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Two members of Congress have called for what they describe as the first-ever federal audit of Union Station's Redevelopment Corporation, the Washington Examiner reported. The moves comes as Union Station undergoes 10 months of repairs following the Aug. 23 earthquake.
District Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton and Rep. Nick Rahall, D.-W.Va., are asking the Department of Transportation's Inspector General to investigate Union Station's management and finances as the station prepares to undergo major changes in addition to repairing earthquake damage, according to the Examiner - including expanded Metrorail access and renovations in Columbus Circle.
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INDIANAPOLIS ? WWE Superstar Randy Orton suffered an injury at SmackDown in Indianapolis that could keep him sidelined for a few weeks, and will prevent him from competing at upcoming WWE live events.
Although the full extent of The Viper?s injury remains to be seen, WWE physician Dr. Michael Sampson examined Orton and updated WWE.com about his condition.
?Randy suffered a herniated disc on the L4-L5 level on the left side, and that?s resulting in pain and weakness down his leg.? Dr. Sampson explained. ?He?s going to need some time off for rehab, anti-inflammatory medications and physical therapy.?
Sheamus is scheduled to replace The Viper in Street Fights against Wade Barrett at WWE live events this week.
Keep checking with WWE.com for further updates.
Source: http://www.wwe.com/inside/randy-orton-injury-update
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LONDON (Reuters) ? Britain's The Times newspaper on Wednesday named as person of the year Mohamed Bouazizi, a Tunisian whose self immolation inspired uprisings that toppled dictators across the Arab world and shook the region's remaining autocracies.
Bouazizi set himself alight last year after officials confiscated the unemployed 26-year-old's unlicensed grocery cart, reportedly slapping and insulting him. His desperate act struck a chord with millions of Arabs living with few job prospects or avenues for change under entrenched autocracies.
"The Times today names Mohamed Bouazizi, the street vendor who became the inspiration for the Arab Spring, as its person of the year," the paper said on its front page. "Bouazizi was no revolutionary, yet his lonely protest served as the catalyst for a wave of revolts that have transformed the Middle East."
Bouazizi' death from his wounds in January prompted protests across Tunisia, forcing autocratic President Zine Al-Abidine Ben Ali to flee the country. Soon afterwards, millions took to the streets in Egypt, Libya, Syria and elsewhere to protest against repression, corruption, poverty and joblessness.
The uprisings unseated despots in Libya, Egypt and Yemen as well as Tunisia, while Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad's writ is disintegrating and other authoritarian rulers in the region are eyeing the tide of public anger with nervousness.
Tunisia has since elected new leaders through peaceful democratic elections.
In an October interview with Reuters, Bouazizi's mother Manoubia urged the new leaders to honor her son's sacrifice by helping poor people like him.
"Nothing would have happened if my son had not reacted against voicelessness and a lack of respect," she said.
"But I hope the people who are going to govern will be able to keep this message in mind and give consideration to all Tunisians, including the poor."
(Reporting by Mohammed Abbas)
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What do you do when your viral growth starts to taper off? Advertise! That strategy has seemingly been working well for the Google Chrome web browser (now with a quarter of worldwide browser market share), so Google may as well give it a shot with Google+. Google has released a trio of new TV commercials promoting its fledging social network, featuring Hangouts with celebrities like the Muppets as well as NBA announcers, Bill Walton, Kenny Smith, Steve Kerr, Spero Dedes and Jon Barry. There's also one of those heartstring-tugging promos showing Hangouts in action, with kids talking to grandma, a girl telling her friends she's engaged, New Year's Eve kisses and other such cheesiness, all complete with the Apple-esque background track.Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/2Ezzc9VvSHw/
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Source: http://www.mediabistro.com/joblistings/jobview.asp?joid=127622&c=rss
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More community health centres to support GPs ??
| In a blog post published on Monday, Mr Gan said CHCs 'received the strongest and broadest support from the GP community'. -- ST PHOTO: ALPHONSUS CHERN | Breaking News |
|
Source: http://feeds.bignewsnetwork.com/?rid=202161081&cat=a677a0718b69db72
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This enduring and inspiring Christmas message from President Ronald Reagan was delivered in 1981. It was the end... bit.ly/tYSrR2 
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Source: http://twitter.com/dancirucci/statuses/150989852584845312
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Celebrate the holidays with Justin Bieber! ?A few weeks ago, Justin Bieber went to Disney World and attended the Disney World Christmas Parade. ?The parade will air on ABC on Christmas Day! ?It will be airing at the following times posted below.
* New York, Philadelphia, Chicago, Houston and Raleigh: 10:00 a.m. ? Noon (please note: In these cities the special airs out of pattern for the time zone)
* Eastern Time Zone: Noon ? 2:00 p.m.
* Central Time Zone: 11:00 a.m. ? 1:00 p.m.
* Mountain Time Zone: 10:00 a.m. ? Noon
* Pacific Time Zone: 9:00 ? 11:00 a.m.
* Hawaii Time: 7:00 ? 9:00 a.m.
*Other airtimes may vary per city/time zone ? please check local listings.
Source: ABC
Source: http://justincrew.com/2011/12/disney-christmasparade-abc/
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In this Sept. 18, 2010, photo, Woodberry Forest's Jacob Rainey breaks away from Bishop Ireton defenders for a rushing touchdown during a high school football game in Orange, Va. On Sept. 3, 2011, Rainey suffered a severe knee injury and a severed artery after being tackled during a scrimmage, requiring part of his right leg to be amputated a week later. The once-promising quarterback is now using his courage rather than his athletic prowess to inspire, moving the likes of Alabama coach Nick Saban, Green Bay Packers linebacker Clay Matthews and Denver quarterback Tim Tebow. (AP Photo/The Daily Progress, Andrew Shurtleff)
In this Sept. 18, 2010, photo, Woodberry Forest's Jacob Rainey breaks away from Bishop Ireton defenders for a rushing touchdown during a high school football game in Orange, Va. On Sept. 3, 2011, Rainey suffered a severe knee injury and a severed artery after being tackled during a scrimmage, requiring part of his right leg to be amputated a week later. The once-promising quarterback is now using his courage rather than his athletic prowess to inspire, moving the likes of Alabama coach Nick Saban, Green Bay Packers linebacker Clay Matthews and Denver quarterback Tim Tebow. (AP Photo/The Daily Progress, Andrew Shurtleff)
Jacob Rainey is inspiring people all across the sports world.
The Virginia prep quarterback who had to have part of his right leg amputated has moved the likes of Alabama coach Nick Saban, Green Bay Packers linebacker Clay Matthews and Denver quarterback Tim Tebow.
A highlight film of Rainey on YouTube shows why college coaches had taken notice. It shows the once-promising quarterback at Woodberry Forest School throwing a 40-yard dart for a touchdown, running into the line on a quarterback sneak, then emerging from the pile and sprinting 40 yards for a TD. There is also of clip of him running a draw for another 35-yard score.
All that was taken away, without warning when he was tackled during a scrimmage on Sept. 3. He suffered a severe knee injury and a severed artery and part of his right leg had to be amputated.
Now it's his courage that has people taking notice.
Saban has sent Rainey a Crimson Tide jersey with his name and number on it, along with a note encouraging him to "keep fighting." Matthews sent him an autographed jersey and Tebow will meet him this weekend.
The Denver quarterback's foundation is flying Rainey and his family to Buffalo this weekend "to hang out with me before and after" the Broncos-Bills game, Tebow said. The foundation has brought a child and his family to every Broncos game this season.
"What an amazing kid and what an amazing outlook that he has," Tebow said of the 6-foot-3, 215-pound Rainey, whose playing style was frequently compared to Tebow. "I'm so proud to have the opportunity to spend time with him and his family. We're very excited about that."
With football gone, Rainey isn't sure what's next ? but he knows what isn't: Moping around.
"I don't know why me," he said in a telephone interview with The Associated Press. "I've never really asked myself that question. I think that would just make me feel sorry for myself, and that's the last thing I want to do."
A week after he suffered the injury ? and after several surgeries ? part of Rainey's right leg was amputated on Sept. 10.
His high school teammates say they were worried, until they talked to Rainey.
"I think talking to him right after surgery was when I really realized that everything was going to be ok because he was still joking and cutting up and kind of making everyone realize that he was still the same person," said Nathan Ripper, one of Rainey's closest friends on the team.
Rainey returned to school after Thanksgiving break having missed the entire first trimester, and said putting others at ease about his situation seems like the right approach to take.
"I feel like if I was in their shoes, I'd feel awkward about it and stuff, like talking about it, so I kind of joke about it," Rainey said. "I mean, it is what it is. I can't change anything. There's no point (complaining) about it, so I think it makes everyone more comfortable about it if I just joke about it like it's alright. That's how it's always been."
Seeing his friend adapt has made Ripper realize that things will only get better.
"He's the last person I ever would have wanted this to happen to, but if I had to pick one person that I know could get through it, it would be him just because he's going to work hard to do rehab, work hard to get used to whatever has changed," he said, noting that he and Rainey spent a good deal of time together over the summer, working to get ready for the football season.
Rainey had 4.6 speed in the 40, and "a cannon for an arm," Ripper said. Rainey was on the recruiting radar of several major schools, and this season was going to be important. He had drawn the attention of college recruiters, who were likely going to watch him closer this season to determine if he was a BCS-level prospect.
His highlight clips on YouTube have been seen nearly 200,000 times. And with such a bright future, Rainey's teammates initially didn't want to believe the news.
Rainey had told Ripper and another teammate, Greg McIntosh, that amputation would be necessary via text message the night before his operation. The football team was on a bus back to campus after a season-opening victory against Benedictine in Richmond.
McIntosh was stunned by the message, and went and found Ripper on the bus.
Ripper had worn Rainey's jersey in the victory. He and Rainey both transferred to Woodberry Forest from St. Anne's Belfield, a private school nearby.
"I figured that Jacob was just pulling some kind of sick joke on us all, so I texted Jacob and that's when he told me that all the tissue had died from lack of blood flow," Ripper said.
Once Rainey confirmed to Ripper that he wasn't joking, they told a few other teammates. McIntosh said he and Ripper "just sat the rest of the way back crying in each other's arms."
Back at school, coach Clint Alexander gathered the team in the gym and told them all.
"It was very emotional," Ripper said. "Most people were broken down and just sobbing and everyone else was just consoling those people. It was a pretty mournful time for everybody."
Suddenly, that narrow 16-13 opening victory meant little.
"Just everything stops," McIntosh said. "I just didn't think that that was something that could actually happen. I just felt that sinking feeling in my heart."
Rainey's recollections of his week in the hospital before the surgery are fuzzy, but there are some things he recalls.
"The doctors told me a couple times that I wasn't going to get amputated, so I was feeling pretty good until Friday," the athletic 6-foot-3, 215-pound Rainey said. "I don't remember a lot, but I just remember them telling me it was going to get amputated and I was just like, 'All right, well, that sucks.'"
Doctors told Rainey he had developed compartment syndrome, a painful condition in which swelling cut off blood flow to certain areas, causing the muscles and the nerves to die.
"Once I got compartment syndrome, that changed everything," he said.
The amputation was performed at Fairfax Inova Hospital, and McIntosh, Ripper and several others made the 70-mile trip from Orange.
The trip was positive, for everybody.
"As soon as we walked in the room ? he was very out of it. He was doped up on pain killers, but he recognized us," McIntosh said. "His heart monitor was just doing normal beeps, but when he saw us, it jumped pretty high. He was pretty excited to see us."
Ripper said Rainey has lifted not only himself, but everyone around him.
"Just talking to him and realizing that he has the same personality and he's going to do everything he can to get better and get through this makes us all realize that he's still with us, and what could have happened," Ripper said. "With all that infection, he could not be with us anymore, so just having him around is just a reminder that things are going to be OK."
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PHNOM PENH (BNO NEWS) -- Thailand and Cambodia have agreed to withdraw their troops from the area surrounding the disputed Preah Vihear temple, the Thai MCOT news agency reported on Thursday.
The two countries agreed to implement the International Court of Justice's (ICJ) order to establish a "provisional demilitarized zone." A joint working group will be set up to oversee troop withdrawals from the newly defined demilitarized zone, Cambodian Defense Minister Tea Banh said after meeting with Thai Defense Minister Gen Yutthasak Sasiprapa in the Cambodian capital of Phnom Penh.
Gen Tea Banh also said the withdrawal of troops will be carried out as soon as possible. It will be done under the supervision of the joint observers from Thailand, Cambodia and Indonesia, the chair of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).
In July, a ruling by the Hague-based International Court of Justice asked both nations to withdraw military personnel from around the Preah Vihear temple complex.
Both Cambodia and Thailand claim the 4.6 square kilometer (1.7 square miles) area near the ancient Preah Vihear temple on their shared border, which has never been formally established. However, the military tension has eased since former Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra's Pheu Thai Party won a landslide victory in July's general election.
Tensions first escalated between the two countries in July 2008 following the build-up of military forces near the 900-year-old Preah Vihear temple. The United Nations Security Council urged both sides to establish a permanent ceasefire after at least 10 people were killed.
Clashes resumed earlier this year as both nations claim the lands surrounding the ancient Hindu Temple, which has been damaged due to the conflict. The Preah Vihear temple dates back to the 11th century.
(Copyright 2011 by BNO News B.V. All rights reserved. Info: sales@bnonews.com.)
Thursday, December 22nd, 2011 at 10:53 pm | BNO News | Leave a CommentSource: http://wireupdate.com/thailand-and-cambodia-to-withdraw-troops-from-disputed-temple.html
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Welcome to?Just Show Me on?Tecca TV, where we show you tips and tricks for getting the most out of the?gadgets in your life. In today's episode we'll show you how to set up email on your?Kindle Fire.
Email on a tablet makes the entire email experience much more personal. Instead of sitting at your computer responding to messages, you can be sitting out in your living room relaxing and replying. And not only is sending out messages easy, so is reading them on a tablet; in fact, it's practically like reading a book at times.
If you'd like more information on Amazon's tablet, check out our?Kindle Fire guide.
For more episodes of Just Show Me,?subscribe to Tecca TV's YouTube channel and?check out all our Just Show Me episodes. If you have any topics you'd like to see us cover, just drop us a line in the comments.
This article originally appeared on Tecca
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Posted by Nyoro on Dec. 22, 2011 at 10:29 a.m.
Hitcombo managed to find several videos of the Chinese SSF4 AE tournament that had its results recorded several days ago. Click on this story to see information and results and hit the jump to see all the videos with Sako's Ibuki, TH|Poongko's Seth and Xiao Hai's Yun.
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LOS ANGELES (Reuters) ? When director David Fincher decided to make a film of "The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo," Hollywood was abuzz with who might play the starring role of abused, vengeance-seeking computer hacker Lisbeth Salander.
Would it be an A-list actress like Scarlett Johansson or Natalie Portman, or someone completely unknown to audiences?
For Fincher, the Oscar nominated director of "The Social Network," the answer was never clear cut. Little did he know that his eventual choice, Rooney Mara, was under his nose the whole time. Fincher had cast her as the girlfriend of Facebook billionaire Mark Zuckerberg in "Social Network."
"Dragon Tattoo" opens across the United States on Wednesday. It is based on Swedish author Stieg Larsson's first novel in his mega-popular Millennium Trilogy series, and Fincher's film follows a Swedish movie version of the book.
To some, it may seem that Mara had a Hollywood "in" to play the troubled Salander, who helps a disgraced investigative journalist (Daniel Craig) solve a case. However, the 26-year old actress told Reuters it was quite the opposite.
"I think he was happy with the work I did in 'Social Network,' but because of that work, I think he thought I wasn't quite right for the part" of Salander, she said.
Her role in "Social Network" was that of a polished college girl, and she hadn't tackled any major starring roles in the movies. Moreover, her upbringing in a large and well-to-do family was far removed from Salander's dark and lonely life.
Admittedly, Fincher told Reuters Mara's casting was "a slow realization," but ultimately he found her to be an "emotional hanger" who wore the character like a suit of clothes.
Salander, with her dramatic storyline and elaborate look that includes numerous piercings, tattoos and closely cropped hair, is no doubt a Hollywood breakout role for Mara. Last week, she was nominated for her first Golden Globe Award in the best dramatic actress category.
Yet Mara shies from calling "Dragon Tattoo" her big break.
"I think everything I've ever done has led me to the next thing, so I can't say that I have one thing that I feel is a bigger break than the rest," she said.
CAREER TURNING POINT
Still, the Salander role is the most high-profile part Mara has ever tackled, and it may be the most demanding, too.
It required her to learn to ride a motorcycle and skateboard, and she underwent a physical transformation when she chopped off her long hair, colored it black, bleached her eyebrows and underwent numerous piercings all over her body.
In addition to the physicality of the role, there was just as much -- if not more -- emotional trauma to display including scenes of Salander being assaulted by her legal guardian.
But there is a payoff. The actress now finds herself in the enviable position of being on numerous filmmaker lists for major studio projects. She's already committed to star opposite Ryan Gosling and Christian Bale in filmmaker Terrence Malick's "Lawless" that will shoot next year.
Her Hollywood career is a far cry from the sports world in which her family is steeped. Her great-grandfathers Art Rooney and Tim Mara founded professional football's Pittsburgh Steelers and New York Giants, respectively. Both her uncle and father work for the Giants.
Mara says her family's sports background does not inform who she is today, even though she dropped her first name Patricia in favor of her middle name Rooney. But she recognizes that her family and its history in football is unique.
"I certainly appreciate it very much. I grew up surrounded by people who knew what they loved to do and worked very hard at that, so that was definitely instilled in me," she said.
Mara recalled a childhood of going to the theater and watching old movies, more than football. She moved to Los Angeles after her big sister, actress Kate Mara ("127 Hours"), was already living and working there.
Small parts came her way in guest-starring roles on TV's "Law & Order: Special Victim's Unit" and "E.R." Film roles included "Youth In Revolt" with Michael Cera, "Tanner Hall," and "A Nightmare on Elm Street" with Jackie Earle Haley."
Twenty-five days after Fincher turned in the finished version of "Social Network," he and Mara flew to Sweden to start shooting "Dragon Tattoo."
"This movie, especially, I feel like I learned so much from it," Mara said. "First of all, it shot for so much longer than anything I've ever worked on. And in between all the actors and the things I learned from David, I've grown so much."
Though it's too early to tell if the movie's producers plan on shooting the next two installments of the film, the actress already is mentally on board.
"I look very much forward to it," she said with certainty.
(Editing by Bob Tourtellotte)
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LONDON |
LONDON (Reuters) - At the start of the 20th century, inventors Thomas Alva Edison and Nikola Tesla clashed in the "war of the currents." To highlight the dangers of his rival's system, Edison even electrocuted an elephant. The animal died in vain; it was Tesla's system and not Edison's that took off. But today, helped by technological advances and the need to conserve energy, Edison may finally get his revenge.
The American inventor, who made the incandescent light bulb viable for the mass market, also built the world's first electrical distribution system, in New York, using "direct current" electricity. DC's disadvantage was that it couldn't carry power beyond a few blocks. His Serbian-born rival Tesla, who at one stage worked with Edison, figured out how to send "alternating current" through transformers to enable it to step up the voltage for transmission over longer distances.
Edison was a fiercely competitive businessman. Besides staging electrocutions of animals to discredit Tesla's competing system, he proposed AC be used to power the first execution by electric chair.
But his system was less scalable, and it was to prove one of the worst investments made by financier J. Pierpont Morgan. New York's dominant banker installed it in his Madison Avenue home in the late 19th century, only to find it hard to control. It singed his carpets and tapestries.
So from the late 1800s, AC became the accepted form to carry electricity in mains systems. For most of the last century, the power that has reached the sockets in our homes and businesses is alternating current.
Now DC is making a comeback, becoming a promising money-spinner in renewable or high-security energy projects. From data centers to long-distance power lines and backup power supplies, direct current is proving useful in thousands of projects worldwide.
"Everyone says it's going to take at least 50 years," says Peter Asmus, a senior analyst at Boulder, Colorado-based Pike Research, a market research and consulting firm in global clean technology. But "the role of DC will increase, and AC will decrease."
FROM CLOUD TO MICROGRID
The main factor driving demand is the need to conserve energy and produce more of it from renewable sources. Alternating current is generated by rotating engines, but renewable sources such as wind and solar produce DC power. To use it, because of the way our buildings are wired, we first convert it to AC.
Another thing that's happened since Edison's time is the advent of the semiconductor. Semiconductors need DC power, and are increasingly found in household appliances. These have to convert the AC supply back to DC, which is a waste of energy and generates heat. In the early years of industrialization this wasn't an issue, but today it's important, especially in the huge and fast-growing business of cloud computing.
The companies that handle our information traffic are racking their brains to boost efficiency and cut carbon emissions from their plants. Pike Research expects the green data center business to be worth $41 billion annually by 2015, up from $7.5 billion now. That will be just under a third of all spending on data centers.
Finnish information technology company Academica, for instance, has a data center in a granite cave beneath Helsinki's Uspenski cathedral. It uses Baltic sea water to cool the plant and feeds surplus heat to the city's homes. IBM has designed a solar array to power its Bangalore data center. Microsoft has filed a patent application for a wind-powered data center.
Direct current may be one way to increase efficiency and reduce emissions. Right now, outside a handful of universities, it's not the first thing people are thinking of because there are more basic things to do, says Eric Woods, Research Director for Smart Industry at Pike. But for companies on the leading edge, "it's sort of coming out of the research ghetto."
Pike has not put a figure on how big the DC component of the green data center market will be. Swiss-Swedish engineering firm ABB, a big DC advocate, says about 35 percent of demand for green data centers will come from the United States, 30 percent from Europe, and the rest spread globally.
Every day, says ABB, we all send more than 300 billion emails and 250 million tweets globally. The centers to handle all this data are growing by 10 percent each year and already consume 80 million megawatt-hours of energy annually -- almost 1.5 times the amount of electricity used by the whole of New York City. They're also responsible for about 2 percent of global carbon emissions.
DC power could help. At low voltages it has long been used in data centers but will be "game-changing" at higher voltages, ABB says.
Beyond its potential in data centers, DC power's ability to run on renewable energy sources makes it interesting for important plants that need to operate in "island mode" -- independent of the grid -- in case of a supply failure. Building systems with small, self-contained electricity distribution networks known as microgrids is of particular interest to governments and militaries who worry about terrorist attacks.
"In our view the market (for microgrids) is about to take off," said Pike Research's Asmus, who also sees demand for microgrids in countries that aren't densely covered by AC grids, such as Australia and India, and in developing countries looking to replace costly and wasteful diesel generators.
SMART GRIDS
And it's not just "island mode." Thanks to power electronics - semiconductor switching devices - DC can now be transmitted at high voltage over very long distances, longer than AC. It can be easily used in cables, over ground or under the sea.
High voltage direct current (HVDC) systems are the backbone of plans for smart grids, or supergrids, which aim to channel energy from places where power sources such as sunlight and hydropower are abundant to countries where it is scarce.
Siemens, which vies with ABB for market leadership in HVDC transmission, says demand is increasing fast. "By 2020, I'm expecting to see new HVDC transmission lines with a total capacity of 250 gigawatts. That is a dramatic increase," says Udo Niehage, CEO of the Power Transmission Division in Siemens' Energy Sector. "In the last 40 years, we've only installed 100 gigawatts worth of HVDC transmission lines."
Emerging markets have been the main drivers. ABB has installed a 2,000-km line in China that operates DC power; a 2,375-km HVDC project under construction in Brazil will be the world's longest transmission line when it comes online in 2013.
But Europe is also important. HVDC is now used in a power connection between Britain and the Netherlands. The island of Majorca, whose tourists push up power demand every summer, was hooked up to the Spanish mainland in September. The HVDC system can transmit 30 to 40 percent more energy than with conventional overhead lines carrying alternating current.
Jochen Kreusel, the head of ABB's Smart Grid program, says smart grid demand will put Europe at the forefront of HVDC growth over the next 10 years. "At the moment, based on the number of projects, I'm quite sure it's the strongest market," he said. Pike in November 2010 estimated HVDC investment would reach $12.1 billion by 2015.
The bulk of this DC know-how is currently with European companies, although Chinese firms are joining in. Besides ABB, Siemens and France's Alstom are the main players.
NOT THERE YET
There are plenty of obstacles to all these developments. People in some places worry about the environmental damage from laying new grids, others point to a lack of standards and say DC still has technological limitations that need to be fixed.
Public fears about the potential danger of high voltage cables could also be an issue, especially in the United States where standard voltages are already much lower than in Europe. There are practical limitations, such as a shortage of cable-making capacity.
If the economic climate does not improve, cash may also be a constraint. Countries such as Spain and the Netherlands have already cut subsidies to renewable energy projects. ABB's Kreusel says the economic crisis will have an impact on the market, but he still expects DC to become "an evolutionary add-on" to AC grids over the next 20 years.
How would Edison see all this? He might even have foreseen it. "I'd put my money on the sun and solar energy," he reportedly told his associates Henry Ford and Harvey Firestone in the 1930s. "What a source of power! I hope we don't have to wait until oil and coal run out before we tackle that."
(Edited by Simon Robinson)
Source: http://feeds.reuters.com/~r/reuters/scienceNews/~3/R7nCIMPY2m8/us-power-acdc-idUSTRE7BJ0PW20111221
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MANILA (Reuters) ? Nearly 1,000 were killed when flash floods and landslides caused by Typhoon Washi swept through riverside and coastal villages in the southern Philippines late last week, the national disaster agency said on Tuesday.
The agency said 957 were killed and 49 were missing, with most of the casualties coming from the cities of Cagayan de Oro and Iligan. The previous death toll was 650.
Authorities in the two cities, worst-hit by water, mud and logs swept down mountains, are struggling to prevent disease from spreading in crowded evacuation centers and have started digging mass graves to bury decomposing bodies.
President Benigno Aquino will visit the two cities later on Tuesday. The government said more than 338,000 people were affected by the disaster.
(Reporting by Rosemarie Francisco; Editing by Robert Birsel)
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BEIRUT (Reuters) ? Arab states may take their proposals for ending Syria's crackdown on protests to the U.N. Security Council next week unless Damascus agrees to implement the initiative, Qatar's foreign minister said on Saturday.
Expressing frustration that Syria had not carried out the plan, six weeks after it was first agreed, Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim al-Thani said the window for an Arab solution to the crisis was closing.
"If this matter is not solved in the weeks ahead, or couple of months, it will no longer be in Arab control," he told journalists after an Arab ministerial committee meeting in Qatar. "That is what we told the Syrians from the beginning."
Arab ministers would vote on Wednesday on whether to ask the Security Council to approve the initiative. "I believe that December 21 will be decisive, and we hope that the brothers in Syria will sign (the deal) before this date," Sheikh Hamad said.
Syria has conditionally approved a plan to send monitors to oversee implementation of the November 2 Arab League initiative, which calls on Assad to withdraw the army from urban areas, release political prisoners and hold talks with opponents.
But Arab League Secretary-General Nabil Elaraby said Damascus was objecting to the League's call for protection of Syrian civilians, saying members of the security forces were also being killed in the turmoil.
The United Nations says Assad's crackdown on the protests, inspired by uprisings across the Arab world this year, has killed more than 5,000 people. Authorities blame armed gangs for the violence and say 1,100 soldiers and police have been killed.
The Arab League suspended Syria and declared economic sanctions against Damascus over its failure to implement the initiative, joining the United States, European Union and neighbouring Turkey who have also imposed sanctions.
Long-time Syrian ally and arms supplier Russia took a step closer to the Western position on Thursday when it presented a surprise draft resolution at the United Nations which stepped up its criticism of the bloodshed in Syria.
Sheikh Hamad said that, in response to Moscow's move, the Arab League would meet on Wednesday to decide whether "to ask the Security Council to adopt the Arab initiative and Arab resolutions instead of resolutions from other states."
"We are not talking about military action but we will ask the Security Council to adopt the Arab initiative," Sheikh Hamad said, adding Syria should take heed of events in the Arab world where three leaders have been overthrown this year.
"Procrastination and banking on things quieting down or being controlled by security methods will not work," he said.
Any referral of the Arab plan to the United Nations would be likely to anger Damascus, which has accused unnamed Arab countries of trying to set the stage for foreign intervention.
GROWING INSURGENCY
The unrest is the most serious challenge to the 11-year rule of Assad, 46, whose family is from the minority Alawite sect - an offshoot of Shi'ite Islam - and has dominated majority Sunni Muslim Syria since 1970.
An armed insurgency has begun to eclipse civilian protests, raising fears Syria could descend into civil war.
Two days ago army deserters killed 27 soldiers and security personnel in the southern province of Deraa, an activist group said. On Saturday at least 24 people were killed, half of them in the province of Homs, the opposition Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
It said another eight people were killed in the southern province of Deraa after army deserters clashed with Assad's forces carrying out raids in the region.
A delegation from Shi'ite-led Iraq, which opposed the Arab League sanctions and fears unrest in Syria will spill across the border and upset its own delicate sectarian balance, stopped in Damascus on Saturday before travelling on to Cairo.
Assad met the Iraqi delegation, which included National Security Adviser Faleh al-Fayad, and "affirmed that Syria dealt positively with all proposals submitted to it," the official news agency SANA reported.
"The delegation will present details of the Iraqi initiative to League officials on solving the Syrian crisis after positive discussions which we had with President Bashar al-Assad during our visit to Syria," a member of the team said on arrival in the Egyptian capital, the Arab League headquarters.
Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's media adviser, Ali al-Moussawi, earlier told Reuters in Baghdad that the meeting in Damascus was "very good."
The main exile opposition Syrian National Council was meeting in Tunisia on the first anniversary of the self-immolation of a jobless Tunisian graduate Mohamed Bouazizi, the incident that set off a wave of revolts around the Arab world.
Syrian protesters have expressed growing frustration that the Arab League, which surprised many when it suspended Syria and subsequently announced sanctions against Damascus, has since then extended the deadline for Syrian compliance several times.
Hundreds of thousands demonstrated on Friday, according to the British-based Observatory, under the slogan of "The Arab League is killing us."
(Additional reporting by Waleed Ibrahim in Baghdad and Sami Aboudi in Dubai; Editing by Mark Heinrich)
Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/un/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111217/wl_nm/us_syria
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New York ? Congress reached an 11th-hour deal to keep federal agencies running. But the horse-trading isn't over
Just 27 hours before a deadline that could have shut down the federal government at midnight Friday, Democrats and Republicans reached an agreement on a $1 trillion spending bill that will keep the lights on through the end of the fiscal year in September, 2012. They still have to work out the particulars of another sticking point ? a separate measure extending a temporary payroll tax cut and jobless benefits. So what did both parties gain, and give up, to break the impasse? Here, a brief guide:
So, the parties settled their differences?
Not exactly. They still have to work out how to pay for the $120 billion payroll tax cut extension for 160 million workers, to keep it from expiring on Dec. 31. But they got close enough that the White House and Senate Democrats figured it was safe to detach the payroll-tax issue from the spending bill, which they were delaying in an attempt to force the GOP to negotiate. Now Congress can approve the spending bill, and focus on settling lingering differences over the payroll tax.
SEE MORE: Why the GOP caved in the payroll tax fight: 4 theories
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Who caved?
Both sides gave up a little on the spending measure. "The final bill strips out a Republican amendment to the Treasury budget to reinstate Bush-era restrictions on travel to Cuba" ? something President Obama opposed, says David Rogers at Politico. But it also includes some GOP provisions that are hard for Democrats to swallow, such as one blocking new, greener standards for light bulbs.
Will extending the payroll tax be easy now?
Both sides say a deal is near, although anything can happen. Democrats have reportedly dropped their insistence on offsetting the cost with a surtax on people making more than $1 million a year, which was a dealbreaker for the GOP. But Republicans haven't budged on one provision Democrats have described as a poison pill ? a controversial proposal to expedite the review of the Keystone XL oil pipeline.
SEE MORE: The super committee's inevitable failure: Why it's a good thing
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What happens if they can't agree?
Both sides want to extend the payroll tax holiday. If they let it expire, the portion of Americans' paychecks withheld for Social Security and Medicare will rise 2 percent ? from 4.2 percent to 6.2 percent. In such a scenario, someone making $50,000 would have to pay $1,000 more in payroll taxes. To avoid that, Congress is likely to pass a two-month extension if no long-term agreement is in sight. That way members will be able to head home for the holidays, and put off a final showdown until February.
Sources: CNN, NY Times, Politico, Washington Post
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WASHINGTON ? Racing for the exits after a year of bitter battling, senators are voting on compromise legislation to extend a Social Security payroll tax cut and jobless benefits for just two months, setting the table for more fighting in February.
Top Democratic and GOP leaders opted for just a short extension after failing to agree on spending reductions large enough to cover a full year renewal of the 2 percentage point tax cut for 160,000 workers and weekly jobless payments averaging about $300 for millions of people who have been out of work for six months or more.
The legislation is a partial victory at best for President Barack Obama, who's being forced to accept Republican demands for a swift decision on the fate of a Canada-to-Texas oil pipeline that promises thousands of jobs.
Votes were slated for Saturday morning on the measure, along with a final tally to send a $1 trillion-plus catchall spending measure setting the day-to-day budgets of 10 Cabinet agencies. The House cleared the spending bill Friday and will return early next week to vote on the payroll tax measure.
In a statement, White House communications director Dan Pfeiffer indicated Obama would sign the measure, saying it had met his test of "preventing a tax increase on 160 million hardworking Americans" and avoiding damage to the economy recovery.
The statement made no mention of the pipeline. One senior administration official said the president would almost certainly refuse to grant a permit. The official was not authorized to speak publicly.
The developments came a few hours after the White House publicly backed away from Obama's threat to veto any bill that linked the payroll tax cut extension with a Republican demand for a speedy decision on the 1,700-mile Keystone XL oil pipeline proposed from Canada to Texas Gulf Coast refineries.
Obama said on Dec. 7 that "any effort to try to tie Keystone to the payroll tax cut I will reject. So everybody should be on notice."
Obama recently announced he was postponing a decision until after the 2012 elections on the much-studied proposal. Environmentalists oppose the project, but several unions support it, and the legislation puts the president in the uncomfortable position of having to choose between customary political allies.
Republican senators leaving a closed-door meeting put the price tag of the two-month package at between $30 billion and $40 billion said the cost would be covered by raising fees on new mortgages backed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
The fees, drawn from a Treasury Department housing finance market reform plan, could add several thousand dollars to the 30-year cost of Fannie- and Freddie-backed mortgages. A worker making a $100,000 salary would reap a tax cut of about $330 through the short-term payroll tax extension.
Just hours before the vote, the legislation had not been made public.
The measure would also provide a 60-day reprieve from a scheduled 27 percent cut in the fees paid to doctors who treat Medicare patients.
Several officials said it would require a decision within 60 days on the pipeline, with the president required to authorize construction unless he determined that would not be in the national interest.
Officials said that in private talks, the two sides had hoped to reach agreement on the full one-year extension of the payroll tax cut and unemployment benefits that Obama had made the centerpiece of the jobs program he submitted to Congress last fall.
Those efforts failed when the two sides could not agree on enough offsetting cuts to blunt the measure's impact on the debt.
The failure tees up the issue again for early next year, but it won't get any easier to agree on spending cuts.
"We'll be back discussing the same issues in a couple of months, but from our point of view, we think the keystone pipeline is a very important job-creating measure in the private sector that doesn't cost the government a penny," said Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the Republican leader.
There was no immediate reaction from House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio. Neither he nor his aides participated in the negotiations, although McConnell said he was optimistic about the measure's chances for final approval. The payroll tax cut is unpopular in GOP ranks and another vote in two month could present a headache for GOP leaders.
The State Department, in an analysis released this summer, said the project would create up to 6,000 jobs during construction, while developer TransCanada put the total at 20,000 in direct employment.
The 1,700-mile pipeline would carry oil from western Canada to Texas Gulf Coast refineries, passing through Montana, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas and Oklahoma.
The spending bill would lock in cuts that conservative Republicans won from the White House and Democrats earlier in the year.
Republicans also won their fight to block new federal regulations for light bulb energy efficiency, coal dust in mines and clean water permits for construction of timber roads.
The White House turned back GOP attempts to block limits on greenhouse gases, mountaintop removal mining and hazardous emissions from utility plants, industrial boilers and cement kilns.
___
Associated Press writers David Espo, Alan Fram, Donna Cassata and Jim Kuhnhenn contributed to this report.
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WASHINGTON ? The Securities and Exchange Commission on Friday brought civil fraud charges against six former top executives at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, saying they misled investors about risky subprime loans the mortgage giants held when the housing bubble burst.
Those charged include the agencies' two former CEOs, Fannie's Daniel Mudd and Freddie's Richard Syron. They are the highest-profile individuals to be charged in connection with the 2008 financial crisis.
The federal government has faced criticism for not bringing charges against top executives who may have contributed to the worst financial meltdown since the Great Depression.
Mudd, 53, and Syron, 68, led the mortgage giants in 2007, when home prices began to collapse. The four other top executives also worked for the companies during that time.
The lawsuit was filed in federal court in New York City.
"Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac executives told the world that their subprime exposure was substantially smaller than it really was," said Robert Khuzami, SEC's enforcement director. "These material misstatements occurred during a time of acute investor interest in financial institutions' exposure to subprime loans, and misled the market about the amount of risk."
Fannie and Freddie both entered into agreements with the government on Friday, accepting responsibility for its conduct without admitting or denying the charges. The government-controlled companies also agreed to cooperate with the SEC on the cases against the former executives.
The Justice Department has opened up probes into Fannie and Freddie but has not charged anyone with a crime.
In a statement released through his attorney, Mudd said the lawsuit "should never have been brought" and said the government reviewed and approved all of the company's financial disclosures.
"Every piece of material data about loans held by Fannie Mae was known to the United States government to the investing public," Mudd said. "The SEC is wrong, and I look forward to a court where fairness and reason ? not politics ? is the standard for justice."
Syron's lawyers said the case was "without merit," and said the term "subprime had no uniform definition in the market" at that time.
"There was no shortage of meaningful disclosures, all of which permitted the reader to assess the degree of risk in Freddie Mac's" portfolio, the lawyers said in a statement. "The SEC's theory and approach are fatally flawed."
According to the lawsuit, Fannie told investors in 2007 that it had roughly $4.8 billion worth of subprime loans on its books, or just 0.2 percent of its portfolio. The SEC says that Fannie actually had about $43 billion worth of products targeted to borrowers with weak credit, or 11 percent of its holdings.
Mudd told a congressional panel in March 2007 that Fannie's subprime business represented less than "2 percent of our book." He also said the company held subprime mortgages "very carefully." A month later, he told a separate congressional panel that subprime loans represented less than 2.5 percent of Fannie's books.
Freddie told investors in 2006 that it held between $2 billion and $6 billion of subprime mortgages on its books. The SEC says its holdings were actually closer to $141 billion, or 10 percent of its portfolio in 2006, and $244 billion, or 14 percent, by 2008.
In a May 2007 speech in New York, Syron said Freddie had "basically no subprime exposure," according to the suit.
Fannie and Freddie buy home loans from banks and other lenders, package them into bonds with a guarantee against default and then sell them to investors around the world. The two own or guarantee about half of U.S. mortgages, or nearly 31 million loans.
During the financial crisis, the two firms verged on collapse. The Bush administration seized control of them in September 2008.
So far, the companies have cost taxpayers almost $150 billion ? the largest bailout of the financial crisis. They could cost up to $259 billion, according to its government regulator, the Federal Housing Finance Administration.
Mudd was fired from Fannie after the government took over. He's now the chief executive of the New York hedge fund Fortress Investment Group.
Syron resigned from Freddie in 2008. He's now an adjunct professor at Boston College.
The other executives charged were Fannie's Enrico Dallavecchia, 50, a former chief risk officer, and Thomas Lund, 53, a former executive vice president; and Freddie's Patricia Cook, 58, a former executive vice president and chief business officer, and Donald Bisenius, 53, a former senior vice president.
Lund's lawyer, Michael Levy, said in a statement that Lund "did not mislead anyone." Lawyers for the other defendants declined to comment Friday morning.
Fannie and Freddie had traditionally purchased a small number of subprime mortgage loans, which involved borrowers with credit problems who could not qualify for cheaper prime loans. But starting in the late 1990s many firms started purchasing subprime loans, and Fannie and Freddie followed suit.
Legal experts say the cases, while unusual, might not yield much in penalties against the former executives.
In July, Citigroup paid just $75 million to settle similar civil charges with the SEC. The company's chief financial officer and head of investor relations were accused of failing to disclose more than $50 billion worth of potential losses from subprime mortgages. The two executives charged paid $100,000 and $80,000 in civil penalties.
A federal judge in the case said she was "baffled" by the low settlement.
Fines against executives charged in SEC civil cases can reach up to $150,000 per violation. SEC Chairman Mary Schapiro has asked Congress to raise the limit to $1 million.
Mudd made nearly $4 million in salary and bonuses in 2007, and Syron made more than $18 million, according to company statements.
The SEC has charged more than 80 people, including 40 CEOs and senior executives, with violations stemming from the 2008 financial crisis.
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Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen's new spaceflight venture shouldn't come as a big surprise, because the billionaire has set his sights on the heavens before.
Allen announced today (Dec. 13) that he is forming a new company called Stratolaunch Systems, which plans to launch payloads to orbit from a huge plane at high altitude. Stratolaunch Systems continues a trend for Allen, who has funded several different spaceflight and astronomy efforts over the years.
These ventures are the natural outgrowths of a lifelong fascination with space, said Allen, who as a boy dreamed of becoming an astronaut.
"For me, the fascination with space never ended, and I never stopped dreaming about what might be possible," Allen said during a press conference in Seattle today. [Images: Paul Allen's Giant Airplane Launch Pad]
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Following SpaceShipOne
The air-launch concept behind Stratolaunch Systems is similar to that of SpaceShipOne, which won the $10 million Ansari X Prize for suborbital spaceflight in 2004.
The design of SpaceShipOne and its mothership, the White Knight, later became the basis for Virgin Galactic's commercial spaceliner SpaceShipTwo, which may begin carrying tourists to suborbital space as early as next year.
The similarity between the two projects is no coicidence. SpaceShipOne was a joint venture between Allen ? who reportedly invested more than $20 million in the effort ? and Scaled Composites, a California firm headed by aerospace engineer Burt Rutan.
Now, Rutan will serve on the board for Stratolaunch Systems, and Scaled will develop the new company's gigantic airplane mothership.
The multistage rocket booster used by Stratolaunch will be built by the California-based company Space Exploration Technologies, better known as SpaceX, officials said.
Funding the SETI search
Allen has also advanced research in astronomy ? specifically, the hunt for intelligent alien life in the universe. His foundation helped fund the SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) Institute's Allen Telescope Array (ATA), a set of 42 radio antennas located about 300 miles (500 kilometers) northeast of San Francisco.
Since 2001, Allen's foundation has given about $29 million to develop and help build and operate the array, which researchers use to scan newly discovered alien planets for microwave signals that could indicate the presence of intelligent civilizations.
"Paul was brave enough to go out on a limb and fund all of our technology development work for three years, because this is a new kind of telescope that no one had built before," Jill Tarter, director of the Center for SETI Research at the SETI Institute, told SPACE.com. "He has been a very good partner."
The long-term plan is to expand the array to 350 telescopes. Allen never intended to fund this larger array all by himself; he wanted some partners to come in and help out, Tarter said. That hasn't happened yet, so the SETI Institute is pressing forward with the 42 telescopes for now.
Allen also established the Science Fiction Museum and Hall of Fame, which opened in Seattle in 2004. His scientific interests aren't limited to spaceflight and exploration, however; they're very broad, and Allen has helped fund major research efforts in genetics, medicine and neuroscience, among other fields.
"I'm a huge fan of anything that pushes forward the boundaries of what we can do in science and technology," Allen said. "That's my history. Those are my passions."
You can follow SPACE.com senior writer Mike Wall on Twitter: @michaeldwall. Follow SPACE.com for the latest in space science and exploration news on Twitter @Spacedotcom and on Facebook.
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