NEW YORK (Associated Press) -- Americans may be cutting back on holiday shopping, but they are still buying video games _ to the tune of nearly $3 billion in November, according to data from market researcher NPD Group.
U.S. retail sales of video game hardware, software and accessories jumped 10 percent last month from the year-ago period to $2.91 billion, boosted by strong sales of Nintendo Co.'s Wii, Microsoft Corp.'s Xbox 360 and the alien shooter game "Gears of War 2."
The Air Resources Board unanimously approved the plan despite warnings it will put costly new burdens on businesses at a time when the economy is in extreme crisis, with California forecasting a staggering budget gap of $41.8 billion through mid-2010.
Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said he believes the regulations will spur the state's economy and serve as a model for the rest of the country.
"When you look at today's depressed economy, green tech is one of the few bright spots out there, which is yet another reason we should move forward on our environmental goals," Schwarzenegger said in a statement.
The strategy relies on 31 new rules affecting all facets of life, including where people may build their homes and what materials they use to do it.
One central piece is a cap-and-trade program, set to begin in 2012, under which power plants, refineries and big factories will be able to buy and sell the right to emit heat-trapping gases. The program could give plant operators a financial incentive to reduce their carbon emissions.
Air regulators said the average Californian could see more fuel-efficient cars and plug-in hybrids on showroom floors; better public transportation; housing nearer to schools and businesses; and utility rebates to make their homes more energy-efficient.
Zimbabwe itself is dying. Prices double every day; disease is killing off many who go without the means to buy food or treatment; death and emigration have halved Zimbabwe’s population of four years ago; and those that remain have the lowest life expectancy in the world — roughly 34 for men and 35 for women.
$350 billion already doled out to Wall Street fat cats, with that much more to go, with not a dime for Detroit and the five million workers down stream.
July 28, 2003 -- U.S. District Court Judge Royce Lamberth in Washington, D.C., cited the Environmental Protection Agency for "contumacious conduct" and held it in contempt of court July 24 for destroying computer files of the former director and others that were the subject of a Freedom of Information Act request filed in September by Landmark Legal Foundation's Herndon, Va., office.
On Jan. 19, 2001, the last day the Clinton administration held office, Lamberth ordered EPA electronic records retained so that the agency could respond to a pending FOI proceeding for them.
The contempt order forces the agency to pay Landmark's attorneys fees and court costs it incurred in asking the judge to find the agency in contempt. A July 25 Washington Post article estimated that will cost EPA tens of thousands of dollars.
Lamberth did not, however, find any of the individuals in contempt of court as Landmark had sought. He wrote that counsel representing EPA did not forward his order to exiting political employees and they cleaned off their computers as they departed. For that and a variety of other reasons, Lamberth wrote that the court would "practice restraint" in its contempt findings.
Former EPA administrator Carol Browner was working her last day at the agency when Lamberth issued the injunction to prohibit the computer records destruction. She said in testimony that she rarely used her computer and was especially concerned that several computer games her son used be deleted.
Carol Browner order the destruction of all her EPA files and backups.
Lamberth also did not hold the U.S. Attorney's Office in contempt but sharply criticized its failure to let the retiring officials have a copy of the order until it had been requested at least three times. That failing did not breach his order, however, which required only that records not be destroyed.
Because EPA did not receive the order for several days, it reformatted hard drives and erased and reused e-mail backup tapes.
"The program could give plant operators a financial incentive to reduce their carbon emissions" --- Planned Parenthood Abortuariams Should be given financial incentives to eliminate more Fetal Carbon Sources.
Ruby, Check this out, Sam Ruby is high on it. Thin-Client Revisited Neither he nor I know squat about VERDE. He most likely will, sometime, me...unlikely. Vas is das "relying on the underlying operating system to provide physical access?" -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I don’t know anything about VERDE, but if it does virtualization as I understand it, it wouldn’t need drivers; instead it would rely on the underlying operating system to provide physical access.
Based on the documentation I have seen, this product appears to be a built on top of KVM and VNC. I may be wrong, but I interpret that as meaning that the image runs in the cloud, displays on your machine, and can access your local devices remotely.
Posted by Sam Ruby at 11:21
Cool to run your image in the cloud, tho. ...kinda like listening in on the Operator in the old days?
Doug, all it means is you have the a Linux distro in a central location on your network, and out in cubicle world you have "thin-clients" which are very minimal boxes which have no hard drive, just some connectors to hook your monitor and keyboard and network into. Then when your employees boot up, they're running OpenOffice or Evolution (a Outlook Express clone, very nice) or CAD programs or what have you, and MickeySoft doesn't get a dime for a "per seat license".
GM management needs to take out more ads apologizing for the countless ways they screwed their customers. Maybe if they do this for a year or two, some sentimental mash will fall for it.
Former Intel Corp. chairman Andrew Grove is pushing the world's biggest maker of microprocessors to consider a new venture -- becoming a manufacturer of advanced batteries for plug-in electric cars. . . http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122904767715400759.html?mod=googlenews_wsj
Written by Yoni Levinson Thursday, 11 December 2008 . . So who is this guy?
Well he’s no dummy, that’s for sure. He got undergrad degrees in math and physics, got a PhD in physics from Berkeley, served as a professor and department chair of physics at Stanford, as well as the director of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. Oh yeah, and he also won the Nobel Prize in 1997. . . http://www.ecogeek.org/content/view/2377/
Paybacks are a bitch, Ash. The UAW only gave a combined $12,500 to the Republican Senators from states like Kentucky and Tennessee were they're building riceburner plants like gangbusters, and now they want those same Senators to kick GM another $15 billion of debt to go on top of the $62 billion of debt they already have? No, no no. That's not how politics works. Ask Governor Blogo.
Congress will refrain from providing the Bush Administration with the last $50 billion of the remaining $350 billion, if they let them have any more of it, at all, leaving Team O to distribute those funds, as they see fit.
This is the swan song for the Republicans, which only those they spite will remember.
The Big 3 and the people they represent, directly and down stream, not worthy of 30 days worth of funding for an occupied Iraq, to the Federal government and the Republican obstructionists.
That'll be the spin.
The last nail in the coffin of Team43's legacy. Driven home by GOP Senators.
This fellow, he speaks of unintended consequences, for those southern Senators of the GOP
Detroit Bubble, meet the Bigger America. Cynics might suspect parallel agendas in the South's legislative hammer -- agreement on cost parity by March or bankruptcy. How? Because the auto bosses have long wanted to break the union, the thinking goes, and the southerners are happy to oblige.
But there's another possible outcome here, one maybe overlooked by a GOP wing in smackdown mode. Contrary to the tired stereotypes coming daily from Washington, President Ron Gettelfinger's UAW is well on its way to helping Detroit's automakers achieve wage and benefit parity with foreign-owned rivals operating in the United States.
Come next month, amid recession anxiety, job losses and widespread distrust of business, the union and others like it are poised to reap the political benefit of having bigger Democratic majorities in the House and Senate and a labor-friendly Democrat in the White House.
The president-elect and the congressional Democrats all have signaled a willingness to pass labor's top legislative priority -- the so-called "card check" legislation, which would essentially abolish secret ballots and make organizing easier. Everywhere.
If it passes, I'm betting the first stops on the UAW's southern swing will be auto plants in Shelby's Alabama and Corker's Tennessee, soon to be home to Volkswagen AG's first U.S. plant in a generation.
The UAW/Detroit 3 will get their money. It was/is a kabuki dance.
I don't go to "Church." I don't want to be "Governed" by a Religious Government. BUT, I don't want to Live in a town without churches.
The GOP Senators are being allowed to "posture" for their constituents; but, no one in their right mind wants to completely "Bust" the Union.
It doesn't take but a moment to ask yourself, "What would the wages be in those southern factories if you Didn't have the spectre of the UAW in the North?"
Our system of Government is based on a "Dynamic Tension" between the forces of the Left, and the Right. Labor, and Management. Yin, and Yang. The "Yang" don't work if you don't have no Yin.
They'll probably announce TARP money the first part of next week.
Anyone who believes GM has changed or will change its philosophy and business practices is a fool. We've gone thru this song and dance for almost 40 years. I think that's enough. If anything, the money should go to the subcontractors to keep them afloat while new and emerging electric car companies and public rail transport companies take over.
I couldn't believe it, I was reading a report about the small bank I do business with--which is on great financial footing--and they got a hundred and some million from the Feds to toss around, that they didn't ask for.
Bernie Madoff arrested over alleged $50 billion fraud
Bernie Madoff, a former chairman of the NASDAQ stock market, has been arrested and charged with running a multi-billion dollar hedge fund swindle in New York.
Mr Madoff is alleged to have operated the scheme through his hedge fund business, which was separate from his better-known market-making business, Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities (BMIS).
Mr Madoff told senior employees of his firm on Wednesday that "it's all just one big lie" and that he was "finished", according to a criminal complaint filed on Thursday night by the US Attorney's office and the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI).
He allegedly went on to say that the business was "a giant Ponzi scheme" – a reference to Charles Ponzi, one of the greatest swindlers in US history – and estimated that the scheme had lost investors $50bn over many years – which would make the hedge fund one of the biggest frauds in history.
"There is no innocent explanation," Mr Madoff said, according to the criminal complaint. He told the agents that it was all his fault, and that he "paid investors with money that wasn't there", according to the complaint.
He allegedly told his employees that he had, for years, been paying returns to certain investors out of the cash received from other investors.
Mr Madoff, 70, was charged with a single count of securities fraud and faces up to 20 years in prison and a fine of up to $5m if found guilty.
They put 20 miles of light rail in, here in the Valley of the Sun, all withi Maricopa County, cost $1.2 billion 50% Federal and 50% State & local, the operations have to be subsidized because the fares multiplied by riders will not cover costs. If fares are increased to cover costs, no riders will pony up.
It is a loser proposition, at best. Meanwhile our bus system languishes, with all the mass transit money spent on an inadequate rail line, instead. The construction of which wiped out the last of the small businesses in Phoenix's downtown.
No, for winners that see things as they are and shake their heads in wonderment.
The user rates and income streams do not pencil out. The thing is state of the art and a dud.
Powered by nuclear & coal generated electricity.
It only works for the munchkin folk, that cannot afford a motorcycle or a small car. Those that live within walking distance of the 20 miles of track. Otherwise, for the majority of the residents of the Valley, the thing may as well not even exist.
The operations are funded through sales taxes, that revenue stream is drying up. The State and locals heading to DC, with their hands out, already. Even before extending more unprofitable but socialized service is much more than scheduled.
You can throw billions at GM, their business model doesn't work. You can't pay people not to work and compete with carmakers who only pay people who work. They already have more than $62 billion in debt. They're going into Chapter 11. Chrysler is privately owned, and they are still trying to suck at the government teat. Screw that. Ford thinks they can make it but they'd still like a lifeline if things get bad. The New York Times and other newspapers are going under fast. Obama wants to put 25 million Americas to work building bridges and stuff, and to hell with the deficit, just like we did in the 1930s when we made Timberline Lodge and Bonneville Dam. When this recession is over, things will look very different. The America of 2010 won't look very much like the America of 2000.
Because Phoenix, Tempe, Mesa, Scottsdale and Peoria cover an area the size of Israel and have 2/3rds the population.
It is a single metropolitan area. It will not redesign itself around 20 miles of railroad track along the banks of the Salt River between the Phoenix and Tempe downtowns.
Just is not going to happen. The thing is for tourists and conventionaires, so the hotel space in Tempe can service downtown Phoenix.
The railline does not even reach the Super Bowl site. It is not scheduled to until 2017. Here is the map of the current system & the extensions overlaid on the existing cities. It can not service but a small minority of the population, at best.
No, for winners that see things as they are and shake their heads in wonderment. ==
Right. Only it never occurred to them winners that maybe some high density buildings of mix residential and commercial use should be built next to mass transport lines. City planning is for losers.
hat's funny, because the only segment of the real-estate market here that is not in comatose is the condo market. And guess where all the condos are being built? You guessed it.
It is important to note that neither the FDIC as receiver nor BB&T as the acquiring institution will e-mail customers of Haven Trust asking them to validate their deposits or to request personal, confidential information, such as account numbers, social security numbers or driver's license numbers. Customers will not be asked to revalidate passwords, deposit accounts or deposit insurance.
If customers receive e-mails asking for such personal information, they should consider the e-mails fraudulent and should not respond.
The FDIC estimates that the cost to the Deposit Insurance Fund will be $200 million. The BB&T's acquisition of all deposits was the "least costly" resolution for the FDIC's Deposit Insurance Fund compared to alternatives.
There used to be a lot bigger cycle in Condos here than homes, but not sure what the case is now. Shared ownership of luxury beach properties is big. The Marriot in Lahaina went that route.
Condos, at least out here, mat, are the first to crater and the last to recover, historicly. ==
That's because these projects aren't thought out. You need to close down the strip malls and mega malls and to start building integrated communities. People should live and shop where they work. That means that the first 2 or 3 floors in a building are dedicated to commercial space. No cars, and no mega structures. Buildings and streets need to be proportional and of a dimension suited for people, not cars. Once you get these basics down, the rest will follow.
It's all dead space, dRat. It has no life. And if you're going to live in a dead space, it might as well be some single story dwelling in the middle of nowhere.
Start from scratch, like they did in Brasilia, if that's what you want. But we've got those projects out here, too. Not State subsidized, though. Not all to successful, as a living experiment. But then neither was the Biosphere.
Arcosanti is a premier example of just what you are looking for, mat.
The Foundation's major project is Arcosanti, a planned community for 5,000 people designed by Soleri, under construction since 1970. Located near Cordes Junction, about 70 miles north of Phoenix and visible from Interstate I-17 in central Arizona, the project is based on Soleri's concept of "Arcology," architecture coherent with ecology. An arcology is a hyperdense city designed to maximize human interaction; maximize access to shared, cost-effective infrastructural services like water and sewage; minimize the use of energy, raw materials and land; reduce waste and environmental pollution; and allow interaction with the surrounding natural environment. Arcosanti is the prototype of the desert arcology.
Since 1970, over 6000 people have participated in Arcosanti's construction. Their international affiliation group is called the Arcosanti Arcology Network. As of 2005 Arcosanti stands an estimated 3% complete.
C'mon, dRat. If you've been to Manhattan you've seen my "dream". Only in my version of Manhattan, there would be one tenth the cars and no skyscrapers.
But all you've been touting, it's nothing new. It's been an active part of life, here in AZ, since before I arrived in 1971. We've had the leading advocate for the concept, living and working, just miles from my house.
Still waiting for the magic batteries. Ready to buy some, for the Ashfork project.
(I was snug and Warm in the Indian's house when Pete Rose snatched the ball out of the air when the pop fly bounced off the catcher's glove. ...hard to pick a winner, between those two.)
More in line w/communal Israel, I watched Bill Mazeroski's Series winning Homer in an auditorium filled w/my High School Bud's. What a charmed life I've lived, World Serious-Wise.
I have tied up all my loose ends; attended my last function; given out enough in Christmas bonuses and booze to fund and float a militia; and have made the last admiring tour of my festively lit neighborhood.
This time tomorrow I'll be freezing my ass of in Pee-Ay. Hoo-Ray!
Rush predicts that after they nationalize the big three, Walmart will become Target Number One, and he ain't talkin cheap chain stores. Unionization, which of course eventually will morph into some sort of nationalizing of something, as prices start their long but inevitable rise up to Socialized Medicine Level. ...all while the Socialized Euros are scaling back Socialism.
Sposed to get cold as hell next, according to the Carpet Kitten. (Who you STILL have refused to recognize as one of Idehoe's Prize Citizens.) ...you having an affair w/her, or something.
From Proto-Germanic *wintra-, probably representing a nasalised variant of Proto-Indo-European *wed- ( > English water, wet). Cognate with Old Frisian winter, Old Saxon winter (Dutch winter), Old High German wintar (German Winter), Old Norse vetr (Swedish vinter) and Gothic π πΉπ½πππΏπ; and, outside the Germanic languages, with Latin unda ("'wave'") and Lithuanian vanduΓ΅ ("'water'").
Sarah wouldn't want you to dis a famous conservative lady like the Carpet Kitten, and certainly not on her account! Your silence on the matter Reeks of Rahm.
I thought Blago had resigned, but I quess he hasn't done so yet.
Anyway, "Blago" is a word with some possibilities. It's hanging right on the edge of a breakthrough to acceptance and widespread use. It might make next year's dictionary of new words. As a noun, verb, proper title....
Yet all those who have managed to glimpse at the document agree that it makes interesting reading. It concludes that there is not much future in the much vaunted developed of all electric-powered cars.
---- Mat, actually I don't put much faith in French reports. You never know who paid what to whom to write what. Same thing applies here, of course.
That's absolutely right about coal. Dr. Bill brings that up all the time. Coal ash is radioactive. Coal seems to always have a uranium content however low. You burn the stuff it goes in the air.
Friday's full moon will be the biggest and brightest of the year. According to NASA, the Moon will appear up to 14% bigger and 30% brighter than other full moons seen so far this year. The reason? The Moon's elliptical orbit causes its distance from Earth to vary. Tonight's full moon will be only 221,560 miles from our planet, the closest it has been in the last 15 years. More from National Geographic.
I doubt he's going to feel real great about going to trial, where he knows he'd be convicted. He's better off spilling the beans, and taking a plea agreement, I'd think.
That Jesse Jr's third cousin twice removed made some kind of an offer, so that Jesse Jr could beecome Senator. If Mr Buffett set up a 501C corp they could funnel the cash through?
There is no one to burn but Blogo, on the hospital deal. The Senate is a non-issue, for anyone else, the way they brought it forward.
That he spoke to the Thunder, that was to be expected. That the very idea of that a quid pro quo may have been floated and rejected, not really a criminal matter. There will be no water damage in the Oval Office from this wave.
What beans? Well we don't really know yet, till the can is opened. Blago is full of beans, I'd think, and he'll give them away if he sees the light of a reduced sentence.
Good Afternoon!!! 2164th.blogspot.com is one of the most outstanding innovative websites of its kind. I take advantage of reading it every day. 2164th.blogspot.com rocks!
Betty Page will not return, the auto rescue will.
ReplyDeleteThe last stand of defiance by the Senate GOP against the policies of GWBush.
Come 21Jan09, the game will change.
It is all about priorities
ReplyDeleteNEW YORK (Associated Press) -- Americans may be cutting back on holiday shopping, but they are still buying video games _ to the tune of nearly $3 billion in November, according to data from market researcher NPD Group.
U.S. retail sales of video game hardware, software and accessories jumped 10 percent last month from the year-ago period to $2.91 billion, boosted by strong sales of Nintendo Co.'s Wii, Microsoft Corp.'s Xbox 360 and the alien shooter game "Gears of War 2."
the AP
ReplyDeleteThe Air Resources Board unanimously approved the plan despite warnings it will put costly new burdens on businesses at a time when the economy is in extreme crisis, with California forecasting a staggering budget gap of $41.8 billion through mid-2010.
Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said he believes the regulations will spur the state's economy and serve as a model for the rest of the country.
"When you look at today's depressed economy, green tech is one of the few bright spots out there, which is yet another reason we should move forward on our environmental goals," Schwarzenegger said in a statement.
The strategy relies on 31 new rules affecting all facets of life, including where people may build their homes and what materials they use to do it.
One central piece is a cap-and-trade program, set to begin in 2012, under which power plants, refineries and big factories will be able to buy and sell the right to emit heat-trapping gases. The program could give plant operators a financial incentive to reduce their carbon emissions.
Air regulators said the average Californian could see more fuel-efficient cars and plug-in hybrids on showroom floors; better public transportation; housing nearer to schools and businesses; and utility rebates to make their homes more energy-efficient.
Talk about dying--
ReplyDeleteZimbabwe itself is dying. Prices double every day; disease is killing off many who go without the means to buy food or treatment; death and emigration have halved Zimbabwe’s population of four years ago; and those that remain have the lowest life expectancy in the world — roughly 34 for men and 35 for women.
Zimbabwe Is Dying
----
I don't seem to recall Betty Page, but I must have seen her in the media.
$350 billion already doled out to Wall Street fat cats, with that much more to go, with not a dime for Detroit and the five million workers down stream.
ReplyDeleteTypical of the GOP image.
Lehman Brothers redux?
Who is this "GW Bush?"
ReplyDeleteLet's hope Black Search has Blagoblocker!
Carnage on the hi-tech highway
...gone and best forgotten.
ReplyDeleteWhere'd the other 6 Trillion Go?
ReplyDeleteI saw Carol Browner once on TV and prayed I'd never see her again.
ReplyDeleteFat Chanch.
As Extreme as Extreme can be.
...saw it all @ UCSB in the '70's.
July 28, 2003 -- U.S. District Court Judge Royce Lamberth in Washington, D.C., cited the Environmental Protection Agency for "contumacious conduct" and held it in contempt of court July 24 for destroying computer files of the former director and others that were the subject of a Freedom of Information Act request filed in September by Landmark Legal Foundation's Herndon, Va., office.
ReplyDeleteOn Jan. 19, 2001, the last day the Clinton administration held office, Lamberth ordered EPA electronic records retained so that the agency could respond to a pending FOI proceeding for them.
The contempt order forces the agency to pay Landmark's attorneys fees and court costs it incurred in asking the judge to find the agency in contempt. A July 25 Washington Post article estimated that will cost EPA tens of thousands of dollars.
Lamberth did not, however, find any of the individuals in contempt of court as Landmark had sought. He wrote that counsel representing EPA did not forward his order to exiting political employees and they cleaned off their computers as they departed. For that and a variety of other reasons, Lamberth wrote that the court would "practice restraint" in its contempt findings.
Former EPA administrator Carol Browner was working her last day at the agency when Lamberth issued the injunction to prohibit the computer records destruction. She said in testimony that she rarely used her computer and was especially concerned that several computer games her son used be deleted.
Carol Browner order the destruction of all her EPA files and backups.
Lamberth also did not hold the U.S. Attorney's Office in contempt but sharply criticized its failure to let the retiring officials have a copy of the order until it had been requested at least three times. That failing did not breach his order, however, which required only that records not be destroyed.
Because EPA did not receive the order for several days, it reformatted hard drives and erased and reused e-mail backup tapes.
That's Bettie Page, not Betty.
ReplyDeleteIf you're into the brunettes rather than the bubble-headed blondes, she was your gal.
"The program could give plant operators a financial incentive to reduce their carbon emissions"
ReplyDelete---
Planned Parenthood Abortuariams Should be given financial incentives to eliminate more Fetal Carbon Sources.
Ruby,
ReplyDeleteCheck this out, Sam Ruby is high on it.
Thin-Client Revisited
Neither he nor I know squat about VERDE.
He most likely will, sometime, me...unlikely.
Vas is das
"relying on the underlying operating system to provide physical access?"
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I don’t know anything about VERDE, but if it does virtualization as I understand it, it wouldn’t need drivers; instead it would rely on the underlying operating system to provide physical access.
Based on the documentation I have seen, this product appears to be a built on top of KVM and VNC. I may be wrong, but I interpret that as meaning that the image runs in the cloud, displays on your machine, and can access your local devices remotely.
Posted by Sam Ruby at 11:21
Cool to run your image in the cloud, tho.
...kinda like listening in on the Operator in the old days?
My pet Goat Rendered on Depleted Uranium...
ReplyDeleteHilarious Bush Coin Video
"Always Look on the Bright Side of Life dept."
ReplyDeleteAt least you'd get some good crotch shots.
Doug, all it means is you have the a Linux distro in a central location on your network, and out in cubicle world you have "thin-clients" which are very minimal boxes which have no hard drive, just some connectors to hook your monitor and keyboard and network into. Then when your employees boot up, they're running OpenOffice or Evolution (a Outlook Express clone, very nice) or CAD programs or what have you, and MickeySoft doesn't get a dime for a "per seat license".
ReplyDelete"As GM goes so goes the Nation".
ReplyDeleteGreat optics that with the Republicans putting the stake to the heart of GM in the final days of the Bush presidency.
Fsck you!
ReplyDeleteYour
Fri Dec 12, 07:41:00 AM EST
and
Fri Dec 12, 07:43:00 AM EST
are contradictory!
:D
GM management needs to take out more ads apologizing for the countless ways they screwed their customers. Maybe if they do this for a year or two, some sentimental mash will fall for it.
ReplyDeleteFormer Intel Corp. chairman Andrew Grove is pushing the world's biggest maker of microprocessors to consider a new venture -- becoming a manufacturer of advanced batteries for plug-in electric cars.
ReplyDelete.
.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122904767715400759.html?mod=googlenews_wsj
Out With The Old, In With The Chu
ReplyDeleteWritten by Yoni Levinson
Thursday, 11 December 2008
.
.
So who is this guy?
Well he’s no dummy, that’s for sure. He got undergrad degrees in math and physics, got a PhD in physics from Berkeley, served as a professor and department chair of physics at Stanford, as well as the director of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. Oh yeah, and he also won the Nobel Prize in 1997.
.
.
http://www.ecogeek.org/content/view/2377/
Also dead
ReplyDeleteMoshe Nahari, Jewish school head in Yemeni
Dr. Daniel J. Kliman , an Alameda, California physician
Rabbi Holtzberg, his 5 month pregnant wife Rivkah and 6 others....
Yep what a world...
Paybacks are a bitch, Ash. The UAW only gave a combined $12,500 to the Republican Senators from states like Kentucky and Tennessee were they're building riceburner plants like gangbusters, and now they want those same Senators to kick GM another $15 billion of debt to go on top of the $62 billion of debt they already have? No, no no. That's not how politics works. Ask Governor Blogo.
ReplyDeleteCongress will refrain from providing the Bush Administration with the last $50 billion of the remaining $350 billion, if they let them have any more of it, at all, leaving Team O to distribute those funds, as they see fit.
ReplyDeleteThis is the swan song for the Republicans, which only those they spite will remember.
Double dumb, given the piddling amount asked for.
The Big 3 and the people they represent, directly and down stream, not worthy of 30 days worth of funding for an occupied Iraq, to the Federal government and the Republican obstructionists.
ReplyDeleteThat'll be the spin.
The last nail in the coffin of Team43's legacy. Driven home by GOP Senators.
This fellow, he speaks of unintended consequences, for those southern Senators of the GOP
ReplyDeleteDetroit Bubble, meet the Bigger America. Cynics might suspect parallel agendas in the South's legislative hammer -- agreement on cost parity by March or bankruptcy. How? Because the auto bosses have long wanted to break the union, the thinking goes, and the southerners are happy to oblige.
But there's another possible outcome here, one maybe overlooked by a GOP wing in smackdown mode. Contrary to the tired stereotypes coming daily from Washington, President Ron Gettelfinger's UAW is well on its way to helping Detroit's automakers achieve wage and benefit parity with foreign-owned rivals operating in the United States.
Come next month, amid recession anxiety, job losses and widespread distrust of business, the union and others like it are poised to reap the political benefit of having bigger Democratic majorities in the House and Senate and a labor-friendly Democrat in the White House.
The president-elect and the congressional Democrats all have signaled a willingness to pass labor's top legislative priority -- the so-called "card check" legislation, which would essentially abolish secret ballots and make organizing easier. Everywhere.
If it passes, I'm betting the first stops on the UAW's southern swing will be auto plants in Shelby's Alabama and Corker's Tennessee, soon to be home to Volkswagen AG's first U.S. plant in a generation.
Let the paybacks begin.
Daniel Howes of the Detroit News
The UAW/Detroit 3 will get their money. It was/is a kabuki dance.
ReplyDeleteI don't go to "Church." I don't want to be "Governed" by a Religious Government. BUT, I don't want to Live in a town without churches.
The GOP Senators are being allowed to "posture" for their constituents; but, no one in their right mind wants to completely "Bust" the Union.
It doesn't take but a moment to ask yourself, "What would the wages be in those southern factories if you Didn't have the spectre of the UAW in the North?"
Our system of Government is based on a "Dynamic Tension" between the forces of the Left, and the Right. Labor, and Management. Yin, and Yang. The "Yang" don't work if you don't have no Yin.
They'll probably announce TARP money the first part of next week.
The UAW/Detroit 3 will get their money. It was/is a kabuki dance.
ReplyDelete==
You're probably right.
Anyone who believes GM has changed or will change its philosophy and business practices is a fool. We've gone thru this song and dance for almost 40 years. I think that's enough. If anything, the money should go to the subcontractors to keep them afloat while new and emerging electric car companies and public rail transport companies take over.
ReplyDeleteI couldn't believe it, I was reading a report about the small bank I do business with--which is on great financial footing--and they got a hundred and some million from the Feds to toss around, that they didn't ask for.
ReplyDeleteShooting CROWS
O Jesse!
ReplyDeleteThere was a crooked man and he walked a crooked mile,
He found a crooked sixpence upon a crooked stile.
He bought a crooked cat, which caught a crooked mouse.
And they all lived together in a little crooked house
Leza
ReplyDelete~Breaking~
Fox new’s reporting Blago just resigned.
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ReplyDeleteBernie Madoff arrested over alleged $50 billion fraud
ReplyDeleteBernie Madoff, a former chairman of the NASDAQ stock market, has been arrested and charged with running a multi-billion dollar hedge fund swindle in New York.
Mr Madoff is alleged to have operated the scheme through his hedge fund business, which was separate from his better-known market-making business, Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities (BMIS).
Mr Madoff told senior employees of his firm on Wednesday that "it's all just one big lie" and that he was "finished", according to a criminal complaint filed on Thursday night by the US Attorney's office and the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI).
He allegedly went on to say that the business was "a giant Ponzi scheme" – a reference to Charles Ponzi, one of the greatest swindlers in US history – and estimated that the scheme had lost investors $50bn over many years – which would make the hedge fund one of the biggest frauds in history.
"There is no innocent explanation," Mr Madoff said, according to the criminal complaint. He told the agents that it was all his fault, and that he "paid investors with money that wasn't there", according to the complaint.
He allegedly told his employees that he had, for years, been paying returns to certain investors out of the cash received from other investors.
Mr Madoff, 70, was charged with a single count of securities fraud and faces up to 20 years in prison and a fine of up to $5m if found guilty.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/financetopics/financialcrisis/3724006/Bernie-Madoff-arrested-over-alleged-50-billion-fraud.html
Hey, it's a look out for yourself kind of world I guess.
They put 20 miles of light rail in, here in the Valley of the Sun, all withi Maricopa County, cost $1.2 billion 50% Federal and 50% State & local, the operations have to be subsidized because the fares multiplied by riders will not cover costs. If fares are increased to cover costs, no riders will pony up.
ReplyDeleteIt is a loser proposition, at best.
Meanwhile our bus system languishes, with all the mass transit money spent on an inadequate rail line, instead.
The construction of which wiped out the last of the small businesses in Phoenix's downtown.
It is a loser proposition, at best.
ReplyDelete==
Only for losers without an iota of imagination.
Why is high density, car free, walkable, pedestrian friendly cities, with public tramps and rail lines to service them, such a difficult proposition?
ReplyDeletetrams
ReplyDeleteNo, for winners that see things as they are and shake their heads in wonderment.
ReplyDeleteThe user rates and income streams do not pencil out. The thing is state of the art and a dud.
Powered by nuclear & coal generated electricity.
It only works for the munchkin folk, that cannot afford a motorcycle or a small car. Those that live within walking distance of the 20 miles of track. Otherwise, for the majority of the residents of the Valley, the thing may as well not even exist.
Does not take imagination to see what reality is, just page through their program
The operations are funded through sales taxes, that revenue stream is drying up. The State and locals heading to DC, with their hands out, already. Even before extending more unprofitable but socialized service is much more than scheduled.
My Tattoo of the Week.
ReplyDeleteYou can throw billions at GM, their business model doesn't work. You can't pay people not to work and compete with carmakers who only pay people who work. They already have more than $62 billion in debt. They're going into Chapter 11. Chrysler is privately owned, and they are still trying to suck at the government teat. Screw that. Ford thinks they can make it but they'd still like a lifeline if things get bad. The New York Times and other newspapers are going under fast. Obama wants to put 25 million Americas to work building bridges and stuff, and to hell with the deficit, just like we did in the 1930s when we made Timberline Lodge and Bonneville Dam. When this recession is over, things will look very different. The America of 2010 won't look very much like the America of 2000.
Because Phoenix, Tempe, Mesa, Scottsdale and Peoria cover an area the size of Israel and have 2/3rds the population.
ReplyDeleteIt is a single metropolitan area.
It will not redesign itself around 20 miles of railroad track along the banks of the Salt River between the Phoenix and Tempe downtowns.
Just is not going to happen.
The thing is for tourists and conventionaires, so the hotel space in Tempe can service downtown Phoenix.
The railline does not even reach the Super Bowl site. It is not scheduled to until 2017.
Here is the map of the current system & the extensions overlaid on the existing cities. It can not service but a small minority of the population, at best.
No, for winners that see things as they are and shake their heads in wonderment.
ReplyDelete==
Right. Only it never occurred to them winners that maybe some high density buildings of mix residential and commercial use should be built next to mass transport lines. City planning is for losers.
..high density buildings of mixed residential and commercial use..
ReplyDeleteThey have the condos, half built and unsold, along the river and railline. No one wants them, kinda like Chevys, in that regard.
ReplyDeleteNo one that lives here wants to live in that high density world, or they already would.
That high density housing, they could not sell it during the boom, cannot give it away, now.
ReplyDelete"You pretty much think that kind of stuff can't happen in your community."
ReplyDelete---
I guess it has crossed the "mind" of a few teenage boys.
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ReplyDelete"they could not sell it during the boom"
ReplyDelete---
Private Enterprise couldn't:
That's why we need compassionate folks like Franks and GWB in Govt.
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ReplyDeletehat's funny, because the only segment of the real-estate market here that is not in comatose is the condo market. And guess where all the condos are being built? You guessed it.
ReplyDeleteCanucks huddle together to keep warm.
ReplyDeleteThat's funny,..
ReplyDeleteIt is important to note that neither the FDIC as receiver nor BB&T as the acquiring institution will e-mail customers of Haven Trust asking them to validate their deposits or to request personal, confidential information, such as account numbers, social security numbers or driver's license numbers. Customers will not be asked to revalidate passwords, deposit accounts or deposit insurance.
ReplyDeleteIf customers receive e-mails asking for such personal information, they should consider the e-mails fraudulent and should not respond.
The FDIC estimates that the cost to the Deposit Insurance Fund will be $200 million. The BB&T's acquisition of all deposits was the "least costly" resolution for the FDIC's Deposit Insurance Fund compared to alternatives.
Haven Trust Bank Down the Shitter
Timberline Lodge. Been there. Had a bloody mary on the deck while checking out the scenery. Nice place.
ReplyDeleteMonroe - just down the road from where I grew up.
ReplyDeleteSkied there also. Timberline.
ReplyDeleteMeadows better.
ReplyDeleteThis is an interesting blog "The Urban Desert", I do not know the folks that do this one, but the information seems up to snuff.
ReplyDeleteA lot of projects not yet done.
But some of those that are, seem nice enough.
Condos, at least out here, mat, are the first to crater and the last to recover, historicly.
There used to be a lot bigger cycle in Condos here than homes, but not sure what the case is now.
ReplyDeleteShared ownership of luxury beach properties is big.
The Marriot in Lahaina went that route.
Condos, at least out here, mat, are the first to crater and the last to recover, historicly.
ReplyDelete==
That's because these projects aren't thought out. You need to close down the strip malls and mega malls and to start building integrated communities. People should live and shop where they work. That means that the first 2 or 3 floors in a building are dedicated to commercial space. No cars, and no mega structures. Buildings and streets need to be proportional and of a dimension suited for people, not cars. Once you get these basics down, the rest will follow.
Re: The Urban Desert Real Estate
ReplyDeleteIt's all dead space, dRat. It has no life. And if you're going to live in a dead space, it might as well be some single story dwelling in the middle of nowhere.
Start from scratch, like they did in Brasilia, if that's what you want. But we've got those projects out here, too.
ReplyDeleteNot State subsidized, though.
Not all to successful, as a living experiment.
But then neither was the Biosphere.
Arcosanti is a premier example of just what you are looking for, mat.
The Foundation's major project is Arcosanti, a planned community for 5,000 people designed by Soleri, under construction since 1970. Located near Cordes Junction, about 70 miles north of Phoenix and visible from Interstate I-17 in central Arizona, the project is based on Soleri's concept of "Arcology," architecture coherent with ecology. An arcology is a hyperdense city designed to maximize human interaction; maximize access to shared, cost-effective infrastructural services like water and sewage; minimize the use of energy, raw materials and land; reduce waste and environmental pollution; and allow interaction with the surrounding natural environment. Arcosanti is the prototype of the desert arcology.
Since 1970, over 6000 people have participated in Arcosanti's construction. Their international affiliation group is called the Arcosanti Arcology Network. As of 2005 Arcosanti stands an estimated 3% complete.
Here is the projects homepage
Paolo Soleri, makes nifty wind chimes, too. Friend of mine used to run his foundery, that was in Scottsdale, not Cordes Junction.
Why, one might wonder, would the foundery be in Scottsdale and not Cordes Junction? Well, the money, that was in Scottsdale.
Paolo Soleri he's been peddlin' your dream for fifty years.
ReplyDeleteC'mon, dRat. If you've been to Manhattan you've seen my "dream". Only in my version of Manhattan, there would be one tenth the cars and no skyscrapers.
ReplyDeleteYou'll love this one, mat.
ReplyDeleteA Treehugger.com page.
But all you've been touting, it's nothing new. It's been an active part of life, here in AZ, since before I arrived in 1971. We've had the leading advocate for the concept, living and working, just miles from my house.
Still waiting for the magic batteries. Ready to buy some, for the Ashfork project.
Then it would not be Manhatten, mat.
ReplyDeleteIt'd be Arcosanti ... redux.
Then it would not be Manhatten, mat.
ReplyDelete==
No, it would be Paris, Madrid, Milan, etc. I mentioned Manhattan to give you a North American point of reference.
Gotta go to an Xmas party, think good thoughts and study up on the Soleri projects, mat. A fellow well ahead of you, on your curve.
ReplyDeletesome single story dwelling in the middle of nowhere.
ReplyDeleteWhat's wrong with that? Sounds better than the rat race of Manhattan, to me:)
Bob and I miss the LOVE you share living close together.
ReplyDeleteAnd the soothing city noises.
(Ak's, Glocks, Lowriders...)
Straight Pipe Harley's were big @ 2am in Honolulu.
ReplyDeleteahh, ...Arcosanti!
ReplyDeleteGood Vibes.
We lived w/no utilities for 10 years, Mat:
ReplyDeleteWhere's my Nobel?
Watched Baseball's Greatest Moment on Battery Power and Electromagnetic Waves
ReplyDelete(I was snug and Warm in the Indian's house when Pete Rose snatched the ball out of the air when the pop fly bounced off the catcher's glove.
...hard to pick a winner, between those two.)
...nah, after reading the link, it was no contest.
ReplyDeleteNo Director would have dared filming something that unreal for a flick..
What's wrong with that?
ReplyDelete==
Nothing at all. But it's not city life. And I see no reason to make it so.
We lived w/no utilities for 10 years, Mat
ReplyDelete==
Then it's time you made yourself useful around the house. :D
More in line w/communal Israel, I watched Bill Mazeroski's Series winning Homer in an auditorium filled w/my High School Bud's.
ReplyDeleteWhat a charmed life I've lived, World Serious-Wise.
Answer the Question!
ReplyDeleteWhere's my prize?
The prize? You get to check that your electricity works ok by wetting your finger and sticking it in your socket. :D
ReplyDeleteResearch, we need more reasearch!
ReplyDeleteAn empty Bar is a happy Bar.
ReplyDeleteI have tied up all my loose ends; attended my last function; given out enough in Christmas bonuses and booze to fund and float a militia; and have made the last admiring tour of my festively lit neighborhood.
This time tomorrow I'll be freezing my ass of in Pee-Ay. Hoo-Ray!
The Mothership says: We know what's coming, it in't gonna be pretty, and we're asking that everyone get ahead of the curve.
ReplyDeleteSpecifically, no more hookers and blow. Too damned expensive.
Joke.
Cuts, there will be cuts. Deep ones. Everywhere.
Next year will be mighty interesting.
Here's to next year, bless its heart.
If hookers and blow is to costly in Bogata, we're in a world of hurt.
ReplyDeleteRush predicts that after they nationalize the big three, Walmart will become Target Number One, and he ain't talkin cheap chain stores.
ReplyDeleteUnionization, which of course eventually will morph into some sort of nationalizing of something, as prices start their long but inevitable rise up to Socialized Medicine Level.
...all while the Socialized Euros are scaling back Socialism.
That "crazy" black So. CA Pol that said they were gonna Socialize Big Oil was ahead of her time.
ReplyDelete...how could I forget the...
MAXINE WATERS!
Bo-go-ta.
ReplyDeleteLike Colombia, two O's.
It's the small things that count.
It's the BBC, so I'm very skeptical as to the truth of the story. But still, worth keeping an eye on.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W0Sy7XnJBPE
It's raining like hell here, and snowing like hell in the high country. Winter has come.
ReplyDeleteSposed to get cold as hell next, according to the Carpet Kitten.
ReplyDelete(Who you STILL have refused to recognize as one of Idehoe's Prize Citizens.)
...you having an affair w/her, or something.
?
ReplyDeleteWhatever happened to British Leyland? They were getting government pounds there for awhile I remember.
ReplyDeleteAl-Doug, my mind is totally controlled by Sarah now, I have thoughts for no one else. Innocent thoughts, of course.
Etymology
ReplyDeleteFrom Proto-Germanic *wintra-, probably representing a nasalised variant of Proto-Indo-European *wed- ( > English water, wet). Cognate with Old Frisian winter, Old Saxon winter (Dutch winter), Old High German wintar (German Winter), Old Norse vetr (Swedish vinter) and Gothic π πΉπ½πππΏπ; and, outside the Germanic languages, with Latin unda ("'wave'") and Lithuanian vanduΓ΅ ("'water'").
Sarah wouldn't want you to dis a famous conservative lady like the Carpet Kitten, and certainly not on her account!
ReplyDeleteYour silence on the matter Reeks of Rahm.
Your silence on the matter Reeks of Rahm.
ReplyDelete==
Typical goishe cope, gets everything backwards!
Rahm = Thunder
Barak = Lightening
Thunder isn't silent. It is lightening that smells. And Emanuel is god is with us!
It's not like me to post something like This
ReplyDeleteOnly thing better would be a full-sized picture!
ReplyDeleteWhat led you to that treasure?
ReplyDeleteHar!
ReplyDeleteIf You Don't Like Coal
You Are A Commie! Atheist! Enemy!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NVxYyNDnORc
I thought Blago had resigned, but I quess he hasn't done so yet.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, "Blago" is a word with some possibilities. It's hanging right on the edge of a breakthrough to acceptance and widespread use. It might make next year's dictionary of new words. As a noun, verb, proper title....
Coal Ash Is More Radioactive than Nuclear Waste
ReplyDeletehttp://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=coal-ash-is-more-radioactive-than-nuclear-waste
==
Btw, the US coal industry produces more radioactive uranium in one year than is consumed by all nuclear reactors in the US.
Yet all those who have managed to glimpse at the document agree that it makes interesting reading. It concludes that there is not much future in the much vaunted developed of all electric-powered cars.
ReplyDeleteElectric Cars Suck Says French Report
No word on scooters.
----
Mat, actually I don't put much faith in French reports. You never know who paid what to whom to write what. Same thing applies here, of course.
That's absolutely right about coal. Dr. Bill brings that up all the time. Coal ash is radioactive. Coal seems to always have a uranium content however low. You burn the stuff it goes in the air.
Friday's Big Full Moon
ReplyDeleteFriday's full moon will be the biggest and brightest of the year. According to NASA, the Moon will appear up to 14% bigger and 30% brighter than other full moons seen so far this year. The reason? The Moon's elliptical orbit causes its distance from Earth to vary. Tonight's full moon will be only 221,560 miles from our planet, the closest it has been in the last 15 years. More from National Geographic.
Spread the joy!
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ObX43RVWVI4
A lump of clean coal in yee stockings:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ckaRqOMDbBM
No word on scooters.
ReplyDelete==
They be contemplating of Barry's future.
Just goes to show what shameless scoundrels we're dealing with.
ReplyDeleteWhere do you think Rudolf the Red Nosed Reindeere--related to JohnDeere--got that nose that glows?
ReplyDeleteAnswer me that.
Ask Rufus. He's our moonshine technician. :)
ReplyDeleteNo word from NASA about his credentials.
ReplyDeleteNo word from NASA about his credentials.
ReplyDeleteRefuses to show his birth certificate, says he was born Hawaii, fat chance of a reindeer being born in Hawaii!
--------
An under-indictment Gov. Blagojevich may be the most honest politician in Illinois.
For The Sake Of The Nation Gov. Blago Should Not Resign
I doubt he's going to feel real great about going to trial, where he knows he'd be convicted. He's better off spilling the beans, and taking a plea agreement, I'd think.
Spilling what beans, bob?
ReplyDeleteThat Jesse Jr's third cousin twice removed made some kind of an offer, so that Jesse Jr could beecome Senator. If Mr Buffett set up a 501C corp they could funnel the cash through?
There is no one to burn but Blogo, on the hospital deal. The Senate is a non-issue, for anyone else, the way they brought it forward.
That he spoke to the Thunder, that was to be expected. That the very idea of that a quid pro quo may have been floated and rejected, not really a criminal matter. There will be no water damage in the Oval Office from this wave.
What beans? Well we don't really know yet, till the can is opened. Blago is full of beans, I'd think, and he'll give them away if he sees the light of a reduced sentence.
ReplyDeleteGood Afternoon!!! 2164th.blogspot.com is one of the most outstanding innovative websites of its kind. I take advantage of reading it every day. 2164th.blogspot.com rocks!
ReplyDelete