Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/327990207?client_source=feed&format=rss
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Sunday, September 15, 2013
Obama: Budget tightening could widen income gap
FILE - In this Sept. 15, 2008 file photo, Lehman Brothers world headquarters is shown in New York, the day the 158-year-old investment bank, choked by the credit crisis and falling real estate values, filed for bankruptcy. After weeks of intense focus on the crisis in Syria, the White House is set to use the five-year anniversary of the Lehman Bros. collapse next week to lay claim to an economic turnaround and to press congressional Republicans to not use the threat of a shutdown or a unprecedented debt default to extract a delay of President Barack Obama's signature health care. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan, file)
FILE - In this Sept. 15, 2008 file photo, Lehman Brothers world headquarters is shown in New York, the day the 158-year-old investment bank, choked by the credit crisis and falling real estate values, filed for bankruptcy. After weeks of intense focus on the crisis in Syria, the White House is set to use the five-year anniversary of the Lehman Bros. collapse next week to lay claim to an economic turnaround and to press congressional Republicans to not use the threat of a shutdown or a unprecedented debt default to extract a delay of President Barack Obama's signature health care. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan, file)
FILE - In the Sept. 14, 2009, file photo President Barack Obama speaks about the financial crisis on the anniversary of the collapse of Lehman Brothers at Federal Hall on Wall Street in New York. After weeks of intense focus on the crisis in Syria, the White House is set to use the five-year anniversary of the Lehman Bros. Sept. 15, 2008, bankruptcy filing next week to lay claim to an economic turnaround and to press congressional Republicans to not use the threat of a shutdown or a unprecedented debt default to extract a delay of President Barack Obama's signature health care. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak, File)
FILE - In this Sept. 15, 2008, file photo tourists take pictures in New York's Times Square as the days financial news about the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers is displayed on the ABC news ticker. After weeks of intense focus on the crisis in Syria, the White House is set to use the five-year anniversary of the Lehman Bros. collapse next week to lay claim to an economic turnaround and to press congressional Republicans to not use the threat of a shutdown or a unprecedented debt default to extract a delay of President Barack Obama's signature health care. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer, File)
WASHINGTON (AP) ? On the fifth anniversary of the Lehman Brothers collapse, President Barack Obama says the Republican focus on budget tightening could widen income disparities in the nation even as the economy climbs out of a debilitating recession.
Trying to lay claim to an economic turnaround, Obama acknowledged that despite progress, middle- and low-income Americans have not benefited as much as the top 1 percent in the country.
"We came in, stabilized the situation," he told ABC's "This Week" in an interview broadcast Sunday. He cited 42 months in a row of growth, 7? million jobs created and a revitalized auto industry.
"The banking system works. It is giving loans to companies who can get credit. And so we have seen, I think undoubtedly, progress across the board," he said. Obama will kick off a series of economy-related events with a Rose Garden speech Monday. His National Economic Council released a report Sunday detailing the economic advances.
For Obama, the Lehman anniversary is an opportunity, after weeks devoted to the Syrian crisis, to confront public skepticism about his stewardship of the economy and to put down his marker for budget clashes with Congress in the weeks ahead. Lehman's was the largest bankruptcy in U.S. history, and its demise marked the beginning of the global financial crisis and was a major catalyst of the financial meltdown.
Obama emphasized that when it comes to a crucial deadline to raise the nation's borrowing limit next month, he would not negotiate with Republicans. They want to use the debt ceiling as leverage to cut spending further and to delay Obama's signature health care law.
Sunday's National Economic Council report is a catalog of Obama administration and Federal Reserve actions that the council's director, Obama economic adviser Gene Sperling, said "have performed better than virtually anyone at the time predicted." They range from the unpopular Troubled Asset Relief Program, or TARP, that shored up the financial industry and bailed out auto giants General Motors and Chrysler, to an $800 billion stimulus bill to sweeping new bank regulations.
Obama can point to a growing economy, rising housing prices, 35 straight months of hiring and a rebounding stock market. The financial sector has also recovered and banks are better capitalized. Five years after the federal government stepped in and infused banks with $245 billion in taxpayer money to avert a financial meltdown, the government has been paid back nearly in full.
This week, Obama intends to draw attention to that with daily events, including a speech Wednesday to the Business Roundtable, an association of CEOs from the top U.S. companies, and a trip to Kansas City Friday to visit a Ford plant where he will promote the strength of the auto industry.
But the public is not convinced that the economy is on the mend. Only one-third say the economic system is more secure now than in 2008, and 52 percent say they disapprove of Obama's handling of the economy, according to a Pew Research Center poll. There is still plenty of pain to justify their pessimism.
Despite job growth, the unemployment rate remains high at 7.3 percent. Though the rate has fallen, one of the reasons is because some people have dropped out of the labor force and no longer are counted as job seekers. The share of unemployed workers who have been unemployed for more than six months is more than double what it was in 2007 before the recession began. And the income gap between the very rich and the rest of the population is the biggest since 1928.
What's more, some banks that received government aid because they were deemed "too big to fail" are now bigger than they were in 2008, but they are smaller as a share of the economy than the largest banks in other big economies. Three years after Obama signed a sweeping overhaul of lending and high-finance rules, execution of the law is behind schedule.
This glass-half-empty-glass-half-full state of the economy has produced competing story lines about the role Obama's administration has played in getting the country to this point. Did Obama's approach validate the philosophy of spending your way out of crisis or did some of his policies actually slow the recovery?
In the ABC interview, Obama said globalization and new technology have contributed to the income gap in the country, and it has been building since before the recession.
He argued that his proposals to increase spending on education and public works projects are designed to counter that trend, but face Republican opposition.
"There's no serious economist out there that would suggest that, if you took the Republican agenda of slashing education further, slashing Medicare further, slashing research and development further, slashing investments in infrastructure further, that that would reverse some of these trends of inequality," he said.
Much of the credit for the current recovery, tepid as it may be, goes to the Federal Reserve. It has held short-term interests rates near zero and has undertaken a massive bond purchase program that has supported spending, lifted stocks and kept home mortgage rates at near record lows.
"The Fed was the single biggest policy move in the crisis. No question about it," said Douglas Holtz-Eakin, a former director of the Congressional Budget Office and top economic adviser to Republican Sen. John McCain's 2008 presidential campaign.
Now many say the economy needs long-term measures that would reduce spending on entitlement programs such as Medicare and Social Security and that would overhaul and simplify the tax system.
"We've done too much temporary targeted intervention, we're passed the time for that," said Holtz-Eakin, who now heads the American Action Forum, a conservative public policy institute. "It's no longer 2008 when things were falling like a rock. It's time to have long-term growth policies. We don't have them."
Obama and Republicans are at a stalemate, however.
Obama has proposed some changes that would reduce spending on Social Security and Medicare, including an adjustment that would lower cost-of-living adjustments. But he has insisted on more tax revenue by closing what he says are loopholes for the rich, a step Republicans won't take.
The impasse has revived threats of a government shutdown after the current budget year ends Sept. 30 and, more economically damaging, a default if Congress can't agree to raise the debt ceiling later in October.
Some conservative Republicans say they will only extend current spending levels or increase the debt ceiling if Obama delays putting in place his health care law, a condition Obama has flatly rejected.
"Never in history have we used just making sure that the U.S. government is paying its bills as a lever to radically cut government at the kind of scale that they're talking about," Obama said.
House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, has tried to keep the focus on spending reductions, even as some on his right insist on defunding or delaying the health care law.
"This year the federal government will bring in more revenue than any year in the history of our government, and yet we will still have nearly a $700 billion budget deficit," he said. "We have a spending problem. It must be addressed, period."
___
Follow Jim Kuhnhenn on Twitter: http://twitter.com/jkuhnhenn
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Saturday, September 14, 2013
HP ZR30w
Geared toward professional users who require lots of screen real estate and accurate performance, the HP ZR30w is a gargantuan 30-inch desktop monitor that uses S-IPS (Super In-Plane Switching) panel technology to deliver very accurate grayscale reproduction and wide viewing angles. It also offers a four-port USB hub and an ergonomic stand, but its color accuracy is less than ideal, which looms large since you can't adjust color settings on this monitor. Additionally, it only has two video inputs, which is unusual for such a large display. Although the ZR30w is reasonably priced for a big-screen monitor there are similarly priced 30-inch monitors out there that offer more features and better performance.
Design and Features
The ZR30w is huge. The business black cabinet measures 17.9-by-27.3-by-3.4 inches (HWD) and weighs 20.9 pounds, and that's without the black rectangular stand, which adds another 7.5 inches to the depth and almost eight pounds to the weight. The stand offers tilt, swivel, and height adjustability but lacks a pivot adjustment like the one found on the NEC MultiSync PA301W.
A wide band of brushed aluminum trim adorns the outer edge of the cabinet, and a small HP logo is affixed to the screen's upper bezel. The bottom bezel contains four buttons, including the power switch, but their use is limited. The only setting you can adjust on the ZR30w is brightness; there are no settings for color temperature, contrast, or sharpness, and you can't adjust color saturation or hue. The 30-bit S-IPS panel has a maximum resolution of 2,560-by-1,600 pixels and a 16:10 aspect ratio, and it sports a matte anti-glare coating that effectively eliminates reflection.
On the left side of the cabinet, facing outward, are two downstream USB ports. Two additional downstream ports and an upstream port are located at the rear of the cabinet. Unfortunately, these ports use USB 2.0 technology rather than the newer and faster USB 3.0 technology used on the Dell UltraSharp U3014. Also disappointing is the video input selection; all you get is a single DisplayPort and a single dual link DVI connection. There are no HDMI, component, or VGA inputs. This monitor doesn't come with built-in speakers either, but you can pick up an optional speaker bar (part #NQ576AA) for around $40 or so and connect it to an audio output at the rear of the cabinet.
HP covers the ZR30w with a three-year parts, labor, and backlight warranty that includes on-site service. The monitor comes with a DVI dual link cable as well as DisplayPort and USB cables.
Performance
When it comes to grayscale performance, the ZR30w rocks. It clearly and cleanly displayed each swatch of the DisplayMate 64-Step Grayscale test and delivered outstanding highlight and shadow detail in my test photos and while watching the movie 2012 on Blu-ray. Video played smoothly while watching movies but there was minor ghosting while playing Far Cry 2, which is not surprising given the panel's 12-millisecond (black-to-white) pixel response.
Viewing angle performance was superb. Color fidelity remained intact and the screen remained bright from every angle. Likewise, small text was crisp and legible down to 5.3 points (the smallest font available on the DisplayMate Scaled Fonts test).
The ZR30w didn't fare as well on my color accuracy test, which is performed with a colorimeter and DisplayMate and SpectraCal diagnostic software. The boxes on the chart below represent the ideal coordinates for each color as determined by the CIE (International Committee On Illumination) and the dots represent the panel's actual color coordinates.
As you can see, green and blue colors are fairly close to their zones but not ideal, while red is way oversaturated. As mentioned above, the ZR30w's lack of color adjustments means you are stuck with these color attributes. Other high-end monitor such as the NEC PA301w and LG ColorPrime 27EA83-D provide extensive picture adjustments that allow you to calibrate the monitor to your exact specifications.
The ZR30w has a 7-millisecond (black-white) pixel response and does a good job of displaying smooth video, but demanding gamers may want to look elsewhere as it does produce some motion blur and isn't really equipped for gaming.
The ZR30w is a power hog. It used 163 watts of power during testing, which is significantly more than both the Dell 3014 (60 watts) and the NEC PA301W (98 watts). Unfortunately this monitor lacks an Eco mode feature.
The HP ZR30w offers very accurate grayscale performance and excellent viewing angles, but it comes up short in other areas. Its oversaturated reds are hard to overlook, especially since you can't go in and make the necessary adjustments to tone them down, and its input options are severely limited. Moreover, I'd expect a $1,259 monitor to utilize the latest USB technology. The ZR30w's shortcomings make it hard to recommend over the Dell UltraSharp U3014, which delivers much more accurate colors and gives you a slew of picture settings as well as USB 3.0 connectivity and a variety of video ports.
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ziffdavis/pcmag/~3/bu3HnZ7DzTQ/0,2817,2424420,00.asp
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California poised to raise minimum wage to $10 an hour
Washington state currently has the top minimum wage at $9.19 an hour, an amount that is pegged to rise with inflation. Some cities, including San Francisco, have slightly higher minimum wages.
The state Senate approved AB10 on a party-line 26-11 vote, sending it to the Assembly for a final vote that will be a mere formality before it goes to the governor. Brown indicated earlier this week that he would sign the bill, calling it an overdue piece of legislation that would help working-class families.
The bill would gradually raise California's minimum wage from the current $8 an hour to $10 by 2016.
It would be the first increase in the state's minimum wage in six years and comes amid a national debate over whether it is fair to pay fast-food workers, retail clerks and others wages so low that they often have to work second or third jobs.
Democrats said the bill by Assemblyman Luis Alejo, D-Watsonville, would help workers left behind during the recent recession. The California Chamber of Commerce fears it would drive up businesses' costs by ratcheting up other wages and workers' compensation payments.
"We have it tagged as a job killer, given the increased costs businesses will be faced with," Jennifer Barrera, an advocate for the chamber, said before the vote.
The bill generated a detailed, statistic-laced, 40-minute debate in the Senate.
"If you give people a couple more dollars an hour ... to spend in their communities, spend it they will. They're not going to put it into a hedge fund," said Sen. Marty Block, D-San Diego.
He added that, "Nothing will make small businesses happier. This will stimulate the economy, as well as helping people's lives."
But Republican lawmakers said it would harm the economy, price low-skilled workers out of the market and encourage businesses to cut jobs and automate.
"This is a classic example with how out of touch state leaders are," said Sen. Jim Nielsen, R-Gerber.
Sen. Ted Gaines, R-Rocklin, said liberals want to raise the cost of tobacco to discourage its use without realizing the same principle applies to labor: "If you make something more expensive, people will buy less of it."
Democrats who make up the majority of the Legislature called the wage hike a matter of economic justice.
"The American Dream is clearly fading fast," said Sen. Mark Leno, D-San Francisco. "The income disparity in this country has not been this severe since 1917."
If it becomes law, California would gradually overtake Washington state. Neighboring Oregon and Nevada also have higher basic wages.
Federal law sets a minimum wage of $7.25 per hour, but California is among 19 states and the District of Columbia that set a higher state minimum wage.
The federal minimum provides $15,080 a year assuming 40-hour work week, which is $50 below the federal poverty line for a family of two. More than 15 million workers nationally earn the national minimum, which compares compared to the median national salary of $40,350, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
President Barack Obama has sought an increase of the federal minimum wage to $9 an hour.
San Francisco currently has the nation's highest minimum wage at $10.50 an hour.
California's minimum wage would increase to $9 an hour next July 1, and to $10 on Jan. 1, 2016.
A $10 minimum wage would increase earnings for a projected 2 million Californians by $4,000 a year and put $2.6 billion into the economy, Assembly Speaker John Perez, D-Los Angeles, estimated in a statement supporting the increase.
Opponents say businesses would suffer because owners also face voter-approved increases in sales and income taxes, and because of the uncertain costs of the federal Affordable Care Act.
Businesses are likely to cut jobs, increase consumer prices or both, they argue, citing a study by the National Federation of Independent Business. The group projects that mean the loss of between 46,000 and 68,000 jobs by 2023, depending on other factors including inflation.
Source: http://feeds.cbsnews.com/~r/CBSNewsNational/~3/ZfuBhuKiBU0/
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Rescues accelerate as floodwater inundates Colorado
LYONS, Colo. (AP) ? By air and by land, the rescue of hundreds of Coloradoans stranded by epic mountain flooding was accelerating as food and water supplies ran low, while thousands more were driven from their homes on the plains as debris-filled rivers became muddy seas inundating towns and farms miles from the Rockies.
For the first time since the harrowing mountain floods began Wednesday, Colorado got its first broad view of the devastation ? and the reality of what is becoming a long-term disaster is setting in. The flooding has affected parts of a 4,500-square-mile area, almost the size of Connecticut.
National Guard choppers were evacuating 295 people ? plus pets ? from the mountain hamlet of Jamestown, which was isolated by flooding that scoured the canyon the town sits in.
Mike Smith, incident commander at Boulder Municipal Airport, said helicopters would continue flying in and out late into the night.
The outlook for anyone who'd rather stay is weeks without power, cellphone service, water or sewer.
"Essentially, what they were threatening us with is, 'If you stay here, you may be here for a month,'" said 79-year-old Dean Hollenbaugh, who was evacuated by Chinook helicopter from Jamestown, northwest of Boulder.
For those awaiting an airlift, Guardsmen dropped food, water and other supplies in Jamestown and other small towns in the winding, narrow canyons that dot the Rocky Mountain foothills.
Thousands of evacuees sought shelter in cities that were nearly surrounded by raging rivers spilling over their banks.
One was Mary Hemme, 62, who displayed a pair of purple socks as she sat outside the Lifebridge Christian Church in Longmont. They're a memento of the more than 30 hours she spent in an elementary school in the flood-stricken mountain town of Lyons. Many evacuees ? eventually rescued by National Guard trucks ? got socks because most of them had wet feet, Hemme said.
She recalled the sirens blared at 2:30 a.m. Wednesday.
"Mary we have to go, this place is flooding," she recalled her friend Kristen Vincent saying as they clambered out of a trailer.
"And we stepped out of the trailer, onto the ground where the cars were parked, and it already like this, almost to our knees," she said. "It wasn't just sitting there. It was rushing at us."
Soon the trailer, like others in the park where she was staying, was submerged.
Hemme said she walked up at hill a daybreak and surveyed the trailer park.
"The most terrifying thing was when I climbed up on that cliff and looked down. It was the meanest, most ? I mean, no wonder it carries cars like toys," Hemme said. "I was so afraid that I was going to die, that water came so fast."
The dayslong rush of water from higher ground has killed four people and turned towns on Colorado's expansive eastern plains into muddy swamps. Crews used inflatable boats to rescue families and pets from stranded farmhouses. Some evacuees on horseback had to be escorted to safe ground.
Boulder County officials said Friday night that the number of people unaccounted for had risen to 172, according to local television and newspaper reports. The officials said earlier that the unaccounted for figure doesn't necessarily represent missing people.
"It means we haven't heard back from them," county spokesman James Burrus said.
Near Greeley, some 35 miles east of the foothills, broad swaths of farmland had become lakes, and hundreds of roads were closed or damaged by floodwaters. A 70-mile stretch of Interstate 25 was closed from Denver to the Wyoming line.
Rocky Mountain National Park closed Friday, its visitors forced to leave via the 60-mile Trail Ridge Road to the west side of the Rockies.
It will be weeks, if not months, before a semblance of normalcy returns to Lyons, a gateway community to the park. The town, surrounded by sandstone cliffs whose color was reflected in the raging St. Vrain River, consisted of six islands Friday as residents barbecued their food before it spoiled. Several people set up a tent camp on a hill.
Some 2,500 residents were being evacuated from Lyons, but Hilary Clark was left walking around her neighborhood Friday.
Two bridges that led into the area were washed away. Unlike other parts of Lyons that had been reached by the National Guard in high clearance trucks, no such help had arrived for Clark.
"We're surviving on what we got," she said. "Some of us have ponds in our backyard and we're using that water and boiling it."
Boulder County Sheriff Joe Pelle said recovery would be long and expensive ? similar to wildfires the state is more familiar with.
"Please be patient. This is an unprecedented event," Pelle said.
___
Neary reported from Longmont. Associated Press writers David Martin in Boulder, Mead Gruver in Fort Collins, and Colleen Slevin and Thomas Peipert in Denver contributed to this report.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/rescues-accelerate-floodwater-inundates-colo-040504046.html
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Friday, September 13, 2013
US 30-year mortgage rate steady at 4.57 pct.
A home for sale sits behind a sign that reads, "sale pending," Wednesday, Aug. 14, 2013, in San Diego. Southern California's recovering housing market remains red-hot, with sales hitting an eight-year high for July. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull)
A home for sale sits behind a sign that reads, "sale pending," Wednesday, Aug. 14, 2013, in San Diego. Southern California's recovering housing market remains red-hot, with sales hitting an eight-year high for July. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull)
WASHINGTON (AP) ? Average U.S. rates on fixed mortgages held steady this week, hovering near two-year highs. But rates could change quickly next week when the Federal Reserve addresses its bond purchase program.
Mortgage buyer Freddie Mac said Thursday that the average rate on the 30-year loan was unchanged from last week at 4.57 percent, just below the two-year high of 4.58 percent reached Aug. 22.
The average on the 15-year fixed mortgage held at 3.59 percent. The two-year high of 3.60 percent was hit on Aug. 22.
Long-term mortgage rates have risen more than a full percentage point since May, when Chairman Ben Bernanke first signaled that the Fed could reduce its bond purchases this year. The purchases have been intended to keep long-term loan rates extremely low.
Most analysts expect the Fed to decide at its meeting next week to scale back its bond purchases.
Even with the recent gain, mortgage rates remain low by historical standards. But higher rates have spurred some homebuyers to close deals quickly and could slow the market's momentum if they continue to rise.
Mortgage rates have been rising because they tend to track the yield on the 10-year Treasury note. The yield has climbed 1.3 percentage points in the past four months as bond traders have anticipated that the Fed will slow its bond buying.
The 10-year note's rate was 2.92 percent on Wednesday, down from 2.97 percent Tuesday but up from 2.89 percent a week earlier.
To calculate average mortgage rates, Freddie Mac surveys lenders across the country on Monday through Wednesday each week. The average doesn't include extra fees, known as points, which most borrowers must pay to get the lowest rates. One point equals 1 percent of the loan amount.
The average fee for a 30-year mortgage rose to 0.8 point from 0.7 point. The fee for a 15-year loan was steady at 0.7 point.
The average rate on a one-year adjustable-rate mortgage fell to 2.67 percent from 2.71 percent. The fee declined to 0.4 point from 0.5 point.
The average rate on a five-year adjustable mortgage dipped to 3.22 percent from 3.28 percent. The fee was unchanged at 0.5 point.
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Another Lohan Mugshot?! Dina Lohan Arrested for DUI
Uh-oh -- it looks like the apple doesn't fall too far from the Lohan tree!
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Djokovic Gives Serbia 1-0 Lead Over Canada
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Source: www.nytimes.com --- Friday, September 13, 2013
Serbia took a 1-0 lead over Canada in their Davis Cup semi-final after Novak Djokovic beat Vasek Pospisil 6-2 6-0 6-4 in the opening singles rubber on Friday. ? ? ? ? ...
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See Ya, Voyager: Probe Has Finally Entered Interstellar Space
This artist's illustration shows the Voyager 1 space probe. The spacecraft was launched on Sept. 5, 1977, and as of August 2012, it is outside the bubble of hot gas, known as the "heliopause," that radiates from the sun.
NASA/LandovNASA's two Voyager spacecraft, launched in 1977, have made history in a dramatic fashion by exploring the outer planets: Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune. Now one of the vehicles, Voyager I, has made another pioneering leap. It is the first spacecraft to leave the vast bubble of hot gas that surrounds our solar system.
At long last, Voyager 1 is now in interstellar space.
There was no question that the Voyager spacecraft would someday become the first objects made by human beings to get there. Unknown, though, was whether the probes would still be able to send back the news when they did.
"Most of us felt that we could at least get to Neptune, but we had no idea how much farther it would be," says Edward Stone, who has been the Voyager chief scientist for more than 40 years, is also a physicist at the California Institute of Technology.
He and the other scientists have been waiting patiently for the moment when they could say that Voyager has finally entered interstellar space. That's defined as the region outside a huge bubble of hot gas that flows from the sun ? the solar wind. That wind dies when it eventually runs into the cooler gas that permeates the galaxy. That's where interstellar space begins.
"This is the real deal," Stone says. "Voyager 1 has finally reached interstellar space; the first time a spacecraft has been in the space between the stars."
Scientists have been anticipating the event for decades and now believe it occurred a year ago. The instrument on board Voyager 1 that could have notified the team immediately died in 1980.
Happily, there is a second instrument on board that measures the environment around the spacecraft. Donald Gurnett, a physics and astronomy professor at the University of Iowa, helped build that instrument back in the 1970s, and he is in charge of it today.
But his instrument can only measure the spacecraft's environment when the thin gas surrounding Voyager gets a jolt of energy ? say, from the sun.
"When you have big explosions on the sun, it sends out a huge shock wave," Gurnett says, and that shock wave perturbs the gas.
Last fall, there was a storm on the sun, and Gurnett's instrument picked up the signal. And in May of this year, another solar storm came crashing through. The difference between the two signals was dramatic evidence that Voyager I is now immersed in gases that are colder and denser, outside of the sun's influence. As he reports in the journal Science, Gurnett says that's strong evidence that the probe is in interstellar space.
When the Voyagers launched in 1977, nobody knew exactly how far away from Earth this boundary would be.
"It's really incredible how far we are. We're three times as far as Pluto ? more than that, actually," Gurnett says.
Another way to look at the distance: It takes 17 hours for the radio signal to get back to the Earth, traveling at the speed of light. In comparison, it takes about 8 minutes for light to reach Earth from the sun. He says the original Voyager team didn't want to believe it was that far away.
"Maybe 30 years ago, people thought it was just beyond the orbit of Jupiter. And I don't think at the time anybody wanted to believe we'd have to go another 20 years before we got there. But that's in fact how it turned out," Gurnett says.
Like Gurnett, Edward Stone at Caltech has been waiting for this, as yet another auspicious moment in Voyager's already spectacular career.
"It's not only having achieved a major exploration goal, sort of like the circumnavigation of the Earth for the first time, or landing footprints on the moon for the first time, this is the spacecraft to interstellar space," Stone says "That means this is the beginning of a new journey of exploration for Voyager. So rather than ending, we're just starting the next new phase."
Stone says there is still a lot to learn, and Voyager 1 probably has another decade of power from its nuclear generator to keep going.
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Thursday, September 12, 2013
MTA Planning Chief: NYC?s Next Mayor Needs to Stick Up for Bus Lanes
Until the city commits to dedicating more street space for buses, riders like those on 125th Street will be stuck with slow rides. Photo: Benjamin Engle
After a presentation on regional transit ridership trends at NYU?s Rudin Center this morning, William Wheeler, the MTA?s planning director, said the city?s next mayor needs to firmly support the reallocation of street space for dedicated bus lanes, and should not back down in the face of opposition to changes that take away real estate from cars.
The biggest problem afflicting the city?s bus system right now is simple and widely acknowledged: Buses are just too slow. ?In the end, how fast can you get those buses across streets?? Wheeler asked. ?If you can make it quickly, you?re going to attract people. And that?s the biggest struggle with the bus system.?
He cited Select Bus Service and transit signal priority, which keeps buses from sitting at red lights, as steps in the right direction, but added that there?s still more to do.??There?s always a constant struggle to keep vehicles out of devoted lanes,? he said.
The MTA has a wide-ranging plan for?future phases of Select Bus Service, and mayoral candidates have spoken highly of Bus Rapid Transit, but?reallocating street space for dedicated busways is easier said than done. Even a bus lane for 125th Street set aside with paint and enforcement cameras, not physical separation, drew enough political opposition to get NYC DOT and the MTA to?shelve their SBS plan?this summer.
After the event, I asked Wheeler how the MTA deals with that type of pushback, and whether he was?keeping tabs on Chicago?or other cities that are proposing big?street design?changes to speed up buses.
?You gotta watch the mayoral race,? he said. ?The candidates, are they willing to continue this trend of looking at a street and having it not just be a resource for motor vehicles?? He said the next mayor must not only resist calls to?roll back existing advances,?but also add more bus lanes and other street reallocations. ?It?s hard,? he said. ?The only thing more important than owning a gun in the United States is having a parking spot.?
Most of the presentation, which Wheeler also gave to the MTA board?s finance committee in July [PDF], covered a well-worn topic: the MTA?s shifting ridership patterns, led by millennials and aging baby boomers who are working nontraditional hours, reducing car usage, traveling more between boroughs and suburbs, and increasingly making?reverse-peak, off-peak, and weekend trips on transit.
Expressing frustration about the interminable planning and construction timelines for big projects, Wheeler?focused on buses and smaller fixes to squeeze more capacity out of the existing system,?instead of addressing the causes of high costs and long project delays. He emphasized the need to upgrade subway signals to Communication-Based Train Control and spoke highly of through-running trains with New Jersey Transit, despite?logistical hurdles,?to increase capacity at Penn Station.
At a time when New York City is expanding its ferry subsidies, Wheeler questioned whether ferries improve travel times and ?provide serious capacity at a reasonable cost.??He said they ?work best in niche markets? such as cross-Hudson routes from Haverstraw and Newburgh to Metro-North service.
Wheeler warned that the MTA faces long-term funding challenges. ?This capital program period that we?re entering,? he said, referring to the agency?s maintenance and expansion plan from 2015 to 2019, ?is probably the one where we?re able to identify the fewest amount of resources to meet the capital needs.?
An audience member suggested congestion pricing as a potential revenue source. ?It?s very healthy to continue the debate,? Wheeler said, cautioning that any new revenue can be used to offset contributions elsewhere. ?As new revenue sources are put on the table, there?s lots of hungry mouths to share in that,? he said. ?You have to watch out? that your existing resources don?t fade away.?
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Sunday, August 4, 2013
Congress: Divided, discourteous _ taking a break
FILE - In this Aug. 1, 2013 file photo, House Speaker John Boehner of Ohio speaks during a news conference on Capitol Hill in Washington. The accomplishments are few, the chaos plentiful in the 113th Congress, a discourteous model of divided government. "Have senators sit down and shut up, okay??? Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid blurted out as lawmakers milled about noisily at a time Sen. Susan Collins was trying to speak. There was political calculation even in that. Democrats knew the Maine Republican was about rip into her own party?s leadership. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)
FILE - In this Aug. 1, 2013 file photo, House Speaker John Boehner of Ohio speaks during a news conference on Capitol Hill in Washington. The accomplishments are few, the chaos plentiful in the 113th Congress, a discourteous model of divided government. "Have senators sit down and shut up, okay??? Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid blurted out as lawmakers milled about noisily at a time Sen. Susan Collins was trying to speak. There was political calculation even in that. Democrats knew the Maine Republican was about rip into her own party?s leadership. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)
FILE - In this Aug. 1, 2013 file photo, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nev. speaks on Capitol Hill in Washington. The accomplishments are few, the chaos plentiful in the 113th Congress, a discourteous model of divided government. "Have senators sit down and shut up, okay??? Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid blurted out as lawmakers milled about noisily at a time Sen. Susan Collins was trying to speak. There was political calculation even in that. Democrats knew the Maine Republican was about rip into her own party?s leadership. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)
FILE - In this July 10, 2013 file photo, Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, left, heads to the floor of the Senate on Capitol Hill in Washington. The accomplishments are few, the chaos plentiful in the 113th Congress, a discourteous model of divided government. "Have senators sit down and shut up, okay??? Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid blurted out as lawmakers milled about noisily at a time Sen. Susan Collins was trying to speak. There was political calculation even in that. Democrats knew the Maine Republican was about rip into her own party?s leadership. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)
FILE - In this July 19,2013 file photo, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi of Calif., speaks during a news conference on Capitol Hill in Washington. The accomplishments are few, the chaos plentiful in the 113th Congress, a discourteous model of divided government. "Have senators sit down and shut up, okay??? Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid blurted out as lawmakers milled about noisily at a time Sen. Susan Collins was trying to speak. There was political calculation even in that. Democrats knew the Maine Republican was about rip into her own party?s leadership. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)
WASHINGTON (AP) ? The accomplishments are few, the chaos plentiful in the 113th Congress, a discourteous model of divided government now beginning a five-week break.
"Have senators sit down and shut up, OK?" Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid blurted out on Thursday as lawmakers milled about noisily at a time Sen. Susan Collins was trying to speak.
There was political calculation even in that. Democrats knew the Maine Republican was about rip into her own party's leadership, and wanted to make sure her indictment could be heard.
Across the Capitol, unsteady bookends tell the story of the House's first seven months in this two-year term. Internal dissent among Republicans nearly toppled Speaker John Boehner when lawmakers first convened in January. And leadership's grip is no surer now: A routine spending bill was pulled from the floor this week, two days before the monthlong August break, for fear it would fall in a crossfire between opposing GOP factions.
A few weeks earlier, Boehner suggested a new standard for Congress. "We should not be judged on how many new laws we create. We ought to be judged on how many laws that we repeal," he said as Republicans voted for the 38th and 39th time since 2011 to repeal or otherwise neuter the health care law known as Obamacare.
Reaching for a round number, they did it for a 40th time on Friday, although the legislation stands no chance in the Democratic Senate and the GOP has yet to offer the replacement that it pledged three years ago to produce.
House Democrats claimed to hate all of this, yet couldn't get enough.
After attacking virtually every move Republicans made for months, they demanded the GOP cancel summer vacation so Congress could stay in session. The break, Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi said, "shows shocking disregard for the American people and our economy."
To be sure, there have been accomplishments since Congress convened last winter, although two of the more prominent ones merely avoided a meltdown rather than advancing the public's preferred agenda.
A closed-door session helped produce compromise over President Barack Obama's stalled nominations to administration posts and important boards ? avoiding a blow-up that Republicans said would follow if Democrats changed the Senate's filibuster rules unilaterally.
Months earlier, at the urging of their leaders, House Republicans agreed to raise the government's debt limit rather than push the Treasury to the brink of a first-ever national default.
Legislation linking interest rates on student loans to the marketplace passed, and, too, a bill to strengthen the government's response to crimes against women. Two more measures sent recovery funds to the victims of Superstorm Sandy.
Among the 18 other measures signed into law so far: one named a new span over the Mississippi River as the Stan Musial Veterans Memorial Bridge, after the late baseball legend. Another renamed a section of the tax code after former Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison of Texas.
A third clarified the size of metal blanks to be used by the Baseball Hall of Fame in minting gold and silver commemoratives: a diameter of .85 inches in the case of $5 gold coins, and 1.5 inches for $1 silvers.
The Senate passed sweeping immigration legislation to spend billions securing the nation's borders against illegal entry and creating a path to citizenship for an estimated 11 million immigrants currently in the country unlawfully. The vote was 68-32, with all Democrats and about one-third of Republicans in favor.
But House Republicans, many of whom oppose granting citizenship to anyone living in the country illegally, deemed the bill a non-starter. They intend to have alternative legislation this fall. If it succeeds, that will give the two houses about a year to somehow compromise before Congress' term expires.
The Senate approved a bipartisan farm bill that followed customary lines in providing funding simultaneously for growers and for government programs to feed the hungry.
But a revolt by tea party conservatives blocked passage of a combined bill in the House, which then approved a measure to aid farmers. The leadership promises one for nutrition programs this fall, and an attempt will be made to find common ground with the Senate.
So far, Congress' classic two-house compromises have been elusive.
Both houses have approved budgets.
But some Senate Republicans have blocked Democratic attempts to begin compromise talks, saying they will relent only if there is agreement in advance not to raise the federal debt limit as part of any deal.
"Let me be clear, I don't trust the Republicans," said GOP Sen. Ted Cruz, a tea party-backed first-term lawmaker from Texas. "I don't trust the Democrats, and I think a whole lot of Americans likewise don't trust the Republicans or the Democrats because it is leadership in both parties that has got us into this mess."
Indeed, most opinion polls over the past six months put public approval for Congress in the mid-teens, with disapproval generally over 70 percent.
And yet, says Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y., "Congress does reflect the American people and the American people are divided."
Sen. Deb Fischer, a Nebraska Republican who took office in January, said gridlock "is not as bad as I expected," and seems exaggerated by the frenzied 24-hour-a-day news cycle. She said she has been able to agree with several Democrats on amendments to bills in committee.
On a larger scale, though, even prior agreements are endangered. One example:
Under legislation already in effect, spending for one category of federal programs is supposed to total $967 billion for the fiscal year beginning on Oct. 1, with a portion set aside for defense and another share for domestic accounts.
In the House, Republicans approved a budget that adheres to the $967 billion figure but puts more into defense and less into domestic programs than is mandated.
In the Senate, Democrats opted for $1.058 trillion, far in excess of the agreed-upon total.
The difference, about $92 billion, must be reconciled before lawmakers can approve legislation to keep the government in operation after Sept. 30.
Further complicating matters, some tea party-backed Republicans say they will vote for such legislation only if it cancels all funding for the health care law that Congress passed three years ago ? a condition Democrats and Obama vehemently reject.
The alternative to compromise is a partial government shutdown, an outcome leaders in both parties say they can avoid.
But that's a struggle for after vacation.
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Thursday, August 1, 2013
Florida No. 10; FSU 11th in preseason coaches' poll
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Sports book puts Miami ACC title hopes at 7-to-2
CORAL GABLES ? Because I obviously want you to take up gambling, here's yet another post about sporting odds.
Online sports book Bovada released a new set of projections for each conference Tuesday. For Miami, that means having the best shot to win the ACC Coastal, but the third-pick to win the overall title.
Without delay, here's what you should take to your bookie:
Clemson?????????????????????? 19/10
Florida State???????????????? 5/2
Miami?????????????????????????? 7/2
Virginia Tech???????????????? 15/2
North Carolina?????????????? 8/1
Georgia Tech??????????????? 12/1
Pittsburgh???????????????????? 33/1
Virginia???????????????????????? 33/1
North Carolina State????? 50/1
Maryland?????????????????????? 66/1
Syracuse????????????????????? 66/1
Boston College???????????? 75/1
Duke??????????????????????????? 100/1
Wake Forest???????????????? 100/1
Follow our UM coverage on Twitter at @ByCasagrande and Facebook and click here for text message alerts.
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Facebook's New Timehop-Like Feature Shows You What You Did a Year Ago
You may have thought Facebook couldn't become any more of an artificial orgy of nostalgia than it already is, but if today's new test feature takes hold, get ready to wallow like you've never wallowed before. Very much in the vein of Timehop
Source: http://gizmodo.com/facebooks-new-timehop-like-feature-shows-you-what-you-975359356
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Wednesday, July 31, 2013
White House mulls waving cash at businesses to get them to beef up ...
According to Politico, the US government is pondering, specifically, tax breaks, insurance perks and other legal benefits for businesses that do some serious overhaul of their digital defenses.
Politico recently got its hands on a May 21 presentation from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) that raised the notion of such incentives.
The incentives aren't yet finalized.
They would be designed to entice critical infrastructure players in particular, such as power plants and water systems, to adopt voluntary standards that are now being drafted by government and industry in response to an executive order from President Barack Obama.
The standards will be hammered out by DHS and the National Institute for Standards and Technology (NIST). The bodies will be working with businesses to create a security framework that businesses will, ideally, adopt on their own volition.
Politico pointed out that the financial lures also need to be run through federal agencies, including DHS and the Treasury Department, to determine how tasty the enticements can be, either with or without the help of a Congress that has proved, unfortunately, markedly unhelpful.
The 12-page document from DHS - which Politico refrained from publishing - reportedly mulls not only financial and market benefits, but also legal benefits, including limited lawsuit protection for participating companies.
It's wonderful to hear about incentives like this, particularly if they might spur organizations into getting insurance that could help to protect them from potentially devastating costs of data breaches or other cybersecurity dangers.
As it is, insurance professionals will tell you that many, if not most, businesses mistakenly think that general liability policies will cover them in times of cybersecurity mayhem.
Such policies won't, but there are policies that will, and it's wise to learn about them and know what questions to ask about such policies to make sure an organization is as well-covered as possible.
As Politico reports, experts believe that those organizations that adopt upcoming cybersecurity standards could be well-positioned to get breaks on such insurance, being able to point to the standards as evidence that they're following best practices.
As it is, the Homeland Security page about cybersecurity incentives is as dry as a sun-baked bone.
DHS talks about secure software engineering, security breach forensics, better training and the instillation of personal data "ownership" - all worthy, mind you, but all very blah, blah, blah.
Tasty cash, on the other hand? Much more interesting, I'd wager.
Let's hope that the Feds can get something done, with or without the help of Congress.
Image of White House and bag of cash courtesy of Shutterstock.
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Dos menores se escapan de un centro de internamiento y roban en el interior de 20 coches
EFE ?|? Madrid ?|?Actualizado el 30/07/2013 a las 10:44 horas
Seg?n han informado los Mossos, los robos se produjeron en un aparcamiento de Subirats (Barcelona) el mismo d?a en que los dos menores, de 13 y 14 a?os, se hab?an fugado del centro donde se encontraban.
Uno de ellos fue localizado ese mismo d?a en Cerdanyola (Barcelona) cuando trataba de forzar otro veh?culo en un aparcamiento p?blico, y el segundo fue pillado "in fraganti" al d?a siguiente en Subirats tambi?n cuando trataba de abrir un coche.
Los dos chicos han pasado a disposici?n de la Fiscal?a de Menores y han ingresado de nuevo en el centro de menores.
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Japan's finance minister Aso: Says will decide on sales tax after ...
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Monday, July 29, 2013
Israelis oppose EU labeling of settlement products
New labeling rules from the European Union could endanger the latest attempts at Middle East peace. Israel has reacted angrily to an EU instruction not to put "Made in Israel" on things produced in Jewish settlements in the West Bank - because the settlements are illegal.
By Geraint Vincent, NBC News
ARIEL, West Bank ? A new labeling policy for products coming from Israeli settlements has some business owners worried about their livelihood.
On the wall of his office, in one corner of his noisy factory floor, Yehuda Cohen looks at photographs from the last staff away day. He took his employees white-water rafting, on the River Jordan. There are smiling faces, eating and drinking, striking poses with life jackets and paddles.
?That?s Yossi,? says Cohen. ?And that?s his good friend Ahmed who works next to him on the line. It?s wonderful here. We work together, and we enjoy ourselves together.?
Yehuda has a workforce of 90 people, which is split down the middle -- half Israeli, half Palestinian. The factory produces plastic bathroom accessories ? everything from toilet seats to laundry baskets. Last year, he exported goods to Europe worth around $4 million. It?s a good business, but one that he now fears is under threat from the European Union and its requirement that he put labels on his exports, so that his customers will know exactly where they are produced.
Yehuda?s factory is part of an industrial area built in an Israeli settlement in the West Bank. Settlements in the West Bank are considered illegal under international law, though Israel disputes this.
To address that issue, the European Union - one of Israel's biggest markets - has issued new guidelines on labeling what it calls ?settlement products.?
But many Israeli factory owners, like Cohen, take issue with that designation and say it will essentially kill their business.
?Labeling will send a message: ?Don?t buy this product,?? Yehuda said. ?It will lead to a boycott of my products. That will just do damage. It will destroy my company, destroy jobs and all of the hope that we have created here. The politicians in Europe think they are helping the peace process ? well, they should come to my factory and see the reality. We are building peace from the bottom up.?
The EU announcement came in the same week that U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry announced that, after months of painstaking diplomacy, he had finally persuaded the Israelis and the Palestinians to return to the negotiating table, in search of a political settlement.
The EU move is intended to force the issue that has always confounded peace talks in the past: the issue of land. If the Kerry initiative is going to achieve a genuine breakthrough, then Israel is going to have to agree to give some land up.
Kerry has been careful not to criticize the Europeans? decision and some commentators inside Israel believe Brussels and Washington are in-step. The plan seems to be for the Americans to get the Israelis back to the table, and for the Europeans to make it clear that if they don?t make some concessions, then it?s going to hurt.
Not surprisingly, Israel?s statesmen have reacted angrily to the move, and not just because it might hurt the bottom line for Israeli companies operating inside the West Bank. They say the settlement product guidelines demonstrate the Europeans? shocking double standards.
"This is a mistake, it is counterproductive, it does not serve the cause of peace and it is not fair to single Israel out while the EU does not do this in any other place on the planet," said Mark Regev, spokesman for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. "Ultimately, the issue of settlements will be resolved in peace talks with the Palestinians that we hope will start soon." ?
Dr. Mustafa Barghouti, a member of the Palestinian leadership, hailed the guidelines as a ?good and important decision.?
For him, each laundry basket that comes off the end of Cohen?s production line represents a violation of international law.
?At last,? he said. ?European consumers are going to have the chance to choose between legal and illegal goods.?
The international community has been condemning Israel?s occupation of the West Bank for nearly half a century. In Ramallah, labeling settlement products feels like at least some action, after decades of words.
Back at the factory though, Yehuda introduced me to his assembly manager, a Palestinian named Rasheed Morrar.
?If the Europeans end up boycotting settlement products, then it will hurt us, as well as the Israelis,? Morrar said. ?The factories will have less work and so will we.?
Morrar added, "Only the Palestinian workers will get hurt [by product labeling], not the Israeli workers. The Israeli workers will stay at home and the government will pay their salaries ? but we will be out of a job."
Walking out of the factory, through its busy delivery yard and out into the industrial park, it was strange to think that all of the structures were in contravention of international law. It might be an illegal development, but 3,000 Palestinians make their living there. ?
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