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Monday, December 31, 2012
Dr. Rita Levi-Montalcini, a Revolutionary in the Study of the Brain, Dies at 103
[unable to retrieve full-text content]By studying chicken embryos in the bedroom of her house in Turin, Italy, Dr. Levi-Montalcini discovered how embryo cells built a latticework of intricate connections.
Texas health program can exclude Planned Parenthood: judge
SAN ANTONIO, Texas (Reuters) - Texas won a court victory on Monday in its effort to stop state funds under a health program for low-income women from going to clinics affiliated with Planned Parenthood, a group that provides abortions at some of its facilities.
A Texas judge allowed the state to go ahead with a revamped program for poor women, the Women's Health Program, that does not include Planned Parenthood.
Planned Parenthood said it does not provide abortions at clinics that participate in the state women's health program. But it is the nation's leading reproductive health and abortion provider and the state objects to its affiliations with clinics that do provide abortions.
"The court does not find that an irreparable injury will occur to Planned Parenthood," Visiting State District Judge Gary Harger ruled in a one-page order released Monday following a hearing last week. Harger said this would not be the last word on the case, with another judge set to take up the issue again in less than two weeks.
"We are pleased that the court rejected Planned Parenthood's latest attempt to skirt state law," said Lauren Bean, spokeswoman for state Attorney General Greg Abbott.
"The Texas attorney general's office will continue to defend the Texas legislature's decision to prohibit abortion providers and their affiliates from receiving taxpayer dollars through the Women's Health Program," Bean said.
Monday's ruling will allow the state-funded Women's Health Program to begin operations Tuesday as scheduled. The program will have more than 3,500 doctors, clinics and other providers, according to Linda Edwards Gockel, a spokeswoman for the Texas Health and Human Services Commission.
"We welcome Planned Parenthood's help in referring patients to providers in the new program," she said.
The case dates back to 2011, when a Republican super-majority in the Texas Legislature voted to refuse to allow any organization that provides abortion services or is affiliated with doctors who provide abortions from receiving taxpayer funding. But the state program was largely funded by the federal government.
When a federal appeals court ruled last summer that the so-called "affiliate rule" is unconstitutional, a "poison pill" inserted by the legislature ended the state's participation in the Medicaid-based program which used largely federal funding. It created the Women's Health Program using only Texas state funds, specifically outlawing funding for Planned Parenthood.
"I vehemently disagree with the state's efforts to blacklist a qualified provider and, thereby, interfere with a woman's right to choose her own provider," said Democratic state Rep. Donna Howard, a supporter of Planned Parenthood.
Sarah Wheat, interim co-CEO of Planned Parenthood of Central Texas, said the program was a lifeline for low income women to receive lifesaving health screenings.
"For sixty years this program has provided health screenings to women who otherwise would not have it, it has been a great federal-state partnership, it has saved taxpayer dollars, and Planned Parenthood has been a key part of this program from Day One," Wheat said.
Planned Parenthood says it has never used state tax money to pay for abortions, and using taxpayer money to fund abortions has been illegal in Texas for decades. But Howard says "extremist political influence" led to Planned Parenthood's exclusion.
Planned Parenthood said dozens of clinics across the state have been forced to close due to the ongoing tug-of-war over abortion.
Wheat says in many rural and inner city areas of Texas, Planned Parenthood operates the only clinics which provide basic health services for poor women, and excluding the group will mean that tens of thousands of the estimated 110,000 low-income women the new program aims to help will not be able to find an alternative provider.
Gov. Rick Perry, who fought for the bill excluding Planned Parenthood from the program, praised Monday's ruling.
"Today's ruling finally clears the way for thousands of low-income Texas women to access much-needed care, while at the same time, respecting the values and laws of our state," Perry said in a statement. "I applaud all those who stand ready to help these women live healthy lives without sending taxpayer money to abortion providers and their affiliates."
(Reporting By Jim Forsyth and Corrie MacLaggan; Editing by Mary Wisniewski and David Gregorio)
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/texas-health-program-exclude-planned-parenthood-judge-220659835.html
Raw Five-Point Preview: Dec. 31, 2012
All WWE programming, talent names, images, likenesses, slogans, wrestling moves, trademarks, logos and copyrights are the exclusive property of WWE, Inc. and its subsidiaries. All other trademarks, logos and copyrights are the property of their respective owners. ? 2012 WWE, Inc. All Rights Reserved. This website is based in the United States. By submitting personal information to this website you consent to your information being maintained in the U.S., subject to applicable U.S. laws. U.S. law may be different than the law of your home country. WrestleMania XXIX (NY/NJ) logo TM & ? 2012 WWE. All Rights Reserved. The Empire State Building design is a registered trademark and used with permission by ESBC.
Source: http://www.wwe.com/shows/raw/2012-12-31/five-point-preview
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Sunday, December 30, 2012
Former President George H.W. Bush out of intensive care
Former President George H.W. Bush was moved Saturday out of the intensive care unit of the Houston hospital where he has been for more than a month.
"President Bush's condition has improved, so he has been moved today from the intensive care unit to a regular patient room at The Methodist Hospital to continue his recovery," his office said in a statement distributed by spokesman Jim McGrath.
Bush was moved to the intensive care unit last Sunday as doctors worked to control "a stubborn fever," McGrath said at the time. He was listed at the time in guarded condition.
Bush was initially hospitalized with bronchitis and remained in the hospital for a lingering cough. He was admitted from November 7 through 9, then returned on November 23. He has remained at the hospital since. Before his ICU admission, Bush was undergoing physical therapy as doctors prepared to have him home for Christmas.
While in the intensive care unit, Bush was on a liquid diet. It was not immediately clear on Saturday whether he remained on that modified diet.
On Friday, McGrath signaled that the former president was improving.
"The president is alert and, as always, in good spirits - and his exchanges with doctors and nurses now include singing. The Bushes thank everyone for their prayers and good wishes and, like their doctors, are cautiously optimistic that the current course of treatment will be effective."
That same day, Bush took a call from one of his favorite bands: the Oak Ridge Boys.
The gospel-turned-country crooners returned from their vacation, members said, to serenade the former president by phone at the request of former first lady Barbara Bush.
"We asked what song he would like to hear and he said, 'Elvira,' so we blasted some oom pop a mau mau's in the direction of Houston, Texas," band member Joe Bonsall said.
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UPDATE: Missing Georgia boys located in Texas, father held
ATLANTA (AP) - Police said two young boys from Georgia who were reported missing this week have been located in Texas and their father is in custody and facing charges.
Brothers Ben and Henry Cleary - ages 9 and 7 - were visiting with their father, Daniel Cleary, of Roswell, and were supposed to return home Wednesday. An Amber Alert was issued Thursday.
Roswell Police Lt. James H. McGee said that the 46-year-old Daniel Cleary was taken into custody Saturday evening in Austin, Texas. Austin police said a citizen had recognized the boys from the alert and notified police that they were at a hotel.
The children's mother is on the way to get them.
McGee said authorities will arrange for Daniel Cleary's extradition. He faces a charge of interstate interference with custody, a felony.
Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Source: http://www.wrcbtv.com/story/20468437/missing-ga-boys-located-in-texas-father-held
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Saturday, December 29, 2012
Daimler CEO wants Mercedes to regain top spot by 2020: paper
FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Daimler
"I am confident that we will be ahead of our rivals by 2020 at the latest," he told Boersen-Zeitung in an interview published on Saturday.
He said he hoped to reach that target during his time in office. Zetsche's contract currently runs until December 2013 but is expected to be extended by three years in February.
Daimler has already promised 2 billion euros ($2.6 billion)in cost cuts at the Mercedes-Benz division by the end of 2014 after warning in October that it would miss its operating profit target this year by 1 billion euros.
Zetsche told the paper Mercedes had failed to keep up with its rivals in the compact car market and in China.
(Reporting by Victoria Bryan; editing by Jane Baird)
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/daimler-ceo-wants-mercedes-regain-top-spot-2020-111743637--finance.html
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Yes Virginia, sooner or later we will all be paying more taxes ...
My previous post dealt with two ?surprise? taxes buried in the new Affordable Care Act regulations.? And for the past year, observers have been listing the plethora of new taxes scheduled to take affect in 2013, fiscal cliff or no fiscal cliff.
But that isn?t the whole story.? Far from it, in fact.
All that you need in order to understand what I?m about to explain, is a little math.
Ready?
Since the end of WWII, total annual Federal tax revenues have stayed at around 18% ? 19% of annual GDP.? That includes the years where the top marginal income tax rate exceeded 90% of adjusted gross income. ? During the same period, the Federal government has spent an average of 18% ? 20% of annual GDP.? This includes both the Cold War years, where defense spending alone often exceeded 10% of annual GDP, and the post-Great Society years, where entitlement spending routinely exceeded 50% of the total Federal budget.
The result was a rough balance between receipts and outlays, with a manageable annual deficit of around 1% ? 2% of annual GDP.? But the Obama Administration has significantly altered the former status quo.? Federal tax revenue for 2012 is projected to be around $2.47 trillion, or roughly 17% of projected GDP.? Meanwhile, Federal spending for 2012 comes in at around $3.7 trillion, or roughly 24% of projected GDP.? The Obama Administration originally justified drastically increased spending as a remedy for the ailing post housing bubble economy.? But the inflated spending of 2008 ? 2009 has become the new budget baseline, with annual Federal government spending projected to rise to $4 trillion and beyond, in the next decade.
Of course this creates an enormous problem ? massive annual budget deficits in excess of $1 trillion.? We can?t continue to borrow this amount of money indefinitely.? The revenue from tax increases already slated for 2013 and beyond will be largely consumed by the Federal government?s take-over of the health care industry.? And even if income tax rates are increased for ?the rich,? the revenue raised from these increases will be insignificant compared to the size of our projected annual budget deficits.
So how will the government close the massive 5% ? 7% gap (relative to GDP) between Federal outlays and receipts?? Right now, it seems unlikely that the Federal government will voluntarily reduce spending back to a level that corresponds with 20% of annual GDP.? Another option would be solid economic growth that would rapidly expand our annual GDP and reduce the current Federal spending level back to the 20% range.? But our current anemic rate of economic growth, combined with Obama Administration rhetoric and policies focused on denigrating and punishing successful investors and businesses, makes such a scenario seem like nothing more than wishful thinking.
The remaining option, and obviously the most appealing route for money and power-hungry government officials, is tax increases.? But don?t look for them to be in the form of hikes in traditional income tax rates.? The current arguments over income taxes are nothing more than a smoke screen, a distraction that is easy fodder for pundits, bureaucrats, and Facebook meme-spreaders.? Right now, behind closed doors, DC power players are planning the real taxation strategy: various cleverly packaged tax increases that will affect all tax payers, and that can be sold to a gullible public through arguments about fairness and equality.
The primary tools for drastically increasing tax revenue will certainly include the elimination of significant existing tax exemptions and deductions.? One such item already being targeted is employee health care benefits, which are currently exempted from taxable income:
Workers pay no income or payroll taxes on what their employer contributes for health insurance, and in most cases on their own share of premiums as well.
It?s the single biggest tax break the government allows, outstripping the mortgage interest deduction, the deduction for charitable giving and other better-known benefits. If the value of job-based health insurance were taxed like regular income, it would raise nearly $150 billion in 2013, according to congressional estimates. By comparison, wiping away the mortgage interest deduction would bring in only about $90 billion.
?If you are looking to raise revenue to pay for tax reform, that is the biggest pot of money of all,? said Martin Sullivan, chief economist with Tax Analysts, a nonpartisan publisher of tax information.
Another area of interest involves the IRA, 401(k), and 403(b) tax-deferred retirement savings plans.? Pundits have already noted that these plans add a ?tax expenditure? to existing tax revenue streams that amounts to around $240 billion per year.? A recent study of Denmark?s similar tax-deferred retirement savings plan found that total retirement savings increased by only 1% of the total money given in government tax breaks.? Conclusion: these tax deferments are a huge waste of much-needed money.? And the class warfare argument is also taking shape.? According to the Tax Policy Center, most of the substantial savings available with tax-deferred retirement savings plans are enjoyed only by the top 20% of wage earners.
We should expect to see this issue discussed more frequently in the coming months, with an emphasis restricting or eliminating tax-deferred contributions (particularly for high income earners) or taxing annual growth in retirement accounts as regular income.
There is also another option, favored by an increasing number of DC bureaucrats ? abolishing tax deferred retirement plans, and replacing them with a government-managed retirement plan funded by mandatory contributions from all wage-earners.? New School for Social Research professor of economics Teresa Ghilarducci has already discussed how such a scheme might work:
- The Federal government sets up a retirement account for all working Americans
- Funds from workers? existing retirement accounts ? IRA?s, 401(k)?s, 403(b)?s, etc. ? are transferred to these new accounts and converted into Treasury bonds
- Workers will be required to make a mandatory contribution (say, 5%) to these accounts from each paycheck, with the money converted into Treasury bonds yielding 3% interest plus an adjustment for inflation
- In lieu of the tax savings realized from traditional tax deferred retirement plan contributions, workers will receive an annual tax credit (say, $600)
- Upon retirement, workers will receive a monthly payout from this retirement account in addition to Social Security
If you?re scratching your head right now, you should be.? What you just read is a plan to convert real money ? your money ? into government IOU?s, camouflaged by the notion that you are investing in a kind of government-managed annuity.? We should all keep a very close eye on this scheme, because with over $10 trillion currently invested in IRA?s, 401(k)?s, and other tax deferred retirement accounts, the temptation for the Federal government to raid our retirement piggy banks is simply too great.
Finally, we should expect a renewed discussion of the Value Added Tax (VAT).? Put simply, the VAT is an incremental tax, levied in stages on a product, based on formulas that derive the amount of ?value? added to the product (or its components) at each stage of production.? The VAT is figured into the wholesale cost of materials or products at each stage of production, with manufacturers or distributors each paying the tax corresponding to the value that they have added, minus an allowance for the VAT already paid by entities who have previously handled the products or materials.? When the product is offered for retail sale, its price reflects the cost of the VAT that has been added.? Ideally, VAT rates are adjusted so that the final cost of the product including the VAT will be equivalent to the cost of the same product plus a traditional retail sales tax.
Proponents of the VAT argue that since it has very few exemptions and is calculated in a very straight-forward manner, the VAT is a much simpler and far more lucrative revenue tool than traditional sales or income taxes.? But the VAT can only be a preferable alternative to retail sales taxes if it is offered in their place.? Would a new Federal VAT replace existing sales taxes?? Probably not, since most of our existing sales taxes are levied by state and local governments to help fund their respective costs.? Nor would it replace income taxes.? Economist Robert Samuelson believes that a Federal VAT simply isn?t feasible without corresponding Federal spending cuts:
Applied to all consumption spending?about 70 percent of GDP?the required VAT rate would equal about 8 percent. But the actual increase might be closer to 16 percent because there would be huge pressures to exempt groceries, rent and housing, health care, education, and charitable groups. Together, they?re nearly half of the $10 trillion of consumer spending. There would also be other upward (and more technical) pressures on the VAT rate.
Does anyone believe that Americans wouldn?t notice 16 percent price increases for cars, televisions, airfares, gasoline?and much more?even if phased in? As for a VAT?s claimed benefits (simplicity, promotion of investment), these depend on a VAT replacing the present complex income tax that discriminates against investment. That?s unlikely; the needed VAT rates would be implausibly steep. Chances are, we?d pay both.
Higher consumer prices from the VAT could also slow the economy. The Federal Reserve would face policy dilemmas. If it tried to prevent businesses from passing the tax along to consumers, it would have to raise interest rates and risk a recession. If it tried to blunt the effect of higher prices on spending, its easy-credit policy might trigger a new wage-price spiral.
? A VAT might be the least bad tax, though my preference is for energy taxes. But what?s wrong with the simplistic VAT advocacy is that it deemphasizes spending cuts. The consequences would be unnecessarily high taxes that would weaken the economy and discriminate against the young. It would become harder for families to raise children. VAT enthusiasts need to answer two questions: What government spending would you cut first? And how high would your VAT rates go?
Even if we succeed in balancing future Federal budgets with additional tax revenues, we will be living in a very different nation; a nation with a vastly expanded Federal government that consumes 25 cents out of every dollar that its economy creates.? In other words, a nation with a noticeably diminished private sector, and thanks to ever-increasing regulation, a nation with significantly diminished liberties.? Despite the attempts by big-government supporters to dismiss these changes, I believe that an increasing number of Americans will begin to grasp their significance, once they have become noticeably impacted by the government?s encroachment on their lives.? The road ahead looks like a very difficult and costly one for the American taxpayer.
Shortlink:
Source: http://wizbangblog.com/2012/12/28/yes-virginia-sooner-or-later-we-will-all-be-paying-more-taxes/
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Friday, December 28, 2012
Apple to drop patent claims against new Samsung phone
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Apple Inc has agreed to withdraw patent claims against a new Samsung phone with a high-end display after Samsung said it was not offering to sell the product in the crucial U.S. market.
Apple disclosed the agreement in a filing on Friday in U.S. District Court in San Jose, California. Representatives for both Apple and Samsung declined to comment.
Last month Apple asked to add the Galaxy S III Mini and other Samsung products, including several tablet models, to its wide-ranging patent litigation against Samsung.
In response, Samsung said the Galaxy S III Mini was not available for sale in the United States and should not be included in the case.
Apple won a $1.05 billion verdict against Samsung earlier this year but has failed to secure a permanent sales ban against several, mostly older Samsung models. The patents Apple is asserting against the Galaxy S III Mini are separate from those that went to trial.
Samsung started selling the Mini in Europe in October to compete with Apple's iPhone 5. In its filing on Friday in U.S. District Court, for the Northern District of California, Apple said its lawyers were able to purchase "multiple units" of the Mini from Amazon.com Inc's U.S. retail site and have them delivered in the United States.
But Samsung represented that it is not "making, using, selling, offering to sell or importing the Galaxy S III Mini in the United States." Based on that, Apple said it agreed to withdraw its patent claims on the Mini, "so long as the current withdrawal will not prejudice Apple's ability later to accuse the Galaxy S III Mini if the factual circumstances change."
The case in U.S. District Court, Northern District of California is Apple Inc. vs. Samsung Electronics Co Ltd et al., 12-630.
(Reporting by Dan Levine; Editing by Leslie Adler and Dan Grebler)
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/apple-agrees-drop-patent-claims-against-samsung-phone-185405069.html
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RolePlayGateway?
Looking to see if anyone is interested in a OnexOne roleplay set into the future. I'm looking for someone who is creative enough to keep the RP alive and is a more advanced writer. Looking for a female character.
Here's a short little overview:
New Tokyo, Japan || Year 2113
Throughout the years Japan has managed to brutally shape itself into the country it is today, its history littered with blood, tears, and deceptions that lay buried underneath the rubble of old cities, old lives, and even older traditions. Technology advances and the people along with it, governments fall and new powers take over. Humans are constantly in motion, adapting without realizing they?ve lost the control over their own lives. Japan was no different than the rest. It wasn?t until after the third great war of 2062 that Japan came cracking down on its citizens, empowering police forces with more power than was deserved- power that easily corrupted and took over. Things changed, more laws were passed and the power to the people became almost nonexistent. A.W.O [Armortech Warfare Organization] was the economic powerhouse that fixed Japan from its slump after the war. A.W.O became law. And with new laws, came law breakers.
The first anti-A.W.O group was known as The Resistance. In the beginning they had been made up of a small group of maybe 30 individuals who were infamous for their violent acts of protests, which often included flooding the streets with riots, vandalism, and other small scale crimes that A.W.O took with a grain of salt. The Resistance was nothing but a band of thugs at first, they were careless, stupid, and nothing that A.W.O officers couldn't handle. The Resistance and its members had slowly begun to get picked off one by one, A.W.O was written all over the 'mysterious' deaths. They would have been completely wiped out if it wasn't for their sudden change in leadership. Akito Higurashi, Codename: Ocean. The rumors were that he had transferred from The Underground, an elite group that was so low profile that it was almost a myth.
In a matter of months, Ocean became one of the most infamous names known to A.W.O - It was no suprise that all information on him was hidden from the public and stored away in a document labled 'Top Secret'. He became the most wanted man in all of Japan, but nobody knew who he was.
Not yet.
So basically, the plot of the entire story will be that Ocean will be captured and held in an A.W.O holding facility until further questioning. Prior to his capture, an A.W.O special operative will be diagnosed with a disease that has a 80% rate of being fatal and killing the patient within months of being diagnosed.This special operative will then kind of go over the deep end and eventually let Ocean free as long as he promises to take her with him because she wants to live the rest of her life breaking the rules since she has always been one to follow them. Then their adventure begins and they go through all sorts of crazy obstacles and most likely will turn into a romance.
Here is another overview of the events that took place before Ocean's capture:
Ocean (My Character)
Neon signs flickered on and off in a struggle to stay alive, their dim light being the only source of illumination in the dilapidated and dark alley way. An overcast of thick fog hung over the tops of the nearly abandoned buildings, the smoke seeming to crawl down the sides of the old apartments and motels, until it touched the streets where it lingered like a ghost. In an almost dead part of town, four armor clad shadows stood near the outskirts of an apartment, so still that they could have be mistaken for statues if it weren?t for the faint rise and fall of their chests and the shift of lids over eyes that scanned every crack and crevice on the building in front of them.
They were waiting, waiting for a sign that what they have been looking for was in that building, waiting for a movement- a pulse. White noise changed to static in the headphones they all wore before a voice broke through, alerting them to the task at hand.
?He?s there.?
Not one hesitated as they sprung into action, years of training making them the fastest and the most battle ready. Feet shuffled and the sound of metal armor scraping against itself could be heard against the silence of the night, no doubt alerting the target inside. The head of command laid one swift kick to the apartment door, the hinges giving way at the powerful blow. They stormed in with a fury, weapons in hand and locked on the target that sat smirking almost idly on a ripped and torn couch at the corner of the room.
Weapons clicked into place. ?Target 5470D, confirmed.?
The A.W.O Operative (Female Character)
There was barely a sound in the polished office, save for the ocasional click of a pen and the rustling of paperwork. The restless silence hung down like lead, but it was soon interrupted by quick steps in the hallway just outside, and a young woman pushing through the heavy oak doors into the large room. Dressed in regulation military fatigues for respite, a faint blue light glowed through her white tank top all along her spine.
"First Lieutenant _____." she saluted briefly, "You wanted to see me, Major General, sir?"
"At ease." the man at the desk rolled his eyes at the feigned politeness, remaining slouched in his desk chair, staring over at the young woman pensively, "They're making you Captain, kiddo," he finally stated, "That stunt you pulled, managing to find Ocean, impressed them to the shits."
"I didn't do anything," the young woman grumbled, shoving her hands into the pockets of her cameo pockets and shrugging her shoulders absently, "Bain's unit captured him."
The General snorted, "Bain couldn't find his hand at the end of his arm, let alone a needle in a haystack."
The young woman shrugged again, earning herself a glare from the older man, "Look, kid, point is, you're going to shut up, get over your issues, work with a team, and for god's sake, you'll try to smile when they hand you your new insignia."
A twitch appeared at the corner of the newly appointed Captain's mouth, and her lips curled into a semblance of a grin, looking more like she was baring her teeth than anything else.
"Is that all, sir?" she huffed.
"Yea," the General sighed, "Well, no. Your doc's here."
The young woman narrowed her eyes, but did not protest (verbally anyway) and merely watched with undisguised hostility as a man in a white lab coat joined them in the office.
It really was too bad, she briefly thought, as she might have liked the man, if he didn't have the nasty habit of sticking sharp objects into her automail of a spinal chord with alarming frequency.
"I'm not due for a fitting for another two weeks," she stated suspiciously.
The two men shared uncomfortable glances, and the doctor finally broke the newfound silence, clearing his throat and gesturing for the young woman to have a seat. She shook her head, causing a grimace to stretch the young doctor's lips.
"Well, you see miss..." he began, interrupted at once by a lifted palm, "/Captain/," the girl rectified with a raised eyebrow, daring him to continue.
"Very well, Captain, I've had time to look over your scans from last week, and I'm afraid I have some bad news..."
The rest of the speech seemed drowned out by the blood rushing through the Captain's ears. She heard words like fatal, terminal, organ failure, but they meant nothing to her. Death? Was this rat of a man was rambling on about now? She was going to die? Well, of course, she had always expected to die. But certainly not now. Certainly not like this. Certainly not slowly and agonizingly for no good cause at all.
Through the haze, she caught on the gist of the problem: the surgery from two years prior had been an innovation. She had been lucky enough to get out of it on her own two feet. Her spinal chord had been so badly damaged, that the surgeons had been forced to either give up, or attempt a graft.
She had been given the spinal chord of a dead comrade, to replace the nerves endings crushed beneath the broken bones. A series of automail pieces running on isotopic technology had served as replacement for the bone themselves.
And now, it appeared that the graft was taking over her own nervous system. It certainly explained the so-called 'antibiotics' she had been forced to ingest daily. Those, she now learned, had held back the graft's progress, but her body and its foreign object had both grown accustomed and impervious to them, building a high tolerance for the now-useless medicine.
The graft would slowly gain control over her entire body, and, combined with an unaccesible (and therefore unrepairable) leak in her automail, she was guaranteed a drawn-out and painful death, poisoned by the very thing that had saved her life.
Well, drawn out was relative. Three months, the doctor said. A few more if she came to the hospital with them. A few less if she stubbornly continued to out-do herself. They could make it painless for her, they said. Medication and painkillers and a soft bed. No more work. She was promoted. She could enjoy the raise, yelling at new recruits and generally taking things easy.
It all felt a bit too much like pity to her. Painless? Sit behind a desk? The young women clenched her fists as she nodded blindly, no longer listening. Screw that. She was going down with a fight, on the field, out there, doing... doing something, though she didn't quite know what.
She'd figure it out.
She had three months.
So yeah! If you are interested please let me know.
Also, I'm really new to this site so I am still getting used to how everything works.
Source: http://feeds.feedburner.com/RolePlayGateway
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100% LTV Refinance Options - Zillow Mortgage Advice
Hello,
I know similar topics have come on on the forums, but I wanted to lay out my specific situation in order to get some?guidance. ?I currently have an FHA mortgage started in August of 2009 that has a remaining balance roughly $234,000 at 5.25%. Wife and I have good credit with scores that are 760+. ?I had looked into an FHA Streamline refinance a few weeks back that would have been at a rate of 3.625% with the majority of closing costs covered. ?The only issue is as you all know the MIP rates have increased so even at the reduced interest rate the monthly savings was minimal at about $150 as the MIP went from about $105 per month to about $250.
Ultimately at that time I had decided to pursue a conventional refinance through our credit union as my?initial?loan application was?approved. ?Savings would be upwards of $300/month based on the circumstance. ?Fast forward a couple weeks and the appraisal came back at $240,000 which is significantly lower than expected. Credit union has a max LTV of 95% which isn't going to fly as we were hoping to roll a portion of the closing cost into the new loan.
The bottom line question is are there any options for a conventional refinance with a 100% LTV or should we just settle for the Streamline FHA refinance to reduce the interest rate now and see where things go in the future? ?Any insight is appreciated. Thank you.
Source: http://www.zillow.com/advice-thread/100-LTV-Refinance-Options/472256/
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Thursday, December 27, 2012
End of the world on 12/21/12? Not just yet, says the Vatican's top astronomer. (+video)
The director of the Vatican Observatory dismissed talk of a Mayan doomsday on Dec. 21, 2012, saying that the end of the Earth, if it happens, is billions of years away.
A Mayan dancer performs at the Xcaret Eco Theme Park on the outskirts of Playa del Carmen, Mexico, on Wednesday. Although some say the Mayan calendar predicts the end of the world on Dec. 21, 2012, the Vatican's top astronomer is rather dubious.
Israel Leal/AP
EnlargeA Mayan prophecy that the world will end this week may have the more credulous stocking up on supplies and fleeing to "sacred" mountains in the hope of miraculous last-minute salvation by aliens.
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Why NASA agrees with The Vatican: There is no 12-21-12 Mayan doomsdayBut while the idea that Earth could be shattered into a billion pieces by some sort of interplanetary cataclysm has worried millions of people around the world, the Holy See's chief astronomer suggests that life as we know it is unlikely to come to an end quite so soon.
In an editorial in the Vatican's official daily newspaper, L'Osservatore Romano ? in an issue whose front-page article was entitled??The end is not nigh ? at least for now? ? Rev. Jose Gabriel Funes, the?director of the Vatican Observatory, criticized "pseudo-prophecies" about the end of the Universe.??
?In the media and on the internet there is a great deal of talk of the end of the world, which the Mayan calendar supposedly?predicted for Dec 21. If you do a search on Google, you get 40 million results on the topic,? wrote Father Funes, a Jesuit priest from Argentina.
A 5,125-year cycle known in the Mayan calendar as the Long Count comes to an end on Friday and has been widely interpreted by cultists, New Age disciples, and believers in the esoteric as heralding the destruction of the planet.
But in a lengthy discourse on astronomy and Christian belief, he said it was ?not even worth discussing the scientific basis of these claims."
He acknowledged that the universe was slowly expanding, but that the destruction of the Earth ? if it ever happens ? will not occur for billions of years.
In any case, he said, Christians subscribe to the ?fundamental conviction that death is not the last word.?
Four hundred years after the Roman Catholic Church put Galileo on trial for heresy based on his belief that the Earth revolved around the Sun and not the other way round, the Vatican is rather more forgiving of the science of astronomy.
Its observatory is at Castel Gandolfo, the summer residence of the pope, which lies in the hills outside Rome. One of the oldest astronomical research institutes in the world, it also has a research facility hosted by the Steward Observatory at the University of Arizona in Tucson.
Funes, who has a master?s degree in astronomy from the National University of Cordoba in Argentina as well as degrees in philosophy and theology, was made director of the observatory in 2006.
He has not been reluctant to take modern science into account when considering religious tenets. In an interview in 2008, he said it was possible that intelligent forms of life could exist on other planets in the solar system.
Aliens would still be God?s creatures, he said, in an article in L?Osservatore Romano headlined?"The extraterrestrial is my brother." The notion did not necessarily contradict the teachings of the Catholic Church, he said, arguing that to dismiss the possibility of alien life would be to underestimate God?s creative powers.
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Speedy boson machine could bridge classic and quantum computing
4 hrs.
A new type of machine could rival quantum computers in exceeding the power of classical computers, researchers say.
Quantum computers?rely on the bizarre properties of atoms and the other construction blocks of the universe. The world is a fuzzy place at its very smallest levels ? in this realm where?quantum physics?dominates, things can seemingly exist in two places at once or spin in opposite directions at the same time.
The new computers rely on "boson" particles, and resemble quantum computers, which differ from traditional computers in important ways. Normal computers represent data as ones and zeroes, binary digits known as bits that are expressed by flicking switch-like transistors on or off. Quantum computers, however, use quantum bits, or qubits (pronouced "cue-bits"), that can be on and off at the same time, a state known as "superposition."
This allows the machines to carry out two calculations simultaneously. Quantum physics permits such behavior because it allows for particles that can exist in two places at once or spin in opposite directions at the same time.?[Experiment Demonstrates Possibility of Quantum Internet]
Flash interactive: How quantum computers work
In principle, quantum computers could solve certain problems much faster than can?classical computers, because the quantum machines could run through every possible combination at once. A quantum computer with 300 qubits could run more calculations in an instant than there are atoms in the universe.
However, keeping qubits in superposition is challenging, and the problem grows more difficult as more qubits are involved. As such, building quantum computers that are more powerful than classical computers has proven very difficult.
Now, though, two independent teams of scientists have built a novel kind of device known as a boson-sampling computer. Described as a bridge between classical and quantum computers, these machines also make use of the bizarre nature of quantum physics. Although boson-sampling computers theoretically offer less power than quantum computers are capable of producing, the machines should still, in principle, out-perform classical computers in certain problems.
In addition, a boson-sampling computer does not require qubits. As such, "it's technologically far simpler to create than building a full-scale quantum computer," said researcher Matthew Broome, a quantum physicist at the University of Queensland in Australia.
Boson-sampling computers are actually a specialized kind of quantum computer (which is known more formally as a universal quantum computer).
"The main difference between boson-sampling computers and universal quantum computers is that boson-sampling quantum computers can't solve a universal set of problems like universal quantum computers can," Broome said. "But they are still conjectured to be able to solve problems that would be massively intractable for classical computers. Boson sampling computers are an intermediate model of a quantum computer."
Boson-sampling computers are not based on qubits, but on particles called?bosons. "In our case, we use photons," said researcher Ian Walmsley, a quantum physicist at the University of Oxford in England. Photons are the packets of energy that make up light, and are one type of boson.
Gallery: What the heck is a boson?
Broome and Walmsley were in separate groups that each devised a boson-sampling computer, based off concepts first described by theoretical computer scientist Scott Aaronson at MIT. The computers involve multiple devices that can each generate single photons. The photons are inserted into a network where they can interact with one another. They emerge from outputs equipped with sensors to analyze the particles.
The task of calculating which outputs these photons will emerge from, an operation known as boson sampling, grows well beyond the capabilities of classical computers the more photons are involved. The new computers accurately resolved what paths the photons would take ? three photons with Broome and his colleagues' machine and four in Walmsley and his collaborators' device.
Since boson-sampling computing is in its infancy, it remains uncertain whether these computers can solve problems beyond boson sampling. Still, this research suggests that computers based on quantum physics could indeed tackle problems beyond the reach of classical computers.
Year in Science: Higgs boson takes the prize
Previously, there was nothing to say "that anything you can do on a quantum computer you can't do on a normal computer, which leaves in question the necessity for quantum computers," Broome said. "Now, with boson sampling, we're coming up with machines based on quantum physics that can attack problems strongly believed to be intractable for classical computers."
In the future, "it would be great to push these computers toward more photons to tackle problems that would be challenging to simulate on normal computers," study coauthor Walmsley added. Using about 20 to 30 photons would?be a problem?beyond the capabilities of classical computers.
Both research teams detailed their findings online Dec. 20 in the journal Science.
Copyright 2012?InnovationNewsDaily, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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A burden that children should never have to bear - World Vision Blog
An eight year old Syrian refugee child named Layla[1] shares, ?I saw my cousin dying in front of me, so I always see this scene in front of my eyes.?
As children all over North America happily rummage through the cheerful remains of Christmas Day?s joys?festive gift wrap strewn about, the latest version of Halo blaring from 40 inch television screens?the existence of Syrian children presently seeking refuge in Lebanon is one far less carefree.? In this season of joy, it?s difficult to fathom that at least 66,000 children like Layla are coping with the loss of home and childhood as their families struggle to survive the displacement of war and onset of a cold, snowy winter in Lebanon?s Bekaa Valley.
*????? *?????? *
Over the past three months, Syrian refugees have poured across Lebanon?s borders at an exponentially increasing rate.? UNHCR reports that 154,387[2] Syrian refugees are currently residing in Lebanon.? Nearly 75 percent of these refugees are women and children; children who should be focused on homework and playing are instead grappling with educational upheaval, a lack of stability and anxiety and exposure as they face uncertain futures and adapt to life in a foreign country whose host communities do not fully accept them.[3]
In short, Syrian refugee children are bearing burdens no child anywhere should ever have to carry.
Unfortunately, experiences like Layla?s are not uncommon. ?In Robbed of Childhood, Running from War, a newly released World Vision report, World Vision found many children willing to share openly and ?at length about violence, death and the politics of war.?
In the report, which surveys 100 Syrian children aged 7-13 in the Central and Western Bekaa region of Lebanon, children spoke with World Vision staff ?about images of their homes and schools burning, people getting shot and tanks roving their neighborhoods. Even indirect exposure to violence such as images of dead bodies on the news, continues to haunt them.?
Wael, showing a book he brought with him from Syria. It is his most precious procession away from his real home. It is his geography book. He flips through its pages every now and then and dreams that one day he will return with it to his home to finish his education.
One child told World Vision:
?My three brothers died in Syria.? They were younger than me. They shot my brothers when they were playing with their friends on the street.?
The experiences of these children make one?s heart heavy?even as someone who has worked with survivors of humanitarian crises around the world, I cannot imagine a world in which my very young son, who should freely enjoy an existence crashing dump trucks around our living room, bearing the devastation and politics of war.? But children who have fled Syria are doing just that.?
?My brother is 13 and used to go to school in Syria. Here he works with steel.?
?My sister, 15, used to go to school but here she works at a laundry shop.?
Like many displaced children in humanitarian crises throughout the world, Syrian refugee children in Lebanon are sometimes forced to choose work over school. ?The reasons for this are many, including challenges with enrollment, language barriers (while Syrian children are taught in Arabic, the Lebanese system includes English and French) and the economic pressures facing refugee families. ?I cannot imagine a world in which my son has to opt of middle school to support our family?s financial needs.? But this is the reality facing Syrian refugee children every day.
In the midst of holiday festivities, after Christmas sales and time with dear family and friends, consider coming alongside Syrian refugee children in Lebanon to help them shoulder burdens children should never bear.? Now that?s a world worth imagining.
Elizabeth Ranade-Janis is the Program Management Officer for the World Vision Humanitarian & Emergency Affairs Team
Make a donation to the Syrian refugee crisis. The number of refugees fleeing conflict-ridden Syria has tripled in the last three months, according to UNHCR, the United Nations refugee agency. More than 100,000 registered Syrian refugees are in Lebanon, where World Vision has been providing basic hygiene kits and food vouchers to help them survive. Your gift will help continue this urgent response.
[1] At the request of parents, the names of all children have been changed to protect identities.
[2] Note that this number represents only the Syrian refugees who feel it is safe to official register with UNHCR; there are many others believed to be living in Lebanon.
[3] From Robbed of Childhood, Running from War, World Vision, December 2012.
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Source: http://blog.worldvision.org/disaster-relief/a-burden-that-children-should-never-have-to-bear/
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Wednesday, December 26, 2012
?Jewel In The Night?, The First Christmas Carol From Space
The first ever musical recording in space (that we know of anyway) was performed just a few days ago on the International Space Station by Col. Chris Hadfield, commander of the International Space Station. The song, which is already climbing up Reddit's r/Music page, is an original Christmas Carol called Jewel in the Night. Based on the commander's Facebook and Twitter pages, he and his crew are celebrating Christmas in every way possible while they're away from their families. They even have a Christmas tree on the ceiling, thanks to what the commander calls "the beauty of a weightless Christmas."Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/8LoTveOgOKE/
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Nubia Z5 unveiled in China with quad-core chip, 5-inch 1080p display and 7.6mm thickness
Much like many Chinese smartphone brands these days, ZTE sub-brand Nubia had prematurely given away the main selling points of its Z5 ahead of its Beijing launch today, but there were still some surprises. As you probably already know, here's yet another five-inch 1080p Android phone featuring Qualcomm's 1.5GHz quad-core APQ8064, 2GB RAM and 32GB of internal storage, along with a 13-megapixel F2.2 main camera (with five-element optics by Konica Minolta, plus separate touch focus and touch exposure in the app) and a two-megapixel front-facing camera. For multimedia consumption, the Z5 supports WiFi Display and MHL output should you wish to beam content to a larger screen; whereas on the audio side you are spoiled with either Yamaha or Dolby Digital Plus. But wait, there's more!
Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile
Source: Nubia
Source: http://www.engadget.com/2012/12/26/nubia-z5-launch/
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Real Estate in Chennai: Reaching New Heights
The realty sector of Chennai is booming and ensures great returns on investments on properties. Investors prefer real estate in Chennai these days because of the fast development of the city and its infrastructure.
The culture and legacy of Tamil Nadu is very charming, attracting many visitors and tourists from all over the world. Tamil Nadu has always been the favorite tourist destination for the tourists, including foreigners, and is always flooded with a large number of visitors.
The city offers luxury to its visitors. Chennai is one of the oldest cities of India that offers best living conditions to the residents. The culture of the city is traditional, and at the same time well equipped with modern lifestyle luxuries. Chennai is very well connected with all major cities of India by roads, railway or airways. The infrastructure of the city is going to improve with the upcoming metro project. The Phase I of the metro project covering a length of 45.1 km is under construction, which will soon be operational and ensure a smooth and fast transit of passengers.
The smooth and broad roads of the city make the city alluring for the residents and other people to invest in real estate in Chennai. The government of Tamil Nadu is committed to make it a high tech city.
Investors are approaching Chennai due to great real estate potential of the city, and other latest infrastructural developments. The improvement in infrastructure has also attracted corporate giants to establish their offices in the city. Chennai being one the metropolitan cities, has good connectivity with the main cities in India, thus makes business comfortable and smooth, and attracts more and more investors who are looking for good business atmosphere.
Tourism and hospitality sector in Chennai is good that has added to the real estate value of the city and more and more people are planning to make investments in the real estate industry of Chennai. The increased demand for real estate in Chennai has thus led to increase in the property prices, which is expected to increase further.
A number of renowned real estate builders are venturing in Chennai with different residential and commercial construction projects such as Golden Homes Pvt. Ltd., Appaswamy Real Estates Limited, Jain Housing & Construction Ltd., Sri Satya Sai Constructions, etc. These projects are all set to offer excellent living environment and buildings to the residents. Government is also supporting the latest real estate developments by making the investment policies flexible and offering easy loans to the buyers.
The areas which have been targeted by the real estate investors for investment purposes is the south Chennai and the areas like Adyar, K.K Nagar, Mylapore, Velachery, Saidapet and Tambaram have been the favourite destinations.
The prospective buyers are also in good position of earning money if they invest in Chennai real estate, as the pink city is developing at a very fast pace and offers great opportunities. The opening of new educational institutions and introduction of corporate world has added to the real estate value of the city.
Shipra Sinha writes on behalf of 99acres.com, which is an online portal dedicated to meet every aspect of the consumers needs in the real estate industry. It covers information about all Real Estate property types including residential flats for rent in Chennai, studio apartment for sale, houses for buy/sell & Rent for different Property locations like Mumbai Property and Goa Properties etc.
Source: http://www.ebestproducts.com/2012/12/real-estate-chennai-reaching-heights/
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Tuesday, December 25, 2012
Financial Planner whose job is to devise | Wiki Sports Book
um, Mexico is considered to be one of the most beautiful areas in the Riviera Maya. It is located 60km away from Playa del Carmen, and 131 km from Cancun Intl. Airport. Tulum is a natural haven which hosts a multifarious array of natural wonders and ex? Read > Travel-and-Leisure An Introduction to Guadalajara, Mexico 01st May 2009 Guadalajara is the capital of the state of Jalisco. It is the origin of some of Mexico?s best-known cultural exports: tequila, mariachi music, the sombrero and the ubiquitous ?Mexican Hat Dance. Guadalajara is located on the central part of Mexico, offeri? Read >
?????? ??? Travel-and-Leisure All About Acapulco 01st May 2009 Acapulco is a diverse city that offers the many benefits of a large city with a population of over 2 million, yet in many areas of the city Acapulco retains the feeling of a small town atmosphere. Located 300 km south west of the national capital, Mex? Read > Travel-and-Leisure Actions in Tulum 04th April 2009 Located deep in the Mexican forests on the Caribbean coastline, Tulum holds some of the most awesome Mayan ruins to be seen. Mayan Ruins of Tulum are a fantastic site to behold. Its setting on the beach is a true place to declare Heaven. The stunning turq? Read > Travel-and-Leisure Exclusive Tulum 03rd March 2009 Tulum was built by the ancient Maya on a cliff overlooking the Caribbean Sea.
Tulum?s supreme attraction is its location. It is located in the Quintana Roo peninsula, in East Mexico along the Caribbean Coast and gulf of Mexico in the Northern part of the ? Read > Travel-and-Leisure Tulum Nightlife Attracts Varied Crowds gnsdi1s0sa 20th January 2009 We cracked the shutters to let the beautiful Caribbean sun into the bedroom. It was somewhere around ten in the morning after a long night of watermelon margaritas and beach tunes at Mezzanine club in Tulum, Mexico, that we realized where we wanted to spe? Read > Travel-and-Leisure Tulum in September 06th October 2008 Tulum, Mexico is a great place to visit, especially during September when a number of different factors combine to make a great vacation window. If you are considering taking a vacation to Mexico or anywhere else during this time, it?s a good idea to chec? Read > Reference-and-Education Benefits of Being an MBA in India 18th October 2011 With the growing demand of managers in various corporate companies and organisations, the institutes offering MBA degree has also gone up in the last few years. MBA in India is one of the most prominent career choices of students for pursuing their post g? Read > Reference-and-Education Information on CFA Training Course 23rd August 2011 These days, it is very crucial to have a good training for the CFA course, if you want to succeed and pass the entrance test with flying colors. Only dedication, hard work and disciplined schedule would make you reach the top. A number of individuals are ? Read > Reference-and-Education Are the placement records of MBA colleges in Delhi good criteria to judge its standard?
?????? ??? 07th June 2011 When you begin the hunt for the MBA colleges in Delhi, you check out the different criteria for ascertaining their standards. While there might be some which are undisputed in their reputation which these have built over a period of time, there might be m? Read > Reference-and-Education Why people take up MBA education rather than the other professional courses? 1
6th May 2011 When it comes to deciding which is the best course of career to take up after doing the graduation, the choices might be restricted largely by what course of study have you pursued in graduation. But, post graduate MBA course is not dependent on what all ? Read > Reference-and-Education CFA: A much desired finance course for professionals 11th April 2011 When it comes to courses in finance being offered in India, no other course invokes so much controversy as the CFA, or the Chartered Financial Analyst. The original CFA course is a program of study of the US and is recognized world over. The course is a s? Read > Reference-and-Education Decisions to be taken for any MBA aspirant 21st March 2011 You would have heard people say that MBA is really tough going. The fact of the matter is that the going is not only tough when you are in the institute but also when you are thinking to take admissions in the MBA institute. There are many dilemmas in the? Read > Career The requirements of a CFA course. 17th January 2011 This could be a CFA, a CFP or even a CPA. The difference among these is more than that of a single alphabet. A CFA is Chartered Financial Analyst who focuses more on analysis. A CFP is a Certified Financial Planner whose job is to devise the best possible? Read > Career What does the CFP course entail? 22nd October 2010 There are some courses in finance which are recognized world over as the benchmarks to measure the suitability of the candidates for the finance jobs. One such exam is that of the Certified Financial Planning (CFP). The course is administered through a bo? Read > Finance Objectives You Could Obtain with a Refinance Loan 24th November 2010 People may have handful logics to refinance a home mortgage. Just
?????????? ???2012?2013???? now the most well-known one is to take advantage of low interest rates. Some of the other grounds for home loan refinancing are to pay back high interest credit cards and home improvement. ? Read > Finance May Last Quantitative Easing Lower Refinance Home Mortgage Rates Slightly? 09th November 2010 Simply qua
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Top Diesel Myths and Why Diesel Hybrids Make Perfect Sense ...
Since 2004 I have been driving a diesel engine. The B5.5 generation VW Passat gets about 40 mpg despite being a full-sized vehicle with the towing strength equivalent of a Ford F150 pickup. It's really quite amazing to consider how efficient it runs. On a trip from San Francisco to Las Vegas, which is approximately 600 miles, I did not have to stop to refuel and saved almost an hour off the total time.
Even a small time spent looking at or driving a modern diesel vehicle tends to teach you several things about diesel myths:
- They're expensive: Despite being loaded with all the possible upgrades diesel cars can be less expensive off the line than a gasoline equivalent model. I paid $5K LESS in 2004 to get a diesel Passat instead of gasoline. When I told others they went to the dealer and confirmed the same thing. My parents bought a brand new 2005 VW Passat TDI after they saw the sticker price was lower than the sticker on gasoline. Diesel vehicles apparently can be priced very competitively. And then, after paying less, the value of my car actually increased.
Some suggest diesel engines now must be more durable (due to compression load and high-pressure) and therefore more expensive to build than a gasoline engine. This is not, however, an argument against diesel. It could be another reason FOR buying diesel; a lot like saying a larger more powerful gasoline engine will be more expensive to build than a weaker small and inefficient one. Charging a premium for better performance/efficiency/durability obviously is no real barrier for auto sales, right Ford Tough?
- They're noisy: Disesel vehicles are quiet, really quiet. I've said this before but when the Audi and Peugeot hugely powerful (1,000 ft/lb torque) race cars ran the 24 hours of Le Mans the fans told me they were disappointed. You no no longer could hear the roar of the engines. The cars are incredibly powerful yet understated. It was the vehicles that lost after stopping more often in the pit to be refueled, such as Ferraris, Porsches and Corvettes, that made the most noise.
Consider also that my mother, a professor who studied sound, in 2005 said she did not like the idea of buying a diesel because of the reputation for noise. She was bracing for what she had been told would be the stereotypical "clatter". However, when she sat down in the actual car for a test drive she said with delight "It purrs like a cat!" Seven years later she bought a second diesel and she says it is practically silent. This is no coincidence. Diesel engines run at lower revolutions to achieve power and therefore are quieter.
- They're anemic: Torque is an amazing thing for driving. Horsepower is what most people are used to in America. The horsepower feels great when you want to get going because you can rev an engine through a long curve. Step on the pedal and you might not take off right away but you can accelerate through 4000 rpm. It turns out torque is really what matters most. Driving up a hill at 65 mph and want to avoid shifting down? You need torque. Driving a car full of family and groceries yet trying to pass another car and want to avoid shifting down? You need torque. Torque is not only great for pulling weight, it also is great for getting started at slow or low speeds such as driving in slippery conditions.
Diesels have a lot of torque but they also tend to have a short curve of power. Starting from a stop they can kick but then feel hesitant/gutless compared to a gasoline engine. This is typically resolved by the addition of a turbo to push through the upper end of a curve. Some even have twin turbos and/or technology to eliminate the lag when engaging a turbo. If you have ever been pushing a diesel pedal when the turbo fails you will be faced with the undeniable realization that it is a completely different beast than gasoline; some extra technology is needed to give it the exhiliration of horsepower.
Another way of looking at this is the average mileage of diesel is impacted by stop-and-go. 40 mpg is easy on the highway because there's almost no need to touch the pedal but if you stop for a lot of red lights you have no choice but to push fuel. Another point on torque, My VW Passat wagon is a 4 cylinder engine. The power it produces at low RPM is comparable to a 6 cylinder gasoline engine. That's why diesel cars can be made with smaller, lighter engines yet have reasonable power.
- There's no room for improvement: The improvement over just a few years has been amazing. More efficient injectors, cleaner emissions, quieter, smoother?the list goes on and on. Innovation has allowed the latest VW diesels to achieve 90 mpg in track tests and 84 mpg in real-world use. Honda says its new Civic diesel engine runs 79 mpg with 221 ft-lb torque and is the lightest in its class. Subaru calls its 2005 boxer diesel engine a "True Engineering Revolution"
When Subaru started its development project for the BOXER DIESEL, we soon realized that we were in an unprecedented, unchartered area in diesel engine development and were undertaking a technological challenge for which no benchmarking comparisons existed.
You also could simply follow Catepillar's diesel innovation marketing from 2001 (clean bus fleets) to 2005 (low emission trucks) to 2012 (near zero emissions). Outside the consumer automobile, diesel is marketed with many amazing innovations. I've been eyeing the Volvo diesel hybrid (already sold-out for 2013) because it gets 126 or better mpg yet has the torque and all wheel drive of a truck combined with the performance of a Ferrari 308.
Perhaps you can see why I am so eager to stay with diesel when I move to a hybrid vehicle. Given that we're only just starting to see the potential innovation in both diesel and electric technology we could be on the verge of a vehicle revolution. Imagine combining the performance of a sports car, power of a utility truck and the efficiency of a daily driver into a single vehicle. That is what we see already in the first diesel electric hybrids.
Obviously an electric engine eliminates the stop/go mileage issue completely. Diesel only would be needed at speed and long distances, where it is getting more efficient every year. In other words:
It might sound obvious but I have to stop now and reflect on a strangely opposite view from a site called Green Car Reports. John Voelcker wrote an opinion piece called "Diesel Hybrids: Why They Don't Make As Much Sense As You Think". His arguments against using diesel hybrids are the following:
- "First and foremost is the issue of cost. On average, a diesel engine costs about 15 percent more to manufacture than a gasoline engine of equal output."
- "?a diesel hybrid should have boatloads of torque off the line, but may require extensive gearing to ensure highly efficient running at speed."
- "Gasoline engines convert 25 to 30 percent of a fuel's energy content into forward motion at the wheels; the rest is wasted as heat and noise. By contrast, a diesel converts 30 to 35 percent of the fuel's energy into forward motion?hence the higher fuel efficiency figures. But that leaves less "headroom" for improvement."
Ugh. No, really. Ugh. I want to put John in a diesel just for a day so he can feel how utterly wrong he is on point number two.
A horsepower curve continues well beyond the diesel curve as explained by The Institute of Motor Industry. The diesel has to shift or hit a turbo to get through the full acceleration path while a gasoline engine just revs higher and higher. What this really means is that he is flat wrong; diesel is a better match for hybrid because electric can carry the start to speed and then leave diesel to maintain speed with efficiency (as it does already). This is a PERFECT application of the electric engine that has NO CURVE. Let it take over starts/stops and you have a beautiful marriage of technology. John would instinctively know this if he drove a diesel.
Now back to point number one and the matter of cost.
I call bullshit. Cost is 15% more for an engine of equal output? Let's see the numbers on that unbelievable statement. Are we measuring patent application fees or what? Rather than get tied down in an inventory of parts and labor, however, let's get straight to the point. Nobody thinks the Ford Raptor is an inexpensive vehicle. A stock sports truck ready to chew up Baja desert at 60 mph will set you back $45K. And probably not one single Raptor sold will ever actually be used for what it was designed. So cost can be higher and people gladly pay more for it because of percieved and realized value, period. Hey, guess how much more it costs for those 22" chrome spinners?
Even if I go along with the unbelievable point that the diesel engine costs 15% more for "equal output", in terms of value it kills a gasoline engine with a longer life and higher efficiency. Go tell a family of four that they will have to visit the pump half as often and they will be glad to pay a premium. Just the other day a couple with a newborn child pulled up and told me they switched from a Tahoe to a Jetta TDI when they realized they would go from refueling every week to once a month. What is the value of all that time gained to parents of a newborn? John's 15% cost worry simply evaporates in the face of some common sense.
Now on to his third point.
He says there's no "headroom" for improvement. This is completely backwards logic.
If you give me the option of a diesel-hybrid high-performance full-sized sports-wagon that gets 120+ mpg (Volvo V60) or a gasoline-hybrid lightweight micro hatchback that gets 50 mpg (Prius) I'll tell you where there is no headroom. Gasoline has hit its development ceiling. And what was point of stating "equal output" right before stating diesel has "higher fuel efficiency figures"? Which is it?
Face it, John, even a Jaguar diesel luxury car driven across America was averaging 60+ mpg and ALL of us know that number would go up significantly if they made it hybrid. That is TRULY exciting ? the opposite of no headroom, that Jaguar could potentially double its mpg. A luxury Jag at 120mpg! Squeezing two or three more mpg out of the miserable Prius is NOT exciting. Diesel engineering is revolutionary and opening up the future of innovation.
The ceiling for gasoline is already here and the improvements are flat and unimpressive. Why would you invest in gasoline hybrid development only to end up with lower mpg than a stock diesel engine? Nonsense. Anyone who has driven a Prius at 65 mph or tried to pull a boat with it knows it never will be as fun or useful to drive as a diesel-hybrid. A Volt could be a completely different car, perhaps even a luxury full-sized car, if it had a diesel instead of gasoline engine.
Last, but not least, John gives us this closing argument.
It's probably significant that Mercedes-Benz, which has sold diesels in the U.S. for many decades, has no plans to sell the world's sole diesel-electric hybrid powertrain here in the States.
If America doesn't get the option then we will never know. The Prius was the sole option and it proved popular. The VW diesel was the sole option and it proved popular. Simple as that; and simple to see why the Volvo V60, which he does not mention, has sold out already for 2013. It's significant that the rest of the world is buying diesel Honda, Acura, Toyota, Lexus, Subaru, Audi, MB?the list goes on and on of options not offered to Americans.
When I drove in 2010 a manual diesel VW Golf in London it felt like I was getting 60+ mpg in a sports car. The inevitable question flashed in my mind: why can't I get this in America? What is really significant is that MB and other manufacturers think Americans are unwilling or unable to recognize diesel as the perfect choice for their profile ? high mileage on open roads with big vehicles hauling stuff. But all it takes is one test-drive and every American I know has fallen in love with new diesel. A diesel hybrid would just make an already awesome option even greater, especially in the city and stop/go traffic.
Source: http://www.flyingpenguin.com/?p=19289
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Archbishop of Canterbury says Anglican church wounded, not dead
LONDON (Reuters) - The leader of the Church of England on Tuesday said a vote last month that struck down proposals to allow women to become bishops had been "deeply painful", but that Christianity was still relevant in Britain despite falling numbers of believers.
Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, who leads the global 80-million-strong Anglican Communion, said in his Christmas day sermon that the answer to the question of whether Christianity had "had its day" was a "resounding no".
The Church of England narrowly voted against allowing women bishops last month - to the dismay of Williams and Prime Minister David Cameron - in a move its leaders said risked undermining its role as the established church in society with clerics in parliament's upper chamber.
The media, many politicians and some members of the public have criticized the Church of England for failing to allow women bishops and for failing to back government plans for gay marriage at a time when it is under pressure to modernize.
In separate comments aired on Tuesday but recorded earlier, the Roman Catholic Church's leader in England and Wales, Archbishop of Westminster Vincent Nichols, said the government's plans to allow gay marriage were a "shambles" and had no mandate.
No religious organization or cleric will be forced to conduct gay weddings under the plans, but critics fear that clause could be challenged under European human rights laws.
A census showed earlier this month that the number of people in England and Wales describing themselves as Christian has declined by 13 percent over the last decade, but Williams warned secularists not to become "too excited".
"There are a lot more questions to ask before we could possibly assume that the census figures told us that faith was losing its hold on society," Williams said.
"In the deeply painful aftermath of the synod's vote last month, what was startling was how many people who certainly wouldn't have said yes to the census question turned out to have a sort of investment in the church," he said.
Williams, 62, is stepping down after 10 years in his post, and will be replaced next year by former oil executive Justin Welby.
Williams has agonized over schisms in the Anglican Communion and has said he hopes his successor has "the constitution of an ox and the skin of a rhinoceros".
(Reporting by Mohammed Abbas; Editing by Andrew Osborn)
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/archbishop-canterbury-says-anglican-church-wounded-not-dead-124122617.html
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Monday, December 24, 2012
Christmas Celebrations?a time for Friends, Family and Gratitude ...
I?m sure most of you have multiple Christmas celebrations?with all of the divorced families and grown children splitting their time between families.? I enjoy being able to have lots of opportunities for spending time with family and friends!? My first celebration was with my son and his girlfriend last weekend.? He is spending Christmas with his father, step-mother and sister in Texas.? He was excited about seeing his 14-year-old half-sister and I?m so happy that he?s happy!
I received a really special gift from him this year?one of my favorite photographs that I took in Namibia, Africa?framed!
Friday night we spent a wonderful evening with my long-time girlfriend from middle school and her husband.? She prepared a delicious fish entr?e and then we had game night?a couple games of pool and Wii bowling.? Downstairs was decorated for a party their teenage daughter was having the following night.
The photo on the top right is after we arrived home?Randy bringing wood in for the wood burning stove.? That?s how we heat the house in the winter!
Saturday night we had lots of fun at a friend?s (more like family) house, along with my brother, his wife, and my niece and nephew.? Lynne?the hostess had decorated the table so festively?
We had a different wine with each course?
After the gift giving and white elephant?we sang songs?mostly Christmas songs using a Karaoke machine that hooks up to your I-pad, that Lynne received as a gift.
I was a bit obnoxious with my camera?snapping photos throughout the evening.? But, hey?that?s my thing!
My husband was a bit melancholy because all of our parents have passed away.? It can be a difficult time for people?but I read an interesting article recently that helps people control and redirect their thoughts.? Basically?imagine there is a computer in your head along with a trash bin that you can drag negative thoughts into.? I?m usually quite optimistic, so I don?t need to utilize the technique extensively, but it?s amazingly effective.
Christmas day we?ll go my cousin?s in the afternoon and then to the neighbors?!? We?re blessed to have such good friends and family!!
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