launch lineup. Some real gems have emerged since then, particularly on the first-party side of things. Super Mario Land 3D continues to be the best reason to own the system.
With Sony bringing the PlayStation Vita and its console-quality portable gaming to the masses in North America on February 22, the 3DS will be facing some stiff competition this year. There?s hope though. At least a few big-ticket games are fully confirmed and presumably arriving on schedule, which means that there?s some quality 3DS content to look forward to this year. Then there are others that aren?t so confirmed, but we?re all wishing and hoping that they firm up soon. Here are some of our most-anticipated from both sides of the fence?
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To be fair, The Binding of Isaac is technically unconfirmed as a 3DS release. The hope is that Nintendo sees it being mentioned in lists like this and carries forward with approving the game for release on its portable platform. Edmund McMillen?s currently PC-only Roguelike (with shades of The Legend of Zelda) has been submitted to the handheld-maker for release approval. The hope is that it comes soon and that the port is ready for a fall release. McMillen is on record as a big Nintendo supporter, and hopes are high that this 3DS release will eventually happen.
It?s kind of crazy to think that this 2007 PlayStation Portable puzzler is such a highly anticipated 3DS release, and yet here we are. Sega?s underrated puzzle-platformer was great on the PSP and it should really shine with the 3DS. The object of the game is to navigate through a series of environments by jumping between 2D and 3D layouts to play with perspective and bridge otherwise inaccessible locations. Crush 3D is already available in Europe and it?s coming to the U.S. soon, on March 6.
Kid Icarus: Uprising heralds the long-awaited return of one of Nintendo?s most vintage mascots, Pit. The hero of the NES classic Kid Icarus hasn?t been seen much since that original game and its Game Boy sequel; only the odd cameo and all-star lineup appearances. Uprising is the first new Kid Icarus game since the early ?90s, and it sports a fresh new 3D look and approach to gameplay, complete with online multiplayer. Look for it in North America on March 23.
The next Kingdom Hearts release puts players in control of two of the series? past protagonists: Sora and Riku. The story follows them as they visit and awaken a series of worlds as part of their Mark of Mastery Exam, the completion of which will mark them as Keyblade Masters. Early gameplay videos have shown the same sort of action-RPG play that fans of the series have come to expect. Dream Drop Distance arrives in Japan in March, and it?s confirmed as a North America release for sometime later this year.
Nintendo revealed Luigi?s Mansion 2 at E3 last year. The sequel to the cult favorite GameCube launch title, the game casts Mario?s green-clad brother as a ghostbusting do-gooder armed with a spirit-sucking vacuum cleaner. The new game will see Luigi exploring multiple mansions (instead of the previous game?s one). It is also expected that the sequel will have more of a puzzle focus, one that likely takes good advantage of the 3DS?s unique display capabilities. There?s no release date set for this one yet; all we know is that it?s coming in 2012. Halloween, or thereabouts, seems like a safe bet.
Metal Gear Solid: Snake Eater 3D is a portable remake of the Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater console game. It?s a prequel to the events of all other MGS games, putting players in the shoes of Big Boss back when he was just plain old Naked Snake. Portable isn?t an ideal format for this style of Metal Gear game, but that doesn?t matter to fans like me who are screaming for some quality stealth action on the go. The remake will add touch screen inventory access and gyroscope controls, and it?s coming to North America on February 21.
Nintendo revealed last year that Capcom is prepping a 3DS release of Monster Hunter 4. The series is HUGE in Japan, and it?s also big with discerning action-RPG fans who prefer a portable game that breaks hundreds of hours worth of play into bite-sized, minutes-long sections. The trailer reveal at TGS last year showed some gorgeous 3DS visuals in action, giving fans plenty to look forward to. It may be a little optimistic to put this down as a hoped-for 2012 release, but we?re a hopeful bunch here at Digital Trends.
Some of you might take issue with the selection of a vintage PC game for this ?most anticipated in 2012? list. I mean, let?s face it: Myst was new when CD-ROMs were still a freshly released technology. The game has been ported to any number of platforms, including the Nintendo DS. Whether you?ve played it with every new port or never touched it before, the game remains one of the most clever and challenging puzzle-based adventure games that?s ever been released. Don?t expect the 3DS version to change things up TOO much, though fans can expect to explore the newly added RIME Age. Myst comes to the 3DS on March 27.
I?m not sure how many are convinced that Paper Mario really will be coming to 3DS this year, but it would be a smart move on Nintendo?s part to make that happen. Fans want to play this game, and badly. We don?t know a whole lot yet. Turn-based combat will make a return, and it will of course take advantage of the 3DS touchscreen. A 2012 release is expected, which means that we?ll very likely be hearing more soon, as the year?s trade shows start to ramp up.
This is one of those mysterious ?2012 release? titles that doesn?t have a proper date yet, but it?s such a cool mash-up that I couldn?t possibly ignore it. The 3DS will ALSO be seeing a new Layton game, Professor Layton and the Mask of Miracle, but it can?t compete with an adventure pitting gaming?s premiere lawyer versus gaming?s premiere? uhh? logic puzzle-solver. As you would probably expect from a mash-up like this, the game will feature of mix of the Layton puzzle-solving and Ace Attorney trial investigations. Expect plenty of colorful, anime-style weirdness.
Last year?s Resident Evil: Mercenaries offered some fun, arcade-style action, but Resident Evil: Revelations is the narrative-driven survival-horror-style adventure that fans of the series have been waiting for. The story follows Chris Redfield and Jill Valentine in a story set between the events of RE4 and RE5. Revelations is coming very soon too; the game arrives in North America on February 7! Are you ready for more zombie-fueled mayhem?!
Theatrhythm Final Fantasy is yet another Japan-only 3DS release for now, with a February 16 release date. It?s a popular series here in the West though, and Square Enix would do well to release it. Also, it?s important to note that Theatrhythm is a FINAL FANTASY RHYTHM GAME. The story is built from the same Chaos/Cosmos conflict used in the Dissidia fighting games, which allows it to spread across the entire history of the series. Expect to encounter plenty of familiar characters, locations and music as you play. Now, how about that U.S. release confirmation? Eh, Square Enix?
This article was originally posted on Digital Trends
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